NeveroddoreveN

That would be the safe thing to do..... Bowey in a year or two would be ridiculous, he should be playing plenty this year. Jetta unless he has resurgence should be down at Casey helping our kids develop imo. Jetta is a lock down defender and if he does have a small to guard he struggles to keep up with them.. Would not be picking him back pocket purely for the sake of him filling the only role he can play. He also offers very little on the rebound out of defence. His best is well behind him. Hope i am wrong and he kills it though, loved him as player for long time.

Not sure of Jetta in the team, he showed he was bit slow and got hammered few times also. I would really like to see Bowey take his spot, has pace and skills. We can only have so many of our 30+ players in the team at same time before we make other teams look quick. Jones off the bench or whatever, but i would not be playing VDB and Jetta on top of that with what they showed in the preseason games.

I am more thinking from Williams side of it. I am sure Richmond/Hardwick did the right thing but could not blame Williams for being salty one iota. Pretty crappy place to hear that type of news regardless of whether it was done it the right manner or not anyway.

Definitely not but after 4 years service, would you expect more that that? I would.

Told on the phone while attending a funeral, after 4 years. That is pretty poor. Especially considering the glowing endorsements he still gets from the Richmond players!

Yeah one of them starting with W....not 100% sure but definitely from that league!

We picked him up from Williamstown....few years out of the AFL for no real good reason imo!

I would argue if you are not being real, you are being fake. Show some passion ffs Simon. Has he ever tried being honest at a post game presser? Not sure he has as yet! Anything negative seems to be either "learnings" or " fugazi" depending on how whether the "noise" is coming directly at him from reporters or the general media. Some honesty would be so refreshing. He talks of a disconnect quite often when it comes to his team, i think it starts from the coaches mouth, what he says often disconnects the supporters and so often he is just repeating the same BS. He needs to get much better at the whole caper.

Just happy they are trying things a bit outside the box. A few of Kossies runs through the backline and midfield were some of his most scintillating pieces of play last year. You get the sense he is going to be much more valuable than a forward pocket in the long run. With his skillset he may well end up the Liam Ryan type, creating nightmares for opposition up and down the ground. Only his 2nd year, we got a ripper here i reckon!

Seeing the pictures of him he has clearly developed physically quite a bit! Exciting to possibly having him run through the midfield or wing, Really looking forward to seeing how is deployed vs Freo.

i think we saw few glimpses of Yze's influence at least against Richmond. Clayton got moving, give and then really go for the handball receive. Harmes did some great blocking. Petracca also looked dynamic at the stoppages with a balance of blocking and attacking. Expect to see Kossie in the guts quite a bit this season. Mark Williams said he expects him to dominate. Not sure on Yze's philosophy but seeing a bit then hearing about Kossie, we should really be onto an excitement ride. Imagane LJ in the ruck Petracca/Oliver and Kossie. Yikes!

Mark Williams gives me hope that we are on the right track. That interview was super impressive. Dripping with passion, intelligent, humble, and driven. Finally i have trust that the whole team will get developed properly. Putting Kossie in the middle has his fingerprint all over it. After watching this i feel much more prepared to say, we got some exciting times ahead! It will not be perfect but with Williams we will continue to improve. If some more of our guys start feeling like they "belong,. the sky is the limit.

After reading through Freo's thread vs Melbourne i tend to agree with this topic of conversation. Freo are worried they are undermanned, but the general consensus is they have a great backline, good mids, severely undermanned up forward. Sound familiar? They are nearly solely worried about Gawn and his influence on the game. 90% of the suggestions are that they rove to Max, almost conceding that their ruck will not be able to compete. The supporters know it and so will Longmuir. I have mentioned this a few times in other threads but i reckon 80%+ of Max's hitouts go over his left shoulder (tapping with the right hand). Generally Oliver is waiting for it there but all midfields sweat on this setup and quite often Oliver handballs to someone close and it is a repeat stoppage or we cough up the ball. It is super predictable. The doggies last year did not even play a ruck vs us most of the day, (Dunkley) and he just acted as another onballer when the ball hit the ground. Team have worked out that they can allow Max to win the hit outs as long as they outnumber on the outside and are set up well. Most teams know we get sucked into the contest like undisciplined kids that all want to get a touch. I really think Max need to hustle and bustle a bit more. He is a huge man but rarely does he influence the next contests by throwing his body around, and clearing a path for our onballers. All of our midfield need to block for each other/set screens, and get moving at the stoppages/clearances. Luke Jackson may be the answer in the ruck. He is like another midfielder when the ball hits the ground and we look more dynamic with him in there. We definitely need to mix it up and i am not writing Max off vs a 2nd year player but i think LJ needs to be there at least 30-50% of time. Have Max forward as he is better than LJ there + we need to kick enough goals to win the game. Really hoping to see variation in our set ups. Yze's influence should see us starting to get more creative in the midfield. Max is nearly always going to get first hands on the ball, his influence from the midfield though is seemingly negated these days. It is his marking around the ground which really makes him a great player. Would much prefer to see him taking his marks forward than back, purely for damage value of those marks within the arc.

Like Melksham, Jones, Jetta, Tmac, Harmes, Brayshaw, Hunt? I think we are too readily blaming our least experienced. It is our mid tier players that need to really just get better. Seems Lever has really improved so this year, we need more guys in their mid 20's realising their potential and playing with consistency.

He played rubbish on the weekend but apparently has improved this year, at training anyway. He is not slow, nor soft and is actually one of our better kicks. Needs more time to really believe he belongs at the level, he deserves the time to develop though. You will get plenty of chances to love or hate him as he will play a lot over next few years. He will become really important player for us.

He may be insurance for BB, Weid and Tmac also. I am not sure it is purely ruck insurance. With BB and Weid down Tmac has become our focal point again. Daw chases, and can take a mark and kick a goal. Always thought he has had great presence about him, would like to see him forward early in the season myself. Small stints in the ruck with Max switching occasionally to Forward could really help our cause especially before BB/Weid return.

Or just continue to play Tmac for another 8 weeks until he gains some form! We are severely undermanned up forward, get him in ASAP!

Why they would not even get Storm players down there to help us learn how to tackle has always befuddled me. i would like Bellamy type as coach. He does not accept mediocrity and does often get angry at his players. Be great to see that type emotion from our box and a team that clearly fought every battle to the best of their ability. Nearly all of their players improve, their development makes me envious. They are a great team with culture and class. Really, we should be learning from them, a lot of this type stuff translates across codes.

I think this actually starts address why we have been so average at times. Last year we had Melksham/AVB/Jetta all nowhere near their best....you can add Harmes/Brayshaw/Tmac to this list of underperforming players. All senior players... that is 6 out of your best 22 and we cry that our bottom 6 need to get better. These all are guys that should be driving standards i find it ridiculous that that seasoned footballers can be out of form for so long and the coach just continues to pick them. This year i hope horribly out of form players are dropped after a week or two at most. The younger, less experienced guys seem to always be the ones dropped, even though we have senior players regularly below the standard required. It has to change otherwise Goodwin will be gone fairly quickly before he does any more damage to the MFC through his ridiculous selections.

It starts with a hug! :P As long as they are banding together and ultra committed for the one cause, i would hope they as a bunch of individuals all have the freedom to express themselves freely. They only need to represent the jumper with pride. The system will obviously require discipline and trust whatever values they choose to adhere to as a club. I'd be happy with two steps forward, one step back. Keep it simple, just keep forging forward and getting better as individuals but more importantly as a team.

Your parents waited til you were 12 that is sooooo brutal! Yeah i think these days there would be a lot of questions asked whether this is at all neccessary, and definitely with your consent you poor bugger! Wishing Jay a speedy recovery for sure. The whole topic make me grimace a bit, and giggle.

It was reported in the Herald Sun few days back he required surgery. Luckily my testicles are still intact, but my father split his urethra playing footy back in his day and said it was one the most painful injuries he ever sustained and kept him out for weeks. It was a joke the first part, but the him requiring surgery was not. I am sure you will hear something official over the next week or so from the club. It is safe to say he will not be playing early rounds, he'll barely be able to run with the soreness.

He was the only player to literally bust his nut. Sorry for the that, was totally below the belt. Hope he is recovering well. He required surgery so will definitely be out for at least few rounds!

If Gawn released anything so honest i think you would find Melbourne supporters might actually believe change is happening from within. Melbourne just don't play like a team that is hurting at the best of times. Some brutal honestly from either our captain or coach would be well received by most. It would be something new and fresh...instead of the same platitudes with no action behind them. It is words like "learnings" that are thrown around too easily. Do they actually learn? They seem to lose in similar manners, are these learnings getting ingrained? Give me May or Petracca talking at end of games. At least they are honest and seem to really feel hurt by the loss.

I think he means to STFU! :P