Adam The God

I don't recall anyone saying that. They simply said, it's kind of pointless comparing the two.

Oh, there's no doubt Craig Cameron was an incipid recruiter. I'm so glad Richmond wanted him.

Actually, as a coach myself, it varies. If you're coaching young kids (cognitive learners), then it is the coaches job to teach the players the skills. But come AFL level (supposedly elite level), the coach maps out and implements a game plan. At the moment, our skills aren't up to that game plan. However, Bailey's thinking is (probably) that if you get the game plan into these kids early, at least once they feel more comfortable under pressure and in contested situations (after 40 or 50 AFL games), then they'll have that foundation and game plan in their make ups, to implement it with effective disposals and decision making. I do agree with some posters, though, that are saying it's up to Bailey to get them to gut run and do the team things. It's a coaches job to motivate players to do this. Otherwise, they're not doing their job. Of course, if the players they have at their disposal are not up to it, then that's a different story. Perhaps, it's the latter?

So many overractions here. I'm not saying I'm sure Bailey is the man for the job, but he's barely got anyone to work with. The majority of our senior players wouldn't get a game at any other club, but that's what Bailey's got to chose from. And the rest...well, they're just kids. It'll be very interesting to see who we delist at the end of the year. The problem is you can't simply delist/retire the majority of the senior list. We've already done that over the past two years. We need some experience, even if it doesn't showing the leadership qualities you'd hope for. Bailey needs at least next year to prove himself. If the team shows nothing next year, then perhaps.

It's not that McLean doesn't work hard enough neccesarily, it's that he's so slow. That's why he can't get to contests in time or chase down opponents. That said, some of his kicking tonight was just down right lazy. When he kicked it to Miller on the lead, in the dying minutes of the match, there was barely any pressure on and he kicked it along the ground. I've been hoping that in a good team, with fast, effective players around him, Brock could be a very valuable player, but I'm starting to think I'm being too wishful. Watts makes some good decisions though. He's going to be a beauty. He's just playing in a side with no confidence, barely any class or speed. Give a few of these kids (Grimes, Morton, Frawley, Jurrah etc) more game time and add Watts to them and he'll be great. He needs good players around him though. Robbo doesn't cut it anymore, but at the same time, he'll stay on, because we simply have nobody else.

Healthy crowd. It was great to see and hear quite a few Melbourne people there tonight. Still hopeless to get into though. I don't remember it being that bad since the early Colonial Stadium days.

IMO, you're barely a supporter if you don't actually go along to the games and 'support' the team. It makes sense really. If you live in Melbourne and all that's stopping you from getting to games is grounds ripping you off, then that's the definition of weak. MCG's a rip off too, but I'm sure you make it to those games. Think about the food prices at the G. It's no different really from Docklands. I'm thinking around 39,000, but I hope in the 40s.

I like the white strip too, though I still prefer our proper strip. What pisses me off is that whenever we play Essendon, irrespective of whose home game it is, we always wear the alternate strip.

I think Ratten's done the same thing for Carlton. But that was after a year of tanking.

My Carlton mate tells me, they hope to play him at centre half forward and put the hack Cloke in the ruck. But with their mids, the tap may not be vital, but marking targets inside 50 will be. They hope Kreuzer will provide the other tall marking target.

I would have, but with the picks we may have come seasons end, I'd prefer two mids or one mid and a KPF.

I'm inclinded to agree. I'd just question whether a team could have long term success without a ruckman.

Another sensible post.

Agreed. I think it's still the honeymoon period. Voss's challenge will be to back this up next year. They go to the break 7-5, it's not like they're 11-1, they've still lost 5 games. Buckley hasn't had any experience coaching and it'd be an extremely HUGE gamble for us to take him on. Besides, I think Bailey is doing a good job so far.

Why are we so convinced Buckley will be a good coach? Because Michael Voss has been moderately successful so far? Great players don't necessarily make great coaches. Bailey will turn it 'round, when the pressure is on. Next year and the year after. Just wait a see. He's made some tough decisions so far, let him see out the next two or three seasons and if we see no progression (which I highly doubt), then it will be time to look around for another coach. But Bailey was selected by a highly regarded panel of experts (non-MFC people and MFC people) and I'm sure he wouldn't have beaten the other competitors, if he didn't have something special. This year is a difficult one, we need the priority picks and no matter what some supporters will tell themselves, there's no way we're not going to try and get the priority pick. This year is about playign the kids, getting games into them and by next year, we'll start our rise. Slowly.

Why do people think other teams will part so easily with their draft picks, in an already compromised draft pool? Whatsmore, some of these players haven't been good enough to get consistent games for the wooden spooners? (the likes of Dunn in particular) It defies logic...

From what I saw in the game on TV last weekend, his kicking is pretty accurate. He only missed the one set shot from memory, which was about 50 out. The rest he kicked straight through the middle.

So do I, but it's important we have a decent showing at away games too. It's about supporting the team, no matter what. I remember having to go out to Optus Oval, I hated it, but always went. This attitude has to change fellow supporters. Too many fair weathered supporters. Get along whenever it's in Melbourne. It's something like $11 with an MFC membership, if that. So money, surely isn't an issue. I really hope Jurrah debuts against the Dons too, but I'll be going irrespective of whether he plays.

I think we've got at least two or three already on the list, which with time would fill those shoes. Watts, Grimes, Sylvia, Davey, would be starters, then you've got Blease who hasn't even played yet who might come through, then there's Strauss. It's all about development and giving these kids time to develop into the class players. Not all class acts have begun like Daniel Rich. The beauty of drafting Western Australians has been visible this season in particular, with their ability to compete with the big boys, almost immediately. It comes down to their WAFL system, as apposed to our TAC cup competition. The TAC cup is a boys competition, whereas the WAFL is for men.

You must be joking? How would getting Buckley into the club be debt managing? If anything it'd put us in further debt. Buckley has always loved money (site his move from Brisbane to Collingwood) and I'm sure he'd want a packet. Furthermore, a change now would only bring further instability in the club, which at this point is finally building stability. Ridiculous. I guess there will always be knockers.

I disagree with this post entirely. Firstly, Bailey has shown the balls, he's delisted a number of senior players. Secondly, this year he has shown that reputation/experience alone will not automatically get you a game. I'd site the dropping of both Robbo one week, then Miller the previous as fine examples. Despite what some may think, you cannot simply get rid of every experienced player, you need to keep some out there, otherwise there will rarely be any direction for the younger players to aim for.

Spot on, mate. I couldn't agree with you more. Our spine (a vital part of a winning football team) right now consists of a young and inexperienced backline and an aging forward (Robbo) who is expected to hold together our entire forward half. We're an example of how difficult it is to win matches without a solid spine (FF,FB,CHB,CHF). We can hardly be blamed. Imagine taking out Franklin and Roughead, from Hawthorn's spine and simply replacing them with Robbo. They wouldn't win too many matches, I'm sure. The fact is, we're still developing youngsters all over the ground and lack experience in all areas and until we improve this (as time goes by), we won't be winning many games.

I'd disagree with this statement. Jamar's had two set shots at goal in two weeks and has missed both of them comfortably. Particularly, in the St Kilda game, his goal would have been very handy. He's always been a shocking kick and it's somewhere he's going to need to improve. As for my positives on the first half of the year... Bennell, Morton, Grimes, Davey, Frawley and Sylvia's last four weeks. It's also been good to see Moloney getting more of the ball. Moloney, Jones and McLean are all proving they have much potential, but as some of you correctly pointed out, need to improve their disposal efficiency. If they could just do that in the second half of the season, they'd certainly all move into the positives for me, this season. Getting games into a lot of our youngsters has been a plus also. Oh and Meesen showed some brief, but good signs. Off the field, I'm overjoyed with our football department: Jimmy and all his men and women, working tirelessly, in order to save the club, I love. So the new sponsors, new facilities and other new arrangements and plans are major wins for me. Now to the negatives... The injury to Garland has been a massive blow to our defensive half and I was really looking forward to seeing him play again this year. Aussie's injury setback is in the same boat for me. Lack of leadership on Monday was a big eye opener for me. I thought we'd come on leaps and bounds, in terms of leadership, but we certainly lacked it that day. Crowd attendances as usual, give me the irites, but I suppose the fair weathered ones will jump on when we start to win. PJ has been a disappointment too. Seeing his kick down Sylvia's throat against the Pies made it even harder to take in a way. He has some much potential, he NEEDS to start delivering. I'm sure there are more, but at 1.20 on a Friday night, with work in the morning, that's about it for me.

Good point. You don't have to be in the 'leadership group' to provide leadership.

What you're saying is true, Rogue. We're no different from any other. That said, I don't actually think we'll gain that many more new members (maybe 5,000 more, or 10,000 if we get an NT deal going), once we start to win, however we will certainly draw bigger crowds. I'd expect our current numbers to grow by about 10-15,000 with a winning formula and if we were to win a premiership early on in the peace, like the Hawks did, I believe we could probably go very close to the 50,000 members mark.