sylvinator

Throw the kitchen sink and more at Cloke. Clark is being paid $1m this year, but only $600k for the 3 years after that. This year, even with Clark, still only paying 92.5% of the cap. We have pre-paid so many contracts that we have money to literally burn. Clark + Cloke would be a killer combination, both with 7+ years to go at the top. We have to trust that we can develop the likes of Trengove, Viney, Gysberts etc into stars

YES! If we get Cloke, our team would make a huge step up the ladder immediately without a doubt. Check out this team and tell me it doesn't look good: Bartram Frawley Grimes Morton Rivers Garland Trengove Moloney Sylvia Watts Cloke Jurrah Howe Clark Davey Jamar Jones McKenzie Interchange: Viney, Magner, Blease, Green. Just miss: Petterd, Martin, Bail, Tapscott, Strauss, Bennel, Gysberts, Taggert Forward line= top quality. Cloke and Clark would one of the best big men combos in the league. Jurrah, Howe, Watts, Petterd, Green and Sylvia plenty of talent there. Still missing a small forward. Defence= very solid. With an adequate midfield, this defence would be recognised as one of the best in the league imo. Garland, Frawley, Rivers and Grimes form a solid combination for next few years. Midfield= still very weak. But we've just gotta hope Trengove and Viney can lead the way, Moloney and Sylvia show a bit of heart and that guys like Morton, Blease and Gysberts take the next step to help out servicable workers in Jones, Magner and McKenzie.

Great changes. team looks very good. Only wonder why Martin hasn't gotten a game. I thought his last half was good in vfl and he showed great versatility and speed and kicked a great goal from CHF. Would add a 2nd target to Clark + would back up ruck

Spot on with the ins... INS: 1. Green- clearly the club wants him back in the team. we need our senior guys to stand up ffs 2. Jurrah- Neeld confirmed that our most exciting player is back for the swans. Jurrah, Clark and Howe= YES! 3. Watts- with the double bye for the vfl, he can't learn any lessons not playing at all. Can continue learning his craft at AFL level. is too talented to be languishing too long at vfl 4. Martin- i watched the second half of the vfl, he's finally healthy. Is a HUGE step up from Sellar and Fitzpatrick, we need him back to 2011 form 5. Blease- We need some outside run and carry I'd also very seriously consider bringing in Taggert and start him as the sub. The kid looked great at VFL last week. Although in truth, he's only really played a couple of vfl games due to injury, could probably use a bit more development time. Out: - Definitely Sylvia, Bail and Bate. 3 guys who just aren't performing atm and need to perform at VFL level - Fitzpatrick just not ready. I'd also think about dropping Tom McDonald, he's got a taste, but isn't in our best 22 quite yet imo - Petterd and Bennel get another crack at it, because it's unfair to drop them after only 1 game back

Neeld all but confirmed Jurrah will play this week against the Swans!

1. James Frawley. Already in the best 50 players in the AFL. In a top 4 team he would be recognised as an absolute star. Pretty hard to be a star when average losing margin is 50 points and you play full back. 2. Jack Trengove. Way too much criticism. 20 years old and already captain on an AFL club. Showed last year he's every bit a potential star, nothing in 7 rounds of this year changes that. That's the only 2. I had such high hopes for Grimes, Watts, Jurrah etc. It pains me how bad Melbourne FC is at turning great youngsters into genuine stars of the competition

I agree that Watts is sometimes unfairly criticised. But i don't understand why he can't just take on some of the criticism and show a bit of urgency. Like how hard is it to very quickly get up after a free kick and look for options. How hard is it to stand the mark properly and show some intensity about that. How hard is it to tackle through a player and not just give him a gentle hug. The point is, those things won't necessarily turn him into a champion or make a significant different on his playing ability, but it sure would get some supporters and commentators off his back. It's as if he's said to himself- "it's not an issue, everyone else is wrong, so to spite them i'm going to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to show people that I am looking to lift my intensity."

Dangerfield - YES. Strong inside tough player who breaks lines and kicks goals. Yarren- NO. Good player, but very outside and is the cream on the cake, wouldn't do us much good

Anyone who saw it would it would realise it's a non-issue

Is Sylvia just not buying into Neeld regime? Possibly. However I think it's more a situation where he's had 6 weeks off and rushed back with no fittness or match practice. Once a player misses a pre-season, or its severly interrupted, they are behind the 8-ball all year. He should have spent 2 weeks coming back via VFL

You can put your money on us winning a game this year. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous. Exactly the same crap was said about Richmond when they were 0-11 and they ended up winning 6 or so games. Same about Gold Coast when they were 0-7 or whatever. We won 8.5 games last year, we have too much talent to finish 0-22. We'll improve second half of the year and end up with about 6 wins i reckon. If you look at our draw last 11 games, it's possible. We'll also have had a half a season to get used to the game plan.

If we come second last, and have picked 2 and 3, I honestly think we may not take Viney. If we judge that Viney is worth pick 10 in this draft, and GWS are willing to take Viney for pick 1, then why wouldn't we take Whitfield if we rate him much higher? If we end up with pick 4 or lower, we'll 10000% take Viney, because it seems that he's worth around pick 5-10. BUT, if we get pick 2, however nice it would be to have Todd Viney's son at the club, we aren't going to pass over Whitfield for a guy we rank much lower. There would definitely be some 'get out' clause in Viney's contract. We aren't committed to anything until we read out his name. I honestly think it would be a HUGE risk on GWS to nominate Viney with pick 1 if they aren't geniunely interested in taking him at that pick

What is wrong with our club and players. Not 6 months ago, we were better than North, bombers, port, adelaide, Richmond, Gold Coast, comprehensively beat sydney. We looked like the next big thing. How have we gone so so so so so far backwards. What is wrong with our f&%*#ing club And to make it worse, we'll end up coming second last, because we'll beat GWS and fluke a couple of victories late in the season, and we'll have to use the prized pick 2 on a father son

I've been watching the game. Ins for me to AFL side: Martin, Watts, Jurrah, Blease and Tapscott These guys are way way way too talented for VFL level. We suck, we may as well have our young talented boys developing at AFL level. They all show enough to be in the AFL side. Other things i've noticed: - Nicholson is such a butcher of the ball, he's fast and breaks lines, but can't kick so should never play AFL again - Davis has potential. like his effort. clearly not ready yet, but great endeavor, looks like a step up from MacDonald - MacDonald, Green and Dunn do well at this level but just aren't that great. They could be called into the senior side but wouldn't make a big difference to our fortunes so nothing to get excited about. - Spenser is bad, but get a break bc coming back from a knee re-co. - Cook and Lawrence long term prospects, not close to selection atm

You're right. that is our problem- no star midfielders AT ALL. It's the reason we are 0-6 and second last on the ladder. BUT... if we could trade for one (ala Carlton with Judd), it could make all the difference. 1. Star we trade for 2. Trengove 3. Viney If we could them to be our swan, pendles, thomas, then all the other midfielders will slot in and look so much better. Imagine- Moloney, Jones, McKenzie, Morton, Gysberts and Magner as our 4th-9th best midfielders

We really should be trading for one star midfielder- Dangerfield or Boak are great examples. We have so much salary cap it's not even funny. we've front-loaded contracts, we've got no decent senior players, our young players haven't come on and deserved the big pay-rises. Let's get it done. We've got the picks to satisfy any team. Next year, add Viney and Dangerfield/Boak to our midfield and suddenly our midfield is transformed, just like our forward line has been transformed with Clark

From the above list, Watts, Martin and Jurrah are in our best 22, just need some fitness/form. That's 3 relatively young guys that should improve our team significantly. If we're going to improve as a team, we really really really need those 3 guys + Blease, Tapscott to step up and be counted by seasons end

Wow, what was the club doing in past years. More coaches was CRITICAL. Now we've got 2 coaches on every line, an assistant coach and a development coach. That's so much better. In relation to Cale, poor Cale has missed the start of the last 3 seasons with 6-8 week injuries just before the season starts. that's always going to put you on the back foot the entire season. I'm glad he's getting some form.

We'll hit 50,000 members once we get a bit of success. Seriously, I'm a member but i can understand why we are stagnating. Give us 3 premierships in 5 years (Geelong style) and watch demon supporters come out of the woodwork. It's pretty unbelievable we even have 34,000 members after 50 years of rubbish

He'll miss 4 weeks of AFL/VFL footy. The VFL took into account how many weeks of AFL he'lll miss. They knew that give him 2 weeks was in effect 4 weeks. If he'd have had a 4 week suspecion, due to byes/state games etc, he would have missed 7 weeks of footy. So he's essentially been given 4 weeks, which seems pretty fair to me

Martin will need one week in the VFL, before he takes over Sellar. Watts probably one more week in VFL just to work on the areas that they dropped him for, although he should be back very soon, he's clearly too good for VFL and can continue to improve on those things at AFL level. Jurrah one more week of match fitness and then bring him in as the sub! So this week: IN: Petterd, Bennel OUT: Bate, Dunn Next week: IN: Watts, Jurrah, Martin OUT: Seller (Martin is superior at relief ruck and around the ground), Tom McDonald (like him, but teenage KPPs are long-term development players) + whoever doesn't play their role properly and deserves to be dropped- Tapscott and Bail in particular on notice. With those 5 inclusions- Watts, Jurrah, Martin, Petterd and Bennel- I think we're getting very close to our best 22.

I think people have to start looking at it in a different way. One way of looking at it, is to say that if we come top 8 (like Essendon), then we get a steal on getting Viney at pick 15ish, like Essendon will do in getting Daniher. However, the better way to look at it, is that is we came top 8, we might be getting Viney with pick 15ish, but our compensation pick would be pick 16! We are going to have to use our first round pick on Viney. FULL STOP. The real issue is that if we come bottom 3, our compensation pick is pick 4 (instead of pick 16). Pick 4 (usually) gets you a very good player- no Cale Morton Jokes please

Let's face it. This forum has been slightly depressing reading recently. We're all feeling a bit down with the horrific start to the year and the prospect of being 0-11 is just horrible. We definitely need to lighten the mood around here a bit. Check out what I found on the Daily Maggot, this 100% REAL letter written by an amateur football club President giving feedback on an under 10s football match. Bloody hilarious http://thedailymaggot.com/?p=1945

Very bad call. Last year he had a break-out season, played terrifically in the absense of Jamar, both in the ruck and as a swing-man. He plays a CRITICAL role in the team, because we are desperately in need of a back-up ruckman for Jamar and a big body to sit forward to assist Clark. At the moment Sellar is playing that role in Martin's absense (very poorly mind you) and will be moved out as soon as big stef comes back in. The only reason for his poor start to the season is a hip injury.

Look it's a tough one. None of last year's leaders deserved captaincy. Our seniors players from last year are PATHETIC. Grimes and Trenners basically got the job because there was literally noone else. But now they are the captains. And they show ZERO on-field leadership. It's a very big problem