praha

Trengove is all over it.

Goal to Maric. "You'd expect Adelaide to beat them quite easily." Who wants to trek to Adelaide and take these moronic hacks out?

Massive facepalm for these guys. Maric marks in front! I can hear the rain!

OH MY GOD "How many times have Melbourne made the finals since 2000?" "One." "No. Five. Amazing, isn't it?"

"Believe it or NOT, Melbourne can hit the FRONT! WHAT A SURPRISE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! MELBOURNE, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, ARE LEADING THE CROWS, AT THE START OF THE SECOND QUARTER!" -commentators

B)

I bet if it was an Adelaide player with a tattoo sleeve: "Oh gee, doesn't that tattoo look great!"

They both said they look like they will be. By the dribble coming out of these commentators mouths, I doubt they would even know.

Having Grimes in a pocket on either end of the ground would be like playing Michael Jordan as a sixth man coming off the bench in his prime.

The whole "no more excuses" is just good PR. How exactly would you expect the sponsors and investors to respond if he said, "we won't be a good team for another three years."? I wouldn't respond well. Whether we like to admit it or not doesn't matter: 2010 will be mostly another year of pain. We will see more wins that previous years, and more good signs of things to come, but we again will be the team everyone can't wait to play. 2011 will be the rise.

No matter who had played in Yea, the crowd would have been 10k. It's a country town, with an AFL game being played on a country ground. If it was Freo vs. Port there would have been 10k there.

I love it. It stays in-house and doesn't make reference to the competition (THEY KNOW WE'RE COMING!)

I've been a fan of Jamar for a while now. He is such a great tap ruckman. Not great skill wise, but gets the job done in the ruck. He is a real, old-fashioned ruckman. Going back a year or so, everyone jumped on my back when I said he was needed in the team. Then again, it's not like we've got anyone better.

And what about Brisbane at the G? I think that is a possibility. Like I said, Collingwood is the only certain loss I think.

I wouldn't replace Wonna in there. He hasn't played a good, full game during the home and away season for over a year.

Thanks for the round-up. The game against Essendon showed signs of brilliance I thought. It wasn't a terrible game, we just made inexperienced errors that were bordering comical. They weren't shocking, but the whole team just wreaked of inexperience. It was blatantly obvious, more so than in any game over the past three years. It's like we're a puppy going through training: for every obedient and precise act we do, we do something silly. Grimes was the biggest perpetrator of this. Did some absolutely outstanding things, but then also ran straight into traffic a few times and botched a few kicks. Inexperience and concentration. Like DB said, 40-60 games into these players and these silly errors will be almost non-existent. They have nothing to do with football brains or skill, it's just adapting to the pace of the game and becoming aware of the surroundings, which our team as a whole lacks the ability to do at the moment. And our kick-ins have been a problem since the mid-90s. We can win games without fixing it. Least of our worries atm.

Honestly? I can see us being anywhere between 0-6 to 5-1, with our only certain loss being Collingwood. I am confident we have the potential to win all but 1, but I am not confident we actually will.

Healthy crowd there on Saturday too.

I suppose you'd think we'd beat Geelong too, then

The fact that you've judged a successful team against a team that has lost two pre-season games in pretty bad fashion kind of debunks your entire post as nothing more than a biased opinion from a fan who overrates their own team. If Melbourne win the first 10 games of the year, then I might agree with you. In the mean time, while they continue to over handball, run directly into traffic and struggle to kick goals, I will disagree with you and laugh at the fact that you've compared a team that had one of the best starts in a season ever to a team that has finished last two seasons in a row. I have faith, but really? Really?

I think that a "lack" of intensity in a pre-season game is hardly anything to worry about. If they lack intensity in round one, then we worry. But that's not really something to consider in practice games. Maybe if first-year players are lacking intensity, which none of ours did.

Had to leave mid-way through the third, but some things I noticed from while I was there. - Stefan Martin is essentially what Al Nicholson would have been like had he played in the forward line from the start of his career. Yuck. - Miller led well and plays like a leader. - Sylvia, Jones and Moloney lead the way in the middle. - Grimes is a superstar. - Trengove looks like he's been playing for 10 years. Didn't do anything sensational, but he looks like he feels at home. - Scully didn't do much. - Jurrah is very unselfish: passes the ball when he needs to and knows he probably won't score a goal. Isn't a show pony. - Petterd had a nice game. When I watch this team, I get the impression that they're genuinely learning as they play. 2007 and 2008 were just bad all-round years. 2009 was a mixed-bag: some promising signs, but bad overall football. Now, it's quite obvious how inexperienced this side is. It's more evident than either of the past two years. For every 1-2 brilliant things that Grimes, Trengove, Scully did, they did 1-2 small mistakes. It's as if they get the ball and know exactly what they want to do with it, but they just turn in the wrong direction, directly into traffic. That's just a matter of learning more and becoming more aware of your surroundings. Really, really promising signs.

The league is in the stone-ages. It has been regarding trading and free agency for a loooooooooong time. It's quite simple. The salary cap should include all payments that don't classify as official endorsements and match bonuses. Very, very simple. That's how they do it in the NBA and NFL. The AFL is actually quite amateurish, and it's practically being run by the AFLPA and football agents. The league needs to grow some balls and get nasty, just like David Stern of the NBA: if you don't like the way things are run, then BAM! 10 game suspension and $15,000 fine. I mean really, do you think Ball wanted to go for Collingwood just for their facilities? What about Judd to Carlton? The AFLPA has far too much power, and I'd love to run that little Wiesel in Ricky Nixon over with my car.

As much as they grilled him, I can't see us making extraordinary leaps in 2010 or 2011. We'll win more games, no doubt, but I don't expect us to make the finals until 2012. I honestly believe that by that stage we'll have a more experienced coach take the reins. This guy is essentially our Peter Rhode. I've always looked at him like that.

I think it's actually a pretty unbiased review, albeit a little misinformed. He wrote it based on what he knows, and even though he probably should have done a bit more research, at least he didn't let his own support get in the way of writing a review for an opposing club.