Mad_Melbourne

could not agree more

cheney and paul johnson will be lucky if they survive the list cuts at the end of the season. today essendon were extra dangerous when the play was around these two players, cheney can do some good things, once or twice a match, but is a shocker, same with paul johnson. also watts was a little disappointing i thought it was going to be his match, but what he did do was really good, and his work ethic is top notch, i would love to see his gps, because he covers alot of ground, chasing and shepparding and leading.

fact of the matter is, frawley was judged to be a better match up for milne, and thats the bottom line. none the less, bartram is a good defender, from a defender you need chase, pressure and to stop youir opponent. although bartram can sometimes be too defensively minded and only worry about his man, he does his job well, removing an opposition player. i also think his disposal is far from the worst, he poops all over cheney, who also plays small defender. grimes is too attackingly minded yet he has more disposal, we just need the mix of bartram and grimes in one player in my opoinion. bartram is a certainty in our top 22, and should not be replaced with addam maric, who is a forward and in not defensively minded at all. bartrams defensive role could even see him move up the field as a tagger later on.

watts to kick 4 have 22 disposals, get rising star nomination.

i felt like this against west coast and north melbourne haha but i feel better about it now, hopefully we come out wanting to win

jordie mckenzie may get a nomination if he keeps the stats when we win, but personally i think jack watts this week against essendon will have a dominating display. imo the problem with mckenzie is he isnt flashy enough in a sense, he does alot of grunt work which hampers him from getting a rising star nomination.

i am hoping this match our forward line could run riot. with their defence hampered through suspension and injury we are a chance to have a really good counter attacking game. i hope this week we will see jack watts break out game, 4 goals, and 22 disposals. jurrah, dunn, bate and sylvia to cause headaches. i just dont see us losing this week, but having said that we always seem to not play as well when we should win.

he is definately a trier, has immense room for improvement in marking under pressure and disposal, but he definately got into the right positions, rucked okay, so that was a positive he looked much quicker and covered the field better this week aswell. definately worth keeping him on the list, as i think in 5-6 years with 10 odd kilos on him, even though he already weighs 100 kilos, as he was often outbodied, could be a good prospect. also watts, the fact is his work ethic is amazing, his field kicking is not bad at all, the match was good and he was an important player, but not his break out game yet. i am going to call this week as his break out game, i am tipping watts for 22 disposals 4 goals in a good win for the mfc. :}

my thoughts on the changes... OUTS Grimes, out obviously due to injury which is a bit of a downer. Spencer, out not only because he caused a few vital turnovers, but no need to have him in the team, and we havent won a match with two ruckmen Cheney, cannot have turnovers such as he did out of defence, although he did some good defensive spoils but he caused 3-4 goals, so to win this week i think drop him, and i think really he got the gig due to the selectors thinking the match was as good as gone. maybe jetta or bennell, this is only a maybe, as they both could well play a role in a winning team, and even if jetta and bennell werent as damaging, their chasing and pressure skills where top notch. INS Morton, to play the grimes role, pity for strauss injury, but morton will play the good disposal behind the ball role better than anyone else. sylvia, cant not have sylvia in, helped out in the ruck so spencer can go, but really needs to run hard to be damaging against the opposition ruckmen. either Bail, hard running, definately necessary, i think he is amazing and that hard running can break the field apart, and also we missed that hard running on the weekend, with several players not having options, this could help or jurrah could help to test a diminished essendon backline, but jetta or bennell would probably need to be dropped for him to play more so than for bail

every player on the field in the red and blue besides, jordie mckenzie does not want the pill. we need to go hard for the ball, that is something that even when we are losing we should be doing. we look scared. we look like we should be playing vfl. we look worse than we have all season. and then we have one good minute of play resulting in a game to end the second quarter..

i definately love mckenzie, a true hard nut, but also love the loyalty he showed to the red and blue by not leaving for adelaide. definately a player that is in the mould of james mcdonald, just hard at it, constant tryer at every contest.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21503 also i love the idea, and would love to help, i am gutted that i am in the goaldcoast until the end of the 4th so i cant really help out but updates would be amazing

i agree 100%, also who do you have as captain?

i personally think bruce will retire, anyone else agree?

so did i, but mfc put him down as 83

i see where your coming from, watts has not looked like he will set the world on fire yet. i think it is important to remember that nick riedwolt came into the team at already 90 kilos, watts was ridiculously underwieght recquired to play afl. also he had last season which can barely count as he was in school, did not full time train, this season he has shown significant improvement (with a hindered pre season), apart from losing his feet a little bit, with a bit more weight and core strength he will not do that so much. i have already posted these figures before but i really think it shows how players develop nick riedwolt first season, 93 kilos 2001 St Kilda 6 games 43 kicks 14 handballs 57 total disposals 26 marks 2 goals 2 behinds 3 tackles 1 frees against 3 frees for jack watts this season ,85 kilos, (last season didnt count as he was still doing vce barely training. 2010 melbourne 5 games 28 kicks 27 handballs 55 total disposals 15 marks 4 goals 1 behind 5 tackles 7 frees against 7 frees for now i know that he is a fair way off rising star tis year, but in effectively his first season he is equal to or even better than an already appropriately weighted nick riedwolt. i think we have a star i dont want to put all this expected pressure, but i really think the mfc have found a gem, when he is weight appropriate we will see, next season will be effectively his second season so would love to see him play 22 games, and have figures similar to riedwolts again, just more goals

i agree partially, if you are saying we need to generate more shots at goal this is very true, although this will come with time when a forward line is synced together, and this could be helped by a role model such as lyon, schwartz or neitz, problem with lyon and schwartz is they are both in the media probably on quite lucrative contracts, hard to compete with, why not neitz. i disagree if you are talking about goal kicking accuracy, i think we have several of the best set shot players in the league, dunn, bate, watts and jurrah, all amazing set shots, wonna aswell. miller is up and down, but our key forwards have great set shots.

agree with everyone above why? the only team IMO to win a grandfinal based around a forward line could be north with wayne carey? most grandfinal teams are based around a core defence, and hence we have developed our core defence first

i disagree, i feel that collingwood still played well, they made all the chances, they had 5 inside 50s for the match and a ridiculously high tackle count, the reason that they couldnt convert on oppourtunities was the fact that we gave them minimal set shots, apart from the first quarter they had very few easy goals, or easy shots at goals, hence the high points tally. admittedly they dropped, but they were far from hopeless, and it was just melbourne who lifted, started to hit targets, and dealt with collingwoods pressure to rise.

our whole defense was running forwards, morton and garland made space and both kicked goals frawley was in the 50 at one stage when aaron davey had his set shot calling for the ball, and was often rebounding out of defense warnock did it several times, when he was on the wing breaking tackles most notably grimes does it always, seen when he missed neville jetta with that one poor disposal bartram does it too i think its more our style of play to have those running defenders strauss will do the job too, if you watch vic metro highlights video, rebounds out of defense to hit watts on the lead, amazing!

he was p**ssed off at himself, he said something like if i was in the right position on jolly they wouldnt have got the goal, he was almost in tears he was that disappointed at his one mistake, which he felt cost the team the win, i think that is the attitude you want at a club, he bleeds red and blue. also i was talking to my old man about how good jamar was, and a bloke that past by said, lucky the trade to port adelaide didnt go through, he informed me that at the start of the year it was all but confirmed apart from jamar saying he wanted to stay in the red and blue, has anyone heard anything about that?

i am big wraps for jack watts, and will admit he does make a few mistakes, like any tall forward especially early on. he has been losing his feet lately which is a problem, mind you it will be fixed when he is weighing around 95 kilos, which is still another 10 kilos off where he is now. i think he leads to really good positions, leads hard and finds hmself in space quite often, and isnt used enough. his ground kicking is great. goal kicking is great. decision making at times not so great. there is alot to like and i compare him to an early nick riedwolt. nick riedwolt first season, 93 kilos 2001 St Kilda 6 games 43 kicks 14 handballs 57 total disposals 26 marks 2 goals 2 behinds 3 tackles 1 frees against 3 frees for jack watts this season ,85 kilos, (last season didnt count as he was still doing vce barely training. 2010 melbourne 5 games 28 kicks 27 handballs 55 total disposals 15 marks 4 goals 1 behind 5 tackles 7 frees against 7 frees for watts is on the right track IMO, everyone should get off his back, wait until he is weighing about 95 kilos, had 2-3 seasons, and then we can judge him.

bit like hodge...but also he is 21, i think let beamer or davey take it for 3-5 seasons then we can judge, and i agree it will likely be jack grimes. but all the pressure of captaincy on a 21 year old is tough, remeber with all the talk about brock mclean, lucky we didnt make him captain. not saying grimes will leave, but just 21 is a bit early

i am big wraps for jack watts, and will admit he does make a few mistakes, like any tall forward especially early on. he has been losing his feet lately which is a problem, mind you it will be fixed when he is weighing around 95 kilos, which is still another 10 kilos off where he is now. i think he leads to really good positions, leads hard and finds hmself in space quite often, and isnt used enough. his ground kicking is great. goal kicking is great. decision making at times not so great. there is alot to like and i compare him to an early nick riedwolt. nick riedwolt first season, 93 kilos 2001 St Kilda 6 games 43 kicks 14 handballs 57 total disposals 26 marks 2 goals 2 behinds 3 tackles 1 frees against 3 frees for jack watts this season ,85 kilos, (last season didnt count as he was still doing vce barely training. 2010 melbourne 5 games 28 kicks 27 handballs 55 total disposals 15 marks 4 goals 1 behind 5 tackles 7 frees against 7 frees for watts is on the right track IMO, everyone should get off his back, wait until he is weighing about 95 kilos, had 2-3 seasons, and then we can judge him. i think next season is when we will start to see him grab games by the scruff of the neck. and he will prove he is twice the player naitanui is.

the fact is bartram has had 5 goals kicked on him this season, and has owned the small defender role, taking several players to the cleaners, including leon davis yesterday. cheney in comparrison to bartram IMO is much slower and not as good with the ball, but he is better overhead. he will play this season, it is just hard to slot him in at the moment, and i think he will struggle to break into the team throughout with our defence being amazingly good. he just provides the depth for if an injury is to occur, same with tommy mc and james strauss this season. next season there will be an open spot in the backline because bruce is very likely to retire, and i think strauss will slot in ahead of cheney, hence getting a massive workout in defence at casey, and will play that reboundin, kickout defender role, option for the switch that bruce plays averagely. garland up forward i was a big advocate of this earlier on when it looked like our forward line was in a dissarray, but i think the dunn, bate, jurrah and watts combination will work amazing, with miller standing in quite well too. morton and garland yesterday were both instrumental off defense, with disposal efficiency over 75%, and moving them from there for cheney whose disposal is questionable, will probably just put more pressure on the melbourne defence and midfield throughout, not that i dont like cheney, i just think, why chop and change a defense that apart from a few matches, has played absolutely amazingly.