Ricky P

Do you get a trophy for finishing top of the Nab ladder? If we snag top spot I'm going to party like it's 1989.

This thread's a disgrace. Tom McDonald is one of our top 5 players and one of the few ones we've got who'd get a game at any club in the AFL. Like all guns, he doesn't give a stuff about the NAB Cup.

10 - 15 years ago Hawthorn were down the bottom and didn't have many fans. Now they are possibly the best side ever and have a massive membership. They show that it can turn around relatively quickly and that measures such as the draft and salary cap are working. Do we really think that every team should win 11 games every year? I think we should focus on making Melbourne the next Hawthorn rather than whinging about why the AFL isn't helping us even more.

10 - 15 years ago Hawthorn were a club down the bottom with not many fans. Now they are possibly the best side ever and have a massive membership. Hawthorn shows that it's possible and are a cause for hope, not despair. Rather than worry about how well Hawthorn are going, how about we knock them off their perch?

Nice to win something. Joins Jared Rivers in the pantheon of Melbourne of Rising Star winners.

They've probably been at the pub since Sunday night more or less.

That's rpfc's point. Most people keep it under wraps - i.e. can enjoy it without ending up emergency/harming anyone else.

I thought McKenzie would've got more. It felt like he got 30 touches every week. Not that I watched single game.

Clearly the 'key forward will never win it if Hogan doesn't win it' argument doesn't make sense. It depends on who else is in the field. Next year, a key forward who isn't as good as Hogan might win because he's the best for that year. This might seem a technicality but I'm pretty red hot on the stupidity of the football media!

We had a much better season than St Kilda. I'd take beating good sides with the annoying lases against poor sides, than beating all the poor teams, any day of the week. Plus, they still have the likes of Riewoldt and Montagna playing key roles for them. Plus we finished higher than them - that should settle the argument really. The reason we cop more criticism is because we've been down for much longer. But it's hardly Jesse Hogan and Gus Brayshaw's fault that we were poor in 2007.

We've improved the last two years. No reason to think that we wouldn't improve again. Can't wait to see Trak. Love his size.

It's funny when commentators use words they've heard someone else say, and they think it makes them sound clever, but they don't really know what it means. He claims Melbourne aren't 'relevant' and compares us unfavourably with the doggies. I suppose that's why we've got more members than the doggies and get bigger crowds. It's probably time to get your ghost-writer to jump on google thesauraus Dwayne.

haha. very good

I really feel for the bloke and hope he gets back to playing footy. He's clearly a sensational bloke and he could be a great addition next year. Given he was quite young when he stopped playing, I reckon he'll definitely be better than he was when he started out. I also question why he played so much footy through 2012, 2013 and 2014 when he was clearly not right. Half the Melbourne support could tell he was injured. I certainly could. That said, I'm sure there's an explanation - would be interested to hear it.

If we're going to talk about our worst loss ever. Obviously the 1958 Grand Final and the 1987 Prelim would take the cake, but what about the 1998 Prelim? We should've won the flag that year!!!

That's right. No individual match really matters until you're in finals contention. I cannot believe how negative people are. I would rather have beaten Geelong, Doggies, Tigers and Collingwood than beaten St Kilda and Essendon. Yet everyone whinges about losing to St Kilda and Essendon all the time. I'd also rather beat the Doggies once and get belted by them once, than have two honourable 15 point losses. Although this might seem like a renegade notion to most on here, I think the club is on the right path and can't wait until next year.

We're a sneaky chance against GWS in the last round. I reckon next season will be great. I don't think we'll make the finals but I reckon we'll get about 10 wins. That means we'll be in the 'finals race' for a large part of the season which will be pretty exciting after the last decade or so!

We'll [censored] them. We play better after we've been pumped.

Jesus wept.

Not at all. Regularly at the footy there will be people around me who won't say anything all day except to bag Watts. At the game on the weekend some bloke abused Jack for handballing when he was about to get tackled. It was a great handball which set up a shot at goal. Let's think about that - his first instinct was to bag Watts. He didn't even wait to see the play break down and THEN bag Watts. He was just too keen to get in there and have a crack. It was like fans yelling 'BALL' before it's really holding the ball because they want it to be holding the ball. I'm certainly not talking about everyone who criticises Watts - everyone is entitled to their opinion. But some of our own fans enjoy bagging him. It's a small vocal minority, but it's there.

All Melbourne supporters get frustrated when Jack mucks up. But I've always reckoned there's a cohort, albeit quite small, who feel joy when he stuffs up, because it gives them a chance to vent their spleen. It's pretty ugly.

Dawesy is one of those blokes that needs a few weeks back after an injury before he starts to hit his straps. Unfortunately he's been injured quite a lot. If he can remain injury free he'll play good footy for us - like he has the last couple of weeks.

Like a few people here, I really like listening to Buckley on 360. I reckon he's really genuine and on a few occasions this year, after a bad Melbourne loss, he's actually defended us - or at least the idea that developing a side from the bottom up takes time. Surprised that people are criticising Roosy's media style. I reckon he is fantastic. If you watched our media conferences after each game with the sound off, you wouldn't know if we'd won or lost. I think Roosy's relaxed demeanour is a huge strength - the media are vultures and once they smell blood they can make like pretty much impossible for a club or coach. Roosy is an expert at conveying calm. More broadly on Melbourne in the media - we get heaps more than we used to. I think that goes back to Jimmy's days in the Presidency. Even though we used to be a reasonably good side we would barely get mentioned and were called irrelevant (whatever that means - Melbourne has never been irrelevant to me!). Now we have our coach on 360 every week.

That's awesome. Would love to see this guy fulfil his potential. Him and track playing next year would be like recruiting two extra midfielders.

I just read this. Your blog is awesome!