Pates

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!!!!

Mate, i would think that most interstate supporters are excluded from this plea to Dees supporters. Most of us would like to think that when the chips are down, the team looks to it's supporters for inspiration. If that IS the case than it's no wonder we lost to Freo. We need every able Melbourne supporter (bandwagon or not) to get down to the G this Sunday and help the boys get over the line. Neitz should be back this week and that will bring back half the leadership group of Melbourne, not to mention one of our best Full Forwards of all time. I will be there, and i hope there'll be much more than 16,000 as well.

I hope that's not the case, it'd be such a blow to the game if he were to hang to boots up. It was a terrible injury, it doesn't surprise me that it's been so hard for him to come back.

He should definitely play Queens Birthdays, that would be friggen awesome. Hopefully this will become a thing for the MFC, a way of uniting the fans.

It's a shame it was at a dead point of the game and he only got a clap from us. Had it been in the middle of one of our thrid quarter fight backs the whole ground would've erupted! It was nothing short of incredible though!

I thought it added to the atmosphere, and considering how little there was, we needed every bit of it. It also got the crowd more fired up, at least it did for me. Go the trumpet man.

Basically the things that gets me about this Headland/Selwood issue is that Headland didn't take responsibility for his actions, instead taking the highroad and saying the it was Selwood's fault that he provoked him. He's an adult, and therefor must be held accountable for what he did. That's why i'm [censored] off with him. As i said though, i only started booing after he pointed to his tattoo.

Funny, but i was actually referring to Dunn specifically. He certainly didn't seem below fitness today, he did well!

This is from the MFC website, does anyone know what they are refering to here, or are they just talking about his earlier-than-expected return?

Maybe i read different papers, cos i only read he told Neale not to hesitate before dropping him. Have known to be wrong though, besides i think the point is he recognized that his from was off and was lacking in confidence. Rather than pleading to Neale to give him another chance, he accepted responsibility and was willing to work hard to get back.