Nascent

Confirmed on the AFL website... Sellar in and Morton brought up as an emergency

In the last team chat on thursday Greaves (or whoever was on) said that Petterd was overcoming some niggling injuries over the past few weeks and is working towards AFL match fitness. How much of that is true is anyones guess.

I'm not sure if we've turned a corner or not but, considering our run home after the bye, I'm a lot more optomistic of getting a few wins on the board than most here. Round 13 Vs GWS (h) Round 14 Vs Bris (a) Round 15 Vs Rich (h) Round 16 Vs Freo (h) Round 17 VS Port (darwin) Round 18 Vs North (a) Round 19 Vs GC (h) Round 10 Vs St K (a) Round 21 Vs GWS (a) Round 22 Vs Adel (h) Round 23 Vs Freo (a) Yes in our current form we wouldn't win most of these games but I have faith that the players will show improvement and post multiple wins on the board by the end of the season. And considering our first 11 games... this is as soft as a run home gets. If we get the spoon I will be absolutely filthy, fortunately that won't happen. Edit: Computers hate me

Fair enough, I just really don't like seeing us run out onto the G' in something other than the Red and Blue... Anyway probably a topic best left for a long and boring pre-season (if at all) when there's nothing else to talk about. Apologies for the small dig in my poorly constructed attempt at humour.

Agree, its becoming a joke that we are constantly the away team... I do actually recall essendon stating in a pre-season recently that they were going to introduce a white strip as per AFL requirements. Funny how that never eventuated.

Hence why I didn't start a new thread about it, and for what its worth I wasn't here when we were discussing it. But can I ask why do we have to accept it? Is it because we are meek supporters that cave in as easily as the team on field? Do you see Essendon, Richmond or Carlton with a white away strip? If Carlton can move from their "clash" strip (which in my opinion was a million times better than their baby blue m&m's outfit) I don't see why we can't do the same. You're right that the jumper colour is not a major concern considering how we are performing at the moment, but it's still an important facet of our club and I don't see why it doesn't warrent further discussion. Nah nevermind... think i'll just add to the depressing, wrist slashing, membership microwaving threads that are undeniably more worthy topics of discussion. See, I can use sarcasm too

Apoligies for bringing up an old topic but I really don't like our "away/clash" jumper. Why can't we wear our Royal blue jumper from the 70's and 80's. Who would that clash with? If that isn't acceptable then invert the colours... I don't paticularly care, as long as we are the red and blue. Either would hands down look better than that slab of white with a little red on it, which looks more like a variation of the swans jumper. Watching the demons play running around in that strip ruins the gameday experience for me and I'm sure I'm not alone on that point.

I dislike Essendon

Pain? I'm going to the game with 2 essendon "mates." I use inverted commas because when they go to the footy they turn into arrogant w#nkers win, lose or draw. So I have 2 hours of listening to " oh how bad are melbourne, you'll fold in 3 years... remember 2000... when was you're last premiership again.... I can't wait to suck hirdy's di(k." And so on and so forth. If we are to win only one game this year, please let it be this game.

He was impressive for a kid in his 10th game. Rivers, Garland and Frawley had decent games as well... helps so much when the defensive 50 is not being bombarded with entries. Bail and Nicholson (although Nicho went missing for a while) also pumped out some decent performnaces. Bail in particular, who has copped a lot of criticism on this forum, played his best game this year and Nicho played well early and didn't torch the footy as he is known for. Blease gets me excited (nothing suss). Would like to see a few more tackles from him but he is using his pace to split the opposition apart and for the most part using the footy really well.

Agree... looks flashy but is inconsistant and has poor disposal (although I will admit he has got a decent handpass on him). Yes Sidebottom is enhancing his reputation game by game and his exclusion from the top 10 maybe culminated from a mix of my hate from collingwood and my first impression of Zieball as a pure tough inside midfielder. And admittedly, I only watch Melbourne play on a weekly basis and may watch the occasional game(s) of other teams depending on what’s on and my plans for the weekend. But he is definitely worthy of a top 10 birth. In my views though I feel that the players named above him will reach a higher level over their careers. But of course this is extremely speculative and for all I know he may end up snagging a Brownlow or two and be the best of the lot.

Just a thought on Bennell... I recall watching his debut game against North in 09 in which the ginger ninja looked like a promising half back defender with 20 odd disposals and repelling attack after attack. I don't think Bennel got much of the ball that game (much like today), but one piece of play still sticks out in my mind. Near the defensive 50 on the wing, Bennell scooped up the ball at pace and proceeded to evade two North players, complete a 180 degree turn (as no one was there to provide an option) and nailed a 30 metre sizzling pace onto the chest of a Melbourne player down the line. I thought to myself, geez this kid has something. He is now 54 games into his career and needs to be influencing games a lot more with his line breaking pace. A Bennell with 15 - 20 damaging disposals would do wonders for our fortunes and I can't help but be reminded of Geelong and the faith they had in Travis Varcoe. He was entrusted with the Number 5 jumper and big things were expected of him. On the training track he was tearing it up and no one could figure it out why he couldn't put it all together on game day. Then of course a couple years ago he exploded onto the scene and started to become a damaging player. I'm sure Bailey had similar faith in this kid with his unconditional run of games and promotion to the number 7 jumper, however its hard to judge where he sits currently in Neelds mind. I hope he makes it.

NT and Vic Metro kick off the Carnival this Saturday at TIO stadium. The Round Robin will then conclude a month and a bit later on the 5th of July after completion of 5 rounds. The following players were handpicked from Div 1 as those to keep a particularly close eye on and suspected to feature at the pointy end of the draft. Nick Vlastuin: Vic Metro Jimmy Toumpas: SA Lachie Whitfield: Vic Country Mason Shaw: WA For all those interested in the upcoming draft, the AFL website has also listed other potential players to watch out for. Div 1 players http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/136637/default.aspx Div 2 players http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/136621/default.aspx The fixture can be both found and downloaded as a pdf file from this link. http://www.afl.com.a...76/default.aspx *Jack Viney is listed in the Metro team and will be wearing number 35 if his jaw recovers before the end of the tournament.

That can only be good news for us in the likely event we remain anchored near the bottom.

A pretty decent read here for all who haven't seen... although nothing revolutionary or that hasn't been discussed here. http://www.bigpondsp...05/default.aspx "Neeld is exposing those on the list who don't desire or deserve to be there. It's a difficult process but one that will reap dividends in time."

Lol, well I do think he'll be a gun... adjusted the list so I look less stupid :s.

Yes I can.

Tanking implies that we are capable of winning multiple games. I'm sick of losing and our faith in high draft picks that was supposed to be our saviour and signal the rise of the mighty Demons hasn't exactly worked out as planned. Win at all costs and instil that into the playing groups mind. I remember when Peter Walsh crossed over to Port Adelaide and stated that "Port Adelaide has a win at all costs mantra that he never experienced at Melbourne" or words to that effect. That rang enormous alarm bells to me at the end of the 04 season.

These are always hard to do because it’s hard to compare players on exposed form and then potential for further development. Also some are playing in their 5th while others are still finding their feet in only their second. But what the hell, it’s a good procrastination tool. My top 20 picks between 07 -10. 1. Trent Cotchin 2. Nathan Fyfe 3. Dustin Martin 4. Matt Kreuzer 5. Cyril Rioli 6. Luke Shuey 7. Patrick Dangerfield 8. David Swallow 9. Jack Zieball 10. Michael Hurley 11. Harry Taylor 12. Callan Ward 13. Steele Sidebottom 14. Chris Yarran 15. Jake Melksham 16. Jack Trengove 17. David Zaharakis 18. Tom Scully 19. Ryan Bastinac 20. Jack Redden Damn that was hard. Obviously this is my ridiculously uninformed opinion so I don’t expect anyone to agree with it. There are so many quality players that could have fit anywhere in there easily. I didn’t even look at the rookies drafted over that time. Maybe a bit of bias putting Trengove in but he will come good. Edit: Stupidly named a player twice, adjusted accordingly.

His best game for us by far. Sigh, it doesn't help our fortunes when players like Blease and Strauss should have roughly 60 games of experience behind them and Gysberts and Tapscott with 40. Hopefully he can cement his spot on the side for the rest of the year. Has the pace and kicking skills we so desperately need, just needs to keep up with his defensive work. Another full pre-season should see him become a real weapon in 2013.

haha, so can I assume that if a player was dropped twice they're being sent straight to the Casey 2's? For what its worth I reckon we should really go down the WNBA path, they would strike some fear in the opposition.

Nascent 1.8 The very talented Mr Townsend, a former protege of Steve Vai, shows off his amazing vocals on this track (3.20 - 4.15). Not his best song, but probably one of the most accessabile from his solo work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nnn4gSkprg&feature=related Nascent 1.9 Aussie band The Butterfly Effect. Posting purely because I'm catching their final tour in a couple weeks before Clint leaves the band.

Cue a heraldsun feature on this topic in the coming days.... Perhaps titled "Dees dee-spair" with a photoshopped jumper?

Howe and Magner...? Both mature age players from state leagues.

For eradicating Small Pox.... Am I doing it right?