Members' Wing

AFL Draft: Meet Darcy Parish and Rhys Mathieson "Rhys: When Darc walks in he's going to be well liked and he'll fit in with all the popular boys. He'll play straight away I reckon" Christ boys, it's a footy club not a Year 9 classroom!

You doubt this? Why the hell would I lie?

Someone then queried Brett Anderson on twitter about this article, and he remained firm that we'll take Curnow

Callum Twomey would have been about 8 years old in 2001

Please stop making outlandish comments about who we 'must' take based on YouTube videos. I beg you.

Was actually the most positive I've been about his future after any interview. Usually Hogan himself doesn't give much away and says it's too early to know if he'll be a one club player, and he seems to love going back home to Perth. But sounds like he's now really taken to Melbourne as a city which obviously hugely helps our chances of keeping him. Hoping it gets done soon so we don't have to worry about it for a long time.

Who cares? Forget it.

I hope you're right mate. One decent season out of 6 for Melksham (and in this best season he still didn't even average 20 touches) doesn't fill me with great confidence, nor does Kennedy's inability to impress whenever he's had the chance to play in the ones. Personally I don't think they'll improve our best 22, just our depth, so I don't think they're worth giving up a second rounder and decent money for. Time will tell however and I've been nothing but impressed by Goodwin and McCartney so far so I'm happy to back them in.

Garlett was in and out of court on assault charges, lost his drivers licence and was dishonest more than once to the club. As I said above, Melksham has had a tough couple of years but so have all the Essendon players. Have I missed something on Kennedy? Has he had a number of off-field issues I'm not aware of?

Why else isn't he getting games then oracle if not for his ability and talent? His injury record is pretty good off the top of my head. J Kennedy was in and out of one of the best midfields in the game, and a lot of the time was being played out of position. There are a hell of a lot more examples of recycled discards not getting games at their previous clubs then having little to no impact when given a second chance at another club. Riley, Newton and Michie being three of them.

Because he was being an absolute idiot off-field for a while. Had plenty of runs on the board on-field. Completely different set of circumstances.

The personality of a player? I've got NFI what his personality's like, I'm basing my arguments on all I've seen of him as a footballer, and facts. The fact of the matter is that he's struggled to get a game for Essendon for a long time. My old man is Essendon, I watch a lot of them and he's amongst the most consistent butchers of the footy in the comp. You make an interesting observation about die-hard supporters overrating their own players. Why then is every single Essendon supporter ecstatic to see the back of Melksham? If Watts or Howe, two of the most maligned players on our list, were to leave there'd still be howls of protest from a vocal minority. There's been none of that from Bombers supporters. Barely a dissenting voice. As for Kennedy I've seen him play at ones and twos level. He's another one like McKenzie and Matt Jones who dominates in the VFL but struggles badly at AFL level. I'm not saying there isn't extenuating circumstances for both of them. The supplements saga would have been incredibly draining, and Collingwood has a good young midfield. But please don't try to dress these two up as a real coup for the club.

Geez you're an irritating poster. Anyone who has the temerity to disagree with you has their intelligence insulted. And I'd suggest that people who find giving up a 2nd round pick for two blokes who can't get a regular game in bottom 7 clubs a touch baffling perhaps have good reason to. You cite a need to increase our depth, and that's all well and good. But these are not players who will change games for us or even be good foot soldiers. They're players who their own current club's supporters are more than happy to see leave. For the first time in a long time I've got some faith in the footy department so am happy to reserve judgment, but I find the deal underwhelming. What I won't do is mock you for disagreeing.

Me too please

Yet to talk to or see a single Essendon supporter that's disappointed about losing him. Not a single one. Even the most maligned players on here like Howe, Toumpas and Watts have their supporters!

You'd do a straight swap of Melksham for Watts? Dear lord!

Whereabouts? Can't see anything

So what? Awful player, why would we be interested?

I don't blame you mate we all have our different coping mechanisms as Melbourne supporters! Just thought I'd report what was actually said rather than what was said in all our dreams.

It's not at all, never did he say anything remotely as strong as "Jesse will be a part of Melbourne's future for a long time to come".

No he didn't, why twist what he said?! He said "Jesse is a huge part of Melbourne's future", which is very different. I wish he'd said what you claimed but it's not true. People find strange ways to help them sleep at night...

You're quite right, round 16. Apologies, I missed that.

Reckon he'll sneak in. Miller hasn't even been nominated yet.

Hunt's not a rookie

1st Vince 2nd Jones 3rd Viney 4th Hogan 5th McDonald If I was going to make a call now