Adam The God

Kennedy has been pathetic.

Another dud game from Kent.

Gee Newton is a poor decision maker and so slow.

Get a kick Viney.

Hawthorn, but apparently we have to beat them in a Grand Final before the Hawthorn-supporting fiancée will consider swaping. Still, besides these absurd conditions, I'll enjoy the thrill of beating them for many months.

I'm a fan of your posts too, Fifty, but I'm not sure about some of this. I'm not Bugg's biggest fan. He is a limited player, but he's so much better than Grimes that I can't begin to see where you're pulling this from. Is it sentimentality? I can empathise in some respects, but you've got to remember some of these players were apart of the worst VFL/AFL side to ever play the game in 2013. Now I'm not saying that's Grimes' fault, but on what planet is Jack Grimes a better player than Bugg? And IMO Grimes is not a victim of MFC incompetence. He was wildly overrated on here for years, despite horrendous decision making and poor disposal and was always just a limited player. Compare this with Bugg, who knows how to find the footy and although his kicking is a definite weakness, doesn't have the glaring deficiencies that Grimes has. It's a bit like the Colin Sylvia 'he just needs a big pre season' line. We always seem to find an excuse or a reason to blame for a players' failure to thrive, but what if they had met their ceiling years ago?

With all this positive press in the past few days, I cannot remember the last time we backed up positive press with a win. Then again, we haven't won too often in the recent past, so that probably explains a bit. I actually think that might play to our advantage. Hopefully we'll run them off their feet.

Yep and I'm a Salem fan.

It's not up to Roos.

Grimes has had ample time and he's consistently proven he's not good enough. His cards are marked. Don't have a go at Roos, he's making this club better. Grimes has been a good trier, a good off field leader, but that's pretty much where it stops. Your post reads like we owe Grimes something. We don't. This isn't a charity. We've paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars across an injury-riddled career and now that the list is AFL standard, we're looking to strengthen it further. No use playing a list clogger when we could be developing Hunt, Stretch, ANB etc. And if you think it's all Roos, think about who's taking over the reigns next year. Goodwin clearly isn't a fan either.

I don't. I reckon he'll play inside and outside as he has for the rest of his career, and he'll be straight into our starting centre circle.

I've been with my fiancée for 9 years. She's Hawthorn. We haven't beaten them in that time. Trust me.

Can I just reiterate, our midfield is a work in progress. We are not finished yet. Anyone who thinks we are is kidding themselves.

The main reason the final recruitment strategy hasn't been a main feature across Roos' tenure is because the MFC itself hasn't represented any value to the outside footballing community. Instead, we've decided to identify which players were worth keeping and building a side around. All the while, this enabled us to finish lower on the ladder and stockpile draft picks. Our defensive mindset was never going to win us a lot of games, but the scoreline was usually respectable. Roos and co have basically performed a stealth rebuild and 'list management' strategy across three years, but done it very cleverly. Freo are doing vaguely similar things, playing an outdated brand of football that will see they don't get blown off the park every week, but also won't win most games. But returning to my original point, we are now in a position to attract quality players and Dion is one of them.

Well done RGRS and well done MFC.

I'd take Prestia for the inside (that will get you deep into finals) and I'll take Kelly for the outside (that will assist you winning finals deep into September). So both of them should be on our radar. Whether we could ever get them both is another matter.

It's a bit like Demonland commentary really.

I'd go the other way and say he's protecting his beloved Port if we do knock them off. He's reminding the Port crazies that if they do lose, it's not the end of the world.

Oh, there's no way Prestia is going to Richmond either. That's laughable. He'll be at Melbourne.

Agreed. This sounds like a 'pull your head in - we value you, but not at any price - sign the deal'.

That'll be Weitering when he requests a trade to Melbourne. Come home, Jacob. He played three games as a forward and then injured his toe. I'm not quite sure why people are saying they saw him play back, because he didn't.

Prestia is a better outside player than O'Meara. His pace is better too.

I mean the other issue with Freo is that their only good young player in Lachie Neale sounds like he wants to come to Victoria, as per SEN a couple of weeks ago. This will leave Freo with pretty much nothing. I can't see this being about the WA sides' lists. This is about Jesse and his family. That's what it comes down to. I reckon we'll be alright.

Totally disagree. We're a very, very good chance to make finals next year. Completely agree, HT, which is exactly why OMac needs to keep playing at the top level. The VFL can only develop you so much. I'm glad the FD are letting him experience the big time. Whilst none of us are saying we should rest on our laurels, for mine it's a rubbish argument that we beat those teams last year, therefore implying improvement is hard to measure. We beat them again this year and sit 5-4, rolling out the youngest side in the competition almost weekly. By 2017, the majority of these players will have had a season playing the Goodwin way and will be ready to take on any tinkerings to the game plan. Winning 5 out of 9 with the youthful team we have is very solid in a way and while I understand the desire for caution, let's be [censored] happy that our side is showing amazing improvement... I'm sorry, but you can't deny the facts. We're second for clearances in the competition (behind the Giants), we lead the competition for centre clearances and goal accuracy. We have also set a statistical record for scoring increase in a single season. These are statistical improvements that cannot be disputed. There is no doubt (despite the errors our young players are making), we are on the rise. Given we sit in 9th position this season with such an inexperienced side, we'll certainly be ready to take on the top 8 next year. If everything goes right in the trade/draft period, the top 6 is possible, even the top 4 if we had some plausible things go our way (the acquisitions of Prestia and Hurley for example).

No way ANB goes out. I think Newton will make way though for Tyson. ANB will get a couple of games to cement his spot. That's the MO of the FD these days. They allow players some continuity at the top level and eventually, the FD's persistence pays off. I didn't think ANB did a lot on the weekend, but he didn't look out of his depth either. I'd expect at least another two or three weeks at that level. I think he'll be better for the run last week though. Looking forward to seeing him give us a selection 'headache' by cementing his spot in the midfield in the coming weeks. I'd also bring Spencer in, but I can't see who for at this stage. Jetta will also be back, so does Omac miss or does Wagner have a rest?