Gator

Hurls on all fronts. But I'd like both.

Yes

He said it's giving him nightmares, he's not suggesting we have Geoff Southby on the list. It gives me nightmares too. Have you seen Garland play ? Cross all fingers and toes.

"Small forward" ? Of course he's not a small forward. He's a gun mid. A quality mid doesn't fit Roos/Goodwin's "prototype" ? Sure. And he's not just "inside". He's fast with a booming kick. What you're seeing now isn't indicative of Prestia as a player. Don't Melbourne supporters watch players from other clubs ? I agree we have other needs, but I'd suggest the club wouldn't knock back someone of Prestia's quality and we're still not exactly a destination club, so I'm not sure who some of you are referring to.

Love the sentiments in this thread, but the "Choo Choo" should never ever be referenced again.

We're one bad performance from wanting Prestia again. While we need a key defender and an outside mid we can also do with a class ball magnet like Prestia. We're not restricted to targeting just one player in the off season. Prestia is coming back from injury. He'll be better next year.

How many posters have called for this ?

That's the one.

Love to see a gif of this.

I've been posting here since Nov 2002 in one guise or other and must have seen roughly 150 players come and go. Some through retirement and others through trades or delistings. I can hardly recall a player that's made me eat humble pie. But plenty have had their bags packed. You can back every dud that's ever been on our list. I have no problem with that. I won't.

His speed and preparedness to run the lines is incredibly important. He'll become a genuine weapon down the track. My Brother's future Brother-in-law is a well-known former player and head recruiter of an AFL club and said a few years ago that Hunt was considered as good if not better than Salem and another player whose name presently escapes me, but dropped off the radar while still at school due to injury.

60 seconds of carnage from this rawboned footballer. The reason Sexton had scans to detect a possible broken bone in his arm was Oliver's tackle to the ground a moment later.

The swagger after he kicked his second goal...

Clearly Michie is the first in line to be dropped. It's not like he's a debutante where they're often given a second game. In: Salem Out: Michie I'd love Trengove in, but I doubt they'll bring him back next week.

You think we lost the Essendon game due to height ? It was lost in the midfield. They had 128 more possessions and 70 marks, i.e. run and spread.

Why don't you ?

So I take it you agree with the above ?

McDonald is a frustrating player, but he has attributes that aren't readily found around the league. He has good pace, endurance, intercept marking ability and when in form spoils well. We're all well aware of his sometimes poor decision making and disposal. At a time when quality key defenders have never been more valuable I wouldn't trade him. With a player like McDonald you back your coaches and club environment to improve the player and tighten his game. Get him to play within his limitations. Great coaching groups don't trade out young defenders and leaders of McDonald's ilk. They back themselves to get the best out of him. McDonald has played 88 games. His best football will be from 100 +.

We lost to Hawthorn by 105 points last year and came out the next week and beat the Bulldogs. It's hard to evaluate form from one round to the next. What gives me confidence is their outs: Swallow, O'Meara, May, McKenzie, Thompson, Rischitelli, and hopefully Saad. Also, Ablett is never at his best playing sore.

And their best players are their senior players (not necessarily on Saturday). They had 4 players older than our oldest and those 4 have stood them in good stead for a long time. Quality experience out on the field providing directing/coaching is invaluable. They certainly give better guidance than our leaders. Also, did they have 3 players under 5 games ? While their more senior players are better than ours their younger players do not match Hogan, Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca & Salem as a collective. And just because the opposition might be young, OR even younger, doesn't mean we won't have inconsistency. Our youth is a reason why we'll be inconsistent no matter the opposition, whether they're young like us on a given day, or not. I know whose list I'd prefer going forward.

No-one said we lost just because of inexperience. We lost because our midfield was beaten, we were outnumbered around the footy, we were out pressured and we didn't run hard enough defensively. We also played off our man too much. But, as stated, "young sides will have days like these". Our best and most important players are Hogan 21, Viney 22 and Gawn 24. Your leaders are usually your best players and the bulk of ours are young. I'm treating this group separately to others before the Roos era, because we've turned over 30 players. You can lump them in with previous regimes if you like. I couldn't care less, although I disagree. Once the bulk of our young midfield have played 50-60 games these types of results will become rare.

Sympathy is for losers.

Players in 2016 need to be flexible. Also, he played all of his footy at GWS in the backline, so it's not a foreign position. In fact, he's played more AFL footy back than forward. For structural purposes they want him forward, but it's silly to suggest he can't be moved back in 2016. He can and he may. Also... Dunn was poor. Slow to react, slow to read the play, gave away frees and can't bend over to pickup a ball below his knees.

We were the second youngest team on the weekend and bottom 3 or 4 in games experience. We'll have other days like Saturday. There were only 7 players that played in the round 1 loss to St.Kilda in 2014. I'm treating the current group and list as quite separate to the team of even just 3 years ago. We've turned the list over and this rebuild has to be treated as (virtually) a separate entity. So I don't see the "trends and inherent problems" quite the same way you do. I see a 2 win/54% team that 50 games later is a 3/3 102% team. Brereton made the comment this afternoon that we're heading in the right direction, but any time we're looking at 3 in a row between now and round 22 2017 tip against us, because we're young, inexperienced and still learning our craft. It takes games and time. Hogan is smart and has a better handle on the list and its direction than you, me or anyone posting here. He's also been told by Goodwin that perseverance and endurance = satisfaction. He'll get much more satisfaction doing the hard yards than bailing to an already strong team. Goodwin's point being, "who cherished the flag last year more, Hodge, Lewis and Mitchell or James Frawley ? It's an obvious answer. Think about what that flag meant to the players that have been on the long journey compared to the fly in. We have to hope that Hogan wants to be part of the journey. I'm confident he will be. He loves the club and especially his mates at the club.

He wasn't used to the pace of the game. He'll pick it up quickly.