DEELIRIOUS

I was born into being a Melbourne supporter and my earliest memory is the game we beat the Swans in 01 at the G when Farmer did his hammy. After the game everyone got to run onto the ground, and I was the last one off, trying to emulate Neitz earlier in the day and put a few through from the huge distance that was the edge of the goal square at the City End. I was 5 and a half at the time. My first ever game, which I have no recollection of, Dad took me to sit with the cheersquad. I was scared at first, I cried in fact, but eventually I got into it. I'm into my 12th consecutive year as a member now and I have loved every moment of following this great club, despite the rubbish I have had to put up with since 06 at school. I'm sure of it that our time will come and hopefully in the future it can be my son that emulates Jesse Hogan from the goalsquare at the G after a Dees win.

Both have underwhelmed. Did Collingwood overrate them?

WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?!? USB! this sounds interesting

There may not be a long term the way we are going

HG is actually taking the absolute [censored] out of this forum at the moment and I am loving every minute of it. He's got everyone eating out of his hand, as am I. Come around next week already! This letter is gonna be something

I thought Dean Bailey got sacked in 2011 would be my thoughts

My thoughts exactly

Play Colin Garland as a forward for the rest of what ever career he has left at the Melbourne Football Club. Can't play on talls, can't play on smalls, can't defend after looking like he could for 3 years from 08-10. Whatever hole he leaves in the defence can easily be covered or made up for as he is no big loss down there.

With Terlich there will the focus solely be on Watts? And regardless, maybe one of our players can be a team player for once and sacrifice their game for the benefit of the team by allowing others to blossom. I'm not saying thats what happened yesterday with Watts, nor am I saying its gonna happen this week, but if the focus is on Watts most weeks then other players in our defence can capitalise. I understand Watts had a shocker yesterday but I'm confident the bearded woman can bounce back

OUT: Gillies, Nicholson, Sellar, Tapscott, Dunn IN: Tom Mcdonald, Dean Terlich, Chris Dawes, Dean Kent/Aaron Davey(I'd prefer Kent but he wasnt even in the 25 for Round 1 whereas Davey was), Neville Jetta Everyone is calling for Pederson to be dropped or never play again when he kicked a goal, assissted another and at least chased. And no body can convince me that Sellar wuda taken that hanger on the goalline in the 2nd. On the other hand James Sellar still drops chest marks, is innefectual up forward, runs around without any sense of direction/instruction and is still the worst footballler, along with Lyden Dunn, known to man. Gillies was a dud, and proved that, much like Sellar did last season, Nicholson squibbed it yesterday and then got towelled up convincingly by a first gamer. Tapscott needs to turn it around quickly or else he will be playing SANFL if he's lucky next season. Lynden Dunn is just a flop, why we kept him I'll never know. Why they allow him to take kickouts, I'll never know either. Tom Mcdonald is a must inclusion. The backline looked terrible without him; bigger loss than Rivers it would seem. Terlich must come in for Dunn because he looks like he can play on an opponent and still rake in the touches and offer something other than a 50m kick to no-one. Dawes, fit or unfit, 80% or 90% fit I cudnt care must play. Dean Kent or Aaron Davey is the only dillemma. Kent would give more than Davey would in my opinion and his toughness for me warrants his selection. The soft nature of Davey allows him a week in the VFL or emergency again because after yesterday the soft must not play. Neville Jetta comes in and replaces Nicholson. Simple as that.

Add Pickles Evans to the above list

Selection dilemma's at Melbourne for the first time since..........don't know. Neeld's recruitment strategy is healthy for the list and for the club because it seems as though every player on the list, bar Stark and Clisby, look as though they could don the Red and Blue for season 2013. Surely this brings a little bit of confidence to the supporters knowing that we have depth players who could come in and play a role, without the worry of blooding another rake kid who couldn't perform at AFL level. This depth is signified by the inclusion of Gillies for TMac and Pederson for Dawes. In 2012 TMac wudda been replaced by Sellar and the Dawes hole would be filled by Rivers/Garland. Additionally the likes of Terlich, Strauss, Jetta, Kent, Couch, Joel Macdonald and Magner can all come in and play and give something on game day. This depth is great for Melbourne and for this reason alone, and the competition it brings, Melbourne will improve in season 2013 with players in the know that poor performance will not grant 2nd chances any more. Just ask Aaron Davey. GO DEES IN 2013!

Dean Kent has something about him. Pace, power, aggro, ball winning ability and kicking abilty. GET ON HIM THE PARK ASAP!

Sounds like last week. I am even more nervous for Round 1 now.

Is it free of charge to get in for practice games? If not, what do they charge?

And watching Blease from the stoppages was amazing. Catch me if you can attitude. So exciting

If the club is allowing Dan Nicholson to be the release kick from def 50 then its gonna be a bloody long season

Never met him but sounded like a really nice guy. My memory of him is that he was turning into a really accountable HBF and i really began to like him.

Mids and was doing well. Had a long period of set shots with the fwds though.

Ask me some questions if you like and you may spark my memory. Also I see future captaincy material in Toumpas and Viney. They took charge of the handball drills and practically ran it. I was loving it!

Got there 40 minutes late. The following is not in order of what I saw. I'm just compiling this as I go. Talk was good. Much more than the last time I watched training and that was late November in 2011. Mark Neeld not present. (I couldn't spot him) As I walked to the oval, on the rugby pitch Watts, Dunn, Grimes, Taggert and Dawes were doing interval sprints the length of the field. Jamar, Clisby and Toumpas ran laps around them at slow pace. Dunn looks like a true athlete; has definition. Clark sat down with the meds on the boundary line in a moonboot and crutches as expected. Looked happy. Left at about 10:20. Dawes, Gawn (who has bulked up a bit) and Grimes ran laps on Gosch's Paddock at the back end of the session at decent nip. Dawes looks trimmer than last season. The tape on his right knee will be a mainstay as support for his ACL injury early in his career I assume. Aaron Davey looks sharp. Dom Barry has got potential. He moves gracefully and kicks very well. Nathan Jones is easily the best player on the list. Colin Sylvia looks good but seemed like he was giving ¾ or ½ effort throughout. But I did enjoy seeing him teach Matt Jones where to run when the mids were doing a stoppage drill. Good to see him showing some leadership. Speaking of M Jones he moves well and has a decent kick. Lean and tall (a better Gysberts?). Terlich, Stark, Clisby, Viney, Toumpas, Gawn, Taggert and Evans did handballs and short kicking for 20-40 minutes. Evans then joined in the main session doing set shots when this ended. There was a full ground transition drill which occured twice. The ball started 20-30 metres out on the boundary in backline. Kick went to a leading mid from the centre of the ground who then handballed to a running player who switched the ball to the opposite HBF. The next kick was down the line to a spreading mid and the mid then delivered into the fwd line to Pedersen/Tapscott/Byrnes/Davey/Howe/Blease. There were crumbers at some stages (Blease and Byrnes). Ball movement was good but the kick down the line missed the target a little too much for my liking. David Rodan will be a bargain pick up or the club. Great talker and encourager and has still got it from what I saw. Pedersen is a big bloke and should be handy in 2013. Shannon Byrnes is pacy and has a really good nouse for positioning himself for the crumbs but misses a lot of opportunities. During the full ground drill he missed a lot of chances and his set shots aren't the most accurate. He'll get that right I'm sure. And thats all I can remember. I don't take notes when I'm there. On a side note the Dons were there watching the back end of the session and trained after us. I left during their warm up.

If he has a massive year our midfield will finally look like a midfield and the team's fortunes will improve enormously. If he has a massive year he would stay......surely?

He better deliver. I don't want another Travis Johnstone situation, where he was all potential, on our hands! PLEASE COL!

OPA RE!?!?!? O Dimitri Toumpas horepsi!

Pick the skinny kid on the list now. And look at the blokes we currently have on the list. Muscle and power personified! To a very large extent this season we were no slouch in the clinches. The bruise free call will be long forgotten....ONLY if we beat the blues