Eth

Freo are up 118-61. At the moment we're not last!

Kurt Tippett needs to die. He made us last D:

Fremantle 118

Adelaide 62

Barlow with 151 SuperCoach points, 33 (?) touches. I got him. :D

6 - Brad Miller - Stamped his authority with a superb game, dominated the aerial contests.

5 - Jake Spencer - Brilliant in the ruck, gave first use to the midfielders.

4 - Lynden Dunn - Looks ready for a breakout year in 2010, and could push for the Bluey.

3 - Cameron Bruce - Handballing skills are a delight to watch. Never turns it over.

2 - Joel MacDonald - Stuck it up the Brisbane Lions with a dazzling display.

1 - Nathan Jones - He was right, Tom Scully really does make him a better player.

What are you on? It looks good.

6 - Jordie McKenzie - Looked like Junior out there, his tackling was sensational.

5 - Brad Green - Talk about courageous. He was the spark.

4 - Jack Grimes - Good movement out of the 50, will be a star

3 - James McDonald - Had a solid game

2 - Ricky Petterd - A bit inaccurate, but he worked hard considering our midfield didn't help

1 - Jack Trengove - Just because. Had a great debut.

Should've drafted Daniel Bradshaw with pick 1 in the PSD. I know you guys scoffed at the suggestion but at least we would have someone to kick to inside 50. Surely he would've been more value than Joel MacDonald who everyone was saying was rubbish today.

I guess we were too nice and let him go to Sydney and give them evey chance to make the finals...even though we had salary space. I know he's not the future but at least he might have made us a tiny bit more competitive over the next 3 years.

And I can't be arsed arguing why we didn't invest in a top 18 draft pick on a key forward.

One reason we should've selected Daniel Bradshaw - someone to kick to. So when Watts becomes a key forward, we know how to kick to him. And why we didn't pick Aaron Black in the Draft I don't know, he was easily the second-best key forward there. He dropped down to the late 20s in the end I think.

And the award for "most ill-considered and ignorant thread" goes to... This one!

Congrats. You win tickets to sit in the audience for Judge Judy.

This thread is just opinion based. So demons27 and I want Bailey out. It doesn't mean we're ignorant. I just don't think Dean Bailey really has it in him to take us to a premiership.

Any of us could coach better than Bailey. He's got the young players, but he doesn't know [censored] about developing them into A-graders.

I have come to the conclusion that Watts is the answer.

I don't care how much smaller he may be than Lake, Scarlett, Presti or whoever, can we please just stick him in the goal square. We need a target, and Watts can provide it - I would back him to beat any full back on the lead 10 times out of 10, provided he gets some decent delivery. Sure, he'll get monstered by the big guys if the mids just bomb it to the square - so we don't do that. Abandon that stupid handball game plan for now, and go long and direct - that's how we scored goals today, with long kicks through the middle and inside 50.

Our mids - Scully, Trengove, Grimes, Morton, Davey, Sylvia, Moloney (Tapscott, Gysberts and Blease eventually) - have the pace and/or talent to take the game on by running it through the middle and hitting up longer targets. Why must they waste that talent by pissfarting around with the ball on the half-back line, getting caught hand-balling around in circles? Sure, it'll cause some turnovers at first, but it will help our forwards no end - imagine the frustration of Bate, Miller et al, trying to work out when they should lead? The mids consistently go the extra handball when there are options up the ground. It's little wonder our forwards got sucked up the ground and had to turn around and run back towards the goals, almost every single time.

I've found a replacement for Dean Bailey. That's exactly what we can't do, but it's what we need to do

"It's not a development year for us, we'll be out for the ultimate success."

This really needs to be drilled into Dean Bailey's head. If not, there's no point in him coaching.

Bate - failed to impress Like he does half the time

Bennell - mistake after mistake Showed some positive signs with the way he moved the ball out of defence

Bruce - occasional positive involvement A bit more than occasional, but should've done more

Davey - lost on flank I saw Davey twice

Dunn - tried but failed Should be dropped for Sylvia. If not, should be dropped anyway.

Frawley - abysmal kicking game He was under a lot of pressure caused by the midfield, but his response wasn't much better

Green - our only forward He was out for a quarter and a half and was still one of our three best players

Grimes - amongst the better Second BOG

Jamar - should have excelled Permanent FF? I think so

Jones - same old same Our only real inside player, showed courage, but tried to do too much

MacDonald - slow and unsure Just a dud first game IMO

McDonald - many meaningless possessions But great leadership and harassment. One of our top five.

Miller - had no influence Key forward my ass.

Moloney - career worst game Was Moloney playing?

Petterd - doesn't deserve selection A good forward, but inaccurate at times.

Rivers - was rarely sighted Great first quarter, and he worked pretty hard.

Scully - gradually gained confidence Nervous first half, great second half

Strauss - nowhere near ready Send him back to Casey

Trengove - gave exciting glimpses More than exciting.

Warnock - was emphatically beaten Can do a lot better

McKenzie - not the worst Best on ground for Melbourne IMO

Spencer - slow and cumbersome Can't describe him better

One of the things constantly on my mind today - Jamar should go forward. He's the best we've got because he has the power to mark over the game's best defenders and he can kick straight, unlike some people. (cough cough, MILLER AND NEWTON, cough cough)

I think Grimes and McKenzie were also positives today. Grimes rarely made mistakes and was our best rebounder out of the defensive 50. McKenzie is a real workhorse too. 11 tackles and four free kicks speaks for itself.

Warnock as Emerg with J Roughead

Robbie Warnock? If so, that's a shame, 70 DT points to three quarter time should mean 70-90...I think...

Waite's on about the same. He'll have a good year IMO. :D

He's ok in a ruck contest, but around the ground he is a liability.

For what we would have paid him, Carlton can keep him.

70 Dream Team points at three quarter time. I know DT is inaccurate, but still.

Nah, don't pick Fitzy. He won't play much and scored 5 and -2 in the pre-season.

There are plenty of better bench options than Fitzy.

Greeeaaat. Back to SuperCoach.

i put a punt on discounted blues player Robert Warnock ,dirt cheap

also is Daniel Tallia a chance for opening round, havent seen him in pre season

I've got Robbie Warnock as a starter, I might have to fix that. Not so sure about Daniel Talia, but he looks to be one of their better recruits in recent years. Stick him on the bench. (Next to Matt Maguire. )

Kinda annoying that most of the good young cheapies are middies.. I have 5 first year players in my midfield! I'm 100% positive each of them will have D.Rich-esque growth. Planning on having an unbelievably stong team come round 10 or so.

True, it's all midfield and ruck in this draft...only forward was John Butcher and I don't think he'll have so much impact. There's only really two good, cheap, non-first-year players in the midfield. Rhys Palmer (307k) had a knee reconstruction and Shaun Burgoyne (386k) could have a big impact with the Hawks. Not so sure about him though.

Anyway, back to SuperCoach. My team needs fixing.

Finals have to be 8 teams. That way it's more exclusive. Besides, having a 9 team finals series is going to confuse everybody, because I don't see how it's going to work and it'll probably take 6 weeks, where as 4 is much nicer, as it's just about all in September. 10 teams is just too many, as you'll see more teams like Essendon of last year get in with less wins than losses. Just keep it at 8, it's what we're familiar with.

I just read all that and it made me think...what is an Essendon supporter doing on a MelbourneFC forum? Go brag about your not-so-good players elsewhere while we climb the ladder and become premiers later this decade.

Just created a new league, would appreciate 15 others to join.

Supercoach - Grandflag - 570179

I'm in as Cheezballs. And I'm feeling REALLY good about my team this year. That's because I've got a midfield that could all score 100 or more consistenly, besides Trengove. And my forward line only comes from last year's top 6. Only other Melbourne players are Fitzpatrick and Grimes, but I may put Bennell in there somewhere. Probably not though.

You know what's interesting? The break-even thing that determines whether a player goes up in price or not. It's basically the money the player's worth divided by 5. So Ablett has to average 149+ to not drop

Some great buys are Palmer (M, 307k), Hall (F, 366k), Waite (D, 407k) and Hunt (D, 252k) because they all had knee reconstructions. Besides Hall.

THIS SHOULD BE A GOOD YEAR

Is this an event that occured in frond of a crowd of zero? Surely someone saw it and can say what it looked like to them.

Yeah, that's actually really surprising when you think about it. Seeing as this is a MFC forum, and it was a MFC game...

My Heart bleeds that Essendon hasn't had a decent recruit in 10 years!!

Hurley, Ryder and Watson are pretty handy players. But besides that they haven't got much else.

Personally I don't see the point in joining a team that's now fading and will drop out of the Top 8 soon (Adelaide) or joining a team that doesn't seem to be going anywhere (Port Adelaide). He might as well stay at Melbourne, where he has a real shot at playing in a premiership, if that's really what he meant by 'a great place to start his career.'

I agree with that.

What starts off the conspiracy theories though, is that the AFL is refusing to show the vision of the actual contact. If it was just a good bump with accidental injury why won't the AFL show everyone, so the issue can be laid to rest. One might be led to think by that action that the powers that be feel the Review Panel made a mistake and they don't want it exposed publicly.

IMO the AFL aren't showing the bump becausthat would just generate more disagreements over it. I think the AFL want to get this out of the headlines.

well don't hold your breath for that, 2 weeks for a broken jaw would be a miracle... but as you say, it's still not that bad... Bate, Bruce and Davey will all be there, so Morton and Jurrah are the only other ones that will truly be missed, perhaps Garland also, and it would be nice to have Watts out there. Still, could be a lot worse

They're saying he could return. He'd wear a helmet if he did though from what I've heard.

I'd say we're a pretty good chance to finish last again.

Don't think so. What are the odds for Richmond to win the spoon? Because it looks like the betting agencies think Melbourne will win the spoon three years running, but we have a better team, so that ain't gonna happen :D

And $28 for Bazza is a great bet. He'll definitely finish Top 5.

If you bump someone without the ball but they can reasonably be expecting contact, and get them high, but your technique is good and you didn't mean to hurt them, then you get off. Ie. Kennedy

It's a good point, but I think head-high contact was unnecessary as Sylvia wasn't expecting it, so be would've easily been pushed out of the contest by a simple bump to the body or shoulder.

Well the footy gods MAY be with us for once. Reported in The Age today that he MAY return as early as R1.

Jnr said that he may don a helmet and and play as long as the medicos give him the all clear.

That would be great news!

And that's really good to hear, because I think Sylvia is a vital part of the team. Hence why I was annoyed about him being injured.

Alright, let's just hope Roughead isn't playing Round 1. It'll make a bigger victory for us :D

I think it's probably the best and most honest and on the mark season preview I've read thus far.

Excluding Fremantle making the top 8, it's pretty solid.

ie protect the guy who is going for the ball...

...and in the process putting another player out for a month with a broken jaw. Hardly seems fair.