mauriesy

In a push for a premiership, Melbourne needs an elite core of 7-8 players (plus plenty of other good ones). For me, the "elite core" will come from Davey, Watts, Jurrah, Scully, Trengove, Grimes, Garland, Frawley and Sylvia, possibly also from Blease, Strauss, Tapscott, Maric and Gysberts. In the guts, Grimes, Scully and Trengove are critical. We can ill afford not to give them game time. Why is that laughable?

A glimpse by definition is a "faint and transient appearance". Is that all you expect of Watts in his first three years, possibly 25% of his career? I didn't say Watts had to emulate Judd's or Reiwoldt's milestones. I listed them as the achievements of the best draft picks ... in recognition that they're far more than "glimpses".

If it takes four years before we see more than "glimpses", Watts wouldn't have been taken at No. 1. I'd be expecting this year to be one of consolidation and building experience, with some very solid games in 2011. Judd won a Brownlow in his third year (2004), Reiwoldt won the Saints best and fairest in his second year (2002) and by his fourth year (2004) was All-Australian.

Weetra did in fact play two inglorious games.

I guess if an "analytics expert" has developed a "formula", it must be right.

Gee, that's some training load. Couldn't they cut it down to, say, a couple of hundred thousand?

Everybody, on every team, trains the house down at this time of year.

But then it would be a negative list, for pessimists.

It took 44 posts for someone to note that.

It's Bohdan's fault.

Brightness, contrast and gamma are all part of the process. Most LCD monitors are turned up way too bright, so yes, that's a factor..

Agreed. I took RGB readings using a Firefox tool called ColorZilla. This 4-panel colour bar (in RGB) shows the following: Left: Black (R:0,G:0,B:0) Second from left: The very dark blue used on the Demonland website (R:5,G:0,B:30). Third from left: The dark blue used in some newer melbournefc logos on the MFC website (R:7,G:15,B:69). Right: The blue used in older logos on the melbournefc website (R:1,G:49,B:98). I still think the second one is too dark, and I like the third one best. The right-hand one is too light. BTW, I have a colour-calibrated monitor for pre-press purposes.

Was about to say the same thing. I still want us to be the "team of the red and the blue", not Essendon. The blue in this website is also a bit too dark. Looks marginally off black to me.

Sorry ... since going to Casey, Rivers and Sylvia haven't been injured and are having a full pre-season, so you want a review of us using Casey?

Perhaps it was all just the rumbling of the waves at Jan Juc.

Now I'm worried.

I expect him to be a lot better developed than he was in 2009. I was actually referring to the idea that Watts will be little more than a 'decoy' for 3 more years. I hardly think we needed to waste our No.1 draft pick on a role like that (even Newton could do that). Supporters have some very conservative time frames when it comes to player development and team achievement. I keep seeing 3-4 years for players to 'show something' and have even seen 5-8 years mentioned for our 'premiership opportunity'. Why so long and so reticent to aim high? If the club, team and players were actually aiming that low I'd be disappointed. We'd be beaten before we started. I'd be aiming for a year of good consolidation in 2010, finals in 2011 or 2012 and a good crack in 2013, maybe even earlier. Hawthorn did it in four years.

Rivers played 20 games in 2009 ... only Davey, Morton and Moloney played more.

If Watts takes until 2013 to become more than a decoy, I'll eat my hat. Or our development coaches will have something to answer for. There are some very conservative figures about the future being bandied about on these boards. What are we all afraid of?

"Quality Cameron Cloke type" is an oxymoron. I think if anyone was a "quality maturing experienced tall around the 23-25 age group who whilst not over endowed with ability can come in, throw their weight around, and look after the younger talls" it would be Jamar.

Huge opportunity missed. There was no juxtaposition between Liam, Yuendemu and Jim other than being a place to visit. I was waiting for some sort of connection about the life journey that both were making, but it never came. They could have done the interview with Jim in a studio somewhere and it wouldn't have mattered.

Just wondering how Collingwood went from two losing grand finals in a row ('02, '03) to bottoming out for a first-round priority pick (Thomas) two years later?

And never fret over a done deal anyway.

Indeed. The 3km time trial is not a speed test, it's an endurance test. Brock might keep a solid, sustained pace for 3km, that doesn't mean he's anywhere near 'explosive' over 20-30m ... the idea that he's faster than Judd is rubbish.

A one liner in a paper somewhere, written by a journalist looking for a controversial angle. Luke Ball is 25. I've got a son that old and have about as much influence over him and his future intentions as I do over Chris Judd.