Rogue

It really frustrates me to see supporters jump on things like this. He's barely kicked a goal in his career, and put one through on his wrong foot - and we all know how good his preferred foot is. It reminds me a bit of a post I read about seeing some Melbourne players having a good time over the off-season after we lost the 2000 grand final. The gist was that because we'd lost the grand final they had nothing to smile about.

Indeed. I wouldn't be inclined to drop him at the moment. It's not like we have a plethora of crumbing forwards (I recall Brown playing there vs Adelaide(?) last year) and I think things could just as easily turn for him at senior level. As you say, he seems to be working reasonably hard. I think the biggest thing is that he's a small forward who's primarily going to jag some opportunistic goals - that's hard to do when your team is getting smacked and the ball isn't coming down much. It'd also help if he had a few more mates who were worthy of defender attention.

PJ should be given consistent game time this season. Many players don't start feeling comfortable at AFL level for a while, and injuries (and better players) have meant he's struggled to 'own a position' - or even a spot in a 22. As others have said, I don't think he's a ruck. He always seemed more of a forward when young who was simply played in the ruck because he was very tall for his age.

The simply fact is that Daniher has been at the club ten years. Our senior players would have been ~20 when ND came to the club. ND has had ample time to remove players he feels don't have the skills or attitude to be worth keeping.

It's a fair comment IMHO. Brereton said as much when he wrote an article for one of the Victorian papers (the Sun?) about all AFL coaches. The gist of it was that unless something went very wrong ND would be safe, as Melbourne accept mediocrity (referred to Melbourne's failure to win a premiership in 43 years). Surely they've got runs in the bank?

I do agree with the sentiment that you can't expect small forwards to consistently kick bags. If you were a forward playing on Davey you'd constantly try and drag him out of the play and sit in the square, wouldn't you? I don't really see Davey as a backman. I see him as a crumbing forward for now, and I'm not sure he'll ever be strong enough for a permanent midfield role. Surely with Yze playing he's more likely to be able to fill a FF-style role, albeit small (a la Craig Sholl etc). He's done it before.

Big call to rule out a team in what's a 'two-horse race', but it's hard to argue. That's not to say I agree with him, but I understand where he's coming from.

I've barely seen Buckley play, but I imagine it's hoped he's going to inject some pace into our midfield. From a purely selfish perspective I'd like to see him get some games so I can have a ook at him. Btw Rhino Richards - feel free to respond to quotes from more than one person in the same post, instead of posting multiple consecutive posts. I assume it's not frowned upon at all here, but I know on other messageboards there'd be some encouragement to use the edit function to add to your initial post =)

Perhaps a little unlucky he didn't get a game for Sandy then. You sometimes see players who are emergency a couple of weeks in a row miss out when another player has good form in the 2's, but from the sounds of it Ferg didn't play well.

I think that's the same of most clubs though, and really of any industry.

It's a little difficult without the context, but I imagine the point people were making with that comment is that without assistance we're down half a million, not up.

Riiight.

Sylvia's a FF? ;o

Why all the ridicule at Wheatley lined up at CHB? When Holland and Carroll generally take the two talls (FF/CHF), yet all through last year they were generally always listed as BP/FB. Like another poster said, here's our 'depth' that some Demonland visitors have been keen to play up in the past year or so.

Blind optimism

Pretty subjective. I'm sure I've seen others claim that Godfrey doesn't deserve any criticism because he tries, and anyone who criticises him is 'eating our own'. Ditto criticisms of ND. Just because you think that X is beyond guilt doesn't necessarily make it so, and I'm not sure that questioning someone's loyalty to the club because they have a different viewpoint is the way to go. For what it's worth I've been more frustrated by years of overhearing MFC supporters talk about how good Neitz is at shooting for goal, particularly a few years back when it was if anything a liability, and certainly not something to highlight as a talent. MFC lose and people come on here to vent. The captain and coach are generally a big target. Deal with it. Let the mods do their job and don't fall to the level of others by personally attacking them.

I know clubs love to bandy about high membership figures, but WB were giving out 2-3 game memerships to VU students in 2005 or 2006 apparently. Akin to the MFC/MCC associate members, I'm not sure whether clubs are actually getting as much $ as you'd expect from these high membership numbers, but well done to them nonetheless.

Managed a smile for that one.

Lack of midfield pace. That's just going too far

Fair weather? Right. While the reactive and over-emotional posters are annoying, worse still are the eternal optimists who label all criticism of anything to do with the MFC as an act of supporter treason. When we made the grand final in 2000 I had the same opinion of ND as a coach that I do now - not good enough. I'm fine with the the argument that responsibility can't just be laid at the table of the players. However, ND has been at the club for a decade. That means that those guys who are ~30 were just 20 years old when ND started. 10 years is more than enough time to create the list you want. Any of our senior players who have the "consistently" poor attitude you speak of could have been delisted or traded by ND in the ten years he's been at the club. Oh, and lets not get into ND's tactical nous which even TV pundits, who are generally extremely reluctant to criticise coaches in general, make mention of.

You're unlikely to get value for Miller.

Dunn's also injured, the others aren't key forwards imho. PJ's more of a forward than a ruckman at AFL level imho, although I'm not sure how much that's saying. I'd be keen to see Newton front up, but that's just because I don't really watch Sandy and thus aren't really sure what he's like

We've accepted 10 years of mediocrity (or is that 43?) - I'm not sure there'd be a change.

We probably can't win a premiership with our ruck division either, and we need someone to step up at CHF. If you're thinking we're going to win one this year you're probably dreaming. Neitz at FB would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, and I can't see it working that well anyhow. Looking ahead a few years we can hope that Carrol has turned into a bona fide FB, Frawley develops, and Rivers is the general. A more pressing need is the ruck division, as although White is probably past his best he's still miles ahead of Jamar (and PJ if you want to call him a ruck potential).

Agreed.