Pates

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.

For anyone concerned about paying to go and giving money to the coffers of the Bombers if you are a member then there is no excuse. A replacement game, I wouldn't imagine they would get much if anything from Melbourne members coming. Fan support must be absolute, it's what has always impressed me about Richmond and Collingwood (and even Essendon). They're fans have put up with a lot of crap over the years but stuck fat and turned up in good numbers, it's time we started making some noise. On a side note I am seriously getting sick of us CONSTANTLY having an away game to them at our bloody home. Can we for once have one home game against them? It's decisions like this that make me feel the AFL is quite happy for us to stay under their thumb.

I'm honestly trying to work out whether you guys are taking the Alex Fasolo. No 7 for the Cats pushes Clark as he goes to jump (so has very little control of his body), then gets contact from No 44 which knocks him further off balance, his arm is pretty out of control but it's when 44 for the Cats that it gets thrown into Brown. First replay shows this, second replay only has point of contact with Brown.

I disagree, you only need to look at what happened between Tommy Mac and Viney to see this. If you're playing against your teammates there is a tendency to hold back in intensity. Playing against other teams gives you a look at how they stack up against other clubs. How many times have we heard the line "the boys are flying this pre-season"? Until you come up against other teams you know nothing. Plus game plans can look great in-house, but look like crap against other teams (as our previous senior coach will tell you). They exist because a lot of the coaches/clubs still want them. I would suggest that they could be reduced to 2 instead of 3 though.

Ultimately we should just focus on ourselves, I vaguely remember hearing coaches say things like NAB is for implementing the plans and seeing how the players respond to it. This is doubly important for us as while we're implementing the next stages of Roos' development we're also giving Goodwin his first taste at coaching the team he'll be taking over next year. This isn't to say we don't worry about winning but the players need to feel like they're all on the same page come round 1.

Yes I did recall that when I heard of this latest article. The PTSD he suffered from this clearly took a massive toll on him (and I'm sure many others we won't hear about), I really admired him when he played for the Dees and it's really sad to hear the many difficulties he's had since that terrible night. Best of luck to him.

True but at the stage he did his toe he was still in the late stages of rehab with his knee. I believe I read one of the coaches pointing to the fact that while the toe will heal in 4 weeks it will put his program for his knee behind. Ultimately I wouldn't read too much into the time frame with the latest set back, I feel the club is really taking their time with him just to be sure, much the same way they did with Jesse. Also consider that the jump from joining main group to playing (NAB or VFL) might not be that much if he impresses enough on the track.

If he doesn't play any NAB he should certainly come through VFL, in some respects I feel he's behind Petracca in that sense as he has missed so much footy. Great to hear him smiling at the prospect of round 1, really hope he gets there!

One of Hogan or Gawn maybe, Salem no. Salem needs runs out on the park, I'm backing him to be our big improver but he had a solid game on the weekend no more. I would look at playing close to our best line up this week and then give a few who've played the first two a week off. I'm not going to speculate about who they'll give rests to though, I think week one they worked it well handing the midfield over to mostly youth, so I'll back them to make the right calls on who comes in for week 2 and 3. I will say this, if we can build on the win in week one then bringing that winning feeling into the season proper will be of great benefit to the team.

If he manages to get a NAB game in and stays injury free before round 1 I can't imagine why he wouldn't be in there. If he doesn't play NAB then sure he should have a run at Casey for a week or two but the kids a gun and if he shows he fits into the best 22 for round 1 then why shouldn't he be in there? Since you've mentioned JT, will we be seeing any of him in the NAB Challenge?

Um I would definitely say not a deliberate elbow. As the commentators said it was total carnage; he got shoved, Brown was backing back, about 4 players collided with each other. No doubt, it's difficult to not feel at least a little bit betrayed by him but you are not wrong. He was the first player in a long time I could say was a star when he was wearing the Red and Blue. He was on track to kick 10+ that day he got his foot injury and the way he went down typified the way he played for us; hard, courageous, and skillful. If he had stayed injury free for us it would've been a genius move getting him to the club to have with Jesse Hogan. Luck was not on our side with him.

So I don't know whether "fear" is exactly the right word, but given where we've been for so long I became accustomed to looking at the fixture and dreading certain teams. I feel that amount of teams has diminished a lot for me over the last 12 months. Hawthorn is still the team I look at on our fixture and think, how can we beat such an amazingly powerful team? More than that I probably still think how will we stop it from becoming a rout? Fremantle and West Coast in Perth are always a power, even when they aren't playing the best football the trip over there, hostile territory, and they are both up there currently as teams to beat. Fortunately we only play West Coast in Perth. Adelaide and Port USED to be teams I concerned myself when playing in Adelaide with but us beating the Crows there is 2014 and almost beating Port there in the same year, I don't have that same fear anymore. I feel this year could be a big turning point for our club and the team in this respect where we no longer look ahead on the fixture and think "oh crap".

About as good a news as we could hope for, out for the rest of the Whogivesas*** Challenge and to be honest I would very comfortable with the club waiting until Round 2 before he returns just to make sure he's cherry ripe. The kid's a key figure in our future, if there is any lingering doubt just take it easy with him. I can picture him not being happy about that prospect though!

I was really disappointed when he left but ever since a game I saw last year at SS where he was just continuously jumper punching his opponent (who was putting up his hands saying I'm done let's play football) I've known we dodged a bullet with having him leave. Physically and mentally he is very fragile, much was made about his mental issues but coming back from such a serious injury always comes with muscle complications. If he strings 6 games in a row for the rest of his career I'll be shocked.

What we're building is a team that has players other people want at their club. Flash back 3-4 years ago I would say people liked Jones and maybe Frawley. Viney will be (is) one of those guys that any person would love in their team.

So I'm not going to bother chasing up the replay but I did have a quick look at the highlights. 1st half a fair few of their goals seemed to come from lack of intensity at the contest; missed tackles, poor spoils, not chasing hard enough. On the flip side for the second if looked like quite a lot of our goals were created by forward pressure and following up the contest. This wasn't in the highlights but it sounds like Gawn had an absolute ripper of a game, he stays fit AA is a big chance for him. The last goal from the highlights was from Jeffy, but it was created by Vanders beating 3 opponents. This guy is one of the best bargain recruits we've ever managed to land, he stays fit I'm predicting top 5 in B&F. Winning wasn't essential, but it still tastes good. Let's get a winning mentality going here. Doggies killed us last year in the second game, this is a great test for us.

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!

I'm not pinning much on these NAB games. I'm looking forward to seeing Salem out there, and Oliver has sounded like he's had a good introduction to the club. I'd like see hints of our more attacking ball movement, Ports a good team to trial this against as they were guns at it a couple of years ago. No injuries is a given, but I would love to see Viney smash the crap out of someone as a warning to the competition! EDIT: Just adding I'm not overly concerned with the result, a win would be good, a big win will be fantastic, but the one result I really don't want to see is us being smashed.

Roos has asked for a team of competitors, Oliver screams this. That said, first year player, he should be cherry on top instead of expected to tear through opponents. That's what Roos has built the last couple of years, so let's just sit back and let him develop.

Toumps an interesting one for me, I always felt he had the attributes to make it but much like Watts he was sapped of confidence in his developing years with poor management. He also, like Watts, seemed to "train the house down" and be one that people pointed to being the big improver. Confidence is still his biggest barrier and perhaps a change in location will help that. That pick will always haunt us though, Wines being best mates to Viney and us passing him for Toump, and if Jimmy becomes a good player at port they will have nabbed them both. I kinda wish him luck.

The question on whether we'll improve is dependent on a lot of factors. Sure on the surface we SHOULD improve; our list is young, a few of the core are reaching that magical 50+ games mark, and I feel the team is starting to gel and trust each other. Those are all reasons why improvement is on the cards, but there are factors why it's very far from a sure thing. For one every other team is improving, the Bombers may be the exception to this, but even the teams that are meant to be on the decline are finding ways to improve. This means we need to step our game up even more. We are also putting a lot of pressure on some young shoulders; Jesse Hogan is a freak and an amazing player but he is still young and developing, Viney is a gun and he's gonna be recognised as that this year which will means more respect from the opposition, and we are relying on players such as Kent, Salem, Stretch, Petracca, and Brayshaw to make big strides and take us to the next level. Then of course there's the unknown variable of injuries. My thoughts are that we will continue our upward trend but we won't set the competition alight. 10-12 wins is what I'm hoping for. Either way I'm just happy the footy season is almost upon us again!

I thought there was more to Fitzy than what he was doing and getting at Melbourne, I'll be happy for him if he manages to make it at the Hawks, I just hope it isn't against us!

I honestly am dreaming of the moment he's back on the G and kicks his first goal. Would be an incredible effort if it was round one, but hey who knows.

Salem. I was concerned with his injury issues last year, but his last game v GWS has me convinced. He's a bit of an unknown in the comp, by the end of 2016 he won't be.

Geez Maxy looks impressive with that beard! Hope it's a big year for him!