sylvinator

Good god, will people stop suggesting dud key forwards as if they're going to fix all our problems. Hawkins and Jesse White are both spuds and would continue to be so at our club. Taylor Walker has promise, but no moreso than Cook or Watts and its a moot point anyways because he's already signed a deal with GWS. Fev is not the player he used to do, people need to get over the romanticised version of the type of player he could be back at afl. he's a cancer to any club he's at. Yes we need a key forward... but what we need to do is develop our own key forwards- Cook, Watts and Fitzpatrick. And if we're going to trade in a key forward we need to throw big money at a seriously quality one- like Dawes or Cloke from Collingwood.

That's a rediculous ways of assessing improvement. Every team outside the top 4 has had the occasional shocker game. It's what happens when your an up-n-coming team filled with inexperienced kids. We have definitely improve this season

I back us to beat Richmond, Gold Coast and Port. But 10.5 wins will not be enough. To make finals we'll have to beat one of Geelong, Carlton, Hawthorn and Wet Toast. Which is fair enough, because if you lose to all 4 finals teams you probably don't deserve to be in the finals. Some really good tests for us in the next 4 weeks. really great chance to see whether we've taken another step up from last season

We currently have 7.5 wins and 7 matches to go. We have games against Gold Coast and Port Adelaide (last and second last) coming up, plus very winnable games against Richmond and West Coast both at the MCG. We could very easily end up with 10.5 or 11.5 wins. Considering we won 8.5 games last season and that it usually takes 12 wins to get into finals, dare I say that by itself shows improvement. For the record, if we don't get even one win from either Geelong, Hawthorn or Carlton in coming weeks, I will agree that we won't have made the next step. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean there has been no team improvement.

Strauss and Nicholson both played as shut-down defenders, but probably didn't give quite enough drive out of defence, although some of Nicholson's pace was important. Morton is a tough one, I think he's going in hard and taking his turn since he got dropped, but still is very low in confidence. Not sure what to do here. INS: Davey (absolute certainty, our vice captain, super talent, one week in vfl is enough), MacDonald (really strong medium defender and ahead of Strauss and Nicholson) OUT: bottom 3 players tonight were probably Strauss, Nicholson and Morton. I see no reason to bring in Gawn with Jamar/Martin combo doing so amazingly well. Bartram and Bate are now depth and without injuries should not be brought in under any circumstances

The good. Frawley- what an awesome player Pettard- since he was dropped he has realised the effort required from him and has been excellent. Adds something to our forward line when he's tackling and pressuring Martin- Loving his work around the ground. Jamar/Martin a really strong duo now, with Gawn and Spenser in the wings, our weakness at the start of the season is looking strong again. Sylvia, Moloney and Trengove- love your midfield work boys Jurrah special mention- it's not all going perfectly for him atm, but he's such a talent, i don't like how many times he was mentioned in the thread 'disappointments of season 2011'. He's still so young and has kicked 33 goals in 14 games is a great effort. Has been forced to play as the prime target way too much when he should be third tall The bad Morton- a little disappointing, can tell he's trying to go hard when its his turn, but is over thinking things. Needs confidence. I think a full pre-season will make a huge difference, last 2 years he's had long term injuries in the lead up to round 1, I think people underestimate how much behind the black ball you are without a proper pre-season The ugly Nothing really ugly

19 year old copping a tight Kane Cornes tag... jeezus this site frustrates me sometimes. Get a clue. Anyone who can't see he's going to be a future star must be blind or have no ability to identify talent and star quality

At the end of the day, the club is bigger than any one player. If we lose Scully (god i hope we don't), we'll get 2 first rounders in return, and we'll get excited about those 2 youngsters in years to come. Maybe even pass them on packaged with Morton to GWS for one of the best 4 17 yr olds in the country. Plus we've still got Trengove, Gysberts, Watts, Frawley, Grimes and plenty of other young guns as well.

I would as well. Would it be a decent idea to consider dropping Aussie down to the rookie list next season (obviously would involve delisting and re-rookieing), I know that sounds pretty cut-throat... but it would probably be the best solution for both parties. It really takes the pressure off Aussie, he's not taking up a spot on the senior list while in the Tiwi Islands, so he can really focus on his mental health and when he's ready to fully commit to footy he can be upgraded back onto the list. It would obviously be best for Melbourne because we don't have a player who is unavailable for selection taking up a senior spot on the list. Plus Aussie is still a rookie at the club so if he comes back he can always put himself in line for selection as an upgraded rookie

a MUST READ!: http://thewhitemaggot.com/2011/07/11/damien-barrett-99-78653-sure-scully-to-sign-with-gws/

Me too, but with so many rumours and so many people coming out and saying it's a done deal, it's starting to feel like 'where there's smoke there's fire' God i hope i'm wrong

Malthouse. Widely recognised as a tactical genius. Knows how to develop young players and is a mastermind on game day. Is very experienced but currently at the top of his game (unlike Sheedy last time around). Has proven he can win premierships and lift average teams to have a genuine shot at a premierships (think Collingwood early 2000s). We would be lucky to get him.

So you think Gawn will be a multiple all-australian, in the top 10-20 players in the afl and probably in the top 3 most valuable players in the afl to their respective times. Wow, big call. We can only hope

I would love to keep Martin, and I'm sure will. But if, worst case scenario, we lost him, we still have Jamar who's a great ruckman + Gawn a great up-n-comer + Spenser who was developing well before injury this season. I don't think Martin is a key to our future success in the same way Sylvia and Scully are

Contracted to End of 2011 Jake Fitzpatrick Max Gawn Brad Green (Upgraded to Veterans List) Addam Maric Stefan Martin Cale Morton Tom Scully Colin Sylvia Austin Wonaeamirri I think it's fair to say that if we sign up Scully and Sylvia this year (big if) it will be a HUGE win for the club because it means we'll have gotten through 2/3 Suns&GWS poaching periods completely unscathed. No other player apart from Scully and Sylvia would dent out upward progression in any way Get it done MFC!

Scully will be the Judd of his generation. He will be a superstar of the competition for over a decade. bookmark it

Pay Scully the big bucks. We have opened up well over a $1m hole in our salary cap by front loading contracts. Scully WILL be the best player in the competition in 3-4 years time. And the beauty is that he's a teenager that has another 12 years of classy football to come. He is also a super role model in terms of training and going the distance to achieve success. He will be worth every single bloody cent. In my opinion, Scully is the best teenager in the AFL. And that includes guys like Martin and Fyfe (and how much cash would you throw at those boys to bring them to the demons!?)

People have very short memories. His first 2 seasons he played over 40 games as a skinny bugger, regularly picking up 25+ possessions and 6+ marks. He showed a great ability to find space, to use his running ability to provide an option when others couldn't. I remember his kicking some very nice goals on the run from 50m out as well In his first 2 seasons, everybody assumed he's bulk up and improve his physicality, and the only real criticism of him was his overhead marking. Now his overhead marking has improved out-of-sight. His 3rd season was severely affected by injury. Now his 4th season, we are all getting impatient (myself excluded), but we should remember that he's still young. While he has taken longer than most to bulk up, he should hit 95kg by the start of next season. He needs to improve his intent to tackle and apply pressure and his physicality. no doubt. but... not worth writing him off just yet

No, he was wrong. The reason why we aren't beating the good teams, is because there are still a lot of teams that are better than us, more experiences than us and more physically mature than us. We are still 12-24 months away from having the sufficient experience and physical maturity to be a really good team, and until then we can expect better teams to beat us + some inconsistency of effort which comes with youth. As our players become strong, more experienced and better, they will be better placed to implement our game plan, will be better players full stop, and we'll start to beat the top teams

Just thought this was a good time for a reminder that we ARE on the right track, and that all we really require is a little bit of patience. For a second, just focus on the physical maturity of our players compared to the top teams. If you look at the best 22s of the top 5 teams this year- Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, Carlton and Sydney- I count AT LEAST 18 players from each of those teams' best 22 that have reached physical maturity (i.e. are already at a level where they have strong bodies and won't get much bigger from more pre-seasons). Also looking at StKilda and Bulldogs, who have beaten us this season, who have been up the top for a few years, they also have 18+ of their best 22 fully physically mature. Now a look at the demons... In the 22 that players tonight (which is really only 2-3 players of our best 22), I count 11 players that are not physically mature and who will change their body shapes dramatically over the course of the next 12-24 months. That list includes: Watts, Morton, Jurrah, Mckenzie, Strauss, Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Bennel, Howe and Blease. All those players have been drafted in the past 3 seasons (bar Morton who was drafted 4 seasons ago with anorexia), showing just how many of our best 22 is 20 years old or younger. It proves that this year we are still in development mode. Now for the good news! As our players physically mature (and with that comes 1-2 more pre-seasons and 20-40 more senior games players together as a group), our team will naturally improve 10-fold. In particular, guys like Watts, Gysberts, Scully, McKenzie and Morton will all naturally become much better players once they reach physical maturity. Now for the best news of all! Because of the path we've taken over the past 3 seasons, we've fast tracked the development of many of our players, getting games into them very early. We are NOT at the beginning of our rebuild, rather we are nearly at the end of it! How do I know this? Because at the start of the 2013 season, of those 11 players I mentioned above, ALL should be pretty much physically mature. The only players that could foreseeably be in our best 22 in 2013 who are not physically mature by the start of 2013, would be Lucas Cook (who should well on his way to physical maturity by then) and any drafted picks over the next year or 2. And apparently Jack Viney in physically mature at 16 years old. . We definitely have the talent on the list- our high draft picks have given us an easy ride in this regard. All we require to be a top 8 team is games experience together as a group and physical development. Luckily, both these things are relatively easy to achieve. 1-2 more preseasons and 20-40 games.

But... but.... he wasn't in the top 30 in any of the bigfooty phantom drafts

Dunn, Bate and Morton are all trade bait, although of those 3 i'd least like to lose Morton. I'd love to get one of the 4 17 year olds

Out- MacDonald In- Tapscott I wouldn't be making any more changes after 2 really strong wins in a row. I'm liking the rebound we're getting from Strauss, Nicholson and Bennel. Also think people are being unfair on Morton, it's hard to come on as a sub and his form the previous 2-3 weeks had been good.

He's still very young, has plenty of talent, has some elite attributes, and was drafted as a long term project considering how skinny and undersized he was at 18. People on demonland will write him off.... of coarse... just like they wrote off Watts and Frawley and Garland early in their careers. Sometimes 194cm+ players take some time! patience is required

Way too many people focusing on the negatives. How about a look at some postives. 1. His marking is severely underrated in the quoted post above. He is a very clean and strong overhead mark, an area of his game that has improved out of sight. At 194cm his marking is an advantage over most other midfielders 2. His long kicking can be excellent, especially on the weekend he did several long kicks to forwards out into space that were very clearly giving the forward the advantage. Kicking to advantage is something many of our other players could work on. 3. His physical attributes, namely his combination of elite speed and endurance, mean he is able to get to more contests than most, and even at his lowest level of confidence, still regularly picks up 20+ possessions. 4. Since he was dropped, he is now taking his turn (eg going back with the flight when required). He needs to continue this. He will never be (and really should never be) a truely inside player like Jones or Moloney. He doesn't love physical contact... but every premiership team needs outside players as well and their role shouldn't be ridiculed. 5. He's built his body from a starting weight of around 80kg, to about 94kg now. At 194cm, if he can hit 100kg, he should be able to impose himself physically better than ever before. People say it's only about intent, but at the end of the day, a 100kg player is going to fair better in a physical contest than an 85kg player, so that goal of bulking up is almost their. Yes he has things to work on. He needs to be even more physical at the contest. He needs to improve his short kicking. He needs to add an extra 7-8 kilos of muscle around the chest and arms. But he could still yet be a fantastic player in years to come