Vipercrunch

I fess up. I actually left after the first quarter alss, BUT I had a really good excuse. My son was playing in the half-time Auskick game at the Dome. We made sure we boosted the crowd by tunring up for the first quarter but then left. I would of course loved to stay and watched it all, but it was also great seeing my son who is in Prep playing against the older kids on the Dome. He kicked the first goal of his game to boot. We have watched the second half of the Melbourne game twice now. Not quite the same as being there live, but still bloody brilliant.

I had moved to the Telstra Dome by the end of the Melbourne game to watch my kid play at half time, but I was listening to the game on TripleM. The trumpeter started up with about 1 minute to go. The commentators made reference to it and you could even hear it in the background.

Whelan will hopefully be in the team by then, probably replacing Bell or Bartram. Carroll should go on Franklin imo. Rivers will be most useful playing off his man and blocking up space or being third man in. I can't remember him being too effective playing on the best forward, but we all know how good he is helping out. I like your match-ups for Frawley and Garland. Great tests for them. All these are pretty irrelevant though if we can't show something in the midfield. If Hawthorn control the midfield we will be in trouble wherever our defenders play.

It's a shame so many people validated Y_M's joke with some attention. Maybe he will realise his joke is getting old if we all ignore it. Tough decisions for the next game. PJ is better overall than Jamar, but it would be harsh to drop Jamar after two solid weeks. I don't think there is room for White, PJ and Jamar though. Bell was a late inclusion and didn't do enough to demand selection again next round. I would love to see him released into the midfield though. I really hope that with Garland and Warnock doing some good things and showing some promise for the first time, Bell can be given some time to play midfield for long periods. Maybe a few weeks at Sandy on the ball will open the door for him. Bartram is still showing a lack of confidence and form. He really made a name for himself as a tagger, but perhaps his engine isn't ready after his long injury. Morton has played well for his debut year, but maybe needs some time away from the seniors to restore his body and confidence. No need to rush this kid as he is going to be gold for us. Therefore... OUT: Jamar, Morton and one of Bell and Bartram IN: PJ, Sylvia and Whelan

Recognition for the most inspiring expressions of pure joy on the footy field. His passion is contagious and so much fun to watch. Well Done Aussie

Top 5 in the B&F so far or sure, maybe top couple. Having a very good year and hopefully keeps it up.

On top of the already mentioned reason to dislike the nob, how sickening is it to listen to football commntators drooling over every thing he does? "The Great Man" is how most of SEN now refer to him. And the soft frees he gets also. In the space of 6 or so months he has gone from ono of my most liked non-MFC players to the guy I'd like to see hurt the most. How times change...

I have two things standing in the way of us truly bottoming out over the next two years. Firstly, are we really that bad. Will pretty much the same group of players who made finals not all that long ago lose enough games? If we do lose enough, do we still trust DB with the responsibility to take our new found talent wealth into the future? Seems a bit contradictory to me. Secondly, can we afford to truly bottom out. Unless McNamee is a true marketing genius, then winning so few games over a lengthy period will put us at enourmous financial pressure. Member numbers will drop. External pressure will be enourmous. The much talk about 'brand' will be in tatters. Can we survive two years on the bottom?

Agree IWAP. "Aussie" is great to watch. Already my 5 year olds favourite player. Its always satisfying to get a great catch late in the draft or even in the Rookie draft. Our early picks might not have the best record, but our late picks and rookies seem to go OK.

Nice to see PJ so close - I thought it would be several weeks more before he came back. A nice positive.

Singed up myself and my two kids yesterday. I couldn't afford the cost outright at the moment but heard from a friend at work that the Bulldogs had a payment plan to pay the cost over a few months. Made enquiries with MFC to see if they offer the same thing. Got a quick response (< 24 hours) saying they do so I am now on board. Will be there on Sunday to hopefully see some continued improvement. I am actually really looking forward to Round 9 when we take on Hawthorn again. This quirk of the draw is a great chance to see if we have made any ground over the first 8 rounds.

Jamar - Was better on Sunday than earlier games but still less effective overall than PJ against Geelong. Bartram - Showed imporvement against Brisbane. Was very poor with disposal against North Melbourne. I was suggesting dropping him after the North game, but showed enough improvement to stay in the seniors. Dunn - Would like to see him stay across Half forward or the wing and be used as a target. Worst part of his game on Sunday was getting out marked by Hooper. Miller - Agree 100%. Seemed to win more contests than he lost, including several contested marks. Give him some time at FF and get the ball to him. Morton - Agree, but maybe a rest would be better than a game with Sandy. I like what I have seen, but he is young and physically under-developed. Bell - Seems all at sea in the backline. Misses so many targets thru perceived pressure and no confidence. Did seem far more comfortable when moved up the grond on SUnday. Warnock - Very impressed and surprised with his game on Sunday. Much cleaner disposal than many of his mates down back and made some good spoils. Definetely worth another game. Robbo - I seriously can't understand the flack this guy cops. Who in the world would like to be a leading forward at Melbourne at the moment? I am sure the critism will continue, but I can't see much justification for it except for the fact he goes to goround too often. Workrate and application seem good.

I couldn't help but be impressed with our Warnocks game on Sunday. One game doesn't make a career, but I thought he showed quite a bit, especially with the ability to hit targets. I, like many thought he wasn't going to cut it, but if he was to continue in that manner and become a solid AFL player, then the attraction for his brother to come to us would be even more so. I like the idea of Warnock and Natanui leading our ruck in the coming years.

I found these reports a little worrying. Weetra is really struggling obviously, but the work ethic issues with the other two is amazing really. They really need to learn quickly that just making an AFL list is not the destination. Hopefully they choise some of our hardest working senior players to model themselves on and make the most of their oppurtunity.

A pretty obvious choice for the short term. I am interested to see what decision is made for next year though. I personally would like to see either Brock or Jones put there hand up both on and off the field to become sole captain - Brock is still my choice despite his off field indescretions.. If not, I think maybe co-captains of Bruce and Junior will be the way to go short term.

I'm gonna risk the abuse and say that I would follow wherever MFC went - Gold Coast, West Sydney, merge with North Melbourne. I love football and think it is so much more enjoyable when following a team. I would follow which ever team had the link to the team I have always followed. I know far too many bitter and twisted ex-Fitzroy supporters who stupidly punish themselves so many years on. Whats the point in walking away from football? Who apart from yourselves is going to care or even notice? I am all for inovation, change and doing everything possible to survive and thrive as Melbourne Demons, and hope that we do get on top of things BUT I am not going to walk away from a sport I love because things way, way out of my control or influence turn bad. MelbourneFC is where it is at because of many factors from bad decisions, lack of success, lack of franchise players to just downright bad luck. I would in fact be bitter and twisted if we were allowed to die and dissappear entirely because we refused to merge or relocate.

You're really not missing anything Mousey.

I would love to see this as well. Similar in some ways to Ryan O'Keefe.

Interesting way to put it. If it is big news, then we are unlikely to have to look too closely, although perhaps good news will be hidden away. The public aren't ready or interested in good news for MFC. Will be very interested to see what, if anything eventuates.

A few people have Holland and Yze in theirs 'Ins' for this week? Is that likely to happen given they haven't been demanding selection when playing for Sandy. They should be rewarded if they have bee absolute standouts, but its hard not to feel that preference will be given to younger players. I think we have to find room this week for Miller and Newton and give them some time to see if they have a future as a Forward combination. Alternate them between FF and CHF to see what clicks. We definetely seem to play better with some marking strength across half forward. I really can't see Martin being brought in to the ruck, and one would suggest he is still learning the trade as a backman. Too early to throw him to the wolves. Ins: Miller, Newton Out: Neitz, ______ - not sure tbh - maybe there is more to the Whelan report than I saw, maybe Bell could do with a break, Jamar propbably doesn't deserve a spot, but who will ruck?

Did he barrack for us when he was younger? You ripper!!

The club is struggling on and off the field becuase we don't like the fact we were used? Wow, I must try and be more positve in my thoughts towards oppisiton players, then we will become a powerhouse in the AFL Seriously though, the purpose of the thread was to satisfy my curiousity about what the breakdown was in regards to what people were thinking about Judd given some of the other threads about banners and booing etc on Sunday. As it turns out it is a close to 50/50 split between those that think less of him now and those that in all likelyhood don't care.

Judd announced he wanted to come home to Melbourne, the city, not the club. He then effectively made a short list of clubs he was going to speak to - Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne. 3 of the big clubs (2 are obviously the best positioned clubs in Melbourne, the other on the rebound through Pratts millions) and Melbourne - the ugly duckling of that group. Given the attractiveness of the other three clubs (facilites etc) we were only ever on that list because Judd supported us as a kid. Therefore if you believe him, then yes, some players do feel a tie to the club they grew up supporting. The conclusions you can draw from what he did are either that he was really tempted to go and play for the team he grew up supporting OR he was using us as a foil to an already made deal with Carlton and to make his family happy. I, like some of the other posters think we were used, therefore we feel how we feel.

If someone really wanted to go home then yes, some people would leave for less money. I was actually referring to less than what Carlton would pay, given that he had already decided to leave. If hearing from Judd's own mouth that he supported Melbourne as a kid and had a poster of Gary Lyon on his wall isn't enough proof, then yes I am making an assumption about who he used to follow I doubt anyone is slitting their wrists or salivating over this either. Undoubtably I would like him to be playing for us, but I would far prefer to see someone we drafted as a 17 or 18 year old become a champion.