Mad_Melbourne

Although I'm pretty sure St Kevin's were going to be looking after him pretty well ...

only player im really filthy we missed in the draft is Mitchell Hibberd. Whilst I am not the biggest Melksham fan, it was obvious the club had adopted a longer term outlook rather than the next season. Whilst I dont think they expected him to be suspended, they obviously will have a contingency plan in place and at the end of the day it means for an opportunity for younger players. Melksham was signed to increase the competitiveness and help for immediate improvement but like most of our decisions in the new regime we have looked to improve in 2-5 years creating sustained success.

You do understand the concept of average? So really games played does not have too significant effect, unless you are talking about Salem having an inability to find form due to his injury, but he played pretty well when he did play so i doubt that is what you were hinting at. Garland, whilst he has some deficiencies, provides us with great defensive felxibility and sits firmly in our back 6. Whilst he does sometimes struggle to perform offensively, I personally think it is rare that he is convincingly beaten by his opponent and that is step one to being a good defender. His worst habit is that he does sometimes completely give up on a lost situation but these are not always his fault and the fact that we turn it over so often coming out of the backline does not help players playing on the mid/small forwards.

Did well out of the draft points rule adaptation this year

See, i think that he has done it all and his rehab was all good. 100% he made a mistake, most likely in not wearing shoes, but i doubt that he would have been prevented from a shoot around as from reports his knee is basically 100%. But again, who actually knows what happened, although he didnt even know his toe was broken, trained on monday and then pulled up with the soreness later which indicates it didnt give him too much grief initially.

are you the kinda bloke that looks up your symptoms on google and concludes that you are suffering from some form of necrotizing fasciitis

Injuries compared to those who are not in an elite AFL system are pretty ridiculous. AFL players are able to put 24 hours into rehabilitation, injuries such as an ACL is 10-12 months for AFL players and can be up to 2 years in non professional athletes. Osteitis Pubis is another which can be handled in elite conditions much better than by Joe Blow down the street. They will have the very best treatment and he will be given the very best rehabilitation program, which he will follow down to the very end. Staff are paid to monitor his recovery and ensure he gets to 100% as efficiently but also without reoccurence.

His attributes lead him to be a dangerous proposition as a forward/ruck and he showed glimpses of the potential to make this role his own. As he will continue to be used in this position, more than likely ahead of Pederson if fit, the club obviously sees he has the possibility to make this position his own. Do I think its easier to play defender at this day and age if you are an athlete, yes, and it would make for an easier transition for a player of his athletiscism. But I see alot of Stefan Martin in him and would not be surprised if he ends up locking it down our second ruck position, and do not at all think it is such a certainty that he will not be able to develop into this role.

I feel like you use inane in the wrong context, due to the fact it makes perfect sense to the response of your initial statement that I quoted. Why would they continue Sam Frost in the forward/ruck role, which he could full well make his own, if he was envisioned by coaching staff to be a dud in this area? Therefore you either know more than the coaching staff, highly unlikely or you have no idea what you are talking about... Clearly we have a lack of depth in the tall forward position and thus we rectuired more in this area after we had spent the last few seasons addressing the midfield issues that were much more prominent. I was just happy to find an article which had a direct quote from Paul Roos when we both used articles earlier in this post. He will play forward/ruck and may be moved into the backline in the future if he can not secure this spot when Dunn retires and O Mac isnt ahead of him as a KP defender.

"He can play forward/ruck and we also think he can play down back." Paul Roos, i guess we were both right but it indicates that they are going to continue playing up forward and in the ruck "He can play forward/ruck and we also think he can play down back." Paul Roos You go tell him sir.

I like how Paul Roos said they see him playing as a ruck/forward with the potential to play backline. I think that indicates that when he is able to get on the field he will be playing that 2nd ruck/third tall forward position

One thread gets locked, another opened. Admittedly this is based on an article, but the hilarity of people suggesting that people no longer care about the fella. I like the statements about culture but it's all stuff that every football club says and is almost certainly dictated to him via media management.

Good to see Paul Roos stating that he will be looking to play him in the fwd/ruck role, his athletiscism and ability to compete makes him a perfect fit for this role at least until we can find a better option.

Correct, the other thing he is doing is creating space and often draws an opponent. Nothing worse than when at the footy, watts has lead to open space is looked to be used, poor kick by a team mate resulting in a turn over and then some bozo in the crowd "that's your man watts". Pet hate

you can tell its the off season.... although not much changes in the regular season

I think alot of it was at a board level as well, the club is meant to do what is in the best interest of the player and i think the situation as a whole was handled poorly.

probably could head to SKOBS with a few other melbourne players and get paid something ridiculous for a job in construction, because obviously players don't get paid in the ammos. Is Terlich a mate of yours? Jetta is our best small defender by leaps and bounds and Terlich will never play another game for Melbourne. The suggestion that the gap is close is ridiculous, whilst Jetta doesnt provide much run out of the backline his disposal is more often than not effective and has been looking to address this. Jetta or Terlich on any of the small forward in the AFL i know who i would choose. 1 v 1 pound for pound Jetta is almost our best defender.

Jeremy Howe thread, turns into a Tom Scully thread, the only reason I wish Tom Scully was on the list would be to take attention away from our other number 1 draft pick that thread always get drawn towards Regardless, i have no malice towards either of Scully or Howe, its a short career in football and Scully (especially) has done what is in the best interest for him and his life after football. Players move on and at the end of the day football landscape has changed especially with free agent etc. If we hadnt been clear winners from losing Scully i would be more annoyed, but at the end of the day what is an 18 year old bloke meant to say to the cameras half way through the year? "Yeh, im going to take a lucrative offer from GWS because it would be stupid to turn it down"

also spent more time through the midfield, than up forward and rarely ever deep forward rather a high leading half forward. Number of goals is irrelevant to his ability to kick the football, Gartlett kicked 40 but i wouldnt want him taking a set shot to win the game.

This is the one thing im confused about, just going off last year as that is all of the available information we have, he still played 20 games, with a pretty decent patch of form. Next year in terms of delisting, Jones and Terlich will almost be montys, Hunt, Spencer, Pederson, JKH, Newton, (kills me to say it) Trengove, Grimes are all probably on the chopping block ahead of him and that is just saying he battles this year and plays 10-15 games putting him in the delisting category. if he plays 15+ keeping him as a depth option at very worst seems to be the right choice and keeping players who want to play for the club is list management 101. If, which i think he will, he can play 15+ games i think he will re-sign with the Dees, but the call could be made early-mid this year in my opinion.

whilst I am not in the know so I can not with any confidence say they were or were not, i still maintain unless they were completely certain of a trade going down, there is no reason they would say something like this especially in regards to a player who is so heavily scrutinised in the media as Jack is. Imagine next year, "Melbourne tried to trade Jack Watts" "Club lacks confidence in number 1 pick" headlines a plenty if that was the case

Wrong the only thing that was clear was offers that had there was no point Mahoney saying anything in relation to Watts unless they knew the deal was going to get done due to the media sh!tstorm it would create. People can interpret whichever way they want but the clubs asking price and value of Watts was a contributing factor to this but also the fact that realistically he played 20 gamesand the club want him to stay and he wants to stay. Players who wanted to leave have left, and players the club didnt want have not signed on, understandable that he was contracted but surely if all parties were happy the deal would have been done and without having a 90% of him going there was no reason to put more media attention on the most heavily scrutinised player in the AFL.

The skills that Jack Watts does have can't really be taught imo, most players eitehr have good skills or dont, sure they can get better but you can not teach a player to dispose of the football at an exceptional level. I think in an AFL system naturally a players skills will get better, but it is rare that someone whose disposal is not elite when drafted moves into this category. Players usually take safer options in order to ensure their disposal is much more likely to reach a target. Vision is much the same, coaching can teach a player where to look but cant ensure players will be there, whilst game plan can do its very best to do that its not something coached, again opinion. Some players naturally can see the play moving and where to put the football in order to best benefit the team. did the list pretty quickly and kept finding players i wanted to re-sign

I really cbf arguing about Watts and making another thread on him but these two points i have highlighted are purely speculation, think about the players that were drafted and developed in that time and think about how many are still on the list. This is clear evidence of poor recruiting, but it is also massive evidence of poor player development that has hindered the club for the last however many years. It was the coaching team and the recruiting teams job to get the right people into the club and develop them in the best way possible and we have not started to do this until recently and the addition of Brendan McCartney will further this. The club has a value on players, the fact that they didnt trade him was mainly due to the fact that we rate him higher than other clubs and are not willing to let him go seeing as he is a player who has played 60 games in the last 3 years. Players have deficiencies and his are highlighted by the experts on the forum more so than anyone, but still was picked for 20/22 games this year and had patches of reasonable form playing off half forward and moving through the wing. He does have to eliminate lapses of concentration from his game, because whilst people continually mention his lack of competiveness there has also been instances this year which highlight the things he can do that not many others can. The tap back on the goal line to gartlett highlighted his game awareness that not many would have. His disposal is still the best in our side and there are multiple instnaces where he is in the right spot and able to hold his ground in order to mark the footy. Yes he has clangers, but as mentioned, all players have clangers his are just highlighted more than most. I am doing what i hate, so i will stop talking about Jack Watts, every bloody thread turns into a Watts thread and as soon as i saw that you were the recent comment i knew something would be about him but i was intrigued to read it. T. McDonald, Tyson, Kent, Vince, Jetta, Spencer, Frost, Watts, Dawes and O. McDonald seem most important to resign and roughly in that order in my opinion. Can see players looking to hold out til the end of the year but Tyson, Vince and Jetta will probably be made over the summer i think.

i reckon it should be just Jack Watts, imagine the drama that would follow that. would be good for a laugh