beelzebub

Mark Stevens>Media>pinch of salt Interesting stretch to an argument isnt it. Watts hasnt re-signed, therefore Watts MUST be going elsewhere The suggestion that he's been advised to hold off for a period in order to better his stocks makes much more sense.

footy in a nutshell.... Start as you intend to finish.

Actually feedback that ive had from friends ( and they include filth ) is good for us!! Even a Bomber supporter...but hes just a nice guy. !! Some whinging from some Toiges...to be expected, otherwise its mainly good onya's. Maybe the ferals interstate dont share the love...?? Came up in a conversation .... oh yeah but you guiys tanked !!. I asked ...what would you guys have done? Collingwood supporters, Sainter, Eagle ( a lost soul over here..lol ) all agreed they would. The Toige and Carlton friends said...never.. I had to point out to the Blue their list of trangressons where upon he thought again.lol. The Toig was adamant....but then conceded its probably why theyve stunk for 25 years....I agrred..that and poor shower habits !!

Ya know...I had a similar gut feeling. There is due and warranted concern about Melbourne's growing pro-ess. we're going to whip some butt in coming years. Good for us... diddums for them !! Funny, whilst we were whipping boys other's fans enjoyed it....shoe on other foot...not so comfortable. Im enjoying this

Yeah ...youre right.. all those footy clubs and players association folk along with players and commentors are just in cahoots...ganging up on lil ol' Collo !! yes weve al probably played o worse surfaces. Good ol sticky glue like wickets etc ..yet this is a professioal sport beig played at breakneck speed ulike anything we might have attempted. yep..all those injuries are purely coincidental From day 1...even earller , the stadium was acknowleded as flawed, but they said they could overcome it....well...they havent !!

that did come to mind and you could present all sorts of cases for a 40,000 cpacity ( in certain rectagularlish configs) Stadium !!

Well k-i-m Junior was touted as a possible for this weeks game but held back...he came through without setting the world on fire...and he probably ought to at that level ( VFL ) so it was wise for the club to be patient and they might be again, just to be sure. Whats the rush ? Some players, and Beamer might be amongst them, are not the auto 22 pick they once were !! This is a freight train picking upspeed...no passengers allowed . Nfam suggestig Moloney is...but if others can claw ahead of you you ( as a player ) will have to lift. This is whats happening, the team as a whole is dragging itself up the ladder of ability ( and expectations ) We , when all fit have quite a lot of players who can play ( apol for that oxy ) but I feel many will get the drift there. Theres also the requirement to maintain balance and or bias according to the needs of negating the opposition. We ( well many...would you beleive...some!! ) of us sort of saw this coming, that one day when some of this kids came on that it would no be straight forward anymore to pick your 18/22.. Gabba might be hard on underdone injury reparations.. just food for thought

Aussie is fit...and played a pretty fare game. Junior got through his magoo but quite a bit rusty..do you still rush him. Id keep Aussie ahead of Maric and PJ at this juncture. Much will need to be done on the training track. Theres no easy picks ay more. Im sure Bails will wat Aussie to get at least a couple of back to back ( to back) games. The best 22 isnt so obvious anymore is it ?

Geez...hard to form a case to drop Aussie !!! He reveled in it on the day.

Could have merit, should the coins fall the right way. Still needs to be earnt, but seems he's doing that anyway !! A taste could be very beneficial prior to the preseason. Sew a seed in his mind as to what its really all about. Somethig for him to aim for.

Oh I agree...but think...if they cant play at Useless Dome... it WILL impact OUR groud... we need to be mindfuly aware of such developments out there !! And would we be clever to proposition the AFL/StateGov/ferris to look anew at developing Casey ?? , in the same vogue as Ballaarat ?? A littel short term inconvenience might give us a long term assett ??

colour blindness ???

Mr Everywhere is floating a radical answer to Etihad's perpetual problem i.e the surface...Sell the Stadium and build another !! Etihad unacceptable Eddie's thinking is along the lines that the Stadium's so fundamentally flawed ( by design ) that you will never get a decent , non hazardous playing surface there. I reckon hes right too......short of leaving the roof open and rotating the building you arent ever going to have a real chance at that surface maturing or lasting long enough between relayings to not be a potential law suit in the waiting. How they built it wrong in the first place beggars belief..but hey !! everyone knows the place is stuffed...even Collo probably does privately AFLPA says Etihad games may have to be moved something has got to give ( besides the grass !! )

Again beig realistic... ( not pessimistic..lol ) Id rate Lions Tigers and Kangas as very possible. Hawthorn are just too on song and Port at port as they get a bit of belief et`c might prove a stadium too far. Thats 3 wins or 9-1/2 for the year with a likely of a just over 100 %. North needs less than 2 games...Adl less than 3 and us to win 3 to even have a shy at it. That drawn game is now worth a premium of sorts But that also needs Swans and /or Carlton to win no more....a little unlikely.. You really need10-1/2barest min and really at least 11 games ( most years ) to even be thinking of top 8 and even then thats iffy. We arent likely to get that.

If Maric was to be dropped I think hed realise it s simply on who who in the top 22 etc. hes not there yet. He will get more chances if he preserves his form. He might not get dropped ...but should he I think he wil see it as a "just is" not a slap !!

we ought to have a fair crack at teh Lions....and the Toiges... then we run out of felines. I think we ca give the Sqawkers a game but dot expect a win ( saying that I didt yesterday either..lol ) In many ways id be hapier winning against North than Hawthorn as the Kangas just seem to have teh wood at the moment and Id like to go out this year on a win there. Port ?? hmm... AAMI is such a hapy hunting ground for us I still reckon itll be there about at 9-10th.. happy with that this year, no need to load up the kids with short lived finals eforts , better for mine to go into a solid preseason and come out next year and get to october in better shape

Whilst we certainly had the upper hand to sugestwe were playing sans pressure is probably somewhat dismissive of the Swans. What we decided to do was take the game on and run them hard. Almost becomes chicken and egg but Imwith the view that it was BECAUSE we decided to kick it longer...kick to contests occasionally and put them under pressure that they then began to second guess their disposals. Ironically they played more like weve been acused of ..they finished with more HB than Kicks.. thats normally our preserve. Amazing what happes when you have a bit of confidence. More than a few scorebaord hurters came fronm marks in or around the goal square. So again I wouldnt go as far as to say we played where no pressure existed..simply we were making better decisions and therefore use of the ball. I will of course agree there is a time and place for both, as is the nature of the game but be gained far more distance and effect by kicking than overuse of the hand. That first goal a case in point.. we got it moving and got it long... put it in the danger zone and presto.. In many ways the game's ot as complex as some make out...justsome teams get a bit panicky..or a bit too cute...thats when teh rot sets it..that WAS us.. hopeful...WAS being the operative word there

Ought to be worth mentioning that that was the WORST loss Roos's Swans had ever suffered. That and our accumulated loss to ladder leaders is ONE point !! we are on the verge of playing consistent confident footy.. not hot and cold

Whilst there is now no doubt a renewed interest in winning games this needs to be tempered with getting many young legs though the rest of the season and through another preseason readied for a tilt-proper in '011. Ins and out will follow this as able whilst keeping a balance on the playing field PJ ,whilst kind of handy is not pivotal to a Melb to play Bris, and Maric ( and ive always liked him ) will in all likelyhood make way for Trengove and Junior. Beamer might be ulucky not to get a recall but thats conditional on no one needing a rest. Having said that Moloney had a good game against the Cubs without being brilliant. Jamar ought find Luenberger and Clark within his growing abilities. Lions will run out of puff, thats their achilles heel and thats our trump. We ran them ragged once already this year. We won that prior game by jumping them at the start and breaking them in the second.....all over red rover. Bails needs to pick up team to redo exactly that !!

T-U...its confidence. when you start playing on song, ifonly a little your own confidence and that of your compatriots to execute the coaches dictate rise. Handballs start gettig to players where they can then use the pil properly and without havig to juglle etc. Kicks ( passes ) start coming of the boots cleaner. Players fid an dextra half a yard to get into a beter position to take aforementioned kick. Marks stick and the ball just seems to bouce your way again. It 90% In the heads of the players. One good decision often breeds another and then it all seems so ridiculously easy. we all shake our heads ( happily ) and wonder why it isnt always so. But Take away that same confidence and it all unravels mightly quick !! The lack of beleif in the game unfolding according to our wishes put pressure on the decision making; little hesitations result in a poor handpass...or a stoped player and so on and so on. All that compouds into cr@p play We've all seen that. Now nextweek will be truly interesting as we havent traveled all that well and thats as much a mind thing as any. If we can sprig out of the blocks again then we may have well and truly turned that corner..fail to do so and its the classic one step forward two steps back. Do Melbourne dare to play fearlessly fronm the get go and man up and play self beleiving football or retreat to playing to defending agaist a loss ??

what all this really means is that real competitionexists for spots in our lineup now.. the bar will continue its gradual but steady rise. I expect to see better skills appearing at training and real efforts for a spot each week. Mental laziness will become a thing of the past...all bodes well. Now as to who will come and who will go ?? Might be more as to who pulled up sore etc and what is the freshest team we can mount come next Sat keeping in mind they had a extra day's recouperation. We need to physcially couter Brown whilst mentally niggle Fev. Play Fev how Tarrant does.... it annoys the sh!t out of him and he get flustered ad focus drops..that show you beat Fev. Brown... make him run and run and make him contest. Might be Chippers job. Youd have to think Junior and Trengove ought to be selectable but could look to ease Jack back in elsewhere ....who knows.. It used to be so easy to pick the ins and outs.. Much better now it isnt

This is not the first time Ive noticed the inability of the press to getsuch a simple thing as who won and who lost right !! ref Scorching start AFL site "FEW, if any, football watchers would have expected Melbourne to start so well in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Sydney Swans -" note to journos...very hard to take you seriously when you cant get the basics right !!!! They just cat get used to use winning it seems...well they had better wisen up soon and get it corrected before we start taking over this comp !!

I think this is very much the case. Its a 'build' in progress and it seems dean is making much of the real time evaluations and recommendations ( coaching..lol ) Its all evolving as its happening and not waitig til the various quarter's end etc. Once the team matures I would imagine normal a more traditioal coach's box stle but this is very appropriate for the now. Most importantly the players seem to be reacting well..and thats really the litmus. Its often been noted ad just as often ignored that the difference between brillaince and abject failure canbe a split second in effort and aspirations. when its good its good and when just a tad off it looks mighty shabby. The difference then in confidence and ongoing results is a chasm. There were lots of areas yesterday where the little things still need mcuh homing but what we saw was possibly the raw unpolished version of a 2013 Demons. Amazing to realise Trengove, Grimes , Junior, Petterd Gysberts... Beamer..but funny how the exclusion of non obvious picks ( in a fashion ) changes the the fluid dynamics of a team. We have the likes of Tapscott and Gawn in the years ahead.. a likely in Viney perhaps and lets just suppose the stepping up of some one unpredicted. Amazing what happens when youre not playing catch up footy !! So much of a sport is the mid game; hope the players took serious note of the resulting diffference because of that superb first quarter blitz. The future is much brighter than its been for many a many year !!

No... the notion of actually kickig the ball was noted in another thread but agree it seems to have goe relatively uder-commented. The lads seem to be respondig well to Bail's efforts and communications at thebench. Cat see thatbeig his permanent style but as with all thigs its anevolving process. Definitley a beter balance between the foot ad hand yesterday. I think will only get better as well. Hard to say much about yesterday beyond just a really good team effort. A window into tomorrow

Great game.. 'mazing what a difference it makes when you start kicking the ball !!!! who'd da thought