Jarka

Wolf, that post was very well constructed, great work. You could tell the passion of the club through your post and it's info like this that shows just how exciting our future is going to be.

Even has a snow joke

I'd imagien that they would take the advice of a medical expert onboard when making these decisions, then present the advice to the player for their consideration

Nah, I think it's a complete crock. If you want to see pressure then look at Carlton, they had Gibbs in the leadership group before he'd even played a game. Melbourne is a soft target because we've been [censored] for many years, once the kids get some games under their belts and start winning games then this type of lazy journalism will change it's focus to whoever is on bottom of the ladder

Music to my ears. Still not expecting a heap of games this year, more than happy to see him develop further at Casey

If Dunn could improve his contested marking then he could become a viable target up forward, but up untill now that area of his game hasn't been great. In the past he's played more of a forward pocket type of role but perhaps this could be the turning point of his career. He's done the hard work and an opportunity exists, I really hope he can grasp it with both hands (so to speak)

Just want to echo the other sentiments WJ, thanks for the info. We're quite priviliged as the 'general' membership would not normally receive this type of news given to a specialised group like the Advocates, we're lucky to have you. Query on Gysberts, was he mentioned at all? When we drafted him I was expecting his development to take a fair while but from what I've heard he's impressed very early, the club must be rapt with what many outsiders considered to be a risky draft choice.

You can't fix a forwardline instantly, generally it takes 4 or 5 years to develop a good key forward. Also, there's no point in recruiting a 'not quite right' key forward at the expense of a much better player in the draft just for the sake of recruiting a key forward, that's poor drafting. The only other thing the club may have done differently is to target a mature player in a trade, but this would be a waste for us as we're 3 or 4 seasons away from properly challenging. Since CAC's 2nd last week year in charge of recruiting we've gone about it the right way for our future.

To be fair to MArk Stevens (can't believe I'm typing this but here goes) Gysberts best game for us was against Adelaide on a little [censored]-pot ground in the middle of trailer trash land, so I doubt that many people saw his performance. I guess he can't really comment on something he hasn't seen.

I thought his comments were generally fair and reasonable.

Seeing Gysberts & McKenzie in the 'bests' is just as good as Trengove and Scully dominating

After hearing about McKenzie over the last couple of games it would be difficult to not promote him. Give him as many games as his body can handle.

This is a good point and something that Melbourne hasn't had any experience with. It would be nice to get a midfield coach from Geelong, either a retiring player or ex coach, to have first hand knowledge of how they work with Ablett.

Don't worry, it's just a suggestion. The Adelaide commentators spent all game going on about how the two were giving it off to each other, in fact considering how biased they are I was amazed by their compliments. I get the impression that these two are going to love playing with each other. Below is ana rticle from foxsports 'Despite the injuries, Melbourne's wider prospects for 2010 were made to look brighter for much of the contest, as draftees Jack Trengove and Tom Scully vindicated their high ratings by running rings around a comparatively flat Adelaide midfield during the first half. ' http://www.foxsports...5018851,00.html

Now that we've seen some practice matches it's a good time to revisit this topic. After a couple of games it's become a little more apparent what our future structure will be and our strengths and (most importantly) our weaknesses. We have some great young talent that will no doubt be our future but what about this season? I'm not expecting Scully, Trengove, Watts, Blease, Strauss, Gysberts, Tapscott etc to carry us, it's go to be the older guys for at least one more season. So who are our most important 6 this season? No.1 - Jamar Jamar is no where near our best player, probably not even in our top 10, but realistically he is our only real ruckman we can rely on to influence games this season. PJ is injured (and not that great anyway), Martin is just not up to it, Spencer is still learning and developing and Gawn is just a kid. Spencer and Gawn could be great in the future though. We've seen in the practice games what happens when we're beaten in the ruck (see Sandilands exploiting our setup), our midfield just isn't smart enough. Jamar though is, at the very least, extremely physical, the opposition doesn't get it easy when he's on the ground. He's also capable of taking a huge pack mark, this at least makes the opposition have to watch him whenever he's on the ground. He's marking ability is much needed with our undermanned forwardline setup. No.2 - Davey Davey is as close to a marque player as we've got. Awesome disposal, still great speed and just looks good when on song. When playing forward of the centre he is a match winner, and now that we have to start winning he becomes more important. We need him getting alot of the footy and to deliver it to our forwards. He's value as a mentor to our group of young indigenous players also cannot be understated. No.3 - Sylvia While Davey is our match winner Sylvia could be. In 2009 he showed that he has the ability, this year we need him to turn it on. We need his physical presence in the centre, we need his contested marking and his long goal kicking. Our undermanned forward line needs him to kick goals on a weekly basis. No.4 - Bate Like our ruck division our forwardline has alot of potential in Watts and Jurrah, but they won't dominate....yet. Miller is still the same old player, so we need Bate as a key target to take the pressure off the kids. I've never considered Bate a real Key forward but he gets the gig for one reason, right now we have no one else. No.5 - Green Injuries from last year have almost made him the forgotten man, but his poise, leadership and experience is desperately needed. He will play everywhere this season; midfield, forward and in defence. He'll be our Mr.Fixit man (along with Bruce who just misses out on the top 6). No.6 - Rivers After two full pre-seasons this is his year to get back to his best. With Warnock and Frawley to take the key forwards and MacDonald to add experience we can now afford to play him on the 3rd tall and get the best out of him. I still have faith that he can get back to his best and with him dominating he has the ability to transform our defence. I still believe he can become an elite player.

They're a young team and will be inconsistent and we still have some holes in our list. I'm expecting a steady improvment throughout the year.

I know it's still a pre-season game and there's still a fair bit of experimenting but I'd like to see a couple of positional changes. While Morton has been good in defence I'd love to see him on the wing or even forward flank, get him into a position so he can use his strength ie running ability. I love Grimes already, but I'd like to see him really cement his position in the team, leave him in the backline where he can control the area and play the 'quarter back' type role. But it's such a long season, no point playing the aces before it's even started. We showed some good form in (brief) patches, especially with such an inexperienced ruck division playing against a giant. We clearly lack some smarts in the middle though. We'll get better but I don't have over the top expectations this year. I'm happy with 7-8 wins

Geez he looks slow, which is a worry because this will probably be the fittest he'll be all season.

Win or lose, the reality is that in 5 weeks time the result will be forgotten.

What sets Watts apart is his lateral movement and awareness. Those combined with his hieght, speed and contested marking ability puts him into a very special category few other AFL or VFL players have belonged to. All he needs now is desire and a bit of luck

How did it happen? Naitanui was always going to give a much quicker return, everyone knows that. He was also going to be alot more 'marketable' in the short term due to his background and style of play. These are acknowledged facts. However, Watts was identified as having the abilities to play the hardest position on the ground, CHF. He was also drafted as a skinny school kid. I remember the last time a tall skinny school kid was the no.1 pick, Josh Fraser. I also remember the pies playing him every single game in his first year in the ruck. His undeveloped body was smashed game after game and years down the track what's the result? He's now just a shadow of the potential he once had, a ruckman size player who realistically can only play on the Half Forward Flank. He's unable to play in the ruck or in a key position due to his body being all but rooted. Melbourne will not make the same mistake with Watts. The four year plan they have is the correct way to develop him, I don't know if Bailey will be our coach in 6 years time but the work he is overseeing now will pay dividends 100 times fold to whoever is in charge then. I admit that at the time I preferred Naitanui, I also admit that I've made the mistake of camparing him to other no.1 picks in that he's development is much slower, but I've since seen the light. The reality is that the AFL hasn't seen a player like Watts for a long time, James Hird was probably the best comparison in skill and style. Hird didn't really start playing well until he was about 21 or 22, my expectation of Watts is similiar. Hird had the advantage of being an unknown and was allowed to develop in peace, unfortunately Watts doesn't have that luxury. I'm proud of the way that the club has stuck to it's plan, the only mistake I think they made was the build up to the Collingwood game. The result of so much publicity I think made the fans expecting a bit too much too soon.

Unfair comparison imo. Holland's turning circle was are touch better than the QE2, Fitzpatrick is far more agile and alot quicker. He's still going to need alot of hard work though

Sounds like someone needs their ego stroked

Took the drive down the South Gippsland Hwy this morning to Caey Fields, my first time there and it was very pleasant. My only concern is the single lane road going in and out of the complex. We were with the family and I spent alot of the morning playing dad so I didn't see alot of the game, but here are some photos of the ground and game. Just one comment on the game, Jack Trengove, wow, just wow. This kid is a serious talent, mark him down for the Rising Star Award. Taken with a Pentax K10 with the stock standard lens, the zoom's pretty crappy, saving for a better one. Great morning and well run by the club, will be going down again in the future

NicNat is a gifted athlete with an enormous appetite to succeed, the way he throws himself around puts alot of our past senior players to shame. I love watching him play.