Pates

There are players that could really gain from his guts, i'm not convinced of any star quality yet but he's earned my admiration. Keep on keeping on, Ricky!

Does this mean we'll return a loss, break even, or a minor profit. Because just over a month ago he claimed that we'd make a $500,000-$700,000 profit, then that was down graded to a minor profit of about $200,000, and if he is now saying that we'll make a loss than i will not be a happy chappy. :angry: Good to see the coach hunt is at full speed, a month seems so close.

He's been the best rade i've ever seen in my time at Melbourne, and has been probably the most consistant player in the last decade. Always a top ruckman despite the new rules effectively screwing him. Congrats, and hopefully you can sink the bullys like you did in 05!

Sorry mate, i usually associate the rolly eyes as sarcasm! My deepest appologies!

Alright mate, since you seem to be a big part of this thread tell me what you really think instead giving that weak sarcastic response.

I'd like to see a co-captaining between Neitz and McLean. Sort of an aprentiship thing, with McLean slowly taking over more of the roles. There is no doubting Neitz's pressence on the ground, but should he get another injury this way McLean is already in there as the captain. My leadership group would be, Co-Cap: Neitz & McLean Co-VC: Rivers, Green Co-VVC: Jmac, Robbo, and possibly Jones or Whelan The way i see it, leadership is about pressence and the team seeing you lead be example. This one of the key problems we have had with Neitz be captain (not bagging him, love the bloke), he is a forward and because of that he must make decision of to either hang back and wait for the boys to bring the game to him, or leave his post as FF and move up the ground to give the team a lift. So the leadership group i've got is designed to have a "leader" is every poket of the ground, and to have McLean as the general who can move everywhere.

Maybe a smokey to take on the Melbourne coaching role for 2008! But seriously, good luck to him, i always felt he could have left the club under better circumstances.

While Dogga is very mcuh malined by a lot of people, me included, i would never discount his guts, determination, and love for the club and his mates. That is why i'm taking this thread seriously, i think he'd recognise that he's probably not going to be here next and rather than draw it out, he'd be happy to move back on home. Maybe this is all BS, but in the few times i've met him i've never seen anyone so pleased to be doing what he loves.

Tell me about it, youth policy my ass! Still got brown in there as well. I know we don't ave to go all out youth, it's actually good to have some experienced heads in the team, but this just stupid. And WFT is with us going in with no back up ruckman? White's getting on and we need to be giving as much game time to PJ so that when he has to take over the mantel it's not such a daunting task. These selectors giving me the shits right now and i'm starting to think we should do a full cleanout of the whole footy department.

I NEVER wanted him as our coach. I'm glad he's come to his senses, because i was really worried that we'd go hard for him. But the funny thing is that now instead of going into full commitment role of going for a coaching job, he's decided he will review his decision after another 12 months in the media. IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A COACH, THAN TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT EVERYONE ELSE HAS DONE AND LEARN THE ROPES AS AN ASSISTANT!

Saw him at Sandy this week, if we're picking on form as we appeared to do last week than he should get to his 200th this week.

If Bruce and Bell are indeed fit to come back into the side than i think the team should look something like this: In: Bruce, Bell Out: Buckley/CJ, Brown Neitz really didn't look right last week but perhaps it was just a case of being underdone through not being able to string games together, unless he's injured he'll still play this week. Chris Johnson still looks like a lost child when he steps out on to an AFL field, maybe i expect too much from him but he's at that stage where he should be showing more. Some key match ups this week will be Cornes x2, Burgoyne x2, Treadre, and Brett Ebert. Last time (if my memory serves me right) we started with Brown in the forward line on Chad Cornes and he got killed, afterwards we moved Dunn on him and Cornes was taken out of the game. I implore you Reilly, if you're gonna do that again just make the swap now and bring Dunn in rather than have Brown in the forward 50. Godders will go with P Burgoyne again as he absolutely killed him last time. There is also talk of bringing Pickett in for his 200th this week, if that were to happen it would surely mean Buckley's out. Nothing against him, i think he's done alright in his first few games but it just seems the logical choice, the only other one may be Ward. Could be an interesting week at the selection table.

He looks good, and that was as good a speckie i've seen from anyone in the red and blue. The next two years will be very interesting to watch for hi, because he'll still have to contend with Neitz and Robbo for leads in the forward line. Perhaps they will have to look at moving either him or Robbo outside the 50 at periods to prevent congestion. BTW anyone saying that Robbo was lazy yesterday, he did get injured quite early on and while it really shat me that he couldn't put the ball through the big sticks when we needed it, i think it's increadibly disrespectfull to bag a player who would bleed for our club, those players don't come around every day.

I think we need to develop a winning culture, i'm not saying that we pick our absolute best team, but we need to find a balance whereby we get plenty of experience into the young brigade but keep the established older players in there as well. ATM i think we've got a good balance. But take Carlton for example, the plast 3 years they've played nothing but young kids, and yet they are still floundering at the bottom. I have a feeling that that's because without the experienced players to back them up on the field and take them aside and give them a whipping their development has been stunted. The time that Newts spends on the field this week with Neitz will be invaluable as he'll learn where to lead into space with you're the third target as opposed to the first or second target.

I'll take Connolly over Voss, but otherwise, HELL NO!!!

If we put in some good performances in the games he's coaching then there is no reason why we shouldn't consider him. I'm not sure it was the best thing for Robbo to do to endorse Reilly for next year, the players need to be able to just have faith in the board that they will reach the right decision and they must bear it.

A demon through and through, passionate to enth degree. It's been an absolute pleasure to watch Robbo these past 199 games, so good luck to him for his 200th.

Get him right for next year, he's extremely important to our backline.

That could just about be the smartest thing you've ever said on this site YM! I also think that when things arn't looking good for Davey, he should be right at the feet of the forwards to be there for the crumbs. Too often the ball goes to ground and no one's there to recieve it at ground level, this clip shows what Flash does best and it should be utilised more. Awesome goal Flash!

What the hell, at the end of last week he was 2-3 weeks. IMO there is no point in risking him, keep playing Newts at FF and give him as much experience as being one of the main foward targets. As for Moloney, i really hope he can shake this OP. When he's out on the park he's one of my favourite players, but he's got to get out there!

I'm not too worried about his form, he's being heavily tagged and still looks a bit hampered by injury. It's actually quite good that he's getting experience at this age of having their no. 1 tagger, it'll teach him to shake 'em off for next year. Plus he still seems to be ge getting enough of the ball at the stopages.

I heard an exerpt of an interview with Ricky's dad, he credited the Melbourne medical staff with doing everything right when he came off. But one thing that was interesting was that the doctors said it might not have even happened during the game, it could've been a bubble inside his lungs that developed last week.

Christ that's unbelievable, get well soon Ricky.

A mate of mine knows/knew him, so we're definately going to give him some support. Good luck to him!

-Is everybody over this season? Season from hell, i'm so over it. -Does anybody care if we lose this Sunday? I still care, but no where near as much. It's more of a pride thing now. -Do people actually want us to lose to get the best draft picks possible? The only time i've ever wanted to lose was the final game of 2003, but i don't EVER want us to to tank for draft picks. -Will you be upset if we lose? Yes, but not too upset. As long as we get plenty of games into the kids and they show something, i'll be happy. -Are you going? F-oath i'm going, a mate of mine knows Buckley, but more than that, the players need our support this year. -Crowd? 32,000 65% Carlton-35% Melbourne (if we're lucky, but i hope more)