sylvinator

Has Jimmy erased every single down-fall of our club in the space of 2 years? - Fixed our huge debt - elite facilities at Aami and Casey - re-ignite the relationship between MCC and MFC - record member 33,000 - Very competitive crowd figures, now around mid-table in the afl - exciting on-field list through a measured approach of drafting and trading young players - No one can say any more that we are not passionate members. Debt demolision has unified the club, making all supporters feel like they 'own' the club they support - Great sponsorship deal that would be up there with all AFL clubs - Will make $2m profit this year Now we just need to start investing in our asset base to ensure our future forever. Once this is accomplished, we can sit back, relax, and enjoy future premierships

Love it. Who ever said the demons don't stand for anything

Unsurprisingly Cam Bruce has the most disposals on any MFC player this season... again. He goes out these days quite defensively and ussually does the job. He's a valuable member of the team, and perenially underated on this site. He's no longer a core player in teh team, but plays a nice role week in week out

According to Col, we've been doing in for 4 years. Seems to be going ok. All the players regularly speak about how great the group is and how exciting it is down at melbourne. We've had lots of players sign on for long term contracts this year. We never really get bad press from our players in the media, so i think we've got a really great group atm. If its working, keep it going

Reiwoldt was the only player to beat Frawley this year. hope frawley repays the favour this week

Unfortunately, if you watched friday night, Hurley played a much better game than either McKenzie or Watts

Exactly correct. This year there are only 4-5 decent teams. The last 2-3 teams in the finals are probably not worthy of it. Regardless of whether we truely deserve it, it may as well be us to give our players a finals experience under their belt to help fast track their development.

I've said this in another post, but its relevant here. To be motivated by what is best from a media perspective, or what is best for us as a supporter group should be an irrelevant consideration. The only consideration should be for what is best for the development of the team. And for us, that is playing finals, and then continuing to play finals for the next 3-4 years and then making an all-out go for a premiership. That starts this year Look at the teams who are genuine premiership chances this season- Geelong, StKilda, Bulldogs, Collingwood. Those 4 teams have played finals for years and years, and only now are pushing towards genuine premierhsip chances. Even Geelong played finals for a few years (bar a one year aberation) before they won their first premiership.

The hype will come, whether we like it or not. The media will do their thing. That should really be a completely irrelevant motivation imo. Much more important in my opinion is the healthy development of our team. IMO, having 10.5 wins for the year, after only 4 last season, would be an incredible step forward for the group. As a result, they could go away from this year having gained confidence, experience and a knowledge of how to win. A finals experience in particular would be a great experience for the youngsters and fast track our development big time. Unless you fluke a premiership like Hawthorn did, you generally need 4-5 years of finals experience to be genuine premiership chance. Why not start this year, so we're ready in 2-3 years time for the real top 4 stuff. Importantly, the difference between us and Richmond or Essendon, is that most of our current starting 22 could very easily be the same starting 22 we have in 3 years time. We have done the recruiting. We have found out most of those who are capable to push our team forward. Now its just a matter of continuing to play games together, as the Bailey mantra goes. This same group, should they play finals together, will be hungry for more for the next 5-10 years. The only negative i can really see from making finals seems to be motivated on the basis that some of our supporters don't want us to be overhyped for next year. What we do should be for the best development of the team, not for what makes the media or the supporter base most happy.

Keep Warnock at all costs. At the moment we have great depth of talent in our defence and it is no surprise we are considered one of the best defences going around. I don't want to disrupt that mix and depth in key defensive spots is absolutely crucial. ATM i am in love with our defence. Tall defenders- Frawley, Garland, Rivers and Warnock medium defenders- MacDonald, Bartram running defenders- Grimes, Bail Developing- Strauss, McNamara, Cheney That's 8 core defenders. Only 6 will probably be playing at any one time, but we NEED depth in this area in case of injuries. I wouldn't be letting anyone go

I think the club is trying to get JMc to 250 games. Doubt he'll go on next year. He's done an incredible job being an honest and hard working role model for the youngsters coming through. Brad Green captain next season imo. Is super consistent. Can go forward and kick inspirational goals, and if he isn't getting involved in the play, can move himself to the midfield or defence

... we will end up playing a round 22 match against North Melbourne for a spot in the finals. I've been playing with the afl.com 'predictor'. Assuming we beat Richmond, we then only need to win 1 or the following 2 matches (either beat Hawthorn or PortAdelaide). If we win 1 of those 2 games, the round 22 North game will be a match to get into the finals. This is due to the fact that North and Sydney both have extremely difficult run homes. I personally think this would be a GREAT thing for our team's development. Yes, we'll be making finals before we are ready, however most premiership teams need to make finals for at least 3-4 years before genuinely going for the premiership. Just look at Geelong, who were making preliminary finals and finals for years before they won their premierships. A finals game this year would fast track development, and i'm gunning for it. It would also be incredible reward for supporters who have gone through the tough times for 3 years.

Sylvia is an immense talent. His form has been so awesome i have no doubt teams will try to tag him soon, might take him some time to learn to cope with that, but I love how he's developed.

If he was a better kick, he'd be one of our core players. Unfortunately, he is a bit limited by his kicking and therefore will be limited to being a 'role' player. Regardless, every team needs a brave, tough, great-tackling back pocket. If he can play that role the way he has been, he'll be a valuable member of the team each week. Good on him for finding his role in the side and i hope he keeps it up

Backs Luke Tapscott Matthew Warnock Evan Panozza Half backs Kyle Cheney Tim Mohr Jack Trengove Centreline Glenn Chivers Daniel Bell James Wall Half forwards Rian McGough Brad Miller Neville Jetta Forwards Matt Fieldsend Matthew Bate Addam Maric Followers Jack Fitzpatrick Ben MacReadie Danny Nicholls Interchange (from) David Bell Sam Blease Ryan Creed Wade Lees Tom McNamara Stefan Martin Ricky Plummer Tim Smith James Strauss We're developing some nice depth at the club playing VFL.... - Warnock, Bate and Trengove have arguably best 22 players, and could slot into the team seamlessly - Cheney, Jetta, Maric, Martin are young players with some limitations, but have all played some senior footy and would be able to play a role in the team were they required. - Miller, Bell are experienced big-bodies who could be called upon if required to help a young team, but probably aren't needed - Tapscott, Blease, Strauss, Gawn are raw developing players who most expect to be pushing for a couple of games late in the season Add to that the injuries - Grimes, Moloney, Petterd, Gysberts

According to Matt Burgan, he genuinely had a virus last week. Will be playing Casey reserves this week and aims to play casey seniors before the end of the year

Agree, was thinking he might be frustrated. Him being out of contract at the end of the year makes me a little nervous. Even though he is not a core player, having depth in key defensive positions is absolutely crucial. Just look at how Hawthorn struggled when Croad and a couple other defenders went down last year! Since Martin seems to have dropped off, and McNamara seems a little off the pace, we currently have 4 KPD- Garland, Frawley, Rivers and Warnock. I want all 4 playing for us next year. 3 will play in the seniors at any one time, BUT we will have injuries, and we don't want to be found out.

Bloody awesome. Wednesday night we'll be debt free. With great facilities, making profits, off-field we are absolutely dominating.

Wells would be a good target if he came super cheap. Wouldn't want to give up much though. Daniel Bell didn't make it because he is an average player, not injuries

He really adds X-factor to the forward line. Love that he's such a beautiful kick for goal. Will be terrorising forward lines for years to come.

Can't help but be excited by who wasn't in the team yesterday. IMO, Bate, Moloney, McDonald, Grimes, Trengove and Warnock are all in our best 22. All should be available next week. Add Gysberts (pick 11), Tapscott (pick 18), Blease (pick 17), Strauss (pick 19)and Gawn (pick 35) who are all developing at Casey and all of whom have the potential to be really great players.$ That's 11 players. Then consider the fact that Watts, Scully, Bail, Bennel, Trengove, Garland, McKenzie, Wona, Morton, Jurrah and Grimes are all going to be twice the players they are now with another 1-2 pre-seasons and an extra 30-40 games experience

I understand McDonald and Moloney are automatic selections, but how do you drop anyone? Jones plays an important role every week. 2 goals this week as well, played a pretty nice game playing on Kirk. Bennel plays a really crucial role in our forward line with his forward line pressure. 14 goals or something from turnovers was purely due to our pressure in the forward line. Bennel sets that example. He stays for sure!

We are so lucky to have Frawls. Make no mistake, he is the glue in our defence. He's the type of defender you can build a defence around, ala Lake. I'm thinking he'll be the true A-grader we're hoping for

the key for the improvement of some of our players is that the coaching staff have found the right position for them,so that they can make a really positive impact while playing to their strengths. Dunn- defensive half forward Bartram- small defender/stopper Green- half forward, forward pocket

Sorry to re-post, but i posted this in another thread. Could David Hale be the answer to our problems. Bailey has articulated very clearly that one missing link in the forward line is a big bodied tall forward. David Hale is 201cm, 103kg. 127 games, 117 goals is pretty decent ratio considering the guy has mostly played 50% forward 50% ruck. 26 years old, so definitely not too old. We really need a 2nd ruckman as well, so 2 birds with one stone. PJ is crap as a forward, while Hale is a genuine big target. I think Hale could possibly be the 2nd Ruck/forward we were looking for. Is certainly talented as a past top 10 draft pick. And most importantly, is on the outer at NM, so might be looking for greater opportunities. Goldstein and McIntosh are ahead of him in the ruck. Petrie ahead of him up forward. Probably wouldn't cost an arm and a leg