drdrake

Give it 3 years and we will have 5 players in the all Australian, Frawley, Watts, Scully, Trengove, Jurrah

In 2010 Jones got an eduction, like many of the players at our club they re learning to play roles that they haven't played in the past. Will Jones become a defensive midfielder, yes but no more than any other player in our midfield group. This year IMO the coach identified a weakness in his game and put him in a position to improve. It is the same as Dunn over the past few years, teach them to have a strong defensive side of their game to improve them as a player. Jones will again in 2011 play a similar role to this year but it will change slightly to match him against players he is better suited to. When assessing our players we need to consider what 2010 was about, continuing to educate our players and make them better footballers which in turn makes us a better team, Jones got to run with some very good footballers and this will make him a better player in 2011 and beyond. He still needs to learn that he isn't superman and can break every tackle, he has players around him with ability he needs to look to use the first option and not take on the world.

There will not be a lot of trades this year, clubs have nothing to gain. The only club worth trading with is the Gold Coast. On Warnock, why would Carlton want him, I don't see much difference between Warnock and Thornton. Warnocks main problem is he always tries to go body on body and searches for the contact, not a bad thing but he doesn't watch the footy when doing this, which results in his forward reading the footy better and increases the likelyhood of Warnock being out of position. He would be upset by this year, well worth keeping on our list.

As mentioned, he has another year like this year he goes becomes the A grade, but this is one season of very good football, he needs to back this up next year.

We all have our pet players that we like and players no matter what they do we dislike, Cam Bruce is one you either like him or you don't, if you don't you see the negative if you like him you back him, Jones is also getting this. I think looking at our list you need to assess as developing players. I assess our list as per below A grade Very Good to Elite Green, Frawley, Davey, Sylvia A Grade Potential Watts, Jurrah, Grimes, Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Morton B Grade Good AFL Players Moloney, Bruce, Garland, Rivers, Jamar B Grade Potential Blease, Gawn, McNamara, Petterd, Tapscott, Aussie, Strauss, McKenzie C Grade above average AFL players Bate, Bartram, Dunn, Jones, Macdonald, Warnock C Grade Potential Bail, Cheney, Fitzpatrick, Jetta, Maric, Martin D Grade had many chances but limited impacted Johnson That is how I assess our list, players like Jamar and Dunn you can certainly make a case for them to go up a level but one good season needs to be followed up with another one before the move. In fact Dunn at the end of last year with Bartram would have been in the D grade. You need to give the benefit of the doubt to the younger players, Morton I still believe he can be Elite.

Carlton have a Thornton, I don't think there is much between Warnock and Thornton. I feel sorry for both they where fullbacks in teams that got smashed every week and now the teams are starting to win find themselves in the VFL

So let me get this right, this kid is a gun and GWS will just trade him back to Adelaide. Adelaide will use the Bock pick this year, they need to start to rebuild no point waiting for 3 years even if your pick comes forward by 7 picks and they have a few spots on there list available.

I think PJ is gone that will give us our 4 spots, upgrade McKenzie, and 3 draft picks. These guys are safe

One other thing, when you have a freak at full forward you sometimes kick to him regardless, it may go through the players minds Watts on a good lead or Jurrah. Add in Green as well he is one of the best leading forwards in the game

I noticed the same last night but I think on some occasions he is in position to early. It may be the kicker isn't quite raedy to deliver or in a couple of instances didn't have the confidence in their ability to hit him. A preseason and the timing clicks for both Watts and the team he will be good.

Jack Trengove struggled since his injury but showed enough early, he will be elite. Hopefully next year we can see Jack and Tom around more stoppages, we still continue to get smashed in this area.

Dunn had a good year so did Bartam but I still have concerns about both. You look at my first post highlighting the guys that are playing if fit, they are all very good footballers but to take the next step we need players like Dunn to have aother year like the last half of this season, we need Jack Watts to hold done CHF, we need another small quick defender, we need a small forward to claim the spot, we need to add pure speed to our midfield. We have some holes to fill and they could already be on our list but we need players to continue to improve and cement a spot.

2010 we set out to acheive development and win more quarters. This has been done and now we move onto 2011 when we expect to make the final 8. When looking at the below we have some very good certain starters but also identifies the areas we need to improve. The Automatic selections in 2011 if fit FB: Garland Frawley HBF: Grimes Rivers Bruce C: Davey Sylvia Trengove HFF: FF: Green Jurrah Fol: Jamar Moloney Scully The Half Forward line IMO has no player that is at present guarenteed of a spot. Players in the mix Watts(he is our only KPP tall 194+cm on our list)Petterd, Bate, Dunn, Hughes, Jetta, Morton The back pocket spot Bartram has been great this year but limited by his skill and with a good preseason he should retain, Strauss, Cheney and Bennell are other options The Forward pocket, Aussie needs to stay fit but we have options, Maric, Bennell, Jetta, Tapscott this is one spot that we have covered we just need someone to own it. The Bench, we need to have a back up ruckman, Gawn, Fitzpatrick, Martin and one of Spencer/PJ(only one of these two will be retained). Once again getting these guys fit and healthy is a priority Jamar take on the same workload as this year. The other 3 spots on the bench, one defender and 2 mids Back up mid size Defenders MacDonald, McNamara, Warnock, Bail Mids: Gysberts, McKenzie, Jones, Morton, Blease, Jetta, Taspcott, Maric, Bail, Bennell, Healy(He will get another year on the Rookie) With the above in Mind the three areas of main concern, a tall Forward, a small defender and a back up ruckman, hopefully someone on our list can step up or we use pick 12 to fill one of these voids.

Every game we have played bad this year we over used hand balls. I have concerns for Morton's foot skills any kick over 45m great but under that he just can't hit a target. I have posted this before he pokes at to short distance kicks, they take for ever to reach the target usually with a lot of height, he kicks them like a lob shot in tennis. The only time we looked dangerous today was when Scully had the football. He still made a few mistakes but he took the game on he broke the lines. Today high lighted also that we still lack that pure speed in the midfield. With Davey out the only player that looked quick was Scully. When we are on our ball movement is fast, we have good speed in our forward and backlines, just not in the middle.

Any chance they can bring it forward 1 hour, it would be great to get to Port Melbourne at 1.10 finish by 4.00 then head to the MCG to watch the last game.

I rate them a B, the only real let down this season has been our performance against North and West Coast. We are starting to win games that we are expected to win and we challenged a few top teams. The next two weeks are important as again we are playing teams that we should beat.

two changes Out Davey, Jurrah Inj In Maric, Morton

We continue to do what we have been doing and what 2010 was always going to be, get games into our young players. Have them play together and improve. With that in mind we don't drop Watts to play Miller, we replace Davey with Maric who was stiff to lose his spot, Jurrah has a broken finger that might see him done for the year, Bate or Morton comes in.

It also takes courage for the supporters to continue to turn up to matches and buy memberships. The club has got the base to build on, record memberships, Home MCG attendances will average over 40,000 people in 2011, Money and a list that is full of talent. If anything the past three years has made our supporters even more passionate and credit to the club we feel important and very much a part of the Melbourne Football Club.

The Red and the Blue is important, I always liked the red jumper with the blue demon. Can we have a all red jumper with our new emblem in the centre or switch the colours around to be Blue and Red. We only realy clash with Essendon, Fremantle, Adelaide and Carlton.

The key with Sylvia playing well midfielder not forward

Give Tapscott a home state debut, round 21 against the Power

I wouldn't be supprised to see Clint Bartram in our top 5.

The best thing about our forward line coming together is we can play Sylvia in the midfield. You look at all his good games he has spent more time in the midfield then forward. In the first and second quarter Sydney dropped players behind the ball, Bailey played man on man, I remember on centre bounce I looked up there would have been 9 Sydney players in our forward line and everyone had a Melbourne Player next to them, we kept attacking and it was great to see.

Moloney won't play today, I expect Aussie to get a run. Gives us an exciting forward line Aussie, Jurrah, Maric, Watts, Green, Sylvia, Bennell and Dunn the forward line pressure should be amazing and that is why we will win today. Sydney have attacking defenders that set up most of there goals, we will have a very quick dangerous forward line that won't allow the ball to get out.