titan_uranus

This will create problems too. Such as Fremantle in 2006, who were 10th in Round 13, yet won every match for the rest of the year to finish top 4 and make the preliminary finals. The draft system would work better without the priority pick. If there wasn't the chance of us getting picks 1 and 2 this year, would we all be happy with less than 5 wins?

Whoa. Did not see that coming at all. BREAKING NEWS: KANGAROOS coach Dean Laidley has coached his last game for North Melbourne. Asked this morning if he had offered to step aside, Laidley told Herald Sun online: "What you're saying is correct. We've come to an agreement."

I quite like Good Call/Bad Call. And she's absolutely right. Provided we keep drawing crowds (and the general consensus is that the 60,000 odd that we got last week was a good crowd) to this fixture it should remain regardless of the result on the day. Otherwise Collingwood should have been shunted from it after we beat them 4 times in a row.

The problem isn't the draft, it's the priority pick. The PP acts as an incentive, rather than as a consolation. Rarely do we see a marked drop in talent between pick 1 and pick 4. The difference is between having pick 1 and having pick 1 and pick 2 at the same draft. So the PP must go.

Correct. The AFL is soft when it comes to alternate jumpers. Essendon and Collingwood (read the richer clubs) refuse to create alternate jumpers where every other team (bar Sydney, who clash with no one) does. As a consequence, Melbourne and North Melbourne (read the poorer clubs) get screwed around in this area. I much prefer the red to the white (the white looks too similar to the Bulldog's alternate strip), but it would be nice if we could have a home match against Essendon and let them have the dilemma.

I doubt that. I think Bailey sees Newton as just not good enough. He's sent him back to Casey to work on what is required of an AFL standard forward, and until he consistently shows that he's making progess in those areas, he won't be getting another game. It's not a matter of not being ready. It's a matter of not being good enough.

What's this got to do with Newton? I'd have thought Newton's in a different category to Strauss and Jurrah. A good article though. I had no idea Taylor Walker was on their list last year. I think Neil Craig has made some very accurate appraisals of where his young talent is at.

Plenty of Richmond's players are playing for their careers over the next 10 weeks. Rawlings is trying to build a decent resume for the senior job next year. They have 6 consecutive matches at the MCG, and only 2 interstate matches left. And they have a lot of members who will be absolutely filthy if the team finishes bottom 4, considering where they were predicted to finish this year. As for West Coast, I think Worsfold is smart enough to realise he'll get his contract extension regardless of where they finish, and the best outcome for the club is bottom 2 with less than 5 wins. They play some terrible football at times. Absolutely no certainty to win 2 more matches this year.

Even if West Coast tries to win the rest of their matches they'll struggle to do so. I think we're a good chance to get picks 1 and 3, with the Eagles getting picks 2 and 4.

Would be close to selection for Friday's match, you'd think. If Watts can get in on the back of his Casey performances, I think Jurrah can get in.

Well I think it's all been said already. Can we just agree that both will be great players and move on.

Strauss is going to be a great player for us. But he's not close to a call up yet. I hope he doesn't play solely of half back either, as I'd love to see him delivering the ball to our forwards at some stage.

Superb kicking... You don't read that as a comment related to a Melbourne-listed player very often. Can't see Wheats getting too many AFL games this year, and this year must certainly be his last. What's new? What's his foot-speed like? It wouldn't be much of a benefit to the team if he happened to be another plodder. But I do think he's a future prospect regardless. Boy am I excited by this guy. 11 goals in 3 weeks; that's the kind of output that Melbourne is crying out for (though I'm under no illusions as to the difference between VFL and AFL). I'm sure there are still plenty of areas that Jurrah can/needs to improve in, but there's enough going for him to warrant a call-up in the coming weeks (vs West Coast?)

Richmond is no threat to our ladder position/draft picks at all. They'lll win another 4 or so games this year. West Coast is.

Did Spencer play seniors or reserves?

But he then went on to imply that if we don't start putting in decent efforts on the big stages, they'll be taken away from us. Which is not a particularly fair thing to say. Sure, we did crap on QB. But if the big stages were only given to the high-quality teams, then there'd only be 8-10 teams each year on Friday nights and blockbusters would be reserved for Geelong, St Kilda, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs. So long as we continue to draw crowds to QB we should continue to be a part of it. Despite this, he was more than entitled to present statistics showing our deficiencies. I mean, we are 16th with 1 win from 11 games for a reason. Agree. He named Petterd in a list of players who 'sustain hope for the faithful'. If Sheahan had seen enough Melbourne games he'd know that Petterd has been dropped for not giving enough to the team, and at this stage is not someone supporters are looking to to drag us out of the doldrums.

I did. Then I commented on it. So we agree on McLean. I see we also agree on Bate. I think he's really improved on his first month or so when I thought he was pretty poor.

He's already in front of most kids his age by being drafted young. This year is like a bonus year in his development. He gets to be a part of an AFL club, that's pretty good experience for a 17 year old student.

It's a problem of quality, not quantity, with Brock. He's getting enough of it, but his disposal is terrible. People were harping on about Robertson lying on the turf having a sook. That happened because McLean couldn't hit him with a simple 20 metre pass under little pressure.

Jaded was suggesting that this bout of OP may cruel what pace Buckley has, and pace is all that Buckley's got to offer. If this OP does in fact lessen the extent to which he can sprint then I would agree that he is likely to be delisted. At the moment he isn't anything special anyway.

Indefinite = season Most of the time, anyway.

It's not just Brett Lee. Ponting's no good at Twenty/20 either. I don't care though. Cricket is about test cricket. So long as we win the Ashes, does it really matter?

Positives: Sylvia, Frawley, Meesen, Warnock, Davey, Bennell, Moloney, Cheney Loving Sylvia's new outlook on football and life in general. Frawley and Warnock are standing up in defence. Bennell and Cheney look like good future players. Davey has taken his game to another level, and is in line for AA selection this year. I've always loved Moloney's toughness, but this year he's showing leadership qualities too. And Meesen was tipped by many of us to be a useless player, but I like what I've seen in him. Disappointments: Whelan, Newton, Robertson, Petterd, McLean, Jones, Johnson, Dunn, Bell I thought Whelan would still have the ability to play AFL football this year, but he's really struggling ATM. Newton, Bell and Dunn basically qualify for this category automatically. Just stagnant careers. Petterd has been played out of position, but I still think he could have had more of an influence on matches. McLean and Jones are letting us down in the midfield at a time when a lot of us thought they'd have stepped up a notch (I wouldn't be surprised if McLean is carrying an injury, though). And Johnson is going backwards. Injuries that hurt: Wonnaeamirri, Garland, Blease, Strauss Injuries I don't care about: Buckley

Not a good idea IMO. The way NRL is, where players sign contracts for the next year whilst playing out the current year with another club is not good. Leave it the way it is I say.

Buckley's a good chance to miss the rest of the year. His estimated return hasn't changed in the past few weeks now. A typical 426 injury. I miss Wonna. I'd argue that Meesen is in our best 22 over PJ at the moment. But you're right anyway. Usually we can blame crap performances like Monday's on our injuries.