Pates

Ah the curse of the "future captain of the MFC". It hit Miller and it's hitting Brocky, look out Jones, someone might've given you the curse. Let's all just say Ward the next captain, then he'll get cursed, and Brocky or Green can step up as VC!

Wheatley huge, accurate kicks, but it doesn't make a difference if his teammates don't make good enough runs. Too often our players were just standing around waiting for him to kick it to him, this is an area i've never had confidence in at Melbourne and i hope with a new coach will come a new plan for our kick-ins.

There are only two players i believe on our list that haven't been used this year, and one of them has been injured for 50% of it. And if you'd actually read my post you'd notice that i see you've had a young team all year, however i doubt you've had anywhere near the injury problems we've had to endure. Can i ask you, were you happy with that performance? Do you feel confident going into this finals campaign? Or are looking also looking forward to another embarrassing early exit to this years finals? You won, well done, but you guys have been given the luxury of a kind draw and a good injury run (yes i know you've been without Buckley, but you'd better get used to it), hence you guys are probably going to be slaughtered by a team that is good enough to be there, and i will enjoy watching it. I'm sorry if this comes off as being a bad sport, but i suppose my dislike of the Pies gets my hand typing! Couldn't agree more, we handed the game to them and it was a disgusting first half effort.

Believe me, i agree with you and that's the most annoying thing about the loss. But annalysing Collinwoods performance, they allowed a side who is down on confidence, down on man power, and had nothing left in the tank back into the game. If they were serious finals players, then they should been able to thump us by at least 50+ points (of course i'm glad they didn't). Two weeks ago they beat Carlton by 10 points, last week they loss to the Tigers, and this week they beat us by 11 points when we had basically no bench. They've got a pretty good crop of young players, but i always knew that they would fall over towards the end of the season and i will at least be able to smile when they are thumped out of the finals.

I would just like to congratulate Collingwood on thier Victory Friday night. They managed to beat a team that's 14th on the ladder, and had 1 player on the bench and two out there playing on 1 leg each. And they managed to win by a whopping 11 points! Call this sour grape if you want, but Collingwood are the biggest bunch of finals pretenders and they will be slaughtered in the first week of the finals. That will be the highlight of a time that we, sadly, won't be a part of.

There wasn't anyone around me that was particurly bad, but after the game the Filth cheer squad was doing their usual congregation around the filthiest of the lot (Joffa) and i was about to wisper something to my dad, when i came face to face with the golden boy, and then i wispered to my dad, "there is a good reason why they are called 'the filth', isn't there!". Booing Neitz was the ultimate insult, though. We all expect them to be foul-mouthed and idiots, but you at least hope they have some kind of repsect for champions of other clubs. Can you imagine the uproar if the Melbourne supporters booed Buckley if he was playing in his 300th. It was pathetic, nothing more, and that tiny morsole of respect and dignity i had for them is gone. I hope they enjoy getting thumped in the first week of the finals again.

He's had a poor year, injuries have contributed, and you'd naive to ignore that, but he still young and as Jaded has so gracefully put the point across, he seems to be carrying the hopes of long-suffering Melbourne supporters everywhere who are desperate for a superstar. Last year was a great year for him, but look at the differences. He has only played 12 games this year, he has been in and out of the side, and to because a lot of "star players" like Bruce and Green have been equally injured, he has been taking the no. 1 tagger. Last year i believe he missed about 3-4 games, and he was just starting to be recognised. While that St Kilda final was fantastic to watch, it probably made his job twice as harder for this year because he announced himself on a Friday night final. I sort of agree with you RR, in that next year he should be producing better than this year, but you've got to give him some friggen leeway. One final point, i think a lot of people see him as our Chris Judd, but remember that Judd has been in a side with Kerr and Cousines. It's a hell of a choice as to who you tag!

Would always have Whelan infront of Wheatley when fit. Maybe Yze instead of Petterd, but depends on how Yze goes in the pre-season. Apart from that it looks about right.

Very well put, Fan. BTW the player that we missed in the second half of round 1 was Bartram. About a week ago when Melbourne were the wipping boys and the "basket case" topic a caller rang into SEN to say, "oh Melbournes season hasn't been cause by injuries, but they're just a crap team". He then said, that what reason did we have for losing in round 1, we had all our player in. But i think he kind of forgot the fact that we were down to one player on the bench at 3 quarter time and were playing people that needed to rest. I'll admit that we played crap that night, but sometimes the footy gods aren't smiling on you. Maybe the fact that we've had it all year will mean we get all the good stuff next year!

Congrats Col, let's hope you can get yourself injury free and realise your potential! Good luck in you 50th.

Classic! Me and my dad chatted to him after the Port game where we were robbed and he seemed like one of the most passionate guys i've ever met so it didn't surprise me to hear him get fired up, hell i'd get [censored] too!

We have a chance but again were behind the 8 ball due us being out of form, low on confidence, and don't have a settled side. That said, we have good record V Doggies and maybe mighty Whitey's 250th will give them a lift, there are also some good ins so who knows what could happen! Good luck to Bode aswell

You know what, i'm actually retracting my statement. I have been to 12 out of 18 games this year, including one interstate, i think i was being too hard on myself (or maybe i've blocked most of the matches out from memory!). I still think i would care more about changing commitments this week if we were doing well but i've gone to basically every single game i could this year. I have been though bad times at Melbourne, and always stuck by them, maybe you do think i'm lumped in with the others but i think i've given the MFC amazing support under the circumstances. So am i, and i think most people here are too. (Though i think that's been established in this thread already)

I'm gonna speak honestly, i haven't been to anywhere near as many as i would normally. I combination of each week as getting thumped and a heavier workload has has made me miss a fair amount of Melbourne (played) games. I'm also the first to admit that if we were going stronger this year, i would try everything in my power to get out of work this week and miss a 21st (which i'm coming to late because of work). I'm just not motivated by this year and it actually saddens me to see me write these words, cause usually i'm one of the most passionate supporters in my area. I will be there next week for Neitas 300th, that is a game i would not miss for the world, but beyond that i'll be taking it one week at a time as to whether i'll go. (PS i am a member, will be next year, and the year after that etc)

There would have to be one hell of a player or a top 5 pick to even interest me. He's exciting, when he gets the bell, even if it's 100 meters from the goal the melbourne crowd are on the edge of the seat because they know with one dashing burst or one chase down he can lift us all. We're not going to trade him.

I think one thing we've got to remember is to have balance when playing the kids. Take a look at Carlton and their development, they have almost played nothing but kids in the last 2-3 years and look at where they are, the same place they were last year and the year before that and the year before that. I think the best development comes from have experienced players to look at and emulate. I'm not advocating the selections committees decision to have Ward, Brown, Holland, and Fergs (all players that i can't see being at the club next year), but to pack the team full of young players will just cause them to be brutalised and demolished......more so. Last week i would've had Dunn instead of Browndog because Brown is basically being used as a run with role on the damaging rebounding defenders, Dunn did this on Cornes V Port earlier this year, why not do it again? I would've had CJ in for Ward, i'm not convinced that CJ's as good as everyone thinks he is but he isn't being given a chance to prove himself, Ward shouldn't be here next year so what's the point. Maybe i would bring in Garland for Fergs but this is where i think it goes too far, also i'm still not sure as to what Garland is. PS. Good post Jaded

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.