whatwhat say what

6 - Viney 5 - Gawn 4 - Tyson 3 - Watts 2 - N Jones 1 - Lumumba

We played like champagne millionaires for the last 15 of that second quarter and it cost us big time. We need to do the basics and compete with ferocity 100% of the time not pick and choose. There's some really good signs currently - need to put them away in the third.

hawks being kod when it comes to the frees.

bombers-cats is very reminiscent of our game v them - scrappy, low quality and dour football.

This has always been my vibe too. Plus his buggered back, that'd put you off flying every second week.

Priddis out. Tiges beat them over there in 2015. Eagles by 42.

We are awfully light on for ruck depth.

Lined him up, flattened him. Dog act.

well the likelihood is vince will be rubbed out. so: IN: Garlett, Brayshaw, ANB OUT: Vince, vandenBurg, Bugg

i still reckon he missed.

Oh, completely forgot about Garlett. IN: Garlett, Brayshaw, ANB OUT: vandenBurg, Harmes, Bugg

6 - vince 5 - viney 4 - gawn 3 - lamumba 2 - oliver 1 - kent

N: brayshaw, anb OUT: vandenberg, bugg maybe at a push harmes could be out for petracca and frost for pedo too, but i really can't see them making four changes

The positive is that whilst we are 'insignificant' at least we are not 'anonymous'. Journos want to write about us as we are a 'story'. Compare it to north at the moment as a top four incumbent or Bulldogs before this current revival and honeymoon period - totally anonymous. I would rather be pitied and ridiculed than ignored.

last year, statistically, they were right up for de%. that's what happens when you have about three or four blokes who kick it upwards of 20 times a game go sideways by 15-20m to direct targets - improves the overall percentage. that they're trying to re-tool troy chaplin into a third tall forward says a lot about where they're at at the moment.

brilliant player. but he was a thug who went down like a sack of spuds when confronted with a strong wind.

i don't like the bloke as a footballer (velvet sledgehammer is just about the greatest nickname in afl history, imo), but unfortunately he doesn't get a lot wrong in this column. Bashing the Melbourne Football Club is not the aim of this column - they have received more than their fair share of criticism over many years - but how to deal with a culture of a club that defies the best attempts to turn it around. How they can possibly drag themselves out of the mire which they continually find themselves in, year after year? Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-season-2016-melbourne-a-club-in-search-of-a-heart-20160409-go2h29.html#ixzz45NILzpvb

completely agree. before the coup with roos, he was the guy i was most keen to pick up as a senior coach.

encouraging sounds - that is the way you treat an understrength side. very interested in the comments about anb being a pure midfielder; yet to get a shot at that role for melbourne. the sooner petracca is in the seniors, the better, based on these reports. no doubt if the sub role still existed he'd be debuting sooner rather than later.

Elite runner. Shocking kick.

At the moment the only thing holding back $cully from being an elite mid is that he genuinely can't kick.

Richmond and Collingwood have looked as awful in the first three weeks of the season as we have in Q2, Q3 vs GWS and the entire game last week. Saints are good to watch - contest hard and run hard to spread, hit targets by hand and foot.

i go so angry about our performance last week i turned off part way through the first quarter. i saw little bits here and there after that, and saw toumpas get the ball a couple of times - a few little handballs in close that put his teammates under pressure, and some errant kicks. personally, i think of the swap as effectively 'kennedy for toumpas' and i'm okay with that. i hope he does okay, just not as well as kennedy!

roos and misson should not be let near a video and a microphone ever again.

They nailed 2012. If Boyd does become a serious player for them they will have ended up doing well in 2013. We desperately need a draft year that is a game-changer for us. All the good sides probably have two to three that they seem to knock it out of the park with. Our development has been so awful for so long we just need to hope that you are right and we are on that sort of trajectory.