Jaded No More

That goal from Watts in the last was amazing. All class. It's good that they are using him on the wing as well, because it gets him into the game and he uses it so well. He is the biggest crumber I've ever seen Thought Bail was great, but needs to attack the contest a bit more. McNamara impressed as well. Grimes seems to wear some sort of bandage type thing up and down his left leg. Anyone know what it is?

The poor kicking skills of the VFL listed players are killing me. Not that I should care, but I want Watts to get more opportunities! His first goal in particular was class. That he firstly took a mark against 6 players, and that he then had the quick reaction time to play on (although it was clearly a mark) and kick across the body, was just great. He can truly play both tall and small, which is pretty rare for a forward. Whelan is also way WAY too good to play at this level (his damn body is a curse), and it's great to see Bail and Grimes getting into the game. McNamara, having never seen him before, is quite impressive. Has great speed. Mind you, we've got so many tall defenders at the moment, it would be better if he was played as a forward. Newton has found his level. That is his comfort zone, and he cannot apply himself to a higher level of skills/speed. Plenty of good VFL players never made the transition. He seems to be one of those.

We are not allowed to use Wikipedia for any uni work in my course. It is not considered reference material, it's seen as anecdotal. Then again, bloody uni won't let us use blogs as reference material either... try writing a contemporary fashion thesis without using blogs. Gees! However, as Deanox pointed out, it's really good if you want a quick answer to something where you can then go back to the cited sources and find some more credible information.

Nice one! Glad uni doesn't use the same penalty system for being late

Does anyone know what is this "Dice Game" they were talking about in the media conference (the link is in the first article)? Something to do with shaving your head and $600.... Great to see Robbo back. My sentimental favourite, he should never be written off!

Can't wait, Melbourne + Gazza = football heaven. Also the weather is meant to be pretty nice, so hopefully all those supporters who melt in the rain will be fine to turn up!

Can we track the kid who tackled him and slap the [censored] out of it*?! :D Terrible news for Blease, and generally for the club. Probably the best thing about football (except premierships... but I wouldn't know!) is watching young players develop. This has now obviously set him back significantly. Still, he is 17, and when he retires in 15 years having won 3 premierships, a Brownlow and 2 B&Fs with Melbourne, none of us will remember the school-yard accident that ruined his first year in the game! And if this has taught us anything, is that Jack Watts should be spending his lunchtimes in the library, covered in bubble wrap, with a 5m clear zone around him. Kids who dare to approach get slapped*. *To violence against kids, Demonland says No (but Jaded says maybe... )!

Spot on. The bench pretty much picks itself. Bennell has been superb since debut and deserves to play again. Cheney unlucky, Newton fully deserving of a rightful return to Casey, and PJ very VERY lucky that Spencer is injured/raw

Oh the irony! :D Great job everyone and a brilliant result to get to 30,000 well before the cut-off date.

How old do you feel as a Melbourne supporters! Creeps me out that half our list is younger than me. Makes stalking so much more illegal these days

Came back last week after a broken thumb, and obviously suffered a concussion during the match. That boy cannot get a break... that doesn't involve bones. Hopefully he gets up this week and goes another round at Casey. If nothing else, it puts pressure on the players getting a game in the seniors, which is always a good thing. The 'Colin Garland- Indefinite' line makes me sick to my stomach every time I see it!

Happy friggin Birthday to us. We really are like the poor red-headed step-son that nobody likes. Worst.Birthday.Ever!

I'm sorry but were we the only team on the ground? Are we the team trying to make finals? Have we ever played that sort of uber-flooding, 18 man rolling zone crap? Yes the game was [censored], and boring as all hell, but we did not dictate the style of play for three quarters! When we finally switched on in the last, we kicked goals and the game came alive. It just took us too long to work out that Adelaide were not at all worried about providing any meaningful contest, and were content to choke up the game and walk away with an ordinary win against an ordinary side. Credit to us for actually trying to compete for 120 minutes and turning the game into some sort of a contest. I didn't watch Footy Classifieds, but did Gary say he turned off because Melbourne were playing terrible footy, or because the game itself was terrible? Adelaide have to take a lot of the blame for the ugliness of the match. So far this year, we have played in some highly entertaining (if not poorly skilled) games.

That's what I tell my cousins, respectively 5 and 2 years old, they have no idea how much it sucks for them that I've forced them to be Melbourne supporters now (well the 2 year old get bribed with cheese for saying "Dees" ), but by the time both have an understanding of football, we'll be winning premierships left right and centre, and they'll be thanking me (and laughing at their dad who is a Hawks fan. Yuck!).

Bailey was interviewed on Ch. 10 tonight and said that if Robbo gets through training on Thursday he will play. Thank god, someone who can both mark and kick goals simultaneously (well consecutively more so than simultaneously... that would just be freaky! )

Well I'm not an editor, I'm a moderator, so I apologise if I ruined this Shakespearean masterpiece Obviously we don't need to keep adding to this thread forever, but there are like 5 Michael Newton threads on the first page alone, which is so very unnecessary. I did not combine the little psychological analysis thread into this one, because it really doesn't suit, but a recent thread talking about Newton pulling his finger out did not deserve its own thread. By the way, the content in this thread is about as dilute as it is ever going to get

As I said, yes it makes it hard to follow but we cannot have so many threads going on about the same subject. It gets confusing and frankly very annoying. Posters should know better than to start new threads without so much as scrolling down the page to check if a topic is already being discussed. Anyone who was having a conversation with someone, will be able to find it again and carry on. Otherwise, I assure you that no real substance has been lost in the merging of threads (only 2 were merged btw) Edit: Watch and learn http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/posting :D

Speaking of scum, I believe we should put our brains together and come up with the most appropriate calls to make against Judd prior to our Round 21 clash with Carlton. If there is one player who deserves to be treated like absolute [censored] when they play against us, it's him! :angry:

What the hell? I watched the vision, blinked and missed this apparent "contact". Pathetic.

Please Note: As with the Sylvia thread, I have merged the other various Newton threads into this one. Yes it makes this a massive topic to browse through, but it beats having to rename Demonland "The Michael Newton Circus". Cheers

You're right, and I was just pulling out some ridiculous figure to illustrate my point. They've won something like 46 out of 49 games, or something like that though, haven't they? The point is, they are beyond amazing and every single team in the competition has been beaten by them in the past 2 years, including premiership teams. We're on the bottom and we will lose. Hopefully we play well in the losing process.

Agreed.

I found the opening post extremely interesting, and a view which we have never had before into players' psychology. Shame that the rest of the posts were completely and utterly irrelevant!

When have I rideculed the club? Geelong have lost 3 games in 3 years and I would guess that most supporters go into Geelong games expecting to lose. Which is not the same as going into a game expecting to play poorly. I expect us to work hard but I know that Geelong is a 10-15 goals better side than us. They won't be forever though There is a massive difference between being realistic and being negative. But as you said, you barely read the forums these days, so it's a shame you chose to pick on this thread when you do. Go read my thread about the backline if you crave positivity. By the way, I don't think that you are any less "pessimistic" about Sunday's outcome.