Vipercrunch

That was nice. Bruce and Green dominated those highlights. Nice memories for sure and I hope like you all do that we see games like that with the latest batch of youngsters in the coming years.

Just gonna bump this up to the top once more to see if there is any other interest.

Why would a grocery chain be alienating themselves anymore than a fast food chain, motor car company etc etc? Please explain.

I have done a search and it looks like Demonland has already filled 2 Supercoach leagues. Is there enough interest to create one more? If I get at least 8 confirmed interested players in the next few days I will go ahead and create a new one.

Do any of the major Grocery chains sponsor AFL clubs? I can't think of any and wonder why not?

I am a little over 30, so probably have less knowledge about how the game used to be played as some of you. From what I have seen (a copy of one of the Grand Finals from the mid 70's), I much, much prefer todays game than what i saw then. I may have seen a bad game, but what i saw was mindless kick-to-kick. It was horrible. Team A got the ball and blindly bombed it to their Half forawd line. Team B one the ball and bombed it back. So brainless. The game is evolving, and I am enjoying the journey.

Surely the ability to kick should be judged on results, not biomechanical action. If someone hits a target a high percentage of the time in match conditions, I'll pick him over anyone else with a prettier kicking action. And yes, Grimes can definetely win the Rising Star award. He is already getting attention from many media commentators, so is halfway there. He is a must for any fantasy teams also. Cheap as chips. And the captaincy? Who knows imo. People talk Watts up extremely highly (re: Robbo in an article I read a few days ago) and Maclean is still highly rated. Time will tell.

Am I bling or is there really no Rivers or Martin?

Apart from being interested in him, unless Port Power can somehow hide him from the rest of the competetion then he will be known by all the other clubs when draft time comes around. The talent scouts are all over the national junior competetions and if he is good enough, then all the clubs will know about him. That's my understanding of how the system works anyway.

I heard Greg Deham also this morning. He spoke about a deal that was pretty good almost being finalised and also a fallback deal that although not as lucrative as the other one, would still be OK. He said it is very unlikely we will begin the real season without a major sponsor, but it won't be as good as the $8 million over 4 years that we thought we had done with Mission Foods. He finished the discussion predicting the announcement within 2 weeks as said by loges.

I am very keen to see if some of the players who, this time last year, I personally thought would never make it continue their improvement (Buckley, Warnock and Garland to name some of them). I am also very keen to see if DB can get the same sort of imrpovemnt out of players like Sylvia, Dunn, Bate and Newton. They are our short term future and will be the most significant factor for our sucess (or lack of), over the next two season. I am also keen to see last years batch of recruits (Grimes, Cheney etc) in action. The time will come later to see the latest batch of recruits, but there really is no need to rush them. The little we saw of them last week was enough to hope for good things from them, but I agree that a conservative approach over the next four weeks is a good strategy. I think many of them will take part this pre-season, but this week it is time for the players with several AFL preseasons under their belt to mark their mark.

Bell played across half forward, which I think is where he belongs. Whether he can be of AFL senoirs quaility across there time will tell. I think Stef Martin will be All Australian in 3 seasons max. I just like his poise. He is big yet agile and I think will be a dominant backman in the years to come. Bennell and Jetta were both very exciting and add class and pace. It very hard to gauge much from this game as there were many, many fill ins and our best players were spread across both teams. They would have benefited from the contest, but we will get a better chance to notice any improvement over the coming weeks. The only other thing to say is none of our players king hit and then kicked one of their teamates.

Looks ok to me. Perhaps the intended market isn't those that are regular forum posters...

In the words of Homer "It's funny because it's not me!!" (or my club). I think he is gone. His teamates won't put up with that sort of thing.

I would have liked to see a representative form the backline in there as well. No problems with those that have been selected though, maybe one more though to cover the whole ground on game day.

Stef Martin probably has more improvement in him than others players the same age because of his non-football background. It's also hard to gauge his set shot kicking as we haven't seen much of that. I would rank Warnock as the most important big tall, and see another good year for him. I can't understand why so many seem to think he will go backwards this year. A fit Rivers will play the general "Tom Harley" roll, filling the gap, zoning off ect, etc - all the stuff we really missed last year with our younger guys on their steep learning curve. I would love Frawley to make up the other big defender roll. He has been highlighted by the club as having a big pre-season, but time will tell. I think Garland and Martin have the skill and pace to be possible forward options. It would be a luxury I suppose for them NOT to be required down back, but it would be good to see how they go as forwards if they get the chance.

lol at BBRG. It's your fault Fat Tony! If only you were harder in you comments about our players. We would be so much better if you were harder!! Seriously though, very good post FT. It is pretty hard to put together a best 22 I reckon for our club. So many players have under performed or been injured long term. Plenty of young players also which we all have different opinions on about who will improve enough to make good to excellent AFL players. So much "potential" being digested by all the supporters. My more significant differences are that I would love Garland to move forward if and only if we get Rivers up and going again. I think Garland would be a potent forward and that Martin and Warnock have what it takes to take the two best defenders. I also think we need a second ruckman in the team. PJ is more value playing <40% in the ruck and causing match up problems up forward the rest of the time. That means I have to place alot of hope in Jamar or someone else (Meeson, Spencer...??) becoming the number 1 ruck. I am very interested to see what our best 22 looks like at the end of the season as we learn more about our younger players and as some of our older players get one season closer to retiremnt (Whelan and Jr in particluar).

lol @ YM and Dalrot. Lighten up boys.

I heard late last week tha it was to be decided while the club was up at Mansfield and possibly announced last Friday. I would expect it to out today or tommorow. If not, it may be left until early next year when the focus is off Christmas, the Boxing Day Test and New Years.

Awesome. My kids love it. It is really great to see the players having so much fun and not taking themselves so serious. I just hope that it gets plenty of coverage and gets seen by as many Melbourne supporters as possible.

Hmmm, I would like to see that. I hope it can be put back up by the club or something.

I am surprised so many people have mentioned that final against St Kilda. I was glad we won, but it was a pretty hollow victory and gave me little hope of progressing any further that year. The Saints were decimated by injury and we still were lucky to beat them. It was kind of like beating up a crippled man... but only just managing to do it. The G Train injury was ammusing, but we hardly set the world on fire. I had little hope we could improve for the following week, and was not surprised when Freo touched us up. I really enjoy the close, unexpected victories, so the game against WB, Freo, Brisbane this year and several years ago after being down by a long way. And Farmers 9 goals in a half was awesome.

... and forum posting.

I actually think the outside football world would be surprised if we chose anyone else but Bruce. His reputation is very good from what I here from other supporters and the media. It is a choice out of him or Green for mine. They are the only ones who seem to deserve it and have shown they can succeed in that position. No one else has done enough to earn it. Maclean has potential for sure, but I think needs to be concentrating on his own body and form. Leave the added pressure and work that a captain does to those who have shown they can play through a full season maintaining solid form.

I know nothing more than what I have read or heard about this years draft, but I will say that our picks 17 and 19 are massively important. We really need to get one, if not both of these right. The chances of getting a champion are very small, but we can't afford to get duds. I think the midfeild needs to be the target area and if both these picks are used on genuine, fast and skillful midfeilders then I will be very happy and will then sit back patiently and hope they develop into very good AFL footballers.