Jaded No More

At the end of the day our priority should be to keep our young players contracted. We're already going to struggle to remove enough players from our list at the end of the season to comply with the 3 draft picks policy of the AFL as well as internal rookie promotions. I love Junior and he has been nothing short of brilliant for us, but I think this is the right decision for our club, and in the end, it means Junior can retire while still firmly in our best 22, and he deserves nothing less. As for Bruce, I'm happy the club is prioritising contracts with guys like Watts ahead of Bruce. I'm sure he'll get at least a one year deal with us, but if he's unhappy with that than he has every right to look elsewhere and I wouldn't begrudge him one little bit if he followed the cash or better terms. At the wrong side of 30, longevity should be his number one priority for himself and his family.

A champion of the MFC who saw us through some of the worst times in the club's history, with dignity and great courage. Thank you for 251 great games Junior. You are a star of our club!

SEN's definition of "big names" is often quite skewed. My money would be on Bate, as his demise has been rather rapid (e.g.- told-the-club-he-was-going-and-hasn't-been-seen-since type of demise). Honestly can't see why they would want Bruce at his age, and with Bock already signing on, I don't think they'd be chasing Warnock now. Just glad all of our key players are safe. Thank goodness we got Frawley on a 4 year deal. I can see bloody Kevin Sheedy all over him like a dirty rash next season, if he was uncontracted.

True, but you have to measure performance in context. If St Kilda don't win the flag, they have failed this season, but obviously the same measures cannot be applied to Melbourne. Given where we have been over the last 3 seasons, to be pushing for finals in round 19 is a massive improvement, especially when you consider that had a few results gone our way this year (Collingwood, Bulldogs), we would have comfortably made the 8. This season, much like next season, is about development, and I think that we are now probably one year behind Carlton, when we should have been 2 years behind, and have leapfrogged a number of other clubs who have struggled in recent times. Certainly the improvement has been more rapid than I, and probably many others, expected. Going into this season I thought 2012 would be a realistic target for making finals, but having seen the improvement this season, I'd say the club has finals firmly in its sights next season.

You can't be serious. Dunn has came a long way, but up until this year he avoided all physical contests. That is probably why he was given tagging roles and dropped to Casey, so he can work on his physicality. Oh and don't confuse being a shite and managing to draw free kicks, with being tough. He is an annoying back-chatter on the field, but he isn't tough. Mind you, he does put himself in contests now, which is a really good step and one of the key reasons for his rapid improvement. Just goes to show that you can't buy bravery, but you can force yourself to become more attacking.

Sarcasm is the only way I know how to effectively communicate on Demonland, especially when it comes to Jack Watts. I do believe that Watts threads have now taken over from "Miller is shite", "We can't kick-in", and "Put contracted player X on the rookie list" as the most repeated topics on Demonland.

I just vomited in my mouth a little.

Waste of time. He'll never amount to anything anyway

Off Field = A+ (debt removed, record memberships, AAMI park) List Management = A (at this stage looks like good drafting in 2009, and good management of contracts with the retention of Petterd and Frawley on a long term deal) List Development = A (significant improvement in many players across all areas of the ground. Jamar, Frawley, Sylvia, Petterd, Dunn the standouts) On Field = B+ (enormous improvement on the field, and better execution of game plan. Would have been A had we beat West Coast, A+ had we made finals) Overall Result = A (Should have been a teacher! )

I really feel like the rest of us missed out on something good....

An absolute certainty to win our B&F IMO. Bailey was gushing about him after the Hawthorn game, which is rare from Bailey, who generally gives nothing away.

Depressing injury list. Such a shame that Grimes' season is interupted yet again by injuries, and just when he was starting to get busy in the midfield.

A champion of the MFC, who has constructed himself a wonderful career, despite not being the most talented player in the team. Speak to anyone inside the club and they'll tell you what an incredible leader and captain he is, and how respected and well liked he is amongst the playing group. It would be a real shame if he didn't retire while still in our best 22, because he deserves to leave the game on a high. So many of our past club champions did not get the exist they deserves, be it due to injury (Neitz), poor form (Yze), list management (Robbo), so for once it would be nice to give Junior a proper farewell. Of course I'm sure that if he chooses to play on, the club would accomodate to him and he will play out the entire 2011 season. My gut feeling says that he'll call it quits, but I wouldn't be disappointed if he plays on. He deserves the right to make the call himself.

But he was taking pack marks at under 18's, so it's not as though he can't, won't, or is incapable of doing the hard/brave/tough things. At U18's he was probably one of, if not he biggest (tallest) kid in the side, so he had the confidence to do that. In his first AFL game he got smashed by 3 huge Collingwood players when he touched the ball for the first time. I want to see what he's like with a proper pre-season. He has already filled his frame quite a bit for someone who had a modified pre-season due to back injuries, so it's going to be interesting to see how much bigger he can get this summer and what mental impact that has on his approach to the game. Also the fact that he is totally exposed at AFL level due to where we are as a list (no big hard bodies up forward to protect him and take the hits), is either going to scare him more or help him develop that aspect of his game quicker. Bailey doesn't strike me as the sort of coach who will play serial offenders who don't take the hits (Dunn got dropped, Morton got dropped), so I'm gonna guess that if he doesn't start to put himself in the contest in a reasonable sense next season, he'll find himself back at Casey pretty quickly. Having said that, he will never be a Jonathan Brown CHF, so he won't bust open packs, take and distribute the punches and make his opponent shake with fear of physical retribution. He'll just burn them off with pace, agility and smarts. It's going to be so awesome

Please, wet weather footy calls for hard head-over-the-ball style of play (and so does dry weather mind you). That's why when it poured, Hawthorn were able to dominate with their strong bodies in the middle. With the exception of McKenzie, nobody else consistently put their head over the ball yesterday, and that is the number one reason we lost. We didn't have the cattle to compete with the hard bodies and physically of Hawthorn's midfield.... oh to be in 2012 already!

Laughable to think that a team which will finish 10th or 11th, will have 3 or 4 players in the AA squad. Frawley is the only player who absolutely 100% deserves to make the squad, as he is definitely in the best 6 defenders in the league in season 2010. Plus given the range of forwards he has played on, he could quite easily be slotted in as a back pocket. If he doesn't make the team it's because the selectors are biased towards the "old heads" and won't reward a player after one good season, even if at 22 Frawley has been nothing short of outstanding this year. Green is the only other player who may sneak into the side, possibly on the bench. He's top 10 in goal kicking in the league and probably the highest possession winner of them all. But there is tough competition for half forward spots, as usually they end up filling that line with midfielders Jamar won't get in because it's unlikely they'll select 2 ruckman, and Sandilands has had a better year statistically. Not even injuries will sway the selectors towards Jamar IMO. Nobody else at Melbourne is even a remote chance, and rightly so. A more consistent year from Davey, Sylvia and Grimes (the last two have obviously suffered from injuries), and they may have been a chance.

You do know we are one of the best sides in the competition at converting kick-outs into goals, right? I laugh every time this thread is bumped up, because our kick-ins are no worse than any other teams'. In most cases, we are actually better.

That's how they do it in Soviet Russia. Don't question it

I think PJ will survive by virtue of him being a ruckman, although a poor one, with Meesen gone, Martin having to undergo surgery and possibly miss some or all of pre-season, Gawn barely able to get off the injury list and Fitzpatrick being a 5 year old beanpole. It would be an absolute shame to lose an unknown quantity in McNamara, who is a KPD and was a bottom-age recruit, just so we can keep an NQR ruckman, but sometimes list balance has to win out. For mine though, Cheney goes before McNamara. We've seen about as much as Cheney has to offer at senior level, and I doubt he'll ever crack it into our best 22. So with that: Bell (delist) Miller (delist) Cheney (delist) Junior (retire) Green (elevated to senior list) McKenzie and Spencer (elevated to senior list) The rest of the rookie list goes too. If we're only going to have 3 picks in the draft, I'd like to leave some room on the rookie list to try and develop either a mature age rookie or another ruckman. Edit: So just saw Cheney is contracted for another year, so you can pretty much disregard my entire post above

The rain killed us too. We didn't have the bodies to fight it out in the wet and dirty contest, not to mention that our playing style really does suffer when it's pissing down and the wind is blowing at 100km an hour. Put simply, everything went against us yesterday and we still only lost by 20 points. The more I think about it, the more remarkably proud I am of the team. How incredible has our progress been in the space of 19 weeks?!

I'd probably kick 20 goals if Ablett was delivering me the ball It is a remarkable achievement for Jurrah, considering where he has come from and how limited his AFL preparation has been. One day, he'll go mental and kick 15 in a game. You have to love a player who can turn shite into gold.

Some very interesting replies. I'm all for going all out to win the last 2 matches. It is so important for us to put up a good showing in Adelaide, and break the ridicilous hoodoo of AAMI Stadium that has been haunting us for 10 years. Port are not great, so w should be a serious chance. Come round 22, and especially if lose next week, I'd really love to see Tapscott get a game, just to give him a taste of what is required of him at the top level. He's worked hard to recover from injuries, so if he's fit and plays with Casey this week, a round 22 game should be on the cards.

The term FML was surely invented by a Melbourne supporter upon reading yet another injury-update. FML!

Nobody here blames our loss on the umpires, but unless you were at the ground, you wouldn't understand the psychological disadvantage that we had today. A number of times poor decisions from the umpires cost us a good run and momentum and completely sucked our confidence. I'll just give you one example which stands out to me. Hawthorn win the free, probably fairly I don't know, and Sylvia looks to give the ball back not knowing who the free kick belongs to. He stuffs around with it and is given a 50m penalty. Fine. Late in the game, we win a free and the Hawthorn player flat out refuses to give the ball back and wastes ample time being a tool. No 50m. So again, we didn't lose the game because of the umpires, but if you were in Chip's shoes today, you would have wanted to punch an umpire or throw in the towel. It's demoralizing for a team working its butt off to continuously be on the end of dud decisions, and when the game is played in difficult conditions and the contest is tight, it is also damn right defeating.