Adam The God

Welcome to my world. Right there with you. The reason I believe it is important is because Scully and Butcher represent both the two different types of player we still need (I probably should have put that on my wish list eh?): a pacy midfielder, who has good decision making skills and adds a bit of that extra class we need, along with the gritty in and under players we have already. The other, another key forward to build a forward line around with Watts. I don't see Newton being able to fill the other key forward role and I believe you need two key forwards (as Hawthorn has proved) to win a premiership. Butcher, therefore fits neatly into that 'need' perfectly, as Scully fits into the classy midfielder role. Afterall, another two top drafts picks wouldn't particularly hurt us would they? Greedy? Maybe. I think after 45 years we're allowed to be a little greedy.

38 something

I just wonder if that's playing on his mind? He handles himself very well, so I doubt it has anyting to do with it, but it could be playing in his mind: I won't be playing until Round 11, so anything I do, I'll probably be playing for Casey next week. It would be a difficult position to be in. Maybe, I'm not giving him enough respect for his professional outlook?

I don't agree it cost us the game. In fact, I think it's an area we've improved on, as we've also dramatically improved our offensive and defensive zones. That said, we still need to strengthen this area of our defense. Wheatley helps this, when he's in the side, because he can kick it so beautifully long and 50% it works, whereas previously without him it's more like 25%. But this year, we're at about 75-80% effective kick outs. It's certainly cost us games in the past year, but I think we cost ourselves with simply misses (Miller's set shot from 40 out, directly in front was horrible) and clangers in the corridor. Having said that, our kicking was extremely accurate again, which was good to see. Now that we're beginning to use the corridor more, if and when we turn it over, it's made all the worse by the fact that we've used the corridor. I know it's an understatement, but effectively, if you turn it over in the corridor, you give the opposition the corridor, but without any real defensive pressure. That kills us a lot and it did so on the weekend.

Yeah, well said. We simply have too many fair weather supporters. Mind you there are tones of people that say they 'support' Melbourne, yet never come to games.

I don't think 2012 is too early to expect big things. Hawthorn proved anything is possible.

What do I desire? A Melbourne premiership. Short term goals though... * Honourable loses and four wins, therefore snaring the draft picks. * Slowly continued improvement (particularly from those that haven't really shown enough- Bates, Sylvias and obviously the other younger guys). * Continued financial gains and increased professionalism of the club from an off ground perspective. Long term goals... * By 2010, start challenging for the top 8. * Come 2011, we should be looking to secure a top 8 spot and begin to think about the top 4. * 2012 is the first year in our window (which could be as much as 5 years) and as a result we should be challenging for the big one.

I'm so disappointed I missed this! I was coaching and the game finished about 30 minutes later than it should have, so I rushed there and did well to only miss the first two minutes, but unfortunately I missed this. I didn't even know it'd happened. Very glad they did it though. Pity there wasn't a crowd in excess of 40,000 to participate in it.

Fantastic article! RIP Don and GO NEW GENERATION DEES!

Haha, yeah. I'd add Morton to that as well. Particularly, the Bulldogs game. Every time Morton touched it, I took a sigh of relief. Great decision makers: Flower, Davey and Morton. I think Bails deserves a touch of the credit for Davey's resurrection too. It's obviously his move to play him off half back consistently and it's been a masterstroke.

Yeah. It doesn't happen week after week by coincidence.

I agree. Have you heard what he's been doing with the media? Apparently, he gives away a prize at his weekly press conferences- usually something provided by our sponsors. Is that usual? It's almost as if he's trying to get them on his side and then in another way, it seems entirely professional.

That it is. We signed him up again last year. At the time it made slight sense (even though it bewildered me slightly), as we didn't have a prospective key forward and now we do. But he'll get delisted at the end of next year. By that stage there'll be no place for him in the squad. There probably isn't now either. I'm thinking someone like Butcher will come in and steal that other key forward position from him (rightfully so, he's had his chance).

Yeah, there are photos of Franklin in what looks like a Demon jumper. It is a Demon jumper, but it's the jumper of West Perth (Dennis Commetti's old team and hence his support for Melbourne), so it's more than likely Buddy (being a younger bloke) went for one of the Western Australia teams. As for Judd, he went to my school, so I know he certainly barracked for Melbourne (but in the end went to Carltank for money).

1. Watts 2. Morton 3. Davey 4. Garland 5. Rivers 6. Warnock 7. Frawley 8. McLean 9. Wonaeamirri 10. Martin 11. Bennell 12. Jones 13. Blease 14. Green 15. Grimes 16. Moloney 17. Pettard 18. Strauss 19. Maric

Yes, that's what I take from that. It is indeed. Though, Mike is a Melbourne supporter, so maybe that's it?

True :D Both kicks resulted in Melbourne marks. One to Sylvia (I think) and one for PJ (who had another good game btw).

Cheney had another solid game. His attack on the ball a number of times set up thrusts forward. He's worth another next week. Another thing I realised is he's quite tall. I remembered him being around Peter Walsh's height, but maybe I was just blinded by the comparisons the first few times I watched him. When he stood next to Johnson, he was comfortably taller than him.

How were his two 70 metre kick outs too. I thought he was very exciting today too.

Was that not the most exciting game of football you've seen from a young Melbourne midfielder in at least the last 10 years? His composure under pressure today was just sublime. Furthermore, I thought it was a brilliant move by Bails today. Everyone knows that the most difficult and priceless thing in football these days, is hitting targets inside forward 50. So, instead of Davey (arguably our most skill player) playing across half back and buillding thrusts, he puts Morton, an equally superb user and decision maker across half back to play a similar role, which then in turn allowed Flash to play up the ground, across half forward. This meant that we had someone with absolute quality delivering passes inside our forward fifty and as you saw today, Aaron's ability to hit targets inside forward 50 is second to none. Great coaching by Bails and fantastic games from both Aaron and Cale. They weren't alone today, by any means, I thought the majority of the team were fantastic, but I think Morton announced himself to the competition today, as the next big thing. It wasn't just that he backed up his 34 touches from last week, with 37, but every time he touched the ball it seemed to turn to gold. He simply had stacks of effective disposals. I know I was willing them to give it to him every time. He's a pleasure to watch and I dare say the first top class midfielder we've possessed in my life time (not counting Flower, who played when I was only a few years old).

He was soft today wasn't he?

That happens on busy messageboards. None of us know each other, there are bound to be clashes of opinion. I could do without the snipering though. You're spot on though, we're all supporting the same team, let's have a bit of harmony.

Well said. Your screen name suits you.

Mouth watering prospects. I keep forgetting about Blease. There's a lot of early draft picks in that team.

I thought we had re-signed him? I thought that was discussed in another thread?