Viney Vidi Vici

I honestly can't see the benefit in a bunch of these pick swaps with Sydney, Bulldogs, Fremantle etc. Are they just bored and doing it for kicks? and Talia and 4th round for an earlier fourth round to Sydney?! Huge steal to Sydney there. Watch them make him into a defensive rock.

Agreed. It carries an air of confidence to me. I like it. I don't know a lot about the draft players but A) they've got their eye on someone in particular, or b) they've got a real quiet big trade on the side ready to go. Probably A.

This made me actually yell out in surprise. Who is he?

Very impressed with this interview. Loved the honesty, and the respect he has for some Melbourne figures is very interesting, and encouraging.

lightbulb moment. I couldn't care less, never seen him play, but love your left-wing thought.

what fascinated me was that George Stone was at the meeting with Dom. was it because he is midfield coach? or a convincing personality? senior stability? Wasn't that long after his own appointment. How much of a plan could he have for the midfield to present to Dom.

wait up a sec, we did already manage to upgrade our assistants with Stone, Allison and Matthews. Not quite the end of the world. To be honest, I believe coaching is one of the things that the supporters can't make a really good judgement on, especially assistant coaches. Who knows what input Dew, Sumich, Richardson etc have on their team. It could be massive, or they could have their butts covered by the head coach. Who knows. all we can base it off is public hearsay. I'd say, take some deep breathes and trust the most sought-after coach in the league to pick a man he thinks has the right character and skill set for the job all when he's good and ready. He knows what he's doing.

My question is who the backup if we can't get Dew. looking at how Dew came out of nowhere (from the outside perspective) into considerations says to me that no one has one flying clue who else is under consideration.

I'd love him at the club. Would rate him in the same kind of list-building mould as Byrnes, Roday et al, but better.

I think my heart stopped for a moment when I read about this Vince thing. Then I remembered we can trade with more than just pick 2 we've been spruiking all week. Can't name that many midfielders at Melbourne I'd rate more than him. Thats not saying that I think he's incredible.... more a representation of what I think of our midfield.

well thats unfortunate

does this spell the end of demonland from lack of material to write about?

Nope, don't know that for a fact, just listening to what the players and coaches have to say, and looking at the development of the players. I agree with the rest of your post, sorry if it sounds like I didn't, but I do think you contradict yourself a little when you talk about how the GWS dad's army didn't help.

way prefer Gys over Prismall. Prismall never met the hype over him when he crossed from Geelong. Really not keen.

Are you serious? They set a culture there of hardwork. Cornes and Junior are two of the hardest trainers around and from everything you hear, Brogan is a really good working with the young rucks too. Those players backed up everything Sheedy said and did really well. Absolute country miles ahead of the help Ablett/rischitelli/brennan/bock/etc gave GC. We really need senior players who are going to work hard to set a trend. We've been moaning about it for a couple of years. I remember someone talking about how they were chatting to Andrew Mackie at the end of last year, and he'd said that Melbourne has a great list which hasnt developed as well as they could because they don't have the senior players to show them how. Totally agree. I don't see us taking a couple of senior players as stopping the development of the team. I see them as taking the place of some of our players who haven't reached their potential, and really, we're just hoping that they'll turn into something amazing aka Bate, Petterd, Bennell, Jetta, Macdonald etc

What I really want to know is, why does the video in the article have an American narrator?

I assume you mean Tom Mcdonald and not Joel M'a'cdonald? Taggert in the forward pocket of our best 22 is definitely 'a roughie'. Also, no Sylvia but Morton, Dunn and two first years get a gig ahead of him?

Is that what we gave for him? I can't even remember. seems irrelevent now.

I'm with you.... I only just realised today what they've managed. They're gonna be strong....

I'm not sure 196cm watts is going to play as a small defender. I'm really hoping for Tynan to develop into that role, and I think Neeld might think the same after he gave him a taste of the action early this year.

I'm reckon Watts will play another season down back (or even permanently if Hogan comes along, especially if we have dawes/gumbleton), and Howe has been talked as pushing into midfield more. Fitz hasn't done anything extraordinary yet, but I'm sure he'll get his chance.

Big fan of Neeld saying both Dawes and Gumbleton is not out of the picture. I'm pretty sick of Melbourne carrying in a 180cm forward line, and finally a coach is out there doing something about it.

I've been confused for a while now to why so many are calling for Davis to be delisted. The only reason he hasn't played is because we have Mcdonald, Frawley, Garland, Rivers, Watts and Sellar in the team and he doesn't push any of those out YET. Its not that he can't play, he's just developing along there. He was emergency for a few games and if he got a gig like Mcdonald did than who knows what would have happened. Definitely not a spud. but one delisting I'm hoping for is Jetta. Dunno if he is contracted but not a big fan.

I've noticed the player reviews have been unbelievably optimstic and rose-tinted, until Cooks. It definitely wasn't the brightest and most hopeful out of the lot. I'm still hoping whatever made Prendergast think '12' appears soon. Or Carlton wants to trade another first round pick to us, I wouldn't say no either

Remember this kid is only 17! He's a year behind the kids we're usually looking at, at this time of year. what other 17 year old is 197cmish and 100kg? Thats unreal! he's that big, and still incredibly fast, with a lot more development in him to go. I'm not complaining.