Chook

I'd be fine with him not playing seniors until he's shown that his body can stand seconds. And if 10-12 weeks is what it takes for that to happen, then I'm all for it. We have plenty of time on our hands, so it would be quite a shame to rush him in not fully prepared.

Isn't every developing team in the same boat? I Melbourne has that problem, then so will Essendon. And this "you need a mountain at full-forward or you'll suck forever" isn't true at all.

What the heck did he even say?

Is this an event that occured in frond of a crowd of zero? Surely someone saw it and can say what it looked like to them.

What was the exact phrasing of the reply?

I hope not. Obama is not the answer to our forward woes.

That's not what I said. But I have seen a few posts saying "If it weren't for Melbourne, I'd have given up this dog of a game long ago." I absolutely hang out for Melbourne games. But I also watch at least bits of every other game every week. I just get the feeling some people here wish footy was like it was in the "good old days" when forwards didn't chase and fat people got to play at the highest level.

6AM Goal-kicking 12PM Lunch 1PM Goal-kicking 6PM Dinner Repeat as desired or until satisfactory. How hard is that? It is the one area of our game in which the smallest amount of effort will yield the greatest result. A team that was capable of kicking 15 goals straight instead of 10.5 immediately goes from a wooden-spooner to a Final Eight contender on the back of five kicks of the football. If you can think of a way to get more drastic improvement through less than that many kicks per game, I'd like to see it.

I'd be down like Charlie Brown. It seems silly to me that sport should be affected by just one of the many religions to the exclusion of all others. Either never play footy on a holy day of any kind (infeasible) or just admit that sport should stay separate from religion and politics and thus play on Good Friday. I think the idea of having a special Saints vs Demons game would be great, but I just hope that the two playing on Good Friday would be seen in a positive, not negative (how dare they make light of the afterlife) light.

Martin et al. But the thing Martin has on his side is that he's smart and can obviously be taught (as evidenced by his high VCE score).Watts is great because he's smart, knows the game and has the physical attributes to go along with it. Givehim some weights and a cheeseburger as well and he'll be set.

I agree. The only thing you can't teach a person is how to be tall.That's not to say that if I was in charge, I'd just grab people who were physically right, regardless of their skills. I'd take a person with fifteen years footy experience (ie born into the game) over some basketballer who only heard of the game last friday.

LOL at the morons who hate footy but still watch it. Am I the only one who still enjoys watching a game of footy that doesn't involve Melbourne. Hell, the match is guaranteed to be at least 50% better for our team's absence.

I'm sad to read that it seems most of you don't really like footy anymore. I for one am in favour of pretty much anything that will increase the number of games I get to watch every week. Within reason, of course.

Really? I thought it was because our players aren't as good as the ones from other teams. Hitler/Mousselini/Ivan the Terrible Vlad the Impaler/Manson/Bush Bin Laden/Amrosi/Zedong Judas/Hussein/Jones Lucifer/Jack the Ripper/Stalin Mugabe/Pengli/Behram COACH: Kavorkian Would obviously be one of the best lineups in history if "nasty" is the only criteria. I'm sorry to say that "nasty" means nothing when you have players dislocating shoulders and breaking jaws and doing their knees and tearing their hamstrings for the umpteenth time.

Before everyone goes mental, please please please remember how we played against Adelaide last week. And (apparently) the first half today. We won't play well for multiple weeks in a row for quite some time now. As long as we're not totally awful for long periods of time, then I'll be satisfied. P.S. by totally awful, I mean getting literally smashed week in, week out. If we lose, I won't mind, but as long as we're (god I hate this word) . . . "competitive," then I'll be happy.

Why don't we, instead of fighting it, accept that our backline will be our strength. Rather than giving up our only advantage in order to hopefully break even in the forward line, why don't we see if Rivers, Frawley, Garland and perhaps even Martin and Warnock can all fit in the same backline. Premiership-winning teams have historically needed some aspect of their game to be above the rest. Let's make the backline ours. Besides, Jurrah, Watts, Wonaeamirri, Petterd, Miller, Maric, Jamar, Sylvia, Davey isn't that bad.

I'm as surprised as you about that. I remember a few games last year where we'd get it in like 6 times a quarter and score on every occasion.

Newton is NOT, NOT, NOT lazy. He is untalented, for sure, but can we put to bed forever the idea that he doesn't chase. He's just a crap footballer with no leadership ability or footy smarts.

Out of curiosity, has there ever been a player post here?

This is the kind of crud that SA Melbourne supporters have to deal with on a regular basis.

We're all relying on you today Mr Morton. You'll be our go-to man for all things unbiased and true.

Pardon my ignorance, but when are we playing?

Stop fear-mongering, man. We're already "fresh meat" with these players in, so I don't think it's statistically unfair to take the oldest one out of the equation, particularly considering he's going to be retired soon. If you can point me to a post in 2006 that said "we should clean out our club, or else we'll be crap in no time at all," then your second point has some merit. What does it matter if Jimmy and Co have arrived? According to you, we're pretty much screwed anyway. I'm not a fan of free agency either, but considering it's not even going to be in effect for two more years, it's incredibly difficult to say how it'll affect us. It's not a matter of what we can afford, but what we can realistically accomplish. PS, please stop Putting Capitals on Words That Don't Need Them. It Doesn't Make You Seem Any More Emphatic or Intelligent. PPS I like most of you're posts. Just not that one.

You are all out of your minds. Brisbane are going to be a top 4 side this year. The Crows, Hawthorn and Collingwood will be contenders. North have a fantastic record against us at Etihad and Richmond score too heavily for us to match easily. My prediction is 0 - 6.

Excellent. Newton's in. I hope he plays and is given the opportunity he deserves. Melbourne needs a forward. Even a crap one will be better than no one.