Adam The God

Terrible news. All we can do as a footy club is support him through it and from a supporter stand point, give him some time and try to understand some of the [censored] that may impact on his performances for the rest of the season. RIP Tony and love to our Jesse.

My point is some of us need to be looking past last week and taking a holistic approach to the season and our upward trend and development.

Definitely 30,000+. The MCC was sold out and was at least 80/20 Melbourne's way. We had a great portion in Gate 3 as well and in the Punt Road pocket. 30,000 easily. It's just whether there were 35,000+.

And when we go and win 4 or 5 games in a row at some stage this season, OD? What then? I hope you come back and visit this post.

I see the original OD is back. And you were so positive after the first two games...

You can only draft so many players each year. Our focus has been building our midfield. I reckon we've done a brilliant job of it. One or two pieces still missing, but ruck/forwards will probably be high on the shopping list this year.

Aliir Aliir, as has been mentioned, would suit our system to a tee. I reckon we could play Aliir Aliir, Tom McDonald and Sam Frost in the same backline, as long as a wise head like Lewis, backed by Jetta and Hibberd. A good mixture of experience, pace, height, good ball use and offensive-mindedness. Jones has improved, but would much prefer Aliir and he suits our needs a lot better.

Completely agree with this.

Except they never do, otherwise they'd be in the side now. Kent has a greater ceiling than JKH, no doubt, but Kent is a lazy, inconsistent footballer at the moment.

Were you there, OD?

Yep, probably, but where does that put Kent? If he got the same attention as Dom, people would be saying he'd never play again. Despite his brainfades, even ANB has been improving. Harmes is a more solid player this year too. If we can convert some of these C graders into solid B graders, we'll be ready to challenge come 2018. Until then, we have to back in our FD and that goes for Tyson and Viney's development too.

He's had a history of slowly working into seasons off the back of reduced pre seasons, so I'd say there is a relevance. As much as we'd like our 70+ gamers to be hitting their straps right now, sometimes the reduced pre season does impact on their ability. His kicking the other night was probably the worst I'd seen for the season, but his hands were cleaner. Tyson is in exactly the same basket as Viney is. He needs to work on his disposal and his decision making. But both players are doing the team things and tackling. It doesn't bother me that you don't rate the tackle stat, but I can assure you the FD do. That's why turnover merchants like ANB keep getting games and why JKH is likely to get another game too.

He's coming off an injury interrupted pre-season and is getting involved despite really struggling. His ceiling is a lot higher than he's given credit for. It's tiresome reading the same posts over and over again, so that's me done for this thread. We'll agree to disagree. You've got your thread to talk about Tyson. Now it won't need to be brought up in every second thread.

Averages 24.8 disposals, 5 tackles and is going at 65% DE. His DE is the lowest of our mids and he's not scoring goals. They are the two things he needs to work on. The knocks on his defensive game are a myth. The only way he goes out this season is for his DE. I can't see it being this week.

It's only backfired if it costs us games. At this stage, we've had both our ruckmen injured during games. If it impacts on our ability at the clearances next week and we lose as a result, then we can say this was a costly list management decision.

JKH brought exactly what the MC wanted. Forward half pressure. Laid more tackles himself than our entire forwardline managed the previous week. Open your eyes, mate. And anyone else popping JKH into the outbox for this week, you're not actually thinking about why a player like Jay is in the side. I'm not saying he would have met all his KPIs, but I reckon one of his major ones was tackle count. The FD would be delighted with his first game in that respect. It's something to build on, because ball in hand, he was often lost and made some really dumb and immature decisions.

I'm just gonna keep pulling you up on this in almost every thread, CB. Tyson is averaging practically 24.8 disposals, 5 tackles and has improved his DE to 65%. He's still got some more work to do on his ball use. He should be aiming to get it up around 70%. Dom can play a lot better footy than he's showing now though, which tells me he's capable of A grade status. Improve his efficiency (particularly by foot) and start to hit the scoreboard a bit more and he'll be our second best mid again behind Oliver. He's working himself into the season after another injury interrupted pre-season at 23 years of age. Might be time to lay off him for a bit.

It certainly won't have hurt. A great idea either way. I take it, therefore, that we get a share in the profits of last night's game?

I think we have to keep building the rivalry and then even if the Tigers aren't up and about (realistically from 2018 onwards), they'll still hate us enough to come along and see their side try to beat us. It becomes tradition. And likewise, Richmond will try to 'get up' for the game, as the Essendon and Collingwood players do for ANZAC Day. I think at the very least, we can average 65,000 a game and if we can get 45,000-50,000 members in the next few years (with the bandwagoners back), we could well get that 65,000 average even higher. Stunning to think that our Queen's Birthday game, which has for so many years now been our biggest drawcard, is likely to be overshadowed by our ANZAC Eve clash with Richmond. Terrific stuff, really. And a great sign for potential sponsors. PJ would be rubbing his hands together. He's done a brilliant job of setting up games like this and really promoting them hard. Just on our other crowds, it's not unreasonable to think we could draw: - 70,000 to a game against the Hawks at the 'G. If it wasn't at 3.20pm on a Sunday, we'd have a chance. - 75,000 to a game against Essendon at the 'G. If it wasn't at Etihad, we'd have a chance. And we hate each other - there is a genuine rivalry going here. - 80,000 to the Queen's Birthday game this year. So realistically, this year could see two 80,000+ crowds. That'd have to get us a few Friday night and Saturday night games next year. Get favourable fixtures like that and we can start to really generate some decent profits again from ticket sales. Add to this, our NT strategy and our investment in the women's game and I think our brand could really be flying come 2019. But as our team becomes more successful, we'll be able to build even more on these rivalries. And unlike the Bulldogs, St Kilda, GWS, GCS, Sydney, Brisbane or North, if we can win a flag in the next five years, we'd get 50,000 members easily. There are a lot of dormant/lapsed Melbourne 'supporters' out there who want to get on board, but are gun-shy following years of disappointment, failure and general [censored]-teasing. They'd be only too happy to jump on board and experience the good times if we can have a sustained period of success. And if we can manage this, we will become hated again, opposition rivalries will rise and large crowds will be the norm. I'm sure the 50,000 members, winning at least one flag and having sustained success was part of our 10 year plan. Our five year plan up until 2018, was probably something like being in a position to win a flag, having built a young talented list and a membership base in excess of 45,000 members. What's so exciting is that it's all doable and I can see the Melbourne Football Club rising from the ashes very, very soon.

I agree that he doesn't seem to have a weapon and have felt this way since 2015, but he may just be able to carve out a niche for himself at half forward with a little more experience. His go is work rate. If he can bring 5+ tackles per game, add a goal or two to his game and use the ball better (with his nice side step), he might just make it. Obviously, the FD and MC are thinking something along these lines. Yep. 35,000 MFC, 45,000 RFC and 5,000 neutrals.

I reckon quality midfield ball users will be at the top of our list. If a quality KPB came out that didn't blow our cap, we'd certainly look at them, but I have a feeling it's a bit of a get games into our KPBs and let them settle in our defensive 'system'.

This is a distinct possibility... Round 1 - C Oliver, 3 votes. Round 2 - C Oliver, 3 votes. Round 3 - C Oliver, 0 votes. Round 4 - C Oliver, 1 vote. Round 5 - C Oliver, 3 votes. 10 votes to Round 5 is gettable. Staggeringly good for a second year player. He's in the same basket as Hogan - a statistical anomaly.

I'd love to know who is on our shopping list this year. To be a fly on the wall...

Agree with this, except that I'd say Oliver is so far ahead in the Bluey it's not funny. Yep. Spot on, mate. The scales will tip soon enough.

87,600 today and 85,600 last night. Bloody big crowds.