Mel Bourne

Weideman needs to get involved!!

MAXY!

Ooooffff. That was horrible to watch.

Thought he's been ok today

Seems ok now. Just a niggle. I'm just projecting panic onto every player now.

Both May and Petracca are looking proppy too.

Ankle? Hopefully not season-crushing. Jesus.

MAXXXXX NOOOOOO

Around six weeks. Possibly longer. Making slow progress unfortunately. He's out of the boot but the foot is very stiff still. Not running yet. He's very missed in our forward line right now. His kind of clever ball-use is what we need more of.

Ha! The power of the hyphen ?

Very harsh on Frost!!

If any of them had won a premiership I’d be more excited.

Yes. Yze is the perfect choice.

Absolutely. Hence the above remark.

Like so many here, I’m trying to figure out the areas where we’re lacking. From the outside it seems that many other clubs have a very intact sense of their community and their past, but ever since Jim Stynes’ passing it seems the club has lost this kind of anchor. Somebody like Garry Lyon would be a prime example of a past player that could provide this (admittedly perhaps sentimental, but certainly important) sense of history and passion for the club, but his media career has become his main priority (sure, guy’s gotta earn a living). Adam Yze, who played 276 games for the club has been an assistant coach at Hawthorn for years now. Why couldn’t we find a role for him at Melbourne? Does David Neitz, our longest-ever serving captain, have a presence at the club? Forgive my ignorance/lack of knowledge here. Just hoping to get a clear picture. And curious to know if this is something I should really not worry about too much. I do find myself wondering though. Btw, Russell Robertson’s wacky interviews with current players don’t count.

Aww hell dawg.... I swore it was around 275 but I googled “How many AFL games has Nathan Jones played?” to be exactly sure. Google tells me 264. I was befuddled but I put my trust in Google. All apologies. Lesson learned. And good news for the co-captain!

For those suggesting he deserves 300 at the club (and he certainly does, however)... If Nathan Jones wants to make 300 games it requires him playing every available game this season and the next, at which he’ll be at 297 games at the end of the 2020 H&A season. We’ll then have to play at least three finals, or else his 300th wouldn’t arrive till 2021. I’d love all this to happen (and having the reason he plays all those games to do with form and not sentimentality), but it’s a big ask...

It might be an idea to get Lockhart and Dunkley into this team, replacing Spargo and Garlett, and getting prepped for a big 2020. Realise Dunkley was recruited as a “versatile inside midfielder”, but we need to test his versatility. It seems a lot of players scouted these days get noticed in the midfield, and then get a forward-education later on.

Srsly though, how is a 19 year-old who made his professional debut last year (and has thus far failed to set the game alight in any tangible sense) considered a leader? I’d love to see him grow as a player (at our club) but how does a word like that get bandied about in this instance?

That’s bizarre. I had him pegged as less “leadership” and more “make-a-wish”.

They often go hand in hand.

Uh....I’m not exactly ignorant to the many aspects of the game that inspire and make for successful teams. Just talking about a thing I saw this morning. However if you were to watch a highlight reel of players backing into packs, sprinting to make a spoil to prevent an easy mark or score against, crashing a pack and putting their body on the line to bring a ball to ground for a teammate, chase down tackles or a player continuing to chase down an opponent when all is lost to apply enough pressure to cause a skill error then you won’t see many clips of our players either. Which is the most unfortunate point I’m trying to make. We may not technically be on the bottom of the ladder but we sure are when it comes to highlight reels, and that speaks to our season and the club right now. Flat, uninspired and uninspiring.

You also get inspired as a supporter of the team seeing moments of skilful brilliance.

The AFL app/site has just put a quite a lengthy compilation of all of the best goals of the season thus far. It was kind of shattering to watch goal after goal with every club being represented (Carlton four times ffs) with an inspired moment in front of the goals except for you know who. About three minutes in we get a little glimpse of Preuss snapping his first goal against the Swans to wholesome reactions from commentators and crowd alike...and that’s it. Five friggin’ minutes and one goal from the Dees. It’s this kind of stuff that brings back that old feeling. The forgotten ones. The non-contenders. The....f$&@ing participants of the Melbourne Football Club. We need a spearhead. Desperately.

What happened to our rich tradition of keeping an effective jackaninny parked around the goal square (Mark Jackson, Allen Jakovich, Russell Robertson)? Bring back the lairiser. Secure the next handstander. Summon our next goal kicking goose.