DemonWheels

Typical Melbourne just not interested anymore - will be livid if we lose this

Love seeing The Toump and Salem rack up some possies, very neat and composed kicking from both of them. Grimes also looking good today - this might be a good confidence boosting game for quite a few of our players.

Pretty good result so far kicking into a supposed 4 goal breeze. Did really well to hold onto the ball and considering the windy conditions pretty good foot skills as well.

I just ducked down quickly for a look as I work in Richmond - thanks to Demonland I wasn't stuck waiting for an hour in the sun! Saw a couple of different full ground circle work drills - mark, handball, kick, run, repeat. Most of the kicking and passing was pretty sharp and kicking to space in some instances was also pretty good. The only thing I didn't see was players challenging themselves with their opposite foot - definitely an area I think most of our players could improve on. Impressed by the size of Vandenberg, smooth mover for a big mid and I look forward to seeing a bit more of him. Looking forward to more in-depth reports from whoever else was there.

A lot of the time if a certain player is part of a club I really dislike I find it quite hard to get past their jumper/colours. In saying that i love how these players attack the ball and create time and space for themselves and in turn their use of the footy: A few of the new Dogs players - McRae and Bontempelli, plus Luke Hodge, Bradley Hill, Rioli, Luke Parker, Jeremy Cameron, Tex Walker, Ollie Wines, Wingard, Sloan and Fyfe.

His 'weapons' would be outside run, speed, good decision making and kicking to the advantage of his teammates - something we've lacked for years. We have to remember he had hip surgery before we drafted him - which it looks like from pre-season training reports that he's only now just getting his real pace back. This is what his pre-draft package looks like: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hr4jzuL-IJM I'm a big fan, much like I am any of our new recruits and have high hopes that he makes a real player of himself at Melbourne.

I'm expecting garland to pick up on his form from 2013 this year and lock down his position without a doubt. On top of the lack of fitness due to missing a big chunk of pre season in 2014 he was still returning from ankle surgery and played like that all year. I had ankle surgery around the same time last year that he did and am still not quite back to 100%, yet continue to run and play competitive sport knowing the more confidence I gain in it the more freedom and trust I have in the ankle. I'd have to suggest he was a little off the pace because of it and I'd put Riley in the same boat - takes a lot longer than just getting on the park to get back to your true playing potential.

On the back of Glen Bartlett's suggestion that we should be aiming to become the 'Yankees' of Aussie Rules, I think the club should be offering half price tickets for our Home games to International Tourists. Team up the promotion with China Southern airlines and a few of our other partners to help market the offer, maybe The Duke Hotel etc where exposure to tourists is pretty high and I think we'd be getting a few more people to the ground each week and also creating a real name for ourselves.

Bit of footage of the Time Trial throughout this media conference with Bernie for anyone thats got a spare 4 minutes: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2015-01-09/bernie-vince-media-conference

Agreed as well. Look at Hawthorn with Lake, Gibson and now Frawley. Geelong with Taylor, Rivers and Lonergan. All great markers of the footy in the back line - short kick sideways and the ball is catapulted forward.

Agreed - I keep going back to Toumpas's game footage pre hip surgery and he's very quick - virtually gliding across the turf on the wing and flanks. If he can get back to that which I think he will - we'll be in a good place. I'd also add Kent to that group who showed brilliant pace throughout the games he played this year - all going well he should have an even better year in 2015.

Pretty happy - find it really interesting in the bits and pieces I've read that he kicks it 'low and hard' or 'low and long' - much like Tom does, he's always kicking sharp / lengthy stab passes. Did they grow up on a farm covered in Gum Trees or something where they needed to keep the ball low? Great to hear he can push forward as well.

I think it would have been much better for him to not come out and essentially whinge about how his club has just treated him - no one needs to listen to you air your dirty laundry (even though I do agree his dismissal seems to have been mishandled). Unfortunately it seems he hasn't learnt from his past experiences after leaving the Dees - one would think he might have felt a bit of remorse after basically creating the storm that lead to us being investigated. But then again maybe he's that angry at Mick that he was well aware of what he was doing - particularly saying what he said on SEN at 'prime time'. I get the feeling he's probably now burnt bridges with both clubs and without knowing the bloke personally, he's the sort of person I'd be steering away from. And on a pure footy level I think we've got a number of players that can play exactly the same roll as him - players I expect to improve even more next year and go past where he got to. He was on a big upswing when he was at the Dees and I don't think he has ever really 'made it' in the way we thought / hoped he always would.

Loved the highlights, got a bit of dash and pace about him for a big bloke. Can't wait to see him run through an opposition player, he's a big big boy. Very happy!

Don't want to wish you bad luck as I'm unaware of your true issues - but I hope to god we absolutely pummel you as soon as we get the chance. Maybe we can keep Tappy on next year just for the one game?

Welcome Heritier! Very happy to have a player on our list who can win their own ball and run away from a pack - we've been so good at hand balling it back in to congestion for so so long. Keen to see what Roos can do as I reckon we haven't seen the best of you yet. This definitely fulfils one of our needs and I think releases Howe to move further up the ground - another player who i think should continue to improve and see more of the footy.

In total disbelief when I first heard the news - feelings of such disappointment that our club would even consider trading a player who has been so loyal and also so central to our belief that we could rise up the ladder once again. I feel like we've been waiting so long to get a few new recruits in and a few more preseasons under everyone's belt and then 'we'll be fine' - we'll see 'improvement'. The same goes for Trenners - we've been holding out hope year after year that this will be his big step forward, that finally he'll overcome his injuries, get back out on the park and really make a name for himself as we all thought that he would after his first season and a half. But for a number of reasons, most of which I put down to horribly bad management of a very young man on our behalf and also on a personal level for himself - simple bad luck - things just haven't happened the way we had all envisaged oh so many years ago. Trenners has been a beacon of hope for myself over the last 4 years - stayed loyal when everything went belly up, has been a true clubman in the way he has represented the club. And all of this when he is still only now 23 (?). I've read virtually 95% of the posts on here over the past 30 hours or so since the story broke and I'm no closer to knowing how I truly feel about losing a person of this quality from our club. The thing that makes this hard is that we know what qualities he brings to the club on a personality/character level but we're all still so unsure about the actual quality of the player he can be. If he remains as the player he has been in the past 2 seasons then Yes I'd probably trade. But if we believe he's past all his issues due to the diagnosis and surgery of this year (and to a certain extent is owed an opportunity to prove it) - then I'd prefer to keep him as the player he was at 19/20 years of age had so much upside. Like all of us I desperately want us to improve so I'm open to all possibilities - but at the end of the day I just hope we get this one right. We've had too many FD decisions come back to bite us - it can't keep happening.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/jack-trengove-could-be-traded-to-richmond-from-melbourne/story-fni5f9jb-1227086775552 Crazy week

Snagged $4 on the Hawks To Win so I thought 'why not?' Not much else riding on this game for me though - the past few years I've always backed the Hawks in because of my Grandfather and his passion for them but since he's passed my allegiance has dissipated - he also lost a lot of love for the game in his later years since it's changed a lot since he was playing. Also wouldn't mind seeing Sydney win as I think it might create an interesting 'No more COLA' movement if they were to run over the Hawks easily - more football drama that doesn't involve the Dees but something that might help us out in the short/long term.

Was at the game tonight with a few Cats supporters and as much as I hate the Cats I thought that North looked the stronger side - So I barracked for the Catters. Even though the Cats have beaten us to a pulp over the last few years I still can't bring myself to support North in a game of footy. For so long it feels like they've been the pretenders and there are a number of players on their list who I despise. Even when they were seemingly close to winning the game their administration still felt the need to tell their supporters to 'make some noise' - a club completely void of culture and identity and I think if given the hard times we've been subjected to as supporters/members/diehards their club wouldn't be located where it is currently, if in existence at all.

Yeah that's a good point. I'm no draft expert but from what I see a high percentage of players that come out of the TAC Cup into the AFL system seem to be midfielders - obviously with your key position players in the mix throughout, but they don't seem to convert into AFL players at the same rate. So I think a prospective AFL quality tall forward might be playing on a quality tall back only every other week. Hence why Roosy feels he doesn't get a great read on them.

At the Pie Night Roosy spoke about how the Rules in the Tac Cup worked well in the favour of the big talls - something about how teams aren't allowed to flood or double team and that they are generally a good 10cms taller than their opponent. Basically he suggested you can't get a good read on a tall player who's killing it in the TAC Cup because he's not playing in 'like on like' conditions - whereas a midfielder in the TAC Cup is a lot easier to read and project their potential as they are essentially playing under mirrored AFL conditions against their 'like' opponents. This is why he said he wouldn't be using a 'top' pick on a prospective tall as it was still a gamble - whereas a top pick on a midfielder was a safer option. I'd never heard that philosophy before but I remember hearing it and thinking how simple it was and yet I'd never considered it.

I was in attendance as well - had a great night and thought the 3 course meal plus drinks as well as the Q&A with Gawn and Roosy was really good value and hopefully the club gets a kick out of it too. Roosy had a lot of interesting things to say and I must admit once hed finished up I was feeling a lot more confident and comfortable being a Melbourne Supporter/Member after a sour second half to 2014. Robbo and Roosy both said a number of times they were really happy with the start of the year and suggested it was really only the last 4 games or so where weve really dropped off and let ourselves down. Roos offered a really good stat that we were in front in the last quarter of 10 (?) games this year and only went on to win 4 - which shows that for a lot of the playing group Winning needs to be learned. Another interesting thing Roos talked about was the request of some supporters/commentators for the 15m kick to be extended to 20m or 25m to eradicate all the short chipping and backwards kicking. Roos suggested that making that rule change would set us back 5 years and flooding would come back in vogue as the short chipping is currently used to draw opposition players out from flooding back, which creates space and allows play to then flow. Robbo was a bit cagey at the end of the night when someone asked a question about Jack Watts - said he doesnt know why someone should have so much pressure on them just because of where they were taken in the draft. Believes if he was taken with Pick 3 instead hed be left to his own devices with a lot less public pressure. From what he was saying it sounded like there might be an article written or story on Jack in the next week or two that isnt particularly favourable. Gawn suggested after having travelled a fair bit during his last few off seasons hell be staying home to get started on Pre Season training early and really look after himself as he hasnt had a proper Pre Season yet - which I thought was a great sign and I think if he can get through Summer fairly injury free there is a lot of upside to Gawny. Had a great night and I'd definitely go again. Robbo (as the MC) was trying to finish up the questions at the end of the night but Roosy just kept taking them, he probably took 10 or so more and I got a great sense of how giving and enthusiastic he is as well as knowledgeable.

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this one already But would love to receive a Rising Star Nomination for one of the kids - something to hang our hats on. Feels like a looooooong time since we've had one?

I tend to agree. I think the umpiring this year has really started to turn me off footy. Melbourne has definitely been on the good end and the bad end of it at times so I think it all balances up eventually - but it shouldn't have to come to that - it should be accurate. The changing of the guard in terms of the Umpire's Coach in 2014 has essentially changed the game for me - what happened to 'holding/dropping the ball'? Given how much we pay the players and how much cash the AFL generates surely we can afford to pay the officiators of our game full time wages?