Melbournepotter

I have started my holidays, so while the kids are still at school, I also ventured down to watch a while (while I have the chance!). Parking is hard to get but you can find spaces just back over the river and walk 12 mins or so to the paddock. My general observations were; • Leigh Williams is one big unit, although in drills later, Frawley seemd to be able to push him around. However, he looks good in general movement. • Trengove was generally leading his group in the lap runs. • Blease hasn't developed the stamina yet to push in the lap trials. He was puffing hard and red in the face . • Davis and McDonald seem to have got bigger especially across the shoulders. • Bate has slimmed down in the thigh area and was moving a bit more freely than at times last year. • Davey looked proppy when doing the lap trials. He was almost half limping, but looked ok in the drills later. Perhaps it's just his running style. I'm not usually this close when at the games. • Jetta and Howe were doing forwards drills on their own with trainers while the other guys were running lap trials. Grimes was with them as well. • Tapscott was doing laps and he seems to have grow a bit taller with even more muscle. He is seriously solid. • Sellar looked ok in the running and drills. Looks like a bigger, more agile Brad Miller. • Viney Jnr was doing a few laps later and he will also be a very solid unit. He's already bigger than a few of the melbourne players. • Couch looked ok. He's certainly of a good size and held his own during the trials. He looked good in the drills. • Cook was doing laps ... continually on his own. He doesn't seem to have changed shape at all. • James Strauss was running freely, although at abn even pace while I was watching. I couldn't see any hint of a hindrance from the broken leg. • Jake Spencer was running laps ok.

Ok. Not perhaps a leader in the traditional sense, and I wouldn't make him captain, but what about Mitch Robinson at Carlton ? I have no idea if he's out of contract or not, but he seems a decent size, has a bit of crap/mongrel about him, is physical and competitive. He'd certainly get up someone on the field if they weren't pulling their weight....

Scully only going up for a look around and have chat...the next day he's on Youtube talking about GWS and how happy he is to be going up there. Then we have GWS saying they've only just met him...Liars. We couldn't compete with the reported millions nd we shouldn't IMHO for someone that age that's missed games already due to a knee issue. Save the cash for someone deserving. So good luck to him for getting that money, but Scully, don't treat supporters, or the club for that matter, as idiots and expect us to swallow that this deal has been done in 24 hours.

And wasn't it good to see a forward line contesting when they did bomb it long. Geelong seemed to always have forwards at the fall of the ball, contesting marks and the small forwards contesting the crumbs, very disciplined, unlike our non-existant forward line (literally). I got so tired of this year watching our midfield look up to find no-one in the forward 50.

"Up and About", and the game reviewers starting off with '3 things I learnt about <insert team here>'......do they always only learn 3 things a week per team ? Actually some of the things they learnt are dissappointing as they have generally been know for quite a while...

While it looked like it was men against an under 19 team with a few seniors thrown in (as described by one commentator) the umpiring was dire. ALl season, umpires consistently have stood on the wrong side of the pack and given frees when they can't see what has happened to the ball. On Monday, the ball came free from a pack on the crowd side, only for the umpire to be watching from the blocked side....and gave holding the ball when there was no way he could confirm it was still in the pack. According to radio (Triple M I think) Razor gave 12 frees against Melbourne, 11 of which were from 80 metres or more away..

I would love to say we will come out and finally back up our words during the week with action and hit St Kilda with everything we've got....but realistically I think we'll just play St Kilda back into form.

The AFL....a multi million dollar organisation run by amateurs. Frequent rule changes, knee jerk reactions, inconsistent rulings...it's just a constant line of stuff ups.

Blease is still not 100% happy with his leg imho. I was at the Port v Casey game sitting near the interchange and he was shaking his head at what I assume was a club physio, and doing foot raises on his leg as he walked the boundary. As far as I could tell he still played the game out, but it appeared he didn't think he was able to get the 'spring' on his leg that he wanted. (this is just my interpretation of seeing him interact with the trainer/physio). Didn't stop him doing some nice things through the centre of the ground though....

I voted a 7. It's not the real season, but I always look forward to seeing the new recruits in action to see if any show real promise....and it's been ages since we've played and....footy's back !

Much to like about Melbourne tonight. Maric looked good, Watts showed a lot of class and smarts, in fact most of the younger players showed they had improved. The down side was Strauss doing a few dumb things and McNamara looking a bit out of depth in the first game. All 3 sides in this game looked rusty, but we did show some exciting glimpses of play, especially in the forward line. The clear standout in this game was that the out-of-bounds rule is garbage. One of the attractions of this game is to see the players full on bore in at the ball. The out-of-bounds rule means that if players do this, touch the ball and it goes out...it's a free to the opposition. It does not reward endeavour near the boundary line, it punishes it.

6/ Jon Ralph joins the debate http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...-1225999851531 7/ effects the AGM and Mark Steven http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...-1226000621248 Looks like the Point 7 link isn't working, although I may have read the article anyway. Is that the one where Mark Stevens said the Melbourne fan leapt out of his seat and said he'd pay half his pay to keep Scully ? It must have been a good jump....from my memory, the guy that said that, rode up to the microphone on a motorised people mover/wheelchair. Never let the truth get in the way of soem extra dramatisation.

I worked in Sydney for around 7 years in the 90s, and to get my AFL fix became a member of the Swans. They worked very hard to engage the supporters into the club. Part of this after each home game, involved the team acknowledging the crowd, not by a half hearted wave from the centre circle but players went out to all sides of the ground and got closer to the fans as they walked back to the players race. It was a small but effective gesture, as during those years, the team was very consistent in the effort they put in and the crowd felt they were part of the club, win lose or draw. I notice that Melbourne have started doing something similar where the players are now putting more effort into acknowledging the crowd although it still needs a bit of work IMHO. Another initiative was the way they sent off chanpions. Paul Kelly was the recipient of a video of his highlights, shown on the big screen after his last home game. It was announced prior to the game starting (and during the intervals) that the video would be shown after the game and many supporters stayed back to watch the video (set to the tune 'Shine' if I remember correctly). It was very moving. I think Melbourne could perhaps learn from this, as in my opinion, James McDonald's last home game lacked some of the 'farewell pomp' his career deserved. After so many courageous games, to just be chaired off seemed a bit inadequate for me.

I think Yze must be running out of chances now. I would also like a secondary stat on White that measures how effective his taps are. I heard commentators on the radio say White 'won the tap' but I am sick of seeing him win taps that go straight to the opposition. On at least two occasions today they resulted in Hawthorn goals, after a perfect tap to a running Hawk. I am also getting sick of watching Wheatley trot around as the game passes him by. He's had a few years to bulk up and become a stronger player but we still continue to get an insipid effort from him. Robbo needs to lose some weight and get interested in playing or retire and go into showbiz fulltime. What has happened to Davey ? he contributed little today. I thought Carroll did ok, as did the other defenders. Th ball was coming in relentlessly, with little pressure, and man for man we were generally undersized. The good thing to come out of today ?......Hopefully a wake up call to see how far we have to go (or is that how far we have dropped?) .

Agree about Wheatley, although I think he may have a football brain, but not the desire to go with it. He just seems to go along with the flow and rarely gets fired up (as far as I can see....). I think he could be a huge asset to the club but doesn't seem to believe in himself enough. Bartram was one of the standouts for me on Sunday. He moved freely and showed a tough atack on the ball. He even had to ruck at one stage (after being caught under the ball) but didn't shirk the duty and showed a good vertical leap. He appeared very keen to get amongst it.

Agree with most of what you said: - Cale Morton - the 'snap' from 50 metres was excellent but at times the game passed him by. Agree that he could be anything, he looks very skinny so may take some time to develop. - Wheatley - Still looks dashing when running with the ball.....and then runs out of ideas. He had a couple of runs that looked good until he couldn't decide what to do with the football and turned it over. There's an opportunity for him to take the next step, but is he good enough ? I have my doubts. - Dunn - Surprised me. he has really bulked up and could be a dominator in the middle. He looked very good at times. Bruce, Bartram, Rivers - All moved pretty well. Bartram really put in some good efforts. The others you mentioned were pretty spot on. Daniel Gribbin- His kO was when he flew for a mark and landed on his back. Took a while for him to get up.

After watching numerous turnovers last night, by the Bulldogs against Adelaide, by doing too many handballs, I came to the realisation that I may be watching Melbourne in disguise. Although, to be fair, the Dogs were going in the right direction when turning it over, rather than in ever decreasing circles like the demons last week. The overuse of handballs was immediately done over, when Adelaide continually kicked it to free players in space after the Dogs players had streamed downfield. 'Carry and Run' or kick long ? I know which game we're better at, and which game I'd rather watch, especially after last weeks effort.