FarNorthernD

My view is that I have supported the Melbourne Football Club all my life. The Red Bull Football isn't my team. I'm tribal, I wouldn't support it no matter how many flags they won.

It will also be interesting to see how Geelong goes both with this rule and the deliberate ducking-no free-play on rule. With Biclavs and the Selwoods being the rolled gold standard of both it may unfortunately negatively impact their ability to win games.

It may also give Spencer a helping hand. He has issues but his strength has always been his tap work.

I agree with you Ron and understand the way you are looking at it. I also believe for instance that had Lewis been in the side when we played St Kilda two seasons ago we would not have got rolled in the last few seconds as he would have had us better organised. Having said that I'm still for the one captain model and would prefer to just have Lewis in the leadership group but can understand your point of view too.

I'm not a fan of co-captains and even less of importing a player from another club and making him captain no matter how good his resume. I'm all for Lewis to be in the leadership group but not in either of the two top positions.

Beautiful

That was brilliant. Our coaching group have improved as much as our playing group over the past few years.

As far as I'm concerned that is a match made in football mentorship heaven

Think most CBDee thought Trengove was actually ahead of Scully from about 3/4 way through their first seasons. At the time I was much happier that Scully got offered the mega deal than Jack.

I wonder when they bought in point posts in if anyone said "why can't they just leave the game alone"?

Love the thread and that team. I know many won't agree but I would have Matthew Whelan over Steve Febey.

I'm guessing McQueen has Stuie but his 'just another puff piece with no real substance' comment is accurate. Most Demonlanders would have far more knowledge of our players, their failings and areas where they could improve than nearly any paid commentator. Remember when Buckley moved Howe into defence and it was almost universally hailed by the media as some brilliant and new left field move? How could they not of known that he had played his best footy for us as a back? Honestly as paid professionals, how could they not know? Because like any casual observers they only knew him as a bloke who could take a speccy and thought he must play forward. They know the bare essentials. Most commentators would know about 'Big Maxy' Gawn, 'Captain courageous' Nathan Jones, 'Parents used to complain when he played against their kids' Jack Viney and the 'Rising Star winner Jesse Hogan (who, by the way, is going into his fifth pre-season not his fourth). And that is about it. I bet very few scribes would know Billy Stretch's jumber number or what sort of season he had without looking it up. I bet most here do including you Stuie

Aside from the cash I can anyone think of a reason why any player would elect to go there? Surely the Blues are a middle of the road side at best for the foreseeable future. If it happens you could see a Judd scenario where he makes them a bit better but not near enough to legitimately challenge. Can't see it happening, doesn't make sense to me.

The only fair dinkum saviour I've seen come to a footy club and totally succeed was a guy we employed 3 seasons ago, although many could rightly claim his boss as one too. There may have not been a footy club at all without them. We now have a very strong management team, we are improving financially and have a strong coaching team. On field Hogan, Gawn, Petracca, Brayshaw, McDonald, Watts, Viney, Hunt, Salem and Oliver could all claim to be realistic chances at All Australian jumpers over the next few years. If a Fyffe/Dangerfield/Tom Lynch type choose to come play with us that would be very nice but we don't need saving anymore do we.

And if we could somehow get back to those one-on-one CHF V CHB, Carey V Jakovich or Wing V Wing, Flower V Greig match ups that would be a very good thing

The reason I am most happy about the no third man up rule is that it allows a different skill set to flourish. The game has been increasingly dominated by the 6'2" running midfielder. Hopefully now we can go back where two very tall unco blokes battle it out to see who can get it down to their more talented teammates. For the same reason i like seeing Caleb Daniel succeed. Footy should be a game for everyone.

I agree. I believe I rate ANB higher than most here. His problem will be trying to crack it into the midfield rotation of the seniors. At Casey he is a high possession winner who can run all day and then, when promoted, plays a small forward type role. He needs to take it up a notch if he is going to succeed. I think he can. Good luck to him and I hope he recovers quickly.

Saty, curious to know how Hullett and the Weed are going?

I'm assuming Willmoy is referring to a substance that is currently illegal in the State of Victoria but favoured by reggae artists, uni students and peace activists the world over. It has a similar name to a current young Melbourne player who comes from a family with deep roots in bogan royalty. On on the other hand I may have spent too much time on the riddle thread

Saty, I just found your instagram pics for the first time. You are right the other Joel Smith one proves who his father is. Thanks for taking the time to put them up and also for the training reports. No doubt like many others on here who can't get there in person they are greatly appreciated

Yes count me as one too. My wife gives me a hard time over my footy obsession and calls me "fndee" when I do something somewhat moronic but watched that video together and we both had tears. This is one of the things footy clubs do very well. A big good luck to Andrew although let's hope Jack Viney can put on some upper body strength

I'm confused about this pick. Can someone explain to me if we will have to give up pick 18 to Freo when Fyfe nominates us or do we get him for free and then just draft the best tall?

There was a bit of advantage taken DJ. Wasn't the Gawn/Viney the No. 1 hit out combo in the league followed by Gawn/Jones and then Gawn/Tyson (I may have made some of that up but whatever the stats they were fairly impressive)? Max's best games though I thought was when he was clunkinking those big marks around the ground. He can bit be either "on" or not in this regard. Imagine if he could consistently lift his performance to near the level of his second half performance against Hawthorn. Clarkson said it was one of the most dominant performances by a ruckman he had ever seen. He was pretty much unstoppable

As we picked up a small forward in the draft and Cat B rookies can be picked up at any time, perhaps the club have kept one spot available to capitalise on any future opportunities as they arise

Jeff is one of my favourite players but his worst would find him at Casey most weeks while his best would see him near the All Australian squad. That is probably why there is such a divergence of opinions on him on here.