Lord Travis

Didn’t know he suffered this type of injury and am worried now. I expect him to have another down season in 2021 and fear we have seen his best already.

He was great in 2019, probably the Suns most consistent midfielder. Would gladly take him and add him to our midfield rotation. He’s a different type of player to the one paced inside brigade we have. He’s not pure outside, wins his own ball and used it well be foot. What would he cost us in a trade?

No point blaming the umpires. If we didn’t lose to bottom four teams, we’d already have a finals place locked away! Saints have beat GWS tonight. We’re now entirely reliant on Freo beating the Dogs to allow us to make it. Presuming we best Essendon. God this club is infuriating.

Pittard is better defensive depth than Joel Smith and the Wagners etc. Williams would also bolster our small defender stocks, which are quite limited. We need tall forward depth full stop, so Wood on zero coin adds to depth with Mitch Brown and possibly TMac probably gone end of year. Ahern was a top ten draft pick for the Giants, then came back to VIC. He struggled to get his body right, but has talent and was a goal kicking midfielder at underage level. He also had a 37 disposal, 12 clearance game against Premiers West Coast in 2018, so capable when fit. We could do worse for midfield depth. Jacobs was a good player before injury in 2018. Haven't seen him since and is probably cooked. Wouldn't bother with any of the others.

Champion Data is just statistics. It's not always going to represent the reality of what happens, as there are variables they can't account for. However, they rate our list 9th and we're currently 9th on the ladder... so it's fairly accurate! ?

This may be because we have poor onfield leaders who aren’t capable of directing players during the game. Perhaps him being able to direct the players from the bench lessens the negative impacts of our poor onfield leadership?

Foot injury ruined him. Be interesting to see if we trade him to Essendon for Saad as touted in media recently.

Probably my favourite non-Melbourne FC player...

He's a fat useless spud of a footballer who should be thankful he ever got an AFL contract to begin with. I'm sure he'll enjoy retirement snorting cocaine acting like he's a fictional Tony Montana style gangster. In reality he's a pathetic waste of skin.

Think his point was more that if we didn’t [censored] up repeatedly losing to bottom teams then none of these results would be relevant. We’ve done this to ourselves.

So that’s nearly it then. Most realistic way to make it now is for us to beat Essendon and Dogs to lose to Freo.

Hogan kicked 4 today. Wish we had someone capable of doing that for us!

West Coasts on-field leadership got them over the line last night. Half their team out injured, down with 7 minutes to go, top 4 on the line. Naitanui, Gaff, Hurn, Sheperd, Darling, Kennedy all stood up in key moments and dragged them to victory. Good clubs have leadership all across the ground, and you look at those names it's leaders on each line. It's exactly what we're missing - leadership across the club. Board, coaches, players. We brought Lever and May across for their leadership as much as their playing ability, but on-field leadership outside the backline is seriously lacking. The forward line lacks decent players, let alone leaders capable of standing up, inspiring, and directing others. Until we fix our leadership issues, it's irrelevant if we make finals or not.

No excuses or whinging. We’re our own worst enemy. We’ve had a dream run with injury this year, nearly the least games lost to injury of any club. Credit to the fitness staff. We’ve also had some very favorable runs with the umpires in matches this year too. Just two weeks ago we lost to 2nd last Sydney who were missing Buddy, Rampe, Heeney, Mills off the top of my head. We have a history of losing to extremely weak opposition. I’ll never forget when we lost to an Essendon replacement team.

Technically possible, but it's doubtful considering our pathetic recent efforts against bottom clubs. We'd have to win both matches and rely on others losing. We had the chance to cement a finals spot and we blew it by repeatedly losing to bottom teams. We don't deserve to play finals, and even we miraculously make it we're not a contender and will likely get thumped by whoever finishes 5th (likely West Coast in Perth). We need to focus on 2021 and turning overhauling our midfield, forward line, and game style.

Then what the [censored] is our excuse?!

Ditching 10 players and keeping 6 is an overhaul. I agree I think an overhaul is needed and mostly agree with the players you've suggested to keep. Not sure Bedford is much chop though, and Harmes would be rotational only, not a pure forward option. The tall marking and goal kicking forward is our most obvious weakness. Weid is the only bonafide tall forward there, and he can't be relied on alone to carry that load. Jackson should be part-time forward only and also still have question marks about his intensity at the contests and aerial marking ability.

It's the team I'd pick from what's available, but I don't think it's a team that would be successful. Our midfield and forward line both need a complete overhaul. I can't see success with our current crop. It's middle of the road at best.

If Cerra wants to come back to Melbourne, a Cerra for Brayshaw straight swap is a fairly even trade. Brayshaw is clearly better than what he's showing at the moment. He'd suit them as an inside mid to help take pressure off Fyfe, win ball and feed his brother and other runners. He's a proven gun in 2018 when playing an inside midfield role. Cerra is younger and far less proven, but as a more outside leaning player he'd suit us. The trade only works if Cerra wants to come home though. I have no doubt Gus would be happy moving to WA to play with his brother and be with the rest of his family again.

Below is the team I'd run with assuming no big trades occur and we have our current list. I expect the club to be quite pro-active and move a few players on, potentially trading Brayshaw and making a few surprise delistings. I've heard from a source that Bennell likely won't be around next year. Body still not up to the rigours of AFL and he doesn't offer enough offensively to compensate for serious defensive shortcomings. There's a vacant wing that we need to bring someone in the play. I'd love a rounded midfielder like Shai Bolton or Zak Butters to help fill that spot and as a midfield/forward rotation. We also need another quality tall forward who hits the scoreboard. Not sure who's available or who we could land, but TMac has struggled and Weid can't carry the load on his own if he gets double and triple teamed. I still see Jackson as more of a ruck and follower than a forward, though he could help with our tall forward problem in the short term. TEAM B: Lockhart May Lever HB: Rivers Petty Salem C : Langdon Brayshaw ??? HF: Harmes TMac Melksham F: Pickett Weideman Fritsch F: Gawn, Oliver, Petracca I: Jackson Viney Hibberd Tomlinson

It is ridiculously low. We are the oldest football club in the world, yet we have only ever had 1 player reach the 300 game milestone. Let that sink in. Compare that to Hawthorn as an example, a club 40-50 years younger than us. They've had 8 players top 300 games and around 40 top 200 games. Compare it to West Coast, who have only been around for 3 decades. They've had 21 players top 200 games and have Hurn closing in on 300. 3 decades and they've nearly caught what we've done in over 150 years! We've had poor development forever as a club. As a result we've lacked star players compared to other clubs. Flower was a very special player, but the fact we still talk about him as a measuring stick shows just how lean the past few decades have been. When you compare us to other clubs we truly are an abysmal failure outside the 50s-60s.

Development. We are poor at it. Fin.

As grumpy and annoying as Garry can be, he is 100% right with his comments about the MFC. He is a frustrated Melbourne supporter like the rest of us. The difference is he has a platform to voice his frustrations. At this point blind Freddie can point out what the club has been unable to fix for longer than I've been alive. Everyone but the coaches are seemingly aware of our issues. We have good players on paper who don't play well together due to poor coaching, systems and development. We still lack leadership at every level, from board to coaches to players. There is no success or premiership in the foreseeable future for the club until we address the leadership issue that have plagued us for decades.

Love to get another Spargo and Sparrow in to rocket us up the ladder ? It's looking bleak in the short term.

Supporters often still say "we're a young side". We're not. We're ranked 9th for age. IMO Rivers is the only 22 and under player who has shown he'll definitely be a long term player. Jackson we haven't seen enough yet, Pickett is a worry to be honest. Petty showed a bit, but jury is still out and with injury now he might even get cut if lists shrink. There's no others under 22 worth noting. Teams like Brisbane, Richmond and Port Adelaide are all younger. Brisbane are muuuch younger, yet are still producing better football than we have for 15 years. Our core of Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Gawn, Lever, May are mostly mid 20s, some later. Our core is a good age profile. However, we traded away our chances at young talent to get some of them in, so if we don't capitalise in the short term then we're in for a world of pain in a few years as there is a gap of young talent coming through. We loaded up for a flag tilt and it's not happening. We as a club lack leadership throughout. The coaches are obviously clueless. The players are clueless and lack onfield leadership. The board etc don't know how to turn the place around. The only time the club improved this decade was when we had Roos as coach and PJ as CEO. When they left the leadership and direction evaporated. We need to get some strong leadership in at all levels.