Adam The God

So now... Trengove is having a big impact on the contest from stoppages and Petracca looks dangerous. Finally starting to impose themselves.

I'll get shot down for a few of these comments, but here goes. This has been like watching Melbourne in 2014. On the occasional moment you can actually see the play from this ground, it's just utterly frustrating because the performance has been ordinary. Got here at the twenty mark of the first and have seen two Casey goals. One from an impressive Weideman mark. Grimes is still just as bad at this level and Trenners looks as slow to me as he did before he went down. Can't see Trenners or Petracca getting in next week on this performance, but still a half to go. Still reckon Trenners' best position at AFL level is half back. Doesn't have the speed for the wing. Not in our current team anyway.

I wouldn't call it pathetic, but it does show there are a lot of casual supporters in amongst those 70,000 members. 45,000 is still a pretty good effort against an interstate side. Mind you, Adelaide have a lot of support here. They tend to get about 15,000 along to games in Melbourne. So when you take that into consideration, Hawthorn would have been hoping for a few more.

Dion Prestia out with "Illness"... In other news, Peter Wright looks pretty good after all this time.

Thanks Jack.

Does anyone know if Petracca is playing tonight? I'm thinking about heading down.

I wonder if Adam Simpson has any answers this time.

Am I the only one that thinks West Coast look ordinary against the 2016 brand of football? Quick ball movement combined with contested possessions. I reckon they're very gettable this year when we play them. Bring our A game and we can knock them off.

The same way we only got 28,000 to GWS when we have almost 10,000 more members. When you've got 70,000 members, it's fair to say the truer indication of the die hards are 40,000ish.

We've seen how things have swung towards Hawthorn in terms of membership (particularly young supporters) over the past decade. Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could build an era of success where we could start to nab fans with parents of Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond, Carlton origins? If these four clubs continue to spiral into insignificance and we begin to rise, there will be lots of potential supporters we can tap into. And how's this for a bit of digression on a thread about Jeremy Howe. The bloke bores me.

We should thank our FD. Sylvia, Frawley and Howe were all seen to be superfluous to requirements and frankly too flawed to keep. We could also cover their loss and have shown that. I don't thank any of those players though. I thank the club for having the wherewithal to make the decision and ensure we were well compensated for average players. Paul Roos to a tee.

I don't mind Brad Johnson. Used to [censored] me up the wall as a player, but I find his commentary pretty balanced. Can't say the same for Dwayne. He doesn't bother to hide his disdain for Melbourne. I'm just glad I go to almost every game so I don't have to listen to the [censored].

If we are scaling back our NT involvement, what's to be done with the financial gap minus those existing Darwin monies? They must be pretty confident that the business is up-trending and we can pull decent enough attendances year round to offset the loss or... we've got another plan up our sleeve?

I tipped Adelaide by 3 points. Bugger.

You 'lol' at Omac being one of the 13 players they hope will reach elite status, Dan, but then you don't name 13 yourself. Bit of a cop out. Still, I agree. Omac probably isn't one of them.

Also seems like Matt Jones' 'soreness' is a nice way of saving face. Look Matt, you've been really solid, but ultimately you're not best 22 when we've got all this talent to select from.

I like Jack and think he can become an important part of a resurgent Melbourne, but what he does need to do is play at least one consistent season before he gains the respect of the football community. Is that unfair? Maybe. But he still hasn't strung together a full season of strong football. He's certainly had dominant games, but at this stage in his career, he'd have played 5-10 of them. Play 10-15 of them this year and I expect him to gain some wider respect in the AFL community. Couldn't give a toss what Dwayne thinks though.

Reading between the lines a little bit with Misson's MelbourneTV injury report, I don't think Garlett will play this week. So it'll be a matter of fitting in Vince and maybe Petracca. If the latter comes in, I reckon Pedo may miss.

From reading more of that BF thread, I'd say you're on the money, mate, except replace Vanders with Viney. Although, Kennedy is an interesting one. Maybe they rate Kennedy higher than Wanger or Omac? We certainly know that Taylor rates Kennedy pretty highly.

"Sam is apparently unlikely to play this year as he needs another 7kg's. The club is very happy with his 3 X VFL games thus far. Kicking 3 in each match at this stage of his development and training load.The club has him penciled in as one of 13 future players on the list that will be rated elite at the 80 game mark." Intriguing. I wonder if I could name them? Hogan, Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney, Petracca, Weideman, Tyson, Salem, Gawn, O McDonald, T McDonald (even though he's past 80 games)... after these guys, I'm not really sure. Stretch? Kent?

I think Garlett, Frost, Kennedy, Kent and Brayshaw have to bring the pressure as you say. The reason Matt Jones is the unlucky is because Kent, Kennedy and Harmes have all been bringing the defensive pressure. We know Jeffy brings that too and Frost is being developed as a speedy defensive forward too. I reckon we'll be alright without a pure wingman, because even Jones doesn't bring an extraordinary amount. He's a role player. That's all we need from Harmes.

Makes sense, mate.

I agree with most of what you say here, IT, but I reckon Roos has allowed Goodwin to call the list decisions and devise much of the game plan and Roos has basically signed off on these things if he's agreed. So ultimately, you're right, the final decision would come down to Roos, but if I was Roos (and I think this is what he's done), I'd look for a deputy whose footballing philosophy aligned with mine, but also one that was moving with the modern game and prepared to. That's clearly what he saw in Goodwin and I'm sure they've each made decisions that the other has had to agree upon. I find it a little fruitless reading too much into players comments in the media though. They are mostly fluff pieces and if the game plan question had been asked during Bailey's time or Neeld's, I'm sure players would have been compelled to back the game plan in the public domain. This time, however, the game plan does seem to have legs. I'm just so grateful and glad that our football team is finally playing the modern game. Ever since Danners left our game style has always felt a bit behind the eight ball. At the crudest level, it seemed Bailey was trying to implement the outdated Geelong game plan and Neeld was trying to implement the outdated Collingwood game plan. Roos and the FD have spent three years building the list. We now have an engine room of powerful, hard-nosed midfielders and are going about adding pace on the perifery. The list now possesses class and star potential across every line for the first time that I can recall. We have the cattle that has the ability and discipline to play that lock-down contested brand that wins you finals, but at the same time, we're now building flexibility in the way we play offensively, which is equally as important to win finals. Most importantly, we finally have the cattle that can play modern footy, whichever way the game turns in the next 5 to 10 years. It's just a matter of getting games into them, developing them well by providing clear instruction and feedback, and eventually this team will be capable of implementing the 'Melbourne brand'.

I'm emailing my old man this post. He is taking time to adjust to our zone defence and as you state, he's not the only Demon supporter.

Gerard's not always the most balanced commentator, but he's not as bad as some. However, the way he fawns over Geelong and in particular Dangerfield is sickening. Why aren't there more Mike Sheahan's about these days? I blame the advent of Eddie McGuire. His conflict of interest at 9 meant 'journalists' could then proudly show their footballing allegiances without anyone really questioning them. But the plight of journalist integrity is a discussion not even worth having. It's too far gone.