La Dee-vina Comedia

Old dee, you're being too pessimistic. Look at how Port Adelaide have turned it around in the last 12 months both on and off the field. I understand the cause of the pessimism and if things don't change off field then you have ever right to be concerned about the future on field. To use a cliche, there is a lot of low hanging fruit which can be plucked readily to make significant and quick improvement.

Which day is that?

It's obvious to everyone that Dunn has poor judgement. Evidence his persistence with that horrible moustache.

Two words too many. Actually, I'd go with "We're Melbourne" and leave it at that. Links us to the city in which the game was invented.

Dunn is playing the best, most consistent footy of his career, perhaps due to the fact that he's essentially been left in one position. However, his best and most consistent are not enough to keep him in a better side. When we get better, he should start to struggle to get a regular game. If we could trade him for a midfielder of reasonable quality (eg, equivalent to a Matt Jones) I'd do so. But I wouldn't delist him yet - there are plenty ahead of him in that queue.

Mind you, part of the problem is that our players are still not strong enough to hold a tackle or strong enough to break them. Our players just don't have the size necessary to play this game.

Who would have thought that by the end of the year Jamar and Gawn would be rucking for Casey and Spencer for the seniors, rather than the other way around.

Who would have thought at the beginning of the season - or even halfway through it - that any poster would have talked about Fitzpatrick having "class" equivalent to Clark and Hogan. Personally, I think it's gilding the lily a bit, but I think we all agree that Fitzy has been a huge improver. Well done to the lad.

Or, the other perennial favourites: why isn't Magner in the team deck chairs on the Titanic

That was Richard de Crespigny, though I'm sure they're all related. For those on this site who bemoan public school boys, the Champion de Crespigny family are strongly connected with Melbourne Grammar.

Have I read somewhere that he's also considered to be a "coach in waiting"? That is, he has shown the interest and capability to be a future coach.

I wasn't being tongue in cheek. I was trying to crystalize the argument about his value. Obviously not very well.

Just so a non-gym person like me understands, are you saying that James Frawley's injury was caused by inappropriate use of gym equipment?

I notice the first photo refers to an "Altitude room", whatever that is. I wouldn't mind if we also had an "Attitude Room".

I'm surprised the mods haven't picked you up on this Demonstrative. Important factual error which cannot go uncorrected. Frankenstein was actually the name of the doctor who created the monster, not the other way around.

Jack Viney's game against Freo on Sunday was the best performance in a single game by a first year player for Melbourne that I can remember. Let's hope that's the standard that he will continue to deliver and that our new recruits and older players get infected with the same desire and enthusiasm. Having said that, in answer to the opening post I can't split Jones and Terlich. Both have some weaknesses but both have been worthy additions to the team. Viney misses my nod solely because of the number of games missed.

Hypothetical: The AFL Commission agrees to giving MFC a conditional Priority Pick. The condition is that we must take Liam Jurrah with that pick and no-one else. Is that a win for the MFC?

On the basis that we were never going to win this game - and any person who thought otherwise at the start of the game surely didn't think so 15 minutes in - I would have kept Jack Watts in the forward line and if a spare man was to be deployed, used Troy Davis (or Lynden Dunn with Davis minding whoever Dunn was responsible for). I would only have used the one behind the ball for a few minutes when Freo was firing (to be honest...I wouldn't have used it at all. I just can't see the point. If we get the ball with a spare man back it means we can't score because of their reciprocal spare man in defence. And they then have more time and space to spot up a better option when they return fire.). And I would not have given Spencer, McDonald or Fitzpatrick a spell on the bench in the last quarter. I can't believe McDonald at 20 can't stay with Pavlich who's 32-ish.

I thought we'd come to the view that post-Schwab the CEO shouldn't get involved in football detail. Anyway, an interesting comment from Leigh Matthews on 3AW over the weekend (Saturday, I think). When discussing Watts' Footy Show appearance he referred to John Kennedy Sr's descriptions of players as some being 20 year old boys who act like men and others being 30 year old men who act like boys. Matthews thought that Watts might be one of those men who act like "boys" just like, he said, Jared Brennan. If Matthews is right, Watts should never have appeared on the Footy Show at this time and, in my view, his manager has failed him. As to Watts and our expectations, most players are not leaders and never will be. A few are and show it whether they have the title or not. Watts is not a leader, but he's in very good company. Gary Ablett Sr and Bruce Doull would be considered two of the best players of all times but would never be considered to be leaders (even though Geelong ludicrously made Ablett captain). On the other hand, whether he becomes captain or not and after just a handful of games, Jack Viney is a born leader.

There were two coaching decisions which baffled me in the Freo game. Why did Craig persist with a free man in defence? So often when we got the ball the players had no-one forward to kick to and Freo's equivalent free man in defence was able to do too much damage. Secondly, why, when we were down to one rotation for most of the second half were players like Spencer, Fitzpatrick and Tom McDonald getting a rest. Surely the ruckman could have rested in the forward line to allow our onballers such as Viney, Sylvia, Trengove and Jones (x2) more rest time. I don't believe that Craig's coaching style would ever win a premiership with any team because of his defence mantra (remember Melb v Adelaide at the MCG when Bailey was coach when we kicked our first goal in the third quarter...and still had a chance to win?). However, given we won't have a team challenging for a premiership for the next 2 years I wouldn't be averse to him coaching for one or two more years on the understanding that he would hand over to someone he would be training (such as, but not necessarily, Adam Simpson). A decision like that needs his proper buy-in. We wouldn't want a Mick Malthouse at Collingwood situation.

So, how do we know whether Watts was playing as he did because of or in spite of instructions? If he was playing to instructions then he was probably in our top 10 players. This has been a voter's dilemma all year...how can you pick the best players when it's sometimes impossible to work out exactly what the players had been instructed to do.

Not sure about that. I think Guy Jalland is a lawyer.

Potential for some confusion with Don McLardy, I would have thought.

Apologies. It was an opinion based on watching him play. In my view he doesn't get to the second contest often enough which I attribute to a lack of aerobic fitness for his current role (either half back flank or key forward). He'll need a bigger tank to be an onballer and I don't think he's there yet.

I see Ben Hur has started signing off his posts.