Melbournepotter

9.3 to 11.6 st kildas way at half time. Umpiring gets worse every week...Bit like our form. St Kilda running much harder than we are...disappointing.

Spent many a Saturday afternoon watching them run around. Crossy's old man played in (for a time anyway) the old style boots that came up over the ankle. I used to think it was a bit old fashioned even back then..

Paul Spargo has previously coached Albury in the O & M football league and I assume is still involved in some way at the club. With Crossy playing up there, perhaps we had some inside info as well....

Sheedy and Scully......may the club just rot and eventually fade away. Their smug looks on the day that Scully went up to Sydney for 'just a look around' won't be forgotten .

Collingwood need tall forwards to help out Moore, and the name fits...Personally I wouldn't want to lose Weideman but it may be a way to trade for more picks to use for a midfielder and/or Lever...

I thought his loss of form, plus Hunts seemingly lack of impact running were a couple of reasons we seemed to lose momentum late in the season. Not sure if stats back up my perception of Hunt but that's how it seemed to me. It was more than just those guys losing impact, but their late season form contributed in some way I think.

To go home from every game satisfied that I have seen every Melbourne player give 100 % for the entire time they are on the field.

Jobe is obviously not a long term Melbourne supporter...we know better. They have a very long way to go before I trust them to put in the effort required on a consistent basis. I don't think this year will make much difference to some of them. I want to be proved wrong but we will see how they go next year. The supporters know the ones that just seem to trot along to contests, I want to see more urgency in games. That wont happen until next year and I won't believe a word that the players say until I see actions on the field. No promises, no players hurting about this season, I will wait until I see actions because I don't think some of them have it in them to change.

Exactly. He must be stepping back from the captaincy. I don't want to hear anything resembling that the players are hurting or that a line in the sand has been drawn, I've heard it all before. Just 100% effort each and every game next year. If we win...great, if not then it wasn't for want of trying. Just shutup and show us on the field how you intend to go about it....words are cheap .

I'm not sure what time training finishes, but I do know that the players in the past have been very engaging after training when my sons and I asked for autographs on the boys guernseys. They all took the time to talk a bit and JKH was especially good to them. Certainly helps when trying to keep them supporting in trying times..

I thought it was against Jetta for holding in the contest. He wasn't holding anyway, he just had a hand touching his opponent momentarily to see where he was... It appeared razor gave a free at one stage from 50 metres away ...despite there being numerous players between him on the 50 metre arc and the infringement near the goal...I don't see how he could have possibly seen anything, we didn't and we had a clear line of sight.

Playing Devil's advocate....I don't want to lose him but...would you trade Weideman to Collingwood (probably looking for a tall forward) for draft pick + possible player for on-forwarding to Adelaide for Lever ? We already have Watts, McDonald and Hogan as talls (when all fit) and we could also look at Omac going forward if Lever comes in. It looks worse when on paper, as I think Weideman will develop into a very good player...

At some stage, you would think that he should play, to at least show if he can still compete at afl level. Given the loss of a lot of leadership and midfield talent due to injury, you would think this may be the week. I hope he gets back and does well.

Sums it all up. I would add that Weideman suffered from bad delivery which made it very hard for him, as opposed to the previous week where the delivery was good. Joel smith got better as the game went on, tried to generate some run from half back but was out of position when a turnover ultimately meant the ball went back over his head (he wasn't necessarily the cause of the turnover, it was a bad day skill wise for Casey). He did show good signs. We are down on players so I would say any ins would come from the usual..JKH, Smith, Kent and Weidemann, depending on what the footy dept see is required. Maybe time for Trengove as well, from a leadership point of view. Goodwin, Mathews, Mahoney and Jackson were all at Port for the game.

JKH was ok and generally classy in what he did so would probably be under consideration. Joel Smith got better as the game went on, but I guess it depends on how the FD see his game if he gets promoted. Ben Kennedy tried hard but turned it over a few times, Weideman went into the ruck at times late in the game and got involved in some good passages of play. The general delivery around the ground was very poor and Casey got punished for a lot of them. Old boy Lucas Cook had a good game I thought down back for Port.

Trengove played but was didn't really dynamically impact play. He was directing players where to go and marshalling down back. He did some OK things. I don't know if he realises his cards are marked and plays accordingly.....

Fritsch kicks a long goal. 13.5 to 3.6

13.5 to 2.5 now ..to port

No big standouts for Casey. Kennedy-Harris doing ok. Joel Smith a bit rusty . Trengove doing a lot of organising down back and old boy Lucas cook is doing ok on Weideman when he is on.

Port 9.4 to 2.4 now. 27 mins 2nd term.

He didn't do himself many favours last night. He looked vey sore running past us late in the game so maybe he had picked up a knock. He was very good early in the vfl game last week, but he couldn't impact last night.

That was my impression too. I thought they were in desperate need of cash to remain financial.

While he has overstepped the mark and got suspended in this instance, I wonder whether he was trying to distract the St Kilda players from their game by some gamesmanship, the needling, little cheap shots to just annoy the saints and hopefully distract them. They certainly seemed 'on' in the first quarter so maybe he took it upon himself to annoy the carp out of the saints in an effort to try and disturb their concentration...

It certainly helps the club when the player intake quality improves. We are a better club in many ways than the pre Jackson years so it's difficult to pinpoint any one area responsible for the turnaround. However, since Jackson arrived, he has certainly improved all areas of the football department (in particular) and the one area obvious to me is the increase in player quality coming into the club since Jason Taylor came in. We have better coaching structures in place now but you need the players to have the qualities required and Taylor seems to get it right most times.

Yes it was around that time. It seemed to take us a little while to settle again. Smith was playing well I thought.