Jrod

Rivers was terrific yesterday! Took good marks when they were there, when they werent he spoiled the ball and kept his feet. Also put on quite a few good tackles. Lets remember though that brisbane probably have THE WORST forward line in the league. So having a great performance as a defender should be expected. Grimes, Frawley and in particular Garland have to be better. Garland has been very soft lately with horrible disposal. Also Grimes seems to have a lost a lot of his confidence and decision making.

Hello Keyser! What part of my post is stupid? Please explain to me why Scully would have only signed a 2 year rookie contract when the standard is 3 years, if he wasn't looking to move to Great Western Sydney?... Very quick to slam my post but you don't provide any rebuttal at all.

Okay..., so after reading this thread the one thing I can say with certainty is that there are a lot of deluded fans here. No one wants to believe that Tom Scully is going to leave Melbourne simply for Dollars, so you are all trying to think of reasons for why he would stay. BUT why wouldn't he go to GWS? What ties does he have to the club at the moment? There is a reason Scully chose to only sign a two year rookie contract not a three year contract like Trengrove. People on this site have been saying Tom is very driven, professional, cares about the demons, has known the playing group for a long time, his family and support network are in Melbourne. News flash, 100% of those statements were true for Gary Ablett Junior too, Ablett’s support network was in Geelong, he was born and raised in Geelong, he supported Geelong growing up, yet still chose to leave! Why will Scully be different? (Note: there was jousting in amongst Demons staff about whether to pick Scully number one or two, because they were afraid he wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure of being a number one pick?) GWS will offer Scully a much much bigger contract than the Demons can, and I believe Scully will take it! It hurts to say this but it is the truth and we need to realise it. I take some solace in the fact that I think trengrove is going to be a better player, appears to be tougher, is bigger in size and has a bigger engine from what I have seen. If Scully was going to even contemplate signing with Melbourne and it wasn't about dollars, why wouldn't he negotiate now??? There is no sane answer for that? By not signing with Melbourne he is throwing the dice that he won’t get a devastating injury at any point this year. The only reason he would wait and risk that is because GWS have expressed interest in him and given him an indication of Dollars. GWS would gladly spend more money on Scully rather than Pendulbry. Pendulbry is proven as a gun, is better right now, but GWS want a player who will be a gun in 2 years, not now. Scully is a perfect fit for team captain there. Why would Scully go to GWS? To be the face of the franchise, to be THE man there, also there are the dollars? The future for GWS in Scully's prime i.e. 2013 to 2018, will be far better than the Demons. It is a sad fact but after the year 2014, the Demons will be light on talent, with GWS and Gold Coast stealing 90% of all the good young players it should be a given that GWS and Gold Coast will dominate during that period, or at least more likely to be competetive than the teams that are good now (collingwood, st kilda, etc) The only plausible way I think Demons could keep Scully, is if we make the grand final this year and LOSE it! Then he will think okay, I can stay here for less money and challenge for a flag or even win it next year. If we make the granny and win it, then he will say, okay there is nothing more to do here, I will go to GWS for heaps of dollars. If we don't make the granny he won't stay because who knows how we will go next year. I think we are ready for finals this year, and need to make a charge at a flag this year or the next. Most of our players are in thier primes or about to be next year. Losing Scully next year will hurt, big time! Hopefully we can trade the picks we get back for someone who can help us immediatley so we don't stumble too much. Scully is going to leave, we need to acknowledge this and embrace it. The writing is on the wall in blue and red blood!

They didn't play badly. But colllingwood was our second game! No one knew how skillfull our young team was, so Malthouse had no idea he had to prepare for it. They were caugh off guard. Bulldogs are old and slow, and they still smashed us in the first quater. It was good to come back and be close but i have had enough of a Melbourne side that doesn't start well then chases their tales the rest of the game. It is too hard on the players and the fans. THe last 5 years has proved that! I think the jury is still out on us!

First off i would like to say that as Melbourne Demon fans we need to get a grip and return to reality, a top 4 side??? seriously? We shouldn't be even contemplating top 8 at this stage. It is great that we are now competetive but we are yet to play good teams at their home ground. Or even play well away from the MCG!!! We have been pounded by two of the worst teams in the comp in Hawthorn and North Melbourne. North would have been a much worse game if the Roos had come out ready to play instead of wandering on to the field sipping pina colada's in the 3rd quater! Our wins: Richmond and Adelaide - No way should we have come close to losing these two. Brisbane - great win, brissy caught off guard away from home with a slow midfield and injured superstar forward. Our losses: Got absolutley smashed and embarresed by Hawthorn and North Melbourne, and 1st quater against the Dogs! Narrow losses to good sides in Collingwood and the Dogs. The dogs are old and slow, not premiership contenders in my eyes. Collingwood probably caught off guard, hadn't seen our midfield and defense play the way they can and obviously couldn't prepare a game plan for it. Mark my words we will get thumped by collingwood once Malthouse has had a chance to see what our midfield is capable of! The real truth will be revealed against Geelong. No doubt we go in with better odds than the last two years. But i wouldn't be touching melbourne for anything less than $10 to $1! Dees need to play well at a different ground before we can start to really think about becoming a competetive team in the league! We have battled through 4 years of filth, over handballing, underskilled football. It is GREAT to have the young talent comming through, and i am almost on a horn thinking about when we get Morton, Jurrah and Pettard all on the field with Grimes, Scully, Trengrove and McKenzie. The future is bright but near future is blind. The failure that is Watts needs to be forgotten. It was a mistake to pick him ahead of Natanui or even a traffic cone. We need to accept this and look at other options. I don't want to become an essendon type fan shouting the name Gumbleton/Laycock/Johns as being our saviour after 4 years of giving nothing! Call a spade a spade, watts is a failure. We have gotten nothing out of him and he is battling in VFL!... We should be glad we got Scully and Trengrove and not be greedy resting our hopes on Watts, who ironically is the least electric player ever to suit up for Melbourne! As far as umpiring goes. They hurt us badly in the fourth quater, but we lost because we couldn't kick a goal in the 1st. The out of bounds on the full rule needs to be revisited, an unintentional kick shouldn't be out on the full, it is punishing players chasing the ball hard trying to keep it in play! The AFL wants the play to continue at all costs so why punish players for this? Holding the ball - this rule is unbelievably stupid!!! I hate seeing a player get tackled, withstand the tackle, get spun, still deliver a good handball, then be penalised for being strong enough to ignore a poor tackle attempt. That is an awful tackle! Why should it be rewarded? Holding the ball should only be reserved when a player is brought down to ground or locked up after trying to take another player on! It shouldn't be when players get spun around or when they are in the bottom of the pack and the umpire thinks they didn't do enough to keep the ball alive! Holding the man - this needs to be paid way more often!!! It is absurd that a guy chasing the ball can be pulled, held, shunted before he even picks up the ball! This is not rewarding the player who is first at the ball! In the back - The worst applied rule going around. The amount of times a player gets pushed in the back when he is kicking and it doesn't get called is unreal! You chase a player down, tackle them, and some how you get punished because you tackled them from behind? Where else should a player tackle someone from when chasing them down??? Rant over. I cannot wait to see how we go the next few weeks. If we smash westcoast and compete against geelong we are here for real! Otherwise we still have a lot of work to do and key positions to fill!

I am nervous about next week. If we don't dominate West Coast at the G then we have just gotten lucky against the Bulldogs, Pies and the Lions. Teams that are for real will always man handle horrible sides like Richmond, Adelaide, West Coast, and to a lesser extent Hawthorn and Essendon. The fact that hawthorn smashed us sooooo badly in round 1 (with out franklin), makes me a bit aprehensive about this weeks game!

I am still seething about the umpires uniforms and decisions during that game. They should have made the umpires run around with no shirts on!! Cost us the game in my opinion. Bruce played okay. You can't afford to look at it week by week tho. Its a matter of principal in where the club wants to head. Do you want one of your most senior players and leaders to be someone who continually has poor disposal by hand. How [censored] hard is it to handball??? I cannot for the life of me understand why he handballs like that? It is the worst i have seen in the league!!! He is too old, and there is just no bang for you buck with him, in terms of experience vs effectiveness. His place in the side should be given to someone who is younger that can be developed. He is hardly a crucial piece to our back line which revolves around Frawley, Warnock, Grimes and Garland when he is there. In a perfect worl morton would take bruces spot, but in the mean time we should be rotating other young players through to try and find a piece that fits for the next 5 years, rather than running Bruce in every week! Lets face it leaving him out of a side isn't going to decide a match, neither is including him. Even if it did we are not going to make finals this year so why waste 22 games of a "developement season" playing a subpar 31 year old??? I boggles my mind how people think this is a good idea? He is not even a leader at the club. I would agree to leave him in if he provided leadership by example on the field, but he is soft, panics, has poor disposal and gets far too much of the ball for someone who does the first three things so well.

Miracle I'm not quite sure what your quote of mine is meant to say? do you agree or not? I don't love bagging Bruce, or any of our players. But in his case it is definitley warranted. He shows no heart out there and has looked incompetent the past few years. For someone of his age and expereince he definitely hurts us more than he helps us. There is no bang for your buck with Bruce! He is not 100% disgraceful, probably 60 or 70%, but he is no better than any of the young players he is getting a guernsey ahead of! I can understand how some people such as yourself love him because he used to be a gun in 04. But if the demons are serious about turning over a new leaf from 07 onwards then they really need to get rid of him. For one of your most senior players to be getting as many touches as he does and use them so ineffectively it cannot be good for the footy club!

The issue isn't Bruce's game today. It is his form all year thus far, and most of last year! Just and example in the Brisbane game in the first quater he had 7 handballs, 1 went to a player who was able to use it, 3 went to players who were being tackled as they received it (while Bruce was more alone than the player he handballed to) and 3 were handballed either over the head of the intended recipient, or behind them or infront of them and the Lions cleaned up the ball. This is not an uncommon occurance! Bruce is 31 years old! The only other player older than him is J.McDonald! Who is unmeasurably more valuable to the Demons. Bruce is our second oldest players and wouldn't be in our top 15. In the past two years his disposal has consisted of handballing to people under pressure who have no other option than to give it back to him or kicking it to outnumbered contests, and he never kicks it long! I have no doubt that he has himself in his Dream Team but not in his supercoach team! His use of the ball is for lack of a better word, appalling! He needs to be let go from the club asap. It is a bad influence on the young guys at the club to be playing next to him. My main issue is that by playing him, not only do we hurt our teams flow and use of the ball, but we are wasting a spot on an ineffective 31 year old that could be used on an ineffective 20 year old. It would have to be extremely disheartening to all of the younger players (never mind the fans) on the ground to see their vice captain, and second oldest player, making mistakes like these at crucial points in the game. Honestly when was the last time melbourne needed a goal or to stem the tide and bruce was involved in a great play that made you say "phew, that was good!". I am genuinely suprised whenever he doesn't muck up! He was a great player for us, but we are not the same team we used to be, and it is not the same game it was 5 years ago. He clearly is moulded for that style of game and needs to be given his marchign orders. Also why did Bailey bring back Jared Rivers??? This bloke is a disease! I cannot remember the last time i saw Rivers play with out getting toweld by his direct opponent? In summary, Rivers, Bruce and Miller need to be shown the door! They are not good enough for their experience and age. Melbourne has declared a youth policy, so follow through with it!