Its Miller time

Only saw 2 and half quarters of the game but from what i saw strauss isnt anywere ready yet. Out in the open he is a beautiful kick but under pressure twice i saw he just kicked it away without looking. Give him a few more for casey and make him demand his spot for Melbourne through hard work.

I still think poor old PJ has too much upside to give up on him at only 25 years old. For a big man he is very mobile and can accumulate possesions quickly. I think a lot of time with where the teams at at the moment his decision making looks a lot worse because he has no options. As the team improves and people work to space more often his skills will improve out of sight. I do tend to drink a lot when i watch footy, however i still think he could be a far more offensive weapon than Jamar or Meesen ever will be.

Great to see Jack get a couple of meters ahead of his opponent a couple of times on the lead this week. The pace he showed in draft camp is still there and will be a weapon in years to come.

I wouldnt want to trade any of those players. Although if another club happened to over value them and offer us more than there worth you would have to look at it.

We are so far behind at the moment we are starting a team from scratch. We need to look how Fremantle did it a model of what not to do. They traded away high draft picks and got little value in return so you would have to be weary of that. You need players that could lift our youngsters to the level we need them at and that they can get to. However look how many players have left Fremantle and improved out of sight. Peter Bell hopeless at Freo went to North and came good before going back to Freo. Heath Black was better ar Stkilda. Croad went to Freo from Hawthorn seemed to lose his talents went back to Hawthorn and came good again. McPhee, Sinclair, Clement, Brodie Holland all benefited from playing with older better players . Then look at someone like Des Headland who went backwards when he went to Freo. We need some experience in the team to improve our younger players and help them reach there potential.

Watching how abysmal we were last night and the last 2 weeks highlighted our lack of leadership. It got me thinking should we put our number 2 pick on the table and say it is available but only for someone special or even 2 honest hard working never say die players ? Im not sure any club gives up these sort of players however. We have a lot of young talent coming through but there is no one capable of leading by example and showing the young guys what you have to do to make it at this level. Perhaps we even say number 2 is avialable then when we get offers only be willing to give them our third pick. Which would be about 18 or 19. I know we need patience but we finished bottom last year, bottom this year and i cant see us finishing anywhere else next year. Morton already seems to be losing confidence Watts will struggle to play good footy when our delivery is so terrible and he is already being followed by there #1 defender and could suffer long term. Strauss and Blease wont or shouldn't get a game this year so next year will virtually be like first year players. We are further away than most realise and im sure Bailey is even realisng this and possibly doubting himself. Although against this argument watching Carlton on friday night all there young players looked to Judd to get them back into the game and when he couldn't they looked just as lost as our players. I guess im wondering would some quality experience add to our youngsters and make them better in the long term ? or Do we trust we have the people off field and have young players with the right mental capacity to work through the hard times and still believe in themselves? Would experince just make them look better without improving them or would it help them reach there full potential?

Little harsh on Frawley i would of thought. Ball was being in brought in with little pressure very often.

Is butcher a big stay at home forward or a more mobile prospect with second efforts? Bailey saying they will take the best Midfielder and one KP is no way definate. If he has already made up his mind with more than half a season to go he is not the man for the job. Imagine taking Butcher and he doesn't improve much like Tom Hawkins, while West Coast take Trengrove and he becomes a future Premiership Captain and never goes back to sleepy S.A. Two best Available. Although for me Preferrably 2 best Mids. Is there another Colin we could draft? 3 Colins in the 1 team would have to be a record of some sort.

What do people think of Targetting Collingwoods Rusling with our PSD pick? If he is out of contract which i think he is, we could easily front end a contract to possibly lure him. He seems quite injury prone and we would have to pay him more than he is worth in his first year but 'Who dares wins' The pace and marking ability of the forward line would be unmatched and most are also more than capable if the ball hits the ground . We would easily have the quickest forward line ever assembled. Watts, Rusling Davey and Jurrah are all apparantly excellent shots at goal too. It is also possible that Davey would end up playing on the oppositions 3rd fastest defender. Johnson would obviously need some work at full forward but he wouldnt be the main target and he can make a contest when the ball is bombed in quickly and we would have a variety of crumbers at his feet. Johnson and Martin could also pinch hit in the ruck so we wouldnt need to play more than 1 ruckman. Allowing us to play an extra midfielder off the bench to help with rotations ensuring we could really run out games and grind down our opponents. FB: Garland, Warnock, Frawley HB: Grimes,Martin , Strauss C: Morton, McLean, Blease HF: Bate, Watts, Davey FF: Jurrah, Johnson, Rusling R: Meesen, Sylvia, Moloney Int Rivers, WonnaorMaric GreenorJones, BennellorCheney Best 2 Midfielders in 2009 draft.

Have we really been that bad over the last 10 years that we have to include players that have played 1 and 2 games and another that isnt even on our list?

Morton obvoiusly needs to bulk up a bit to take his game to the level we all want it. Does anyone know how much weight he has put on since last year? How much can he put on and still be able to run like he does to create the space.

Little off topic but i could not believe when Lloyd hooked Frawleys arm and dragged him down on top of him Frawley didnt get the free kick. The umpire clearly saw it as he told Lloyd thats why he didnt get the free. If frawley hooked lloyds arm like that there would of been a free paid. Resultant throw in was a goal too.

Have people seen the replay of Watts taking his eyes off the ball when he marked and kicked his first goal ? I wanted some other opinions, at first i thought he did it as he was expecting to get hit from behind but after watching it a couple of times he looked very casual and relaxed. Not really bracing himself for a hit. Does anyone else think he just took the mark quite casually or am i way off and he was expecting to cop a whack?

My best mate who is a mad swans supporter asked me 'why cant the swans find a player like Jurrah.' I told where he had come from and how raw he is and he was even more impressed. Early days yet but it has been far too long since a player for Melbourne has made others sit up and take notice likr that.

A winning culture is absolute rubbish. Look at how much Hawthorn's winning culture is helping it this year. It is all about confidence. Confidence in yourself and your team mates around you. Hawthorn had that confidence last year and took it all the way. We had it in 2000 and fell one game short. Im sure all the players will have a lot more confidence in the next couple of years with the 2 best rated talents of 2009 around them than they would with winning a few more games this year. Its obvious the winning culture we started to develop late 2007 by beating the bulldogs and carltank isnt helping. IF we win 5 games this year ill tear up my membership and run to the tigers so i can at least expect stupidity for my trouble.

Yeah a lottery would be great until Carlton or Collingwood won it.

I hope this doesn't push us under the 92.5% we must pay of the salary cap, the Afl might fine us.

Agree the midfield is problem #1. This is also where the majority of games are won and lost. Look how good West Coasts midfield of Cox, Judd Cousins and Kerr made the rest of the team look. If we significantly improve our midfield we automatically improve both our forward line and backline. The backline would find it so much easier if it could defend against hurried kicks bombed instead of players with time and space pinpointing players. The opposite effect would also make of forwardline function. Pick the best players available and when in doubt go a midfielder.

I thought west coast would have to win at least 2 more with 3 winnable home games but apparantly Priddis was wrapped with there game agianst the Tigers, as they never gave up. I wouldn't count on them winning any more or there percentage being better than ours come seasons end.

If the bloke is anything like Adam Goodes id take him for sure.

I dont care how much and how badly West Coast are tanking you would have to rate them a good chance to win against Freo, Richmond and North all at Subiaco. They will win at least 1 of those and i dont see Melbourne winning 3 more.

Add to that Stenglein at full back on Morton when they were still a chance.

I wouldnt pencil us in for a win over the tigers. They have a lot more players playing for there career than us and the care taker coach will want wins so he is a chance for the job next year or any job in future.

Then you understand the need to bottom out and get a priority pick.

Absolutely agree. However if this is going to happen we need players that thrive on the challenge and all push each other to rise to the next challenge and the next challenge after that. We need strong Leadership to develop the potential we have at the club. I think we need more than just throwing a bunch of young blokes with talent and potential into a team and expecting them to get the best out of themselves. Sylvia from all reports had his best pre season ever and no doubt expected big things from himself this year. It didn't happen early in the season and might not of happened at all if not for the phone call Mcdonald made to him. That is the kind of leadership we need to go forward. The biggest problem is apart from McDonald our older players seem to lack that leadership and Mcdonalds body no longer allows him to lead by example . Green can lead by example on the field but isnt a natural leader. I love Robbo but he isnt a leader at all. Bruce seems to a professional in his preparation but on the field you need better to inspire team mates. Whelan and Wheatley are all we have left after that older than Davey and both are struggling with injuries. Great leaders in the Tom Harley mould we don't have and aren't going to be able to get come trade week. So we must spend more time grooming what we have. We need great people around the club to develop Davey, Rivers, Miller, Moloney and Mclean who give there all into great leaders, so the more natural gifted youngsters have people to look up and be afraid to let down with sub par efforts. Even if Miller and Mclean get beaten by there opponents there endeavour and love for the club can't be questioned.