poita

Melksham is the same player he's always been - out of every eight games he'll give you one where he is brilliant, two where he is good, and five where he is lazy, selfish and completely disinterested. We've seen two of the latter category so far this year, so he should be due for one of the good ones this week. For an experienced player, there is far too big a gap between his best and worst football.

That's why he gets paid the big bucks - he's full of great ideas, our Simon is. Pity he didn't do anything between the first quarter and the last two minutes though.

How so? We've shown time and time again that we can't make money from football operations. We need reliable sources of income that are not dependant on on-field success. It is that exact reason that Collingwood and Hawthorn are the two biggest clubs in town. Get those things right and then you have a constant stream of money to put back into the football program.

Agree with this. As soon as Pittonet negated Gawn's impact, our central midfielders stopped getting an armchair ride and didn't do anything about it. The stats may have been even across the game, but we were smashed in the clearances and contested possessions from midway through the second quarter. That's what happens when your tall forwards have no physical presence and can't take a contested mark to save their lives. McDonald is great as a number three forward, not a number one. Jackson is three years off having an AFL body, and will probably never be a key forward anyway. We desperately need three talls up forward, particularly if one will be rucking for part of the time.

Given that our current progress is backwards at a rapid rate, setting the club back a number of years would be a good thing. Or have you forgotten that we played in a preliminary final two years ago? Remind me again what positional moves or tactical changes Goodwin made to change the course of the game when Carlton had sixteen more scoring shots than us in the last 2.5 quarters on Saturday. That said, I don't think he'll be sacked either, mainly because the board would have to admit that they were so comprehensively wrong in extending his contract.

All anybody needs to know about Jake Lever's contribution to this side is that this was the first win he played in since 2 June 2018. Yes he was injured for part of that time, but he was on a nine game losing streak until Saturday. He should be embarrassed to be standing Betts or Cunningham whilst Jetta repeatedly had to go up against McKay. Whatever Lever's skills may be, they don't work in the context of our defensive structure.

Weideman is our Liam Jones. I don't think he'll make it as a forward - he is just not hungry enough for the contest. The question is whether he can move to defence as successfully as Jones did. Will it be us that asks the question, or his next employer?

On the back of playing one of the worst, most unbalanced sides we have ever seen in round 1, here might be one that is even worse. We are clearly missing a genuine key defender, a genuine key forward and a crumbing forward. If seven unforced changes isn't a clear admission by the selectors that they got it completely wrong in round 1, I don't know what is. The disconnect between the side that is being selected each week and the game plan that Goodwin wants to use is hugely concerning. Is he not getting the side he wants, or does he simply have no idea how to construct a football side? Neither Lever or Smith is a key position defender, and Lever rarely wants to be in the same postcode as his opponent at the best of times. Any opposition coach worth is his pay packet will use May's opponent to drag him out of the play (as Kennedy did in round 1), and use other targets. McKay will have a field day with Cripps slamming the ball down his throat all day. Hopefully Goodwin puts Harmes back in the midfield, because a half back line with both he and Salem ball watching will be a disaster. The forward line looks more of the same. Nobody who can take a contested mark. No big bodies to bring the ball to ground. Just a bunch of mid-sized leading players who will all get in each other's way. Why you would go from having 4 crumbers to 1 crumber in the space of a week is mind boggling. Good luck to Jackson having to provide an entire forward line's worth of physical presence in his first game. If our midfield doesn't dominate we will lose this game, and comfortably. The likes of Langdon and Oliver have to lower their eyes and find a target, because more indiscriminate bombing into the forward line will not end well, even against poor opposition.

Sparrow and Petty will never be moved on. They are two of the very few young players on our list with the potential to be very good long term players. The delist column will be much longer if the AFL are able to reduce list sizes. Not sure why either Chandler or Dunkley would get a third year on the rookie list.

Lumumba must be a miserable, bitter individual. Four years out of the game and six years after leaving Collingwood, he is still bleating about the injustices of a society that has provided him with more money and opportunities than most people could ever dream of. I note that he has never commented on the injustices of accepting a multi million dollar contract to play at Melbourne and then cruising around at about 25% intensity for two years before pulling the pin mid-contract (whilst expecting to be paid for the last two years). The sad thing is that he has the profile and the resources to actually make a difference on significant issues if he put his mind to it, instead of pulling out the old "woe is me" card when it suits.

Don't disagree with this, but how does it fit in with Goodwin's contract extension last year? Surely we didn't give him three more years to rebuild a side that came off a preliminary final. If so, the board have a lot to answer for.

I'm not surprised that Rivers is in - I reckon Hibberd is done, and we need to get games into his replacement. I think Jetta might be just about done as well, but he will hold his spot for a while longer. Surely Jackson only plays if he is playing forward / second ruck, which is exactly what we were told at the start of the year he wouldn't be doing. I don't understand this one, but perhaps the selectors have finally lost confidence in Weideman. Congratulations to both boys and to Bennell - I'm really looking forward to see what Harley can bring to this group. A relatively quiet game for him will still be miles above what Spargo or Bedford would bring.

It was hardly a dead rubber. Both sides were playing for the win and the four points, all of which are pretty handy if you want to play finals. One team built a match winning lead in the first quarter and sat back. The other team never left the starting blocks.

So this year's induction consists of four modern day players, three of whom played with interstate teams; two SANFL players, and a commentator from WA. I know we are a national sport, but they couldn't find one person from the first 140 years of football in Victoria who was worthy of inclusion in the Hall of Fame this year? It seems like the Hall of Fame is following the lead of the All Australian Team whereby SA & WA interests are over represented. Melbourne's golden era remains massively under represented in the Hall of Fame relative to certain other clubs.

I think he genuinely believes he is the smartest bloke in the room, and therefore he wastes all his time and effort on low percentage tactical gambles, instead of finding a game plan that suits the players he has at his disposal.

How many of the people whining and moaning about our draw and our perilous financial position: a) are currently paid up members of the club; and b) attended all three of our three end of season "blockbuster" games in 2019 when the club basically begged you all to do so? There would have been lucky to have been 10K of Melbourne supporters at each of those games, so I am comfortable in saying that less than 20% of our members turned up to support the club at those games. We lose all rights to demand prime time TV coverage and blockbuster fixtures when our own supporters don't even turn up. How can we expect the AFL and channel 7 to fight for us, when we won't fight for ourselves? The AFL won't let us go under, at least not while they have bigger problems to deal with, but another wasted decade will ensure our demise. We have a golden opportunity with the revised schedule to win games on FTA television from rounds 2-5. If we do so, hopefully we can build some momentum to capitalise upon when games are opened to fans later in the season. However, if we turn 1-4 or worse, we are in for a world of hurt. We have to find sources of revenue that are are not reliant on our onfield performance. Yes, poker machines would not help us at the moment, but they do have value in normal times and it was a mistake to get rid of them without a backup plan. Other clubs have property or financial investments - we are far too reliant on the 1 in 10 years we play finals. The club has been very slow to communicate to members throughout this process, far slower than other clubs. We haven't been pursuing lapsed members and we haven't been engaging those who have signed. Hopefully the action is more frenetic behind the scenes, but really we are own biggest enemy.

If the AFL get their way and reduce lists to 35 next year, which presumably needs to be 32 before the draft, then most of our OOC players are in a world of trouble. Maybe 10 out of 23 survive, which will clearly include Viney, Petracca, Fritsch, Petty & Sparrow. I'd keep McDonald and Lockhart, and probably Bennell if he gets on the field this year. That leaves very few spots for the rest to fight over.

I was at Chadstone SC on Saturday, and it was absolute bedlam. The individual shops were following protocol, but the centre as a whole was absolutely packed as people milled around or queued to get into shops. To think that this can happen in an enclosed environment, but you can't sit in the open air to watch a football match beggars belief. I'd be amazed if the NRL don't get crowds in to some degree in July as they wish, with the AFL to follow shortly after.

The decision to play Spargo and Bedford against West Coast was just appalling. Neither provides any defensive pressure, neither wins their own football and West Coast would not have a wasted a second of time thinking about them. We were at least one key forward short in that game, as well as someone to make Hurn and co accountable. Our inside 50 entries are often poor and the midfield need to work on this, but the structure of our forward line is simply unacceptable. We were the highest scoring team in the competition in 2018, now we struggle to kick a goal more than 10% of the time we go inside forward 50. How many times do our players bring the ball forward and have nobody to kick to because they are all clustered together. Finding a big bodied forward who can make a contest is our number one priority, and sadly Weideman is not the answer.

West Coast put the cue in the rack at quarter time. We never got within 20 points after that point and never looked like doing so.

Let's be realistic about our success on this one. We could have taken Fritsch at pick 29, kept Watts and still be better off than where we are now with Spargo and his phenomenal ability to generate clangers from uncontested possessions.

Pretty much where I sit with this club too. 2019 was easily the most disappointing season I have sat through in 34 years of membership. If the first six weeks of the new season don't show significant signs of improvement, I fear we are back to where we were in 2007 - 2008.

The criticism of McLean regarding the tanking issue is just absurd. Similar to the Tayla Harris "useless" fiasco, I don't know why we assume that everyone who has a camera stuck in their face is going to eloquently respond to whatever question is thrown at them. They are not media professionals, they are sportspeople. I don't believe Brock set out to dump the club in the [censored], but clearly he had lingering resentment around his time there, which came out under pressure. Fair enough too - it was bad enough to watch our performances in that time, let alone be part of it. Thankfully that was one of the catalysts to bring in the likes of Roos and Jackson who started to bring us back towards being relevant again. The way Brock squandered his talent and ultimately his career was a major disappointment, and something that will stay with him for a long time. I rate him as arguably the biggest talent alongside Jones and Thompson that we drafted in that decade, but clearly he didn't have the commitment of the other two. I hope he can continue to bring his issues under control and make something of his life outside football. As an aside, who would people rather we drafted than Sylvia and McLean out of that appalling draft crop? Other than Cooney who probably came with his own set of issues, only David Mundy at 19 could be considered an elite player from the top 20.

Whilst I feel sorry for the individuals who have lost their jobs and their places on the gravy train, this could be the best thing ever to happen to the game. Dozens of assistant coaches, line coaches and every other fad the AFL community can concoct, and the players execute the basic skills worse than they did 30 years ago. So much time is spent on structures and tactics that do nothing but complicate what should be a simple game and detract from the spectacle. These people have created the illusion that they are essential, when they are anything but. I look at a player like Petracca who has all the talent in the world, but his natural instincts have been beaten out of him with a sledgehammer and he now does things like kick 40 metres side ways to a teammate on a worse angle, instead of having a shot at goal. There is no way he would have done that before reaching the AFL.

Because teams such as Melbourne request home games against Richmond (and Collingwood) to boost gate receipts. The only way to have Richmond playing away from the MCG is for Melbourne to be happy to host the likes of Gold Coast and Fremantle.