titan_uranus

Was a fantastic ruckman in his time. The second centre circle killed him.

I saw it. It was a tiny little thing. But I had no idea he was connected to Melbourne, I'm not old enough.

Well well well...

This seems to be an opportunity for us. If we really do want to follow Hawthorn's model, this could be our chance. Pick 1 and 4, similar to 2004.

Anyway, I doubt anything will happen because I doubt we have anything Port Adelaide wants.

Carlton has offerred pick number 24 to Fremantle in exchange for Robert Warnock

http://afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tabid/2...px?newsId=68523

We have a low junior supporting base because we haven't had a marquee player in 40 years. That's the main factor when it comes to attracting young supporters imo. While I didn't approve of McNamee offering Brown a 5 year contract, he had the right idea, you have to give him that at least. He acknowledged that we didn't have a marketable player on the list and he tried to get us one.

Which is why I think we need to keep Davey. Though maybe his marketing potential is waning.

interesting that you singled out left footers.

also interesting that hawthorn artificially inflated their kiking efficiency by drafting left footers, who traditionally have higher quality kicking.

Yeah I didn't realise until later that most of the players who have just one foot are lefties. I think the fact that lefties generally are better kicks, and the fact that lefties often have absolutely no right foot go hand in hand. In other words, they concentrate a lot on kicking with their left as coaches see it as a weapon of sorts. In the process they neglect their right foot.

That is disappointing from my point of view, because you want to take on the best and see where you are at. Wanting to avoid them is no good.

True, but I'd also like to look at our fixture and think to myself 'We're a chance of winning sometime before round 6'. If we could maybe get a win before playing some of the top teams, then, with a bit of confidence under their belts, they might do better. For the past 3 years, we've lost in each of rounds 1, 2 and 3. It would be a nice change if we could get a win early on.

Love the guy. I have pinned high hopes on Martin, enhanced by his effort in the GF sprint. He can run, jump, sidestep, mark and actually has some decent skills too. And he's still learning, so hopefully it's only upwards from here.

Got an email from the club today:

Children and Parents Wanted!

MELBOURNEfc has the lowest junior supporter base of any AFL club, and we recognise the need to take action to secure the future of our club.

In conjunction with La Trobe University, we are looking for children and parents to help us with a study into what influences children to follow particular sports and sporting teams.

On the weekend of 18-19 October, La Trobe University will be conducting a series of discussion groups for children aged 5-13, and their parents, to be held at the MCG.

REWARD

Each child who participates will receive a MELBOURNEfc merchandise pack, which includes a $20 MELBOURNEfc Megastore gift voucher.

Children will be placed into age groups to discuss the factors that influence their interest in sport and sporting teams. Separate group discussions will also take place for parents at the same time. Your time commitment to MELBOURNEfc will be about two hours, and children will be separated from parents for about one hour of that.

We understand that your time is valuable, and we are extremely grateful to any supporters who help us out with this research.

Good to see the club is doing something about our low junior supporter base. Hopefully they learn something.

AFL players SHOULD be more than capable on both feet.

Being able to kick on both feet should almost be selection criteria for this club. I'm sick of seeing Green, Bate and others who kick exclusively off one foot (Yze was another), get themselves into sticky situations and mess things up because they just can't kick at all on their non-preferred.

I know it's not easy to do that, but if it came down to a toss of the coin, if one player could kick with both feet they'd get my vote.

No chance. And he isn't that good.

He needs his own number.

Like what? 64? I'm pretty sure someone's used most other numbers before.

Not that it matters at all, but if I'd like to see him in 9, just to keep up the trend of no. 9 at FF. At least our supporters will still be able to say 'Go number 9' when/if the ball goes inside our forward 50.

Frustrates me quite a lot. His kicking mainly.

Some of those stats you've got there Demonland will be inflated by the fact that he was the only player to play all 22 games (i.e. he had more games to get more marks than everyone else). But I still like him.

Ken McGregor retired

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tab...px?newsId=68463

Regarding ticketing: As a member, did you find it easy to gain access to finals tickets.....HAHAHA LOL!

I know, how stupid.

When the page with all the on-field questions came up, I think all my answers were 0-2.

Similarly, I gave 9-10 for all the questions about the MCG.

I thought he did re-sign. Thought I read that on the Drafting/Trading board. Hmm.

I think we'll continue to struggle next year. However, I hope - and expect - a more competitive team. Our percentage will be a better judge of how we travel than our win/loss, which I expect to be pretty poor once again. If we can nab some quality picks next year that'll be great, because after 2009 I expect us to be pushing up the ladder.

I fell the same way. I really, really hope we don't have another absolute shocker next year. That will hurt us in so many ways (player confidence, our image/reputation, memberships).

My benchmarks are more than 4 wins (preferably 6), and a percentage above 80. Sounds unreasonable?

Just completed the survey. Commented on the preference for the clash strip.

Me too. Surely they must be noticing by now...

Mono, you're right in that people keep talking about making hard decisions yet are reluctant to let Davey go. But Davey adds more than just his playing worth to Melbourne: kids love him. Lots of kids have number 36 on their jumpers. He is integral to memberships IMO, so we can't trade him.

Rono on Demonologist raised a good point last week about Geelong's forward line. Steve Johnson aside, which of the remaining Geelong forwards would make a difference to our side?

Well I'd include Chapman as one of Geelong's forwards, so he'd make it in Melbourne too. And I wouldn't be unhappy if Lonergan was on our list. He kicked 35 or so goals in 15 games.

It's not just Geelong and Hawthorn's absolute elite players. It's also their depth, and the fact that they usually get something from 22 players. Their bottom 6 are streets in front of our bottom 6.

Going forward we have the nucleus of a very good backline.

Shows you how well we're doing.

By all reports he's a quality bloke that had all the right attributes in terms of attitude and work ethic, but fell short where it counted. Best of luck to him for his future endeavours.

Unfortunately that counts for nothing when you make your debut in a 100 point thrashing, then play your second game in another 100 point thrashing. Things may have been different if he'd debuted at a different time of the year.

Clarkson out-coached Thompson big time, and Thompson didn't have a plan B.

In my opinion, the biggest mistake Thompson made was his statement after the Preliminary Final that Varcoe would play. It locked him in, gave him no alternative but to play him, and, as I expected, Varcoe had a shocker.

Dropping Wojcinski was wrong. Kelly, Stokes, Varcoe and Hunt all played poorly and should all have gone before Wojcinski.

Bla bla bla, I don't like Mark Thompson.

And can I also mention this: to those who can't see Melbourne climbing up the ladder, the past 6 premierships have been won by 6 different teams, and every team has made a preliminary final since 2000. So there.

Papers today say it was White from Ibbotson and Djerrkura. No mention of Martin. Stupid HUN.

I voted Miller, but I wouldn't be upset if Green got it.