Theo

Hindsight is a great thing. However, as supporters that is all we have as we have no say in recruitment. The fact is the club is struggling on field and there has to be a question mark over the recruiting. The continued inconsistency over many years must point to recruitment, at least in some form. First round selections in Bell, Nick Smith, Molan and McLean didn't help. Bate and Dunn are in and out of the side. Buckley was traded. Strauss, Maric, Jetta, Bennell and Morton haven't come on. Blease may or may not make it. There are simply too many questionmarks over players the majority of which were top 20 selections. List management is also a concern. This year (according to Bigfooty) we have the following players out of contract Gawn, Maric, Wona, Sylvia, Scully, Morton, Fitzpatrick, and Martin. We have to delist 3 players. Who would you delist? Maybe one may agree to go on the rookie list like they did with PJ and Newton. It would appear that Maric and Wona are definately under the pump. Sylvia or Morton could be traded to open up positions. It does not give the club much room to move. The same thing happened last year by telling Junior to retire to free up a position for the ND.

Good post. Very much agree with you. Our players would be scared shi-less if Malthouse or a Northey type was coach. Bailey walks around the boundary giving them a pat on the pack, did you see Malthouse get stuck into Dawes the other night on the boundary. There's no back slapping just a steely resolve in his eyes that cuts right through the players. They love him, are scared of him and play for him. Malthouse made a comment recently when asked why he doesn't coach from the boundary. He said that you cannot see what is going on and cannot understand why coached do this. You can't tell me that Bailey is the coach on game day. He just takes the audio feed from the Assistants in the coaches box and makes decisions without personally seeing what is going on. By the way good coaches usually say they are only good because they had good players. MFC has had ample opportunity to recruit very good players. It has been very hit and miss and overall I believe we have failed to capitalise on this. First round selections in Luke Molan, Bell, Nick Smith, Sylvia, Mcclean, Bate, Dunn, Jones have not been overly successful. Add in Morton, Strauss, Maric, Jetta etc. We have no A Graders and only a handful of B Graders in the team. We have relied on a few good later picks i.e Garland, Bartram, Petterd The coach is usually the first one to be blamed when the team is losing, however if you pull back the layers it may well rest with the recruiters and the FD. Why have we been bottom or a middle of the ladder team for years. Maybe the players just aren't good enough. I believe this to be the case although a different coach may get the best out of the talent we have. Interesting that Brad Green said this morning that they love the coach and are right behind him. He blames the players. I sometimes think that players say this because they don't want CHANGE. They loved Balme because he was a nice guy. If they got Malthouse they would have to work harder and prove themselves over again. They have probably worked bailey out and do just enough to please him. It's no differnt to any workplace, we don't like the unknown and a change of coach is just that.

I tend to agree with most things you say. It's about winning premierships, nothing else matters. We have stagnated and you can blame the coach/s, the players, the FD or a combination of all 3. My take on it is that we have not (given the opportunities we have been dealt), recruited as well as we could have. I know everything is easy in hindsight, however the facts are, some other teams have recruited better than us over the last 10 years. Given early draft selections none of our players are A Graders. From 2001 with Luke Molan, 2002 with Daniel Bell and Nick Smith, 2003 Sylvia and McLean, 2004 Bate and Dunn we have had more misses that hits with our recruiting. Grimes, Scully, Watts, Trengove, Frawley and Jurrah may well be good selections, and we have yet to see Blease take the field in an AFL game. We had/have high hopes with Strauss, Maric, Bennell Jetta and so forth. The jury is out but the verdict is not looking good for some of these players. We then have the never-ending development players, Spencer, Martin, Gawn, Fitzpatrick, Cook, Tom McDonald and Davis. I like the look of McDonald and Cook. Don't like Spencer. Chris Connolly loves Fitzpatrick, don't know why. Martin shows something but does not impose himself enough and maybe never will. Gawn has been o/k at Casey but would get monstered at AFL. Needs another couple of years maturity and development. By the time some of these kids develop thay will be eligible for Free-Agency. It's all been said before by other posters about our lack of size, maturity and mongrel. If an AFL game is a war zone our team is usually the first to retreat. Maybe we just don't have good enough players. I personally think this to be the case. We don't have a balanced team with strong KP players. Our light framed players simply cannot impose themselves and go missing for large periods. Too much is left to too few. Morton loves the fat side of the ground so much I wish he would eat it. Anyway enough said, I did't won't this to be a rant. Pressure will be put on the FD at the end of the year because the only players out of contract (from Bigfooty) are Gawn, Wonaeamirri,Maric, Sylvia, Morton, Fitzpatrick, Martin and Scully. If Scully stays 3 others minimum have to be delisted. I think it's poor list management to have so few players coming out of contract. Maric, Wona and Martin will be in the gun even though they are still developing.

I'm all for playing good players in different positions to see how thay go. Who says Petterd can't play in the backline. I'd rather try him in the back half or even middle instead of playing at Casey. Howe and Tom McDonald looked good at Casey, it may be time to give them a game. Howe's a good mark and looked very composed. Although recruited as a forward I think he could do well in the backline running forward. Tom McDonald is a good size and should get a game later in the year if is form continues.

Frawley was taken in 2006. Lewis Jetta ws drafted in 2009. We knew about him in 2008 but the club has admitted that they did not follow up on Lewis. Big mistake. We could have got him even as a rookie in 2008 along with Neville at pick 51. I think Lewis would have been the better selection than Rhys Healey.

This is not about Rockliff V's Jurrah. The point is Rockliff was available in the National Draft. We selected Strauss, Bennell, Jetta and Bail. Although hindsight is a good thing Rockliff was well known as a footballers footballer or a blue collar type that attracted the footy and kicked goals. Although other clubs didn't select him in the ND doesen't mean we couldn't have. In regard to Bennell and Jetta, I understand that the recruiters went to a game to look at Natanui and were impressed with Bennell and Jetta. Even though Neville's mother said that Lewis Jetta was a much better player, we went with Neville. I don't know but maybe the club felt that if we got Bennell it would be easier for him to aclimatise with his mate Jetta with him. (probably wrong but who knows). Neville is a great kid but I doubt whether he will be an AFL player.

I have to agree with you our recruiting has been average at best. We have been a bottom four team or middle of the ladder team for 10 years or more. No matter how you sugar coat it we don't have the personnel to be a top 4 or even top 8 team. Let's look at our recruiting: 2004 Bate Dunn, Newton 2005 Jones, Buckley, Bartram 2006 Frawley, Pettard, Garland 2007 Morton, Maric 2008 Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Jurrah 2009 Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Bail, Gawn Fitzpatrick Joel MacDonald Jones, Garland, Frawley, Trengove, Gysberts, Bartram, Morton, Bennell, Bail and Jurrah played against West Coast. Scully would have likely played if fit. Now how many of these players are A Graders - Nil. Scully, Trengove and Frawley may get there. (Dustin Martin is probably already there). How many are going to make top AFL players?. Some of these players have already left the club or are playing VFL. In 2008 for example we picked Strauss at pick 19, Bennell at 35 and Jetta at 51. In between these picks other clubs picked Shuey, Ballantyne, Trengove, McKernan, Suban, Zaharakis, Dayne Beams, Hannebery, Roughhead, Liam Anthony,Redden, Ash Smith, Rhys Stanley, Sloane. Rockliff who trained with us at Casey in the pre-season was picked in the pre-season draft by Brisbane. We do not have good depth. We have too many light-bodied prima donnas. A poor goal-to-line. No strong KP players apart from Frawley. We are mentally and physically weak and fall apart in the heat of battle. The club has got it wrong and no matter what spin they put on it we have been given a golden chance to recruit well but have blown it. By the time our skinny small and tall players have developed, free agency will allow them to leave. I love this club but I am tired of the inconsistent crap we are dished up each week. p.s I like the look Howe and Tom McDonald. They may add some glue to the brittle tooth picks we have.

I have never been more depressed, this football team is going nowhere. We can attribute it to the coach or we can attribute it to our recruiting. Or both. We continually recruit light bodied small and medium sized players. Our tall players are light bodied i.e Cook, Rivers, Watts, Morton, Fitzpatrick etc. We don't recruit matured bodied hardnuts that are ball accumulaters and thrive in a contest. Apoligies to Tapscott. The players seem afraid to take responsibility and take the game on. They are waiting for someone else to do it for them. We are a team of passengers and down hill skiers. The occassional comeo keeps players like Bennell and Morton in the team. Paul Roos said that Aaron Davey doesen't appear to be enjoying his footy anymore because of being tagged. We have no A graders, only weak minded, weak bodied players that don't play for eachother. It appears to be a disheveled, disinterested lot that get monstered by the opposition week after week. Where are our monsters? We are the big key position players. Our recruiting seems to generally take the safe option with skilled light framed nice boys. I just don't get it. The FD keeps saying we need a matured bodied stay at home forward. Why didn't we pick McKernan or Darling or even Jackson Trengove instead of a HB flanker in Strauss. In 2008 we picked Strauss, Bennell and Jetts. In between these picks the likes of Shuey, Ballantyne, Rockliff, Trengove, Zaharakis, Suban, Redden, Beams, Hannebery, Roughhead, Sloane, Liam Anthony were taken. All of these players have a combination of skill and hardness that the 3 Melbourne players don't have. We are no better now than we were 10 years ago. We were a bottom to middle of the ladder team then and were are no better now. You can blame the current coach, but this has been going on for years and even decades. I'm sick of it.

Thanks Barry. Got it wrong. Too eager to get some bigger bodied KP types in the team. Memsomorph it is.

Excellent post. Totally agree. We have the medium sized talent however a strong bodied, stay at home forward would also help along with a strong bodied/marking key back to help out Frawley, Rivers and Garland. My wish list would also be a running back ala Whelan, Nathan Brown or Peter Walsh type that can break the lines and take the game on. I think we are somewhat stagnant in the back half at present.

Connolly talks about getting games into players and when they hit the magical 100 games watch out because we will be in our premiership window. I don't believe it, we keep recruiting light bodied (ectomorph) types that will never bulk up to the point of competing with the top clubs. Even our tall players ie. Rivers, Garland, Cook, Watts, Fitzpatrick, Gawn will never intiimdate the opposition on size alone. We really need some mentally strong, win at all costs types that have strong frames to build on (endomorph). Only then will the smaller players stand tall knowing thay have a few enforcers in the team. I really don't think we have the balance right. Connolly said on TAC Cup All-Stars last year on CH9 that Jack Fitzpatrick will be a great Melbourne player of the future. Yeah right. I think we are a long way off the mark at present, although it may only take a few good recruits to make the balance right. To me the recruiting over the last decade and more has been hit and miss and before you berate me on this comment why have we only played in one Grand final since 1964. Even in 2000 who thought we would beat Essendon. They blew us off the park because they were more aggressive, bigger and stronger. In 2011 are we bigger and stronger and agressive, NO. Nothing much has changed in my eyes. Just wait for the excuses from the Club when we don't make the top four in 2013-14.

Troy Davis was the player. I spoke to him at training and had a good laugh about it. He could't understand what all the fuss was about. No tears, just a big smile on his face. He seemed to be enjoying the attention.

I agree. Healey's view was that we have trouble clearing he ball from the backline and we needed more run from that area. Why does the opposition easily clear the ball from kick-ins and we struggle to find a man other than a 20 mtr kick to the back pocket. Our get-out kick during the NAB Cup was to play on and kick the ball long to Jamar in an attempt to kick over the zone. This is very predictable and only gives us at best a 50/50 chance of retaining possession. The opposition seem to effectively smother our backline and we need to have a strategy to clear the ball quicker and retain possession. At the moment I see the forward line as our strength with our backline being serviceable. We lack marking and body strength. Shaun McKernan dominated in the air last week. Jay Schulz did the same thing for PA in Rd 21 last year when he kicked 5 goals against us. I see Tom McDonald and Troy Davis helping us in this area bur they will take time.

Correct. A former player told me in China that Greg Healey's son is likely to be the best father/son of all.

I believe the only mistake BP has made so far was the non-selection of Lewis Jetta in 2008. He was told by Neville jetta's mother that Lewis was by far the best Jetta. We could have at least done some last minute homework and taken him as a rookie instead of Rhys Healey.

Just returned from China with the supporters tour group. Probably the best organised holiday I have ever experienced. Had some great conversations with current and ex-players such as Gary Hardeman and the Ox. The one piece of information I was truly excited about was that another Father/Son is on the horizon. I was told that Greg (Sugar) Healy's son is probably going to be the best of all (including Jack Viney). Although I don't have any specific information about him, I believe he is about 14-15. Maybe other posters could add to this.

Get your right mate. Neville Jetta was in the 2008 draft. Lewis was selected in the 2009 draft but was available in the 2008 draft. We could have got him as a rookie in 2008 instead of say Ryse Healey. The Club has already made comment that it did not follow through with Neville's mothers comment that Lewis was the best Jetta. Something I believe they now regret.

The worst on the ground by far would have to be Neville Jetta. Undersized, has no tricks and goes missing for large amounts of the game (week in week out). This kid ain't gonna make it. Why we didn't do homework on his cousin Lewis, even when Neville's mother said Lewis was the "best" Jetta is beyond me.

Agree that Fitzpatrick is earmarked for a forward role. We have our Mark LeCras types in Pettard and Green. Jurrah and Watts have that x-factor that clubs will really worry about. I think we just need a quality smart footballer that maybe able to play both ends of the ground when needed. Preferably someone with a strong frame who is versatile and a strong contested mark. Whether it be someone in the mould of a Brian Lake or a Harry Taylor or a Brad Gilbert it doesen't really matter as long as it is a quality player that would be a tough match-up and could influence the outcome of the game. To be honest I am more concerned with our defence as Warnock is struggling at the moment and Rivers is not a good contested mark. Another Key back and a running half back ala Peter Walsh would be handy for the future. Top this off with a ruck-rover type like an Adam Goodes and we would be thereabouts for a premiership in the not to distant future.

Trengove won the handballing competition on the Sunday Footy Show. He was asked abour his injury and he said he was out because of general soreness. He certainly inferred that he was available to play next week. It looks like he was just rested.

We could have had Cornelius but intead we selected Jetta at pick 51 and Bail at 64 because Bailey wanted mids, mids and more mids. There were good raps on Cornelius at the time particularly his marking and goalkicking ability. I was surprised he lasted to 57. With Jack Viney likely to be a demon it's time we strengthened our KP, Ruck division and run out of defence positions. It's also a shame we didn't pick Liam Picken in that rookie draft (pick 30) instead of Ryse Healey (17).

Before I wrote this I looked at the IQ replay. He said "Great Melbourne player". Of course what he really meant was probably what you said. CC does have a tendency to colorize his language.

Chris Connolly was a guest on TAC Future Stars before the Collingwood drawn game. Talked about Scully,Trengove,Grimes and Gysberts saying nothing more than we already knew ie According to Graeme Yates, Scully is the most focussed player he has ever seen or played with. As the interview was winding up he told Hutchy, Sheehan and Dixon to remember the name Jack Fitzpatick. He said that he will be a great Melbourne player. He also quickly made the comment that there are a number of other players yet to debut. No names mentioned. He really did highlight Fitzpatrick ahead of any other player.

Pj looks lazy, plays lazy, can't take a contested mark and should not be part of our future.

The good teams trade good players that are surplus to their needs. I would consider trading Jones for a Travis Boak + 3rd round pick or something of that ilk. Jonesey gets caught holding the ball too often and has no real tricks to his game.