Wiseblood

Pathetic.

I'm still nervous....

I like JKH being in as, with Garlett, he can provide some footy nous at the feet of the talls and some pressure on their backmen when they have the ball. He may not get much of the footy at the moment but he can still exert some influence and class in to the side.

Can't complain with that at all. Toumpas has a future at the club but we are instantly a better side with these inclusions. Good moves all round.

He was elevated this morning mate.

Say 4 of those 5 play, who misses out? Spencer, Jones, Bail... possibly Brayshaw to be rested?

I was one of those people, although I may have said it another thread. I'm more than happy to be proven wrong if he is selected to play this weekend and look forward to seeing what he has to offer the club going forward!

It IS true. If we've learned anything as Melbourne supporters it's that this very game is the definition of a danger game for us. We simply cannot lose it under any circumstances, but if someone will find a way to do it, it will be us.

The discussion should have been over long ago, but as we all know there are supporters here who can't let go of the past. I'll concentrate on the bloke we got in the deal who plays for us, you go right ahead and pontificate about a bloke who is no longer with us.

I doubt it, only because we have a few returning this week. Lumumba, Grimes and to a lesser extent VDB could all play, and it looks like Brayshaw is right to go as well. If he can keep up this form then he would most certainly be a chance later in the year, but with the injury list getting better it makes it harder for him to find a spot in the side.

Didn't want to start a new thread for this and felt this was the best place for it, so here is Titus O'Reilly's 'preview' of the game this weekend. It sums up exactly how I feel about it.. Saturday Essendon vs. Melbourne (MCG) 1.40pm Speaking of danger games, if Melbourne lose this, it will arguably be their biggest low point and that’s really saying something. Playing Essendon at this point is like a UFC match where the ref has let it go on too long. The Bombers are out for the count. Their captain is gone for the rest of the year, the players are mentally fatigued from the scandal that has no end and they don’t have a coach. Really, Hird should go back to where he came from — France. Even worse than those things, they bought in Mark Neeld and Neil Craig to help out. That’s like seeking out Bernard Tomic’s dad to coach your teenage tennis prodigy. Apparently, Essendon players and coaches held a two-hour honesty session on Monday. The fact the club has to make a special time for ‘honesty’ probably speaks volumes. I’m told having Tania Hird in the corner taking notes put some people off. If the Dees lose this they should just pack up shop; AFL doesn’t have to be for everyone. I’m pretty worried as a Dees fan. After all, Melbourne lost to Essendon in the NAB Challenge when the Dons were playing top up players, which were basically Melbourne’s cast offs. Melbourne are returning from a game in Darwin and have often struggled the week after. Luckily they took the second half off last week so should be OK. I’m going to go against tradition and one of my key rules for living and tip Melbourne but if Essendon win, I deserve everything I cop from Bombers fans

I hate posters who love taking the old 'I told you so' road. It makes you sound so petty. At the end of 2012, and with the club in such a horrible spot, Howe was one of our bright spots. He still had deficiencies that he needed to overcome, but at 22 we still hoped and believed he would overcome those and turn into a terrific player. Time was on his side and to call for him to be traded then was ridiculous. At 25 he has reached a crossroads - we know what he can offer when he is focused and on his game, and we know what he can't offer on the flip side of that. Unfortunately we've seen too much of that side this year, and whether that is down to him wanting out, or just out of form, is a point of conjecture. I'm hoping he lifts in the second half of the year as his first half of the year has been poor by his standards.

We have probably front loaded many of the contracts to fill the cap. Then over the next few years when we are paying them less we have more cap room. If Dawes was on 2 million over 4 years what we need to remember is that he isn't necessarily paid 500k every year - it might be 800k one year, 300k in the next and so forth. It just needs to add up to 2 million at the end of it.

Good point. I also think he well and truly has the respect of the playing group, something Welsh lost very early on last year. Good signs all round.

That game shows just how far he has to go as a player. That's no disrespect to Fitzy, but if you plonk down that sort of money on a bloke you would expect him to do far better than that on a bloke who only just started playing in defence this year. Plenty of water to go under the bridge but you would hope, for the clubs sake, it works out. I would be comfortable giving good money to Hogan as he has shown he can play very, very well at AFL level. Boyd has yet to do that.

Time will tell on that one, but it's a HUGE risk. Their desperation for a key forward meant they had to grossly overpay and they will be hoping like crazy he comes on and turns in to the dominant forward they expect him to. If not... well... that's a lot of money tied to an average player.

You would do well to treat every rumour in here as just that - rumour. There are too many in here who post stuff as if they truly know what's going on behind closed doors. They don't. The sooner you take it with a grain of salt the better off you'll be.

His performances haven't exactly warranted praise, however, I do agree that the bashing he gets in this thread is way over the top.

Why can't he play defensively now? He's spent time down back yet he still finds it difficult to keep his feet in a contest or chase with the intent to tackle. You would think a bloke at his age would have learnt to do these pretty basic things by now. We already have younger players who run twice as hard as he does. It's unacceptable, at this stage of his career, for him not to be doing these things.

Not a bad way to think about it. But first and foremost we need excellent facilities and coaching staff to develop the list. If we have that in place we can always bring in other players, draft in some kids etc. to continually support these marquee players. If a middle of the road player wants too much money then we can feel safe in the knowledge that we have players waiting in the wings to replace them. The way we got Vince is a perfect example of this. Sylvia wants out so we get proactive and get Vince to replace him. We are instantly a better side. With FA there will always be players out there who we can get and we just need to make sure we stay proactive and not clog the salary cap with long term deals that leave us with little room to move.

It just reminds me of the NBA. Smaller market teams offering huge deals to lure players who don't end up working out, and then they are stuck with a contract that no one else wants to take on. And when they do find a suitor they are given well below market value for the player. I'm not against long term deals for marquee players, but a club has to also be realistic. You don't want to be lumped with too many of those types of deals otherwise it can leave much of your list short on talent in too many areas.

And which club will be the first to offer a long term deal like this and see it backfire when the player is underwhelming or goes down with regular injuries? I hope we don't do the same, although FA puts plenty of pressure on clubs to lock up players for long periods of time. It's a risky business.

The clue is in the name of the league mate...

And then go on... and on... and on.... and on about it. It happened over 4 years ago, the bloke still can't let go.

It isn't a Toumpas problem alone old dee. It's that our bottom 6-8 players are far too inconsistent. Look at the Geelong game - these guys were terrific and helped us win the game. The next week they are terrible and contribute heavily to us losing the game. We don't have the quality to cover that, and until we get that consistency we won't win enough regular games to be a finals threat.