DemonWA

I believe signing Trengove and Grimes as co captains was for a number of reasons; 1. Both were seen as critical players to keep at the club long term - The captaincy is an additional emotional tie to 'lock them in' for the long term 2. Neither of them had played enough games to warrent giving the captaincy to just one of them, thus the co-captain route 3. There was seen to be no real leaders from the old guys who could provide the whole onfield and off field package (eg. Beamer probably ticked the onfield box only....) If Grimes and Trengove finish their careers as greats of the MFC it will have been a good move, but latley i wonder whether giving the captaincy to Brent Moloney would have been the best thing for the club in the short to medium term? PS. I still believe Trengove can become our Jimmy Bartel style player

Yes we did well but he's still a scum. I'm i was at the G i'd be trying for a seat near the GWS dug out so i could abuse him every time he was dragged for costly turnovers

Grimes does occasionally pull out a howler of a kick, but that's almost the least of our worries. I think the biggest concern for us is the growing list of players who seem to have gone backwards or stalled over the last couple of years. If these guys dont show any improvement i'm not sure how we can start getting successful; Jamar - Enough has been said Frawley - Enough has been said Garland - Seems to have changed his defensive style in one on one contests? Was trying to wrestle with Kennedy and Darling, when a couple of years ago he would have spoiled with his go-go-gadget arms! Tapscott - some promising signs on the weekend, but still dropped a few very markable balls in key passages - needs to coment himself at this level Trengove - Perhaps he isnt the midfielder we thought, says he is almost 100% fit, yet still looks down on pace, perhaps his role is more of a HFF? Nicholson - Seems to have flatlined in his form at AFL level Blease - Shows glimpses but needs to impact entire games of footy Watts - Enough has been said Dunn - Enough has been said Strauss - hasnt shown much at all at AFL level In a good team guys like Sylvia, Blease & Watts could be 'icing on the top' type players at their current stage of development . Unfortunatley at melbourne we're still trying to bake the cake....

A Jack Watts opinion piece is fast becoming the footy media's solution to a slow news day*. Nailed it in the first line!

Need McKenzie to tag Ward and we'll be fine

Hawkins was not a number 1 pick, albeit he was highly rated. Sorry to say it but if you are pick #1 your going to cop it if you arent a gun straight off the bat! Might not be fair, but its the way it is

Hope to see a few "JUDA$" banners dusted off and hung from the stand's at the G on the weekend!

I get sucked in everytime I get a call for those damn expensive tickets! That cheerful kiwi lady who calls knows how to twist my rubber arm! somehow she is able to convince me that 3 for $500 is money well spent Having said that if i was to get a call about a $200 ticket after the last 3 weeks i'd politley decline!

If Neeld was to survive a loss to GWS, he wouldnt survive past the end of the season. loosing to GWS is unacceptable when accompanied with 2012 and the first 3 rounds

haha no club has a chance of getting him to leave the Dogs (in my opinion)

I'll start off by saying that Martin is a disgrace of a footballer, destined to have a similar career to Jamar, one good season out of many! – soft as butter, looks like Tarzan plays like Jane. As for Byrnes, Gillies, Rodan and Pederson i'd seperate those guys into two groups; Rodan, Byrnes, – I can see why we took these guys on. Remember we didn’t pay big money for them or give them particularly long contracts. The list is full of kids and they need to have some experienced guys around the group. IMO a lot of Melbourne’s demise can be traced back to when Bailey made room for the 2009 draft and got rid of Wheatley, Wheelan, Robbo and the rest of them. Brock left too. One year later Jr McDonald & Cam Bruce were gone. We brought in young players with talent, but these young guys never had senior leaders to learn form and never were made to work hard enough for their first game. I think the press like to bag these two selections, but playing games is a bonus….its more about the mentoring and wiser heads they provide around the change room. Gillies, Pederson – Im not sold on any of these guys, although neither have played much AFL footy and it would be hard to look good playing for Melbourne at the moment. Time will tell whether they were good selections or not.

i'm guessing he was 12 pints deep into a hafty session and thought he was hitting the space bar, but was actually hitting the full stop!

nice summary of the round. I think when we play sides like GWS our guys look at the guy they match up on and believe they can win. GWS and the Suns are about the only sides where i believe that the players think like this. Dees by 36 points

Isnt that what Neeld did when he got to the club?! Tore the boys out of a bubble bath in threw them into an ice bath? If he had slowly added some ice to the bubble bath we might have had a better 2012. Moloney & Rivers might still be at the club and amougnst our better players.... We dont need a hard arse comando type, we need a COACH!

Bring back Dean Bailey [/troll post] It is funny though, downhill skiing (like we did under Bailey) might not have been such a bad gameplan approach for a young and developing team after all; kicking goals builds confidence and instills belief. Learn how to do that first and then learn how to apply defensive pressure and you have the makings of a premiership team - Footy accoridng to Dean Bailey, and perhaps Matt Knights, even Brad Scott think likewise. I think Woosha did the same at the eagles back in ’02 as well. Somehow the playing group need to get some real belief back. A win against GWS might help. I'm sure Neeld is trying to find out what he needs to do to help in this dept, becasue the clock is ticking on his coaching career if the team continues to get thrashed. Last year all we heard about was teaching the blokes to defend and be hard to play against and fast forward to 2013 we're the exact opposite!

yep, best mark i have ever seen live. Embley would have been away if he had got the ball too, thought Howey might have tried to spoil but then BAM!

If Mitch Robinson accepted a contract from us i'd be bloody suprised.

This isnt regarding the overall 'game plan' but It seems to me our players are instructed to take on a would be tackler everytime, ensuring they keep thir arms free to get away a hand ball, so they dont get caught holding the ball. Now, on one hand i can see the logic, if the tackle doesnt stick they are away, and if the manage to get the ball to another one of our players then they have eliminated the player that is hanging around their waist. Downside is that the handball is generally not very good becasue it is effected by the tackle. Whats wrong with getting rid of the ball before you're tackled? Anyone else notice that our entire team, and defenders particularly, do this?

Another Jack Watts opinion piece? Boring, I'd prefer to read stories about Carlton being on the verge of 0-4, having no decent KPP's and the fact they lured Malthouse back from retirement with an outdated game plan?

So what (if any) conclusions can you draw C&B? I thought the eagles midfield were a bit fumbly in the 1st half which allowed our guys to effect tackles and pressure their disposal. After half time they seemed much cleaner which allowed them to dispose of the ball a fraction earlier than they were able to do in the first half, which opened us up - they had superior pace/spread all oveer the ground and their forward line was too strong for a backline which had no winners on the day? My biggest positive from the day was the performance from Evans and Bail on the wings and Sylvia and Tapscott on the flanks - at least we seemed to have some structure for getting the ball from one end of the ground to the other (when we did get our hands on the ball)

Out: Garland, Pederson, Toumpas In: Watts, Kent, Blease Jetta Frawley Sellar Grimes McDonald Terlich Bail M Jones Evans Sylvia Watts Tapscott Howe Clark Davey Ruck: Jamar, N Jones, Viney IC: Byrnes, Trengove, Kent Sub: Blease

I thought he did well at the center bounces... Better than the last few weeks

Maybe its because I don't live here and back it up week after week, but I had a reasonably enjoyable day at the footy! 1st half was good on many levels, but we couldn't go with them when they lifted after half time. Eagles were sloppy in the first half but our pressure was good. the snap goals from davey and howe, plus the hanger were nice hightlights for me. More enjoyable than the last few years of ganes I've sat through at subiaco anyway!! Heads up, we're just not any good!

Congrats to all See you at the 'G! I'll be the poor bastard with 6 or 7 west coast supporters in tow haha

If i was a player at the MFC i would love to see past players getting involved in the club. Perhaps President is a little lofty, but seeing the Ox come and throw his support behind the club would signal to me that the club is a life long thing, something that you are part of for life. Who knows could make a diference to guys like Chippa, Syliva and Watts when the time comes for them to sign new deals