Jarka

I'd like to see the following play in the last 6 rounds: Valenti - Give him 4 or 5 games to prove himself before delisting Newton - Even if it's just more entertainment value McKenzie - Give him a taste like Grimes last year Cheney - Deserves a spot with his consistent performances Watts - Obvious choice Spencer - Depending on form coming back from injury McNamara - See Spencer Players to make way McLean - Is clearly hampered in some way, give him a rest and let him start preparing for 2010 now Robo - Love the bloke but he isn't the future Wheatley - We all know what he can do, let him continue to build confidence at Casey. Grimes - Don't get upset, it's just about making sure he's cherry ripe for next year. He had a late start to the season due to injuries, we know how good he can be, let's just manage his work load this year to ensure no further flareups. Bate - Not because he's performing poorly, just to rotate the forwards with Newton & Robo McDonald - It won't happen because he's our captain but it shoudl for all the reasons stated previously. It's time to put the cue in the rack, play with numbers behind the ball, play them out of position and have Newton at FF. Any player who needs surgery do it NOW!! I hate this stuff but we need to put ourselves in the best possible position for next year.

Hey rudeboy, too late, we're already excited!!

This post is worthy of more discussion. Playing alongside Jurrah is going to take some of the pressure of Watts, and that's a good thing.

Disagree with these two points. if the Demons win, it will mean they're getting better, Not always true. We recently beat the Eagles because they've already put the cue in the rack and Port were atrocious. Any decent team would have beaten us in either game. I'll also use 2007 as an example, we beat Carlton in the last game of the season to lose a pp and gift Carlton with Judd. If what Quayle was saying is true then we should have been improving, but the exact opposite occured. In the following two years we got worse. The problem is none of us have any control over these things, Do you mean the club or the supporters? I'm presuming you mean the club otherwise it wouldn't make sense. Of course we have complete control over our destiny, the majority of clubs in the AFL are smart, if they're in a position to get an advantage they don't let it easily slip. Melbourne on the other hand has let it slipped twice before in the past.

That's not such a bad result for Melbourne

Melbourne will start winning when we're good enough.

Wow, there's alot going on in this thread. Where to start... Firstly, to everyone who is posting negative remarks about YM. You are doing exactly what he desires. If you think he's a dill then don't reply to his posts. My advice is if he really offends you, then don't reply, DON'T FEED THE TROLLS!! Personally, I think there's a bit of truth in his op. Alot of what he stated is pretty obvious, ie Robo & Junior. We all know how he feels about Bruce, some of it is warranted although his delivery is mostly poor. I think the biggest problem with Bruce is that he's been played out of position for the majority of his career due to a lack of decent midfielders. He's been asked to play a role that he doesn't have the tools to play. Cameron Bruce is not an A grader midfielder, but put him in a team like Geelong, St.Kilda or Hawthorn and he would be very damaging. On Brock, well, this has been a pretty disappointing year. So many expectations have been thrust upon this kid, due to a lack of senior players he's had to pretty much shoulder the burden (with Nathan Jones) of the midfield. He's also had to become a leader very quickly, to a kid who should be just concentration on playing consistent footy this is alot to ask for. In reality he probably won't ever be an elite mid, but he still has alot to offer the club. He desperately needs a couple of A graders to take some of the pressure off, and we all know how we're going to achieve that...

I like this change

Entertainment. Nat bad may I add.

Melbourne have had two pp's before the first round. The second one was used on Travis Johnstone, we then used our 2nd pick in a trade to Fremantle in exchange for Jeff White. This infamous trade later came under security when Gutnick revealed that Melbourne had exceeded the salary cap, with the fines including losing a future early round pick to Freo (pick 4 from memory). This is further interesting because the year that Fremantle were found to be cheating the cap was when Farmer was traded to them. The AFL, in their infinite wisdom, then proceeded to state that the initial penalty on Melbourne was too harsh and they wouldn't be giving us one of Freo's pick in compensation.

Yeah, sadly I had the same conclusion

Brief discussion from H in the Scully stats thread got me thinking about who has been our best midfielders over the last twenty years (plus I reckon I need to stop yapping on about priority picksl). Robbie has been our most recent champion so the guidelines are pick your three best midfielders you've seen since he graced the members wing. Doesn't matter what method you use to judge them, be it stats, skill or heart, just give a reason for your decision. Third, in my opinion, is Glenn Lovett. Only played 127 games, his career decimated by lower back/hamstring problems. 1992 & 93 were his standout seasons. Great link player, could win his own ball, run all day and good disposal. He's the sort of player that we're currently desperately needing. Touch of calm class about him. In second I've got Stephen Tingay. 162 games. Stinger in top flight was elite, he was an impact player, loved the physical side of his game and had a great long kick. Sadly he never recovered after his girlfriend at the time accidently pushed him through a glass sliding door. If he and Glenn Lovett had of managed to stay injury free then who knows what we could have achieved in the last 90's. My standout midfielder is Todd Viney. 233 games. Not the best kick (far from it), nor the best handball or mark, but what he lacked in class he made up in spades with pure heart and determination. Our last genuine onfield leader. Phillipousos (or however you spell the gooses name) you blew it big time. Apologies to Brian Wilson, A.Obst, S.Woewodin & Sugar Healy. If your memory is a bit hazy try this link http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/alltime/melbourne.html

You could be right Mick

Off topic i know, my apologies but I can't resist this. I reckon Glen Lovett was the best insider we've had over the last 30 years, pity his career was ruined by dodgey hammies. We never saw his best.

Then why continue to fuel the debate with replies?

I'm not really concerned by that stat. For alot of the games Scully played a lone hand as an inside midfielder and he was often having to deal with alot of attention as a stand out player. I prefer to judge a player on what I see them do, not what the stats tell me.

I'd be really disappointed with the club if Hughes didn't at least an opportunity at AFL level. He's shown some really good signs for Casey this year with his marking and attack on the ball. Why not give hime 4 or 5 weeks to see what he can do?

Grand, th eplayers will never tank because alot of them are playing for their footballing careers, tanking has always been done by the coaching department in exactly the way you described.

Redleg, that's fair enough. The reason why we're all here is because we're passaionate about the sport and our club. From time to time the emotions do get the better of us. Your op included this statment, which is why I interpreted the way I did:

I don't understand why we wouldn't want to discuss a topic that is very important for our future, regardless of your stance. Simple solution, if you don't want to read these threads then don't open them and create a post (or yet another thread on the topic). Everyone wins and everyone is happy

It wasn't a surprise pick for the clubs, except for perhaps on bigfooty. Melbourne had the first opportunity to get him.

Just reward for a very good performance, well done!!

The only reason we got Jurrah was because we finished last.

Anyone else see the irony of the Jurrah comment? We only got him because we finished last To all those people who are adamant that we shouldn't finish last and get the first pick I hope you don't ever cheer when Watts or Jurrah does something great, because then you would be a hypocrite. Edit: There are so many errors to pick from this op. For example, Gary Ablett was a father/son selection, Doug Hawkins began his career before the draft even existed, most clubs passed on Fevola because of his attitude problems (and were proven correct), and the majority of these examples were from many years ago. The draft is a completely different process now, anyone who can't see that knows nothing about football.

We were extremely lucky to get Jurrah, it was a Steven Bradbury moment. I'm unsure of the exact details, there are others on this site who know exactly what happened but basically Jurrah didn't get his form in on time to nominate for the drafts. Betheras (ex-Collingwood player who originally spotted him) lobbied the AFL after the November draft and managed to get them to agree to aloow him into the psd under special circumstances. He basically fell into our laps, and I'm sure he would have gone in the 2nd or 3rd round, North were pretty keen as well.