titan_uranus

So you like the gameplan then? You like having 0 players forward of the centre, having defenders work their asses of to get possession of the ball, only to look up and find that the CHF is not at CHF, but at CHB? I don't. An alternative? No flooding, no numbers behind the ball in the first quarter, less use by hand and more by foot (which requires players forward of the ball carrier).

There's nothing wrong with Jetta. Obviously the rest of that group have shown themselves to be sub-AFL standard (you could easily add Newton to that list as well), but I'd say Miller, Johnson, Bell and Dunn could press for selection at Richmond. That's clearly nothing to be proud of, though.

This has been a problem with Miller through his entire career. I thought he'd stopped doing that last year, but seems like it's crept back in. If he's within range he should swing around and have a shot.

Rubbish. Of the rest, you've given us nothing new. Meesen won't get a game at Melbourne anyway, no chance he'll be promoted of the rookie list.

Brad Scott's done a good job with that group. Nice bunch of youngers (Ziebell, Anthony, Goldstein, Greenwood, Warren, Campbell).

Bad start for Victoria with Hopes getting Rogers and Mash out early, but Jewell and Finch are rebuilding. 2/115 South Africa's team seems unbalanced. Not enough batsmen. Like Duminy, Albie Morkel's not playing anywhere near as well as he did against us.

What about Spencer? Got a corkie yesterday, but I doubt that'll keep him out for Round 1. With Johnson, Jamar, Gawn, and even Meesen all injured, surely we need Spencer to ruck for us. There is no way Newton is getting promoted. His being shunted to the rookie list was akin to the club delisting him. Next time, just don't put the word 'confirmed' in the title of the thread when you don't have any confirmation. But don't stop posting any inside information you get. Please.

So you're happy with the performance HT? Yes, it was just a NAB cup game, which is some relief, but we were terrible, and that can't just be ignored. There were problems in that performance that aren't just going to magically disappear when we tick over into the home and away season, and that's what's disconcerting.

Our BOG I think. Good player. One good delivery amongst a few bad ones. And he was caught without disposing of it a couple of times. Still unconvinced.

I wasn't watching any game. I was listening to SEN (terrible commentary, Tim Gossage is awful). He did kick 2 of our 6 goals, so I guess I should cut him some slack.

This seems like a decent place to vent my frustration, so here goes: I'm with Clint Bizkit 100%, just like I was all of last year. We cannot move forward (pun intended...) until we ditch this notion of moving the entire team into the defensive half when we don't have the ball. It doesn't work. How many times last night (and last year) did we see a Melbourne player get the ball on half back, look up, see no one, and proceed to turn it over as he looks sideways/backwards. It's pointless. What was worse last night was the fact that, in the opening quarter of the first round of the NAB cup, with the breeze going our way, we chose to put, not one, but two loose men behind the ball. Of course, this meant that when we got the centre clearance and a quick kick forward, we were outnumbered and we turned it over. End result: we have less inside 50s than the rest of the competition, and we score less. It is time for Bailey to recognise that this gameplan just isn't working. Even if we were to use a 'run and carry' type of plan, we have to leave players forward of the centre. Flooding back and trying to run it forward with our skills will never work. You wouldn't have thought we'd had a massive pre-season judging on last night either. Same players making the same mistakes. We had Miller failing to present, Maric kicking badly and getting caught with the ball, a shambolic midfield set up, and we managed a grand total of 6 goals. I know this is only Round 1 of the NAB cup, which is meaningless, early, and a place to experiment. But we can't ignore the fact that we played last night basically exactly like we played last year, and that is going to get us nowhere. If we play like that during the home and away season we will finish on the bottom with about 4 wins. Sticking Scully, Trengove, Watts, Jurrah, Grimes, Strauss and Blease in the side isn't going to overcome basic skill errors from the rest of the team, nor will it fix the problem of having nobody forward of the 50. Oh, and of the clubs a lot of us thought were beatable, or that we could finish above them on the ladder, all of Fremantle, North Melbourne, West Coast, Sydney and Port Adelaide won, and all of them except Fremantle beat finalists from last year.

He's talking about Valenti. And he's wrong.

This is a positives thread, so I'll stick to positives: Frawley - did a good job on Pavlich, and when he had the ball he wasn't afraid to attack. MacDonald - good first outing for Melbourne Trengove - I was pleased with his effort. Early on he waited for the ball to come to him and turned it over; the very next contest he went hard at it and won the footy. Good boy. That's all I can think of. Way to dent my excitement Melbourne.

Loved reading this. To turn down an offer to go onto the senior list of a potential top-4 team this year and to stay on the rookie list of the double-reigning wooden spooner shows the loyalty and love for Melbourne in this kid. Furthermore, the fact that Neil Craig saw something in him shows the potential this guy has to make it at AFL level. Hopefully this is the start of a successful career with Melbourne.

Let's hope we can develop one over the next few years, because as has been said, rivalries are almost exclusively developed on the field. In terms of hatred, they're a clear second.

I'm definitely not on the Daniel Bell bandwagon this year. Sorry. He has courage and determination oozing out of him, but not enough ball-winning or ball-using ability. Maybe a move to become an 'enforcer'/Max Rooke kind of player could spark something, but there are other players on the list who'd do better in the team than Bell.

I'm not terribly fussed. Of course the worry is that it could affect him in the long run, but getting it early and with a body his age, hopefully there won't be a problem. The clear upside to this is the ability to promote a rookie (i.e. McKenzie) in his place.

My thoughts exactly. I'm not saying Hell Bent or whoever else thinks they broke this first are wrong, but the title of this thread should be changed, because it still hasn't been confirmed by the club. He's not on the injury list, there aren't articles saying he's injured, so IMO it's still a rumour.

Argh! Hashim Amla bats for almost 500 minutes for his 3rd consecutive century, and Morne Morkel at 11 bats for 22.4 overs, only for Harbhajan Singh to take his 5th wicket with 9 balls remaining to win the Test and retain India's No. 1 ranking. Frustrating! Meanwhile, decent off-spinners have shown that JP Duminy is not the indestructible superstar we thought he was when we were playing them. First Graeme Swann, now Harbhajan have shown that a decent off-spinner can make the difference.

Good to see Scully, Trengove, Strauss and Fitzpatrick there, for their first tastes of playing for Melbourne. Also glad to see McKenzie and Spencer get a game. If PJ's going onto the LTI, one of these two is getting his spot.

I wonder if Gawn or Johnson are going to be out long enough to be moved to the LTI, paving the way for a promotion for McKenzie or Spencer?

AFAIK Obama has said he is coming to Australia, and has confirmed he will give a speech to Parliament. It's believed he's coming in late March. Other than that, there aren't any confirmed details yet, so he might not be coming to Melbourne at all.

Given that there can't be a crowd bigger than 55,000 at Etihad, I assume you feel our game will attract about 27,000? Now that's pessimism. I would have thought that, with our renewed optimism, and with Hawthorn's pre-season form plus their 'revenge for 2009' attitude to this season, coupled with the fact that it's at the MCG, and that Melbourne and Hawthorn together account for over 40% of all MCC members, I would have thought that 50,000 would be a reasonable estimate. Add word of Obama to that and there could be another 10,000.

Looks like he's added a fair amount of muscle judging by the photo in the print edition of the HUN.

Exactly how I feel. I really want to see McKenzie get more time at AFL level, but we need Spencer on the senior list more than McKenzie at the moment. So if a spot opens up it should be Spencer who gets it. Midway through the year there's the option of upgrading a rookie for the remainder of the year. You'd think one of Spencer or McKenzie would get that opportunity.