poita

Totally agree. Throw in 10% price increases, 1 top 8 finish in 13 years and the general incompetence around keeping members informed, and the value for money reduces further. I pay for reserved seats in a Melbourne-only bay, but every week there are opposition supporters streaming in without scrutiny. The club can and must do better.

A disgraceful result delivered by a board and CEO that appear woefully out of their depth. On the back of record membership numbers and substantial gouging of existing members through increased fees, the result is a $1.5M loss. And for all the talk of reduced gate receipts, these were higher than last year. The key number is a $1M drop in sponsorship, which is incredible given the hype around the club at the start of the year. I can't wait to see what happens when our membership drops 10 - 20% this year. At this rate we will be bankrupt within three years. The decision to drop pokies will not stop a single person from using them. All it means is that instead of a sporting club that provides some community benefits receiving this money, it goes into the pockets of some rich bloke, possibly overseas. At least the sporting clubs might engage with addicts to change their behaviour. When the noisy minority succeeds in ridding the AFL of pokies, what will be the next target? Alcohol - goodbye Tyrells. Petrol powered cars - goodbye Jaguar. We can't afford to bow to every lobby group that knocks on our door. I, like everyone else, would prefer the club to have 11 games in Melbourne. That is not our reality however, and the decision to dump the Darwin game will result in another massive loss of income. Gary Pert needs to stop wheeling out platitudes and make it very clear what his plan is to bring in the several million dollars of revenue each year that is required to replace the Darwin income and the pokies income.

Thanks to all concerned for the training reports. I cannot comprehend why Kolodjashnij is still on the list if he is not even doing basic training at this point of the pre season. The chances of him recovering to play a meaningful role this year seem incredibly low. St Kilda came to an arrangement with McCartin who is a much better prospect, not sure why we can't do the same with KK. Surely it would be in his best interests as well to get his health sorted for his long term well being, without worrying about meeting the expectations of a professional football club. (That's not to say that we still shouldn't give him all the support he needs.)

Unless the players and coaches ask for it, a 20 minute break is completely unnecessary. As the players seem to want a shorter break, 15 minutes (or 10) is fine by me. Unlike most people I come to the football to watch the game, so anything else (half time entertainment, food & drink, etc) is completely irrelevant. As an aside, I'm not sure why people are still whining about the cost of food at the football. Nobody makes you buy it - spend five minutes packing your own and the problem is solved.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/afl Does anyone have a photo of Dunkley, Lockhart or Nietschke that they can forward to the club?

Thanks to those who attend training and write reports for those of us at work. My two questions: 1. What is the current status of Vandenberg and Kolodjashnij? Are they in full training with rest days or are they still on light duties? We can't afford to carry multiple fringe players on the injury list all season again. 2. Are there any signs that Hibberd can turn around his recent decline, or is he simply playing out the final year of his career?

The first tall forward we've brought in over the past three years, whilst delisting or trading about six others, so this is long overdue. Brown is not a star, but will do his job most weeks. Hopefully this will give Weideman a nudge that he is not a guaranteed round 1 starter unless he pulls his finger out. At this stage I'd have Brown and Petty well ahead of Weideman. I'd also love to know why we've signed him now after passing on all pre season and rookie draft picks four days ago. He must have trained the house down on Monday.

Yes, how hard is it to have a couple of forwards blocking for each other and then leading in different directions. It was the number one reason I wanted to keep Pedersen - he did so much work off the ball that went unnoticed, but you'd look up and suddenly McDonald or Hogan was three metres clear of his opponent. Our forward line coaching was abysmal last year - even with Weideman having no impact and McDonald struggling, there is enough talent in there to kick a competitive score.

I don't have a view either way on Jackson or Pickett and I hope they are both 200+ game players for the club. The highlights packages are encouraging, but I could come up with a decent highlights package for my 9 year old son after 2 years of football too. Rivers addresses a key need with Hibberd declining fast. It is a risk taking interstate players, particularly at the top end of the draft. That said, I am firmly of the view that ruckmen don't win premierships, and I'm not convinced that small forwards do either, so I am not thrilled with these choices. It has now been four years since we have taken either a genuine midfielder or key position player with a top 25 pick. That is not only dumb, it is bordering on being negligent. We have no depth in these parts of the ground and we are in a world of trouble if the likes of McDonald, May or Oliver are injured at any stage of this season. We painted ourselves into a corner by resigning a bunch of C graders in September, which limited our options in the lead up to the draft. I would have loved to have split pick 12 into 2 later picks, but we didn't have the list spots to make use of them. Other clubs were able to make use of live trading to get the players they wanted. I find it hard to believe that Pickett wouldn't have been available later on, and perhaps we could have had a crack at Robertson or Kemp as well. And for a club who supposedly doesn't leak any more, our trade and draft priorities have been widely known well ahead of time. If we didn't broadcast to the world that we wanted Pickett, perhaps he would have still been available in the 20s where he was originally rated. Other clubs are much better at keeping their cards close to their chests.

"We just weren't prepared for what the game was going to demand". That is inexcusable on so many levels.

It sounds like the bloke we took in the second round two years ago, and how's that working out? I know he's a much different player to Spargo, but the stats don't lie. If we are desperate for a small forward I'm sure we can find one at 28.

Seems a much better prospect at pick 10 than any small forward - I'll be disappointed if we overlook he or Kemp to take Pickett.

Key position players should be the number one priority in the first round, but ruckmen are not key position players. The issue with all of Cook, Weideman and Watts is/was the lack of hunger for the contest. Weideman in particular with his size should be crashing packs and knocking blokes over, but he plays like he has the build of Fritsch or Hannan. He was simply a poor selection given the other key forwards in that draft. Back on Jackson, I'll be bitterly disappointed if we select him. There is little chance we can develop him as a ruckman with Gawn and Preuss dominating game time at both AFL and VFL level, unless we have injuries. There is very little evidence that he can play as a genuine key forward and any thought of him playing as a midfielder is pure speculation. Ruckmen are inconsequential to building a premiership team, hence why only one ruck taken with a first round draft pick in the past 20 years has played in a premiership. Key position players and genuine midfielders should be our only thoughts in the first round of the draft. That is what premiership teams are built on.

Remind me again where Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron were drafted. And, more importantly in the context of this conversation, how many premierships each has won. Small forwards are great if you can get one cheap, but they don't win you premierships (with the obvious exception of Cyril Rioli who is considerably more than just a small forward).

Our drafting has been largely woeful (with a few obvious exceptions) for more than a decade, so people are right to be concerned. The criticisms are generally not of the players, but of highly paid recruiting staff who make poor decisions on draft night.

That would be an absolute, unmitigated disaster that will set this club back years and years. It breaks every drafting rule in the book.

How dare anyone invest their time and effort and money supporting the club over many years, and then be disappointed when the team fails to perform at an acceptable standard. Clearly the club would be better off if these people stopped caring and spent their weekends pottering around in the garden instead of worrying about a football team.

This all feels like the club is trying to be too clever for its own good. Trading away future picks, splitting picks and then splitting them again, etc. We can't afford to take risks in this draft. Just pick the best player/s with the picks we have and move on. Stop trying to outsmart everyone else for minimal gains.

May has never played 20 games in a season, let alone the 25 required to win a premiership. His best football is fantastic, but he is always a good chance to get injured or belt someone at the worst possible time.

Completely agree. Not sure whether it is he or Mahoney or Goodwin driving our draft strategies, but they have been poor from the Weideman pick onwards. This is absolutely not the draft to be taking punts on ruckmen and small forwards with high picks. Premierships are won by midfielders and key position players - everything else is secondary.

Needs to get significantly fitter and stronger so that he can impact games for longer. Currently seems to go hard for a couple of contests and then disappear for long periods whilst he recovers. Good news is that he has two years to work on this.

You appear always to bag other posters without putting forth an opinion of your own. Back on topic, Martin clearly doesn't want to play for Melbourne, so time to move on and focus on players who want to be here.

Either GWS come to us with a deal for pick 3 or we put in a bid for Green at that pick. It is just that simple. You can never have enough quality midfielders, and our midfield depth is non-existent behind the big 4.

Taking a ruckman with a top ten pick would be almost as stupid as taking a midget with a top ten pick. Have a look at where the likes of Nankervis and Lycett, the most recent premiership ruckmen, were taken in the draft, to say nothing of all the decent ruckmen changing clubs for third and fourth round picks in trade week. The chances of finding a top class ruckman in the draft are miniscule - we have simply have to find two 200 game players with our top ten picks.

Our lack of mid-sized defensive depth made it inevitable that Wagner would be retained, but he is a deeply flawed player who was dropped four times this season. If he is playing even semi-regularly in 2020 there is a fair chance we will be bottom 4 again.