mauriesy

That's really insightful. Just what do you think the coaching panel are currently doing?

Robinson on the Channel 7 football show this morning said one of the three things he learnt from yesterday's game is that Jack Grimes is a "beauty" and "he will be a 10-year player for the club". Yep ... let's drop him. Terrible.

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I'm sure Scully and Trengove's self-motivation had something to do with it. You probably couldn't ask for two more committed first-year players.

I just parked in the centre of Victoria Parade and walked about 5-6 blocks ... 15 minutes at the most. The problem with the MCG carpark isn't just getting in, it's getting out at the end. The northern car park entrance (across the railway bridge from the Hilton hotel) was still accepting cars when I walked past at 6.45.

Remember some of the discussion about the new Melbournefc CEO in 2008? In hindsight, we really dodged a bullet. Then again, maybe not. No wonder players were very happy. Time has certainly told. Yep, an excellent job. More to do with the player's business dealings than we realised! A real massive coup. Seems not. At least somebody got it right.

It is quite possible that if Gawn hadn't done his knee, he wouldn't have slipped to #34. Could be a long-term bargain, certainly not a short-term delist.

I think Jaded is right. You can elevate a rookie after Round 11. A long-term injury has to be a minimum of 8 weeks for a rookie to get elevated. So if Morton came back, say, in round 9 there'd be a two week gap where one of the elevated rookies would have to go back to the rookie list.

A journalist at a country newspaper covers just about everything. She probably spends half her life bored to snores in the council chamber reporting on planning issues or a controversy over a nursing home extension. Bit much to expect her to know the Melbourne score in every detail last Saturday.

This board has gone from "sack the coach" to "top eight here we come" in the space of two weeks. Wonder where it will be in another two?

To be fair, we let 17 goals through against a Hawks attack missing Franklin and Rioli. Collingwood and Adelaide are not exactly high-scoring sides at the best of times ... they rely more on a dour style of defensive play. Last year we only let 7 goals through against Adelaide at the MCG and lost. Guess we're two goals better at least. Not trying to ruin it, but let's be realistic. When we've played sides like the Cats, Dogs and St Kilda we'll know more about where our Dee-Fence stands. As for the Dee-Attack, Watts is still an unknown quantity. We had Jurrah, Sylvia and Morton last year and still struggled to kick more than a dozen.

Pity the Dee-Attack is ranked third worst for points for.

I just thought the only intention of the Melbourne players was to go out there and tackle ... very, very hard.

We were at ground level in the northern stand near the Punt Road pocket. The flags on the city end scoreboard were pointing strongly towards us, but where we were sitting the wind was going the other way back towards the members. I watched the top of the goal posts wobbling. It was also really cold in the shade!

Bail is a speedster. And he's got elite endurance.

Irrelevant to the method of tackling, which is what people are complaining about. McManus had his face pushed into the ground far more severely than Johnson. He had red abrasions on his face when he got up. Bartram didn't get suspended either. I don't necessarily agree with that. But there was not a peep from any supporter here when he did it.

I hope you can cast your minds back to Bartram tackling McManus last year in the same way. Can't remember the vitriol aimed at one of our own for being 'weak, sniping thuggish trash'.

Lost me there. If it's a 'one on one' how are you outnumbered? Outplayed by more skill and bigger bodies, maybe.

Purloining?

Can't find much to argue with that. At least he wasn't suckered into picking a "best 22". I'm hoping Maric has a break-out year too.

Football is a hard, fast contact sport. Players have to train and play hard. Players get injured doing so. Get over it.

Meesen is a rookie himself and paying him out won't alter our senior list one schmick. Therefore we can't promote a rookie on the basis of Meesen's injury.

They don't "swap". Gawn, even if he is LTI, remains on the senior list. He has a 2-year contract like all draftees. McKenzie or Spencer can play if they are either: a. replacing an LTI player, or b. nominated to play after Round 11. They still remain as rookies until upgraded, which would happen at the end of 2010. An upgraded rookie can now also be counted as one of your three compulsory list changes. So if we decided to upgrade both McKenzie and Spencer at the end of Season 2010, theoretically we only have to pick one player in the draft.

Jeez ... Garland call Mark II.

Are we seeing just a "glimpse" in his second year of football?