titan_uranus

Why did that bother you so much? I was merely saying Emma Quayle is the best judge of young talent around draft time and that I prefer her opinion to anyone else's. If you don't like my opinions then don't waste your time reading them or telling us you don't rate them. Ha ha.

No more full tours from South Africa to Australia (and vice versa) until 2021: http://www.cricinfo.com/southafrica/content/current/story/485443.html They want to host Tests on Boxing Day and the first week of January just like us. We said we wouldn't tour them at those times, because that would mean no Boxing Day or New Year's Test here, so in retaliation they said they won't tour here. Means that we will play them once a year or so, but it won't ever be a full tour. So they might come here for some Tests, but no ODIs, or we might go there for some ODIs, etc.. Changes the landscape a bit here too. I mean, we can't have England and India every second year playing the Boxing Day and New Year's Tests. We'll be seeing more of Sri Lanka (a good thing if you ask me), Pakistan, NZ, and the Windies (that isn't such a good thing the way those three sides are going).

I couldn't give a crap about what anyone thinks about the draft, except for Emma Quayle. If she says it, I'll believe it. If some hack says it, whether their name is Jay Clark or E25, I will pay scant attention.

If this happens, it will be a rookie pick. But it won't happen. I can't imagine we'd go down this path.

What a comeback! I left home at 8/107, I return to read they won the game. Unbelievable. All else aside, Xavier Doherty showed he's a better bowler than Hauritz. Yes, it's a ODI, not a Test. But he turned the ball. Actually turned it. Bowled Sangakkara, one of the world's best, with a ball he ripped from outside off to hit leg. Hauritz just can't turn it. Let's hope the selectors do the right thing and keep Doherty in the ODI side over Hauritz, and hopefully he keeps turning it and taking wickets.

More photos here (first two are Collingwood photos...): http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/gallery-e6frf9o6-1225947327039 Watts looking bigger and older with that hair.

This thread fails as bad as I do at tipping Melbourne Cup winners. Rivals the Laycock thread.

Round 5 vs Brisbane. I thought he was quite good that night. His future is as a ruck/forward. That is clear. If he can't crack it in that role he won't make it at all. But he hasn't failed yet.

I give Bartram plenty of 'dredit' for his shut down jobs, his tackling and his running. I give him no 'dredit' at all for his insipid kicking, which, if it improved in 2010, made it only slightly less insipid.

Sounds like you've got an imaginary player in mind. No matter who the sub is, he won't be able to fill in for any player. You can't have a sub who can ruck or play the small forward role or tag a midfielder all wrapped up into one player.

I doubt we'll be typecasting players into 'substitute' roles. I think we'll just pick our best 21 for the team we're playing, then consider who's left over and who could add value for half a game, for example. Players like Martin, Maric, Jetta, they'll be the ones in the sub role mainly because they are on the fringe of the 22 to begin with.

It's around about 25,000, which is roughly a quarter of all MCC members. That is, about 25,000 MCC members say that they support Melbourne. Easily seen at any of our home games. We outnumber whoever we're playing, including Collingwood, and for the majority of 2010 Levels 1, 2 and 3 were full or close to it.

Level 2 seating, on the wing, with pre-game/half time/full time beers in the Percy Beames or Bullring. That's the MCC.

^ Me too, on the 2011 thread.

Numbers mean nothing. You are given a number when you come to the club, and you make your own history in it. I hate it when we give a new kid a number for the specific reason of either honouring a past player who wore it or drawing a comparison between a new player and an old one. Someone will be drafted, be it this year, or in a future year, and they will get the number 11. They don't have to be a ruckman. They just have to be on our list.

Sheffield Shield: Hussey makes a golden duck, North makes 10. Meanwhile Khawaja makes 60 and Ferguson makes a fluent century.

They are. The only non-Melbourne match that isn't on FTA is the match we have in Geelong. Other than that, every match is either at the MCG or Etihad, or is on FTA. That's not including Round 24 though. Don't know how you could like Channel 7 for anything. Commetti aside their commentators are terrible. McAvaney gets lost in minutiea and doesn't call the game particularly well anyway, Harley adds nothing, Matthews has some views I just don't get, Schwarz is illiterate, their camera work is appalling, the ads take forever and they don't analyse the Sunday games at all.

Simon Taylor is insipid. I wouldn't put him on our list if he was the only remaining ruckman in the league and we were being paid to do it. He is terrible. All true, but I doubt anyone has any confidence in him actually doing anything if/when he gets the chance. I suspect we'll see Martin as the substitute in Round 1.

No, he can't. He can't do anything really.

Hence our list as of the 29th of October: MELBOURNE 1. Bail, Rohan 2. Bartram, Clint 3. Bate, Matthew 4. Bennell, Jamie 5. Blease, Sam 6. Bruce, Cameron (veteran - outside list) 7. Davey, Aaron 8. Dunn, Lynden 9. Fitzpatrick, Jack 10. Frawley, James 11. Garland, Colin 12. Gawn, Max 13. Green, Brad (veteran - outside list) 14. Grimes, Jack 15. Gysberts, Jordan 16. Jamar, Mark 17. Jetta, Neville 18. Jones, Nathan 19. Jurrah, Liam 20. Macdonald, Joel 21. Maric, Addam 22. McKenzie, Jordie 23. Martin, Stefan 24. Moloney, Brent 25. Morton, Cale 26. Petterd, Ricky 27. Rivers, Jared 28. Scully, Tom 29. Spencer, Jake 30. Strauss, James 31. Sylvia, Colin 32. Tapscott, Luke 33. Trengove, Jack 34. Warnock, Matthew 35. Watts, Jack 36. Wonaeamirri, Austin 37. 38. 39. 40. Rookie list 1. Newton, Michael 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. ADDITIONS Rookie elevation: Jordie McKenzie, Jake Spencer NAB AFL Draft: TBC NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft: TBC NAB AFL Rookie Draft: TBC DELETIONS Retired: James McDonald Exchange period: Kyle Cheney (Hawthorn) Delisted: Daniel Bell, Paul Johnson, Tom McNamara, Brad Miller, Rhys Healey (rookie), Danny Hughes (rookie), John Meesen (rookie)

Disappointed that TMac got chopped. Hopefully we can look at picking him back up in the rookie draft. Other than that not surprised, but it's a little odd to consider that we're going into yet another season with one M. Newton on our list.

Can you change the poll to allow multiple answers? Otherwise you're assuming we win 2 games for the entire year...

And Clint Bartram. Shudder...that was an awful day.

First outright loss at the MCG in three years. Pretty disappointing all round. Quiney batted well though. Edit: Hussey, North and Johnson all playing for WA. That's a quarter of our Test line up. I wonder how they'll go? Also, another observation: Doherty > Hauritz. Well, maybe not, but he's at least as good as him, and is probably the second best spinner in the country at the moment.

Good pick up. I wonder whether a club would be happy to have the bye in Round 22. On the one hand it's a week off to prepare for finals (if you've already qualified that is), on the other it might break momentum, and it also potentially leaves their future in the other 16 clubs' hands. I like where we have our byes FWIW. Evenly spaced out. Plus I also like having two of our four interstate games on either side of the first bye. I think that's a good way to get the trips out of the way.