tappysquads

1: Maximus Gawn- could be anything, number one ruck, having an impact resting forward. Will demand a key defender. The more I look back at his 2014 games the more I realise he is something special

2: Hogan- all good saying let's not put pressure on him, but he is soooo important to our rise up the ladder. Direction, goals, prescence, he changes our game plan. If him and Gawn can earn the 2 best defenders then it allowes Dawes a weaker opponent.

3: Lamumba- Fast ball movement! That is going to be the single biggest factor improving our performance. M.Jones and Bail make me cry when they take a mark and push back 20m, look, wait, look, kick long down the line. Harry's game is exactly what we need. Gives our forwards a chance one out!

4: Viney- I actually think he could be part of our big 3 of Jones, Tyson, Viney this year. In my mind he has the lot. Speed, strength, aggression, skill. When on he is a possession accumulater, a leader, and a game changer. I hope he can follow in Selwoods foot steps, big call as he is the highest of elite.

5: Watts- we improve, he improves. A stronger mid field and faster movement could make all the difference with jack. I watched round 1 the other day and he was sensational. I know it's every possibility he will never become a dominant player, but he has the weapons to do it and i think a 10% improvement in jack watts this year pushes melbourne up towards 8-10th

I don't think the performance of any top 5 players in a club is anywhere near as important as the improvement of a bottum 5 through development or replacement of personal, which I think we have done.

Have the same naive feeling each year, but I think we could jump right up this year

Holy crap:

How old is Jack? 19? 20?

Unbelievable...

(Thanks for pic Saty)

What the hell did viney and wines do growing up?

Stop it!

r

Kent is backup at best for mine.

That's a big call. As a small forward in a horrible team he went at pretty much a goal a game this year, which if he hadn't of been injured all pre season and been ready to play more games sadly would of won our goal kicking. He has good pace, a quality left boot and most importantly know how to snag an opportunistic goal. Building a tank to go into the middle, has the solid build already. I'm leaning the other way, I think he could move into top 5-10 in the bnf next year.

Not only that, he hated doing it.

It's not popular but Hogan should be given some technique work with Stafford - he would eat up those 25 minutes a game and love it on the ball.

Could be our Roughead..... Id be very nervous seeing him ruck though. Too valuable to us. But if hogan could be anything like roughy I'd be over the moon, as the last few years I've had him as the MVP of the league

He is on his back on the floor and King goes to pretend to throw a cheap shot at a completely unprepared target. Despite how big you are natural instinct will cause a flinch due to the vulnerability of the position.

Stupid Spencer, he should have got up and thrown a haymaker to make himself look tougher. Your last three posts make you sound like the biggest dork, kinda guy who throws a cowards lunch on the footy field and thinks he is the king

Bit rough. Never mentioned anything about myself. There is clearly players that aren't naturally aggressive and I said I thought jake is one of those. Also said he does go in and try to do it, which is more than others.

But hey, guess this isn't one of those forums where you can express your opinions without people attacking you personally.

And just to clarify, I've played 200+ for just the one suspension.

sooooo you're suggesting Spencer is some sort of softc0ck because he wasn't able to keep his feet when aggressively shepherded by a mature AFL player?

Nope, as I said, being aggressive does not at all seem natural to him, in my opinion. He flinches when king pretends to line him up after. If you go back and look at his tough acts you might see how unnatural they look. Just my opinion.

No its just you.

http://youtu.be/zqLYGNWcpBA

Yeh he's a killer

Just on the Spencer topic the one thing I absolutely love about him and a fair few of his teamates should seriously take a big leaf out of his book, is that he is always in the thick of the action sticking up for his teammates when they go down.

He goes in and bats for his mates and doesn't take a backward step. Remember he lost his [censored] against the cats Nab Cup when Toumpas when down and the week before he did it against Dustin Martin who was trying to rough up Daniel Cross, threw a few good ones at Warnock from the blues too.. He just loves a good scrap.

That game against Brisbane when Pedersen got dropped and no one ran in to stick up for him was one of the most disgraceful act I have seen the club dished up this year. Hopefully that will be the last we see of that.

Is it just me or does it always look so forced or false when Spencer does it? Made me cringe a few times. It's as though he had been told "your the big bloke out, this is what you have to do" and he runs in and grabs a jumper and pushes it, but nothing ever actually happens. He doesn't intimidate anyone, just how it looks to me anyway. You see guys that go in to defend a teammate and your thinking "s#%t look out", but with big spencer I think he's more likely to clip himself if he tries to throw one

Thanks for the reports guys

What stage is Gawn at? Full training? Did he play in the match simulation?

I'm just watching the first quarter of round 9 v Tigers this year. Might be getting carried away but I think it's close to the most impact I've seen a ruck have in a quarter for a long time. So much talent for such a big guy. He is our future if his legs hold up.

Toumpas to snag another 5 like last year?
Can't read to much Into it as I think Byrnes kicked 3 in the first quarter last year.

I'd be happy to be reading in a few hours time:

Garlett played high hf and looked lively, a lot of possessions
JV tore it up, ready to explode
Hogan kicks 8
Salem is ready to play midfield

Great news. Im as excited by this as my wife when I give her a [censored] in a box!

Depending what that censored word was, your wife could of been really happy or slightly unsatisfied!

didn't do him much good as a player

Nope, but they were some big f#c! Off quads.....

Being the leg-man that you undoubtedly are, and the off-season list changes that have taken place, any chance you'll be changing your avatar to Traccy's quads?

Having seen both a first pre season tappy, and a first pre season tracca in the flesh...... Petracca has nothing on the size tappy was walking round with as a 18yr old.

Must sound weird that I noticed this, but having had my injuries, and putting a huge focus on legs and core to get back playing myself, it annoyed the Sh!# out of me that a 18yr old could be that big and I had worked my ass off to be half that size

I didn't realise you were an expert on calves as well as quads....

No expert, just had 3 serious leg injuries and about 4 years of rehab experience to go off

Isnt that sort of muscle waste normal after so much time in a cast post surgery?

Completely normal, and he has a lot of time to rebuild it. Plus the specific training he will go through will actually leave him stronger than he has been through the core and legs. With his age, as long as the foot holds together, there is no reason the rest of his body won't be in better condition than ever before.

Good luck JT, I'd love to see him get back and be a handy addition just as we begin our rise up towards the 8

He was the highest brownlow vote getter from his draft last year. Says it all

Watts will be a massive part of our next tilt at finals.....

Dawes is not next in line for round one, he is suspended. Tool - him not you.

Really a necessary post? Yeh he's suspended, that's why he isn't in the 22 or emergencies...... Good contribution though

Round 1 going early

Jetta frost Garland

Lumumba McDonald Dunn

Watts Viney Vince

Kent Hogan Petracca

Howe Gawn Garlett

Jamar N.Jones Tyson

Cross Salem Grimes

Sub: JKH

Emg grimes toumpass brayshaw

Next in line: Dawes michie Pederson Omac White

I may be in dreamland, but I think this team could be competitive..... It has the talks covered in our back half, ball winning mids, pace and quality disposal on the wings and a fwd line that could function

That's what I like about Harry, he doesn't buy into the group think.

The rest of the league is scared of Hall and Brown, but Lumumba just isn't seeing it, and both Hall and Brown backed down once they seen Harry wasn't intimidated.

Barry Hall and John Brown are cut from a completely different cloth to a guy like Wayne Carey, Ablett Jr.

Hall and Brown are all puff and bluff when it comes to throwing down, wheras Ablett and Carey would throw down, could throw down - and didn't care who it was.

I knew Barry Hall was never going to get in the boxing ring. He'd of been pressured to fight someone who hit back - and not blokes like Staker who aren't looking.

At the age of 12 Hall moved to Melbourne to pursue a boxing career.[2] Training out of a makeshift boxing gym (his father's garage), he won a state title in his early teenage years and had fought in 15 fights by the age of 15.[3]

There's a reason players where intimidated by hall..... You couldn't be further from the mark

Some of you people need to get over yourselves. If Tom had his time again, I'm sure he would do things a little differently, but you can hardly blame the guy for making a decision to set himself up for life. Particularly in an industry in which the average career lasts for about 4 years.

Why should he have any loyalty to the MFC, particularly when we all knew the place was a basketcase? He is a professional footballer who had the misfortune to be drafted by the club at its lowest point.

As if any of you would not take the money and run if someone tried to poach you from your current employer with a guaranteed 6 year deal at 4x your market wage.

Who's blaming him? I clearly was thanking him.

Heck if you want to really draw a long bow you could claim dom Barry=Oscar McDonald now and scullys huge salary stopped gws being able to afford to keep frost aswell.

After reading an article in today's Herald Sun, I've come to the realisation that a lot of Melbourne supporters are looking at something the wrong way.

I believe ... that after being at the Melbourne Football Club for six minutes, the Judd-like future Brownlow Medallist named Tom Scully had fallen so in love with the place that he decided to make the ultimate sacrifice to set up the next dominant era of success for the club. By sadly allowing Melbourne to release him to GWS, Melbourne initially netted picks 4 and 13 in the 2011 draft.

Firstly, this allowed the Dees to snare the Messiah Hogan and Dom Barry but the follow on affects where huge. By accepting a $1mil x 6 year deal and proceeding to play horrible football at his new club, hampering their rapid rise up the ladder, he stopped GWS from being able to afford to retain talented kids, allowing Melbourne to strike and snare a deal netting us superstar Dom Tyson and future gun Christian Salem. Also by selflessly rejecting way overs of $900k a year from the Dees as he knew we could use it better, he allowed salary cap space to snare Bernie Vince and now Heritier Lumumba to help guide this new era.

I'd just like to thank Tom for sacrificing that Brownlow at Melbourne, and bringing into the club Hogan, Tyson, Salem, Vince, Lumumba.

Not many would throw away a career so recklessly, but he sure made a very loyal selfless decision.

Watched the whole game this arvo. Still jumped out of my seat when kent did that run. He is going to be a genuine A grader. Pace, strength, great kick and a big moment kind of guy. How good where Dunne, Tmac, Jett's all day! And grimes was good in patches too. Gives you a bit if hope when u look at that performance and add lumumba, garlett, frost,

Petracca, brayshaw, hogan, gawn, JKH,