PaulRB

Jesse Hogan!!! Finally.

I know history recommends caution and even pessimism in making predictions about Melbourne's 2014 chances, but there is something stirring that makes me feel that the Demons will be this year's bolter. So my prediction is we'll win rd 1 and finish the 2014 season in the 8! I think we have the perfect storm of hunger, experience and talented youth, favourable draw, exceptional coach and several stars about to bloom (Watts, Howe, Trengove) and re-bloom (Frawley, Clark, Jones).

If Jack Watts is All Australian, we're playing finals.

Best time of the year!!! yay

I'd hope both he and Roos get the bug to stick around and drive us right through to the ultimate.

We offer our first born for him to stay on.

Best thing about our new captain is his relaxed demeanour and smile like he's enjoying it. JT and JG were deadly serious and intense at times (understandable perhaps), but Jones has the confidence to be himself. Key learning is to give players time to develop as players prior to loading the captaincy on them?

on who plays NAB challenge,are there VFL / Casey practice matches running in Feb - MArch as well? Given how many players need to gel with each other and the new plan this pre-season, that young players who won't feature round 1 would be overlooked...

Agree, it will be interesting to see them both develop as I think (with superficial knowledge at this stage) that they seem similar types of players...

I've watched Clark play as a forward, kick goals as a forward... He is a forward, best one in our team at the moment. Is he as good as Roughie or Franklin, who cares? and how could you tell short of swapping Clark into the Hawthorn team, I hear they have quite a good midfield, feeding their forwards...

Wow three different conversations on one thread, and not one about training on wed 22nd... Love it. Oucher + Akum - like this convo the most - reckon standard man on man in back line when ball coming in (or likely to), but spreading aggressively on the rebound. this is where Tom's engine and the nouse and ball use of Grimes and Strauss can be powerfull weapons for the counter attach from defense. Timmyo64 - to argue Clark is bad for only playing 15 games then complain he's not kicked 50 in a season is silly. Mitch has played 15 games over two years for us and kicked 36 goals (average 2.4 per game). if he played 22 games at that average, he'd kick 52.8 goals. Duh! rpfc + BB + ... - what is the point of your convo...

I like that Viv was knocking on the midfield door of one of the grand final teams. Might imply to some that he'd have a spot in a team that finished 16 spots lower on the ladder... ... or it might not.

I liked this from the article (above) "He's spent the last two years training in Ross Lyon's system and is now under Paul Roos. Seriously, could this kid have had a better midfield education? Michie knows how to go hunting for the ball. In his debut against Geelong, he also ranked second among Fremantle players for pressure applied per minute. "

My guess is we'll focus on rapid ball movement whenever possible, contest and spread coupled with shutting down opposition and forcing more contests (i.e. Swans style). Breaking even in contested ball situations will tilt games our way given we are solid back and forward (assuming a fit list). A common scenario would be along the lines of tight handballs to create space from contested or congested space, in order to break out or get the ball out to designated outside players (Watts, Blease, Strauss) whose job it will be to deliver long balls to one of the four leading "tall" forwards who'll rotate up to the wing when required. Not saying anything groundbreaking here.

http://youtu.be/jJNxj1FdKuo

With Roos on board, Jack can now only blame the guy in the mirror for what happens next... Fingers crossed.

What "Overkill on Jack Watts"!!! He's the 137th best player in the league of course we're going to talk him up!

Amazing to look at the players we lost (aside from those who retired) and how we've lost them Bartram - degenerative knee Scully - stolen by GWS Sylvia - walked to Freo Jurrah - legal/family/etc issues wonamaerri - left the game Rivers - walked to Geelong Morton - traded not to play Bennell - deregistered Maric - deregistered Of our entire forward line only Watts and Dunn remain, with neither now playing in the team as a forward... Backs Colin Garland Jared Rivers Clint Bartram Half backs Jordie McKenzie James Frawley Joel Macdonald Centreline Jamie Bennell Cameron Bruce Brad Green Half forwards Lynden Dunn Cale Morton Tom Scully Forwards Colin Sylvia Jack Watts Liam Jurrah Followers Mark Jamar Brent Moloney Aaron Davey Interchange Rohan Bail Paul Johnson Nathan Jones Addam Maric Emergencies Matthew Bate Austin Wonaeamirri Matthew Warnock In Addam Maric Austin Wonaemirri Out Matthew Bate Brent Moloney * * Brent Moloney was originally in the selected side but was replaced by Austin Wonaeamirri due to a thigh injury incurred the week before against Freo at Subiaco.

Hope Jack does well but has a long way to go!!! At the moment he's way behind another No#1 draft midfielder... Travis Johnson! Oh yep Trav finished equal fourth in the Brownlow after four years at Melbourne... On Trav - Johnstone was the first selection in the 1997 AFL Draft and made his debut in the 1998 season. Johnstone took time to develop into a star player for Melbourne, and for some time was criticised in the football media for underachieving as a number 1 draft selection. In 2002 he finished equal fourth in Brownlow Medal voting, and in 2005 he won his first Melbourne Best and Fairest Award, the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal, and he led the AFL in total kicks.

All teams in tier A and B would have to have the same resources (Player Cap and overall club expenditure Cap), so the tier B players would be on the same cap as A Div players. A two tier League of 12 and 12 would only require 6 additional clubs to be filled out (say Tas, NT, Perth, ..?). Limits (transfer fees?) could be put on players transferring between the tiers. I'd be curious to know what percentage of games won is between the bottom six teams (that would go into the B Div) and the top 12 teams (A Div)? From our experience it's low (well zero). Would it be a better experience for a fan to go and watch the team be competitive (albet at a lower level) each week as they wait for their talent to develop, or go along to the weekly floggings we've had these past years? What's better for developing the players and team?

I was thinking about that too, and occurred that the low talent pool issue is exacerbated by where the various teams are at in terms of their cycle and the age of their key talent. Many of the bottom 6 teams (GWS, MFC, GC, etc) are full of talented kids unable to physically compete with the older harder talented players in the Top 4 (Hawks, Cats, Swans, etc ). If the stigma of being relegated can be put on hold for a minute, it may be that rebuilding is better done by a team cycling down to lower tier with a clear way to push back up into the top tier once their talent matures. Is it better for the development of talent and teams to get flogged most weeks (in the A Div) or have more even matches at a lower level (B Div)? The Progress of Viney and Hogan spending a year a Casey plus the emergence of the mature recruit (Barlow et al) and the sheer brutality of the game implies that young team and players may be better off dropping down a level to develop. I remember someone talking about the great North team (Carey and co) was forged in the U18 or reserves prior to emerging into the AFL proper.

You can challenge what you choose. A discussion is an argument when one of the participants puts defending their opinion and being "right" or "winning" above exploring the issue with an open mind to find a new and evolved perspective. I wasn't implying you are a bully, just that trying to have a discussion with someone who is intent on "winning" an argument is boring. Proposing a evolution of the ALF competition with an apologist for the status quo is futile. Do you believe the current AFL competition and the way they are expanding it is without fault? I've mentioned my criticisms of the AFL in this area, perhaps you too have some misgivings on the direction of the AFL and we could find some common ground for a constructive discussion.

Mate It's too hot to discuss a hypothetical restructuring to address flaws in the current competition, with someone intent on making it an argument (i.e. right vs wrong debate). Happy to discuss, as I'm sure there is a creative way to improve the AFL. Just bored by arguments.

I agree with your points about the MFC, and I'm not suggesting changes to fix our problems, but to evolve the AFL into a better competition. Curious to hear how the models being used by the NBA could be applied, I don't know anything about their models... The core issues are the disparity in expenditure by clubs, until thats addressed with a spending cap the AFL will be a lob sided competition. the inability for new teams to compete in the competition unless that are AFL driven Empire expansions the boring one sided dead rubber nature of many games in a 18 team comp (despite the AFL trying to hide this with their new draw formulae, which only hides the disparity between the top and bottom teams). an uneven draw (see above point) but this is a fundamental that all teams play all teams an equal amount to qualify for finals...