MadAsHell

While morons in the media like BT, Sam Newman and Dwayne Russell continually put Melbourne down some of the more intelligent football brains in the media eg. James Hird and Gerard Healy are very positive about Melbourne. They've commented on how much we've already improved on next year and how good some of the players will be in the next few years. And even on sunday, although yes it was a poor game, we only lost by 17 points against a side that's consistently been challenging for the premiership since 2002, and we still had half a chance half way through the last. Personally I've been very pleased with our progress so far this year.

Your right HT that is the pick 17 that went all around the country before landing at Geelong. And yes we did very well out of that trade. Bizzell played many fine games for the Melbourne Football Club.

That is actually a very relevant question given that if we all remember back to the end of 2001 when Melbourne traded Grgic and pick 17 to geelong for Bizzell. Pick 17 ended up becoming Kelly. Is a interesting thought as to how Kelly would have gone at Melbourne? All speculative though I guess.

This is a very good thread. The answer in my opinion however is that he shouldn't be dropped. Cale while he may not be the hardest player on our list, he has a fantastic abilty to run all day and seems to be able to find space. Not every player has to be like a Brock McLean, Sam Mitchell or Campbell Brown. Look at players such as Peter Matera, Nicky Winmar and even more modern era James Kelly. None of these players you associate with getting the hard ball but are all high quality players for their ability to run and cary the ball and find space. Cale Morton will be a very valuable player for the Melbourne Football Club for years to come.

IN: GRIMES, MARIC, ROBERTSON OUT: BARTRAM, DUNN, JETTA FB: RIVERS WARNOCK BENNELL HB: FRAWLEY MARTIN GRIMES C: MORTON MOLONEY DAVEY HF: SYLVIA MILLER PETTERD FF: NEWTON ROBERTSON MARIC FOLL: MEESEN BRUCE McLEAN INT: BATE, JOHNSON, JONES, McDONALD EMERG: BARTRAM, CHENEY, DUNN

Agreed! Poor old Maxwell just doesn't want to admitt the Collingwood have the most over rated number 1 draft pick in the drafts history. I can think of at least half a dozen ruckmen that are rucking better then Fraser at the moment, not including the injured trio of Ottens, Hille and Leuenberg.

Based on that info got to get Grimes, Robbo & Maric into the side for Dunn, Bartram & Jetta. Wonna and Whelan sound like they could probably do with one more hit out for Casey.

I mentioned on another the topic about the terrible crowd numbers that turned up to the game that all these late sunday afternoon games should be held in Perth. Makes more sense as it will still only be about 2:30pm over there by the time the match would start. They'd still have a big crowd and the the crowd numbers in Victoria would increase. Everyone wins!

If we can keep it to under 10 goals that has to be seen as a win for us. Give it three more years and we'll start knocking them off!

Got to play him in the midfield. I feel for him cause he's been forced to play more KP due to Robbo, Watts and Jurrah not being ready yet but he's much better off a wing. Possibly for next week play Dunn forward and Bate on the wing and see if that helps?

Maybe they should have moved the games into the tennis centre and play a indoor footy match? Crowd would have been fantastic in there! hehe.

I like it, maybe swap Warnock and Martin around but I do like it. Not sure if Butcher will play much in his first season however? Might have to have Robbo at FF and maybe Strauss, Buckley or Petterd on a flank.

Straightens us up, can take a mark and gives it a crack but his kicking is to bad. I'd expect him to stay on the list for a few years but ultimatly wouldn't make it to 100 games.

Here here! They are shocking aren't they? Because they are well drilled they could potentially finish as high as 6th but would not make an impact in the finals. I can't see Adeliade challenging for a flag again until about 2015 onwards. New coach by then would obviously be required.

I would thought it was in just as much poor taste as belting your girlfriend to be honest. Very hypocritical thing of Craig to say. Then again Adelaide obviously don't take it to seriously with a one week suspension. Low act of Bock, should of had at least 4 weeks. I know if I were up on assault charges and they were proved my employer would give me the sack, so 4 weeks for Bock would still be nothing.

Numbers were terrible and I'll admitt to not being there. Dragged out by the other half to look at wedding venues and then her brother in-laws birthday. And I do feel bad for not attending. But fact of the matter is, sunday game, late start, bad weather and interstate side. Even if it were a balmy evening we'd of only got 20,000 tops. The sunday twilight games should all be played in Perth as 4:40 here means 2:40 there. Almost same time as usual fot them. By having a late start on a sunday your cutting out a large number of your outer suburban supporters from Frankston and Geelong outwards as they don't want to be getting home at 9:30pm on a sunday with work the next day. In future all late start sunday matches should be played in Perth, sunday matches in Melbourne should start no later then the usual 2:10pm time.

Cheney didn't play for Casey but isn't injured. He was the designated emergency not to play for Casey in case of a late withdraw for Melbourne according to K. O'Donnell. Expect to see Cheney playing for Casey this week. I love Whelan and want him back in the side but will be difficult for him. Bartram, Cheney and Bennell are all competing against him for his position as the small defender.

No way would I take him if I were Melbourne, to old for where Melbourne's going. Expect to see Pavlich play for Freo next year also but then become the first captain of Gold Coast. By the way if you ask me Gold Coast should name themselves the Rollers.

I'll assume they possibly offer him for trade at the end of the year and hope either Adelaide or Port will be interested. If there's no one interested however I still think they'll hold onto him. Could be useful if injuries hit.

I'll second that. I too thought very little of Garland (along with Warnock) when they first came to the club and thought they'd both be delisted in 2 years. Now when fully fit we'll be looking at a defence line of FB: Rivers, Warnock, Whelan* HB: Frawley, Martin, Garlnad *I'll note Whelan probably only has this year and maybe next left so I'll assume his position will be filled by Bartram or Chenney.

And higher then the Swans can get for a Elimination Final on a saturday night. Dwayne Russell is an AFL puppet, loves all the interstate teams and hates the victorian teams, especially Melbourne for who knows what reason???

How about Scully and the best young ruckman. If there's a dominant ruckman in the state carnival or TAC cup they may be worth looking at. The ruck is another area we look very thin in also.

Personally I'd rather keep Sylvia so they can trade him along with either a 2nd or 3rd round draft pick for a higher pick at the end of the season. Same should be done with Lyndon Dunn.

Fair enough said, I agree that if say Butcher and Scully are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack then Melbourne should take them. But if there is a ruckman of similar class then for that reason I think they should consider him. I know they are rare to go that early but it does happen. Look at Fraser, Kosi and NikNat. By the way does anyone know of any possible young top ruckman in the TAC comp or interstate that may be good top 10 draft prospects?

Another possability for Melbourne if we did finish bottom would be landing a KPP through the pre-season draft. Say Thorpe, Dowler or Boyle from Hawthorn? All three are key forwards under 26 and are second fiddle to Franklin, Roughead and Birchall. If we could land one of them in the pre-season draft (assuming we come last again) and then draft say Scully and the best young ruckman with picks 1 & 2 (again assuming we win 4 games or less). This would then address all three areas of our weaknesses. The big question would be if one of those players would leave Hawthorn. This way we could potentially play 3 tall forwards by 2011, say Watts, Miller and Dowler with Jurrah also on our list all at once. BAck to the good old days when we played Neitz, Schwartz and Lyon all at once with Smith also on the list.