praha

Lowest. Common. Denominator.

We aren't even that bad. We just break down forward of center. Turnovers at CHF and then Freo score. Last year we needed a midfield. We need a forward line now. Bad. There are a lot of holes to plug.

Looking very ugly. Awful positioning, possession and transition.

Lots of people underestimating Freo. Back end of the season, readying up for finals. They'll have no mercy. Melbourne has hit a wall. Unless this team can miraculously get out of its disposal funk, I can see anywhere between an 8 or 15 goal loss, with at least 6 goals directly from turnovers. Watch Salem closely. He is a target, the opposition watch him, and his positioning at a contest is sublime. He often wins it and while at this stage rarely gets a clean possession out of it, he does as we should expect from a forward, and that's make a contest. I'm talking about mostly ground contests. He makes sneaky little taps and shimmies that set up 2 goals on the weekend, and has set up a few every week he's played. We've never really had a player that manages to tap and protect the ball that way. Watts has improved in this capacity as well. That said, I'm not sure Salem is a major necessity at this point. He could probably do with a run at Casey to show them how it's done. Salem is comfortable at AFL level. He just needs to find that pathway to getting his hands on the ball.

I imagine that would annoy the club's sizeable fanbase of Karl Marx groupies.

Dom Tyson to me seems to have the credentials of becoming a star. Howe should really be setting the league alight by now. He's turned out to be a great player but hardly star worthy. Viney? Maybe. We need someone to go a level ahead of what Jones does (as great as he is). We need someone that is going to win us a game off their own boot (but not necessarily do it all the time). Tyson can be that guy.

I loved the Rev but can't remember a team in recent memory or even looking over history that was so inconsistent. 1998 - 4th 1999 - 14th (!) 2000 - 2nd 2001 - 11th 2002 - 6th 2003 - 14th (!) 2004 - 5th 2005 - 7th 2006 - 7th 2007 - Started 0-7, resigned at 2-9. Was it a product of the team, the club, the Rev, or all? Did he tank in those years? The fall from grace, then the comeback. As with now, the Daniher years lacked player depth, and it hurt us when we went 3 or 4 deep with injuries. A lot of our best players in that period were drafted by Balme and Northy. Those drafted by Daniher led us to one of the club's worst ever periods.

And dealing with any council is better? Trust me: if there is a genuine benefit in it for the uni -- research facilities, improved sporting facilities and resources -- they'll be all over it.

Of course there are better ways: again, I interpret his comments differently. I think it's integral to have a physical presence somewhere, somewhere where even people that don't care about football will see the brand in a fashionable light. I don't give a crap about baseball but I buy Dodgers merchandise every year when I'm in LA for work. They have a store at LAX for a reason: so morons like me lap it up. And I do. I have no idea whether the Dodgers are any good, it's just a cool brand and I've adopted them as my team. It all adds to the worth of the club, and it's a tough metric to measure, but I'm one fan they previously never had. This is Melbourne's vision. I think Parkville is a good choice for that reason: an international student need not be here for the long haul, but sports teams have historic ties to cities, and their brand stands out. It means something. We need to provide an avenue for them to build a different sort of tie to Melbourne, and trust me when I say international students at Melbourne Uni DO know about AFL. They can't ignore it, and they're intrigued. I spent two years on campus there. On top of that, people from interstate have a fascination for Melbourne because it's not, well, Sydney. It's a special town. Give them a souvenir that is distinctively Melbourne. And what is more Melbourne than AFL, really? They should be walking about with something that brands the city as much as it brands the club. When people walk around with a "NY" cap, it's as much a Yankees cap as it is an NYC cap. That's the vision. It's all a branding exercise. The other things you mentioned are important, obviously, but having a physical presence, somewhere where people can directly engage without even having to go to a game, that sort of support is unmeasurable, but it is important in today's world. This seems less about getting people to games, and more about giving people a REASON to attend games. Just like improving on-field, it's not something that changes overnight. You need generations to be able to recognise and support something. We need new avenues to build a support base to amplify the club's brand because in today's world, tucking yourself away on a no-standing road at the bottom of the MCG is not going to win you new followers. People underestimate how important this is these days. We've been an amateur club with amateur branding for too long.

I interpreted the potential move to Melbourne Uni as being part of something broadly associated with the city itself: the MCG is worthless to people that didn't grow up here, or have no interest in AFL. Let's face reality here. This is the club's view imo. Also, the club's affiliation with the MCG shouldn't invalidate the fact the club has zero presence in what is arguably the youngest community in the city. The current location has similarly close proximity to the city, distance wise, but it's not quite in a community-centric part of the city, is it? And I mean, isn't that part of the club's problem? We've gone out to Casey to address that issue, right? The CBD is growing fast and no club has a presence there. We are Melbourne. We should be all over the place. You don't need to break away from the MCG to do that. What purpose does being near the MCG have apart from playing there on game day? The place is a ghost town on non-game days apart from those working within the stadium. The playing group doesn't train nor do they have access to the ground. Training across the road has no influence, and I imagine having a club divided between two locations doesn't help, either. Currently, the club has a wonderful, romanticised tie to the MCG and MCC. I don't see how that is damaged by reestablishing ties with Melbourne University. I think it's a superb fit. The problem is that the same dilemma keeps raising its head over and over and over again: that the club is divided across many different areas. The club needs a "home". It doesn't matter if it's in the same suburb as another club: so long as the location itself is distinctively Melbourne. ATM we have gone from crappy facilities, to awesome facilities shared with other teams. IMO that's no better than the other situation. How can a club create an identity when it's sharing clubrooms with other organisations? I just think that a lot of the issues you raised are part of the problem: the club is struggling to find an identity, stability, a presence. You can't do that by tucking yourself away on some parkland across the road from the MCG. You can't even see Melbourne branding anywhere when you drive by. Just consider the prospect of a Melbourne team shop on Collins Street. Do you think it would do any worse than the current store, located at the MCG, with full-time staff? How much business could the POSSIBLY do in a location with NO walking traffic? It's any wonder we have such a small support based, really. Get out there. Get involved. We are Melbourne. Instead we wait until someone else jumps into the deep end, and we watch while they learn how to swim. It's always a lot of talking, a lot of cynicism, and nothing gets done. They need to do something like this.

I like any idea that ties the club closer with the city itself. It's truly astonishing that MELBOURNE Football Club has ZERO presence in the CBD.

Still got a lot of fat to cut. Byrnes Mckenzie Clisby Blease Strauss Nicholson Evans Tapscott Fitzpatrick Terlich Barring contracts, if their time is up, it's up. Can't see any of them playing any more than a handful of more games at the club. Gee whiz, the bottom third of this club's list is embarrassing *facepalm*

Sack Roos?

Brisbane and GWS are no easy beats. This team let another team on the same win-loss record get a 37-point lead before half-time. On top of that, they've been us twice, and have looked far more refined, honest and concise in dying moments than Melbourne. The Adelaide and Essendon games gave this team plenty of character, but otherwise we haven't seen a consistent, 4-quarter effort for six weeks (round 9, vs Richmond). I think 2 wins is optimistic. This team lacks depth, has arguably one of the worst bottom-6 on any given game day of any team in the comp, and lacks much upside not currently in the team aside from Hogan. We still have 2-3 years left of strong drafting and hopefully persuading free agents, because there are simply too many guys that just can't cut it on game day. Are guys like Riley, Tapscott, Blease, Barry, Terlich going to step up and be relied upon if those above them can't? This is ultimately what separates us from the Bulldogs: they have fringe players that step up. The Doggies have done really well to create an exciting team. Melbourne will still yet feel the pain of awful drafting, 08-13. We are not out of the woods yet. Dare I say we're not even half-way. Harsh reality. Anything less than 6 wins will be a failure for the season. No more wins would be absolutely disastrous. 10 wins in three seasons would embed Melbourne 08-14 as one of the worst teams of all time (if it isn't already). Carlton's 02-07 (7 seasons) were bad but we're already worse. I expected 6 wins and I won't accept any less.

I agree. The league is dragging itself down by permitting the top teams make up for the ineptness of those at the bottom. What club currently in financial strife isn't in it as a product of their own decisions? It's not like Melbourne was flying and is still struggling for cash.

Two years ago the Cats looked very average. Lost to Freo in the first week and eliminated. Last year they were 2 minutes away from a GF. Don't write them off. Good cultures don't just disappear. They endure. It's what separates this club from the best.

I can see the Saints winning. Richmond looked like a team lost against the Swans. Were in it the whole game but never looking like winning. They are very much down on confidence. If the Saints get a 3-4 goal lead they won't blow it.

Casey is an awful club in an awful area that the club got wrong. What made the club think that just because an area has a booming population that people will flock to Melbourne? I'd have that that demographic and region would be focused on the Saints and Pies. Easier said than done to get out, though. But I have been down there once and don't ever intend to return. What was the club thinking!?

Grimes: How about no

I don't want it to become like the NRL where players are telling club's they're leaving before the season's out. It's amateur hour. And Frawley wouldn't come out and say he's agreed to anything because you can't talk about or accept other offers personally while you're still under contract.

The kid is 21 and has played just over 50 games. Give him a break! He's been a key player in every one of our wins this year. His ability to beat one of the opposition's key forwards is integral to the team's ability to win a match of footy. He takes KPP and normally does quite well. That said what is it with Melbourne recruiting and developing such poor kicks in the backline? In the 00s we had Nicholson, Ferguson, Bell. Now we have McDonald, Grimes, and Garland has the occasional brain fart. I miss Anthony Ingerson.

It's "Norf", people. Get it right.

Game was lost tonight at the 12 minute mark of the third: Tyson handballed to an open Jones, who fumbled a clean pass, gave the ball up and ultimately led to a North goal. They kicked four more after that but it was a landslide from there. So long as our best are producing the worst, we will lose games. We need to rely on Jones, not deplore him. That was a turning point IMO. edit: n jones, not Matt.

lol surely Polly? Also, McLoud, Goodes, just two guys off the top of my head that are miles ahead of Farmer. Farmer was too inconsistent for his own good.

Roos has never thrown the cheque book because he's never coached in a period of free agency. If the club has the cap room and list management to boot, they will throw everything at the likes of Dangerfield. They'd be stupid not to. You can't sit on your hands in free agency. Admittedly there's nothing noble to "buying" your way to success, but if you don't, someone else will.