Dante

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.

Dunstall hates Melbourne and always has, he's one of the few idiots in the media that still spouts the Melbourne/Snow line, perhaps, in light of the falling attendance of Hawks supporters, it may be their turn to hit the slopes. The guys a clown who just doesn't do his homework and has been out of the game too long to be relevant any longer.

It would probably be better to have an after game facility at the G somewhere for a little eat and drink, although it may not be as frequented as it once would After the game, most do what you do and go home. Drink driving laws have changed the face of after game celebrations.

Then it becomes arbitrary, if a player miskicks the ball and a teammate marks it 20 metres out, does he get the 30 or 7 seconds. It could be a pack mark in the goal square or a mark in the opposite pocket of it's a kick across goal, who decides which it is and on what basis. Imagine if a player in a grand final marks the miskick and is winded and the umpire deems it to be a 7 seconder and he has to play on without the time to steady.

Plapp always says of Jack in his summaries, he's playing very good VFL football, this says everything to me. I'd love to see him get another game but we need to win games to get a shot at finals and if the club haven't seen him as an option so far this year, there must be a reason.

One fact that is indisputable, this year we have beaten Carlton twice, three if you count the JLT, the Sainters once and Essendon once, all sides we've struggled to beat over the last few years. Sometimes it's not the size of the win that's the issue, it's the symbolism and the fact that we are in the ascendency, they've had the wood on us, now they haven't.

Carlton had about 20 possessions in the first couple of minutes and they were all little chip kicks that were largely ineffectual, their stats were inflated by the number of back and forth kicks and marks all night. We won, that's all that count, I couldn't care one way or another if some of their players had 35 possessions, they played keeping off and that's not how you win a match. Let's not forget they would have started favourite tonight with anyone that had a brain and we beat them. Jeffy had 7 possessions and kicked 3 goals, that's far more important than someone getting 4 possessions in 30 seconds and not advancing the ball more than a few metres. Great win by the boys tonight and yes we made some mistakes, but you do if you take the game on, Vince and Lewis turned the ball over, but I'm happy to have them in the side and when we get our core players back they will probably turn the ball over a lot less. BTW I really hate it when posters say a player was putrid, that is a comment that is way out of line. We had a lot of rusty players and players playing out of position tonight and when they're not they will do better.

Two things. if the Houli incident happened this week, after the Bugg incident, would he have been given 6 weeks? if someone else commits an offence of a similar nature this week, should they get 8 weeks, are we going up in units of 2 per offence?

Houli hit a player with an elbow and knocked him out, in fact he was out before he hit the ground. Bugg hit a player and knocked him to the ground, the player got up and left the ground under his own steam. Houli got 4, Bugg got 6, why is that? Houli's hit was worse but he gets two weeks less, that's not justice that's just the AFL trying to send a message, trouble is it was a little late, they should have done that with Houli. At no stage did Bugg try to deny or underplay the seriousness of his action, Houli did, there is a serious unfairness here.

I think that playing White sends a message to the VFL players that you are never forgotten and if you do what you need to do, you will get a game if the need arises. Most of us would have picked half a dozen ahead of White so good on him for perservering, Trenners an emergency is promising also.