Adam The God

That boat sailed two years ago. But I agree. I reckon they'll try and trade him now. An absolute basketcase. They've been so worried about burning a coach because of their history that they've kept Hardwick three years too long. In the meantime, their list has continued to become average.

Nah, the dream's still on.

Can't see Prestia going to Richmond either. Carlton? Maybe. But I reckon he'll come home.

He has the propensity to kick absolute floaters at times, so he's certainly not a great kick.

Yep. I'd delist Trenners and rookie him.

I thought about Kent, but his kicking, for mine, is just far too inconsistent.

I'd agree, with the exception of Salem.

Dunstall is another in a long line of puncey Hawthorn twats that offers snide media jibes directed at Melbourne supporters. As I said on one of the Facebook pages, most of Hawthorn's supporters used to follow Melbourne until it got all too hard during the 70s and 80s and then they jumped ship. So they have just as many toffs as us and their major sponsor is Audi FFS! Yet, we're the ones that are off to the snow the whole time. Dunstall used to be measured and tried to compliment Melbourne and now he can't conceal his resentment. Perhaps he sees that we're coming?

He had a couple of ordinary weeks there, but he's back to being rock-solid. Looking forward to seeing how he goes against the Hawks again.

I really enjoy Brown's commentary, because he's almost always very complimentary about us. And thanks for the run down everyone. Couldn't watch again tonight as it conflicted with The Kettering Incident. I agree with Brown. Dunstall can't help but show his contempt for Melbourne. Made another 'off to the snow' comment yesterday on air, I'm told. And King is a sheep and A grade [censored], who lacks insight for a guy that spends his entire week watching footy reels and trying to work out what's going on.

I think the club probably thought some of the older guys like Garland and Dunn would be apart of the future and help us win a few more games, but it was obvious pretty early on that wasn't going to happen. I'm okay with PJ aiming publicly for finals this year. Internally they probably felt they were a year off it still.

Yeah, true. Although, I'd argue that against St Kilda inside the contest he was fine, but on the outside he struggled with the pace. But as you say, I'm sure he'll find that balance.

I'm sorry, but we were never going to make the finals this year. Playing the youngest team every week dictates that there will be inconsistencies from week to week. Like GWS, they had all the talent in the world in their first few seasons, but their age demographic was all wrong. We're in a similar position and IMO it was foolhardy for anyone to expect us to make finals this year.

Yeah, I've never rated Melksham as a kicker, more of a turn over merchant. I'm hoping he provides us some run and genuine leg speed.

Jones got to him as well, but I agree. The leaders don't do this enough and it's really telling. I'd love playing alongside Hunt. After every little dash he does that creates another scoring opportunity, I'd be getting around him after that. We don't and it must just be my family that finds it frustrating and endemic to Melbourne.

Yep, agreed. There were a couple of clearances yesterday that he rushed in the same way that Bernie and Jones often rush them. It made them far less effective. But against St Kilda he seemed to take his time a little more, get his head up early and make a more calculated and effective decision. Can't wait to see him as a player with more games under the belt.

They employed a simple third man up for most of the second half and probably earlier. This has been happening against Gawn for weeks and our players never give him a chop out when things clearly aren't working. It's fine to keep your structures, but we need to look at giving Max a block in these situations.

Yeah, it's a good point. I find that inside slider (the 7th player) to be too offensively focused. They should provide an outlet as you say, but IMO they should also provide a defensive sweep if the opposition wins the ball. Often that 7th player is a quick player like Hunt or Petracca that can shut down an opponent quickly. I'd stick with the inside extractors and keep the outside pace like Hunt and Stretch on the outside. I think in time, Oliver is going to have a similar impact on our clearance abilities as a Sam Mitchell has for Hawthorn. Let's hope he's as durable, because Oliver has that vision, poise and skill to be able to bring outside players into the game. I think Petracca is another that could be employed in this role, although he's better with his feet, but he can certainly break a tackle in a similar way to a Dangerfield, which will also give our mids separation from the stoppage.

I like the flexibility they provide too. Both players could play anywhere from half back, to half forward, to the wings. And in each of those situations their run and carry would be a huge asset. It'd be great to have a Brad Hill type, but do we need someone else if these two come on? We certainly need kickers off half back (hi Hibberd!), but I love how we're building and developing from within our own walls. Supporters have lamented for years that we've tried to plug all our holes by recruiting, rather than drafting and developing talent from within. Thanks to McCartney and co, these our blokes are looking like developing into important role players going forward. The FD are doing a terrific job at the moment, IMO.

Agreed.

Disagree. IMO his kicking on the run is brilliant, on either side of the body. We saw that on show all last year. Where I'd like to see him improve is having a little more composure inside the contest. This will come with experience and good coaching.

Hmm. What would you pay for him? Salary cap aside.

Thanks. So three or four years left. I think our backline is raw, but continues to develop well. But our midfield could still do with a little more juice. And FWIW, I'd take Rance in a heartbeat if he was 25. I think he's too big a risk to take at his age.

Isn't Rance 27-28? So he'd have 3 or 4 years left. And we'd have to give up something a little more than our first rounder next year and a Salem. I'm not sure it's worth it. Also not sure he'd consider a team not playing finals this year. He only has a few years left. Further, hasn't he already come out of retirement once? It's a no from me. Keep building our midfield.

DE stat is a rubbish indicator. He only has to handball to a team mate under pressure for that to be an effective possession.