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17 rounds the way to go.

I thinks yes.

I wonder whether everyone associated with the AFL, including a lot of people on this site, would want to have the game as an industry shrink by 25% because that is what such a decision would represent. The major factors in making the game so popular with television stations are : its entrtainment value and therefore consistently high ratings; the length of the game itself ( more revenue per game); consistent scoring and therefore plenty of opportunities for natural Ad breaks; and yes length of seasons. Reduce the season by 25% and theefore reduce income likewise.

All these features give us a natural advantage over NRL and Soccer. Do we really want to surrender these advantages through some ideological decision making? I think not.

GAWN is midway through recovery from a knee reco. He will be back in good time.

Jurrah is 10 weeks away after a shoulder injury.

Tapscott had a hip injury and allegedly 6 weeks from training.

Why would we delist Tapscott and GAWN after one year?

Meesen on the rookie list and injured is finished. The foot injury only confirms his prospects when he went to the rookie list.

Wasn't suggesting we SHOULD delist them. Far from it, if fit, I think Gawn and Tappsott have some of the highest potential in the club. All i was doing was querying how serious their injuries were and whether we may HAVE to delist them.

Personally, I think the Gawn recruitment is one of our more far sighted ones, and one that could potentially be a huge contribution to winning a premiership.

Spot on. If the mids can slow the delivery down we have a chance if not we will get blown out of the water. Next week will give us a very real idea of where we are and how the plan is working.

Sure the mid field has to slow the delivery down, but it also must attack. One of the heartening aspects of our play over the last three weeks is the attack coming from relentless running, speed of the ball movement and taking risks. If we think purely defensively against Brisbane we will get killed.

We must thinmk positively and build on our strenghts as well as negate theirs. We beat them when they were last on the "g" against us by uncompromising running and all out attack in spite of J Brown being in sublime form. We can do it again.

Firstly, the game plan has not changed. The players are now more adept at doing what Bailey has been seeking them to do for the past 2 and a bit years. We have recruited skilled players that can use the ball competently by hand and foot even under pressure.

Secondly, I am not sure why we need another tall backman when we have Warnock, Garland, Frawley. I just cant see a settled back six to handle match ups week in week out with another tall.

Thirdly, our recruting of Watts, Jurrah, GAWN and Spenser reflects the Clubs understanding of the need to cover those positions but they recognise they take time to come on.

Finally, we have been lucky not to have been exposed by oppositions when playing Newton and Dunn in the ruck. Dunn has yet to convince me that he is a long term AFL player and he certainly is not a ruckman. And Darcy got one wrong if thinks Miller will take the centre bounces. He like Newton offers little up forward so its not worth sacrificing a running player for a questionable pinch hitter in the ruck.

The biggest improver in this side this year without a doubt is Mark Jamar who has profoundly impactly the last 3 games single handedly. I trust him good health and fitness. By god we need him.

And another tall back in Rivers.For me, i'd put Garland up forward to provide a target, and put Rivers down back

A hard fought loss against Brisbane like the Collingwood game would not be the end of the world

A Pathetic loss against Brisbane like the Hawthorn game and we are back to Square one

If Melbourne was ever going to really produce a upset the oppurtunity at least on paper is there.

Confidence is strong

Belief in themsleves is strong

Morale is High

The lions have to travel, we dont!

They just have to play hard all 4 quarters and I do mean all, if they can do that the posibility for a Upset is there

But if we only play 3/4 than the LIons will most definetly come out on top

Lets hope Bailey can help Get them over the line.

And for all of us as supporters, wouldnt that be a GREAT RESULT

A win, "no matter how much by", to just have that chance, is enough in itself to encourage supporters to attend

Its a game worth going to, and if we can get as many supportes there as possible hopefully that will give the boys that bit of extra support to help get them across the line or close to it.

Remember, one of Bailey's few wins in the last couple of years was against Brisbane on the MCG with Jonathan Brown in full flight. If I remember rightly, Wonna was on fire that day.

Go Dees

I'll say Watts. He needs some support. No love for him here.

He is all out of support among the Melbourne faithful. I'm the only one in his corner.

no you aren't. In spite of my posting the "watts" post, I am very optimistic that JW will be another Royce Hart ie a GF match-winner. Watts, Scully, Trengove, Morton , Grimes, jurrah, pettard, sylvia, Jamar, and hopefully gawn will keep us at or near the top of the AFL for a decade starting in two years time. It doesn't really matter who is the best - they will all be in the elite.

MELBOURNE

Daniel Bell (shoulder) test

Max Gawn (knee) indefinite

Liam Jurrah (shoulder) 10 weeks

John Meesen (ankle) indefinite 

Cale Morton (knee) 2 weeks 

Jared Rivers (knee) test

Luke Tapscott (hip) indefinite 

Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring) test 

  

does this mean Tappscott, Gawn, Meesen, and effectively Jurrah are out for the season? Does anyone know whether any of the first 3s injuries are likely to be career ending which will lead to delisting? It sounds as though these injuries are pretty serious.

Watching the Dees over the last several weeks, we are seriously small down forward and lack a key target. It is all very well against lesser opposition such as the Crows and Tigers, but it will be a real defficiency against class opposition. At the moment we have a class backman in Rivers playing in the 2's, and a class tall player in Garland playing down back. Garland has in the past provided a tall forward option very successfully. While Watts prepares himself, why don't we swap them. I believe it would greatly strengthen the team overall.

Thoughts?

Only Jurrah,Watts and Morton would be best 22.

I struggle to see JoelMac being unseated for Rivers. Particularly on recent form.

Wonna has not played for 18 months and needs to establish himself. Bennell has more runs on the Board can play up the ground.

I am not sure why Bartram is out as it leaves us with no one to cover the small forward. Bartram has been good in the past two weeks as well. And he is leading the grabs for that role.

Backs Bartram Warnock Garland

HB MacDonald,FrawleyGrimes

Mids McKenzie,Trengove,Morton

HF Sylvia Watts Petterd

F Davey Jurrah Green

Rucks Jamar McDonald, Scully

Int Bruce Bate Moloney, Bennell

Emerg Bail Rivers Spencer

Not a half bad team. Indeed a top 4 team IMO

Agree with that... will cause some tough decisions to be made at selection table. But if he does get back to previous form and fitness then he will be pushing the likes of Bennell out of the side.

Wonna when fit will be a huge asset. We need a skilled hard at it crumbing forward, and

Wonna in full flight is one of the best in the AFL. He has to though convince the club he will not break down all the time, otherwise he will be traded

My God.

Brad Green bleeds for this club. God there are some silly posts on here sometimes. It is about time loyalty is honored and respected.

I guess it comes down to how many new players we want to take on at the end of the year.

We will need to make room on the main list for Spencer and Mckenzie. I would expect us to use our first 3 rounds picks on new players. Thats 5 players that will have to go at years end.

So who will they be?

mate gawns got a knee reco thats why he hasnt played and thats why he went at pick 34. dont worry gawn will be good for this club

I agree. The closest thing to Paul Salmon, well....since Paul Salmon.

The russian and PS, what an amazing combination, particularly with Scully and Trengove at their feet.

Please don't take this as any form of "Watts bashing" or asking too much too soon, or anything of that nature. But it's a little disappointing to hear the reality of what has been talked up as a 24 touch game for some reason. Sounds like Jack was pretty ineffective last weekend.

From Brad Gotch:

Jack Watts - Kicks 7, Handballs 5, Marks 2

Collingwood rolled a lot of numbers back, which made it hard for Jack to find the space that he needed. To his credit, he worked really hard to push up the ground - to find that space - and he set up some nice attacking phases for us, which we capitalised on the scoreboard with.

Well said. My point entirely. We should not pretend on this issue. The facts are there to see, and the coaches know it. Supporters should do the same.

It is very interesting, the Watts v Naitanui debate. Especially interesting that the Crows (apparently), who are bereft of ruckmen, would still definitely take Watts before Naitanui.

Naitanui is a very exciting player. He was pick 2 in a great draft, so I think that tells you he'll be a damn good player. He was picked before Stephen Hill at 3, so he'd better be a damn good player!!! As for saying that Naita has more potential, I'd argue with that. He's a very exciting player, but I don't think that people realise how good Watts could be.

Naita will have a great highlights reel at the end of his career, filled with high jumping, fast running and strange events. Everything he does is exciting. But is he more likely to win a side a premiership than Watts? I would doubt it. Watts is won't be as spectacular, but he'll put results on the board and win a team a premiership. Naita is X-factor, while Watts is production.

He's getting the ball 20+ times a game and using it well as an underdeveloped 197+cm wingman and people are disappointed? His time will come, and I'm prepared to wait as long as is required.

As supporters, just suck it up and put up with the media bashing for a little while, because eventually you'll be able to stick it up everyone.

I tend to agree. I did not mean to imply he will not be a good player, but ido think supporters are entitled to query progress.

Niknak to me is irrelevant. We have JW, and we have to develop him to his utmost potential. That is what this post is all about.

I know jayceebee quite well, and he continues to reassure me that Jack Watts will be a very good player for us, as i have my concerns. Whether or not what he said above was tongue in cheek or not, i don't know, as it is so hard to convey tone through writing. However, he is a staunch supporter and believer in Jack Watts.

I think what jayceebee is referring to with the Natanui comment, is that we really did ourselves no favours in winning 5 games back in 2007. We could have picked up both Watts and Natanui if we'd 'list managed' a little better in 2007.

But then all these other possibilities wouldn't have come about, such as Sam Blease and would have we won fewer than 5 games last year if we had of had him?

I have noticed however, whenever Natanui is mentioned on MFC boards, everybody gets extremely defensive. Everyone on this board realises that there's an elephant in the room, but simply refuses to acknowledge it. I hope Jack Watts becomes a great player, better than NicNat would be great, but no one can deny that Natanui will become a very good AFL player. If you do, you'ree just living in dream land. It's as simple as that.

There are parrallels with Hodge and Judd here. Hawthorn castigated themselves when they missedon Judd in favour of Hodge, but on balance theygot it pretty right.

We should not be too concerned, it is early days.

Should we not judge Luke Molan yet? He hasn't played 10 AFL games either. I'm being facetious, of course. To the OP, just remember that Nick Naitanui is a year older than Jack Watts, and he also played in the WAFL the year before that. So essentially, NicNat has had 2 more years experience over Jack Watts. Yes I'm fearful that Jack won't live up to expectations, but I'm also patient enough to know that "playing up the ground and getting a few classy possessions" (to quote Yze_Magic quoting every Casey post ever) is probably all we'll get from Jack Watts for a while.

I didn't mention NickNak. It is unfair to compare the two. First of all they play in different positions, and secondly he is nearly a year older than Jack

Dermie was dead in his tracks at 27. Carey not much better at the same age. They were very good when they were young, but their best footy would have been when they were in their mid to late 20s ...... if their bodies had have held up.

I'd rather Jack be developed to be our key forward when we are premiership contenders. There is no benefit from having him getting crunched - be it at AFL or VFL level - each week as a key forward.

There's plenty of time to watch him play CHF when we need him to.

I did not mention the position he was playing, i was more interested whether he could beat average or below average3 opposition. From all reports on this site about the game from people who claimed to be there he not only was not able to, but he was well beaten. That is why a raised the question.

I do not care if Jack Watts plays the entire year at Casey-as long as he is ready when we seriously need him.

I have Faith in those at the Club. Jack is itching to play. Good, but make him earn it, so when he gets his chance he will make it stick.

Please stop the comparisons with Nik Nat. That kid is 2+ years ahead of JW.

I do look forward to seeing Daniel Rich up against our midfield next saturday though. Could be a beauty.

I did not compare him with Nik Nat

I know this is a very unpopular thing to say, but are we fooling ourselves about Jack Watts. From what we can gather about the game at the weekend young jack was beaten pointless by a less than top 50 draftee. Why was this so? Was he injured? Was he unfit? Or was he not good enough?

I dearly hope I am wrong on this, but I fear he may be another Molan.

Reassure me someone. Show me evidence to the contrary.......

totally agree, I have a vision of Russian and Gawn revolving through Full Forward and Watts feeding off from CHF. We are going to be exceptional!!

Agree. What we lack now are quality talls up forward, but gee the quality coming through is really exciting

Did anyone notice after round 3 we were rated 16th in goal kicking accuracy? No doubt explains why we have been dominating games but not on the scoreboard. What can be done about this?

There was an interesting conversation on SEN the other day when they were saying every aspect of the game has improved out of sight in the last 5 years except goal kicking. One of those talking was David Schwartz who knew a thing or two about kicking goals in his time. He said a lot of players don't even do the basics right (eg he singled out Roughhead who has a terrible tackrecord in this, the single thing he does wrong apparently is to lean back when kicking). He suggested some other things as well. All seems pretty basic stuff. How cane

we get some of these basics into our players?

Maybe we should second "Tanks" services.

One of theworst offenders at Melbourne is Tom Scully. He seems to very much lack confidence when kicking for goal from a set shot. I think he needs mentor. Maybe one of the two Davids - Neitz or schwartz.

Any other suggestions? We need to fix this before we come up against top sides.

I think Watts will eventually be another Carey, or as someone said more like Royce Hart. Now that puts him in the elite elite.

The thing I like about Jurrah is that extraordinary touch of brilliance - the abilty to do the impossible. Few footballers have it, and it is what brings fans through the gate.

A forward line made up of Watts, Jurrah, pettard and Morton will be unstoppable. Indeed an exciting prospect, all of them will be in Sheahan's top fifty within three years along with trengove, scully, grimes, davey and maybe even jamar if he keeps improving at this rate.

We all on here go through our selections every week and say how much harder it is getting to pick the team etc etc, but the fact remains we are still 1-2, were thrashed by Hawthorn, pipped by the magpies, and only overcame Adelaide in the dying minutes of the game when they only had one interchange player in the last quarter.

This begs the question where are our weaknesses and which players will not make it into our top four side. I know some will say that once they first round draft picks get between 20 and 50 games then we will make it via that route. Personally I think we need more than that as there are clear weaknesses which still need filling, and at the moment the most urgent is that we are incapable of kicking a large score, as well as kicking straight.

I'd nominate the foowing weaknesses:

1. Second ruck/power forward. Gawn may be the answer eventually, maybe Martin immediately

2. Centre half forward. Watts is the obvious answer, with maybe eventually backed up by Fitzpatrick

3. Small crumbing forward. Wonna is the answer IMO. Pity we missed out on Alwin Davey though.

4. Back flanks: we still need some good running backs in the Stephen Febey mould. the attack out of defence IMO often goes missing under pressure

What do others think?

she is there because the afl are just being soft, like the female goal umpires. Just wait until they have female field umpires.

bra burning has paid off.

ps, she [censored] me today, just an annoying voice with stupid comments.

I think there would be nothing wrong with a female umpire of any sort as long as they are competent (as the current female goal umpires appear to be). Indeed I have no objection to female football commentators as long as they are competent and authoratative.

The problem with this one she is neither.

I still think the Kangas will go North. Not straight away, but eventually, by their own hand. The ACT or West Sydney, or North Queensland.

I think a team will eventually find a home in Tasmania, southern Tasmania, Hobart by name.anyone care to guess who that team may eventually be???

I think the AFL will eventually do a Brisbane Bears in West Sydney. They will find it such a black hole financially as well as producing a winning culture there, that they will eventually realize they need the expertise and tradition of an established club, as Brisbane found.

Thediscussions on here knocking the lions move north I think is nonsense. It was a brilliant move by all concerned - it ensured the Lions survival, brought on-field and off-field success to the club and ensconsed the AFL as a viable force in what was previously a rugby dominated state. Also brought about 20% of the population ing

to the afl fold which did wonders for their leverage in negotiations for the last television rights.

It was one of the best business decisions made by the AFL in the last 20 years. So will be their decision to move North to West Sydney which they will make in the next 5 years w

as their West Sydney adventure implodes.

Bulldogs 32,777 after a strong season last year and then early premiership favortism. A substantial rise already from their final tally last year of 28,215 and presumably more to come. Just shows what success can do for a club. We need that success sooner rather than later.

But on to the Kangas, they could be in dire straits. Up s&%$ creek without a paddle. They don't look like they can have any sort of success with their list in the next two years and I don't know if they can sustain the club for much longer than that until success comes. Very worrying for their supporters.

But when it comes to the crunch, if they do end up in massive trouble and fighting for their existence, I have the feeling that the AFL might either step in or possibly offer another relocation deal to Tasmania.

This is only a suggestion now, but maybe not a bad idea (without knowing everything about the financial requirements of setting up an AFL team). I think possibly creating a Nth Melbourne/Tasmania team and splitting games between Victoria and Tasmania for a while might be a good transition into introducing an AFL team into Tasmania. I feel that the AFL will have pity on North and want to keep some sort of the North Melbourne FC identity. At the same time, they don't feel that the population and business opportunities in Tasmania are sufficient to sustain an AFL franchise. But Tasmania clearly deserves an AFL team more than West Sydney does or even the Gold Coast. So maybe a Nth Melbourne/Tasmania team would suit their needs for a period of time (until a full transfer to Tasmania becomes more commercially viable). Whilst this does create the dilemma perhaps of Tasminians not feeling it is THEIR club, I think the HAwthorn experiment/success in Tasmania has shown that the people there are hungry for footy at the top level and will support a footy team if they feel it will give them a strong committment over a period of time.

personally I think a merger with Western Sydney is more likely a la Bears and fitzroy. The Bears were a fiasco just as WS look like being (believe me I know l Iive in Sydney). It would also makemuch better sense for the AFL.