mrtwister

You can't judge a person by what they do on the sporting field. You can only judge them by what they do off the field. If there were stories of LM king hitting unsuspecting people in public places then sure, write him off as a thug. But if it's all left on the field, don't make the judgement. A little bit of white line fever would be good for our kids and it might bring in that bit of mongrel that I feel the boys most certainly need. If they could learn to turn it on when they walk out there and then turn it off when all is done and dusted, this group would stop playing like football is a job and start playing the game like it's a passion. Nothing wrong with that.

We got 2 decent picks. We may well find/develop a superstar with either of those. Don't forget, Dane Swan was pick 58. You never know.

WOW! 5-6 million for a player who, at this point, IMO hasn't proven a single thing, other than the inability to kick very far, to be a possible injury liability, to not be able to finish tackles and to be swayed by the $$$$$. Maybe I should get my F'book friends to hype me up with a whole lot of BS and maybe GWS will pay me 100G to hang out at the club or something. Thank God they didn't target someone who is bonafide like JT.

Sucked in Essendon

I'm assuming we are playing GWS away as a replacement for one of this years away games at Etihad or the G. Therefore, less games in Melb.

6 Rivers 5 Bate 4 Moloney 3 Frawley 2 Bail 1 Jones

I'd have to say Martin because Jones has moreso maintained his performances by being more consistent and solid while others around him have been poor and inconsistent. Martin has actually improved his performances. Watts has also improved but still has lulls where he isn't influential at all. I think a thread/vote for the Most Deteriorated would be a very interesting and closer vote.

So you're predicting contested possessions, hard tackles, hard ball gets and flat out tough buggers will be out of fashion this time next year?

Assumption

For mine: FB Grimes Frawley Garland HB McDonald Rivers Bail C Blease Jones Green HF Sylvia Watts Tapscott FF Jurrah Howe Petterd Fol Jamar Moloney Trengove Int Scully Martin McKenzie Gysberts plus Jetta Bennell Davey Macdonald Bartram Morton

6 Blease 5 Jones 4 Garland 3 Trengove 2 Green 1 Bartram (for tagging Ablett all day - the good Ablett of course)

I hope my imaginary crystal ball is correct. MM leaves Collingwood to become Melbourne's, let's call it........."Football Adviser". Damn, call it anything but 'coach or 'football director'. As this is a new position, the MFC are more than happy for the FA to contribute to training sessions and game day decisions. After all they are an 'adviser' of everything football. They should be in the coaches box, they're part of the football department. Eddie can huff and puff all he likes because MM IS NOT COACHING. Therefore he is not going against his promise. Our Head Coach is Viney and MM is merely a sounding board his ideas. I love my crystal ball.

Committee offered Clarkson a 6 year contract. Apparently.

Also, King never really went back, lined up and had a shot. If there was an extra 2m there I'm sure Jonesy would have been trying to sucker him into getting too close to the mark by moving forward to where the mark was as he kicked. As he never really lined them up etc he probably never got a chance to close him in.

From AFL.com.au this morning. Melbourne coaching live chat

Jonesy B)

Jonesy for mine. Captains should lead by example and don't need to be the best player in a team. The extra responsibility of the captaincy can't taint effort and from what I've read, he prepares well for games and would be a fantastic influence on the youngens JT is certainly captain material but to be a captain at his age and experience you need to be dominating to justify the placement.

So I guess Sylvia's possible last game for MFC was a bit of a cracker.

Agreed. But we don't. And with an interim coach who has 2 games left we aren't about to get one. So I am suggesting something simple with what we have to work with. Of course if we'd rather just hope Green, Howe or Sylvia can take hangers, that's fine too I guess.

Yes I'd prefer Dunn as a key forward as Martin already has a role in the team. I never said that Dunn had to be a good contested mark, just a good pack smasher. If you read carefully, I suggested that when noone gets in his way and he marks the ball......... At no point have I suggested he would be a permanent key forward. Just suggesting that trialling such an idea might be a little more beneficial than 'high and hopeful'

None were as bad as Razor Ray today in the Swans Saints game. Player down 35m out from Swans goal, out towards the far flank. About 5 minutes left in the 4th. Ball gets kicked in from the opposite flank to about 20 m out in front of the square. Swans up by maybe 2 goals. Saints player reads the ball perfectly and runs ahead of the pack to take a completely uncontested mark and could probably run a good 5 or 6 steps with it he was so open. Anyway, razor blows his whistle about half a second before the mark is taken and says that because there is an injured player in the vicinity, he is going to bounce it at the spot where the ball was kicked to. Could not believe it. Why could he not wait to see the result of the kick and make that call if the ball went to ground? God he's a tool.

Agreed

Surely I'm not the ony person who noticed that we bombed the ball in to our forwards even more than we normally do today. It was like we have given up on all our structure and patterns and just decided "Bugger it. Let's just bomb it in and see what happens." Now I know the argument in defence of our forwards (no pun intended) is that there just isn't enough quality entries from our mid field but I don't think that was the case today. We had plenty of F50 entries, even in the 4th Q, but that was when it was obvious that we seemed to have no plan at all. Now bombs are fine if you're bombing into a pack of 4 or 5 with a couple of crumbers, but not into a pack of 8 with 12 crumbers. Now I know we have had plenty of posters screaming for a big forward target and I agree we probably need one. But as we don't have one at this stage, why aren't we doing what we can with what we have to see who can flourish from such a structure. So who is there? Watts isn't 'gangbusters' enough to do it. Sylvia is too short. Jurrah and Howe are too slight. Jamar is too slow. Martin is too light. Green is too easily manipulated out of position. For me, Dunn is or only option. IMO, Dunn has a decent set of hands, he hits up a lead pretty well, he keeps his feet and he can take a few defenders down with him. And as a plus, the guy has a good, reliable, long kick for the occasions when noone gets in his way and he marks 45m out. Sure he does some dumb things but you have to take the bad with the good. With Dunn as the leading forward, the pinch hitters that try and cut off leads will certainly be glancing over their shoulder and inevitably feeling the repurcussions of getting in the way. But it would also allow Jurrah, Trengove, Sylvia and (insert small forward here) to crumb. Howe (or Petterd) can be a second leading option or can be left with plenty of space to tuck in behind, one out with a sitting duck at the top of the square. It would only take a couple of goals early on for Dunn to be picked up by their best defender which should allow the others to free up a little. As for Watts, he should be heading upfield from CHF to deliver the ball into the 50. He's good around the middle of the ground in transition. Otherwise, he should be running his guy back into the contest so he can be an additional gatherer off the pack. I know there are plenty of Dunn knockers on Demonland. Plenty want to get rid of him and the others would argue that he's not a long term player so don't play him. But, as I mentioned, let's use him while he is ours and see how our young guys benefit from having a presence to work off. That way, the club knows if spending some dosh, or trading some talent for a power forward will be worth it. I think we missed him today. We needed someone hitting some leads, banging some bodies, drawing a pack to knock over. We didn't have a single player in our forwards who could draw enough attention to themselves. Where does our captain fit in with all of this? I don't know.

So Jones & Rivers don't deserve a review?

6 - Jones 5 - Sylvia 4 - Rivers 3 - Frawley 2 - Trengove 1 - Bennell