Vipercrunch

Nic Nat was BOG on Friday night and has done miles, miles more than Watts has done to date. Yes it is too early to tell who will be better in the long run, but to act completely blind to the exceptional football NicNat has played to date is getting moronic.

Thats the way I remeber it also. The sources I have heard saying it was a choice Melbourne made was from journo's. The first was the country radio coverage of the Melb vs Coll game when Sandy Roberts asked the very leading question early in the game about whether Melbourne regretted their decsicion to keep Jamar instead of Jolley. He was obviously insinuating that we had made a huge mistake. Whether or not he re-addressed the issue later in the game after Jamar totally dominated the ruck is doubtful. The other was at the start of the Gerald Healy article in the HUN recently. The gist of the article was the Jamar should count himself extremely lucky to still be listed.

I've heard many times in the last few weeks that Melbourne made a choice between Jamar and Jolley. Is that how it happened? My recollection was that Jolley wanted to leave because felt he was ready to be number 1 ruckman and knew he would stay number 2 at Melbourne behind Jeff White for several years. Can anyone enlighten me on what really happened?

I think they will be forced to go with Each team playing 22 games over 24 Rounds. 19 of those Rounds will have 8 games (1 team has the bye). The other 5 Rounds will only have 7 games (3 teams with the bye). One key of this will be how close the bye is for teams finishing in the finals. Teams will rightly cry foul if they have to play against a team coming of a Round 24 bye the first week of the finals. One possible way to avoid this is to have the 8 temas who miss the finals this year have the byes in the final 8 rounds. The wooden spooner has the bye in Rnd 24, 2nd last in Rnd 23 etc etc. Unless a teams has a monumental jump up the ladder the teams in the finals will have similar lead ins (ie several weeks since their last bye). However it turns out it will suck. I hate even now with the mid-season break not seeing Melbourne play for that week. Two weeks off will be even worse.

It really is a non-issue the break between games. The bench has so many on it and the rotations are very high. A 6 day break won't hurt anyone. And the result isn't important so the fact that Essendon is soming off a 15 day break is meaningless. What we all want to see is a much improved performance - skills, effort, decision making etc. We have three more practice games to iron out some glaring issues otherwise all the hope and confidence we have all developed and that has been so actively encouraged by the club will very quickly disappear.

I doubt any Melbourne supporter wants Watts to fail. However, everytime I hear a training report that is even slightly negative about Watts I admit I do get concerned. All I have to base my opinion on regarding Watts is the senior games he played last year and any VFL game I happened to catch on the ABC. What I saw did not overly enthuse me, not because he lacks the skill. He has truck loads of that. The thing I didn't observe was 100% desire. Oppisition supporters no doubt notice it too, otherwise they wouldn't come up with the nicknames Mr morton listed. I hope he turns into the most dominant player in the AFL, I really do. I hope the things that I have observed are an abberation. I hope he one days wins the Brownlow, Coleman, Norm Smith and lifts the cup in September. But right now, he has a long way to go. What I want to hear from track watchers is that he is one of the hardest trainers, listens intently to the coach, vocal with teamates and shows the signs of being a future leader. That will go along way to alleviating my concerns.

Awesome. Great song to go with great, emotive footage. Would love to have seen more of a tribute to TB, but other than that, it's wonderful. How good would it be at full resolution and instead of yet another scarf, all members get a copy of it on DVD with other footage as part of their memebership next year.

If I was a Carlton supporter I would be pretty filthy on my club for this deal.

Now thats a big statement which I say is a load of rubbish. Wona and LJ are grown, proud men whose form and desire to play football existed before they meet Davey. In all seriousness, that has got to be one of the craziest statements I've seen here. Quite absurd really. IF and I repeat if Davey wants to leave then goodbye. We take as much as we can for him, but IF he wants out, then whats the point stopping him. Like most here though, I hope this rumour is crap.

I apologise if this has been posted already, but surely, surely whoever we get with Pick 2 must wear number 13 on their back next year. Afterall, if it wasn't for the number 13 from Richmond, we wouldn't be getting that player.

After week 1 of the Dreamteam Finals comp, Melbourne supporters are again on top with an avergae of 1848, 10 ahead of the Dorks and Toiges supporters. Go Dees :)

That's a very, very impressive record Bingo. Come and join us for this. It's quite a different game without Salary caps etc. The more the merrier. EDIT: While we're gloating, I finished 345th out of 83,576 in the Heraldsun SuperTipping comp

Same here for this week. I want Collingwood, Essendon and Carltank out ASAP. After that I will be going for the Bulldogs and Saints (in that order).

I think you're safe. Richmond seem to have a long road ahead of them. I would be very, very dissappointed if we finished below them.

:D

All sounds a little bit too late from the council. We have made long term commitments to Casey, which from all appearances seem to be working out well.

Perhaps we could follow Richmond's idea and make our longest serving Captain's number into the number all the captains wear. Junior goes to number 9, freeing up 23 for LJ. Jurrah will fit right in with the likes of Jordan and Le Bron James.

I'd take 7... I would like to him stay with the same number simply because there are probably 100's of kids with 48 on their back now. My son put 39 on his jumper last year for Aussie only to see him change to 33 at the start of this season. I have to keep telling him who 39 is now.

I would love to see someone, ANYONE from MFC kick some 8+ goal hauls. How long ago did we see that? Cuthbertson did that at least a couple of times.

Knock yourself out undeenianble, but I think we all agree that LJ is in a league of his own in both immediate impact and potential. You could also compare Newton to J Brown and Nick Riewoldt, but no one is saying Newton is in that sort of company. My intention is to compare Newton with other young, non-superstar forwards who most people think will make OK AFL players.

I am one of the few here that hold on to some hope that Newton can make it at AFL level. Here are some comparisons agaisnt similar players. Statistically he stacks up pretty well. Assuming he remains on our list next year (not traded or sacked) it will be a real interest for me to observe how he goes. Josh Kennedy Jack Riewoldt Jay Neagle Tom Hawkins Flame away... :D

Ottens didn't play as a small defender. He was more 2nd or 3rd tall defender I thought. Very much like Rivers imo.

That's not a suprise at all imo. He was the clear standout I thought. It takes most midfielders several seasons to get anywhere close to his skill, fitness and composure. Much harder to give the remaining votes though. Grime probably needed to play more games and spend time in the midfield to have polled some votes. Right or wrong, there is a perception that the small defender/rebounding role is the easiest to play in modern football. Grimes is more than that, but unfortunately didn't have many opportunities to show it due to injuries.

People must be seeing something in Pears that I have missed....

It would be a disgrace if Rich didn't win. He has been a real standout and must be making several recruiters a little nervous for letting him slip to Pick 7. Out of the others mentioned Dangerfield, Ottens and Hurley should all vote well. The first two for consistency and Hurley has shown good form and promise very recently and will be fresh in the judges mind.