Gator

Great. Can you do it in private ?

You'll be happy with Bayley Fritsch, who has courage in the air and is just 21. I wouldn't change a thing.

One of the silliest comments I've seen on here.

I sure as hell hope not. Good depth, but his skill level isn't at the required standard.

On a scale of 1-10 a champion of the game is a 9-10. Robert Flower was between a 9-10. Wilson was a 7 and Powell a 6. Nowhere near "champions". For example, I'd put Woewodin at 6.5 for his career. I'd put his Brownlow year at 8. Nathan Jones is a 7. Just my opinion of course and others will differ.

Jones has said a number of times this preseason that he'll be playing more of an outside role (wing) with stints forward and even occasionally in defence. Our best centre square set up is Viney, Oliver, Petracca. Next best centre square mids are Tyson, Brayshaw, Jones and Salem (in no particular order).

It's the sort of injury that if you have any pain you're off legs. the fact that he's back in full training and will play for Casey next weekend is a great sign that he's pain free. His only issue is match fitness.

The worst movie I have ever seen (and didn't finish) was Hudson Hawk. It starred, and I use the term loosely, Bruce Willis and Andie MacDowell. Truly horrible.

Yep, it's an easy team to pick now.

You're comparing apples and oranges. Harmes provides outside run, while also being hard at it, which is why I like him, and Tyson is a clever inside mid. With Petracca and even Oliver spending time forward it makes Tyson more valuable due to his ability to win clearances. They're not competing for a spot in the 22.

Having a change of thought. Dees play a 7 man defence, so I think Vince will get a gig, which may be handy if Dangerfield spends a bit of time forward. Had a chat to my Brother today and he'd leave Harmes out. As much as I like Harmes I tend to agree. He might be the unlucky one.

It's a bloody good team. I'd have Tyson ahead of Vince, but will be fascinated to see how it pans out if Viney is available. I think Fritsch and Hannan will both play. Brayshaw and Harmes are the other two right on the cusp, but I like both. It's hard to get 23 into 22. Someone will be unlucky.

Bugg is the sort of player that would have played 100 games for us in years gone past. He's good depth, but not best 22 in a quality finals team. That's not to say he wouldn't play a final, but imo it would be off the back of injuries.

Tyson's pace is virtually never an issue, he has a great sidestep, is creative, tough, is hard to bring down, is good overhead, knows how to find the footy, is valuable in rotations through the centre square, and usually a good distributor. You may not have him in your best 22, but I'm certain Goodwin does.

Hannan has bulked up quite a bit over this summer.

There are some overreactions here. Viney is recovering from a stress fracture to his third metatarsal. It usually doesn't require surgery and in Viney's case it didn't. They're not uncommon and with rest they heal themselves. Viney wouldn't be back in full training if he was suffering any significant complications. If he was feeling pain he simply wouldn't be training. It's taken longer than the usual 6-8 weeks to heal, because he must have felt pain late last year, which put his progress back. Being pain free after two weeks of full training is a very good sign. If he plays next week and recovers with no pain it will be a decision based on match fitness as to whether he plays. If you google information on stress fractures to the third metatarsal there's a plethora of information. I know this is his injury, because he said it on a club website interview. From there I looked up the injury some weeks ago.

Harmes has had a great preseason and I suspect he'll play round one. But I also seem to recall someone saying he had a niggle a week or so ago. After playing AFLX and JLT1 he doesn't need another game if he's coming off a minor injury. And it gives the coaches the opportunity to look at someone else, i.e. Stretch.

I love stats too, but Blight is being lazy. It's all numbers and zero analysis of the personnel. In his myopic world Oliver doesn't win a B&F as a teenager with less than 40 games and Hogan doesn't kick over 40 in his first 20 games. This is not a knock on Blight, because I agree that numbers paint a picture, but they won't tell the whole story. I don't think we'll win the flag in 2018, but I do believe it's possible. 2019/2020 is far more likely. !0 of our best 22 will pass the 50 game mark this year injuries permitting. The future is bright.

I reckon they want to play both.

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20180325T1520&p0=152&msg=AFL+Round+1+Melbourne+V+Geelong+Cats&ud=1&font=cursive

You seriously have no idea how good Lever is. With him we're a chance at the flag in 2018. Without him we'd be no chance. And the B&F result ? You do realise Lever missed 5 games in 2017 ? Nine of the top ten played at least 3 more games than him. Best & Fairests usually favour those who play, not those in sitting the grandstand. As an example here is one round of their voting: Round Five v Gold Coast Sloane – 16 M. Crouch – 15 Lever – 15 Laird – 14 B. Crouch – 13 Atkins – 12 Lynch – 11 Smith – 11 Walker – 11 Hampton – 10 Otten – 10 Cameron – 9 Hartigan – 9 Betts – 8 Mackay – 8 Brown – 7 Douglas – 7 Knight – 7 Milera – 6 Jacobs – 4 Twenty players out of 22 received votes. And that's a consistent theme with their other rounds. Plus Adelaide knew he was leaving before the end of the season and there'd been rumblings he was going all year. Do you think under those circumstances there's a chance they didn't look favourably upon him when voting for the club's highest individual honour ? He will absolutely be in our top 2 or 3 most important players. To get a player of his quality to come to your club at 22 you have to pay. He's reportedly being paid around $750-$800K and will be worth every cent. To deduce he's not that good due to his B&F ranking is hopelessly flawed.

Hardeman the closest. Icke no. Wight no. Hughes hell no.

On the back of numerous injuries Hawthorn managed their list for development purposes. There was no carrot or nefarious prize motivating them. Melbourne tried to manipulate results to improve their draft position. If you think the two are the same you're breathtakingly stupid.

I expect Lever to be the best recruit in my time following Melbourne. The difference he makes to our defensive structures is enormous. I'm of the view that teams don't win flags (there may be a rare exception) without at least one elite defender. We haven't had an elite defender at the club in my footy lifetime (circa 1970). The opportunity to secure a 22 year old soon to be elite defender (if not already) is profound. In part due to our present weaknesses in defence and in part because the opportunity itself is so rarely presented. How often does a talent of Lever's ilk (at 22) fall into club's laps ? Our list is the best I've seen at Melbourne. It's better balanced than any we've had previously. If it doesn't secure at least one flag in the next 5 years I'll be amazed and dismayed.

And, of course, we now have Lever from that same draft class.