Adam The God

Ah, missed that. Apologies. And that's the first I heard Adelaide bidding pick 7. Interesting. I thought they were excluded from the first two rounds that year.

Yeah, it was interesting that. I took from his comments that Dunn won't be coming back this week and that we may well drop Pedersen too. Then again, it makes little sense to give up that advantage, unless of course your talls get run off.

I don't think so. Besides, contested footy is what stands up in finals. And as long as you move the ball quickly (ie the final quarter against GWS), you can counter that lack of leg-speed. GWS looked slow and knackered in the final quarter last week, but I suspect a lot of it was because our ball movement was so much better. It makes teams look second rate when you get it right. I think you will get exposed out the back a fair bit this year, just because blokes will tire as the game rolls on, with the reduced rotations. Teams appear to be pressing a lot higher this year too, so that's why teams look quick if they get through the press. It's going to be a fascinating season.

Pretty much agree with all of it, except I think Tyson would replace Trengove as he's a better ball winner. That said, Jack's a better user. Either way, this team would give us some great headaches at the selection table (depth) and not only would you want to remain at the club, you'd see other players wanting to join the MFC. It's exciting to see this list, because I think we'll get Prestia. I'm just not convinced we're after Hurley or that we'd be able to fit them both in the cap. But the beauty of this list is we have every single one of these players on the list already bar two. Note: Viney wasn't a top 10 pick, but he probably would have been if he wasn't already tied to us. Yeah, I think you're right, mate. If we can secure our own blokes by midyear that'll allow us time to go hard at the second bloke (ie. Hurley). That's how I'd do it anyway.

Yeah, I see Brayshaw for Harmes as the logical selection this week. I think Dunn will come in for OMac and Lumumba will be left out an extra week. Funnily enough, I see Matt Jones keeping Lumumba out of the team at the moment.

I think he might.

I think the Hurley thing will depend on how many of our young guns we have signed up. Our FD will want to be sure all the important players are locked in before going after Hurley, on top of Prestia.

Dion is the much better player, so you take the better player.

Yep, fair enough.

I'm surprised by this post. I think it says a lot about a person when they give up on their football team. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but for me it's endemic of someone's life. I was always brought up by my mother to be a loyal and committed person. If I commit to something, I follow it through. This goes for my career, my relationships and funnily enough my football team. Ah well. Each to their own. I guess if you were never that into footy it makes sense, but if you love the game and turn your back on the team you purport to support, don't come back and experience all the glory. Anyway, I obviously have no problem with the club taking their money though and I hope one day we can do a Hawthorn and sign up 70,000.

If you look at Hawthorn's team over the last two or three years, they have a little bit of speed, but their bonafide A graders are mostly pretty one paced - particularly in the middle. At least Dion has a bit of zip about him. I'd also go hard at someone like Devon Smith and/or Josh Kelly too. Could play forward and run through the midfield or in Kelly's case, off half back. I think ball-winning ability is being preferenced for our list and outside pace is being seen as an element that can be strengthened by FA down the track. I think this is the approach Hawthorn have taken too, whether by luck (coming into their powers at a time when FA is a new and unknown beast). But it seems like our (dare I say it) blue print is getting that solid team of hard-at-it onballers first, building the team around them, Hogan, Tommy Mac and good ball users in Salem, Vince and Watts.

You watch after the first few rounds though. Those Essendon fans will drop off like they did when Matthew Knights was coach. They had a lot of bandwagoners in the 90s and were never really uninvolved in the finals for 20 years under Sheedy, but since he's gone (and he was past it), their supporter base has been shown to have a bit of a soft underbelly. Even when we were down and out, and we've obviously had years in the wilderness, we always stuck around. As soon as things got tough for Essendon under Knights they all nicked off.

Dion is better than a good player, mate.

And how loud were we? Brilliant stuff! There's a few of them coming out of the woodwork, which I always struggle with, but I hope we see some really big Melbourne crowds this year. We are one of the louder supporter bases given we don't have as many bums on seats as the Collingwood's or Carlton's. Just on another note. I just finished watching the replay for the first time and Oscar McDonald had a pretty solid game. Even the moment he got injured was a result of falling down after a really solid spoil. He's come on a lot quicker than I thought he would and that's a credit to him and the coaching staff for backing him in. I reckon he'll be able to cement a spot in the side come Round 1 next year. And I will now eat some humble pie for saying prior to the match that he wasn't ready based on his NAB form and his first game or two last year. Well done, Oscar. And he should have received a few more plaudits on here than he has for his performance.

Thanks mate. I wonder whether Viney will be given those sort of tagging roles this year or just let him go about his own game. He was so effective on Saturday. I hope they don't tinker with that too much, although he is a player that has proved his ability to both shut down a player and accumulate the football himself.

You beauty, Clarry.

I'd be interested to know how different the Essendon team we lost to last year is from the one we'll be playing next week. From memory Watson, Hurly and Heppell didn't play. This game will tell us how far we've come. It may sound strange, but can we really bury a less fancied opponent and a team we should beat? I suspect we can, but if there's that old MFC attitude of complacency it means we probably won't and that we haven't progressed as far as I think we have.

I agree. Fascinating statistical game that one. We dominated all the stats in the first half and were down, then in the second half we ended up winning, while they ended up closing the statistical gap. Very odd.

The Prestia thing is a little more obvious than the Roos one though.

And he's a goalkicking mid.

I agree that we need more outside class, but if Prestia is interested in coming (I've heard multiple times he's considered it since about 2013), we should go after him and outside class.

This is a discussion forum, mate. If you just wanna look at the positives and gloss over any negatives, don't read it.

So are we saying we're right for midfield depth then? Because that's how you'll win a flag.

Our David Hale won't cost us much. I can't see Prestia costing us the farm either. He'll be out of contract and I'd say the offer would be between $450-500. Very doable, given the cap increase. We need more class and ball-winning ability in the midfield. Just because we go after Prestia doesn't mean we won't look to fill the other obvious gaps in our list.

I reckon they've highlighted this game as well. Misson mentioned on his injury report before Round 1 that Petracca was about four weeks off. I'd say, all things being well, they've pencilled in a Round 4 debut. Definitely won't debut this week and if he does, that means the FD are going back on what they said, which could well spell unprofessionalism. I trust our current FD, so he won't play until at least Round 4.