Maybe next year

6. Green 5. Bartram 4. Gysberts 3. Davey 2. Junior 1. Bruce

6. Trengove 5. Jamar 4. Frawley 3. Jetta 2. Bennel1 1. Miller

6 - James McDonald 5 - Jack Grimes 4 - James Frawley 3 - Matthew Warnock 2 - Brent MAloney 1 - Brad Green

At 3/4 time i was talking to my family. I looked up and saw a bit of a blue within the Melobourne huddle. Did anyone see what happened? Will there be fines or worse reports?

We must not blame umpires for losses of football games or even criticise them. Our players make far many more mistakes than the umpires. Are you forgetting about the 50m to young trengove which was really an 80m penalty allowing him to kick a goal in the 3rd quarter. Yes there are mistakes but that is football.

Out: Petterd (injured), In: McKenzie, Warning - Rivers, Garland, Martin As I understand Bail will not play as still injured. Try not to make too mamy changes as we have been good for 4 weeks.

Disappointing game overall - very little run and not the pressure we have seen them apply over the last month. Nevertheless, here are my votes: 6: Bruce (He was one of the few who attacked the ball and attempted to run out of defence) 5: Bartram (would have been the best but I was annoyed by him letting Harvey run around him and kick a goal) 4: Dunn (just needs to be more consistent within a game) 3: Grimes (for his 2nd half) 2: Scully (great dash and commitment) 1: Green (was a target but needed to be moved on the ball) Very disappointed in Joel MacDonald, Stefan Martin, Jared Rivers, Colin Sylvia

6. Jamar 5. James McDonald 4. Bail 3. Green 2. Sylvia 1. Scullie

I think J Mac is a great captain and he leads the way with his tackling. Very rare to see opposition escape his clutches once around them. I have to say I was confused when he decided to kick against the wind in the 1st quarter. I would think it is important to gain momentum early and kick with the wind just in case it changes direction. I assume James wanted to kick with it at the end (risky if there is flooding). In any case, I am interested in what people thought. I think with the amount of control we had in the first 10-15 mins, having the wind behind us may have resulted in 4-5 goals instead of 5 behinds. Anyway, great win by the boys and I think the balance is good. I look forward to Morton, Sylvia and Jurrah returning soon.

6. Frawley 5. Grimes (future captain) 4. Jamar 3. Green 2. Bennell 1. Trengrove

Seems to me that every week Bruce cops a bagging from some supporters here which is a shame. He tries his guts out every week and there are many others who don't fo the same. Did anyone else notice that in the 2nd quarter when Cloke looked like tearing MacDonald apart and driving Collingwood into a winning position, Bailey turned to Cam Bruce. Despite being stronger and taller, Bruce was able to control him - freeing up MacDOnals to gain confidence. Bruce is often asked to do the toughest job and he does it with the enthusiasam I expect of any Mebourne player. Cam will not be in our best players today but over a season he continually is in the best. Please leave the bashing away just for 1 week. Go Cam. Go Dees.

6 - Petterd 5 - Jamar 4 - Davey 3 - Grimes 2 - Green 1 - Bennell

Dump is a bit harsh. I just think Sylvia is a better player. I also don't believe he was in out top 4 or 5 yesterday. One of the younger players have to make way and I think Strauss needs to play again from a confidence point of view.

My changes are as follows: Newton for Miller - Newton needs to be promoted off the rookie list but I think we have enough long term injuries to make this happen. He needs to be given 7 weeks and for him to get another game after this period, he needs to have kicked 21 goals. Even Brad Miller kicked 2 yesterday. I like Brad as a player but his effort yesterday was disgraceful and such efforts cannot be rewarded with another game. Martin for Spencer Martin gives us lots more flexibility and my goodness Spencer is bad atm. He needs to learn at Casey. Bring him in if Jamar gets injured but not before. Our backup ruckman can be MArtin or Newton if need be. Sylvia with McKenzie (Assumin Colin is fit) Sylvia is one of our star players and adds toughness. Bruce must play in forward line together with Green. Our midfield has to have confidence that their efforts will be rewarded. This will also stop Bruce from handballing as his job will be to kick goals. On notice: A Davey. He was shocking yesterday. Looked disinterested, unfit and tired. Not good enough from a leader. L Dunn. Tries hard but concerned about skills. May need to give his role to McKenzie or McNamara. M Bate. Pathetic yesterday and if he dishes out another effort like yesterday will need to gain fitness in Casey. I expect at that time, Garland will be fit. Yesterday was a bad game so I want to see them for one more week before I make drastic changes.

What a very disappointing game. My votes are: 6. James MacDonald 5. Mark Jamar 4. Brad Green 3. Jamie Bennell 2. Cam Bruce 1. Ricky Pettard

As Hutchy said, that is one area where we do not need anyone. Happy to have him if he comes in pre-season draft and cheap. Would be handy as a CHB. However, I would rather investing money into someone like Aaron Sandilands.

Gee - what assumptions based on my profile name. The name I chose is purely because that is what I have heard in my 40 years of supporting the club. I have never seen a premiership and it pains me. However, what hurts me more is the look of my son's face when he saw me and other supporters cheering Richmond. As I said, I understand why we did it. I wrote about it in another thread. We had a chance today for Bailey to say "you know what - we will benefit by losing but I don't care. This club is about winning". Travis Johnstone was a number one pick and if we did today to pick up a player like him - I will be even sadder. I support the club in every way - I go interstate, I go to preseason games and I go every week. I want a winning culture - what happened today in my humble opinion does not create a winning culture. Would you do what John Elliott did at Carlton to create a dynasty or do you have greater integrity? I know I do and today we lost integrity. I blame the AFL for tempting Melbourne with a bad apple and the powers that be at Melbourne for taking it.

I am not sure it is a great day. The cost to Melbourne may be greater than the benefits of the priority picks. I wounder how many kids and sponsors lost faith in the club today. I have watched Melbourne lose many games by big margins but this was the worst loss for me. Maybe in 2 years I will think differently but I felt ashamed that I applauded Richmond today.

I totally agree. I go every week and bring my 8 yr old son with me. We were cheering hard until Bailey decided to lose the game. I understand the reasons why Bailey did this (early draft picks are important) BUT what are the other costs: (1) Financial - when supporters do not turn up because it is too hard to cheer against your team as I ended up doing today (2) Culture - do the players now believe winning is not everything (3) Reputation - who would want to sponsor a club that tried to lose and perhaps more importantly, will players want to come to such a club (4) Respect - will the players lose faith in the coach I don't know if I can go again to a game this year - too depressing. It was obvious from today the players wanted to win (reaction from a few in the last line of defence when the goal was kicked) but they were coached out of it. I expect that Bailey needs a talking too. If we want to lose, don't play the senior players and just put out the young players and let us see the future. I expect Melbourne and Bailey will try and win next week and future weeks but will the players now? I feel ashamed today. WCE won today and that is why they have a winning culture.

Very difficult game to give votes because you do not know what the instructions were and players were placed in strange positions. Here it goes though: 6 - Grimes 5 - McDonald 4 - Petterd 3 - Rivers 2 - Jones 1 - Bate

6 - Bruce 5- Petterd 4 -Jurrah 3 - Jamar 2 - Frawley 1- Bate Yze-Magic: still not a vote for Bruce.

I can't believe people here are picking on cale Morton. What is he - 18? He has been good this year with a few brilliant games. On Friday night, he played a considerable amount of time in the forward line. That is not his position but DB is giving him experience around the ground during this lost season. Let's cut this gut some slack. It was only a few years ago people were bagging Brad Green and talking up Brock McLean. Give Cale some time and let's support the team rather than bag players (especially the young ones). There is enough of this in the media with young Jack Watts.

6. Sylvia 5. Jamar 4. Jones 3. Bruce 2. Bate 1. Grimes

6 - Frawley 5 - McLean 4 - Moloney 3 - Davey 2 - Bartram 1 - Dunn Pull finger award 3 - Jones 2 - Pettard 1 - Bate

Can't believe you did not have Bruce and Jones in your votes but I guess I should not be too surprised with your bias. What compounds it is that you gave Sylvia 4 votes and McLean 2 votes. Sylvia had a brilliant 2nd quarter but he almost lost the game for us in the last quarter with a few attempts to make himself a hero rather than do the team thing and pass the ball to an open teammate. For the record my votes are: 6: Jones 5: Martin 4: Bruce 3: Miller 2: Davey 1: Frawley