Chook

I was this close to tipping the Kangas today against the Cats. I really rate them this year and my timidity cost me the 9 wins this round. But yes, I wish Melbourne had a lot of what North Melbourne has. A champion in Harvey, three great ruckmen who can actually kick a goal up forward and the good version of Aaron Davey in Daniel Wells. I could go on, but they were great today and deserved to win by more than they did.

Our team is already super-slow by foot, and you want them to stamp on thorns? They'd be hobbling around like old men in no time.

It really is purely theoretical as to how tired a player would get performing the role I'm suggesting, but one of the reasons it isn't tried is that most ruckman simply have no idea how to be a defender. Stef Martin does, and we've seen during mid-2011 how giving him a lot of responsibility has led to his best ever patch of football. Also, I would imagine he'd be spending more like 10% of the game in the ruck. Perhaps Jamar isn't up to rucking 90% of the game anymore, but in his break-out year in 2010, that's about how much of the work he was doing.

The fact is we're one win away from a rosy future. Don't let things get you down, buddy. Look for what's wrong with the place, but don't become overly pessimistic.

What? In his first AFL game for about twelve months? I seriously doubt that. I would expect him to play better against the Dogs this week. Who knows what Neeld would have said to him in the review of the Richmond game. Perhaps he's better at developing Morton's strengths than Dean Bailey was. We have to give him at least one more week to show he's capable of learning from his mistakes under a new coach. This "bring a guy in for one week, only to drop him the next" routine is self-defeating and just ruins a team's confidence. Why would you back yourself to take risks when you know that any mistake is liable to see you end up at some wind-swept suburban ground the next week?

He'd be the second ruckman, altenating between the bench, the backline and the ruck. The fact that defenders clock up the largest portion of time on the ground out of any position suggests that it is not impossibly taxing to spend time in the backline as a ruckman.

That's exactly what I think he would do. Martin back would put either Rivers or Sellar out of the side, with Martin contesting the ruck and taking the opposition ruckman as he rests forward. He'd be perfect at manning up a Cox/Naitanui/Petrie/Goldstein type when they're not rucking. He could also probably match it with Cloke and Dawes, too. He has far more upside than Sellar and Rivers, and for that reason should not be out of the side.

He frees up Frawley for one thing, and is better than Rivers one-on-one. He could also replace Sellar who's just barely going at the moment down back. In fact, Sellar makes a better forward than Martin anyway, so the two should exchange positions at the very least.

Morton's had a grand total of one game in a row under Mark Neeld. We're dying for some outside run and class, and we have at least a little of that in Morton. But because we're too stuck on his draft pick number, we don't allow him the opportunity to forge a new name for himself under a new coach. Surely we all accept that fear has some role in Morton's unwillingness to go hell-for-leather at the contest and back himself to play his natural game. I simply don't think we gain anything by dropping him back to the twos if that's the case. You don't lose your fear of the big-time if you never experience it with the confidence that your mistakes will not be punished with endless time in the VFL. Cale Morton may have had four years worth of games under Dean Bailey, but he's not our coach anymore. Mark Neeld is, and so we ought to adopt the same clean slate that he has.

To be honest, look what honesty got Mark Neeld after round 1. He was drawn out into the halls of the media and his job was made more difficult by people always wanting to hear more from him. There's a reason coaches never give much. Their job is to focus on the next game and how it fits into the overall scheme of things at their club. What the media and supporters think is largely irrelevant to a coach. I personally want honesty (a la the first round), but I'm not too fussed with Neeld's subsequent approach.

Agreed. Martin also is not a forward and should be put in the backline and given instructions not to be too daring when he gets the ball.

Agreed. Mark Jamar might win taps, but he seems to have no idea where he's hitting them. Worse, it seems our opponents have a better idea than we do where they're going, and consequently they often take the ball out of stoppages with ease.

I don't worry about it too much. If you're not bullied for what team you barrack for, I'm sure the kids'll find something else to hang sh*t on you for. Your name, your haircut, how big your house is; whatever. Everyone (except the popular 10% - which I was certainly not a part of) goes through it at some stage.

We know what he really thinks. He told us after the first game. He's since smartened up and realized that you don't go around being honest in press conferences. However, there's still that first week of honesty which shows the kind of response from Neeld that the players would have received a few hours ago.

The "giving up" mentality is difficult to see on the television. You need to look at the entire ground to see our spread from contests drop off after half time.

Chill out guys! I thought it was a great game of footy. In fact, I managed to enjoy it withought thinking of the Dees once!

And then try giving up half-way through.

I can actually see us beating this inept Doggies forwardline. It'll be interesting to see how we go. Someone has to win, unless it's a nil-all draw.

Agreed. We have an aging supporter base. Many of our supporters are children of the fifties and sixties who had trouble getting their kids to support the dees in the seventies and eighties. Any who did end up supporting us are having trouble getting their kids to support this new breed of hopeless Melbourne sides. We've already lost one generation of supporters and we're about to lose another two through age and (yet again) poor performance.

When was the last time you saw a Melbourne player puke up 3 litres of Powerade? Our players simply don't work hard enough when they don't have the ball. That's something that is ingrained in the ameteur mindset of the MFC, and has nothing to do with Mark Neeld. He can help instil the mindset that rewards gut-running and putting your body on the line, but as Glenn Jakovich might say, "you can lead an old horse to water, but you can't change its stripes." The players need to figure out what they want from their careers. Those who want a Premiership need to do what is required. Those who just want to cash a paycheck need to find a new club to leech off of, cause I'm sick of it.

That makes me think even more that we should try our best to get Brendon Goddard to the club. We've seen what a great role Chris Judd is for Murphy and Gibbs at Carlton. Arguably our biggest potential star is Jack Watts, and if he's like Goddard, then we should give him some first-hand experience of how Goddard trains and what he does around the club and in games.

To me, "man up" means "act like a man," in which case it was perfectly warranted.

I'd love to see Melbourne pick up Jack Viney after his two year stint at GWS is up. Give 'em back a taste of their own medicine.

I thought Rivers was pantsed by Brad Miller, of all people.

I did see that, but I also saw his runs down the wing. We need more of that in this team, but we need to somehow drill the fear out of Morton. If that can be done, he'll still be a serviceable player for us.