Pates

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!

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.

Aside from the cash it's wins that will keep him at the Dees. He will want to be at a rising successful club, next year we get enough wins to be in finals contention and keep on that upward trend I believe he will want to stay as he will (hopefully) feel he's building something with the likes of Viney, Gus, Tracca, TMac, Salem etc. Hopefully Harmes can build on his last game as well as they're good mates.

Certainly not the ones bolded, I think their different players but probably similar level to Vanders for me.

You don't give depth 4 years. I'm not overly inspired by him and the assertion by Roos at the B&F that we want a team of competitors doesn't seem to fit with him, BUT if we do get him we have to stop this negativity. If he becomes a Demon then support him and back him in. Goodwin obviously would know enough about him so he may see something we don't. Really hoping there's a bigger target in sight.

Can't say I'm moved to get Melksham. With the WADA appeal still ongoing and we have no idea what the repercussions are if they are found guilty it's irresponsible to offer such a long deal unless there is a trigger that gets us out of it, however I would've thought his manager would make damn sure there wasn't anything like that in the deal.

The rising star might just come down to this week. Unless Jess gets a bag of 6 and Cripps gets 35+ possies I reckon one of the two will stake his claim. Must admit though I'm less and less concerned about Jesse winning this award, he is already an amazing player at his age, he doesn't need a medal to tell him he's going to be a gun. I get the feeling a premiership medal is the only one he truly wants (hopefully while wearing red and blue!).

I know......don't you love it?!

Toms had a poor 2nd half of the year but I reckon would've been leading the B&F prior to the pies, I would say 5th would be between himself, Dunn, Cross, and maybe Brayshaw. Would love to see Gawn heading the to pointy end of the B&F but I think his run will have been left too late.

Tackle of the year, by anyone.

Every week he seems to raise the bar of his abilities. 4 weeks left in his first season on playing on AFL defenders, what more can he achieve?

What a gem.

I think it can be developed, get the right people around him doing a technique that will work for longer distance. Perhaps Neita could give him a few tips, or get Jonno Brown or Carey (both who seem to have man crushes on him) down to help him develop. I don't know that he can necessarily sort it out himself, but that's why you employ coaches isn't it?

Hopefully he starts to get more penetration on his kicks as he develops. It's pretty much the only thing lacking from his game. That mark in the last quarter was simply a thing of beauty.

He looked proppy all game and I reckon if it hadn't been Maddie's match he would've been 50/50. By the look of him at the end of the match he'll be 50/50 again, seven day break will help him though I reckon he'll be underdone.

Next week is a chance to break two, but one in particular for me. Winning two games in a row is one of the records I really want to fall this year. Even the Blues have managed to win two games in a row this year. Also a chance to knock off the saints.

Like any young player Jesse is going to have down patches, he has had that in the previous couple of weeks but he was back to some good form today. Strangely enough though his form fluctuates with when the midfielders decided whether or not they will look to hit a leading target of just bomb it in in hope. His first year has already exceeded my expectations and he continues to grow. Next week against the saints is a real opportunity for both Jesse and Melbourne. He's already shown an ability to tear them apart, nothing like building an early liking to playing a certain team, and we can really use it to springboard the season.

Tommy Mac was in the form of his career earlier this year, I don't know how it's gone so wrong. I reckon he just needs to get back to basics, he might've started to believe his own hype and believed he needs to take things on his own. Just get him back to he was doing best; fisting the ball through, body on body work, and getting the ball the hell out!

It's amazing that in his biggest haul game I felt he could've done better! Opposition defenders are already starting to realise how good he is and they're trying to stop his run at it and blocking him at contests. I hope the umpires are reviewing this as it's happening a lot in games. But jeez we've gone a gem here. 22 goals in 11 games in his first playing year.