Gawn's Beard

http://m.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-03-22/oliver-signs-on-until-end-of-2021 What awesome news before the season starts. Done with a minimum of fuss too - 2 weeks from discussions starting to signing.

TMac and Viney our for 6-8 according to Goodie...

Maynard with 8 tackles - and it’s not even HT

It was surprisingly easy. They have a huge resale market in the USA so got tickets through Ticketmaster resale a couple of hours before the game. Pretty cheap all things considered too.

Just returned from a trip to the states and went to 2 NFL games. One was the Oakland Raiders last home game, and the other the New Orleans Saints for wildcard weekend. Both games were awesome and the atmospheres were far better than any other sporting event I’ve been to. Definitely not just a TV game for mine and like most USA sports they keep you entertained during the downtime.

Exactly. The response of the player shows a lot about their character. Put them in an uncomfortable situation and see how they react. Getting up and walking out (if that did indeed happen) says it all really...

Apparently Richmond met with Stringer. Stringer was asked a rather direct question about some rumored off-field issues. Stringer apparently got up and left the meeting on the spot. If there's any legs to that story (and the question which was put to him), I'd be steering well clear of him.

Trengove, Spencer, White and Hullett all confirmed by Melbourne as delisted

Without trying to oversimplify things, there's effectively two competing game styles: Option 1: Your slower, keep possession style of play where you focus less on winning contested ball and more on keeping it once you have it back (i.e. Hawks of the previous years). This requires a high level of skill to kick through zones, strong defensive structures to absorb forward 50 entries and high level pressure when in certain areas to win the ball back. Option 2: A run and carry game where you attempt to run in waves through zones, limiting the amount of kicks (Melbourne / GWS / Adelaide). This relies on you winning the contested ball and getting it on the outside where you run and spread hard. You have to build your list to execute one of the 2 game plans. Tnte Hawks had the list for option 1, but then replaced their 2 best kickers with handballers so they struggled and their game style now is a work in progress. Melbourne have gone for contested beasts and (usually) win the clearances. We have identified the stoppages as a competitive advantage and structured the team accordingly, the idea being to handball to someone outside of the immediate vicinity of the stoppage, who can then do likewise, until such time as it is in the hands of someone on the outside running at full pace to break the lines, or who can hit up a target moving away from the stoppage. When we're on, our run and carry is evident and we rip teams to shreds. When it's not, we look slow, "handball happy" and our backline get caught between streaming forward for the outside run and staying back in their defensive setup Ironically, some of melbournes best passages of play this year have been a chain of handpasses, where we've broken through the oppositions line, force the defender to leave their man and commit and we handball over the top. Where this breaks down is when we don't have the outside run. The inside mids flick it around looking for it, but if it's not there they then get caught with the ball. As for those who scream "just kick it", and then bemoan the player for kicking it to a 1v3 up forward, it's down to the way we are trying to play and why players just don't throw it on the boot. We want to effectively run it into our 50, not launch it high and long from stoppages. Hence the "over handballing". I don't criticize the inside mids. They're doing what they're told to do. If you're going to criticize anyone point the finger at the lack of outside run during stretches of some games forcing the inside mids to keep it within the immediate vicinity of a stoppage.

Goody has ruled Trenners out...

Sorry to give this thread a bump, and perhaps it should be a new thread altogether, however Lindsay Thomas is up to his old tricks in his first game back from suspension after the Maynard incident. Check it out below - lucky not to put Palmer in hospital for a month... https://au.sports.yahoo.com/afl/a/36036329/lindsay-thomas-vfl-elbow-opponent-in-the-face-mrp-suspension/#page1

With all due respect, I think that's pretty harsh on Spencer. Goodwin's philosophy is to bring high pressure all over the ground, and in order to do your job (whether forward line or ruck) you need to be executing to stay in the team. You can't really pick and choose when you contest the ball and then say in the team review on Monday that you didn't go in hard at the contest because you're the ruckman. That would be as good as asking to be dropped straight back to the 2s. Spencer might have been a bit reckless in his approach to that contest, however you can't criticise the guy for doing the team thing, impacting the contest and trying to win the ball. If there were 10 seconds left in the game and it was a game saving contest we'd be praising him for being so selfless... Yes he's had a lot of injuries over the year (much like any young ruckman whose body is developing) however his form last year at Casey was great and in my opinion he has a role to play on our list.

I think you're thinking of the clearance against Richmond on ANZAC Day. He hunted the ball twice in the space of 5 seconds and got it out to Garlett (I think) to kick the goal. EDIT - http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2017-04-26/rd-5-all-the-goals about 3.40 through this video

This is going slightly off topic, and not sure whether this should be started in a new thread, but Jack Gunston hasn't ruled out being traded (or open to it) at seasons end. What are people's thoughts on going after him, and what would it cost? He's quite similar to Jack Watts in build (193cm, 87kg) and is only 25. Could potentially allow us to have a very mobile forward line in Watts, Gunston and Hogan with Watts pinch-hitting in the ruck. Yes he's having a down year, however he's scored 50+ goals over the last 3 seasons. Would allow Weid to develop in the 2s for another couple of seasons before bringing him in. Just a thought.

Melbourne FC twitter page:

This surely has to be the next step. The struggling clubs (and their supporters) are the ones who will be missing out as their better players leave in search of premiership glory ASAP. Players don't want to be a part of a rebuild / premiership challenge in 5+ years time. The more I think about it the more I think we're heading towards an NBA style system. Not sure whether it would work, but that system looks like the following: - First Round draft picks locked into 2 year contracts, with TEAM options in years 3-4 for a set salary (potentially fixes the problem that Brisbane is having with retaining players) - Player contracts often have player or team options for their final 1-2 years - RFA and Free Agents (we already have this) - The trade period is open from the off-season until mid-way through the season, allowing teams who are struggling to trade out assets for picks, and vice versa - Players can be "waived" (their contracts are effectively paid out) meaning there is flexibility on rosters / lists - Players can be added onto a teams roster / list at any time (save for about 3 weeks before finals until the end of the finals) if they have space (i.e. you have to waive someone first). Players can only be added if they have been waived by another team, or have gone undrafted (i.e. you can't go and add juniors to your list). I think the players have too much power at the moment, and some needs to be given back to the clubs. Flexibly rosters could potentially help avoid our disaster of this year of not having a ruckman. We could "waive" someone off our list (i.e. Lumumba) and add a VFL ruckman. You're still encouraged to keep and develop talent on your roster, but ensures teams seasons aren't ruined by 1-2 injuries to key personal. Something to think about anyway.

I agree, but the players have media commitments. The players / coaches get asked the stock standard questions each week. If they're coming up against a struggling team: "How are you preparing for a team who is coming off a bad loss / who you are expected to beat". If they're one of the better sides: "It is a good challenge for you guys coming up against one of the form sides of the competition". There's not much you can say to answer these questions other than "we're preparing for their best" or "it will be a good challenge". Frustrating to constantly hear it (particularly when we lose) but the players / coaches can't do much about it.

There was another passage of play where Oliver was at the bottom of the pack and Hodge was on top of him. Hodge was giving him a ribbing and Oliver was just lying there with a massive grin on his face. Clearly loves that stuff.

I think Weiderman will play for Hogan. If you remember back to the Richmond game (and to some extent the Essendon game) Rance absolutely killed us when we were a KPF short. He was 3rd man up and flew almost uncontested. Weiderman can (hopefully at the very least) take a key defender and make them accountable. If we need the dump kick into 50, we need someone to try and halve contests and let our smaller forwards do their work. It will all come down to our ball movement and outside run.

Only sensible I guess to look at the ladder leaders as the current benchmark. I'd argue that a consistent 4 quarter effort is much harder to achieve than what we might be demanding. As to why, I'm not sure. That being said, regarding Adelaide: Round 1 - down by 14 at quarter time (won by 56) Round 2 - down by 24 at quarter time (won by 24) Round 3 - down by 9 at quarter time (won by 17) Round 4 - clicked for 4 quarters and smashed Essendon Round 5 - similar to above and smashed Gold Coast Round 6 - down by 9 at quarter time (won by 76) Round 7 - down by 64 at quarter time (lost by 59)

Yep I agree. The fact that we'd be putting him up for trade, or willing to listen to offers, would scare teams off given his history of head knocks.

The VFL tribunal actually seemed to use common sense in some respects and took the VFL byes into account. They said it's worthy of a 5 week penalty, so let's make it 5 weeks and not 7. The Melbourne medical report looks horrid - Maynard suffering from amnesia as well as sever concussion. TBH I think 5 weeks (with or without the byes) is very fortunate.

While I sympathise with all long suffering Dees supporters (I myself am one, but tip my hat to those who have been suffering a lot longer than I have), I would encourage them to look at the club in its present state. While it might feel like we're in the midst of the 8th version of a rebuild, looking at the club right not it's hard to argue we're not on the right track. Competitive - yes Playing exciting football - yes (well for 50-75% of a game) Retaining our key players - yes Attracting quality players - yes Increased membership - yes Try and draw a line in the sand pre & post Roos/PJ era. It's hard to do I know, but you can't overlook the significant strides we've taken over the last 3.5 years as a club, and only dare to dream what the next 3.5 years might hold.

100% agree. And you know what, I wouldn't be surprised for Goodwin to back JKH and to play him this week, just to give him a chance to respond to this nonsense from a "supporter".

You can't deny that compared to 10 years, or even 4 years ago, we as a club have come a long way. Due to unfortunate circumstances (I'm not trying to make excuses, although I think we can point to these as being a big reason why we've lost some games), we've lost more than we've won this year. The fact that we're unhappy with purely being competitive is a good thing, shows that honourable losses are a thing of the past for this club, and shows that we have higher expectations of the list and the club. Thankfully, the National Draft is no longer the highlight of the MFC calendar of the year!