nutbean

Alright - I am going to open the old chestnut. I agree some of our choices were poor but besides targeting better picks one other thing has changed dramatically. We now no longer take in talent and just expect them to flourish - the noise coming out of the club regarding McCartney's influence is loud and very clear and we have spent a small fortune on getting a 1st "development team" in place. Roos from day one has banged on about teaching and developing and that is music to my ears. James Harmes - TWO YEARS ago Melbourne told James Harmes to lift his professionalism or else he would find himself looking for other employment opportunities. That is fairly straight talk but can you imagine anyone in our pre Roos club having that talk with Col Sylvia ?

I am an MCC member and I also take the MFC membership. With the proviso that one is financially able , I see my MCC membership as a payment for easy walk up to games, good seats, good view and access to finals and the Grand Final. I see my MFC membership as giving money to watch the club I love play.

ewww

Not me but I have a friend who went to Melbourne High and he played a preseason intra school practice match and his opponent was a newly arrived and very young Robbie Flower. He said that Robbie got about 40 plus possessions and my friend got two kicks for the day and one of those was in the ankle. Needless to say, one of the two went on to have a stellar career - the other ? not so much....

Footy is not such a complicated game. If you are prepared to work hard the results will mostly take care of themselves. I have been watching the game for 40 plus years and that much has never changed. I just watched the "goals" again and picked up some unbelievable ( and probably unheralded) workrate in the goal that Garlett kicked after receiving a dolly handball from Kent in the 3rd Quarter. The ball is thrown up on our half back line - a bit of a scramble but Oliver's quick hands gets the ball out to Kennedy who kicks long to Hogan. Hogan contests, the ball hits the ground and Hogan butters up with a great tackle and who gets the spill ? Oliver - he delivers another beautiful handpass to Bugg in space, to Kent, onto Gartlett into the open goal. Count the time between Oliver's first handball to Kennedy on the half back line and his 2nd handball to Bugg on the half forward line. He impacted the first contest - had to have sprinted 50 metres to the next contest and impacted it in a big way. That is exceptional workrate and if our team brings this to the table each week the results will follow.

Absolute truth - from day one he showed glimpses - teased. However in fairness my strike rate of picking later draft pick stars is not good. (actually - appalling)

nothing is ever certain but this signing was as close to certain as you could ever get.

You bxstxrd...my Dad loved that Red Datsun and to me it will always be a Ferrari

it is no coincidence that the dramatic rise in our midfield happened at the same time as the rising dominance of Gawn. Those at the clearances are very good and have improved but Gawn is giving them gold plated service. Happy to say that I picked Gawn as a star from the get-go ( and to further show you that I am no mug at picking them, I also announced Jeremy Howe and Juice Newton would be stars and predicted Magner would be our Sam Mitchell)

The spot that Colin Sylvia couldn't get to was called "preseason training" - the spot that he did get to regularly was called tramp.

I'm a fan - I recall the Roos information vividly - you shared something that seemed most unlikely at time. I would prefer you say more but that's just me.

I was on an AFL list - barred from entry to any of their games....

ok...but what position do you see the steak knives playing going forward ?

Before we get the numbnuts suggesting that we offer Terlich, Grimes and a set of steak knives for Prestia - has there been any suggestion of who would be offered up or do you have any opinion ?

correct - his hit on Prestia was magic - fair, hard and legal. The problem for me is not Oliver - the problem for me is the adjudicating of the MRP. The swing tackle Oliver did in the NAB - that was an interpretation that was new and IMO made on the fly. It wasn't two motions nor were the arms pinned. Yet he was fined. Bookmark this post - Oliver will raise the ire of MRP. He will raise do this because he goes in so hard and he will hurt someone and the MRP will not judge it on the deed but judge it on the outcome as they tend to do.

You can make an early call - I prefer to keep my powder dry - today and now he is not a superstar and he is not a generational player. However at the end of the day I firmly suspect that in a couple of years I am going to be saying exactly the same thing as you are saying now. So for this reason alone, heaven and earth must be moved to keep him.

Many have commented that besides the StKilda game Hogan has had a slow start to the season. Besides the StKilda where he tore them apart I think he has been solid - he has taken the most marks for our club and he draws two defenders when he is deep every week. Whilst it is too early to go with a superstar tag or a once in a generation footballer for Hogan, early evidence is that we have something very very special and I am thoroughly uncomfortable with the thought that our number one forward for possibly the next 10 years may end up somewhere else.

I beg to differ on quality ball coming in - in the first half we were too static, bombed the ball too much and had Hogan, Pedersen and Watts ( and a resting Gawn) all working into each others space.Lots of inside 50's for not enough result. In the second half the goals came from our midfield running and spreading. Watts did some ok things in the second half and you could see him leading and creating space for others and many of his leads not being rewarded. I am not so sure the coaching staff would be unhappy with either Watts or Hogans game.

Not so much angry however... I know you can't transplant what Viney has but I will use Daniel Cross as an example - He went at every contest like it was his last. I want to see a little passion in Garland - and I think I am seeing it. I have never seen him "fire up" before but during the game on Saturday a Sun, Garlands opponent came late into the back of Melbourne player unnecessarily and our player was awarded a free. Garland grabbed his jumper and gave him a decent shake up. (not a Viney shake up but a shakeup none the less) I said it before in this post - he started with a horrible handpass but you could see that the coaches have got in his ear and he absolutely tried to do more offensively. Except for one absolute shocker i thought he was ok and to me his competing with two other footballers for his position at the moment - Dunn, who is out of favour and OMac who i think will be good but is just not ready yet. I am not writing Garland off yet - he is a good intercept mark, he has some pace for a bloke his size. If he can do more of the getting the ball and going quickly as he did once or twice then he has value. To me it depends on what Garland we get going forward - we need to get more quick offense from him - that's the key IMO.

5 points down in the Grand Final vs the Hawks - 30 seconds left on the clock - Tom McDonald with the perfect intercept mark and takes off from fullback and drills a perfect 40 metre pass ( that is his strong suite) to Viney - he goes straight through CHB and runs head first through 3 hawks knocking them over like 9 pins and handpasses to Oliver who is set upon by five Hawks but still gets the handpass off to Petracca who sidesteps two and bombs it long to 60 metres out where Nutbean jumps on top of Frawley's head and takes mark of the year just as the siren goes. Nutbean goes back - no pressure and send through an 65 metre torpedo straight through to give the Dees the premiership. wooo and hooooo.... Yes - I play football in my mind every night when I go to bed.....( sometimes i dream of girls too)

Whether you liked Garland's game or not ( that first quarter handpass ewww) - what I did like is he obviously been told by the coaching panel that he needs to do more offensively and you can see him trying to do exactly that.

Oliver''s worries me with his attack on the body - not because he does anything wrong - but because the MRP is so freakin flakey....we don't know from week to week what and how they will penalise.

I was thinking the same - it needs to be our next priority. We have two more KPF in Hulett and The weed as our hopefuls. We have OMac as next KPD hopeful but we certainly need one more. ( or a ready made)

I think you go to left field and then hop in your car and drive for about another 350km's until you get to far left of left field.

With respect - we are all clueless when it comes to assistants and your view on Rawlings is apparently not shared by the AFL. See below - not everyone gets a gig in this course and it is by CV and interview so obviously Rawlings is rated. THE SENIOR coaching prospects of Peter Sumich and Brett Montgomery have been boosted after the pair was accepted into the AFL's coaching accreditation course for 2016. After a lengthy interview process, the AFL notified successful applicants on Monday, with assistants Justin Longmuir (West Coast) and Jade Rawlings (Melbourne) rounding out the second intake of the level four program. There are now 12 coaches completing the course, which the AFL hopes will eventually become mandatory for those applying for senior positions in the future.