drdrake

We keep bringing up our lack of key forwards, you could have Jono Brown sitting at full forward and he will struggle. We don't go inside 50m enough to win games you need to get the footy in there 50-60 times a match, we just get it in over 40 times. Our team is so concerned about the defensive zone that we don't run hard on the attack. We can't keep getting 18 players behind the footy, you don't win games playing like this.

What a contrast today was for 2 struggle Victorian clubs, one CEO tomorrow will be beating his chest in the media after beating the premiers of 2009 pushing membership sales and more then likely will be playing in the semi finals of the NAB cup, whilst the Melbourne CEO may need to adjust his budget. It wasn't that we lost the game it is how we played, we need to find some form and very quickly or we won't pass 30,000 members.

We are meant to have some very good young players to. The best thing for the club is the players are in Perth hopefully a player grabs them all in the rooms with no coaches and draws the line in the sand, our club can not keep putting up this rubbish. No matter what gains we make off field if we can't start improving on field our club will be a basket case. To be a successful club you need both on and off field to work well. All of you that think this is just a NAB game no big deal, it is a big deal when we show no improvement from the past 2 years.

You can't win games unless you kick goals, for the past two years we just haven't looked like being able to kick enough goals to win games. We can't get the ball inside 50m, we work so hard to get behind the footy, we just don't work hard enough running forward. All the talk we have heard over preseason, we showed nothing tonight. We start the year losing all 4 quarters, and the best thing is I think we play Geelong either at Skilled or Casey next Sunday. On the positive Scully worked into the game, Grimes was OK, Miller kicked 2 goals and Frawley is a star.

Can someone call Dean Bailey and tell him it is time to attack, attack, attack because his defensive plan isn't working.

We might get done by 100 points, what a disaster for the club I don't care if it is a NAB cup match this is a disgrace.

Good to see we still don't have a forward line, I don't know how you win games when you continue to push everyone behind the footy

It doesn't matter how good our back 6 are if our midfield keeps getting smashed.

What we hope for is continued improvement, we have a lot of kids granted but we just aren't improving. I know it is the first quarter of the NAB cup but we are still playing the same way. No highlights not enough inside 50m our transit from defense into attack is still very very poor. We are playing the biggest front running team in the comp, if we don't show something in the next quarter we might get done by 10 goals.

Just to check, 26 players play, 24 and 2 subs and we named 29, for me Bartram, Fitzpatrick and Bell shouldn't play.

I believe the rules changed last year to allow you to have a nominated rookie mid year that could play with out having someone go onto the LTI list. If the club wants to promote someone they will find a player to be placed on the LTI, there is always someone injured.

I wasn't to concerned about our skills the players that will be in our best 25 looked good the players that we know will struggle to get a game just couldn't hit a target. I actually like what I saw from Fitzpatrick, I don't know what people here expect from a kid like him, but he moves well for a 200cm bloke, needs to work on his kicking but that will come. really positive day for the club it confirmed few things, to me anyway, firstly we have enough talent to move up the ladder,secondly our club is creating excitement amongst our supporters turn out today was great and Finally some of the players that don't need to be named that have been around for a few years are still not upto standard and we shouldn't be seeing to much of them this year.

I actually agree with Lloyd, if he is talking about 2010 it is about development and we need these kids to play and improve. Beyond 2010 we need these two to become elite midfielders something we haven't had for a very long time. Our club needs some stars not only reconized in our eyes but the entire footy community.

Miller is a lead up forward, he is only as good as the players delivering the ball to him allow him to be. He will work and present all day and reads the play for his leads quite well. His main problem like all our forwards has been our ball movement and the ability to hit targets. The better we get at this the better player Miller will be.

The Wiz for me, he was a freak an a player that would of continued to be a star at the feet of Neita. Look at the last decade 3 Melbourne players left and won Premierships a big Full Back, a big tap ruckman and a small forward. The last one wasn't an issue but we could of done with Jolly and Bishop over the past 10 years.

Unfortunately all awards are based around the teams that wins games. To give our young players and players like Frawley a chance to get AA or Rising star we need to win games.

We will be going in full strength with maybe the skipper being the only one that could be rested. If our best 22 is fit they will play Cheney Warnock Frawley Bruce Rivers MacDonald(new) Morton Sylvia Davey Green Miller Bate Petterd Jurrah Maric Jamar Jones Moloney Johnson Martin Trengove Bennell Dunn Grimes Jetta Strauss IMO guys that aren't able to train with the main group now will not be available for this game, Aussie, Watts, Scully and co.

I cant wait for the season to start so threads like this disappear. Just on the Powell/Woey situation IMO our players and coaching staff got ahead of themselves after 2000, good AFL players started wanting more, our players played well with each other but the end of the day poor TPP management put the club in a position to get rid of these two. On the thread topic, who knows, I all know is Mclean has been running on the spot for the past 3 years, will he show more at Carlton yes he wil because he will be the in a very good midfield unit, but I thought that about Trav when he went to Brisbane and he is still running on the spot. Gysberts is a player with talent and potential, like Grimes we can not put the Mclean would have been better tag on this guy until he is 5 years into his AFL future and then it counts for nothing anyway.

will be a close year Geelong Bulldogs St Kilda Hawthorn Collingwood Adelaide Brisbane WCE Melbourne Essendon Carlton Sydney Fremantle North Port Richmond IMO the top 7 teams are almost set its just a matter of order, then that 8th spot I think any of the 9 teams not in that top seven can get a run on and pinch 8th spot. I went for WCE on the back of 12 games at Subi. In regards to the MFC we aren't as far away as most people think, like most teams I have in the bottom 9 all it will take is a little luck with injures and winning the close games, getting winning runs through out the year. The bottom 9 are harder to place then the top 7.

Winning has to become important, at some stage the club has to stop using the we are young and rebuilding line. We have enough talent in our group to win 7-8 games, but as this thread started in everything goes right and some of the what if's happen we can be like Essendon of this year and pinch 7th or 8th. We need some luck and we got some last year with a goal after the siren that gave us Trengove but we need some luck with injuries and some luck with fast tracking the development of our players.

Hopefully, I'm right in assuming this, next years figures will included the 2009 and 2010 MCG $100,000 per home game a nice 2million. In the written content it is mentioned we will get assistance from the AFL and MCC, assuming this is the same as 2009 and our membership grows we have a very good base for 2010.

Who ever approved the calanders needs to be shot. It looks great until you notice that the teams in the background aren't Melbourne, on has the Collingwood/Essendon, another has Sydney players and I think another couple has GF day with Geelong running onto the ground.

You might find our replacement game will be against Hawthorn late in the season. They do have to pay us something, but it is more important that we start to lift our crowd averages so we can get better drawing games and time slots. We need to start averaging 45K+ per home game at the MCG.

There would be no question that MFC would have had Scully and Trengove on some sort of program since October and wouldn't supprise me if Scully has been using our medical staff since his operation.

If all are fit this would be my line up McDonald Frawley Warnock Garland Rivers Grimes Morton Jones Davey Green Bate Sylvia Martin Watts Jurrah Jamar Moloney Bruce Scully Trengove Aussie MacDonald