poita

Bitterly disappointing result on Saturday night after such a strong first half. Even though Carlton were clearly the better side in the second half we still had chances at the end of the third quarter to open up a 2 - 3 goal lead which might have been enough. Cunningham, Newman and O'Dea have been liabilities this year, but with club already into top up players we have no alternative but to persist with them. O'Dea has been a great player for the club, but she can barely run at the moment. The St Kilda game was always going to come back to bite us - Collingwood play Richmond and the Bulldogs in the last two rounds, so we are going to need to win both games by a decent margin to play finals. I can't see how Stinear can survive a fourth year of missing finals with the talent at his disposal. Finally, can someone please explain to me the logic of isolating players all week, then sending them on a commercial plane to Alice Springs to play at a closed venue. Surely they could have played the game at Casey Fields and saved a truck load of money and effort.

Is this actually going ahead? Surely it is a bigger risk to have players at airports, on planes and in hotels than it is for them to train in front of 20 people at Goschs Paddock. Our best football is good enough to beat Carlton, but whether it is displayed for four quarters is the big question. Any idea why Downie and Pearce aren't back this week? I thought both had only minor issues last week.

So the AFLW team, which plays at Casey Fields, trains at AAMI Park while the AFL team, which plays across the road from AAMI Park, trains at Casey Fields. That makes perfect sense.

This is exactly what happened. $2M or thereabouts down the toilet on three year contracts for Vandenberg and Kolodjashnij, plus whatever they are costing in medical expenses. As soon as Sydney started the bidding war we should have folded and moved on to which draft pick they were going to give us in return.

You guys are kidding yourselves if you think opposition coaches won't have exploiting Lever as their number 1 avenue to victory against Melbourne this year. He will be dragged back to the goal square at every opportunity and teams will play through his opponent as much as possible. He simply has to get better in this respect. The alternative is that May or McDonald has to beat their own man and Lever's as well.

Throw in Nietschke as well, and the band is back together. Time for this club to grow some balls and make some tough decisions on players who can't get on the field regularly. Bad luck only stretches so far - at some point you have to accept that certain players don't have the bodies to play at AFL level.

I've been a member for 35 years, but I in no way judge others for how they choose to spend their money, particularly in light of the disgraceful efforts on and off field last year. This club has got a lot of work to do to redeem itself in the eyes of many.

I was at Casey Fields on Sunday and I was certainly happy with a 10 goal win after an underwhelming first half. Melbourne is very capable of challenging for the premiership this year if they can keep their better players on the park and playing well, but they still need to learn to play four quarters against all opposition. Re Perkins, I can't believe she hasn't done more to get herself fit as she otherwise has all the attributes to be a good player at this level. Unfortunately she is not eligible to play again if we get players back from injury. I thought she helped take pressure off Cunningham and Hore, and she is a better kick from long range than most of our players. As an aside, the crowd was really disappointing and there was little atmosphere. Clearly playing an interstate side and the lack of a contest didn't help, but I thought we would have had more people there. Perhaps another sign that we are getting very little out of this arrangement other than $$$ from the local council.

Every time we get one player back we seem to lose two more. Even with Downie out, I don't think we need to get too clever this week - just back our midfielders to win the ball in the middle and hold it in our front half for the majority of the game. Hopefully our defence barely sees the ball, so it doesn't matter who is down there. We need to win and win big with Carlton and Fremantle both interstate to come in the next two weeks.

The Bentleigh Club has been a disgrace in recent years. It feels as though you are imposing on them to find you a TV and a few chairs, and half the staff can't work out how to turn the volume up or get a decent picture. Last time I went (GC last year) we were sardined in a tiny room. It is not surprising that barely anyone goes there any more.

This club is as weak as [censored] sometimes. I'm absolutely for looking after Kade and his long term health, even though the club didn't do its homework and gave a three year contract to a bloke with significant health issues. But that clearly is not going to be as an AFL footballer, and we need to do what is right for the club. Let Kade get himself right so that he can live a normal life, give him all the support he needs, but get him off the list and find someone who can help the club in 2020.

Thanks to all those posting and offering their views. Also thank you to those VFL players helping out today - I'm assuming that most have full time jobs that they have stepped away from for the afternoon.

Lauren Pearce is a massive in if fit. Parry is a tall forward, so hopefully she can help us be more efficient inside 50, although we become very tall with Cunningham, Zanker, Scott and Hore down there as well. Maybe Scott moves into the midfield, even though she has been our best forward the last two weeks. Goldrick was important in the first two rounds so it is good to see her named as well.

Membership numbers are almost irrelevant this year. We may come close to matching last years membership numbers, but I expect a massive drop off from the higher categories, especially those relating to grand final guarantees. You can almost guarantee that most of the memberships being sold after round 1 are 3 game memberships which are barely worth worrying about.

I went for the first time this year on Friday , and it was simply an atrocious game of football. One team spent the entire game trying to lose and the other spent the entire game sitting back and waiting for the ball to bounce its way. Coupled with the howler monkeys on the PA, it was a tough night. Mick Stinear is a shocking coach and should have been replaced at the end of last year. He simply cannot find a way to structure the side so that players are taking set shots from inside 30m of goal. We have so many centre clearances and inside 50s each week for so little result. As with Goodwin, he is more worried about structuring rotations and managing game time that he forgets making positional changes to alter the course of the game. Birch is the worst kick I have seen this side of an Auskick session - it is incredible that we would give up a first round pick for her when there are so many talented kids coming through the draft. That said, she has plenty of mates in the same boat. Thankfully Downie and Pearce can generally clean up her messes. Cunningham and Newman provide nothing up forward - far better to move them out and create space for Zanker, Hore and Scott who at least contest. Perhaps push Hanks forward to provide some physical presence. If Cunningham is not fit enough to ruck I can't see how she can hold her spot. Paxman is a star, Gay has started strongly, but we desperately need O'Dea to find form. If we don't beat Collingwood this week I can't see how we play finals, and that is going to be a big ask with a massive injury list.

We are clearly the better side, but not making the most of our scoring chances and inside 50s will hurt us at some point. We need to find a way to take marks within 30 metres of goal instead of blazing away on the run or from set shots further out.

Stupid comment. Does Cricket Australia have a separate site for the women's team? Does the Australian Open tennis have a separate site for the women's tournament? The AFL runs both competitions so they should both appear on the AFL website.

Mulgrave and Dingley have been good enough for Hawthorn. Tullamarine has been good enough for Essendon. Neither is particularly close to the city. The idea that our base has to be within spitting distance of the MCG is so short sighted and why we are doomed to be talking about this issue for another 10 years. The City of Kingston has been falling over itself to throw money at St Kilda and Hawthorn in recent years. Not jumping into Moorabbin when St Kilda vacated was a massive error, but there are other possible options in our bayside / south east heartland areas. The board is being negligent if it fails to consider all options and is being pig headed if it wedges the club into a half baked, B grade solution close to the MCG.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/565270/what-s-on-at-family-day-this-sunday This Sunday 23 February between 12pm - 2pm. Yet another significant event for the club totally lacking in promotion. The family day was first publicised by email on 19 December and there has been nothing of note since. If the club want to sell memberships and merchandise on the day they should have been promoting it on a weekly basis. Generally an excellent day if there aren't too many in attendance and the players are very good with the kids these days.

I'm surprised they haven't updated the mission statement while they were at it. That release is essentially smoke and mirrors designed to distract from the fact that we lost $1.5M last year on the back of record membership numbers and dollars, and the board have absolutely no idea how to generate alternative sources of revenue. Ultimately they will likely do the same thing they always do - gouge long suffering members with the league's highest membership prices (or near enough to) whilst delivering mediocre on field results. Instead of aiming for 75,000 members, perhaps they could work on delivering value to those that are already here. The main positives I take out of this are: 1. Goodwin is gone at year end if we don't play finals (and presumably those who extended his contract by 3 years will follow him out the door) 2. The board is gone as soon it becomes clear that they can't deliver on the profit goals, likely when they have to pay out Goodwin.

There is a fair chance that none of those things will happen, particularly May. What makes you so sure? Do we pick 26 for the Marsh games? I'd suggest we'll only just be able to field a full side this week based on recent updates.

Hi DeeVoted, Thanks for all your great work. Please count me in again - PC Demons.

The club should continue to do everything in its power to help Kade the person, but he is done as an AFL footballer and we need to reach an agreement with him to free up a spot on the list. We simply cannot afford to carry him on the injury list for another two years. Further the club needs to come clean on what due diligence (if any) was carried out on Kade's health before they gave him a three year contract. We have seen some abysmal list management decisions made in the past 10 years, but this is clearly the worst.

Garry Lyon remains the best Melbourne player I have seen in my 30+ years of watching football. It is a travesty that he is not in the Hall of Fame given that every man and his dog gets in these days. He was someone who did the simple things uncommonly well over and over again.

Gawn captain. Some combination of Viney, McDonald and Jetta as deputies. Neither May nor Lever deserve to be anywhere near the leadership group until they can put together a full season of consistently strong performances.