Melbournepotter

i was hoping to see Ah-Mu play in this game. i couldn't see where he may have been injured…was he available for this game ?

Chips good but the chicken tenders were just battered and seemingly deep fried large chicken nuggets. Ground was good and the little museum under the stands was interesting. Great suburban facility.

I guess as stated elsewhere that Essendon will click in some games but having had to attend tonights game v Hawthorn due to family commitments, I would be dismayed if I was an Essendon supporter. For the first game of the season, they had little run, little spark and put in a timid display. It looked like they missed the memo that football seems to have moved on from the defensive style to more free flowing movement. They were dire.

Noise after a Melbourne goal ? How about just the crowd cheering and no song.

Do we really need to play a song after every goal ? 'Country road' and 'Sweet Caroline' gets annoying after a while...but that may just be me as I get older and grumpier...

I’ve only been to a couple of training sessions this pre season but in the physical drills against other players he has been very driven with no beg pardons. He dropped Jeffo in one drill (yeah…I kmow) which just showed the different levels of intensity. It seems he got a taste last year, wants more and is busting a gut to get it.

JVR looked very good at training. He moved quick and took few good marks in the match sim.

McAdam was doing laps at a reasonable pace and looked unimpeded. Hopefully he can step up from there.

Agree re the third quarter. I thought we really had them on the ropes in the later stages of the third but could not apply the killer blows and score a couple of goals. That seemed to be the scoring end and we rarely ventured forward in the last, after the North Melbourne/Tasmanian roos regrouped at 3 quarter time. Great effort by the girls,they gave everything.

Hope Zanker stays, Bannan has been next to useless the last few weeks and Harris has had to plug holes elsewhere and Gall is still learning so not much of a forward line re talls.

if we are forced to pay for access to GF tickets for a reserved seat next year, i will be thinkng hard about renewing. Three reserved seat memberships (for one adult, one concession and one 15 year old) was over $1500.00 this season. Considering that we are unlikely to make the GF next year, i am willing to forego the guaranteed access and will take my chances at securing a GF ticket privately….if we make it.

Salem - defecates under pressure.

I think the dominance of max, petracca et al has hidden our lack of a system in general play. Now that they are becoming a little battle weary, our lack of a system is being highlighted. Max wins plenty of the ball but we should be taking it away much more.

I didn’t see too many players busting a gut to get in the ones.

Melbourne play like a car trying to drive with the handbrake on ..

A talk marking forward would be nice Simon.

one of those is Max Knobel. Suns picked him up after Freo delisted him and promised they would pick him back up...but the Suns swooped. A gippsland boy I believe ... Press reports etc seemed to,indicate he may have something about him. We had an opportunity to pick him up but went elsewhere. I am interested to see how he goes.

Bunch of brain dead footballers

Can someone tell these commentators that kosi is suspended for the first few games ? Usual commentary standard...

I wish the other guy would shut up for a while.

Difficult to know what the plan is for Fullarton without talking to the footy department in my opinion. I believe he was recruited as a tall forward to pinch hit in the ruck, but last season for Casey, he played a lot of time in the ruck. Casey was a bit of a basket case through injuries etc so difficult to judge his qualities. He struggled a bit in the ruck against bigger, older bodies but did some good things around the ground without being dominant (in the games I saw). With Campbell helping out in the ruck at Casey this year, I would hope to see him play more time as a forward, to see how he goes. Too early to tell on him, given last year's circumstances in my opinion..

It appears it IS ok to draft another clubs delisted player (given they intend to redraft as a rookie)..as Gold Coast picked up Knobel from Freo. I would love to know if we looked at/rated him as a future player. I guess not, since we didn't strategise to get him. Looked a good opportunity and good fit to me, especially as a rookie ruck to learn under Gawn and Campbell for a couple of years.

I was hoping to try and get Max Knobel as a future ruck prospect. I'm not sure we have the space now...and I'm not sure if swooping to get delisted players is the 'done thing' to clubs that have delisted players with an intent to re-draft them as a rookie.

North Melbourne at pick 2 .....waiting almost 5 mins ..is this a directive from AFL to slow it all down. ?