Mad_Melbourne

He was a general utility and played all through the ground, what I think it will mean is Lumumba in the backline and mid/wing opportunities for the younger players.

The biggest difference between the two is that Jones has been playing as a number 1 midfielder in our team for several years, 3 BNF and his importance to our team is under rated. Statistically they may be comparable but if you are talking about player you would pick ahead of the two then i personally think that Jones is streets ahead.

I think its the right call by the coaching group, give him a finish on the right note rather than playing the best part of next year down at Casey. That said I would not mind him doing a similar thing to what Byrnes is doing down at Casey, if he wanted to. Creates opportunities for Harmes, ANB, Stretch to push into the starting side next year. I also think this will lead to news of Howe signing on, but that is just my feelings. Thanks Crossy, great example and leadership for the younger fellas in a club that desperately needed it.

Firstly we beat the bulldogs in pre season. Secondly, whilst no one is saying that it is great, the fact that we have 7-8 of our best 22 is making a statement that we are limping over the line. I think 2013 and 2014 recruiting has been well above "just ok", basing your premise on Salem and Tyson not being successful purely due to injury and missing games is laughable. Dom Tyson finished 2nd in the BNF last year and Salem has earnt a spot in the best 22 from pre season, unlikely injured during the year. JKH was a significant gap in our list and without the recruitment of Gartlett would have spent more time in the 1s. Hunt was a speculative pick that was influenced by Paul Roos, that said he has suffered from significant injury set backs. Harmes has broke through with good VFL form to play AFL games from a rookie pick which is great. Petracca and Brayshaw were obvious. Stretch, ANB, O'Mac are all developing players and will be better for the game time this year but it is ridiculous at best to suggest that we have failed with these picks relative to the few that you named. Sure Lever is a gun, but we couldnt get him. Lewis Taylor is a gun but he didnt slip to us, which Taylor thought was half a chance. Recruiting and list management has been a solid A for the last two years and il be stoked if it continues.

I disagree, he would be better than Barrett from GWS twos and from there the inside mids in their twos are suspect. I think we could get away with getting both Redden and Barrett and this would be a great outcome. If GWS are looking to get rid of Toby Greene that would be another issue. Reddens biggest issue is injury for the last two years, he has missed a couple games but is still averaging 19 games a year for the past 5 years as well as over 20 disposals and 6 tackles. Would definitely improve our list and would be a starting midfielder, much the sterotypical Roos midfielder. Back to the well with Jack Watts, FMD just let it rest mate. He is not on par with Nathan Jones, he is a bit under but that said he has multiple Nathan Jones attributes that the team could benefit from.

This statistic is one of AFLs biggest lies. That said it does show that when we started to hold the football we were able to keep it away from freo at periods of time, but it doesnt show the effectiveness moving into forward 50. Also the fact that most of Freos score came from result of turnovers is a good indication of when we did butcher the footy we were punished

You completely misunderstood my quote and took it out of context. But you were wondering why he didn't play and I gave you the reason What I said was he has not shown potential similar to what Stef Martin had, in order to clarify this further so you understand, this is in regard to AFL football. Stef had several games where he played as number 1 ruck and showed that he has the level recquired to be a consistent AFL footballer but when moved into the resting positions of CHF or CHB he seemed to struggle to get involved. I still maintain Fitzy is 50/50 to stay on the list next year, which hardly means he has no potential, but rather if the list managers think there is an athletic KP player that they would rather give 5 years into then they will take him. Fitzy consistently plays solid VFL football but struggles at AFL, which is not really new knowledge to most.

He had concussion so had missed the last 2 or so weeks in the VFL. Has he shown potential in games to be a similar player to Stef Martin and go to another club and play consistently good football? Not at all. Fitzy if 50/50 for next year depending on how Jason Taylor see the athletic KP players in the draft

His disposal was somewhat average, but that can be attributed to nerves. I didnt think he was ever really convincingly beat 1 v 1, which is a really good sign for a first game key defender who at every occasion fremantle dragged deep.

I know I will cop some hate for this, but bloody hell Cross does my head in. I know immediately we will be losing by a lot when he has our most disposals. It's time for him to hang up the boots he is slow and useless with the football. We need leadership correct but jeez he's not that vital

Almost as annoying as seeing Michie pull up on two chases

Your continual quotes on normalisation are rubbish. . Melbournes improvement is not based on normalisation because it is obvious from 3 years ago we were on a downward trend. If you look at any of the statistics in which you are claiming normalisation has occurred, you would rather see that it is improvement. "Normalisation" would not be happening if the team/list/board/coaching had not all changed, but this has led to completely different results ensuring improvement. Normalisation is such a stupid term and it's a highlight of the continual negativity that is shown consistently from our supporters. Improvement is happening and Normalisation is the wrong term to discuss this. We were so far below normal that we have improved to reach a much more competitive level correct.

correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure he suffered concussion 2 weeks back and due to his history of it they may just be increasingly careful.

Whilst his cards may be marked, its nothing to do with selection this week seeing as he missed last weeks VFL game as he was recovering from concussion. Dean Kents cards must be marked also as he is not playing

This is true, but we were the equal worst team in the league last year... This year we could well end up the 6th worst side which is a large improvement, whilst still not where we would like our team to be, it highlights the improvement that we have made. Expectations drive opinions, if people expected the team to improve and play finals (unrealistically) then people would be disappointed. My expectations of the season were roughly 6-7 wins, with a good amount of games into younger players and providing the first step for a launch into finals contention next year. I think this year has lived up to my expectations, so i am not pleasantly surprised but nor do i think the year is a disapointment.

This is a great observation and highlighted the fact last year we showed very little dare to take the game on from half back, which we are doing much more often. The problem with this is that if confidence is down and mistakes are being made then often opposition will put you to the sword, as we saw against Bulldogs. Last year the game against Collingwood rings to mind, where we held the ball for large periods of the game keeping the scoring low, we never looked like winning due to our inability to score, but we also were always in the game due to the low score we kept collingwood to. So many posters/supporters hated that style of football, yet we have made a transition in the style we are looking to play and now I think players are in a position where they need to adapt better and decidce to lock the ball down (like last year) to stop the flow of goals against. That is the next progression

Well, I guess that means we must not have one. Sack Roos! Sack the list! Booo-urns

I think he was seeing if anyone actually reads his post, because other than that is is just purely looking for a reaction.

I can't see this train of thought, list, performances and overall competitiveness clearly shows Paul Roos has been one of the best acquisitions the Melbourne football club has made. He is passionate about Melbourne football club, but chooses to be restrained and philosophical in front of cameras because it's the media who gives a [censored]. Melbourne will have 7 wins, which is a real improvement from the basket case we were, sure there is inconsistencies and there will still be inconsistencies next year, but we will continue to get better and we will be pushing for finals next year!

Whilst I agree, it is frustrating to see it after a poor loss, the point that you have made about hearing it all before is a bit stiff, especially for Jamar who for the last 6-7 weeks has been putting in excellent form only to be held out by Gawn doing really well in the AFL. Sure he may have had a poorer game this week, but no reason to dig the boot in.

Agree with your sentiment, but the Saints thriving is the biggest misconception in football at the moment. Media beating up how well they are going relative to Melbourne and other clubs and how they are ahead of expectations. Saints have beaten us twice, but they are hardly thriving and are in a worse position with their list than we are currently. Had we had a legend like Nick Riedwolt who can provide such a presence and win games off his own back we would easily have 8-9 wins. Media beat up in the worst of ways, St Kildas form is vastly over rated.

Let him play VFL and get some form, was able to come into the 1s too quickly after injury and really struggled, really needs to find some form consistently, similar situation with Ben Newton. If anyone needs to be dropped then vandenBerg will come in, if Roos wants to make another change I think it will be Bail, played the Dogs last time and did well in the defensive forward role. That said, I wouldn't mind letting ANB and Harmes have a crack at what M.Jones and Bail did last time we played them.

Contracts can be used an indicator sure, but then the consideration of who was on our list at the time he signed the contract and no doubt it was heavily front ended due to the state of our list. The fact that we need to pay certain percentages of our salary cap is also a fair indicator of why he recieved so much. Has he been worth the cash, no due to his chronic injuries, but there is no doubt that he has steadily improved and depsite not hitting the scoreboard, in the last month of football, even 5 weeks he has been able to play pretty solid football and has been a really important contributor to the team. Whilst people say "you can get anyone to play his role" or how multiple players can do the unrewarded running or constantly present and have more of an impact than him, the fact is the way our list is we do not have that available and not many clubs throughout the AFL have two star key position forwards. He is an important player to our structure and our team improving over the next few years, until we can find a viable replacement, we need him fit and on the park as much as possible.

Yeh he brought us both a drink, he didn't have to suggest and could have easily got away with a robbery but he was kind enough to suggest that I was a good guy haha! I think he was already onto a winner for the night possibly.,. Boring story but a reasonable guy. yeh, good one!! (Genuine no sarcasm, I actually laughed)

I agree, could absolutely label them as a success but also having featured in 5-6 games themselves I did not want to go the early crow. I think both have really good endurance which will obviously be a pivotal aspect for players to have if the interchange cap decreases and Neal-Bullen has the ability to find space which is something important for modern footballers. Future looks bright considering players like Petracca and Kent are still to come back from LTI and even Trenners