Dante

Paul Roos turned our club around in his three years, from a permanent cellar dweller to a side that can realistically challenge for the flag, he will be a big part of our history in years to come.and that's why i trust his judgement in picking Goodwin as his successor. He cut most of the players on the list and eradicated the poor attitude that permeated through the club, from one generation of players to the next, we now have something that resembles a side capable of beating any other club in the competition What an unlikely duo to have played such a big part in our resurgence, PJ and Roos, both should have a special place in the hearts of Melbourne supporters..

It appears that the boys call him Frittata, that may have been mentioned before, or not.

Went to a club lunch today and Jake Lever was one of the guests from the club, he was interviewed by Robbo and he is absolutely stoked to be a Demon. Toddy and Jason Taylor were in touch with him constantly in his draft year and as we all know we would have drafted him but just didn't have the pick to do so. He loves the club, the playing group and the coaches, he said they are a really tight knit bunch of guys and friends who want to win a flag (or two). He said he was really impressed with the intensity of the playing group last year and this year it has lifted a notch, he said training has been great. He is a really impressive person, vey level headed and really keen for success. Toddy was asked about AVB and said he's running at 100% on the special treadmill and will play football this year, maybe not till mid year though. There is a rumour about TommyMc but he said he thinks he'll play first round, hmmm! Jake said he's happy Tommy is playing forward because he gets a bit grumpy down back. The club are exploring several options for a new facility but nothing to announce at the moment.

Is it only half a century? It seems much longer than that.

Yes they were good, I've seen them and was surprised to see how good Rowan Atkinson was. There is another show called The Fall with Gillian Anderson (X Files) and that's up to season 3, also very good. I downloaded it but I think it's on Netflix now.

Maybe he's suggesting a mass micro waving of memberships, ala Tigers supporters.

How do you know we had to battle for a signature, this may have been completed weeks ago and they were waiting for most to come back from holidays to announce it. Anything to put a negative slant on it. You almost sound disappointed we've announced it.

Yes historical data is important, so I would imagine that Zurich have viewed our upward trajectory over the last few years and doubt they've based their level of participation on the outcome of one game. Zurich are a huge company and didn't get to where they are without knowing what they are doing, this is not about one game or one season, this is about getting value out of their sponsorship, we have good exposure at the G and we have a high level of wealthy supporters. I would imagine the discussions were held over a long period of time and we would have known that we were losing AHG some time ago. There are two schools here, one that's happy we have a new sponsor and another that will look at every negative aspect, even if they don't know what that aspect is.

I would imagine Old, that any discussions with possible candidates would be kept in strict confidence as the candidates would, presumably, already have a job, unless they are going through CentreLink. Once the name leaks out the replacement would probably be sacked and replaced, that wouldn't be helpful at all.

Couple of shows not mentioned on here are, Berlin Station, one series so far, excellent, not sure where you can get this may have to download Line of Duty, 5 series so far, 4 on Netflix Both British and both very good. Ozark, Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, on Netflix was also very good, very different and had to keep watching, hard to watch just one episode. Also Spooks, very good series 10 in all, you may have to download this. There is a movie on Netflix with Kit Harrington, based on the series, called surprisingly Spooks, MI5 Gunpowder, staring Kit Harrington, based on Guy Fawkes and the attempt to blow up Parliament, Harrington's distant relative Catsby was instrumental in the plot. Its a bit self indulgent but very good and very graphic. Three part series.

Careful Old, that post was almost positive.

I wonder if that's because players of his height are discouraged at an early age from continuing to chase the dream of playing AFL football, how many are told by their coaches that they are simply too small and it is a waste of their time. Only the strong survive and any player who is vertically challenged has to have a big heart to disregard the naysayers and push on, I think this kid might be one of them.

I doubt they’ll be pi55ing themselves laughing, after we’ve handed their well sponsored team, their asses on a plate.

I didn't fight with anyone you idiot, you assume that I'm of Italian decent when in fact I'm not, my grandfather came to Australia from Ireland. I find your posts to be, in the main, vile diatribes against anyone that questions you. Im amazed that you are still allowed to post on here. BTW you and your posts are now on ignore, you disgust me.

I believe that you're an apologist for the Nazi War Machine.

You're a couple of days late. Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. From me I wish all a Merry Christmas and a great new year, its a time for celebration and hopefully that will extend for us until at least the end of SEPTEMBER NEXT YEAR.

JHC, if he’s innocent he doesn’t have to do anything, you have to be proven guilty, not prove your innocence. Where do you get your knowledge of the law from? How can you clear yourself and why should you have to, if you’ve not been charged with any offence?

So you want the player stood down before he's been offered the chance to defend himself and before the charges are, or if they are sustained? What sort of society would deem someone guilty before the facts are established, maybe you live in one but I surely don't. I suppose you'd prefer he was incarcerated and, if found innocent, after trial, offered an apology.

We will never be a chance to win a flag as long as our skills (lack of) remain the same. We were outplayed and outrun yesterday but it was our own lack of skill that cost us any chance of winning this game, even when we got close we still managed to turn the ball over when under no pressure. We simply have too many players that lack the basic skills to play the game at the highest level and not enough on field leaders to lead the way, its like you go through a deskilling process when you join Melbourne. After yesterday I can't see how we can play Tommy in the backline any more, he just turns it over too much and is too poor below the knees, he also lacks core strength and is often pushed aside by much smaller players. If he plays forward he is a much better chance to mark than to spoil and would be of greater value, he is just too unreliable as a defender. I like the way Hunt goes about it but his disposal is killing us, Oscar does an ok job spoiling but I have to turn away when he's got the ball, Nev and Hibberd are trying to cover up for the others and its taking a toll. Lever in, Tom up forward should help. God knows where the ball will go when Bern is kicking in. Our midfield is lacking in pace and we need some outside speed, Kelly anyone, to offset this we can get the ball but it just goes round in a circle when we do until there is another stoppage. Our midfield clearances are always messy and we have to fight to clear the ball and then mostly hack it forward or to a player in por position. There was all this talk early in the year about it being impossible to force you way in to the midfield because of the number of in and under we have, well anyone that shows a bit of class should be able to walk in. Our delivery to the forward line is atrocious and it's no wonder that Jesse spends so much up the field rather that sit back and wait for the ball to be bombed on his head. We won games because of our unrelenting style of pressure football but that doesn't last, you need to have skill as well, we simply don't have it and until we do games like yesterday will continue to happen. Lesser clubs know how to play us and they do it so well, they exploit our weaknesses, which are plentiful and in some cases beat us at our own game, Norf are a classic at that, they play hard at the ball football and seem to be harder at it that we are and exploit our defence to score enough to pip us. Collingwood and the Lions out ran us but the Lions feel a little bit short. Freo beat us because the had Sandi and we didn't have Max, Hawthorn beat us because they always do, same with Sydney. We need players that can hit targets, preferably our own, not players that turn it over due to simple skill errors, then we might develop some consistency, and we need players with a bit of outside pace, until then we will still be Melbourne.

We can still make the finals and should, whether we do or not is another thing. We have had lots of players out injured, and it shows by the way Max played on the weekend, that players need a bit of time back before they regain full playing form, that was his best game back by far. During the middle of the season we showed that we could beat any side in the comp, but while other sides have moved on, we've gone backwards. Young bodies, players out and coming back from injury, all reasons, but at the end of the day we should be able to replace injured players, if we can't then we just don't have depth. Disappointing that we lost to Norf twice, that is the lowlight of the year, we seem to struggle against mediocre teams and should have put them and Carlton away by a lot more, particularly the way we were playing early on in the year. We were also a bit stiff that we played Sydney when they were flying and not when they were struggling, same with Hawthorn, they started to play better about the time we played them. I wonder if we should be resting players on some sort of rotation basis and if we have a player that's knocking on the door, play him and give someone a rest. Surely we could have given Trenners, BenKen and a few others a run in games where we had a full side, not when we had a heap of injuries. All we can do is hope we win a couple more, at least improve on 2016, it really is depressing missing out year after year and seeing different players make the same mistakes we always seem to make.

Scott said last week that Norf had a strategy kicking in to the wind and I guess that's because they play down in Tassie where it's always windy, we didn't learn a thing from last week and didn't have a strategy kicking in to the wind or kicking with it. GWS crowded our forward line in the second and third quarters, but we allowed their forwards to have an easy go at it, one out, or in some cases two out. We played like an under 12 side in the first quarter with everyone on the ball and as soon as they got the ball over the top they ran away from us, they were gaining in confidence with every easy goal they got. How did we allow it to happen, why didn't we drop a few in to their forward line and stop the easy uncontested goals. We got smashed in the clearances, outclassed around the ground, and we were comprehensively out coached, this week and last week.

The game was lost in the first half.

One of the most gutless and insipid halves of football I've seen, some of the players are just useless, in fact most of them are. Are they frightened of the wind? Can't be bothered watching the last half, I bet Goodwin would go home if he could.

I understand what you say about early draft picks and the possibility of having a gap of quality young players coming through, but realistically you can get some good players later in the draft. We learnt a lesson when we tanked that you may get the number one pick, but not necessarily the best player, $cully/Trengove, Martin. Hawthorn haven't had an early pick for a long while now but are rebuilding their side with older players and some later picks. Carlton have got some talented young players as have Brisbane but they are last and second last. We've got the basis of a good side and plenty of talented kids, now we have to top up with some specific players to fill specific gaps we have, if Lever is it then the club will know how much to pay for him. I'm not suggesting paying old rope for silk, but we may have a player or two who suits their needs and a first round draft pick and/or a second for next year, instead of a player.

Not sure why there are so many in this thread suggesting we trade ANB, I'd say he would be one of the first picked every week. The coach seems to have a really high regard for him and seems to think he does his job effectively most weeks, but here on Land, he's the first one to go. I'd be happy to get Lever but we have to balance it up with what we are prepared to pay and let's not rob Peter to pay Paul.