Adam The God

I'd say we'd still play another tall, just as Hawthorn do in Hale. Don't go putting someone like Cloke in the ruck.

I thought it was Operation Malthouse, smokescreen Cloke?

This 'Frawley's had a poor year' is getting a little tiresome. He consistently beats his opponents and on bad days breaks even. Our only A grade player, outside of Clark (if his form continues next year). Tommy Mac has come on this year and has become a very good player one-on-one, but still has nothing on Chip. His decision making and foot skills are easily the worst in our 22 too. I'm glad he's come on, but christ he'd better learn to kick otherwise he's a glorified Warnock.

Spencer was one of our few shining slights yesterday. He was fantastic. That chase onto the wing to win the one-on-one was superb. I think he's got a future.

Sylvia an A-grader? Jesus Christ. What are we smoking in this thread? You have to be consistently great to be A grade. Sylvia is pretty much the antithesis of consistent. He's played maybe four A grade games in eight years.

I've never doubted Sylvia's class. He definitely has it. Psychological execution of this class has always been severely lacking. He faded in and out of the one game he'd usually dominate. Jones racked up disposals, but was down on his efficiency of possession by his standards this year. Meanwhile, the only thing Moloney was missing is a clown suit. His lack of pace was shown up a number of times, as was his slow decision making. He is so low on confidence, he's almost not worth playing. He's not effective like he was in certain games last year.

The cynical part of me views Peter Ryan's article on the MFC website (http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/143652/default.aspx) as an attempt to raise Sylvia's currency, labelling him "so important". In a staggering ridiculous article, he asserts that where the game was won yesterday was the midfield. Ryan is either trying to do us a favour or is merely inept. I cannot recall a game where a midfield has dominated so heavily and still been smacked. The game was won by our defenders who repelled opposition attacks and then set up our own. Our midfield was smashed in the clearances, 38-26. Give us a midfield, please! The obvious place to start is Colin Sylvia.

Not sure where the good signs are. What were the clearances in the end? At one stage they had a ridiculous lead on us in that department. Sorry to be a downer, but we've seen this all before. Roll the weak interstate teams at the 'G. Nothing good in this at all. Green takes a couple of easy marks that were telegraphed to his chest and kicks five, celebrating his fourth like he'd kicked the winning goal of a Grand Final. Christ, cringeworthy. Do it against the decent teams, not just the predictable ones.

I'd be re-signing Spencer, give Green one extra year, MacDonald gets another contract for mine (depth backman), Petterd gets re-signed (only just), Nicholson gets upgraded, but Magner stays on the rookie list. Look for a trade for Moloney. His confidence is shot and is a limited player as is. However, staggered that you've given Dunn another contract, RR. Delist for mine. The only way I can see him playing on is in an Andrew Mackie type role across HB. I just don't think he has the smarts for the role. He certainly has the foot-skills, but struggles one-on-one. One thing that is noticeable over the last few weeks is that the backline is developing a number of kicking options, with the likes of Dunn and Strauss going back there. We've certainly missed that back their. The only issue is neither of them are good one-on-one players at the moment. I'll pop this one out there. If we draft a Cloke, McDonald continues to progress, Frawley is a lynchpin back there and Garland is better suited back, where does Rivers fit in? I can't see a spot for him. His lack of pace is an issue too.

Come on. Ablett was clearly more influential than Jones. Nat had some good clearances, but he regressed to a few of his old bad habits today. Know your limitations. Don't try to break every tackle and sometimes, the first option is the best option. Meanwhile, Walls is right. We were ordinary today. Those Blues were pathetic too though and I doubt he'll say much on that front.

Yeah, he looked like he struggled with the new game plan workload.

Unfortunately, although we won today, it was a gruesome performance on our behalf. Our midfield proved once again, that they are not up to it. We got smashed in the clearances and generally played at a very ordinary level (there were a few exceptions of course). Howe and Tappy were probably our best and even Tappy had a couple of clangers by foot. There's no way we'll finish below that mob, but we're still a strong chance to finish below GWS. Another glaring deficiency that today exemplified is that we don't have a dominated second string key forward to cover Clark. Of course we knew this, but it underlines the importance of high picks this draft.

Still one of the great ironies of modern football commentating. The bloke that stuff up two of the biggest drafts at the helm of Richmond is now called 'The List Manager' Wallace. It just shows you what short memories the media and the public have. Further, their lack of intelligence in buying a word this shrivelled bloke says. And noooo on Caddy. More overhype. Would prefer Boak over Caddy and even then I don't want Boak.

Strauss reminds me of a young Andrew Mackie. He's ordinary one-on-one (and must get better), but is a sublime kick of the footy.

Full of precise kicking? Not sure which game you were watching. Yeah, Tappy played a lot better today. His marking in particular. Some of his kicking hit the target, but there were a number that were end-over-end atrocious. Good to see him getting fired up though when he kicked that goal. His marking was fantastic today though. As usual though, his courage and ferocity at the ball was never in question.

Another very salient point.

I can understand that too, WYL. But I think for many it has got to the point where the team or current list offers very little solace and thus we look toward the draft for hope.

I truly believe a victory against weak interstate teams will do nothing for our club fabric. If anything those sorts of wins may actually promote misapprehension of false strength. The Bailey era taught me that. Downhill skiing at its finest. How many times have we seen MFC beat an ordinary interstate side at home? I agree.

Exactly.

Very astute point, 45HG16. It's our inability to develop the likes of Trengove, Scully and arguably even Gysberts that has been our downfall so far.

I've already addressed this though, PM. We stuffed it up with Scully; in hindsight, but we're now putting a greater focus into our FD and I have enough faith to believe we'll get it right if given 1, 2, 9, 22 or whatever it is. Surely you know that this midfield won't cut it. Those that are saying add Viney, bring Clark back and we'll be fine are kidding themselves.

I believe it's more than likely that we've been trying our guts out all year and are just not good enough. The ridiculousness of all of this is that if we do loose, we'll be under suspicious of tanking, but really we're just hopeless. From 2002-2007, Carlton had a similar streak and were just as suspicious, if not more so, yet they don't come under fire for it. And christ, do I get sick of hearing Carlton supporters call us up for tanking. A win against GC or GWS does very little for us. A win against the Kangaroos might have meant something. I don't think we should go out to loose - ultimately, we don't need to. We don't have a team that can consistently post over ten goals. Don't win many games like that.

If we're looking at it like that though, WYL, pick 3 and 4 are the picks we've struggled most with. It's that tough area of really needing a pick 1 or 2, but just missing out on the superstar. I admit there is a chance we could finish third last and still pick up exactly what we need, but I think it's less likely. I'm not saying we should tank necessarily, I don't think we've got enough players out there to kick a winning score. Even against GC. I could see maybe a Green bobbing up or a Sylvia and Moloney having a blinder, but as a number of posters have already said, it actually does absolutely nothing for us. You don't seriously think if we beat GC tomorrow that we'll gain or maintain any more members as a result of it.

Agree in some respect. But we need a midfield otherwise Cloke will be both redundant and ordinary. That said, we have shown in numerous games (particularly in the second half of the season) that we are capable of creating inside 50s, but have lacked a target.

If I was on contract to for three years and my team wasn't up to it, I'd experiment and see what my cattle could do. If one or two of them prove to be highly efficient in a position, then there'd be less need to look elsewhere. If you simply don't have the cattle you could into damage mode. This involves attempting to limit damage. And as for the "badminton approach", no. The argument has never been that the players are tanking. It's that the coaches or admins are. I truly believe we've been so ordinary this year, because a) we're not up to it B) our fitness is not up to standard and c) injuries have taken their toll.