torpedo

Canberra is neutral whereas selling a game to Geelong is essentially selling 4 points. Geelong has zero potential for growing our fan base, although I dont rate it myself you could argue Canberra is a potential growth area. Most fans problem with selling the Brisbane game was that it gave away a huge home ground advantage and its arguable the sale of that game cost a top 4 spot. I think MFC members would be more concerned with winning than having an opportunity to make the journey out to Skilled and a game in Canberra is much more winnable than a game in Geelong.

Dunn would be the obvious choice and given his record recently it makes sense to me. If Dunn is getting beaten he gets a spray not a leave pass, giving him a quarter and a half then moving Bruce onto Harvey would be a soft, reactive ND approach, Bailey is into backing his youngsters and developing them and I dont think he would see any harm letting Dunn get a clinic from Boomer for a full 4 quarters. Im confident Dunn would have an impact against him anyway.

Statement from Jimmy: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/tabid/7415/D...px?newsid=63946

Nothing to do with the fact that you excluded him from the poll and based your team on 3 outdated positions rather than just a team of 22... By the way, Wheatley doesnt play half back / wing because he doesnt have the strength to play on key forwards, his role is as a playmaker - an offensive player in our defensive half - a key role in modern football, look it up.

<_<

What does our lack of I50s have to do with over possessing the ball? Its the way you dispose of it that counts, many of the teams with high I50s counts could be accussed of over possessing the ball, they execute it properly though so it doesnt hurt them. I'll take adjusting to Bailey's game plan over bombing it long into our forward 50 so it can come straight out again any day of the week, that might win us a few more games here and there in the short term, it will never take us to Premiership though and that whats it all about. This point seems to be lost on the 'kick it looooooooooong' brigade that insist on turning up every week and yelling it out incessantly... Nail. Head. Apparently we dont need Rich though cause midfielders are a dime a dozen? You know there's 50 Judd & Ablett's running around but only 1 Franklin & Brown? I think we should take the best player available, whether that be Watts or Rich I'll leave that to experts. Its clear that our midfield requries at least as much and probably more work than on our forwardline though.

Wheatley is not and never has been a utility. He has always played the majority of his football as a back flanker / wingman - his specific role now has a name, link man, a la Mackie, Gram, etc. Any vote that involves 3 separate votes to determine 1 outcome, and none of the voters are told this is the case from the outset, is flawed. Nobody will have what they wish is their final side because you have not told anybody they are voting for their final side, all you have done is simply ask people to list their best defenders, best forwards and best mids, that is a totally different concept to a best team and will mean any player that doesnt fit neatly into any of the 3 categories will miss out.

That's probably because Wheatley is not a defender or a midfielder, he is what is commonly referred to these days as a link man. This highlights how using 3 different polls asking for our best 6 defenders, best 6 forwards & best 6 mids to determine who everyone believes should make up the MFC's best 22 is totally flawed. Create a thread asking for MFC's best TEAM (ie, 22 players) if thats what you want. Listing best players by position is not determinative of the best side to field, you are excluding all sorts of players that do not necessarily fit into your 3 restrictive categories, another example would be taggers.

Definetly, thats a far cry from a forcing them into retirement though, the ball is left in the player's court. As laughable as it is Yze has come out and said he is keen to continue playing AFL, so he's hardly going to be receptive to a mid-season retirement.

Fair enough, I thought you were suggesting forcing them into retirement mid-season.

How do they go about doing that though? White & Yze have made it clear they do not want to retire, at least not during this season. I agree that they shouldnt get a testimonial game however expecting them to retire because it makes MFC's life easier seems like wishful thinking.

Interesting that Holland is good mates with Benny Gale, the bastion of player's rights... I've never been a fan of Gale, I support the AFLPA 100%, I dont like his approach though. After the events of recent months it seems to me that maybe Holland's been getting some advice off his expert mate.

In: Davey Out: Green If Macca is fit Bell, Bartram or Buckley will make way for him. Perhaps its time Batram got some touches back at Sandy, his steady improvement seems to have wained. I'd be dissapointed if Bucks was dropped, kids in his position should be given at least 2-3 weeks at a time before they are demoted. Macca will not come back through Sandy. He is co-captain. The players you comparing him to are fringe players or players that have been out of the game for several months.

McLean, Jones, Dunn, Davey & Bruce. Haven't seen enough of Morton, Buckley, CJ, Valenti & Grimes to make a call as to their midfield capabilities, we need at leat a couple of them to step up soon though. Bruce will be on his last legs as midfielder, I cannot see an ongoing role for Moloney as the game gets faster and its likely Macca will not play on, if he does it will be in a more limited defensive role as per this year. Developing or obtaining a top shelf mid with pace should be a massive priority - that midfield is OK, its pretty obvious what it is missing though - a champion.

Warnock. That said, if we get Prismall I would be just as happy. We certainly need a skilled mid just as much as any other type of player, a 206cm AFL ready ruck is a real rarity though so we should do everything possible to make that happen. It will ultimately just be a matter of what can we orchestrate rather than who do we prefer. The likelihood of pulling off 1 trade let alone 2 is already slim. Not interested in speculative trades such as Boyle or Murphy. Neither have shown any worth at AFL level as yet.

I think most weeks there is room for all of Martin, Warnock, Garland & Rivers. Garland can play small and is showing real signs he could become a damaging rebounding defender rather than a FB / CHB. Rivers has only ever been a 3rd tall, his best work is done filling the hole.

Maric If Grimes can squeeze in 3-4 full matches in the Sandy 1s between now and Rd 22 maybe however at this stage that seems unlikely.

It depends I would say on current form that the nucleas should be around Garland, Warnock, Martin & Rivers. Whatever roles Bartram, Bell, Bruce, Buckley, CJ, Whelan & Wheatley (who wasnt on the list) play will vary from week to week (and throughout the match) and I think they could all make valuable contributions to the backline and / or midfield. Frawley is on the outer.

Given different match-ups each week, the potential for a few of those players to paly differing roles from week to week depending on our needs and the fact that with rotations there is no such thing as a back 6 or forward 6 anymore my answer would be 'it depends'. All I would say is that on their day they could all be valuable contributors to the backline bar Carroll who should probably be moved on at years end.

You idiot.

I dont think it should be acceptable that we have a player in our team that is such a terrible kick that every time they mark the football they need to wait 30 seconds for another player to run around the back of them so they can have that player execute the 15 metre pass, often on their wrong foot. I dont care what else he can do, until he learns to kick he is an embarrassment.

Great article and great concept. Just out of interest, is this how Cheney broke his hand or did it happen at training?

Interesting article with Barry Prendergast: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl...2-19769,00.html The 'best player available' card has reared its ugly head again, suggesting potential trade acquisitions such as Warnock may have no bearing on who we go for: And there will be no thoughts of recruiting on a position-needs basis in the first two rounds. "You just take the best player," he said.

Why is he still only rated 50/50 going into this week then?

I guess it's just how you've interpreted the question. I took at as meaning who will win the Most Improved Award - in my experience at club footy such an award goes to guys who have improved against the odds so to speak - so for me that cancels out 1st & most 2nd year players - ie, Garland, and the majority of older players, ie Wheatley, Green, Miller. Its just a matter of how you perceive the award should be based, I dont think there is a right or wrong answer. If the question is simply who has improved the most this season then that could mean anybody. However, even then I'd be hesitant to bring up the performances of guys like Wheatley, Green & Miller because they're simply playing at a level thats been expected of them for many years already, I'd say they've under performed in recent years rather than improved this year.