Very Jaded

I might be happily married, but I love Langdon. Deeply. He has finally filled an MCG wing- shaped hole in my cold MFCSS heart.

For a decade Melbourne supporters would drag themselves to games knowing we would lose. They would also drag themselves to games knowing that our captain would be giving his all. Nathan Jones is a warrior. A player who has carried himself with quiet dignity through years of working in a toxic, negative and more often than not losing environment. He withstood board meltdowns, countless coaches, and multiple trashings, and he did it all while putting his body on the line every week, getting every inch of skills out of his body, and leading a revolving door of players. In an environment that is often marked by a lack of loyalty, money chasing, and easy premiership grabbing, Jones has stood out as a beacon of a team first player. A player who puts his teammates, his club and the jumper above all else. We are so lucky to have found Jones, to have had him at our lowest moments as our shinning light in endless darkness. What a deserving milestone to play 300 games for a club you fought so hard for, for so long, and to now be playing in a winning side that you helped to nurture. Congratulations Jonesy on 300 wonderful games. Nobody is more deserving of this accolade than you.

Jackson is essentially an extra midfielder and his presence has allowed Gawn to take his game to the next level. I wouldn’t worry about fitting Jackson in. He can interchange with Gawn. He isn’t part of a permanent forward group and I don’t think he ever will be. The one who would be nervous is TMac. To his credit he has taken it all in his stride and has had a good solid start to the season. But to play all 3 of BB, Weid and TMac, one of them has to play further up the ground as a link man. That won’t be BB who will play deep forward. So essentially one of Weid or Tmac will need to prove that they can play a more mobile role and still provide plenty of defensive efforts inside the forward 50. Otherwise one of them won’t be getting a game. Fritsch and Melksham are also vying for the same role and for me Fritsch is the one. I don’t know how we play both of them along with 3 talls and not significantly compromise on our forward pressure game.

He was ok today, but come on, Gawn was instrumental and played 4 sensational quarters against a good opponent. Gawn > Melksham today, tomorrow and twice on Sunday.

No you’re doing an even worse thing. You’re robbing him of a milestone that he has rightfully earnt after years of carrying a rubbish team on his shoulders. A good strong club would never do that.

I have two words to end this thread: Junior McDonald.

Why even bother suggesting to drop Jones? It’s not happening. He deserves his 300th and do not underestimate what a massive lift our players will get from this either. It is also Dusty’s 250th. Weid comes in for Brown and clearly if May is fit he is an automatic in. Maybe for Petty although I feel that would be harsh.

5 wins in a row don’t undo 5 decades of failure. You can’t cure MFCSS with anything other than a premiership

Ways to kill a football club and destroy a team: drop their ex captain and longest servant on the eve of his 300th game, which he has earnt after putting his body on the line for a crap team for over a decade. Will. Not. Happen.

To be fair May more important next week against Lynch and Reiwoldt, especially when Weid is ready to return and maybe even Ben Brown. Gonna be hard to beat Richmond without May.

Credit to him. I wasn’t happy we dropped Jetta but Hibbo was superb. Has not lost any of his speed.

We shouldn’t risk Brown too soon and you can’t not reward a player who kicked 7 goals. We must protect Ben Brown and make sure he’s ready to go and cherry ripe heading into September. Yes I said the S word.

Hard question to answer. More so now than earlier today. Come back to you this time next week.

Can we talk about how good Langdon is?

Frost was a real dog earlier in the game. Trying to play tough. Too bad for him he’s a terrible footballer and I enjoyed immensely that he helped us get a goal. For once his turnovers helped instead of hindered us.

That was the worst game of the year and the best win. I finally believe that we are serious contenders. Not because we played particularly well, but because we found a way to win and when we got on top we really put the foot down. The mark of a good team. Finally.

Our goal kicking is putrid. Hopefully Ben Brown fixes that. How the hell did Jones miss?!

Too many passengers today. We need a big big lift from Jones, Melksham, Viney (looks hurt in that last contest), JJ, ANB and Brown. You can’t have this many players doing SFA when Hawthorn are all over us like a rash.

We are clearly struggling forward of the Centre and our backline needs to settle. If we don’t start to dominate the clearances we are done for.

No May no backline. No Fritsch no forwardline. Prove me wrong Melbourne. Please.

Nothing was more obvious than this

So Weideman is a lock for next week. Makes the possible loss of Fritsch for another week less difficult.

I’m late to the party. How’s Brown going?

I don’t think that applying defensive pressure is something you can’t control. If he doesn’t kick goals due to lack of opportunities then so be it, but he is trash at two way running and doing the defensive thing, and that to me is non negotiable. And I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory. I watched him play every game last year, and even captain us, while doing zero defensive work. As a senior player he should be pulling his weight and contributing. Even if he doesn’t get much of the ball, there are still things you can do to influence the game. Last week he had zero influence.

I still don’t fully trust this team and today will say a lot about whether we have really taken the next step. Traditionally this is a game we would completely stuff up and lose. If we are the real deal we should absolutely destroy them, even without May and Fritsch as we are a far far better side on paper. I am concerned about where goals will come from, but hoping Melksham can repay the faith and perhaps Tmac plays closer to goal and can nail a few. Go Dees!