TeamPlayedFine39

"Melbourne's Nathan Jones has revealed he was initially disappointed by the move to share the Demons' captaincy with young star Jack Viney." "(But) I was really conscious and aware of not letting that influence my professionalism, leadership and training standards or impact on the playing group." So where is the 'well documented" sook??

A well documented 'sook' should be supported by a link. He was, understandably, disappointed when first told. Don't slander a great of our club.

Jumper punches and pushing and shoving is not when the 'going gets tough.' He's been our toughest player, with head over the ball and winning it at the coalface for the better part of the last decade. He is tough enough to be our only contested ball winning midfielder for years - the guy is as tough as they come. If you want leadership like Bugg, Lewis and Vince showed this year where they hit people off the ball, then I think you're contributing to the problem. It is a core group of senior players who need to make a greater contribution to the onfield leadership, not Jones. I don't see how we improve our leadership by demoting our captain.

He did against the Gold Coast - loan hand in the third quarter turned the match. Hi efforts against the Doggies were huge too.

True, but the same thing could be said about Viney. Essentially we don't know what happens on the field - the only people who really do are the players and coaches and they have appointed Jones Captain for the past four years. I think the time for him to move on will be when the pressure of preparation, coupled with the captaincy becomes too much - essentially a year or so before retirement. I think the improvement in onfield leadership needs to come from those who aren't Jones or Viney.

Because, despite appearances, he was deceptively strong and incredibly well balanced.

Agreed, he's moved off the ball and has his approach blocked - that gives the impression he is out of position. If it's still happening in a year or two, then we have real issues. He's a junior player on the list - he needs to fill out.

While I would agree that leadership on the field has been a struggle this year, i wouldn't say that I would include Jones as part of the problem. He single handedly pulled us over the line in a couple of games this year and we missed him as a player and leader when he was out of the team.

We're finishing matches well this year. We finished fast in our losses against Nth, Fremantle and Hawthorn. The problem was that the damage was already done earlier in the game... can't see how that Misson's fault.

I think the umpires need to get to know him and his style. It's no coincidence that the better known players tend to poll better and young guys tend to be largely overlooked.

Same could be said for West Coast when we beat them.

Has fallen behind Petracca, ANB, Harmes, Hannan and even AVB for a role on half-forward. Has shown some promise in the past, but nothing more tangible than that.

I don't believe that Cotchin should have been suspended for that incident, but I can see what people believe to be huge inconsistencies in the MRP. Above all that though, I am very happy that we get to avoid all the drama that goes along with the MRP, Tribunal, appeals, etc. in the lead up to the game. We can now just focus on the match and not the ten thousand different opinion pieces about whether he should miss or not.

Draft predictions are never accurate this far out. I remember people salivating a year early over the 'certain' 1,2,3 of Scully, Lucas and Butcher.

I quite like the one with the red back.

I still have nightmares of our players handballing to the umpires when they were wearing pink for the Breast Cancer match against the Bulldogs at the G in 2010. If the clash exists, which I believe it does in the Crows v Tiges, then it benefits everyone to reduce it. I don't think I'd care what our team is wearing if we won a flag; they can run around in frilly pink g-strings as long as they win a premiership.

I think the main motivation is all the photographs of players celebrating Stkilda's only premiership showed them in Collingwood jumpers as the players had swapped after the siren. Collingwood spoiled the party twice.

Both players going for the ball- he's just as culpable as Shiel. I'm no Tigers fan, but you can't miss a grand final for something as dubious as that.

Well, don't i look the fool! I guess the point i was trying to make is that I wonder what we could down grade our pick 10 for this year and what could we get in return. Would make a two first rounder trade a lot better for us.

My bad. I would hope, for equality's sake, it would take more than pick 16/17 to get a player of Stringer's quality- especially whilst under contract.

Adelaide want two first rounders... How about we trade pick 10 to Geelong for Blicavs or Menzel and pick 16-18. We trade Geelong's first pick and our 2018 first pick to Adelaide. Adelaide get their two first round picks. Geelong get pick ten to use on Stringer or Ablett. Melbourne get Lever and Blicavs/Menzel.

Have a soft spot for AVB - don't think he's had a clear run at it yet, but has the capability to be a solid contributor. I agree with the above posters, it's 2018 or bust.

I think he really struggled in the second half of the year and his body and mind have lost a lot of the speed they once had. Needs to realise he's not carrying the team anymore and not let the frustration get to him- we don't benefit from him flopping at slight contact or throwing elbows behind the play. He's got plenty of credits in the nacnk though, so no surprises in his extension. I wish him luck!

I'm genuinely concerned that I might be sick of Jake Lever before he even arrives at the MFC...

Seconded.