Chook

Nah. We would’ve gotten blown away by quarter time and spent the rest of the game catching up.

I’m being a bit of a smartarse, but I’m trying to say that all players can be taught enough to make them good footballers. Maybe there are some intangibles that can’t be taught, but that doesn’t mean those players are doomed. Maybe the only thing that would stop that is if a player isn’t willing to learn. Now THAT is something that can’t be taught.

It’s amazing what football players will put their bodies through in pursuit of money and success. Such commitment is truly astounding.

So what’s the problem then? Just teach them stuff that can be taught and they’ll be fine.

I think this is something people underestimate. It isn’t some misguided force-out scenario like what happened at Collingwood; this is a planned, structured transition orchestrated by someone who has done exactly this in the past—to premiership winning effect no less.

A few years ago, I said I rated Kent as our best young player. He's not so young any more, but I still think he has a really good shot of becoming a fantastic footballer. Hopefully he gets a good enough run with injury to show it.

Does that mean they can do everything that can be taught?

Because Lyon has fully bought into the AFL Media Circus™.

I don’t rate Dunn anywhere near as highly as everyone else on this site seems too, but he’s definitely a much improved player on what he used to be.

Given Jones’ track record at improving other areas of his game, I’ll back him to get better at these ones too.

The Bombers can nick off. I never share my Maccas with anyone, let alone someone involved with the Essendon Football Club.

No true Melbourne supporter should think themselves so high and mighty as to criticise this bloke and yet complain about how our players don’t try.

You must be kidding yourself if you think he needs to use his hands.

“MAN CARRYING ENTIRE FOOTBALL SIDE INJURES NECK" News at eleven. In all seriousness, Nathan Jones is and has been one of our brightest lights in a very dark period for the Club. He’s like a beautiful bald flower that grew out of a pot of dirt.

And a great coach too, to hear him tell the story.

Wrong sci-fi franchise. Someone should nuke you from orbit.

Lumumba was an alarmingly poor pickup based on this year's performances; and unlike his fellow Premiership winning former Magpie Dawes, I don't think his training and game day leadership/structural value are good enough to warrant a place in our side as we improve. Hopefully 2016 bodes better for him.

When I first heard about this a few months ago, I did a quick Google/YouTube investigation of Petracca's specialist Bill Knowles. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about. One thing I found particularly promising is his focus on not just "returning from injury," but staying uninjured year after year. He said that a lot of athletes focus on getting back, only to relapse not long after because their "rehabilitation" program (Knowles doesn't like that term, preferring to focus on the more psychologically appealing term "retraining") wasn't properly focused on the long term. Fingers crossed.

As I think most halfway capable mature ruckmen should do. It's the flipside of that old saying about how young rucks take time to develop; it stands to reason that old ruckmen take time to become useless.

James Frawley is just another in a long string of recent Melbourne players who thought success would just come to them. People always talk about those players getting "Melbourne'd"; but in reality it was Melbourne that got screwed over by the Moloney, Frawley, Morton, Blease, Maric, etc mindset. Not to mention "blueprint basecamp" Schwab. What few players of that ilk are still at this club have had their brains so scrambled by our lack of success that they now believe that no amount of hard work will result in success. I won't name names because those players are still on our list, but hopefully it won't be long until they're all gone.

Oh Richmond. Sucks to be you...

Buy 22 oxygen tanks and schedule the match underwater then.

Isnt it weird that 1 out of every 9 AFL club nicknames are synonyms for depression?

Nah. The Jack Watts haters are just really really loud.

Yep. We must use Hogan’s games/marks/goals tally from his first year in order to be fair. G / M / G 0 / 0 / 0 What a dud. Seriously, how else can we compare Hogan with those players.