Demons1858

Better than drinking your own bath water l guess

We seem to have had our fair share of injuries (and hiccups in recovery) in recent years. This area of the club seems to have been relatively immune to changes and I haven't noticed any really improvement over the years. Teams that do well in finals typically go through years where they have good injury runs but I don't recall ever having such a year at the MFC. Is there something more the club could be doing to become elite in this area? I suspect there is. Is Misson and his approach still a good fit for the club?

If Dusty announces he's enacting his free agency rights l wonder which team table he will be on during Brownlow night. Suspect he won't announce anything until after that

Agree. Our defence is not elite but probably not that bad either given the low-ish scores against. Defensive systems have worked more times than not this year. We no longer have the gapping holes in our list we once had but we do have form slumps and talent levels. So we should rightly be talking about what we need to do to become elite in more positions across the ground in view of future finals. With our key backs still developing (and somewhat unknown commodities) an established defensive or forward tall would be helpful to lift our teams 'elite-ness'.

Agree he is a risk but he needs to get exposed to improve and that should be when he is in form and has the support of other talls to limit the double teaming that happened when he played earlier in the year and carried some injuries. What if he has a breakout game and takes some strong pack marks and goals?

The other player that will strengthen our defence is actually a forward. If we recruit Mitch McGovern (out of contract) then TMac goes back. Problem solved with some cash to spare. Strategically, we should be making market rated offers to both McGovern and Lever so that one of them falls out of their salary cap.

I fear for JKH and JT, as they are likely to have to make way for Jones and Vince. Others to feature heavily in selection conversations are Hannan/Watts/Frost although they all have some credits in the bank and we would back them to turn things around this week. Baring unknown injury news there will be 3 changes. Maybe 4 if someone is sore and they want to trial Maynard. In:Jones/Vince/Weid Out: JKH/JT/Hogan Hoping Weid is in form and will be better with the support of other talls in TMac and Watts which he didn't always have earlier in the year

It's one of the few things I hate about the footy industry. Most clubs have signed up to the responsible gambling charter but still pull in millions in pokies revenue. Our broadcast deals are massive these days, would love for the AFL to place year on year targets for clubs to lose their dependency on pokies revenue and provide temporary support for clubs that need it. If all clubs did it with AFL support, then no one has a competitive advantage and we can be genuine about our responsible gambling claims.

I think the article is reasonably well balance with the exception of the title. All clubs in the same position MFC found themselves in have tanked. The only difference is we were a rabble on and off the field and players and staff that were moved on were [censored] off to the max and squealed. Carltank and even Collingwood to a lesser extent treated players and staff respectfully and so they didn't have an axe to grind. Tony Libba being the excerption having had run ins with the Carltank and Bulldogs administrations. It is what it is until incentive is changed. AFL can't acknowledge it due to the legal consequences

Might be right but let's wait for late changes to be announced to be sure. We have a couple of sore players and he could be a like for like replacement for one of our sore mids. Other emergencies are Wagner (defender) and Pedersen (versatile tall)

This guy is smashing it at VFL level and plays the contested brand of footy that suits our team. Of his 30 possession on the weekend, a massive 20 of them were contested http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-07-26/vfl-player-review-round-14 Might be wise to expose another player to AFL footy and add some depth and experience to our midfield should finals come around, although they might want to add some polish to his game first. With Smith and Maynard both recruited as Cat B rookies, its another reason to appreciate the efforts of our recruiting team.

I'm pretty sure Goody (as great a bloke as he probably is and as polite as he has been to supporters like you that ask annoying questions he knows he can't disclose the answers to) isn't going to tell you they are working feverishly to secure Lever and the like. Likewise I'm pretty sure he didn't disclose negotiations with Lewis to you either. But hey you keep believing that the list is close to perfect (with the exception of a 'godfather' trade) and that Goody tells you everything the club is planning. We may as well shut down our list management team right now given the strength of our list. Can you let Goody know

Garry is actually the problem. Liked Tim in the recent past. You will notice that Gary enters a conversation with some thoughts and then quickly moves onto another topic thus controlling debate, having the final say, and acting like he's the oracle on footy. Not sure why people are interested in his footy opinions anymore given his decision making has been poor.

Sorry wrong thread, thought this was going to be about the James Harmes and his terrible hair style.

Hey Saty, your views on the players aren't balanced which is nice if you follow the company line but is boring on a forum as it doesn't add anything to the debate and is disingenuous If another Melksham, Hibberd, or Lewis came along that improved out list then Goodwin and you would take them in a heartbeat. Hawthorn had a great list in their premiership years but still added quality to their list so that it was elite in more areas and positions on the ground e.g. Frawley, Burgoyne, Gibson. No point criticising other posts for suggesting a player might have market value if your aren't prepared to get off the fence yourself

Our best chance is to start to attract free agents. Lets do a number on the other clubs as they have done to us. Very good players are prepared to leave teams that are struggling on the expectation of playing finals e.g. Rivers, Frawley Rumour has it we were into Rockliff last year. Would love Tom Rockliff and even David Zaharakis if all it costs us is $$$. The Goodwin/Hibberd/Melksham/MacCarthy etc etc connection can't be a bad thing for the later. Both players would be an upgrade on players our starting 16-22

Saty, so who would you trade that's got currency in the market place (can't be old and needs to be in our starting 22) to address a weakness in out list or bolster it with a better player that can perform come finals against the best.

Don't disagree with the best case scenario being that he gets a rookie spot. However I think the fact the club hasn't actually stated his development areas publicly might be an acknowledgement that they want to protect his currency in the market place as he might not be there next year and others might be interested. Having said all that, like everyone, I hope he can improve further in the next few games and get a chance to keep working on regaining his speed in the pre-season. In the meantime, he needs to make up for his speed by continuing to improve and become elite at anticipating, reading the play, making decisions, and getting more possessions like Lewis does. Don't think he is there yet but its only his 1st game back and should get better

I read that having a helmet creates a bigger target to get hit but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me given its got padding. Nathan Bourke believes he had less issues after wearing one. He's not had a lot of success without one on so its worth trying. If there were no finals on the horizon then I would think that Angus would be happy to take the year off. Clearly he sees an opportunity to play finals and wants to play on. Just worried what another concussion would mean for his health, well being, and less importantly his career. I would prefer he took the year off to be honest and looked after himself. Whilst the doc's are all over this, there is also an acknowledgement in the industry that they need/are doing more research to understand it better. There are still unknown unknowns

If Motlop wasn't coming out if an elite program at Geelong then I would probably agree with you

I would stay way. Doesn't consistently display elite habits. Geelong seemed like they wanted to offload him in recent times

Problem is the developing rucks aren't developing and our back up ruck is injury prone

Watched him from the top deck as well. l counted 3 times almost in succession early in the last quarter when port was getting on top where he didn't appear to be able to keep up with his opponent. Was given a break shortly after. Overall game was good and rapt to see him playing again but am a little concerned he will get exposed in big games. Will need to excel at anticipating ball movement up the ground to make up for being a little slow

In the past a player like ANB would have little to no chance of making it at melbourne. He's an example of what can happen if you have the right development program in place and your prepared to work hard.

Might be a co incidence but since Jason Taylor left Collingwood a few years ago their recruiting has gone down hill while melbourne has barely wasted a draft pick