Lord Travis

12,000. It will be an abysmal match by two of the worst football teams in decades.

Why was he an emergency in the first place? Either don't drop him, or play him at Casey to gain confidence. He now sits on the sidelines this weekend and achieves nothing. He gains no confidence or touch, and gains no experience or chance to redeem himself being out there in the red and blue. Awful management. Even blind freddie can see that!

So Watts isn't playing this weekend? I thought the point of dropping him was to send him back to the twos to gain some confidence and touch. What is the point in dropping him then likely bringing him back in without even playing at Casey? The whole team was rubbish last week, and though he was poor he certainly wasn't the worst. Why was he made a scapegoat? We have ruined him. Our club has no idea how to develop players.

Awful. No hope for this team. If it wasn't for Jack Viney there would be literally no reason to turn up anymore. Pathetic. We're somehow going backwards!

The quickest way to the goals is straight up the middle of the ground. A skilled team who attacks through the corridor is unbeatable. Unfortunately we do not have the skill to do that.

Just been watching some 2012 games on foxtel recently. Would love to get Daniel Rich into a Melbourne jumper! Tough, wins his own ball, has a bit of mongrel, calm and composed, shows good leadership, and has a superb long kick. I'd throw a lot at Brisbane to pinch him. He's exactly what we need going forward. Wonder what we'd need to trade to get him. First rounder and a player? We're better off trading first rounders for established players at this stage as we can't seem to pick/develop our own. Get Daniel Rich I say!

We have the worst midfield in the league IMO. Until we trade in midfield talent we are going nowhere. We can't keep banking on kids in hope. We've done this for decades and it's got us nowhere. It's time we took a hint from the Swans and go get some midfield talent from other clubs. If we can bring across a Josh Kennedy type then we get talent, experience, and skill. Until that happens we won't move out of the bottom 4, let alone challenge for a flag. It's bloody frustrating!

No worries. It's a shame, as he is exactly the kind of character and player we"d benefit from with our cultural shift and midfield issues.

As i thought, Lewis has signed on with the Hawks and should not be on the free agency list. It is noted in numerous articles recently, but gets lost amongst all the hype for Buddy. "Yesterday the Hawks struck back, revealing to the Herald Sun they had re-signed free agent Jordan Lewis, now in his ninth season, to a new deal." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/hawks-would-lose-buddy-franklin-for-nothing-under-proposed-changes-to-afls-free-agency-rules/story-e6frg6n6-1226595082773 http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/afl/every-2013-free-agent-listed-and-every-club-rated/story-e6frexz9-1226594977631

I also thought Lewis had signed a contract with the Hawks recently. Perhaps the author of that article didn't check the list before they printed it. Wouldn't be the first time. I'll see if I can find an article about Lewis signing.

Betts would be a great get. He puts pressure on the defence, he creates and makes the most of opportunities, and most importantly he kicks bags of goals. You could rely on him to kick 40-50 goals a year crumbling for the talks we have up forward in Clark, Dawes and Hogan. He'd make our forward line very potent and have 5-6 years left in him. Comparing him to Cyril is a bit different. Firstly I don't believe Cyril is a free agent? Secondly Betts is a better forward IMO. He kicks a lot more goals than Cyril, and at the end of the day i'd take someone kicking his 2-3 every game than someone kicking a freakish goal one week then not kicking a goal for 2 weeks. Cyril is capable of more brilliance, and is more versatile, but he is injury prone and inconsistent. Cyril is more capable of pushing up the ground and taking a game apart, but he's honestly a bit like Sylvia in this regard. He's very inconsistent and is one of the most over-hyped and over-rated players in the game at present. How he got an AA place last year absolutely blew my mind. Shouldn't have even made the squad! He is very talented though, just inconsistent and injury prone. Betts would be the best value out of the small forward free agents, and it is a spot we need to fill.

Not until we get more talent into the midfield. We need players who work hard and can be damaging both ways. At present we have few players who can do this. We have a few players who can attack but can't defend (eg Sylvia), and a few who can defend but can't attack (eg Mckenzie). We need good all-round midfielders who work hard and have the skills to do what is necessary. We could have Buddy Franklin and Jack Reiwoldt up forward at present and still lose every week. The game is won and lost in the midfield and until our midfield is good enough and firing, everything else is irrelevant.

Brilliant post Colin B. F., and pretty much sums up exactly what I think. Daniher was a good coach, but had been at the club a long time and it was time for a change with another rebuild. As someone who was born in the 80s and can only really remember footy from the 90s onwards, Daniher is the best coach we've had in that time. He delivered us the most success, even if it wasn't a premiership, and got the most out of the list and resources he had to work with. I loved the Danhier years, and I miss going to the footy thinking we would win. Since he departed the club it has been torture going to watch our boys play. It's embarrassing, and has been for 6-7 years now, yet we're still down the bottom and rebuilding. God help us if we don't improve this year and it gets to 8 years without finals. I never thought we'd be in the situation where we became a joke like a Richmond or Fitzroy, but it's happening Miss Daniher!

Was subbed on in 4th quarter for Hogan. Played more in the ruck than up forward and was pretty useless. Basically just tried to scrag the Port rucks and provide some form of contest, but was ineffective. He's yet to show anything yet and shouldn't be in the team Round 1 IMO.

They have. Magner, Sellar, Couch and Davey going alright thus far. The commentators are only concerned with Port Adelaide though. The only time they name a Melbourne player or even mention the team is when we score a goal. Otherwise they're just talking about their local team in Port.

Sh*t result. He had a good preseason, looked prime up until the injury too. He definitely looked worried when he pulled his leg out quickly from under himself after he was tackled. Commentators noted it as well. It's best to take a cautious approach considering his history. Let's just hope it doesn't hamper him long term and it's not another never-ending dreaded 4-6.

We need gun midfielders, pure and simple. You can win a flag with an average forward line or back line. You need a good hard working midfielder to win. Everything revolves round that. We need more good midfielders, both inside and outside, before we rise up the ladder. At this stage our midfield is a bottom 4 midfield, and we're going nowhere in a hurry until this is rectified. Bringing in Viney and Toumpas should help hopefully with time, but we still need more. Good news is our forward line and back line stocks are good. Infact, with a good midfield helping to apply pressure defensively or send the ball inside 50 with clean disposal, I'd consider both our back line and forward line to be in the better half of the league. It's just the midfield holding us back.

8/8 so far :D Let's see how the last match pans out

He's set for a good year. He's fit going into the season for once. Hopefully he will play midfield permanently and stamp himself more consistently on games.

Re-watching this now. It was heartbreaking. I miss watching a decent Melbourne side play football. Here's hoping 2013 we become a more cohesive bunch. It's been unenjoyable and embarrassing watching our team play for years now

That game was the biggest roller-coaster I've ever attended. I never recovered from this loss. It was the best game I saw a Melbourne player play in the flesh (Travis). I lost my sh*t in the carpark after this game. I lost all hope that night. There have been more important games in my time, but this one affected me the most for some reason.

Looks like the suing has already started. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-02-12/croad-to-sue-fairfax-for-defamation Here's hoping that Fairfax cop it from all angles and get absolutely destroyed in court. It's only fair they get comprehensively shat on, so their reputation gets destroyed just as they have destroyed the reputations of others.

You're in luck! http://www.melbournefc.com.au/the-club/sponsors The Age are no longer a sponsor of the club. The Herald Sun has taken their place. I'd hope once this is all over that several different parties sue the pants off Caro and The Age for the rubbish they've printed.

Swap Grimes for Febey. Swap Howe for Bruce. Then it's pretty bang on IMO

I still think he'll be a great player for the club. His first two years were fantastic. He was still ok in 2012, but was a lot more defensive. He laid a lot of tackles, did more grunt work, but wasn't very effective offensively. I thought it was widely noted he developed a form of O.P. and thus lost lots of his running and kicking power. His kicking was well down last year. He wouldn't make the distance from 40 metres out at stages when taking set shots. He'll have an average season this year due to his foot injury and lack of preparation. Missing out on preseason is massive. Even stars like Luke Hodge can't perform when they miss fitness training. It's just crucial in this day and age. Long-term though I think he'll be a star. He is just a superbly rounded player in the Jimmy Bartel mould. He can play anywhere, do the hard stuff, use his skills outside, and take a hanger and nail a goal. With more fitness and development his star will shine and thankfully it will be in a red and blue, as he's a loyal and level-headed guy.