jabberwocky

It would not surprise me if Kyle Matthews was on the radar of a few clubs prior to his injury. I hope he has a great year on and off the field.

The club clearly wanted Joel Mac more and belivied that a young player at sixty something was going to give us better service than an injury prone Buckley, so yes I agree, but he was hardly the worst player on the list at the time. He was however considered the most expendable of the uncontracted players. Don't get me wrong I am not about to say that he will end up a fixture at the Magpies, but he is far more likely to be a senior player than Meesen or Newton. We also drafted tall with those later picks.

His delisting was a list management issue, at the time he was considered the most expendable unfortunately. He was out of contract at a time when space was needed on the list. He was always promising but he played very little footy due to injury after he began to show some good signs. Good luck to him, hope he does well against the other 15 sides. There will always be that player that you wish you drafted, or that player that you wish you kept. It is still very early to judge the recruiting, as for trades and delistings the club has made some very good decisions, we are probably due to get one wrong.

Thanks KC, I for one appreciate your efforts around here.

My hunch is opposite to the one Roost It has. Strong body, good hands, hard with a thumping accurate kick.....all sounds good to me.

I think you will do much better than that...well done. How long will they be on for sale CB, is there a timeline?

There is a lot of prayer and good will being sent your way Jimmy. We will continue to keep you in our prayers and thoughts mate.

There is nothing new here as Scully said it as much himself. Merged with Scully's Interview thread.

I really can't see why this thread should degenerate into a slanging match. Some say that Aussie had a reasonable game, others say he had an excellent game. Four goals is certainly a promising return is a losing team, good to see him have a successful hit out. We could certainly use a fit Aussie in the playing group, I have been hoping that he could develop into a mid but I don't think we will see him play there this season.

If you fix your focus contstantly on the horizon you are likely to trip over a rock.

This! And not beyond the realms of possibility if he remains fit. I put $10 on it a month ago.

It's not about being deceptive, it's like the old cliche take it one game at a time, which means that you concentrate on what you have control of, that is the here and now. At the start of the game you set out to win the first quarter, at quarter time you set out to win the second maybe changing match ups, set ups etc. Come on round 1....

I think you are spot on RP.

That is a most righteous statue.

Winning quarters is a mantra for losers? One of the more bizarre contradictions I have read on Demonland.

Mate that's a brilliant gesture, I was thinking that it would be great to get a few knick knacks for Jack to keep. It's a long story but he won't be with our family forever. If we could send him off to his next family as a demons supporter with a few bits and pieces that would be our legacy to him and something he will remember. I will be in touch, not sure if I will be at the first game depending on work schedule etc.

Yeah but if Dean Bailey takes us to a flag I reckon we should mount a statue and name it the Golden Bailey of Supreme Righteousness.

Fantastic article by Gary Lyon. 27 was also the number I chose for my Dees jumper back then. Agree with him about his athleticism, his battles with Ablett were the stuff of footy dreams.

I am sure that we would rather be winning than losing. I am sure that we would like our structures and disposal to hold up but.. football games are intense physical contests and intensity can be difficult to measure. Intensity will fluctuate in these pre-season games and we cannot measure how switched on our blokes have been in these games. I won't be making any predictions regarding this coming season based on a couple of scratch matches. Brad Green, Aaron Davey, Colin Sylvia and Brent Moloney just to name a few looked to me to be having a nice trot around the park in a couple of games between spasmodic bursts of heightened interest.

Morton has some great strengths, his height, he was certainly marking the footy well this pre-season before he got hurt, his running ability. He also had some glaring deficiencies which he needed to work on including his disposal and decision making under perssure. One of those deficiencies was the inability to put his head over the ball at crucial times probably due to a lack of confidence in his body. I can tolerate deficiencies but one I believe is not negotiable is keeping eyes on the footy when it is your turn to go. A player should get one warning and if he does it again he goes back to Casey until he learns or develops the body to do so. Old fashioned...maybe. Please don't lecture me and tell me that I am calling the players "soft" or "writing them off" etc. Like a lot of people here I have played the game, have been involved in coaching etc. The key to a successful playing career is developing a strong foundation. A strong foundation that is based on courage and hard work and utilising every one of your God given gifts for the bettterment of the team. Granting games to kids who won't or can't play courageous footy helps no-one in the long term. This is not an attack on the players, more a negative observation regarding our development. Those who know me know that I will sing the praises of this great club at every opportunity, but like a marriage if you agree with the Mrs all of the time for the sake of peace you are living a falsity. NB If Watts and or Morton become a tower of G and D and start putting thier head over the ball I still won't be proven wrong, and no-one would be more delighted than I. I also acknowledge that both players have made significant development in this area. I have always maintained that Jack Watts has the ability to take his game up a rather large notch by changing just one thing ie: the position of his head and his eyes just before he looks to attack the footy, I have watched him very carefully. As the confidence in his body improves then so should his attack on the football.....and I expect that it will.

The old man is responsible for a lot of Melbourne supporters, considering our breeding ability we could be responsible for half the membership soon. Would love to take young Jack to see a Melbourne flag with you cuz, mum would have to come and pick him up after the game though. Have told the Mrs to expect me to be missing for between 2 and 4 days.

Grimes, Sylvia, Davey in any order.

We have a big family. I have four kids and at the moment we also have a four year old fella named Jack. Jack is a foster child and has been with us for about a year and has become part of the family in this time. I have two boys 9 and 10 y/o who love the MFC, they wear the jumpers, pretend to be Jurrah and Sylvia...you know the deal. Well it was starting to rub off on young Jack, so I figured that this year it might be a good idea to see if we could sprout an interest in footy and get him to a few games etc. He also has cystic fibrosis and excercising his lungs is very important, so we try and play as much sport as we can with him, he has just learnt how to kick a footy. Anyhow I phoned the club and explained the situation hoping to add him to our family membership in place of my eldest daughter who unfortunately has little interest in footy. The club sent me out a membership pack immediately no questions asked, so now with a bit of luck we can indoctrinate young Jack. Hopefully he will grow into a lifelong supporter. I will organise to get him a jumper and some other garb to make him feel part of the tribe. The club also sent out a membership for my daughter which I did not expect. We don't exactly have a lot of spare cash at the moment so we can't afford to get the best membership but I try to support the club in other ways picking up birthday presents etc from the shop and trying to get to as many games as I can. Well done Melbourne Footy Club on helping support my family so that we can support you in future years.

I think that the OP is a bit ridiculous but I am against the idea of granting games to kids on "potential". I believe that it can be counter-productive to the team environment that we should be trying to create. I like the idea of kids having to work hard to get a game in the seniors. If there has been one thing I have been uncomfortable about during the last couple of years it has been our eagerness to play Morton and Watts before I believe they were ready. I understand and have considered the counter arguments re development etc.

The bloke's clearly got some issues to sort out.....before he plays footy again. Being a good footy player doesn't make a complete person, I think he needs to discover this before being offered any "lifeline".