Pates

As an aside when was the last time we were in the 8 at the end of a round? Did it happen in 2010, it didn't happen at any time during Roosy's years as far as I know and it definitely didn't happen during Mark Neeld's tenure.

Well apart from beating North Melbourne (god I want that one gone this year) we're into the business end of the records. With finals and things that have us at the northern part of the ladder. I say we keep ticking them off until we get to the all important one.....

This is a really good pick up in my opinion, something we have lacked is some polish out the half back line (Salem was meant to be that this year but had his Thyroid issues). Now we've got Hibberd, Melksham, (Vince as well), and Salem as options back there plus Hunt with his run and carry. Welcome to the Dees Michael!

His whole speech is like a stand up roasting routine! Love the guy!

Haha by creeping I mean I know it's not going to happen this year, and probably not next year!

Think we'll have to do that again this week, we're the away team so I'd expect us to wear that thing. 4 in a row, 2006 the last time that happened (we actually won 5 in a row twice that year). We're starting to creep towards the most important record of them all....a premiership.

Well on the other hand it's probably a lot easier to continue a downward trend in W/L!

Don't forget there were periods in our history the WE were the dominant team! Pretty hard to improve when your the best team in the comp. And it is also actually very difficult to continue having an upward trend for improvement in W/L ratio. At some point you either get to the top, get your teams ceiling of improvement, or you just get some bad luck. Would be interested to know the all time AFL record for improved consecutive seasons.

I'll quibble over cost if it costs us Hogan. I believe we are already building a very very good midfield, obviously Fyfe would make it better but I don't want to lose the big forward we've already invested so much into for Fyfe. Inquire but also think of the bigger picture.

True, that one we were so close to breaking this year too (probably should have). If we can knock those two off they would be the two most frustrating records broken on the list.

You have too much time on you hands....

Big chance to knock another couple off this week. 3 in a row + Port + Port in Adelaide. I'm just so stoked that we've got over the Hawthorn hurdle, surely next year the St Kilda one has to be smashed into the ground.

I gotta say, this one coming up this week is one of the big ones I want irradiated! Beating saints at Etihad can't even remember the last time, and it's been 10 years since we've beaten them anywhere. 10 years FCS! I've got a fair few saints fans as well so they don't let me forget it! Also when was/have we ever won a match the week after a game in Darwin?

Something I have noticed the umps have forgotten is the rule change from last year where if a player ducks his head and gets tackled that is considered prior opportunity. Someone is going to really hurt themselves until the AFL start punishing players when they do that.

One big question on Fremantle is how big will their rebuild be? The other question is whether Ross Lyon is the man to pull it off. He has walked into two teams who were classified "contenders" but he took St Kilda to the edge and left them needing a rebuild, he's now done the same with Fremantle and they will have to go through their list and decide who will be there for the next window and who won't. Either way you would imagine they will be at least 2-3 years from being in any kind of legitimate bracket of contention, and it could very well be longer. Point is Jesse has just been through witnessing that at Melbourne, if he does end up choosing Freo he'll have to go through that again but this time as messiah meant to lead them to glory and be on stupid money so therefor have even more expectation and scrutiny. Now obviously he's going to have scrutiny wherever he plays, but there is something about leaving a club that has drafted and developed you to go somewhere else that adds a lot more weight. We are on the up, but more than that he doesn't appear to be copping the messiah tag as often as before. He had pretty harsh criticism levelled at him earlier in the year but now that he's knuckled down and the team is doing well the criticism has dissipated. We'll be offering him pretty stupid money as well, so he won't have to worry about that, I think he'll have to ask himself what he actually wants out of his career. Money or the chance to be a part of something.

I'm not fussed with Jesse's form this year, early on it wasn't great but he's now working hard and he got personal reward for effort against St Kilda. He's certainly playing further up the ground and working with Watts as link men at appropriate times. More goals will come and now that he's kicked a bag against the Saints I feel more are around the corner. Ultimately we're winning and that's the most important thing for both the club and Jesse.

Yeah an in play decision review seemed pretty strange, particularly as the umpires rarely call touched off the boot unless they're sure. The point of defenders potentially acting differently is another issue as well. The AFL review system would probably be one of the most flawed in world sport.

I don't know if the early games/NAB Cup he was instructed to be more stay at home but now that he's getting more of the ball in the Half Forward line he's looking a lot better. He's clunking marks and kicking goals, what more could you want from a still developing forward!

We keep winning, that is step 1 to retaining Jesse. He sees good things happening here I think he'll want to stay.

I hate saying this, but I do see a bit of Jack Reiwoldt in Hogan with regard to attitude. The tigers fans experienced it with Richo and as he retired up bobbed Jack doing the same thing. Dropping a mark and getting upset, or having an off day with the hands so playing for frees. Now it's great that he is annoyed with himself that he missed a mark or something like that but Jonno Brown should be his inspiration, if Brown missed a mark he followed the play up right until the end and then allowed himself to be angry. That all said the delivery into Hogan (although he missed a couple of good chances) was absolutely in the favour of the defenders for the first 3 quarters. 4th quarter we had open 50 and hit him up on leads. He showed the Hogan we'll see more often as he becomes more experienced.

The major difference between the Mick/Buckley handover compared to our is that it is of Paul's own making. He is willingly handing over the reigns this year and doing so with more emphasis on Goodwin taking more of the lead. Whereas the Mick/Buckley was of Eddie's creation and Mick was the full senior coach right up to the end and he didn't want to hand it over at the end. If Roos does hand around I think it will be in player development and transitioning the younger players from U18's to AFL players. I will say this though he won't have much to do with coaching I would think because it does have the potential to undermine Goodwin's leadership.

Be great if he saw something really special building at Melbourne with the likes of Hogan, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Oliver etc and he just couldn't walk away from the club altogether. I reckon he'd want to be there when it all came to head. That said I think he is genuinely looking forward to not being "the messiah" and "the man", and just letting Goodwin take over the club.

I said this at the start of the year last year with Brayshaw, we've got ourselves a gem here. Looking forward to seeing him out there round 1!

We wanted to lock him in long term early but ultimately it's up to him if he wants to upgrade early. I'm not concerned right now as it isn't until the end of next year that he comes out of contract. If he holds off until the end of 2017 then I will have a very nervous wait for that year! But let's just focus on making 2016 a good year and make him WANT to be a part of the new Melbourne.

With still another year on top of this year, there is no reason for us to worry about it. I prefer him to be focusing on developing and becoming a dominant force in the AFL, the team needs to be pulling in one direction this year and that's up the ladder. No worries for me with him asking to resume talks at the end of the season, and we got an absolute pearler from Titus to chuckle at as well!