Bring-Back-Powell

McLean, Davey and Sylvia strike me as players with clean disposal. Brad Green still showed glimpes of his lethal left foot with beautiful set shot goal on the HFF flank V Geelong. I still hold hope that Green will return to his best this year. Adem Yze was awesome in the early 2000's on the wing. How many goals did he set up from the members wing at the G' I have a funny feeling we could be singing Addam Maric's praises in the future. Doesn't he hold the record for the most accurate shots for goal in the TAC Cup?

Cameron Bruce's kicking, lock the thread....

Man that is gold

We won't get within a bull's roar of a full strength Richmond if Bailey's Irish Cream doesn't bring back at least 4 blokes and a few of our more senior blokes from last week pull their finger out. I won't be slitting my wrists if we lose with another 10 blokes out of the side.

Re - New AFL teams I was reading in the paper today about the possibility of clubs nominating 10 players that are untouchable to the new Gold Coast side that is starting up by 2011. Obviously, the new club could poach a player or 2 from MFC that are not nominated as un-touchable. So hypothetically, if MFC had to release up a list of 10 untouchables at the end of 2008, who would they be: 1) Brock McLean 2) Nathan Jones 3) Jared Rivers 4) Cam Bruce 5) Aaron Davey 6) Matthew Bate 7) Colin Sylvia 8) Daniel Bell 9) Cale Morton 10) Ricky Pettard (Queensland connection, so would be targetted) Thoughts? What are yours?

I must admit it wasn't the best idea stopping off at the pub (Waterside) after the Geelong debacle and wathing TJ passing the ball down a team mate's throat. It didn't exactly improve my mood. TJ will be a gun pick up for the Lions, end of story. His departure has effectively left us one man down from last year as Grimes won't play this year. It hurts when the club loses class for no immediate compensation. Yes Rhino et al, I understand the logic behind the trade.

Agree. He was one of my major low-lights for the day. He couldn't hit the side of a barn-yard. He showed a hint of promise in the round 22 game last year V Carlton with 2 goals but took a step backwards on the weekend. Oh well that's what the pre-season is there for- Hopefully DB can give him a couple more opportunites to press for round 1.

Huh

Can't comment on Garland as he seemed to be playing up the other end to where I was sitting (behind the Melb cheersquad end). Although his supergoal was impressive and 3 goals is something to hang your hat on. Buckley had a mixed afternoon. Started poorly with a few turnovers etc.. But was quite instrumental in the middle 2 quarters with his run and carry and registered a few inside 50's. I liked that he was hard to tackle, and seemed to have plenty of time before realeasing of the footy. Kicked a lovely supergoal from 60mtrs out into the wind which reaked of class and even had some Geelong fans commending him on his effort. Happy with his effort, but I got sucked into Chris Johnson's (whom Buckley reminds me of) steller pre-season form last year and look what happened. If he can keep up his form, I think he'll play round 1. Good luck to him!

This is what has me concerned too. We all know that we don't have the depth to cover out injuries.

Does anyone think Chris Johnson is a poor mans Simon Buckley. These two remind me of each other, except I reckon Buckley will make it.

But the problem with that is that all those key players will come out as rusty as hell for round 1 and will end up copping yet another spanking by the Hawks. If McLean, Bruce and Rivers aren't playing by week 4 of the pre-season series, I doubt you'll see them in round 1.

I agree. He should've retired last year. As much as I love him as a player, it's time to get rid of injury prone players. We seem to have too many of them at the moment. Crunch year for Whelan, Moloney, Sylvia and even Rivers.

C'mon mate, you can't be called Yze_Magic and leave out Yze

I agree with you in that he has all the on-field credentials to make a solid captain for the next 5+ years. He just has to grow up off the field. I can't see too many other AFL captains getting in blues in the off-season and doing burn-outs at training. BTW, I like your user name for some reason

I actually think our ruck situation is OK, as long as White (who has had an excellent run with injury) remains healthy. Meeson must have a bit of talent considering he was a top 10 draft pick, and he is a good athlete. Jamar - yes he is ordinary but it was only 18 months ago when this site went into melt-down when he broke his leg and missed the Freo semi final...he was servicable to good in 2006. And PJ adds to our depth, but I'm not totally sold on him. Our defence is our major weakness. Rivers and Whelan are terribly injury prone, while we've got nobody capable of taking on the Pavlich's and Browns.

Good news that his twisted knee is minor and he'll be available next weekend. As for the captaincy, he's way too immature at the moment for the club to even consider in 12 months.

Anyone like to have a go at the team: My version: B Warnock Holland Bode HB Bell Miller Green C Buckley Valenti Davey HF Sylvia Newton Bate F Aussie Robbo Yze FOLL White McDonald Jones Int Frawley Jamar P Johnson Garland Cheney Meeson Martin Weetra McNamara and Zomer to miss the cut. I just spoke with Dean Bailey and I've advised him to run the following on Saturday: Frawley to rotate with Warnock deep in defence Meeson to get more ruck-time than White, even though we're starting him on the bench. Jamar to get 15 minutes in the ruck PJ to help out in defence or attack (if we have no targets up fwd) Garland to help out in defence Cheney to release Green into the midfield Martin to rotate with Miller Weetra to swap with Aussie. Sylvia, Bate and possibly Bell and Bode will have to help out in the midfield as we are seriously light on.

Geelong are missing the following from their best '22': Joel Corey Corey Enright Matty Scarlett Paul Chapman Matty Egan Max Rooke Joel Selwood Travis Varcoe Melbourne are missing the following from their best '22': Cam Bruce Brock McLean Matty Whelan Jared Rivers Brent Moloney Lynden Dunn Paul Wheatley Ricky Petterd Nathan Carroll David Neitz Geelong have got a couple of midfielders out like us, but I think the game will be won in Geelong's foward line with Mooney, Hawkins and Steve Johnson running riot.

If you can't get to the games, think of it as a donation to the club.

Be out tomorrow afternoon. St Kilda V Richmond just got released this afternoon.

Dude, you were doing so well until you wrote the above The more I think about it, the more pessimistic I am about this season. We've got a hell of a lot of players on the injury list at the moment. Yes I know most of them are being rested, but too many blokes like Rivers, Moloney, Bartram and Whelan's problems have carried over into this pre-season. The only way I could see us winning games this year was with a fit and healthy squad on the back of strong pre-season. Already Bruce and McLean have got themselves in the wars. On the flip-side, I'm excited about the unknown. I'm excited about the new coach. I'm excited that he'll be implementing a brand new game-style, hence the exams. I'm excited that he might instil a 'never say die attitude' where we win the close games, or we convert 40 point 3 qtr time leads into 60 point wins, or we travel insterstate and represent the club with pride for once. I'm also excited by the fact that every man and his dog has us installed for bottom 4 'certs'! I'm excited about this season, but I'm concerned how another bottom 4 finish may impact on the club.

Maybe Warnock or Jamar could fake a 6 week injury before round 1

The 32 degree heat will test how good a pre-season we've had. One would think we'd run the game out better than Geelong due to having a few more weeks of training in the tank. I'll be disapointed if we run out of legs as fitness hasn't always been Melbourne's strong suit.

I'm fairly sure it has something to do with our round 1 opponent