Dr. Gonzo

Dude what the [censored] is with that avatar? I've been trying to wipe that nightmare from my brain for almost 3 years.

I agree 100% which is why I hope they do it as a "line in the sand" and say "from this day forward, this is the standard. Nothing less is tolerated." I live in hope that one day I'll see this of a Melbourne side.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here but this is the basis of of the argument not to award us a pick last year (and I assume this year) - there was also the tanking stuff last year which was also ridiculous. I just can't understand the logic in this argument - "you had a chance to rebuild, it didn't work and you are now arguably poorer than you were then - bad luck!" It just doesn't make any logical sense. "Melbourne is only in this position because of their own mismanagement and incompetence" well duh if we were managed competently we wouldn't be in the position to need further PP's.

I DO want to see a "line in the sand" match as well but to me line in the sand doesn't mean all in brawls and king hits behind play. Go hard for the ball, make the opposition know you are there and they will get crunched everytime they want to take the footy. Run through players legally at every opportunity and make your tackles stick and hurt by driving them into the ground. Use your bodies, back up your teammates and never take a backwards step - if it comes to a scuffle or blows because the other team gets upset then get in there and let them know about it but otherwise just play hard tough footy. That's what I want to see.

Remember the last time we tried this? It was against Geelong I think it may have been the 2005 Elimination Final....

There will be two ovals there under the proposed development.

I don't disagree with this but where do we "recruit" them from wyl? What currency do we have to trade them in? This is a cut & paste of a post I wrote on BF yesterday but it covers the same issues as here; Our other avenue is to try to find hidden gems like a Barlow or Podsiadly through the state leagues but we've tried this already and the guys we picked while serviceable aren't going to turn the club around (M. Jones, Terlich, Clisby, Georgiou).

Don't worry OD they've already plotted out how this story runs 1) Melbourne are poor, need PP 2) AFL grant MFC PP 3) Herald-Sun - "Melbourne played Frawley & Dunn forward and Howe & Pedersen in defense against GWS, clearly they were tanking"

True but talking about the current cycle here i.e. since 2007.

To be fair though they can't really come out and say, "Yeah Melbourne will end up with the top 3 picks if they go crap and Frawley leaves" because then we'll have a microscope on us again all year for tanking. I'm not saying they will give us one anyway but these comments this early in the season are just hypotheticals really. It does also say that Melbourne will argue strongly for a before round 1 pick if things continue.

Exactly if we can use that pick/s to get a trade done for someone like Dangerfield, Sloane, Fyfe etc or even trade down for some of the GWS/GC yound mids like Shiel/Treloar/O'Rourke whoever like we did last year with Tyson. People might laugh at Dangerfield etc wanting to come to us but we will have a TONNE of money in the cap this year with Clark gone and IF Frawley leaves. If we can convince the player with the $$$'s which is the hard part we will have the currency to trade with the clubs instead of them just closing the door on us.

Yeah I hope so.

It sucks but unless things change this is where we are at. I still think we can improve in the second half of the season but whether that will amount to many W's is to be seen. At this stage we're tracking for a less than 4 win season, following 2 wins last year and 4 the year before (both figures artificially inflated by the expansion clubs).

Of course we'd all "rather" when some games and finish higher but unless we do it's academic. My argument for a PP is premised on IF we go as poorly as everyone believes we will. And to those who say we don't need it - pfft, which team have you been watching the last couple of years. Yeah we need to change the culture within but we also need to get in as many talented players as possible to try and turnover the list. I don't understand the thinking that because we've stuffed up some picks in the past that we don't need them in the future. For the record for all the bleating from everyone else about how we've been given numerous picks, we've had TWO priority picks in recent years - 2008 pick 17 (Blease) and 2009 pick 1 (Scully). That's it, not quite the treasure chest everyone's made out. We've clearly deteriorated since then and have now lost our most talented player and possibly will lose our best defender at the end of the year. Our results over the last couple of years bear witness to the fact that we need a priority pick to assist us get out of the horrid position we are in.

If things keep up I don't see how they wouldn't grant us one. Especially having lost Clark and considering our performances over recent seasons the AFL would have to grant us one under exceptional circumstances. Of course I'd prefer we didn't need it and can improve in the back end of the season but if we continue to play poorly and win less than 4 games, well the record will speak for itself.

Hey rpfc, love using this thread as a resource and good work getting the info together. Any chance you can update the OP to reflect our current list and the players who left last year I'd like to put in a request (again) to have this thread pinned at the top of the board.

I understand the concept of list management and not paying players more than their worth to the team. If we want to be successful we to start setting some standards. I want Frawley to stay but if he thinks we'll pay $800k (using this figure as the one that's been bandied about as his asking price to leave) he's delusional. He had a great season 4 years ago, the last couple of seasons he's been just OK to poor in some games. Granted it would be difficult to play in our backline but that doesn't alter the facts. $800k/year is for A-grade mids and top KPF's, not for KPD's who haven't performed the last couple of years.

I don't generally like having a go at posters but this guy "Machsy" just abuses people non stop just to be contrarion. The guy has racked up 2350 posts since last June and was the same under his other alises (e25, Jose Mourinho, Artie Bucco etc etc) racking up thousands of posts in a short amount of time then creating new user names. He's an internet troll who has no life other than getting into faux arguments on the net, better off just leaving him be/putting him on ignore and actually discussing footy/the MFC with other people who genuinely want to have a discussion rather than persoanlly attack people for differences of opinion in repetitive posts on every single thread.

You don't understand the concept "average" do you?

I want to add that I hope and assume he will always be welcome back at the club in his own time. He is a Melbourne player and is part of our family and that doesn't stop when a contract runs out or a career ends.

Yeah but if we can get on top early they will [censored] themselves.

Upsets happen. No one thought we'd beat Essendon in 2012. In round 2, 2010 we were paying $15 to beat the Pies and lost by a point.

Not unexpected but wow that sucks. How many kicks in the nads can this club take? So long Mitch and all the best, your time at MFC was brief but you gave your all for the jumper and club when you were here and your talent will be sorely missed.

Yeah this aggression has been missing from our club/team for too long. Nothing stupid, don't go swinging roundhouses but just show you won't be pushed around. Is one of the major sources of frustration, we don't seem to have any guys who will run through someone or make them hurt, too many nice boys. I was trying to imagine Trengove or Grimes doing this and just can't see it happening.

I agree, it was a poor game but at the moment I am looking to see two main things from the team, effort & structure. The things I want to see us focus on this week is pressure, 1%ers and tackling. I don't care if we smash the record for ball-ups/stoppages and see the most boring game ever played. If we can focus on applying pressure to the Blues and winning the contested possession count we will go a long way to getting the 4 points this week. Edit: I should also add that in both the Saints and GWS games it has been 10-15 minute lapses which have cost us. We really aren't that far away from being 2-1 other than Riewoldt's 15 minute burst in the 3rd quarter/our shocking kicking for goal and the last 15 minutes against GWS. This isn't to excuse what we have dished up and we are still firmly a bottom 4 side but I can see improvement on last year and a big part of that is getting the players to believe in their ability to close out a game. I've said elsewhere that I think it may take another couple of months for things to click but when they do we will see a pretty sharp improvement, not necessarily in regards to wins/losses but in terms of being competitive and running out games.