Bonkers

Shaun Marsh named man of the match, not a bad effort considering most people didn't want him in the team outside of the selectors. 2nil to the Aussies with the remaining venues likely to suit Australia. Adelaide was probably Englands best chance to beat us in terms of the conditions being more conducive to Anderson and Broad exploiting swing. 4 or 5 nil looks highly likely from here you'd think. One negative is Peter Handscomb. He's looking very ordinary and a shadow of the player he was when he broke into the team. Maxwell will be looked at as a replacement you'd imagine after scoring 270 odd and 96 in consecutive Sheffield Shield games. If selected in the next test that will give us more options with the ball as he can bowl part time spin. In saying that the WACA is not the best place for spin usually.

You'd think with all the money involved in sport they'd be able to get a camera or sensor system installed. For what it's worth I think he was out.

Yeh I don't see much point in dropping Renshaw either. He's been quite reliable so far. Seems to have a good head on his shoulders for a young bloke. It will be interesting if the selectors are willing to drop anyone else if they have some scratchy form. Probably more benefit with your idea of Bancroft at 6 I'd agree.

He actually played quite a good knock. Second top scorer and if it wasn't for him and Cummins supporting Smith we'd be in strife.

Pretty entertaining and interesting first test so far. There's not much between the two sides. Anything around 200 will be difficult to chase down from the Aussies perspective, especially as the pitch detiorates. It will be interesting to see how Anderson pulls up after the 1st innings of bowling. It looked like he was carrying a niggle and spent some time off the ground.

In that clip his kicking looks ordinary. It included one sliding off the side of the boot as a set shot, one out on the full along the boundary and another finger breaker down the line out of the backline. It looks like he's got an ordinary kicking action, hard to see how he's going to make it at AFL level kicking like that.

Looks like he takes as many hangers as Jeremy Howe! What's his overall game like? All his highlights are marks so it's hard to get a read on what his strengths are.

I know they are only highlights but he looks like he'd slot in straight away. Hopefully he's still there at our first pick.

Great interview, it was fantastic reminiscing on that era of his career and our club. You could really sense his passion for the club and he seems like a great bloke.

I can see where you are going with this but he has also been in the system for 3 years? The first 2 years he was injured which is noted.

The initial offer was this years first rounder and next years second. They insisted on 2 first rounders.....

For those sh*t canning the club this is what Chris Pelchen had to say about our drafting(apologies if this has already been posted): https://www.sen.com.au/news/2017/10/17/dees-deserve-big-tick-says-list-guru/ Melbourne supporters should be pleased with what the club has done in trade period, despite letting go fan favourite Jack Watts and giving up two first round picks for Jake Lever, says Chris Pelchen. He believes by signing their number one trade target, and maintaining four selections in the top 50 for this year’s draft, the club is in a very strong position. “If you look at it, they’ve picked up a key target in Jake Lever, he’s a player who should be able to play for the next ten years barring injury, he was clearly their target coming into the trade period, (and) they’ve secured it. They get a big tick,” Pelchen said on SEN Breakfast. “They do lose Jack Watts, and I think most people would admit Jack’s had every opportunity at that club under several coaches, nothing to do with person’s character, he’s a good young lad, but ultimately his game style or willingness to adapt to a game style hasn’t been there. “Ultimately they’ve given away pick 31, and I think what people are losing sight of is Melbourne have four picks inside pick 47, and they’ve got their key target in the draft, so I think they’ve done extremely well.” In obtaining Lever, the Dees currently don’t have a first round pick in next year’s draft, which has been tipped as a bumper crop. However, Pelchen believes they are capable of redressing the situation. “The biggest or most significant loss is next year’s first round draft pick, but they’ve got 12 months to rectify that,” he said. “They can go into next year’s trade period knowing the key target is to get another first round draft pick, and they trade accordingly.”

I hope you are aware of the long list of stars that Sir Alex moved on because they didn't have the desire or focus to do their job. David Beckham was one of them and I doubt he had the same issues that Watts has.

I agree to a certain extent. However he got handed a new contract during/after one good season(can't remember the timeline). The club expected him to continue where he left off after 2016, it didn't happen. Without being inside the four walls it's hard to know how jack of Jack they really are. Next year Dahlhaus, Gaff, Sloane and Lynch are all free agents. I'd be more disappointed if they weren't already taking a long term view to try and get one of those to the club without having to give up a pick for them. I'd hope they have a deal lined up already. If they can land one of those players and be paying a small portion of Watt's salary I could live with it. I wouldn't like it but I could live with it.

I think Gaff may be a free agent next year. I get what you mean though that we could use the pick in another trade.

You can assess it in many ways. If he's on $500k a year I'd be expecting more out of him than what he's currently providing on and off field. Perhaps that is what the club is thinking as well. They may be able to free up some Cap space to bring in a free agent next year.

How many jumper sales and sponsorship $ do you think Jack brings in?

We got a second rounder back. Pick 35 was the Cows second rounder this year.

This is taken directly from the trade radio/afl trade news feed: The future is looking brighter for wantaway Adelaide defender Jake Lever, with Melbourne confirming productive talks with the Crows on Monday. It's been reported all has not been rosy with Crows after the third-year backman declared he wanted out of his first AFL club to return home to Victoria. But, Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said talks were "amicable" on Monday, with both parties working to get it done. The Crows then confirmed via list manager Justin Reid there had been some "good dialogue" between the parties regarding the 21-year-old's wishes.

Any word on this Taberner rumour?

Perhaps the FD were keeping it in house until Jack Watts decided to go and do an interview about how he wants to stay. None of us really know exactly what has transpired, but I'm pretty sure Jack would have known by then about what the FD's plans were. Either way it's irrelevant, the FD have a higher standard of what Jack's output should be versus what Jack does. If you listen to Josh Mahoney's interview yesterday on SEN I think it's clear to all what the situation is. I don't understand the angst. If an employer wants a higher standard of output from an employee and they don't get it they are entitled to move that employee on. That's pretty much what is happening and Jack isn't or doesn't want to listen. The ball is in his court either way.

This is taken from the afl trade whisperer on Facebook / twitter. Not sure if there is any truth to it.

4 Years at $750-800 is what was mentioned on Fox Sports News.

Melbourne was considered the best pressure team for large parts of the season. We dropped off at the end of the season but certainly early to mid stages of the year we were up there amongst the best pressure teams.