Pates

I'd expect Bizzell, Ward, and/or Brown to be delisted at the end of this year. Given Godders last three weeks I'd be inclined to offer him a one year contract. He fills a role well, however Bartram should be pushing him out one he gets fit. It won't surprise me if Miller is traded, he just doesn't seem to have it all there. He has flashes of good stuff, and then he does something completely stupid. Obviously we can't delist all the players like Wheatly, Holland and co. But we do need to get rid of AT LEAST three of these very average players. Replace them with kids, and look to the future. NOTE: Holland, Ward, and Brown all did well today, but they are not consistent enough and their mistakes cost us BIG TIME.

He was taken at number 3 in the draft, of course expectations are high. I think he'll be a good player for us, but not what our orriginal hopes were.

I wish Melbourne could have the same accuracy as Sandy!

He was throwing himself into more contests than many seasoned players. He's got guts and skills, but I'll let him develop before i make any rash calls. Deserves NAB rising star nomination though.

Any news on what happened at Sandy? [Edit] My bad, didn't see the report below.

Yes i was thinking that at half time. I saw that that sneaky little bugger that managed to get off from a report that initially got 3 weeks was only on 7 possessions. That's two weeks in a row he's done a great stopping role on a very good player. And i was also very pleased to see that it was really our young guns showing the way today, Chooka may be in line for captain, but i wouldn't mind seeing Chunky as our VC in about 3-4 years. Bate was ON FIRE today (just wish he could've nailed just one more of his outside 50 shots), Petterd just picked up where he left off from last week, and i thought Warnock did a pretty good job today.

Well if you ever see him again, get some ushers or something to kick him out. We may need all the money we can get, but we can do without disgraceful supporters like that that give us a bad name. Poor form. :angry:

This is from a poster named "Turbo Tiger" in the tigers forum. I found it kind of funny because there have been some pretty similar things been said on here and Demonology. Commiserations BTW to the toigs supporters, worse than over by half time. I can't imagine a more painful thing to endure.

I think the main problem today was that hey weren't consistent with what they were paying. Early on it seemed like the umps had made the call to keep the whistle in the pocket and not too call the push-in-the-back rule to harshly (Neitz not being paid early in the second one example). The thing that bugged me was that AT THE END of the game, right when it's preferred that they don't get involved, the ump decided to change his mind and pay the soft PITB rule. Keep it consistent, that's all we ask for. (PS. I don't i've ever been more livid with a umpiring decision than after the Junior got done for deliberate, that umpire should read the rule book backwards before he even thinks about stepping out onto a footy field again) :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

Didn't Bruce get like 28 possies, it'd be pretty hard to do that if you weren't trying.

I recon they should make every player do 10 shots at goal at the end of training on Monday and if anyone misses one than they all stay until they get 10 in a row. Right now it is our BASIC skills that are letting us down. Costly turnovers that hand the other team goals and missing consistently in our forward line is a major issue with us. It doesn't matter how good your game plan is, or how much work you are putting in, if we don't kick goals than we won't win.

Where was this? What area?

Our skills coach should be fired! We can't hit a target consistantly, and we are disgraceful at kicking for goal.

Agree with most, though I was really dissapointed in TJ today, he got plenty of it but gave it away at crucial moments all too often (especially in the final quarter). And aparently Dunn was given the job on negating one of the Cornes brothers in the second half and kept him to 7 possies.

Humble pie! BOG for me.

This is utter BS from the AFL, just another example of them pampering the non-Vic clubs.

Armstrong was not playing well in his final year at Melbourne, whether that was a case of a bit of homesickness or just not fitting in with the team structure it doesn't matter. I was glad we traded him, and i'm sure he was as well. As for Jolly, ND made a HUGE mistake in 2003 when he didn't rest White for the entire year to get his shins fit and use Jolly as the main ruckman. We won 5 games that year, it wouldn't have made any difference to give Jolly more game time. He was one of the players that i think Danners failed miserably on, it was no wonder he wanted to move to Sydney. Simmonds was a different case, White was just about at the peek of his level when Troy was ready to move up. It was annoying to see him leave, but ultimately the only thing Neil screwed up with there was the fact he didn't play Troy as a forward rather than just having him warm the bench. Finally, Lamb. In his final year i went down to Sandy to watch him play and frankly, he sucked. There was a good reason why he wasn't getting a game at Melbourne, he didn't deserve one. He tried to get back onto an AFL list but nobody wanted him, his career wasn't ruined, it just wasn't going to happen. (However, i am glad to hear that he's doing well with Sandy)

He has long said that he wants to have one year of not being the captain so he doesn't have to deal with the pressure before he retires. So i'd expect next year to be his last and the captaincy will be handed over to Brock McLean and Neitz can be a sort of mentor to Chooka. There is no doubt in my mind that he's the greatest Melbourne player i've seen in the time i've been following the Dees (13 years), and it will be a teary day for me in his last game.

Ins: Neitz, Jones, Buckley, Holland, Warnock Outs: Jamar, Garland Reasonably happy with that. Be interesting to see what they do with Holland.

That would be a very good crowd for when we're doing well!!! I can't see that happening, but then again we can dream, can't we?

Great news, at least we are making headway in the membership area.

20,112 I think there'll be a few extra people because of Neitz's return, and because we're playing quite a few kids.

I believe so, remember that we are trying to tap into a market that has an abundance of Demons supporters but they aren't giving us anything financially.

The way i see it, with Brock McLean and Neitz out, there is no one capable of leading us out there. None of our players were willing to take the ball and go with it. One of the moments that i thought summed our current team up perfectly was when we were just on the outside of the 50, there were three of us running torwards the goals, and it started with Bruce he could've had a shot, but he handpassed it on, then he gave it to Miller (i think) who also could've had a shot but then he handpassed it on to Jmac, who instead of having a crack, looked for a handpass but there wasn't anyone to give it to and he got tackled and it was holding the ball. The Swans took the free quickly, ran down the guts and kicked a goal in less than a minute. They are litterally handpassing responisibilities on, they don't want to take the game by the scruff. Good report, Yendys. I was there in the Melbourne cheersquad area, it was good to be with you guys, those Swans fans give me the (censored).

I was thinking the same thing, Ash. Stop jinksing us YM! I agree we are in a much better position to win this week, but the team has to play with 10 times more heart than they've displayed in 4 of the first 5 rounds (Freo game excluded because of that last quarter effort). The first quarter of last week was same of the weakest crap i've seen Melbourne dish out, and in the end that was the only quarter that really made the difference. Neitz could well be the difference this week, if he plays we'll win IMO, if he doesn't that another record will be broken.....PORTS FIRST WIN AGAINST US AT THE G!!!!