Pates

Those are exactly my sentiments, Bruce as been a hard working individual and sad as it is, consistently our best player out on the ground. He trains hard and he represents the club well. BUT his leadership abilities, that is when the team is looking for someone to be inspired by, he is not the player i want our boys emulating. He is a receiver, he has poor disposal, and does not get the boys moving. Although this contradicts my choice, the player who did that the best this year was Miller. He had the right mixture of aggression and skill, and was instrumental in all of our wins especially the two tight ones. Do i think he should be captain? No. He has only just this year got back to some good form and he needs to show he can replicate that this year before he can be considered in the captaincy role, however i am more than happy to eat humble pie when i was bad mouthing his inclusion in the leadership group for 08. For McLean it's a different kettle of fish, he has made some mistakes off-field which has hurt his image and the club's reputation. The thing i really like about him is that he isn't making excuses, he recognises what he did was wrong and is willing to make amends. He has had offers from other clubs but he has turned them down, he had a season ending foot injury and was in a huge amount of pain but he went out onto the ground because we needed inspiration, he donated 10k to the club because we are in financial disarray, the equivalent to what the entire team donated. If that is not a captain, then i don't know what is.

Brock's the one i want, anyone else would feel like a soft option. He projects exactly image we want the footballing world to see going forward.

Bloody brilliant, i had so much admiration for him. He just constantly worked his butt off every time he went out onto the ground and i think it's fair to say he got every inch he could out of the talent given to him. It'll be great to have our young guns learning from him at Casey.

I think Brock has always been more valuable than Jones, he's smarter and better skilled than Jones but Jones should not be discounted. A lot of people have been getting into him and bagging him this year, it's been a tough one for him but you've got to remember that for about half the year he would've been taking the first tag. This is a 20 year old we're talking about for crying out loud! I see him as our new Jmac type player for the next 10 years, he will always go out there and throw his body in at the contest and give 100% every time. Skills will improve and although he will never be Speedy Gonzales, he just needs to get a bit more awareness when receiving and disposing of the ball. Brock is our best midfielder, and i can't believe that's ever been in contention in the last 12 months. EDIT: in bold!

I wouldn't mind us nabbing him, although it's a bit of a risk it'd be a chance to have some positive publicity for the club and he is known for his training regime. My feeling is that we have already counted ourselves out of it and we won't go back on that.

Glad to hear it, i'm a local to Bayside and have absolutely loved being able to support both the MFC and Sandy. I too wish you all the best with your new arrangement with the Saints and i certainly will keep a close watch on the Zebras, i may even continue supporting them i the future.

My parents only got involved in football when my brother and i started dragging them along, you get the kids hooked and the parents follow simply because if the kids want to go then they have to be accompanied by a parent. I like the idea of the free kids membership with a hat or flag, never underestimate how much excitement kids get out of free stuff! The key is we have to make the MFC feel apart of the community, we've never had that and it's hurt us bad.

Who is this guy and should i care what he says? In any case i'm glad that things are working out with us and the City of Casey, but what will happen if this proposed MCG development becomes a reality? Will that just be for during the season and Casey will remain a summer base? And given that it's currently just a summer base, where are we training during the season in '09? Sorry for the inquisition!

Hope that is the new logo, i like it! Very classy.

Considering how important early wins are for the bottom teams like us surely they could've scheduled a game that we could actually have a chance at winning. Pricks, that's all i can say. I mean c'mon, two years in a row we get the reigning premier, it's not like their even trying to hide it now!

That's right, Casey isn't about facilities, the Bubble dome will be absolutely fine with that, Casey is about establishing a community link and the fact is that we can't do that over 2 years. We need to be there for a minimum of 10 years to truly build the connection with Casey, this 30 year agreement i'm not sure about but i'll let TPtB decide on the best course of action. We can't go at this half-assed.

Top article, we must respond the only way that's right, by getting behind the boys and signing up. We need a huge membership drive this year, 30 000 is what we've budgeted for so we must get it. Well done, you guys!

Ok, so in 2-3 years time when we are back playing well we should be expecting 4 Friday nights, and much less Sunday games. And when we don't, which i fully expect to happen, i wonder what their line will be? "We feel that Melbourne needs to have a sustained period of success and attain pulling power before we remove them from the Sunday fixtures" I swear i reckon the AFL's just keeping us on life-support deliberately so that in a few years if they need a team to relocate, we either stay and get taken off the CBF (and most likely die), or we relocate to wherever they want us to go. Throw us a f&*$ing a bone!

Two night matches for the whole year and neither of them are our home games, thanks AFL. Way to run an even competition, really helping us get back on our feet. Day spread is something like this: Friday: 1 (Not home) Saturday day: 6 (2 Home) Saturday Night: 1 (Not home) Sunday Day: 10 (7 home) Sunday twilight: 3 (1 home) Monday: 1 (home) I thought last years scheduling was horrible, but this is just disgusting. Having seen what having all those Sunday games did to us last year they still thought it was fair to give us a crap load of them again. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd given us an even spread of home games on other days, but no it's all good. I am so [censored] off right now, just wanna walk up to AFL headquarters and spit on the building.

Just our matches. 1 Sunday March 29 1:10pm NORTH MELBOURNE MCG 2 Saturday April 4 2:10pm COLLINGWOOD MCG 3 Sunday April 12 12:40pm PORT ADELAIDE AAMI Stadium 4 Sunday April 19 2:10pm RICHMOND MCG 5 Sunday April 26 4:40pm ADELAIDE MCG 6 Sunday May 3 2:10pm GEELONG MCG 7 Sunday May 10 2:40pm WEST COAST EAGLES Subiaco Oval 8 Saturday May 16 2:10pm WESTERN BULLDOGS MCG 9 Sunday May 24 4:40pm HAWTHORN MCG 10 Saturday May 30 7:10pm ST KILDA Gold Coast Stadium 11 Monday June 8 2:10pm COLLINGWOOD MCG 12 Friday June 19 7:40pm ESSENDON Telstra Dome 13 Saturday June 27 7:10pm BRISBANE LIONS Gabba 14 Saturday July 4 2:10pm WEST COAST EAGLES MCG 15 Sunday July 12 2:10pm PORT ADELAIDE MCG 16 Saturday July 18 2:10pm GEELONG Skilled Stadium 17 Sunday July 25 1:10pm SYDNEY SWANS Manuka Oval 18 Sunday August 2 1:10pm RICHMOND MCG 19 Sunday August 9 1:10pm NORTH MELBOURNE Telstra Dome 20 Sunday August 16 1:10pm FREMANTLE MCG 21 Saturday August 22 2:10pm CARLTON Telstra Dome 22 Sunday August 30 2:10pm ST KILDA MCG

2005 v Cats @ Skilled stadium. I've made the trip almost every year for the last 10 years, and all those times i've come home in disappointment and self pity, BUT NOT THAT TIME! My dad always joked on the way home after a loss that they would have to drag his coffin to the games just so that he could witness a Demon victory down there, so to get that win and by 1 point AND an after the siren shot on goal, it was just incredible. I've never been given the chance to feel a premiership victory, but that's best one i've ever felt!

Wow, he if he can run the club as well as he makes speaches we'll be more powerful than Collingwood in 3 years time! He used the buzz word, UNITY. We have to be united in and pulling in one direction or we will not survive, simple as that.

What are YOUR expectations of Colin Sylvia next year? I want to know hat he thinks of him and whether we should be expecting him to light the field on fire with brilliance next year, i've been waiting for too long to see it!

That would be great for the community and a good way of strengthening the foundations of this new relationship, i'd go down for a NAB cup game, maybe not a NAB Challenge match though.

Interesting that he mentions Casey because there's a post on 'ology that said that it looked like we were pulling out of Casey. All good news so far, keep 'em going Bails!

Probably signed up for a certain amount of merch with that design so maybe they'll mull it over during the season, i didn't hate that one we used in '08 but it's was a little boring.

According to him he was never leaving: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/tabid/7415/D...px?newsid=68918 How much of his word i can take remains to be seen but there's no doubt that on the field he showed much better leadership than Bruce, i would still have him in front for the captaincy. However i'd prefer we move away from those two as they simbolise and epitomise the Daniher era. Don't get me wrong i'm not a ND basher, but the fact is that he eventually became mates with the players rather than their coach and from that we went soft. Until we appoint someone new entirely, Daniher's spirit will still live on at the MFC. It's Brocky for me at this stage, Miller as a smokey.

And THAT is why you don't jump to conclusions and abuse a player who had far from made up his mind. Essendon were probably just offering a little more, and had has more chance of success at this stage then we do. But now we are right in the hunt and he doesn't mind which club he ends up at, so c'mon Melbourne MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Ok well i might be able to take this thread seriously if it wasn't for the fact that one of those trades is impossible. NEWTON CANNOT BE TRADED!!!! We resigned him this year, therefor under the laws of the AFL he can't be moved on! As for Davey + Pick 19 for Pick 4 + Bentley, thanks but no thanks. Davey is one of very few players who gets bums on seats at the games, the Freo game showed how he can turn it on and inspire the team. I would be disgusted if we did that, and given the thread starter, i don't think i have much to worry about.

Well said, both of you. Players move where they feel they will fit in and get the best results, it's early days of trade week, and although he may have nominated Essendon as his choice, we could give Geelong the best result for them so we are still in the hunt. We just have to make ourselves more marketable, and if it's to do with money and TPtB feel it's too much then i trust that they are doing what's best for the club. I'm not going to bad mouth Green because nothing is certain, if he wants to go then so be it, i won't be happy about it but we have to move on and try to get the best result from it. Frankly if he has a club of choice he'd better get moving or he won't get his prefered destination, and if he opts to go into the PSD, knowing the situation the club is in then he will have lost all respect i had for him. He of all people should realise that we need picks for the future, and he owes us the chance to get them. Prismal on the other hand owes us nothing, neither does Warnock for that matter.