Mad_Melbourne

Yeh but if it's based on pre season, it would be hard to justify his selection due to missing pretty much the whole of December and resuming full training in January, was what I was suggesting

I dislike people who say Watts hasn't earnt a spot/played well enough. He played 22 games and in the games we won he played a significant role in our scoring. He had his best season finishing top 10 in the bnf. He is unlikely to be a power forward, but his continual work rate will be rewarded with better users of the football. He is by far our best user of the football by foot and even our best decision maker, but let's just get rid of him because he doesn't win enough hard ball. We start winning the midfield battle and are able to get clean possession in his hands. We will start to win more games

thanks for the report, this is the one that intrigued me the most though. Whilst I do not care in the slightest about his kicking technique, i think the fact that he had the time to be in space and survey his options is perfect for him. Players like Toumpas who can dispose the ball well if allowed the time should take it to choose the best option. If there is a clear quick option on and he is continually ignoring that or getting chased down consistently so he is kicking under pressure then the benefit of being able to take his time and choose the best option is redundant. So basically did he often choose the wrong option? Was he ran down/made to dispose under pressure forcing him to miss targets?

Teams that play finals do not have 22 superstars they have players who can play roles, i think he will feature in our team that plays finals in the next 3-4 years

i agree, he is our best user of the football when he gets it in his hands, he has come of 22 games and a top ten finish in the b&f and definitely his best season yet, but still people feel like he is going to struggle. He is and will again this year be one of the first picked when fit and his influence will be felt more and more throughout the game as we develop a better midfield. He constantly presents and gets to the right spots but the skill level that we have is not always able to use him, but as the team gets better so will Watts. May play VFL in order to come back from injury but it is highly unlikely he will not play round 1 if available

Did you not put Vandenberg in your 22?

Where he used his opposite foot on the run and hit up petterd who dropped a mark that he got two hands on and should have taken?Rohan bail is one of the most underrated players on our list and has a spot in the 22 for his running capacity and defensive pressure in our forward 50. He is by far our best defensive forward.

Personally don't think Frost, Mckenzie, JKH or Petracca will play round one. Vince, Howe and watts will be given every opportunity to play, Garland and Bail will start. If we line up like this against Gold Coast we will be convincingly beat I think!

This is a massive statement of how poor the football club has been it true. Whilst I know players/coaches often use these throw away lines in order to pump players up to the media, it is well recorded that he was very poor at this at Carlton. It is difficult to gauge two way running when at training as opposed to a game so I will reserve judgement until then. From the training I've seen Newton looks to be well ahead of Michie/young mid recruits fighting for the spot and I go as far as have him as our 3rd/4th best mid

whilst i like the idea, i dont think that it would increase our match day attendance but it is an entirely unrealistic thought as the AFL would not enjoy having an extra 15 games a year on the G, especially if the matches were in wet weather. Also this last comment is quite a silly statement, i guarantee you that the coaching staff (development coaches) attend these games but also there will be video footage allowing the coaches to make a perfectly informed call on who is playing up or down week by week

Nail on the head

Casey is not a bad situation considering we need to extend our membership base. If we could regularly get 60,000 to games we would get the good slots, but we can't and until then the teams that can will have the prime time slots. After all football is a business Edit: love the self bump of the thread btw

this season ultimate footy has added multiple different categories, one of which is spoils and i think that would be a lovely one to add instead of accuracy. but other than that i am not really fussed, whatever people decide i am happy with.

Whilst I don't really care about it all, I'm pretty sure they sent Walters to train in the WAFL and then he produced his best season. Colin Sylvia is an idiot and at the end of the day is one of the greatest waste of talents in the modern era.

I couldn't make it due to work commitments and I was gutted but now I've got the synopsis im stoked. Where abouts do you coach?

I love this topic of debate, although he will miss 3 weeks he will be back on running duties shortly and even probably play pre season matches and will not really miss enough time to have the detrimental effects of missing major sessions of pre season can have on a player. Whilst this post has a fair amount of taking the urine, I am yet to see someone post a logical reason as to why someone who has their pre season limited is more likely to play a consistent 22 games than someone who hasn't. Clearly a full pre season is the best thing for a player looking to play 22 games at an AFL standard and puts them in the best position to make the most out of the season.

Seconded

The problem Jordie faces is that midfielders now need to be role players and a midfield with Cross and McKenzie has too much of a negating feel. Nathan Jones and Bernie Vince were also asked at stages throughout the year to run with/against opposition better players. I hope Mckenzie can improve enough to warrant a spot, but i personally think he is a bit further back in the queue than starting 22. Not really a big call but I think Newton will play 22 games this year barring injury and will help to improve the quality going through the middle of the ground for us. Whilst it is great to see the skills are good at training, lots of the training sessions i have attended over the years had pretty good skills and the team looked like world beaters, throw in the pressure of match day and zoning opposition, the simple/most dangerous option is often covered by opposition players, which is why unlike others I am not opposed to the notion of moving the ball backwards or sidewards to create space, other wise we will turn it over much more easily with score of turnover being a massive stat in modern football. This was partially one of the reasons that Dean Bailey didnt succeed because the game plan was when at half back move the ball forward at all costs which resulted in either a massive win (sydney) or a massive loss (geelong)

I think that is exactly why he is a certain started for the season and barring injury or suspension will play 22 games. He creates 1 v 1 when no other melbourne player would, he attacks the ball pretty much the hardest of anyone in our team and whilst he doesn't always extract it, he is still able to break tackles and move the football forward. Also in modern football and under Paul Roos a stoppage is a win and I think again this year we will be a team that is stoppage focused

I reckon apart from the first round picks (top 5) they play around Market price anyway. It's just they are lucky that Heeney and Mills have developed well. If they were not in the top 2 and finished where melbourne did then they would have paid a fair price for Heeney. They have not had 2-3 players in a draft from their academy in which they would have been getting a steal, example the Bulldogs with father sons. I just don't see the big advantage they have really and over complicating a system is bound to bring poor results.

i think what you're reffering to is when i said it was wrong, and that was just the quotes explanation of the current system. I dont really see how it is much of an advantage, whilst having players trained in the acadamies can be an advantage, the players in victoria being exposed to tac cup, the players in having SANFL and WAFL are probably more of an advantage than these acadamies. The reason these acadamies exist is because those regions are significantly behind the main three AFL areas and thus gives the kids in these areas an opportunity to develop at a similar rate. Why it is an issue is because Isaac Heeney could well have been a top 5 pick, but for the most part top 10 picks have not come out of these acadamies, so if they are able to get one or two every 10 years then good on them.

This is wrong and it is why I like the current system that exists. In the current system it basically goes through every teams draft pick, if Melbourne had pick 2 the only way we would use this draft pick on the father/son is if the team with pick 1 bid on him. Whilst this means that teams like Sydney were able to reap the benefits as they were able to get a top 5 pick for pick 18, we also have recieved the benefits by being able to get Jack Viney with a pick in the 30s. Had collingwood been able to finish in the top 8 this year or even the top 4 they would not have been complaining as it would have made Darcy Moore much more of a steal. The main argument against the current system is that these "academy players" should be available to all, but I think let the system be despit Isaac Heeney and Callum Mills being incredibly highly ranked players it helps promote the game in these areas and converts rugby league/union players into footballers. Let it be, the AFL have been fiddling with too much of late.

Actually a really good system and highlights how Terlich improved his accountability down back in the games that he played. Obviously it is based more around defence than offence and takes into consideration goals against and minutes on opponents. Or something of that IlkEdit: obviously all statistical data is not going to indicate who would be picked but for a defender it's pretty important to stop your opponent kicking goals.

Kicking efficiency jumped 11% this year and moved to above average in the kick rating (from prospectus). I agree though, he needs to keep cutting out those costly errors, but definitely under rated

why we brought him in -last year despite coming on as sub for 3 of his 9 games he still averaged a contribution of 13 points a game (3rd highest at carlton) -when he was involved in a chain carlton scored 55% of the time (highest at carlton last year) -could thrive in a new environment, especially one lacking small forwards why he was delisted from carlton -is a bit of a pest out and about -was not happy with the eddie betts leaving -training habits were pretty poor