Jaded No More

No I'm not joking. Buckley breaking the lines is great, but Buckley running into trouble is not. I understand that he's a kid and he is still developing, but his disposal and reading of the play is something that he needs to work on right now so that it doesn't become an issue in the future (and the same goes for many of our players). Pace is great, but it's only one small element in becoming an elite midfielder which I would dearly love for him to become. By the way, football smarts is IMO the only thing you can't teach a player. Either you have it, or you don't.

This club is going to be about as exciting as a wet paper bag. That mascot looks to me like he's going to drown himself in the ocean any minute now, and why wouldn't you when you've been given the ever original name of Gazza from the Gold Coast

A little less speed and a little more football smarts would be fantastic. Needs to learn to control his kicking.

And yet every other Melbourne player managed to behave themselves and stay out of the media. Therefore, their alcohol consumption, while I'm sure very heavy, was not excessive. You only get into trouble and start acting like a tool when the amount of alcohol you've consumed, starts to consume your personality and your behaviour. At their age, every single footballer should know their tolerance to alcohol.

I don't care that he was out drinking, I care that he can't handle his alcohol and that his drinking caused our club negative publicity. Players can go out and party and celebrate and let their hair down, they can't however get intoxicated beyond control, especially if they know they act like complete morons when drunk. Carroll's behaviour on Mad Monday, plus his many previous indiscretions which people may or may not know about, make him a complete waste of time for the MFC. You're kidding yourself if you think Carroll just had one too many beers, and Holland slipped over and that's the end of the story.

The fact that someone had to help him into a taxi, indicates to me that he was behaving inappropriately and drinking way more than he should. Mad Monday or not, excessive consumption of alcohol amongst professional MFC footballers should not be tolerated. Especially when said footballer is struggling for a spot in the team and is already treading a very fine line. Besides, it's no coincidence that Mr.Carroll always finds himself in trouble... it's because he is trouble. It's a miracle that nothing more serious has ever come to the media's attention. We've been very lucky thus far. By the way, the club probably knows the truth (whatever it may be). What Holland told the media is his choice, as he is no longer an employee of the MFC.

Come on Rhino, when you've been working towards a goal so hard for so long, and you don't fulfill your own expectations, it can be a very shattering thing. No doubt they should move on with their lives, but that is easier said than done. Most likely they have dreamt and wanted nothing more than to play AFL, and so the notion of letting go of their dream would be a hell of a lot harder than simply "moving on". I wish both of them the best of luck in their future endeavors (maybe they'll get picked up by another club or play for a VFL side). They can at least leave their AFL career behind knowing they tried their very best.

The panels would make you look fatter (defining your curves), which in the case of Cale Morton could be pretty good :D I really do like the Red & Blue design. If they don't want blue on the side, perhaps a navy stripe resembling the letter M could be included at the back to avoid a clash with Sydney. But I can tell you that I've spent all year designing uniforms for a major Australian company (20,000+ employees), and it is so incredibly difficult to create something that everyone likes and everyone agrees on. You will never have a perfect clash jumper, but no doubt a red and blue one is better than a white version.

I'd say that Dutchy tried to get Carroll to call it a day and get him into a cab, and Carroll probably didn't like that all that much and hence got violent with Dutchy. Truly an A Grade moron.

Awesome, extra ammunition to GET RID OF HIM! What an idiot and a shocking influence on our young playing list. Goodbye and good riddance.

How likely is it that anyone more valuable than Warnock will be available in the PSD? Generally it's older players who nominate for the PSD, which we don't want. Therefore, why would we trade pick 35 for Warnock, when we could use that pick to grab yet another young kid? If we really must give Freo something, we should offer them a pick in the 40's or better yet, a player (helping us clear the list at the same time).

Both his brothers are in Victoria now. So he's practically a Victorian.

By the way, the go home factor here is huge. We've already lost a gun midfielder to his home state, I rather it didn't happen again. At least with Watts you know he ain't going anywhere.

There is nothing wrong with NOT trading our first pick or swapping picks, to get Warnock. I'm sorry but either we give Freo a late pick, or we get him in the PSD. There isn't a team in the AFL who wouldn't do the same if they were in our position... except for maybe Freo... and that's why they are a joke of a football club. We are hardly asking for Pavlich for pick 90 here. I also think you'll find that Essendon and Collingwood don't do many trades because they ask for too much for their players. Essendon didn't accept a late 30 pick for Kepler Bradley FFS! :D

Co-coaches at the MFC?

I've seen every Melbourne game live this year (minus the Essendon game), and I agree about the forward structure. The problem is, we have no forwards. Miller is the only one still standing, with Neita and Robbo gone, Davey injured, Green down back and Newton and Bate off with the fairies. So there is only so much Bailey can do to fix the forward structure when he has no players to work with. Notice he put Garland down there for a bit yesterday, but the ball never even made it to the forward 50! Mind you, if we actually won a clearance every once in a while our forward line would perform a hell of a lot better. We so often get the ball out of the backline (because thankfully our defence is pretty strong these days), and break down across half-back and on the wing. Not always because we over-possess, but sometimes because our players are completely devoid of kicking and contested marking skills. It's little wonder we can barely muster 15 inside 50's a game. You can't work miracles when you don't have the cattle.

And not give credit to players who stick to their task and help out the team? There is no creativity and flair when you're losing by 80 points. There are those who try, and those who don't. Belly certainly fell into the trier category and he deserves recognition for that.

But how can you choose "best available" when the 3 candidates are all so different and play completely different positions and have completely different attributes? When it was Judd vs. Hodge vs. Ball, you could make the comparison (which funnily enough was wrong in the end). But when it's a forward vs. a midfielder vs. a ruckman the perception of best available comes down to who would be the best player for your club. So yes we need a gun midfielder because our midfield is poor, but we also need a forward target. And are we chasing Warnock hoping to eliminate the choice down to just 2?

How about this deal: we don't swap picks, we screw Freo and get Warnock in the PSD and for once in our soft existence we don't accommodate other teams and the hell with all of them. When was the last time another team did us a favour?

Meh. They need to toughen up. Army training will be a great way of teaching them discipline, hardness and the virtue of team work. Alternatively, we could employ Chuck Norris to run a pre-season program.

And so you should. Grimes worked his butt off to recover from injury, complete his own version of a pre-season and he earnt a senior game because of it. He deserves to be rewarded for effort, plus giving him a taste now means he can get that nervous first game out of the way and concentrate really hard on what he now knows he needs to improve on. There was nothing pointless about giving Grimes a game today. There are a handful of other players who were far less deserving of a game and who haven't worked nearly as hard as Grimes has to just make it onto the field this year.

I would love it if you could give me SPECIFIC examples of Bell being terrible today. For one, he beat his opponent, so he fulfilled his main role for the day. Secondly, he provided some good run when playing on the half back line and the wing, and most of his disposals by hand and foot were spot on. He is not a world beater, he is not an A-grade player, but he works so hard, he tackles well, he has excellent pace and his disposal is certainly reasonable. IMO Bartram is having a worse season, and Jones' disposal is miles behind Bell's.

Personally I would send our players to do a pre-season in Iraq. Better yet, send them on an end-of-season trip to a military base in North Korea. If we finish above 14th next year it will be a small victory, but most importantly I want to see us continue to develop a spine. We found a decent group of defenders this year, but our midfield and forward-line is pathetic. We must rectify this over the next 2 seasons before we can even think about making the top 8.

I would rather not watch us get smashed on my birthday... again... thanks

Oh dear god. Carroll is simply terrible. Cannot believe that he got a game ahead of Martin. Thought Sylvia tried really hard and had a fairly good game, with Warnock and Garland once again standing strong in the backline. Everyone else left a week early for their holiday.