Adam The God

yer ok. But if you judge people on there first few games then what about warnock, garland and frawley.

They didnt have the best of starts all three now are apart of our promising future.

True, which is why I'm prepared to wait and see. But if he doesn't show anything this season, he doesn't have the promise, IMO that those three had.

Further to my rather useless argument, if, as you say, players without pace get caught, then what will McLean have to offer us, as you then go on to say he will?

So he does some ball winning, then he gets caught, right?

So leader, or not? Because if he can't do a "Diesel Williams", then he won't be around much longer.

Because, the ability to run and carry, with speed, in modern day football is priceless. The beauty about Brock is he has the ability to win the ball. Much like a Sam Mitchell (as I said in another thread). Mitchell is not quick, but he has pacey players around him to give it too. He also has superior decision making ability to Brock, but that can be learned. Brock has too much ball winning potential to be given the flick. He's also visually a leader. I don't think any of us really dispute this.

I'm surprised that Nate Jones hasn't been talked about.....the guy oozes leadership and at only 20 or so there will be plenty more to come.

The guy led the midfield last year and for those who said he has no skills well i believe he was the one who put the footy on millers chest 3 times in 5 minutes against WC. He leads by example and is always at the bottom of the pack.

He apparently was the one that was addressing the players in the huddle at 3/4 time too......if they opt for a young guy i hope he gets the nod.

Jonesy is a ball magnet. I've always thought he possessed massive potential. This year already he has shown great improvement. Last year, he would have had to be our most tackled player. The amount of times he was run down was ridiculous. Although not always his fault (they'd give it to him, running past, when he was already wearing an opposition player on his back), he did seem to lack a lot of awareness. But seemingly, the coaching staff and probably even Jonesy himself have looked at this and his decision making this year has generally been pretty good.

I believe Jones could be one of the premier midfielders in the comp. He just needs to keep developing both his decision making and disposal (which occasionally still lets him down).

I thought I would touch base in relation to what has become a somewhat confusing communication in relation to our club’s facilities, an issue which has challenged many generations of MFC administrators.

I am a regular reader of Demonland and Demonology and enjoy the discussions. I have encouraged our staff to read the sites as we can learn a lot from what our supporters are saying about our club.

Hope this clears up a few things, and I look forward to seeing you all at the footy tomorrow.

Schwabby.

What better man to discuss these plans? It's great to have you back on board, Cameron. I'm not just excited about the future of our playing group, but also the future of our club, off the field and you're such an important and valued part of that.

It's a funny place to be in really.......

I mean during the week its very much about what we need to re-establish ourselves and improve our future, which would arguably mean finishing at the bottom of the ladder, and winning a maximum of four games (although it's probably a little presumptuous to assume even that), but come game time its yelling and screaming and barracking, wanting just to see the boys pull out a victory.

And then after the match is done and the loss (most likely) is recorded its back to our current reality, our potential future and it's four games only, remember four games only.

And then we do it all over again, and again, and again.......and again !!!

Yeah, this year is already tiring me out. The last few weeks have been tiring enough, now being on this forum it makes things even harder.

Richmond is really our only concern. In saying that I still think we will win no mre than 4 game.

Is Butcher a Fevlola type forward? Can someone give me a comparision so I know what sort of player he is.

From what I've heard and pictures that I've seen of him, he reminds me of Watts, but a bit more of a stay at home forward, whereas Watts could almost play in the midfield in time.

Stay right there..the men in white coats will be along shortly.

What on earth would you hope to achieve by forfeiting the 2nd pick ??

Yeah, makes no sense to me, I gotta say.

Me too. I'm going tomorrow, and I wanna see us win. If we lose, well, I won't exactly cry, but my first want is for us to win.

You know, I'm quite similar really. I almost get white line fever, in that I completely forget about the draft picks, until the final moments of the match and we're down. Afterall, I've supported Melbourne all my life, you can't just switch off like that. I go thinking, give it a good shake. We're not expected to get particularly close in any of our next 3 matches, so over the next few rounds, I want us to just keep steadily improving. Improvement is what I'm looking for from every player and if I get that, irrespective of the result, I'm happy.

Our midfield as it look for tomorrow is certainly not quick and a little one dimensional with Valenti coupled with Jones, McLean and Moloney.......

Agreed. They're all ball winners, without leg speed. We need quicker players around them. As you say, one dimensional.

Who's gonna play on Cooney? Is someone like Dunn going to come in off the wing?

if we get butcher and scully in the draft our forward line next year should read something like watts , butcher , robbo ( last year), maric , aussie and jurrah?

But like Robbo, I'd keep Millsy. Butcher (if we even get him) and Watts still need time to develop. That said, you're probably right, there wouldn't really be a palce for him. Unless, you played three talls and left Robbo out.

This is just not right. I would contest your line of thinking. The "go-home" factor does not necessarily relate to all players ...

Just Scott Thompson. *shakes fist*

What are people judging valenti on?

His barely got an afl chance and you cant say its cus of his form in the vfl cus his dominated week in week out at that level.

I was judging him on his games last season. I dunno about everyone else, but I just found his lack of pace hurt us in the middle and he seemed to get caught out by his slow decision making. Still, we'll have to see how he fronts up to a generally quick side, in the Doggies.

Adam - perhaps it wasn't made clear in the original post, but this project is nothing to do with the current docklands 'Etihad' stadium. It would be a seperate site - with a ground that will not host AFL nor A-League games, ever.

Ah! Rightio. Is this the one that we'd potentially share with Victory and Storm? Or was that another plan? I'm horribly informed on this topic. The reason I even bothered posting was that I was thinking the thread meant the Dome itself.

We've just announced that we're back in the MCC fold.

Why would we upset our friends at the MCC and go to where our heritage isn't?

That's what I should have said! :D

However, I have a feeling the dees might start to come good in the second half of the season, we're getting better every week, and it's starting to scare me.

Haha, me too. I haven't been able to sleep that well lately, just thinking about our potential draft picks lol. Yes horribly sad. :D

It does sound intriguing

We have never planned to move to Casey full time in the long term - it was just until the Bubbledome facilities at Olympic Park are built

This would be an alternative to that project.

If both projects were equivalent in terms of facilities provided and cost to the club, i'd choose Bubbledome due to its proximity to the G

Are we not attempting to sign a $5 million/thirty year deal with the Casey government?

you've missed the point, we wont play games at this new dockland development rather using it as a training base for us. Just because we have re-alligned with the MCC doesn't mean we have a training base at the MCG.

No, I realise that. But, if we hope to develop a following in the suburbs of Casey council, we have to train there, otherwise what's the point.

As for the MCC, the Docklands would be just an unavailable as the G. In the summer Melbourne Victory use that as their base and games. If being a branch of the MCC doesn't allow us training acess to the G (granted it holds more sporting events than the Dome), we wouldn't get acess to the Dome either. Wow, I'm going around in circles. Perhaps, the MCC bit is irrelevant lol.

Am I the only one who thinks that the Gold Coast experiment should just f' off and die already?

Oh, you're not the only one. Fremantle and Port Adelaide brought about the demise of Fitzroy. If the AFL had put more money into saving them instead of setting up these new clubs, the Roys might even still be around.

I just hope we don't loose another club to bring in a club like GC, which is likely to attract about 10,000 (if they're lucky) a game and potentially fold in a decades time.

Furthermore, I doubt that Western Sydney will go ahead. There's simply not enough interest in those parts. The Swannies can't even get enough along to games, let alone a new club based in the NRL heartland. The AFL would be down right stupid to go ahead with those plans and if they do, it'll backfire.

Just get me to draft day 2009, it's all good from there!

Ditto! :D That said, the next few months will be exciting nonetheless.

Because barracking for Melbourne is about hope. I think it's safe to say that every Melbourne supporter hopes to see Jurrah starring for the club. So we put it out there, we talk him up and we cross our fingers and hope like bloody hell he makes it.

Personally a forward line boasting Watts, Jurrah, Butcher, Martin, Maric and Wonaemirri gives me goosebumps, but hey, that's just me!

Just on this, Martin's defensive capabilities are his strongest attributes, personally I'd keep him down back. He's quick, tall and one hell of a spoiler. He, Garland and Warnock are all developing into much the same player. This is a credit to the recruiting and to Sean Wellman. We've recognised that tall, pacy forwards are the go in modern day football (the Franklin's and Pavlich's) and therefore styled a backline that can account for this shift in the game. We're also developing key defender depth down there. Clearly one of the stronger areas of our squad to date.

The beauty of our boys is that they could play on just about any size too. The slow Anthony Rocca type forward, who sits in the goal sqaure is becoming a thing of the past. It's only height and pace these days.

I'd add Jetta in there as well. The future looks very bright. As long we we sign our uncontracted guys up mid way through next season, then in theory, GC shouldn't be able to touch them.

This wouldn't and won't happen. We've just realligned ourselves with the MCC, as one of their clubs. We're not going to then move over to Docklands. Especially, for the fact that the whole point of Casey was to provide the club with more supporters and members over the next 30 years.

On the injuries thing, how do we account for that? Is it purely bad luck? Or are our fitness staff to blame? Or is our coaching staff to blame somehow? Or is it just the fact that the game is getting faster and therefore all teams are prone to these injuries?

In a way yes. We support and support and still we get bent over and reamed. I DO and WILL continue to support the club when we play AWAY games at docklands, but NOT when it gets changed to be OUR home game. It's not my problem if opposing teams want more money from taking away OUR home game. The only way i will go is if the seating is going to be EX ACTUALLY the same as if it were at the G.

Either support the club or don't. It's about going and watching your team. It's two seconds away from the G and if you've got a membership you'll get in. Jeesh, no wonder other supporters call Melbourne supporters fair weathered supporters.

So are the MFC going to compensate the members for loss of a game this was one game i could go to with my membership now I am unable to go

If you've bought an MFC membership, then you'll be able to get in. It's still our home game.

Furthermore, on the compensation thing, buying a membership is about supporting the club. Why on earth would you want to take money back off them? I'm an MCC member, so most of the time I don't even need an MFC one, but I still bought the $180 membership, because I wanted to support the club financially. I'm only a Uni student, so I could be spending my money on something else, but as I love the club, the money doesn't even factor into my thinking. It's simply a matter of support.

Dees Dayz:I could not agree with you more about the sort of player McLean must become. I have been discussing with my friends that McLean must mould his game into one similar to which Diesel Williams played. Afterall a very slow player who won 2 or was it 3 Brownlows.

The thing about Williams was that he played in the 80s and 90s. The game's changed. It's so much quicker than it used to be, so although I like Brock, this argument is rather useless. Players without pace these days get caught out. Especially midfielders. That said, I still believe he has lots to offer us, in the ball winning and leadership stakes.