Damo

I would be hoping the Dee's could pick up Sloane with pick 17 or 19. Like his play! I hav'nt heard anybody speak of him so far. I hope the recruiters are on to him and he slips through to us.

I hope we are talking to Rory Sloane as well. I dont think he will be that high and he has been playing on the backline so there may be stronger interest(so Im told) from the roos and Port Adelaide.

Would love to see him come to the Dees though.

I believe you have to be at the game to see how bad we play.

I have watched parts of the replay and it does not look as bad on TV as when you are at the ground.

The players dont even look into the forward for an option even if one is obvious.

They wont kick quickly without a long think to see if it will be worth getting slammed by the coach for making a mistake.

Morton waiting for 3 seconds to square it to Cam Bruce 30 out on his own is a typical example.

Took too long and a floaty kick and it just kills the instincts of natural football players.

The members ran out of pies today and there was hardly any staff in the Blazer bar at half time.

There was a lot of depressed demon fans in the line-up hungry and thirsty who showed up today to look for a silver lining.

In the past few years when discussions of "who would you want to play at Melbourne" are bandied about, the players thrown up have mainly been tall Forwards. Judd being the exception...

I have seen posters say they have wanted the Pav, Rievolt, Brown.... and Judd.

Someone pointed out that good large forwards are always taken early and that elite mid-fielders are often being traded. Judd, Stevens, Thompson, Johnson...

This year sees J.Brown possibly going but if this happens, it is uncommon for a good KPF to come on the market.

There isnt many real good ones going around.

If Rich and Watts are both elite, it then falls to the question of greatest need.

I believe the gap at Full Forward is larger than the gap in the middle.

The middle has promises being made this weekend.

Because you must strike when you have your opportunity, I want Watts.

Theres lies, damned lies and we cant even look at the statistics...

For that reason, I'd be [censored] of we gave up a pick ten in THIS draft for a ruckman who is, so far, only showing potential.

Happy to agree with DD.

I would quite happily pick Watts with Draft pick one and then try to swap 17 and 19 (if thats what we have) for a pick 7/8/9/10 if we can do that deal, to get another quality midfielder who can deliver the ball. I would think there may be takers from Freo or Saints.

If we miss on Warnock in pre-season Im happy to stick with Jamar and PJ who are showing some potential.

Our forward line and midfield are abysmal.

Our ruck are merely agricultural.

Flower and Alan Johnson

You keyboard slap happy jerks just clog up forums with your continual half-full wanks about how good our players are.

You then shout down others because you expect to be backed up by other one-eyed adolescent tools.

How surprising.

How is Morton or Garland deemed to be a star? How is McLean? How is Rivers or Moloney? why dont you try to answer daveytrains question about our impending "superstars"?

good luck thick head

Just a couple things I wanna know from some decent melbourne followers:

2)

We have a couple kids developing are any of these kids going to be superstars that we have been lacking for several years now? Have we wasted our draft picks?

I am aslo worried about the picks we have had in the last few years.

Col Garland, Cale Morton, McLean OK. Cant see a star though.

Moloney, Rivers Petterd, Sylvia all have problems or are valued highly from little result.

Others are average at best.

People talk up our recruits but I think most of them are going to be duds or are already on the long term injury lists.

I just showed plenty of courage and ticker by consuming a large bowl of fibre for breakfast.

Those that showed up are again the most disappointed.

I see a certain dash about shielding your mate in if you have already been lumbered.

I dont understand why the penalties are now overly harsh, except for the fact that the hierarchy have made fools of themselves by lack of research and have over-reacted.

Didak should have shot through or hid under the roses.

He was more than averagely stupid to hang around the scene.

I wouldnt be surprised if everyone collectively gets over their egos and reduces the bans to two or three weeks.

Let's hope this story isn't true for Richmond's sake because every football writer and commentator will be all over the Tigers and their handling of this icon of the football world

ICON must mean the tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain.

Rich.

It is a Sophies choice and I will accept whoever we get but we need a midfielder more than any other team.

We have one truly decent mid in McLean.

Although I have always been in the camp of pick the good big man over the good smaller player, Rich is the safest bet.

We also need a quality forward, but we have a couple that are mediocre and have some hope.

Even if we dont get Warnock, I am luke warming to Jamar and to a lesser extent PJ.

If it was this time next year, I believe I would be cursing missing out on Rich more than I would be anxiously waiting for the ripening of NikNat or Watts.

I’m surprised that any Melbourne person would have any issue with Cameron Schwab getting involved with our club.

I don’t know Schwab that well, although I did some recruiting work with the club in the early to mid 80’s – very dark days for the club. I have followed his career since from a distance.

He went to Richmond, who were stuffed as GM and he was only 24. He set up the Save our Skins campaign which saved the club. He also famously sacked Kevin Bartlett and got John Northey over and they made the finals, something they haven’t done a lot of.

why wouldn’t we be interested?

I worked with the wife of a Richmond board member during Cameron's time at their club. They were both pretty good friends and I saw them socially often. They are down to earth get stuck in and help types, with very little BS about them at all.

So believe me when I say Cameron Schwab had little or no respect from either the board or the staff.

If he came up with the Save our Skins campaign I wouldnt be surprised but he is an ideas man at best.

He is not hands on and is very much a Machiavellian string puller.

He is mates with CC and JS and if he was bought in, I hope it is not as a CEO. He is not a team player and in my mind is similar to a young Greg Miller.

He is shifty. Be careful. Im sure he is currently rehearsing his long time love of Melbourne speech that he used when going to the Tigers.

This is Welchy's first post. It is full of sh!t and makes me wonder who actually posted it.

I have come to the belief Caroline has a long lunch before Football classified.

B: Carroll, Warnock, Whelan

HB: Bruce, Garland, Rivers

Im still convinced Chopper can be a good player in a better backline. he may not have a chance to show it though.

I would like to think Maloney could play a role similar to the cats Josh Hunt, if Wheels cant cut it.

He is gutsy and competitive, but I believe his biggest asset is that his leap has improved markedly.

He is getting much higher than most of his rivals.

I think he has benefited in the absence of White in the same fashion as Miller has without Neitz.

He may be slow but he is getting to the right spots and never shirks an issue.

I would keep him as 1st ruck, if he stays on this improving course.

I reckon he would go much higher than 3rd round.

Jamar isnt our 1st, second or third biggest problem.

Not having a drink with close friends after a funeral can be very difficult. it is for me anyway.

If you are a profesional athlete not used to having a quiet one or two, you can go overboard without trying.

He acceded to his conscience by telling his team mates.

They stuck to their own task and made him pay the price.

I see this as a good news story.

Chris Johnson is the ideal trade bait at years end.

If he keeps playing good footy, both Perth clubs will certainly look at him.

I agree Y_M

With all the talk about rob Warnock I dont believe he will fall through to the PSD without a trade.

So we have to figure what he is worth.

I reckon he is worth an early second round pick of which we will probably have two.

We may need to add another WA player. CJ is one that may be considered.

I will be there. i didnt think they served food. Maybe a bowl of chili can be organised?

I'm all for winning, and quite frankly as long as we stay under 5 wins i would be quite happy for us to NOT get the wooden spoon. Looking at it, how much of a difference will it make getting the no. 2 draft pick as opposed to no. 1? We (maybe) miss out on getting Naita and instead we get Rich or someone else we think is better, we get No. 2 in the PSD which will still put us in prime possie if Warnock elects to go that way and we don't get the shame of the wooden spoon.

For christ sake it used to be everyone did everything they could to AVOID it! I LIKE WINNING! (Within reason!)

Completely agree.

I cant help but think those that did not want us to win yesterday, either left early, (and there were a few!) or WERE NOT THERE.

The crowd were instrumental in getting the boys over the line.

To get a win yesterday was great for the MFC.

Yay Carroll in.

I will the one on the steps who will be barracking like mad for Uncle Chop Chop.

I dont think a lot here will give him any credit if he plays well.

I want Nathan Carroll back in the side.

I think he is unfairly done by and is one of our better players.

If the new-guard back line helps him I think he will be seen to have 'come good".I hope so.

He is a bread and butter backman and gets on the park far more often than Rivers.

We must indeed be watching different games then.

.....

Great post.

Jeff comes alive when we have the ball on a flank or wing, screaming for an easy possession behind the ball.

He doesnt man up or cover ground enough when we dont have it.

He doesnt win on the boundary throw ins any more which he had been good/excellent at.

If you compare Warnock, Warnock is prepared to go for a pack mark. Jeff doesnt do this any more at all, at all.

He has lost his endevour and as Hazy says we should thank him and hand him his hat.

Getting games into PJ and the Russian is more important than paying homage to an old champ.

I recall watching Peter Moore running laps when we had Big Red and an irrepressible Irishman putting it on the line to get games in 1987.

Although those big men were better than the above, one was a pure ruckman and one was a big RuckRover.

John Northey had no qualms about putting games into the new and letting the old dual brownlow winner go out without a game.

Admittedly Moore was playing out his contract by then and said he was injured but I dont believe he still had the fire.

Same as Jeff White.

I need to read the book, which Whispering Jack reviewed here a while back, but my recollection is that rather than walking on Hawthorn, he just stopped showing up.

They then delisted him which must have [censored] his brothers off big time. I think Geoff was either still on the list or just retired. His sister was married to Micheal Tuck and it must have been an issue to many relatives but not Gary.

He did however play for Myrtleford (?)the next year and apparently that season is talked about as magical.

He did walk away from Geelong too.

I remember his first game back was against us and we put Andrew Obst on him.

Bad grammar is annoying

It is more annoying than mis-spelling a personal pronoun.

Hannibal or Hannabal? Pot or kettle? I dont mind.

I do prefer a compelling and knowledgable argument and if I have to suffer a certain arrogance, it is worth it.