Jaded No More

Don't want those either. True, but give me a fit Rivers, Garland, Frawley, Martin and Grimes over a fit Whelan and Wheatley any day of the week. The reality is that Whelan has always been injury prone, and while he is a great player, he is not part of our long-term future. That is not to say that he can't be a fantastic role model to our players, which he no doubt is, even when he's on the sidelines. And which of Rivers, Garland, Frawley, Martin, Grimes, Cheney, Petterd and whoever else is now competing for a defensive position would you leave out in favour of Wheatley? Yeah, didn't think so.

Meh. Both are in the twilight of their careers, and both will be replaced shortly. While there is no doubt that Whelan adds significant strength to our backline, his injury opens doors for Cheney and Bail, who are his future replacement. As for Wheatley, we can do without 60meter turnovers.

He was crying because he realised that he was born one year too early, and will now have to watch Newton and Meesen playing in the red and blue :D

Best one so far!

With only 6 sleeps remaining until our first match of season 2009, the excitement is building, and you either think we're a finals chance, you're looking forward to some priority picks, or you are simply a sucker for pain. Regardless of which one of the above categories you fall into, everyone has an opinion about what exactly is going to happen to our beloved club in 2009. So Watts yours? Number of wins: 4 Average losing margin: 40 points (we'll put in a couple of shockers which will bring up the average) Average winning margin: 10 points B&F top 3: 1. McLean 2. Garland 3. Green Leading goal-kicker: Miller (42 goals) All Australian representatives: Garland Top votes at the Brownlow: McLean Best first year player: Bail (will get the most game time) Breakthrough year (first-year players do not count): Frawley Disappointment of the year: Grimes missing the majority of the season through injury Biggest area of improvement: Kick-ins Surprise packet of 2009: Buckley learns how to properly harness his skills for good instead of evil Headline of the year: Watts a debut! (Jack delivers the Dees a birthday present on Queens Birthday) Best win of the year: Rd. 11 vs. Collingwood Worst loss of the year: Rd 9 vs. Hawthorn Final membership numbers: 31,230 And just for fun... Number of times Bailey will use the word 'competitive' in 2009: 10,845 Number of games until Rivers and Moloney both break down with injuries: 6 Number of weeks until Sylvia makes headlines for being a tool again: 4 Number of weeks suspension served by Spencer for whacking someone on debut: 2 Number of times Aussie does the 'frog leap' in 2009: 13 Number of "when is Jack Watts going to debut?" threads on Demonland: 59

Boys, you have nothing to worry about. Given that YM predicted that we'll win by 14 goals, we will now lose by 14 goals. :D

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you a million times over for helping secure the future of our great football club. Hopefully the relationship between the MFC and Kaspersky is a long and fruitful one.

The Jared Rivers tracker will now officially be updated. 2.5 games without death and counting. Hooray!

And by news he means, has he broken anything yet?

Brilliant! Having a genuine feeling that your club is actually going to survive in its current form (the MELBOURNE football club!), is the absolute best thing that has come out of these sponsorship deals. Go Dees... For another 150 years at least

He is... now... administrative error. Sorry all, carry on.

I'm sorry, but how are you still posting here? Gotta love my fellow moderators and their inability to properly suspend posters...

God hates us!

So that's what the funny shaped bottle was... But really I have met people who get paranoid when they are drunk, and start jumping at shadows, therefore the carnival atmosphere (lights, noise, clown faces) might freak them out. Plus I wouldn't recommend having a drink before you attend any kid-friendly function.

It seems that we have a genuine problem with the backline at the moment, except for once we aren't scrapping the bottom of a [censored] barrel to try and get a backline together, but rather we're contemplating who to leave out! It's a nice problem to have, but a problem none the less. The logical idea would be to play one of the backline talls as a forward. The other issue is that we need a good balance of talls and smalls, and if we play all of Rivers, Garland, Warnock, Martin, Frawley, Miller, Bate, PJ and Spencer we're likely to run out of legs. I wouldn't mind giving Martin a go up forward, simply because it seems unfair to leave him out and will do nothing for his future development. I'd leave Sylvia out and play Martin as a forward. I know they are both different type of players who bring different things to the table, but Sylvia should earn his spot, and Martin as far as I'm concerned, already has. It's not as if Sylvia makes our forwardline any less problematic. Who knows, Martin might.

Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine <_<

There is no chance in hell that Frawley is not getting a game in Round 1

You only need to look at some of the other nominees to understand why CJ made the cut... The 3 criteria are: dumb, spends more time getting ready than most females, devoid of any personality

You know it At least I'd have a valid excuse this time

I'll give you a hint. Next time you go there, have a few beers first. Luna Park is amazing when you're a little tipsy (unless you become paranoid when drunk, in which case the clown face will probably freak you out)... or so I've heard

I may be an overzealous drunk, but I'm not a dumb one!

I was always thinking of getting the old-school MFC intertwined logo on my ankle. Simple and not too over the top. However depending on the length and strength of the celebration, I may end up with 'Brock is my captain' tattooed across my chest, and that would be very bad!

I don't know exactly how I'd celebrate it, but no doubt I'll end up hungover in a gutter somewhere :D Edit: A pact made a long long time ago with a fellow Melbourne supporter also means that I'd end up with a tattoo.... hopefully I'll be sober while choosing the design, size and location of said tattoo.

Now is the time to strike and sign Colin Garland for 10 years on his current salary

I'll probably get done for this comment, but I want two first-round priority picks. This is our last chance in a long long time to take full advantage of the draft system, and therefore we should. Of course I don't want to get these draft picks by deliberately losing games, and I definitely don't want us to get smashed week in week out. In an ideal world, we'll be competitive in most games (yes, the word competitive is back), beat Collingwood twice and Carlton too, but still qualify for picks 1 & 2 (or 1 & 3). We are not going to win a flag this year, or even get close to making the finals. And if you're not first, you are better off coming last. One more year of pain could pay up big for the next 10 years. However above all else, what I want to see this year is Buckley finally learning how to use his tricks for good instead of evil, for McLean and Rivers to remain injury free, for Jones to improve his disposal, for Bell to establish himself as a midfielder, for us to establish a semi-useful forwardline and for our backline to establish itself as the best up-and-coming defence in the game. Oh and did I mention that I want to hear the roar of the crowd when one Jack Watts steps onto the field for the first time...