stevethemanjordan

Considering the constant speculation surrounding Mitchell moving to Hawthorn, you'd think a comment like "Mitchell is moving to Melbourne" is pretty easy to decipher. Unless of course you've been living under a rock for the entirety of 2016.

On our best day and on a top team's off day. Consistency will be another obvious factor next year. We can't continue to play at our best one week and then our worst the following. And I don't buy the 'young list' [censored]. The dog's showed what's possible if you bring consistency every week. And they have a very young list.

Great tune though.

The argument is not about 'position' though. Hibberd and Hunt are vastly different players and offer attribute diversity to our back six, regardless of their positional title. Hibberd's strengths are his penetrating and accurate left leg, his play reading ability and ability to intercept mark and play tall similar to what Gibson does at Hawthorn. Hibberd offers us what we don't have. Steele would offer us nothing that we don't already have.

And so, we find ourselves at the beginning of another off-season and at a time where in years gone by, the excitement and hype for suffering Melbourne supporters hits an all time high. Free agency, trade period and a plethora of young talent ready to embark on another pre-season, three ingredients that every club's supporters seem to think are exclusive to their team only. In what will most likely be a fairly quiet trade and free agency period for us, my mind is already on the 2017 home and away season and the possibility of us being a top 8 side for the first time in a decade. However what I'm finding increasingly difficult to do, is to pen in who I can say I think we'll comfortably beat next year, given how even the competition is. At the moment, the only teams I feel confident in saying we'll beat are Richmond and Brisbane. For obvious reasons. But any of Fremantle, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, St Kilda, Port and the Gold Coast is too difficult to say in my opinion. Freo, Essendon, Collingwood and Gold Coast will all be very different sides next year with the amount of players they'll have coming back. Carlton and St Kilda are on the up and beat us this year and Port are wildly inconsistent but have a ruckman coming back next year and will improve I'm sure. So that's two clubs I see for pencilled in wins for us at this stage. Am I the lord of pessimists? How do others see us stacking up against the rest of the competition, given the improvement they'll similarly be banking on during the off-season? The competition is insanely even going into next year.

A good thing the footy club don't agree with you then. Simply, we don't need a player like Steele and we need a player like Hibberd.

Rookie him.

.....shut-up now....

Touche´

I think the only other AFL player I ever saw perform that magician-esque type of trickery was Jared Brennan early in his career. Which scares me to death. Because he was awful.

Another who still needs to iron out the creases. Great kick one minute, shocker the next. Great handball one minute, terrible one the next. I'm sure that will happen over time. I'd like to see him play much more midfield time next year and I'm sure he would have this year if his year/fitness hadn't been so interrupted. Brayshaw, Viney, Tyson, Jones and Oliver to spend most minutes on ball next year with others pinch hitting. But overall, I have no doubt he'll be champion of our club and someone who will be a future big game player in finals. This might spark some replies, but I reckon he'd be a better Captain than Viney too. And I reckon at the end of next year, people will start talking about it.

Weight can be defined by both muscle and body fat. I shouldn't have used the term 'weight', I should have said that he can lose the body fat and perhaps add more muscle to stay at a similar 'weight'. He'd increase his running ability if he did which I think he needs to do. Hodge, Lewis, Nick Reiwoldt (of this season) and a host of others have done it whilst maintaining their strength and Pedo has always appeared to carry a bit of a winter coat. I reckon it would have been asked of him in his exit interview, honestly.

Good decision by the club. But for once, I'd like to see him come back to pre-season with a lighter frame. He definitely needs to shed some some weight and increase his running ability if he wants to give himself a chance to stay on an AFL list. I genuinely think that if he got himself really fit, he could be more than just a 'bit' player.

I agree, it's hard to see how another tall would work in a forward-line housing Weideman, Hogan and Watts. But I think the importance of protecting, managing and prolonging the career of Max Gawn is too great. And trumps any worry of positional changes that may be necessary with the addition of another big man. We absolutely must maximise potential of Max by keeping him fit and healthy, season upon season. Apart from unfortunate innocuous injuries, fatigue plays a big part in them too. And we saw how much of a difference it made to our side when Gawn was having an impact compared to when he wasn't. I believe, (as I'm sure others do) that he's the most important player we have when playing well. As others have also suggested, with bench time included, a rotation of ruck ---> forward -----> bench for two big men could work as long as roles are stuck to within the forward-line. It takes a lot of discipline and selflessness to make that work though. And in the past, a forward-line of Gawn and Hogan hasn't worked overly well with them both trying to outmark each other resulting in missed opportunities at shots on goal. But of course that can be overcome with a change of mindset. Whatever happens, it's clear that a bloke of Max's height and weight shouldn't be rucking on his own season upon season. He will simply breakdown.

Vickery is easily the best forward/ruck player on the market currently. And yet again we're hearing the same posters chime in using the emotional bias card that seems to trump the critical thinking one. Here's a reminder: Vickery was pick 8 in the same draft as Watts. Patiently, Melbourne supporters have waited for Watts to 'deliver', and he finally has this year. In 2011, Vickery kicked 35 goals for the season and finished 5th in their best and fairest. He also kicked a bag of 6 against collingwood last year. Fitzpatrick went at pick 50 in that draft and was part of the same Vic Metro team in which both Vickery and Watts played in. The humour in all of this is that these posters are happy to afford all the time in the world for players like Watts and Fitzy to develop and they most certainly refrain for criticising any part of their game. But as soon as a similarly inconsistent opposition player comes into calculations as a player to trade in (Melksham or Vickery), the criticism and emphatic 'NO WAY''s come from every angle. As said, Vickery has shown (as Melksham has), that at his/their best they can be very good. There is a reason clubs invest so heavily in player development you ninnies. Trust your farken club. And take your one-eyed glasses off.

A most severe case of premiership envy, this thread.

Great news, unsure of why anyone would be disappointed about the length of the deal, or why the assumption is that he'll be gone after this one. Who knows what the situation will be like in three years. Perhaps he'll fall more in love with the club and his team mates by then. A monumental signing.

Bigfooty rumours are less credible than demonland ones. And that's saying something. Salem will not be going anywhere.

Why do posters feel the need to literally make [censored] up? [censored] incredible. I heard Ralph on SEN also, and it was so far from what the poster believed he said.

Sickening to think the impact he'll have on games once he reaches 100 or so. The same goes with Brayshaw, Oliver, Hogan, Salem, Weeds, Hunt etc

Win the ball in inside, work your way out of the contest through smart use of handball, move forward. That's the blueprint and they do it better than anyone. Rarely do you see a 'bang on the boot' kick from a contested situation with these guys. They do 'hand-ball' games all summer to help with this side of their game. Aside from that, to have the kind of quality people like Beverage, Murphy and Bont at your club helps enormously and has clearly had a huge impact on all the players at the club. An extremely special group. Amazing year. I can see Goody having a similarly close relationship to our guys. It's definitely a changing of the guard in terms of 'style' of coach. We're in good hands.

Oh oh.

His waiting for he's big paycheck that wear putting together for him.

Good post, and largely I agree. But as I'm sure you know, we are a very different club these days and there is no magic formula for the turnaround for a player. A change of environment has been just the thing to kick players into gear as history shows. And yes, it goes the other way too. I'm not hellbent on getting him. But I definitely think he'd offer a lot to our list.

Great news for another young player with a lot left to give. I don't think he is underrated at all, I don't know why posters believe that he is. His best is really really good. But like many young players, he doesn't perform at that level consistently yet. Equally, when he is at his worst, he costs the team. Especially with his errant kicking when it's off. And this year, we saw a lot of best and worst games. Now the challenge is to bridge that gap and get to a stage where if he is not at his 'best', he is at least still contributing.That's what the good players do. And it's how successful teams remain successful. Consistency in performance. So again, neither over nor underrated. So shut up. Go Dom. Go Dees.