La Dee-vina Comedia

Possession numbers of player v player are only meaningful if they play the same role. Many of Cross's possessions are in traffic as he tries to get a contested ball out to another player. Many of his are therefore 'invisible' and don't appear to have the same value as a Bernie Vince long kick. In short, the only time you should compare one player's possessions with another is you participate in Dreamteam.

I would have thought JKH or Salem could play his role and another harder mildfielder - Riley, Kent or McKenzie - could come in for Byrnes

On the glass half full side of things, I thought four of our players (5 if you wanted to be technical and include Salem) played, in three words, their 'best game ever'. Those four were Dunn, M Jones, Pedersen and Kennedy-Harris. Until this year I've never been keen on Dunn. This year he's shown how wrong I've been. I just wonder whether he's the poster boy for the difference a coach can make.

Before deciding what to do with Watts the question which need to be asked is this: What, if anything, is going to make him a better player? We all know it's about his hardness and willingness to take on the contest, but where is he going to learn it? I don't see how he improves these aspects of his game by playing at Casey. The slower pace of the game will allow him to get away with the style of play he brings to the seniors, so I can't see him getting better. On the other hand, he seems to be making extraordinarily slow progress in the seniors. It seems to me he needs a "hardness coach". We may have one - that might be exactly what Brett Allison and Brad Miller are doing - but, so far, it's not showing results. Personally, I'd leave him in the seniors and have him in the middle every time Cross is there. As to the other players, I see no reason to play Byrnes. There's no future benefit and he adds nothing now. I thought Jetta was again poor. Bail seemed poor, but he's got some credits in the bank for earlier performances this year. So, perhaps it's time for Byrnes to be retired to play the remainder of the year at Casey and Jetta to go back. Perhaps Garland, Riley or Clisby could come in.

6. M Jones 5. Dunn 4. N Jones 3. Pedersen 2. Vince 1. Cross Typo: Name spelling correction.

It'll be confusing for us here in Melbourne if "North by Northwest" is on the other channel when we're playing in Darwin.

How's this for a definitive answer? Better than we oldies trading fading memories.

Give them broomsticks and they could play Quidditch. (One of the greatest made-up games of all time. Along with "Hangman's Cricket" from a movie called 'Drowning by Numbers'.)

I may have the wrong decade - perhaps it was the 70s - but Kevin Bartlett and David Cloke (at Richmond) both used to wear them regularly.

I don't think he was the worst, but very likely had the largest gap between what he is capable of and actual output. If one was picking the team purely on output he would not be dropped before Terlich or Jetta.

Lace-ups weren't novelty jumpers. They were the original 19th century designs which hung around until the 1980s when they were banned because of the injuries they caused to opponents' fingers.

You'd also be amazed at how brilliant players look when they play with other great players. Robert Flower regularly starred playing for the Big V because he was in the right spot for the ball to be delivered to him. When he went back and played for Melbourne for much of his career, he was in the right spot...but the ball didn't get there because of the lower level of skill of those he was playing with. Substitute Nathan Jones for Robert Flower and think of Geelong or Hawthorn as Victoria in the 1980s and you can imagine how much better Jones could be.

If the indigenous design in the background actually represents something meaningful, such as the land around Yarra Park with the river at the bottom, I would respectfully disagree. But if it's just made up to 'look' indigenous, I will agree.

Spencer? Is he injured, resting or just too good for the others?

I just hope Paul Roos doesn't again coach a team in a Melbourne v Sydney game that loses by 12 goals.

If it proceeds it might protect us from the potential of losing the Queen's Birthday game should Australia ever become a republic and that public holiday disappears.

Machsy doesn't need my help, but let me answer anyway. To be a leader you need to have followers. Hodge has followers; Nick Reiwoldt has followers. I'm not sure Chris Judd has. And this is not a criticism of Judd. As I've said before, it doesn't matter whether you're intelligent, courageous or highly skilled. There are plenty of examples of footballers with those qualities who wouldn't have, or didn't, make great leaders. And, conversely, others who become terrific leaders even if they're not anywhere near the best player in their team. For example, Nick Maxwell. Or, in another sport entirely, Mike Brearley.

However, should we become a republic there would be no such holiday as Queen's (or King's) Birthday. I would expect the Government of the day would create another public holiday to commemorate something, but it may not be on the second Monday in June. Keep in mind, that the Queen's Birthday holiday is not the second Monday in June in every Australian State and whatever the new public holiday is to be it would likely be a national holiday held on the same day or date throughout the nation.

Not sure I agree with this. Terlich is OK until he's under pressure and then he seems to panic. And often he seems to put himself under pressure. It's like he's committed to doing something before he's worked out exactly what. Then, he realises it's the wrong option and his game falls apart. That's not to say his problems aren't rectifiable - Nathan Jones played the same way in his early years. But right now, I'd take Grimes over Terlich.

In a way you don't need 'match simulation'. With where we are at, as a non-finals contender, every game is an opportunity to learn how to execute under pressure. Each match as the players execute whatever they are being told to do at training they should be getting better at doing it under pressure. Those that don't get better will find themselves falling behind and eventually dropping to Casey and eventually off the list altogether.

Grimes may also improve if he had a better midfield as well as better players around him in defence. I keep thinking he's trying to do too much...mind his own man, intercept, be the distributor off half-back, plug a hole in the midfield on occasions, lead the team, etc. Overall, I think he's doing pretty well. Yes, his disposal is inconsistent (rather than consistently bad) and he does give one palpitations when he has the ball in hand because of it.

Well, whatever your reason for being a 'leaver', I hope that you end up doing what you want to do, wherever that may be (but for whomever it is - please make sure they understand your need to attend Demon's training for the benefit of the rest of us).

If we believe the Queen's Birthday game shouldn't continue to be a Melbourne-Collingwood event (and I think it should continue as it is fixtured, but we should do more with the day itself) then we should be strongly campaigning that any new 'blockbuster' timeslots such as, potentially, Good Friday, should not be locked away for two teams only.

I think it is unwise for Melbourne supporters to bemoan the Collingwood-Essendon ANZAC Day 'tradition'. It has more going for it than the Collingwood-Melbourne Queen's Birthday 'tradition'. Be careful what you wish for.

Hey, Satyr, as much as I enjoy your training reports, I'm starting to get even more interested in your workplace. Can you tell us more?