Adam The God

I know he's only a young kid, but if he kicks those goals early yesterday, who knows. I feel he would have last year. Given the limited opportunities we had, we simply needed to dob the easy ones and he had a couple of them yesterday and missed. It's such a psychological blow. You feel like you're working so hard to create scoring chances and when you finally do, your gun CHF misses very gettable shots multiple times. Scoreboard pressure is a wonderful thing. It's also a big momentum driver. This is where I see the improvement coming in the next few years. In 12-18 months, Hogan would be grabbing that game by the scruff of the neck (ala Stringer) and influencing the game in a big, big way. That's what stars do. I'd hope your Oliver's, Viney's and Petracca's are also capable. Not sure a Nathan Jones is. At least, against really top opposition. You could tell pretty early on yesterday that we weren't on and so often when this is the case, we'll fall over, fumble, run into each other, take the wrong option and generally the luck doesn't go our way. It was just one of those days, but it clearly defined for me where we're at. There's simply too much inexperience and as Roos said, we need about 15 or 16 players playing well for us to win. We're not there yet and we won't be this year. But that's not to say we won't win 10-12 games though and finish on the cusp of the 8.

Yeah, spot on, mate. This is the other side to the playing the PR game with building the foundations. It allowed us to stockpile some draft picks and build this midfield.

Yep, fair enough. Well, Jack only makes our midfield deeper. So that's 10 that can play in the midfield if we land Prestia (I think we will). Guys like Kennedy, Kent and Harmes will also move through there. That's a lot of blokes who can play there, currently in our best 22. It reminds me very much of Roos' 2005 Sydney team. They had a lot of guys that could move through there and they've built the list to Roos' philosophy - players must be multi-positional in modern footy. Roos' term hasn't been flawless. I do wonder, like BB, whether we he could have flicked the offensive switch a bit earlier, but the list building appears to be first class.

At the end of this year.

I just like typing this out. How's this for a midfield: Viney, Oliver, Petracca with support from Tyson, Brayshaw and even Salem. Not to mention older guys in Vince and Jones. And the addition of Prestia next year. That's a deep and talented midfield.

Yeah, Jay Clark seems to have some love for Melbourne at the moment. Very odd.

I think he's simply visiting his sick father. It really can be that simple. And I reckon it is.

I think team success will. If you look at all the kids at schools, they are all running around with Hawthorn jumpers. When Buddy was still there they all had 23 on the back, but now they simply just wear Hawthorn jumpers. Ultimately though, I've never been more confident of winning a flag with a Melbourne team than I am with this list we're assembling and Hogan is a major player in that. Whilst I think we're still a shot at it without Hogan, I want to build a dynasty. I want to do what Hawthorn and Geelong have done. Sustained success. That's the key to a thriving membership base and becoming a powerhouse club again. We're far more likely to do that with Hogan, IMO. That said, the midfield we're building is seriously scary. It still lacks depth, but it's getting stronger and stronger every year and will continue to, as our younger generation gain further experience. We'll then have the ability to hopefully attract FAs and other trades. Get the midfield right, continue to bring in talent to compliment and reinforce the guys that are in there, and this team in 3 years time could be anything.

Well, as fndee said, we wouldn't have to offer him that. $1-1.5mill a year over ten years sounds right to me. With the rising cap I'd happily pay that for Jesse.

Wow, I didn't realise Armitage was 27 and Steven 26. They really are in for some pain. They'd want to be coming into their window when Steven was 26-27. I'm not sure they've got much midfield depth once Montagna, Armitage and Steven exit. Certainly not A graders anyway.

Thought it was 2004. I was correct. I just checked. We actually won by 10 goals. Also noted that there were 54,409 attend a game at the MCG between Melbourne and St Kilda. Funny that.

Riewoldt kicked 9 that day and we won by something like 8 or 9 goals. He's always played well against us and Hogan appears to like playing St Kilda. Nice post.

5. And from my memory they were all in the first half. He also had 5 to half time yesterday. That 5 from last year was his PB until yesterday. Likes to play St Kilda and yeah, I reckon the quick deck suits him. It means we can get it down to him quickly and defenders don't have time to get back in numbers.

Well it is in a way, IMO, because our better players are younger. I'm sorry but even Gawn and Tyson have only 100 games between them. No excuse for Dunn or Vince though.

Sounds reasonably ridiculous to me...

And by the end of this season there could be an exodus at Freo. I've never been worried about Freo. It's another Melbourne club that I've always thought is more likely to woo Jesse. But if we keep up-trending, we can still offer him more than pretty much anyone else and hopefully the promise of sustained success. I think ultimately he'll re-sign with us.

This will work alright for us though. It allows Salem to continue working on his defensive and one-on-one game, which will help his contested ball winning ability and forward play in the years to come. He's got this year to play off half back and next year he'll probably be moved up the ground, if not sooner.

I think it's more a case of not winning a flag with the guys they've built a side around. Okay, Fyfe will probably come back and still be a star, but Pavlich, Sandilands etc. They had to win a flag when these guys were around, because there's just not that next batch of talent coming through. It doesn't really matter if they're tired or not. They've missed their chance with the majority of this list. Where does Lyon go next? I think he has to reinvent himself and build from the ground up, a new list. I'm not sure he's capable. It'll be interesting to see. One thing that seems almost certain is they're in for some pain.

Depends if Lyon has another game plan. His only game plan is irrelevant now. I think they might be in for a full rebuild.

And does Ross Lyon have a B plan in terms of game plan? He's never seemed to really change his system too much. Reckon they're in a lot of trouble.

TV rights deal. I'm sure all parties are waiting for that before signing. Given Hogan's importance and the likelihood of a lucrative deal coming his way, that will obviously impact on how much is left for the rest of them. But we won't know this for sure until the TV deal is formalised.

Lol. Jack's too focused for that. The few times I have seen him in person, he just seems to be a total professional and I imagine him living and breathing football 24/7. I thought the commentary watching the replay was pathetic on this. They said something like they feel sorry for Rance for being bombarded for so many years. [censored] off. That shouldn't condone his cowardly act.

I think it's more that he's unsure how to play the stay at home role. We needed him to play the focal role up inside 50, so he stayed there, but found little space to lead in to. Since he's been given licence to roam and play CHF, he's clearly not hamstrung by second guessing where he should be and he's a lot clearer on his role. If the Weed is half as good and can bag his 2 or 3 goals, along side Watts, Kent, Garlett and a goal-kicking resting mid, we will have an extremely potent forwardline. One word: exciting. Thank you, PJ, Roosy and Jason Taylor.

Some of the stuff I've heard hints that, to use a dated euphemism, he is wearing the pants in this relationship. That said, I'm sure the FD knew they needed to draft another forward too.

There's nothing in it, IMO. If he goes, it won't be back to Perth. I reckon he could test the water (with a Melbourne-based club) at the end of this year if we don't win between 10-12 games. I reckon we will and he'll end up signing with us on a long term deal.