Phadraig

One of my favourites in the last 2 years with his un-melbourne like performances. I feel like we are going to have a fairly large turn over on the list this year so I'm a bit suprised he didn't get another one year contract. His contested marking was a highlight of mine from him. It's hard to watch retirement speeches and his was top notch and I hope he accepts the job as a coach with us. Well done Crossy.

Roos just said in Roo's Views that Brayshaw and Harmes will be rested this week.

On the inconsistency week to week: Internally they are setting Melbourne up for a sustained period of success and believes its going well. Relying on the younger players to perform too much on game day, thinks fatigue is an issue. On Hogan: Comparing him to Josh Kennedy on the type of player he will end up being (big on chasing and forward pressure) Very driven to be the best he can be, good understanding of the game. "He has some frustrations he needs to temper, not always going to get it on a silver platter as a forward" When asked what he would be most worried about if he had to play on him he said his ability to always be moving, his agility and his quickness off the mark, thinks he needs to work on his leading patterns. Tom McDonald feeling confident going into the season after spending the pre season defending against him On Lumumba's year: Thinks people judge him too much based on his possession count, happy with his contested game. Gives a lot of energy on field. Getting used to a new role on the wing. Thinks his best footy for Melbourne is ahead of him. On Roos: Game plan when he first came in was very similar to his Sydney game plan, game had evolved and Roos has made changes this year to reflect that.

The boo's that he got against the pies were pretty loud. Isn't that "bullying"?

I forgot to add that the last 5 or so weeks he has been using his speed to take the game on. I feel like he is in the best form of his career and hope to see a lot more of him. He is very cool under pressure and when he is being tackled always seems to get off a good handball. Edit: I don't think I have seen him play like this before with this intensity and it is fantastic!

Not your usual Jack Watts thread. He has been fantastic the last 5 or 6 weeks. He has chased and tackled along with his usual high efficiency with the ball. I was starting to lose faith with him but he has been fantastic the last few weeks.

Of our blokes it must be Fitzpatrick, luckily for me we don't share a bloodline with the same last name. I've always thought Daniher was a below average looking guy but a few of my bomber supporting mates have told me in the past what they think about him seeing him in person (all negative) I'll have to go with him.

1. My dad, he used to take me every week when I was younger and I remember hating it but it ended up growing on me and now look where I am. 2. Neitz. It was out of him and Farmer but I remember him playing more. Jurrah is up there as well because he was the only reason I was excited to go to the footy for a few years. The only player in recent years who could single-handedly win us a game like he did against Brisbane in 2011 when he kicked 5. 3. I've never enjoyed a game of footy more than when we came back against Freo when we were down by 52 at half time in 2008(?). 4. The last 8 years have been the worst experience. This game against the bombers was the first time in a few years when I was genuinely upset after we had lost. I still love the game and am watching more matches than ever this year but man it is depressing when you realise you much prefer to watch other teams play than your own. 5. I'll share my most embarrassing supporter moment. I was one of the people who were cheering when we lost against Richmond after the siren to get the number 1 pick. I also feel like this has been a blessing in disguise because I used to take the football way too seriously. Now I can just watch the game and although I do get frustrated during it I can just move on after the game has finished and not be upset for a few days afterwards.

Jack Watts Interview Seems like he is fine.

That umpiring was disgraceful.

Barry is looking very solid!

I don't think there are any issues with Garlett's attitude. I may be wrong but the only thing I remember him being involved in off field is the recent indecent where he was the one who was attacked, he seems pretty committed to his family.

Newton has been dropped twice now and then recalled the next week (I think), and he didn't even play with Casey last week with the bye... Seems a bit strange to me

After watching the game again Fitzpatrick had a perfect game. Kept Boyd to 1 handball and had 100% efficiency with 14 touches and a lot of good marks.

He took at least 3 very strong contested marks yesterday, been a very good pick up.

Jumped and hit him in the head with his shoulder, should get weeks.

I thought our pressure was fairly good but our players just aren't good enough, the midfield most of all. It is just depressing watching each centre clearance when the opposition wins it and then just gets an easy kick into the forward 50.

I havn't read through all this thread so sorry if someone else mentioned this but I was looking through the stats tonight and the centre clearances for us were 4 to Jones and 2 to Jamar. Fremantle got 18 centre clearances compared to our 6. It is obvious that our midfield is our weakest link by far and I think we should have been a little bit further behind at the end of the first quarter, but I felt we played fairly well after quarter time until 3QT. I wonder if we had kicked a goal or 2 in those 10 or so minutes or so that we had dominated in the last quarter if the game had been different. I don't think we would have won or should have but I think it would have been a lot closer than it was.

I watched the first half of the Casey match that was posted on the MFC site. Fitzpatrick misread a few marks but overall he was very good, his kicking was a lot better than I expected. Toumpas also looked good in the first half but it sounds like he dropped off a lot in the second half. I think I would be happy with the change of Dawes in for Watts, he has only doing the bare minimum for the past few games and I think he needs to get his confidence back up at Casey.

I would love to get Dixon, but as shown on the weekend I think our midfield needs a loooot of work.

I agree for the one when it hit the umpire. The other one I am 100% sure it hit the post and it looked verry obvious to me from the down the ground view.

There is no way that Blease and Tapscott had anywhere near as much pressure as Watts to become a successful player, especially in the media. Although I admit I don't watch every video that is posted onto the AFL media website page I have never seen a "low lights" package of every single mistake a player has made in a game like they did last week with Watts. I also loved the other week when straight after Carey wrote that article about Watts that he started heavily criticizing him after he dropped a mark in extremely wet conditions while the rest of the game several people were dropping easier marks than that without any comments.

No chance Hodge will be available to play against us and Lewis is a maybe. What was with that goal review that clearly hit the post but they called it a goal?

Definitely should have had a snap instead of handballing it back to a player 5 meters in the clear running straight at goal!

How Liam Jones gets a game is a mystery to me