Chook

Jack Watts! Gets the one back he cost us. Carn the Dees. Put 'em away!

Have a listen to his pregame interview on DeeTV. Is that a personality I see? Amazingly, he seems to be one of the only footballers with some originality and thoughtfulness in his comments. In this day of metrosexual, media trained robots, it's good to see that there are still some real people playing the game.

Cause West Coast, North Melbourne and Collingwood are all quite tough opponents.

That's a pretty good team. If Jamar does play, I would confidently pick Melbourne by around 40 points. I'm surprised the Footy Dept. had the guts to drop Bartram. Despite his poor disposal, I though he had a few more credits with the coaches than that.

I have a feeling Port Adelaide are really keen to hang on to him, so I don't think the usual "Spud + Spud = Good Player" trade of Dunn and Bate for him will quite do it. I'd love him here though, if only for the off chance that it would explode Dwayne Russell's head like a wad of cookie dough.

I suggest you read other people's posts a little better in future . . . mate.

But it's easy to kick when Jack Watts handballs it to you four times in 30 seconds. Eventually the penny should drop that you should kick the damn thing before you get caught with it.

Not to Stef, it would seem. Although, I've read that he has had some personal troubles recently. I guess we all have problems from time to time.

I like the "run into space" game plan, but I would like to see a situation when we're deep in our own defence, instead of having every forward inside our D50, we would have one up around the centre square and a marking target inside the offensive 50, just so we have some semblance of a get-out kick on the fast break. Other than that, our forwards will need to have very good endurance in order to work this game plan for 26 weeks of the year.

Exactly. The guy gives me so much confidence when he's one-on-one. Runs and carries the ball and doesn't just dish it off for the sake of getting rid of it. Sometimes makes people nervous cause he hangs on to it for longer than they'd like, but I think his disposal is more effective than it looks.

Easily my favourite player at the club. You can tell he's a guy who actually LISTENS to what people tell him. He has all the physical attributes plus a brain the size of a small European nation, and I can't wait to see how good he'll end up.

Richmond Away G WIN I honestly think we're a better side than Richmond, and can't see us losing Doggies Away ES LOSS Etihad...need I say more? BYE Port Home TIO WIN The Brotherhood up at TIO should get us over the line. Hawks Home G LOSS The start of a crazy-hard four week run. If we can win any of the next four games, we're right in there with a chance. I rate this one as our hardest, given that we suck against Hawthorn Gellong Away Skilled LOSS Unlikely to still be "up" after all this time, I'm predicting a close game, given our similar playing styles Carlton Away G LOSS Carlton seem to have our number, but we'll be breathing fire for this game. Definitely not "bruise-free" footy. Eagles Home ES LOSS This is the pivotal game. Playing against a side who works the press very well (something we cannot deal with) at a ground we can't play at. Huge game Richmond Home G WIN Port Away AAMI LOSS Have you noticed where this is being played? Port Adelaide may have totally put the cue in the rack by this time, though. I only give us three certainties, but I could easily see us winning against the Dogs, WCE and Port Adelaide the second time, which would put us on 11.5 wins. I doubt this would get us into the Eight.

"When a rocket reaches the moon, the rocket always has had very few technical difficulties. But when the mission messes up, the rocket almost always has had some trouble. Therefore, the rocket is a down-hill skiier." Failed logic, right there. People say similar things about Brent Moloney's game, but honestly the only Melbourne player who's consistently good even when the team sucks is Colin Sylvia, who I'm sure we all know has some serious talent and ball-winning ability.

BUMP Thoughts? This is our performance against each team so far #2 Collingwood - lost by 88 #3 Carlton - lost by 47 #4 Hawthorn - lost by 45 #5 Sydney - draw //home #6 WCE - lost by 54 //away #7 Fremantle - Won by 89 //home #8 Essendon - won by 33 #9 St Kilda - lost by 20 #10 Melbourne #12 North - lost by 41 #14 Adelaide - won by 96 #15 Brisbane - won by 11 #17 Gold Coast - won by 90 Our effort drops right off when we lose, but we've really beaten every team we should be expected to beat. There's a chance our "on-off" form is simpy a side-effect of our draw. Based on our performances this year, I would expect an easy win over Richmond next week.Our only losses against teams close to us on the ladder have come at Etihad (St Kilda and North Melbourne), where we've been known to play quite poorly.

6 Jack Watts - Very good at ground level for a tall player. Has good kicking skills and makes great decisions. Can also take a contested mark from time to time, too. 5 Stefan Martin - Rucked well, drifted forward. Very coordinated for his size, and has really developed almost every area of his game. Can't wait for next week against the Tiges. Jamar and Martin - together at last. 4 Jordie McKenzie - "See ball, get ball" at its' very finest. Has patches from time to time where his handballing is a little slow, but he has been so important for us. 3 Tom Scully - Was on fire early in the game. As a marathon runner, he makes a pretty good footballer. 2 Jeremy Howe - Has a fantastic leap and a very high work-rate. Petterd + effort = Howe. 1 Moloney - Could have given this to Sylvia, but Moloney's centre work is brilliant. Gets his best friend back next week, which should be nice.

Say hello to running, weight-lifting and the like. They're some of the only sports not bastardised by new technology.

Can we have a [sacktheCoach] or [scully'sGoingtoGWS] button? It would save everyone a whole bunch of time.

Defenders veryh rarely cost you games, because if the ball gets down there, someone else has screwed up first. Our young mids were not very good yesterday, and that is why we lost - as it is every week. The midfield is where it's at, folks.

I meant GAAWWWWWNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't know why I put Fitzpatrick down. EFA.

Well he damn well should with a body like his.

Oops. My mistake. I thought it was obvious that I was comparing a thirty year-old David Neitz to a 30 year old Brad Green. Sorry.When your midfield is not winning, rotate anyone who can play there through, to see if you can spark something. When you're on top, change of any kind can really halt your momentum, and we didn't change enough, IMO.

This has been true as long as I've watched Melbourne (and apparently in the decades before that, too). I remember watching us warm-up in the old Daniher days. We'd lazily perform our drills, take a few pot shots, then hey, what do you know? The game's about to start, so we'd saunter to our positions, engage in a little ruff stuff and promptly get flogged - unless it was an even year, in which case the floggings would be confined to just the top four teams and anyone we happened to get paired up against in the finals. I know for me, it takes about ten minutes of full on work before I'm operating at top notch. That should be what our players aim for. I don't think these guys get it at all - and they haven't for years.

Jamar full forward/ruck, switching with Big Max Gawn. Martin ruck/follower. This should help us a litte in the "big-bodied forward" regard. EDIT: Apparently I don't know the difference between the AFL's second tallest player and a dude who can't get on the park.

I love Greeny in the forward-line as much as anyone, but why the heck was he never tried in the middle? David Neitz couldn't be blamed for getting stuck in the goal-square because he really couldn't play anywhere else. Brad Green can. When things aren't working, change them!

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