DeeSpencer

No but it's a probability game and you don't improve your list by having more shots in the barrel at those very late picks. You end up lumped with 2 year deals for a lot of guys who you might not want. There's also the rookie list to fill (not sure if we will have more than 1 spot this year) but whoever you're picking at 80+ you are likely to get in a rookie pick and then have a 1 year deal on less money. Then you've also got half a team full of young kids which worsens results and restricts the amount of training you can do when half your list is on light duties or in rehab. But mainly the other big thing we haven't factored is trades. If we trade out someone like Grimes then all of a sudden keeping Terlich seems a better decision. I guess you can only judge list management as a whole process after all the drafts. Which is the other strange thing about these signings in that they've happened so early in the process.

Possibly could find a better player. But maybe we are already planning to do that with at least one of the spots on the list. Then you'd have to get that player fit to AFL standards and see if their body can hold up to it. Then you have to teach that player the game plan. I don't hold long term confidence in Terlich. I'm not sure he really should ever get a game next year if we can finally bring in some skill to half back. But just looking purely at our list he probably gets a spot above others.

Some of their best players used to be our worst players!!! Sam Dwyer was their best player before getting drafted to Collingwood, how's he going in the AFL? He's pretty much on par with Bail.

Anyone suggesting we didn't keep these 3 needs to tell me how we will replace more than 7 and even up to 9 players (see below) already. So adding these guys would make it 10-12. Clark, Byrnes, Frawley, Strauss, Tapscott, Blease, Nicholson, ?Evans, ?Clisby Already just replacing those 7 means: Picks 2, 3, 20, 38, 56, 74 and PSD 2. Would we find better players than Bail, Riley and Terlich with picks 80+??? Riley is certainly young enough and promising enough that after a preseason he's worth a shot for 1 or even 2 year deals. I hope the other 2 guys have been kept one 1 year deals as depth flankers for either end.

Some times he turns it over. Sometimes he kicks it lace out to Dawes in the goal square or slots a goal from 40 on the run.

1. We weren't that good to begin with. Only beating Adel and Ess by playing a fluke half of footy in each game whilst being outplayed in the other half 2. Carl and Rich were crap at the start of the year 3. We got figured out a bit when teams dropped a man behind the ball we literally can not score - Pies QB'day was the start of this trend 4. Cross' injury really hurt our midfield mix which was really dependant on Tyson, Jones, Viney, Vince and Cross playing well. 5. In searching for replacements to fill the bottom 6 spots each week we stuffed the limited cohesion we had 6. Narrow losses - not getting the positive reinforcement when we played well against the dogs twice, Port twice, Gold Coast etc meant that eventually when we dropped off we lacked belief I'm going to be positive and hope that we can find a couple of decent mature age players to step straight in and that also the addition of Hogan, Trengove and Toumpas gives us something as well so that we start next year up and running. The biggest problem we have now is the doom loop between players taking the game on and the skills to execute it. Roos mandates one on one defensive structures that mean we will never have easy open running footy. So it's always going to require skills to execute and hard work both physically and mentally to run with the ball and without. Right now as we don't capitalize on the hard work it becomes ingrained in the players to do the safe thing and handball and kick backwards and sideways.

Embarrassed by Jamie Bennell as a forward Totally ineffectual as a loose man in the backline Runs around Lycett with a glimpse of his pace and hits a target lace out. A little tease of the so called brilliance sprinkled in with so much crap. I really wish he just played flat out with 110% inensity. Whatever happened from then on I could live with. But I can't live with anymore half baked efforts.

Have you seen our Casey side? Who exactly do you think Salem should be dropped for? He earned his debut after some decent form and a 30 plus possession game. Then played some great cameo's as the sub and that very good game v Port. Then he was rightly dropped. He played another very decent VFL game and by that time Tapscott was injured again. Toumpas ill. Blease, McKenzie, Barry had their shot. He's mainly been the sub and he's mainly had impact when he's come on fresh. Full VFL games might be the best thing for match fitness but it would never really get him the fitness he needs. Against GWS he got crunched in to oblivion by Mumford. 2 seconds later he was up and making a tackle. That alone was worth playing him for I think.

West Coast are tall as well. So who knows, might balance out. Frawley, Dunn, McDonald, Garland all in the same back half can work. No real concern there. All 4 of those guys provide as much run as anyone else we play down back! The forward half with the resting ruck plus 3 of Fitzy, Dawes and Pedo seems too tall. But then again Dawes is probably our best at forward pressure. Fitzy might be 200cm but has played his best footy as a crumbing giant really. And just means Kent, Bail and Salem have to rotate through the midfield. One of Kent or Salem will probably be the sub and Bail can play midfield. The other option is a bit of a brave selection and name Fitzy or Pedo as the sub. Both can play as mobile half forward targets and be as useful/useless as any other sub we usually play. Or if a defender goes down we bring on Pedo to CHB or move him there when Fitzy comes on. Maybe the thinking is if we play a bunch of tall forwards they'll all stick in the forward line and demand the ball be kicked in to them. They'll be less imperative to go backwards or sideways with more hard leading talls providing an option. Only one way to find out if it works.

Malceski, Shaw or Jetta who run the lines free of the packs and then delivery to Lance Franklin who's come leading out at CHF or Kurt Tippett who's got a one on one in the goal square. Howe, Grimes and Matt Jones don't quite replace the first 3! And maybe Dawes and Hogan can replace the forwards to some extent but they need more delivery not less! In our mid patch of the season when we won games we were still handballing backwards but we were hitting up the likes of Frawley and Dawes at CHF. Definitely think the last few weeks at least it's being a vicious cycle of no run creating no options to receive or kick to or no skill to provide incentive to run and it just repeats.

What exactly does supporter backlash at MFC look like? I'd suggest Nath Jones is untradeable. Everyone else is surely on the table. All we know at the moment is Roos' history at Sydney, where they have built a super list on the back off - Not being overly concerned about high draft picks - Trading both for big trades and little fish trades - Trading out players who aren't performing - take former first round draft picks Veszpremi, Johnstone, Lamb (even if he went PSD to GWS) as an example In fact Sydney may well have found the market for trading out guys who aren't performing but have value for guys who can perform or want to perform but don't have value if that makes any sense. They take the guys like McGlynn, Kennedy, Mattner, Shaw, Derickx, Laidler who for whatever reasons can't find games at their original clubs but have the right attitude and trade out guys who have reputation and value based on draft pick status but aren't living up to it. That said it's the culture of recruiting and developing that makes them good not just magical deals.

Was probably lucky to see a second year. Never looked likely. But hey we tried I guess.

Paul Roos is complaining about the players mental focus. If he was complaining about their fitness we would expect changes to the fitness staff. If he's identified a problem, then please tell us paying members and supporters how he plans to fix the problem. Upgrading a couple of sessions a week unnamed sports psychologist to a bigger role may help. At least conversing with us members about what he's doing about the problem with be a start.

http://www.afl.com.au/video/2014-08-17/watts-shows-his-class This video highlights Watts' entire career in the first 15 seconds. Absolutely abysmal attempt to mark. Didn't put himself between Mumford and the ball at all, neither did he have the skill to launch over Mummy for the mark. All that said the ball still got to his hands and he still couldn't mark it. More than likely to his eyes off the ball when Mumford comes across him. Luckily when the ball hits the deck Jamar cleans it up and wins the hard ball. Watts then evades Patton well and kicks a beautiful snap. A play that not everyone in our team can make. And there in lies the problem. Whilst he'll always be good at kicking the nice snap goal he's been on the list for 6 years and hasn't shown any improvement with doing physical things like standing under a high ball with a ruckman bearing down and taking the mark.

Roos continues to talk about the players mentality. And we have over 30 people who work in the footy department and over 30 more who work at the club. Not to mention the 44 players! http://www.melbournefc.com.au/the-club/people/staff-members I know we have a psychologist work with the players. But where's their name? How many hours are they doing if they aren't even on the website. Maybe we need 2? Different people open up to different counsellors and Roos is speaking like some of our players need significant therapy. Saty and any others with links in the club can you please get me an answer as to what the most mentally scarred club in the comp is doing to fix it besides meditation and Roos bringing it up at press conferences?

Was going to watch it. Decided I can't even bother. Laughed at this from AFL.com.au

Salem, Barry, Riley or Matt Jones the sub do you think Saty? Surely you got that out of them! And how is Pedo going with his nose plastered back on to his face? I expect him to tear it up in the VFL. Fitzy, Hogan and Pedo, that's a proper VFL forward line! Shame one of them will have to be in the ruck most of the time.

Top right corner. Search bar. Chuck Barrett's name in and have a look around and see if anything comes up on demonland.

Way back at the end of 2007 when the rebuild started we did have James McDonald, Brad Green, Robbo, Miller, Rivers had somewhat established himself. That's the thing, I still believe that getting a raft of quality draft picks is an important part of rebuilding. If you're a crap team (as we were in 2007 and were always going to be in 08) you may as well go for lots of draft picks and bring a group through. And the plan was working well in 2010 and somewhat ok in 2011. Unfortunately it went haywire. The current plan of mixing draft picks with mature talent, trades etc is nice in theory but you have less chances to add a wave of talent who can build in to something special at the same age. I think it relies more on developing talent in the reserves then adding them to the team piece by piece so that the list and team is improving. If there was a team to go down the draft pick route now it would be a team like Carlton. Goodbye Waite, Walker, Kreuzer, hello 3 top 30 draft picks (maybe) and go from there. Roos said Sydney can't afford to rebuild due to losing relevance in the city. If that's true then Melbourne certainly can't afford to rebuild, we'd be left without any members.

We'll only put up a big win if we play well long enough to really tire the giants out. And considering we might (if we go for Salem, Barry etc not Jones, Bail) go for a young side as well there's every chance that doesn't happen. There's a lot of talk the giants aren't that keen on winning but I wouldn't be surprised if they come out hard after a poor performance. Sure they are setting up for next year with surgeries but what exactly is the benefit for them in getting ahead of us in draft order by throwing a game?? Haven't they got enough picks, I can't seem them so keen for Petracca. Think the game is a legitimate 50/50. The giants get up and play their best footy at the MCG.

Would you pick him over Dunn or McDonald down back considering they've been decent enough most of the year? Would you pick him over Frawley, Dawes or Gawn? Frawley's mistakes have been highlighted but his positives have also been there and Dawes has been in mixed form but still brings defensive pressure as well. Pretty much Pedersen is unlucky but for now he's out of the team. Any injuries to any talls and he'd come in and I'd expect over preseason he'd have every chance to win a best 22 shot forward or back.

Grimes has come in at the expense of Watts or Barry being primarily half back flankers. Maybe they'll rotate there but more likely is to see them play forward and wing. Roos has shown time and again he wants to pick reliable defensive types in the back half. Fair enough that JKH drops back a level. As for the 4 to pick for the bench - well definitely Barry and Riley, I think they both did enough last week. May as well play Salem as well, whilst he doesn't have the longest stretch of VFL form underneath him he has the talent. Then it's take your pick of McKenzie, Bail or Jones. I'd go Bail and have him as the sub.

I've seen very little reprogramming. Roos has simply trying to do what every coach has tried to do with Watts except Roos and has had the same level of success as far as I can tell. Despite categorically stating Watts would play on a wing that was abandoned after about a month as he shifted forward. Then he started failing there so he was shifted back. Right now he's playing back and forward. Roos is breaking his own rules with Watts! Unfortunately I think Roos is another in a long line of coaches who gets fooled by the training track performances and blinded by concerns about the PR battle and destroying poor Jacky's confidence instead of just treating him on the merits of his performance.

Just realised I'd never heard Jetta talk before. Sounds way different to I had imagined. Much deeper voice and more confident. Sounds like a tough back pocket, plays like a tough back pocket

So my take would be: 1. If Frawley goes he goes 2. Wouldn't trade Grimes or Trengove, neither of them would have near as much value as they could be. Selling them now would be selling low 3. Would gladly trade Watts 4. Just don't know about Toumpas. A South Australian clubs first round pick would be great but the Toump is a hard worker, can kick and can run and after a good preseason he might not be a star but could come on as a reliable wingman or flanker.