Grandson of a gun

Great post Billy. Nice analysis. I share your enthusiam and hope but the realistic side of me unfortunately doesn't align and i think we will finish in the 10-12 range. But who knows hey.............

Not really. Not based on last weeks performances. I think they got the selection absolutely right with Maric out and McDonald in. It was good enough for the captain to come back from injury through Casey so it is good enough for Jack.

Not a disgrace. The unfortunate reality of having a bit of depth in that area. If we are gonna be a top team these tough calls need to be made. As above. Correct Skipper. Bottom line is that Maric played OK in a team where we didn't have a bad player. The captain is coming back and someone had to make way. They don't want to rest Scully this week. McKenzie provides so much grunt in the midfield they have decided to keep him and other blokes thrown up like Jones were better than Maric. He is stiff but that is life in the big time. If the rumours on Watts are true then he may well still play with Trengove to return through the two's. Don't think Warnock will get a guernsey unless one of the other tall defenders withdraws.

Form and ability. Melbourne should win. However: Brisbane at home Coming off 2 thumpings on the road The coach, players and FD being put under the microscope Melbourne coming off a huge win Young Melbourne minds I am not confident at all. Man i hope i am wrong.

It is awesome. IT should be back and the alternate years theory is a great option. I suggest that it should be Vic v Sa; Wa v Qld/NSW/Tas combine. Lets face it, Vic v SA is the biggest rivalry and the one everyone would love. WA v the rest can then be given time to develop. There is nothing better than seeing the best players in the comp running around. Make the game mid year and make it compulsory. If a player pulls out then he cannot play the next game for his club. That will sort out the issue of players, having a twinge when SOO is on. Injuries will happen. It's just the nature of our sport. But they happen in that useless comp at the start of the year too.

The white doesn't look great. But it is better than some of the others we have had. Perhaps next years clash strip will be white, with a big new emblem in the middle???????????????/

Now now SG. I never said Watts couldn't leave. What i actually said was i had no fear of it. I do however fear that those martians have in fact performed that anal lobotomy on you. Your reading and comprehension has clearly suffered. Bye.

I remember 87. Love the dream. Wouldn't knock it back this year but don't think history will repeat. Beat Brisbane. Beat Richmond and Beat North and we have progressed and achieved the goals we had at the start of the year.

Good post Dusty. It is the problem that has affected the Saints. They are awesome at Etihad. Not so good elsewhere. Sydney are in that boat to a degree too. I too believe it will come as the team develops but this week will be a big hurdle to jump in their development.

Yep i agree. The more shite we're given, the better we're getting. Bring it on...... Can't wait till Melbourne knock off Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon and listen to talkback go into meltdown about the "tanking".

Chip is All Australian at the moment. His chase spoke for itself. His confidence to back himself and run off his man also damages the opposition. Lake and Chip are the two Best (read- most in form) backs at the moment in the comp. Another example of why getting games into kids is so important.

Everyone looked good. The question is whether he did what the coaches asked of him. Junior will come back this week. Moloney probably. Trengove won't. They may REST Scully or McKenzie given their workload. This will see Maric retain his spot. If they don't REST players and there are no injuries then i think he may be very unlucky. He needs to keep building on that performance. It will be interesting to see how he goes in the team when things aren't going so well.

I agree. The only thing being that they might rest McKenzie given his workload and his similarities to the role McDonald plays. Trengove to come back in the magoos. The other in may be Warnock. Remember he and Frawley dominated Fev and Brown in Round 4.

Brisbane by 19 points. Fev to go nuts. (I have that horrible feeling about this week. Brisbane on the rebound after two smackings, Melbourne coming off a huge win (mental letdown), poor travel record, Voss playing mind games etc). I hope i am wrong by 15 goals the other way.

We are where we should be. We weren't good enough in those other games so that is that. It is heartening that we got close but i still think that we are a little way off being a finals team. We are way too inconsistent with our effort and mental application, we struggle at Etihad and our travel record is abysmal. We are moving in the right direction but people just need to be patient. We will be good at times. We will be bad. Nature of the beast for this year and next i believe. We won't get as easy a draw next year as we start to improve (something i believe the Bombers suffered a bit with after making the finals last year) and teams will be more of a wake up to us. 7-8 wins this year. 10-12 next year. Forward progress is what i crave and the real stuff begins from 2012 onwards.

Pointless topic. I'd be more worried about a martian coming down and performing a lobotomy through DemonSG's rectum than Watts going anywhere. Move on.

The stadium itself, its positioning in the city, ease of access by public transport, ability to be indoor or outdoor etc are all good. The surface is the only problem. They just need to be prepared to shell out several million to fix the problem. The US Masters at Augusta had a problem for years with one of their greens. It was covered in part by overhanging trees which blocked out the natural sunlight for much of the day. This resulted in poor growth of that particular area of the green, uneven pace of the grass and imperfections etc. The USGA or whoever run Augusta solved the problem by diggin up the green and installing in-ground heaters. The heaters helped the germination of the grass, promoted deep root growth and they have never had a problem since. This sounds awfully a lot like the problem at Etihad and would seem to be the best solution. Stick the heaters in the ground at the point where the soil starts (about 2/3rds of a meter down i believe). This will promote the growth required and then with the assistance of uv lighting if required it will be fine. It is an expensive initial outlay but in the long term will reap the benefits of allowing them to schedule concerts etc late in summer without damaging the ground for AFL. It just comes down to them being willing to part with the almighty $

Yeah look i have no problem him getting a game now. People have been going on about how good he has been at Casey. Correct me if i am wrong but he has not been BOG once. He has been in the best a couple of times but it is not as if he is tearing it apart. 6-8 weeks off at the end of the year wasn't what i was referring to regarding major injury Maurie. I was referring to the Blease type injury. Or Petterd or Jurrah. 6-8 weeks at the end of a season smells like an otherwise medium term injury that the club decides is worthy of early surgery so a bloke gets himself right for the upcoming pre-season. If he had the last 6 weeks off last year that would have meant the club was getting him cherry right for pre season and getting himself in the best condition to really push for selection in the Melbourne side. Something that he clearly hasn't done until Round 17. I have serious questions about someone who has been at the club that long and is in the position Maric is in. As i said previously, good luck to him and i hope he plays well for the last part of the year. If not then he needs to have a good look at himself over summer / MFC really need to consider what to do with him.

I don't have a problem with the AFL doing Monday night football. I think it is better than Thursday night. I have a huge problem with the lack of Sat arvo 2.10pm games. That is an indictment. With the AFL demanding all games be shown live, the broadcaster simply doesn't want to have to pad out their footy coverage or fill in with a show between 5.00 and 6.00. All clubs benefit from the extra TV rights money but it shouldn't be at the expense of the fans.

Looks like hell is rising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fly in the face of reality. Sorry Maurie but you have to be joking. If he had shown ANYTHING up until now he would have been a regular fixture in the team. He coldn't even crack a regular senior game when we were tanking / developing the last 2 years. He played well last week. Missed the week before because he was emergency at MFC. Played ok the week before. Was terrible against Willi. Was ordinary before that. It wasn't as if he was BOG every week. I agree he deserves to be CONSIDERED for a call up but be realistic. As i said in my previous post, i hope he proves me wrong as it will be all the better long term for MFC but he has shown absolutely nothing to give me the confidence that he will. He has been on the list 3 years and hasn't had any serious injury. So if he hasn't been getting regular game time it's down to two things. Lack of ability or lack of mental application. I would say the latter is the case! This is the astute point Dappa Dan. Maric is playing for his future instead of just a list clogger. I know he has another year on his contract but if he doesn't show something now then he will be either trade bait or a Daniel Bell at Casey.

That's assuming a- there is a gun KPP available and b- they want to play for you. Plus c- trading out players like they are meat in a premiership window is a dangerous past time and can tear the club and playing group into pieces. (See Campbell Brown). bet Geelong would agree there, getting rid of Bartel & Selwood would tear that place apart. I understand where you are coming from, however i still believe that you cannot just ignore the clubs needs. I assume you mean with the 08 and 09 drafts as we haven't yet had a 2010 draft. I disagree though. I still believe they drafted what they needed to help fill holes in the list. Your final sentence though is a contradiction to your theory of best available as there is every liklihood that by our first selection there is likely to be a higher ranked midfielder than tall available. You suggest we NEED to draft that tall but by your theory we won't because the mid is rated better, yet you'll be surprised??? That is the flaw. We need a tall. We should draft a tall. If they don't they are mad. Will just agree to disagree.

I don't believe so. Gold Coast operate under a different rule set than everyone else.

I just see that as too short sighted philosophy and i would argue that recruiters would/do too. For Melbourne, they were lucky at that time that not only was Watts the best player, but also perfectly suited to what they needed. No good drafting a bunch of 6 footers if you've got no-one to kick it too.