Dante

They throw us a crumb as some sort of magnanimous gesture, to show they want to even things up, but as soon as we start to get on our feet, they show just how hollow their gesture is. They don't want it too even.

Oh! God, I hope Old Dee doesn't read this post, can you white out Weideman's name.

I mentioned this to someone at the game the other night, there were so many times when in the back should have been paid but wasn't. When you see some of the twiggy touchwood frees paid for incidental contact to the shoulder, yet someone is driven in to the ground, face first and nothing. What is the point of having a rule if it's never going to be enforced.

Interestingly, if you look at the initial part of the play, Gray has his arm around Nev's waist and if the positions were reversed and Gray was in front he would have been paid a free. It's amazing how forwards, especially high profile ones, are protected and backmen get nothing.

It's common knowledge that Tim Watson is a moron and his son is a drug cheat. Or were you referring to another comment

I went to the old Victoria Park oval one particular day, after a few frothies, with a couple of other Dees supporters and stood in front of the stand surrounded by Pies supporters and gave it too them all day, foolish move and on reflection I was lucky to have left with my teeth intact. We won and I was even worse after that. Went to Linton street with a few guys, one of which was a Saints member, we had had a belly full of beer and I made a complete prat of myself singing the Melbourne song in the social club rooms after we beat them, It was a stupid and ungracious thing to do and I apologised to my friend a few day later.

We have to agree to disagree Old, I'm going all positive over the Dees now, no more negative, I've had enough of that. We are finally in good hands and I'm going to trust the ones in charge to get it right, who knows they may get us that elusive flag before we leave this World. They have shown great faith in the players they've selected and I think they are right this time.

I have a sick wife and my son looked after her whilst I was at the footy, I had to race off as soon as the siren sounded so I could let him get home and so I could cook dinner. Otherwise I would have been there for all the renditions of the song, I would have loved to stay and cheer the boys off People have various reasons for staying, or going early.

I have a contrary view to that, I think playing him at the highest level shows Weed what's needed of him to enable him to succeed. This is not the old MFC Old, we have given him a look and we can now drop him back to the lower level and let him develop, he doesn't have to be the saviour as many before him have.

Come on Old, there are others, didn't you write of Nev, several times? What's the draft position got to do with it and where does it become inconsequential, over pick ten, second round, third round? Weed didn't play a lot of football in the year he was drafted due to injury, he played a few games last year and a few this year, at senior level and showed he's not ready for it as yet. Mind you Oscar wasn't either, early this year, the posters here were screaming for him to go. He's not Lucas Cook Old, give him a chance to at least get his body right for AFL football before you write him off.

Based on the skill he's shown so far and the fact he's fearless in his attack on the ball, the small forwards can apply tne pressure you talk about, he will help bring the ball to the ground. He will bulk up and will have much more effect when he does, but until then, I'll back the judgment of the football department as to where they play him.

Tell me Old, of the current regular Melbourne first players, are there any you had previously written off and that have surprised you? I know you are usually optimistic and upbeat about our prospects and list, but are there any that have slipped your guard?

Demonland Drunkin, that's what we do to kids that dont star from their first game, this site is littered with posters who've made premature and wrong predictions about our young kids. It's a rush to declare, "I was the first one who picked he'd be no good". Weed will be ok, he'shown enough indicate he'll be a player, but he's not kicking 6 a week in the ones so he's no good, that mind you is the opinion of quite a few who haven't seen him play much at all. They confuse him with Lucas Cook.

I went and I'm glad I did, although I wasn't too happy walking to the ground, it was as cold as I've ever been going to a game in Melbourne. Actually, once you got in to the ground, out of the wind,it wasn't as cold. It was a smallish crowd, but I guess we lost the previous week and momentum gets lost when that happens and apart from the Ponsford stand, there were very few Port supporters. No excuses needed, you pay your membership and go, or not go, your choice.

Looks like he got grabbed around the neck and if you look closely his legs go forward and his head goes back. Momentum and restraint, then the big idiot loses his balance. He didn't expect Nev to go on, I think he expected Nev to run it out and he starts to slow down, then he realises he was wring and reacts clumsily. He yelled because he'd been made a fool of.

I like a lot of your posts but i don't know exactly what it is you are trying to get at, in respect to Oscar? He makes mistakes, that's a given, he is still learning, that's a given too, but he is playing much better now than he was last year and earlier this year, that's a given as well. All our players make mistakes, they play a high risk, take the game on style and that will lead to turnovers and lost possessions. I've seen Oscar's game improve and his confidence grow over the last two years and that's because he is playing his role in the team and following the coach's instructions, he must be otherwise he'd be out of the side I watched some of our more experienced players turn the ball over both by hand and foot, not just punch the ball to the wrong spot, but direct turnovers in Saturday's game, but only Oscar and Dom get singled out. I've seen comments on here about this player and that player being not up to it and then the following year being praised as best 22, they play a role and we don't always know what that role is. If Goodie thinks he's not doing the team thing, he'll drop him, as he has other players and if not we will see how he sits in the next 12 months

Have to disagree here, Nev gets lots of love on this site, he one of, if not the most respected and loved players at the MFC. He goes about his business, without fuss, each week and I can't remember anyone having a bad word to say about him, the best of all the Jetta's I've seen.

Excellent win, lots of pressure and we held firm, kicking two of the last three goals, I'm not sure why we have to bicker about the performance of certain players when it was such a great team effort. We will get better and both Jack and Dom will be improved by the run, all players make mistakes in these sort of games, if they didn't we would be overwhelming flag favourites and we're not. After he start we got I never thought we'd lose, even when they got close in the last, it was a solid team effort and all players had a hand in it including the ones that seem to cop criticism week after week.

The AFL kick the [censored] out of us for years and deprive us of any possibility of making a profit by scheduling home games at the G that no one wants or home games at Princes Park when no one knows where it is. They give us more interstate games than every other Victorian club, they give us home games at Etihad and away games at the G against Essendon, who's home ground is Etihad. They make it near impossible for us to grow our supporter base because we are forced to sell home games interstate so we can limit our annual loss. Then, when we are at our absolute worst, they send in the cavalry and throw a couple of $m our way to stop us from going under and VP thinks we should be grateful. They are probably embarrassed about our success because they would prefer the status quo with the top 4 dominating the local market and us just rolling along making less of a nusence of ourselves. Our scheduling this year is a joke, 4 games in 18 days an 8 day break then another game 6 days later. We get the QB game which we've had forever and the new BB game against Richmond on ANZAC eve which attracted nearly as many as the ANZAC day game, which is supposed to be the mid year Grand Final, with the ANZAC medal second to the Brownlow, joke of course. Maybe the AFL will start to promote the Eve game the way they promote the Day game, hah that will never happen We have shown that we can attract big crowds when given a chance, it's about time its happened. I'm not stupid, I understand that the AFL has to make money, but ALL partners should receive equal treatment and not have to grovel when they get, some long over due help.

Only when he was at Melbourne, I didn't like him when he kicked 6 goals against us every time we played the Crows.

Let's not forget that both Murphy and Gibbs were number one draft picks and have been around for a while. Plus they have a number one draft pick as the tall in the midfield, that helps. Carlton collected midfielders at the expense of KPP and it's only in the last couple of years have tried to rectify that position. We had three mids out and our midfield tall is coming back from a long lay off. Viney, Jones and Tyson play and Max is fully fit we would have creamed them.

Bernie and Goody were the only two Crows players I liked, amazing that they both ended up at Melbourne, how could you not like Bernie.

Umpires are too slow to react when a player plays on from a mark or free, the opposition players see that the player has moved off the line but are powerless to do anything until the nuffie with the whistle allows him. How many times do you see a player take a mark near the boundary line then move 15 or more metres in towards the middle so he has a better chance to pass the ball in to the forward line. That gives him options either side of the goals instead of having to kick it across goal or kick it long.

I'm doing ok, I go to the football expecting to win, not hoping that we can keep the loss to under 6 goals. I have faith that the players and coach will provide us with their best every week . I enjoy watching the younger players develop and can't wait to see the best of the younger brigade, there is a huge upside to the young talent at the club. But most importantly, i enjoy going to the football again,

Having a good culture means never having to say, "we didn't come to play today". I like Tracc's comment that any player coming in should be able to perform the task required so we should still be capable of winning any game. That's what good teams are all about and that's why the Bullies won last year and the Hawks won so many.