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Actually - its not Watts v NikNat and it never will be (how's the weather?) The real question is Melbourne ( including Watts) vs West Coast ( inc NicNat) If Melbourne wins the flag before West Coast does, then our recruiters will have won. End of story....

Thanks for that The main AFL website still has last weeks list with Sylvia noted for a test !! http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/92714/default.aspx There is a footnote " * Please note that Melbourne's list is from last week. It will be updated when available". Not a good look - hopefully someone from the club will sort this out

OK ... my bad

Sorry - ridiculous negative nonsense. Gysbert's only been with the club five minutes. Give him a go ............. and Gawn is recovering from a knee reconstruction .He's 206 cm and he's still growing.Would you be more impressed if he started shrinking?

Don't forget that we have an ageing membership list heavily skewed towards baby boomers. Every year some of our members are going to retire from going to the footy. This might soak up a few of the 7000. I'm sure we'll get past 30,000 in the end - but we might struggle to beat the budget of 31000. You'd think that most members would have signed up by the end of the 3rd home game - which is against Brisbane on Saturday week.

Agree. What's the story with Stef Martin?

The media have to write something - and coach-bashing is the easiest way to fill up space. The Committee knew that the media would start have having a crack at Bailey - which is precisely why they extended his contract. Jimmy Stynes is a passionate believer in the power of positive thinking - and he would expect us supporters to rally against the negativism the media likes to portray For goodness sake you negative posters - tell the media that Melbourne has a future.

On my way out of the ground after the game, I bumped into two aggressive Hawthorn supporters I know. Just as I was about to head off in the opposite direction, they displayed some rare understanding - "Don't worry about that. You're just like we were 4 years ago. People forget just how bad we were when Clarkson started teaching his game plan. You've just got to be patient with those kids" There is no point sacking Bailey. The players who consistently struggle - Miller, Dunn, Bate etc - struggled under Daniher and they'd struggle under anyone else you care to name . Sylvia, Jamar and Frawley have all improved significantly under Bailey's teaching even though he has laboured under the worst facilities in the AFL. Several of the players who would be making us more competitive this year - Morton,Jurrah, Garland - are out injured.Our top two picks from 2008 haven't been able to get on to the park - Watts and Blease. Next year may see Bailey out. Time will tell. But it is unhelpful to point the bone at him now. Let's be realistic - it is long tough road. Our best players on Saturday were Grimes, Trengove, Scully and McKenzie ( with help from Junior and inspiration from Green) There is still reason to be optimistic..............

I hesitated before raising the matter - I wondered if I was nit-picking..... and then I thought 'what the heck - Brock McLean has been with another club for 5 months now' .... it is absurd that he still features on our site. The website is the face of our club - and we shouldn't allow any outsourcing arrangement to compromise the image it portrays.The fact that it features a Carlton player makes the club look lazy and inefficient

Yesterday I jumped on to the mfc website - and found myself greeted by a smiling Russell Robertson. Now I didn't think it was appropriate at this stage of the season to feature a mugshot of a player who is no longer on the list - but Robbo is a much loved life member who is now playing in the country- so I ignored it The Stats Central section of the club site features those who were among the stats in the prior year..... and so it was that today I found myself looking at the smiling face of a Carlton player!I know the club websites are based on a standard AFL design, but why haven't we asked the design to be modified so that the stats table doesn't trigger photos of blokes who walk out to another club? Yes this morning I found myself greeted by the self satisfied grin of B McLean esq. I wonder if Carlton supporters are still looking at photos of Fev? This is a new season. Melbourne's No 5 is Jordan Gysberts - get his photo up their instead. Brock has moved on - so should our internet portal.

It was the tackling pressure early which killed us . Can only hope that we've steered away from the physical stuff in our program to date to guard against injuries to our young players - and that it was always our intention to work this into our program between now and the first game. All over the field - starting with Sandilands -we were battling bigger bodies. Unfortunately we can't talk too much about our relative youth - because Freo had 15 players with less than 50 games!

I have passionately argued against "free agency" for a long time. It seems to me that a mechanism which encourages players to look at other ( more successful) clubs as they approach their prime can only weaken the club loyalties which lie at the heart of our game. As Arthur points out it is the long term impact of free agency that ought to concern all of us. I have had some sympathy for players who are dragged accross the country and have had no easy means of returning home.Other than that I have always thought that free agency was a 'no-no'. As a supporter its hard enough to stick with your club when it is down - how much harder will it be when you know that all your emerging players ( or their greedy managers) can plot to walk out on you when they reach their prime? I'd suggest that some Geelong supporters will feel less attached to Gary Ablett this year as he continues to defer contract negotiations in the knowledge that there is a fortune waiting for him on the Gold Coast.In the face of free agency ( to the new club) he is no longer "their player" - and a kid who wants #29 on his back stands to have his heart broken at season's end. Having said all that the AFL has done well to resist AFLPA pressure for a 7 year walk-out clause - and to add an extra layer of protection to the "Top 10". The pressure on a club to match an offer for the "Top 10" is however inflationary - and the whole system can be compromised by Judd-like Visy deals. How is the AFL ever going to stop rorts like that? If you accept that the players were never going to agree to a new collective bargaining agreement without some form of free agency, then the new arrangements are OK ... and the AFL has done a good job . But if greedy players ( or managers!) find loopholes in the detail - then it is inevitable that the competition will suffer over time. Whatever your politics - you've got to say that Jeff Kennett's reservations are valid.

Actually the previous Board got a lot of this good stuff going - Rectangular Stadium, MCC and Casey - they just had one terrible year financially when the wheels fell off ND's team....

The club has done very well to contain expenses during a tough year for corporate hospitality etc. Virtually every expense line is down. Expenses are almost certain to increase as we take advantage of our new facilities and confront increasing salary demands etc. . Increased AFL and the MCC contributions will help - but our financial position will remain marginal until and unless we substantially lift our own recurring income I am delighted to see the club concentrate on building our supporter base and converting our supporters into members .This is the key to establishing the sort of revenue streams we will need to remain competitive in the long-term. We really have to start winning matches to help get more bums on seats. A great start to a long hard climb!

On the other hand , if he gets injured he won't be able to demonstrate what we all suspect - that he's not up to it...! It might be that his best chance of staying on the list is to miss the first 21 rounds with injury - then he'll be able to say that he hasn't got the match fitness to break into the Casey team on the eve of the finals - but that he'll be ready to go in 2011.

Well I thought the exercise had a dual purpose - but it was in realty a function for Casey Demons. There was a stand selling local produce - and Chris Connolly took the opportunity to buy several week's supply of veges! I did expect to see more people there = but perhaps my expectations were unrealistic for a Friday evening just before Xmas. For I W-S, I note that Col Garland worked out with Watts and co and looked quite comfortable. It was also good to see Strauss out there - working hard despite a wrist brace. I can't think of anybody who wasn't on the field doing something except Healy who ran a few laps and didn't look happy. Bruce was with the group on the modified program - but he looked a bit proppy. Others in the modified group were Fitzpatrick,PJ, Meeson, Newton and McNamara

The first time I went to Casey I got lost - this time I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I got there on the freeway. The surface of the ground is superb - and I can imagine an attractive fully functional facility when the grandstand extension/ gym area is complete. For all that, I was a little disappointed at the crowd. The function had been given good coverage on the web-site and it was a perfect opportunity to see our new recruits. Clearly very few people from the central suburbs made the trip.It was very much a local promotion - and the fact that the mayor was there was most encouraging. However I would be surprised if there were 500 people all up. The Casey Demons have a long way to go - but it is of course very early days - and the atmosphere was bright and positive. There was a lot of verve in the training. Aussie looked terrific before he got hurt and Sylvia was brilliant. Like everyone else I was impressed by Tapscott. For an 18 year old he is built like a brick sxxx house and he can really kick. As to nicknames , very boring .. I heard Taps and Trenners and Fitzy and Gys. Exciting times ahead

Watts did not train with the main group at all.... which I found disappointing. He was with the group returning from injury - so was Scully - mainly doing handball drills. They also did reflex work with a tennis ball. Matched against Gawn he certainly didn't look like a big man - but he was energetic and enthusiastic throughout - and he pulled in some blinders when Kelly O'Donnell smashed a tennis ball anywhere near him!

Hang on ...get things the right way around here please. It is soccer that is stipulating that other sports must be suspended while the World Cup is being played.The problem is not the intolerance of the AFL - but the intolerance of soccer. Do yourselves a favour, soccer - and start working with the codes that built the facilities you now want to cash in on. Let's be perfectly clear before throwing around emotive terms like "hysteria" and "xenophobic" - the us against them mentality - was created by - and is being sustained by - soccer!!

In the Age yesterday Caro pointed out the emergence of third party payments - like Visy's payment to the country's leading voice on the environment - Dr. Christopher Judd - is weakening the ability of the salary cap to negate the effect of free agency on the evenness of the competition.There are of course other reasons why the salary cap alone will not prevent the strong clubs from entrenching themselves at the top - like the simple desire of players to get to a successful club regardless of immediate salary The AFLPA are somehow using the Luke Ball saga to push for free agency after 7 years. The fact is that Ball got to his preferred destination - just as McPhee and Burgoyne have done under the existing regime. Yes - it was hard for Ball - but it should be hard. The easier it is for players to prosper without committing themselves to their existing club- the more we breakdown our "tribal affinities" through player movement -the weaker our competition will become. The players are doing very nicely thankyou under the current scheme. This is one time when I'm well and truly barracking for Adrian Anderson as he continues to resist. Knowing that Collingwood will benefit from free agency in the short -term - it must be a major long-term problem if Malthouse (and McGuire) have decided to speak against it. I reckon it is ..........

No the expectations are not unrealistic. ..... Monday's arrangements are not changed at 8.55 am Monday morning - unless of course the players are expected to do a Ú turn in Cranbourne Rd and speed back to the city in 5 minutes! Someone in the football department should simply add the telephonist and the communications department onto their contact lists. If the club cannot develop systems to keep this information accurate - it should withdraw it from the website - and explain why it does not believe that members ( much less supporters) should have access to it

Do you think it might have something to do with the fact that soccer is the only sport which specifies that no other sport should be played when it is being played? Soccer fans need to come off their high horse - and accept that their sport is not superior to the others. The fact that it is played all around the world doesn't make it a better game. It doesn't even require hand eye coordination!!

You're missing the point. The fact is you shouldn't have to...... Are you suggesting that the club expand its phone systems to include a "Website Acciracy Confirmation Line" ?

I planned to make the trek for the barbie on Friday - but I'm not sure that I'll take the risk now. If you can't believe official club communications on training times etc .... how can you believe official club communications on 'meet the player' barbies? The suggestion that the team always trains at the Junction Oval on Mondays doesn't wash with me. The club has widely publicised the fact that Casey is now its summer home I really don't want to drive to Berwick to have a snag with the Construction Workers Union - it's probably a safer bet to head for the Junction Oval and park along the tan. OK - sarcasm is the lowest form of wit - but the slackness of the club in failing to communicate fully with its most dedicated supporters is indefensible - and worrying!

Substitute FFA ("Soccer Australia") for FIFA and surely you are right. The fact is that the AFL ( and NRL etc) are businesses competing with FFA for sponsorship dollars. FFA wants to use facilities built by the AFL and the NRL to bring international muscle into the Australian maket - and the Federal Govt is going to encourage them to do it. For one season, the govt is going to create a monopoly - and it somehow believes that healthy competition will return 12 months later. Sorry Kev..... that's "un-Australian" in more ways than one!!