Undeeterred

Oh boo hoo. Seriously.

Agree. I guess what I'm saying is that, regardless of that, we've had the same access to what was left as have St Kilda, Brisbane, the Bulldogs, etc etc and they're all doing the rebuild thing a hell of a lot better than us...

Fair enough

The problem is, we are generally both insipid and ordinary.

This is incorrect. We've had plenty of picks and better access to picks than a number of teams outside the expansion list who have went down later than us, and are moving up earlier. This is just excuse-making.

Bit ranty, but for once you are absolutely spot on. I can't argue with a single word of it.

Flooding.

The same thinking that made us take Scully and Trengove over Martin. Not saying you are wrong in the rest of your comments, and I think Brayshaw and Petracca will be really great players. Sometimes, though, it is worth at least talking about how we are going to look against the competition in, say, three or four years when our core youngsters will mature. We were already three years behind getting a pile of goal kicking midfielders. Now we've got them, but they are young, and the top 4-6 clubs have already been thinking about the next steps and we're still stuck behind the 8 ball. Just my view.

Something that not many people mention is how Melbourne has been behind football trends right through the last 10 years. In my view, this is why we are always falling short of getting out of the hole we are in. For example, we went with the Morton, Grimes, Blease types just as the game shifted to the Hawthorn/Geelong big-bodied mids and the game went to being all about tough, contested footy. It moved to be more offensive in the last couple of years (think Hawthorn and Gunston, Isaac Smith type runners), right when we went (shudder) back to 'kick it down the line to a contest'. In the last couple of years, we have mostly looked at bulking up the midfield with tougher types like Viney, Petracca, Tyson, even van den Berg (although I admit we did go with Salem who is more of a silky outsider). We're going to get left behind again, because the game has shifted to be faster and higher scoring this year and probably into the next couple. If this keeps going, we will again be 2-4 yeats behind trend and have a team that's completely useless for what is being dished up by the competition. Thoughts?

The even better bit is the way Hogan stayed out the back and made an option, while Newton made space and kicked a goal. Really fantastic bit of play

I think it makes our defenders look a hell of a lot better when there is spread, so they actually have options. Someone on here said the other day there's a huge difference between kicking it to someone under pressure bang on the chest, and kicking it into space where if you are 2-3 metres off either way it doesn't make a difference. They were bang on, and I think we'll see Tommy Mac being one of the biggest beneficiaries of this all season.

Finally got to watch the replay.... I'm going to have an early crack at our B&F top 5... 1. Dom Tyson - absolutely all class. Will be our next AA. 2. Nathan Jones - Obvs. 3. Tom McDonald - looks so much more assured when the ball isn't coming in a thousand times a game, and he has some runners to give it to in space 4. Lynden Dunn - I was a big hater for many, many years, but gee has he turned it around. 5. Jack Watts - this year's the year. So, so damaging, all over the ground. And I can't even fit in Jesse Hogan. He was spectacular on the weekend. What a debut. When he is 24-27, he is going to be a complete and utter monster.

My biggest highlight? Carlton are firmly, firmly in the poo.

They clearly signalled this was on the cards when they took the captaincy off him, so they could drop him more freely. He was shaping up to be a great player before that very first foot injury and he's now simply been passed by younger, better players.

Done.

Last time we did that Hawthorn smashed by about 200 points and completely killed any confidence or momentum we had going into the season.

Frequently. Usually I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. Obviously confused my stories. Meh.

As a fine, for being a complete dick. At least get it right if you are going to deify someone.

I for one hope we don't use his loyalty against him and pay him unders, but I'm sure they'll work it out to everybody's satisfaction.

Gee, given that in 15 names thrown up in those phantom drafts, 13 of them were different, I think we are throwing darts blindly at a board at this point... Could be absolutely anyone.

I can think of 3 and 6 for Dangerfield. I'd take Dangerfield over Howe and some project every single day of the week.

I love your work usually, but apart from the terrible development bit this is pretty much all wrong.

What a load of balls. Clark did nothing to stop us trading well - all we needed to do was pack him off and it would have taken virtually no headspace for the entire two weeks. If people seriously think that when Trengove failed a medical the MFC staff were all there scratching their bums with no idea what else to do you are kidding yourselves. So no team around pick 12 would take any player on our list for their pick? Absolute bollocks - of course we would have made something happen if, say, Adelaide, wanted 2 and a pick around that point for Dangerfield.

If sarcasm, I applaud you. If not, wind back the piety and let us vent in peace.

Oh boo hoo.