Ricky P

Hoges'll stay and we'll win the flag. Chill out everyone.

A lot on here don't seem to deal with uncertainty very well. The attitude seems to be "the suspense/boredom is killing me so just get rid of him". Nothing's really changed except Melbourne has stopped playing games so no-one has anything else to talk about.

Doubt it was just one haha

Hard to believe!

What was the crowd like that day? Were we outnumbered by Collingwood back then?

Thanks Nash. I'm going to run with that and say we did. Is there anything Maxy can't do?

I've been trying to work this out, did we get Hogan with the scully compensation? If so, Max can do no wrong, even when he spews on teammates.

Maybe ur right. If it all goes [censored] up, PJ's little quip will be the least of my concerns.

Really quite a long way to go before our succession plan can be ticked off as 'smooth'.

If that's actually what he said then that's an extraordinary error if judgement.

Realistically they don't know if he's staying or not. I imagine it would be standard operating procedure for membership depts to not use players whose future is in doubt. I don't think it means he's definitely going. But it probably does mean he's not definitely staying. Which I guess we already knew.

I agree with this. I haven't agreed with the push for recruiting a forward ruck. With Max as dominant as he is, anyone we recruit is barely going to get a look in, in the ruck. I don't mind Watts in the ruck, I reckon he goes pretty well and is pretty damaging as a midfielder once the ball hits the deck. Roos said he was concerned about the toll it may have on Watts' body but Watts doesn't get injured much and he's a fairly big bloke these days. People have probably answered this before, but does Hulett do any ruck work?

She's a star. We're lucky to have her at the club. Are we favourites to take out the first women's flag?

Really not much of an issue with pointing out that a higher proportion of Melbourne supporters went to private schools than Collingwood supporters.

Ur fingers painted on mate?

Some of u lot are pathetic.

I'm just glad we don't have to deal with this rubbish anymore and appear to be a well-run club.

This is true. Tanking was in vogue back in then. A lot of clubs did it and Melbourne fans were in favour of it. The trade forum on this site was named after Jordan McMahon from memory.

He wasn't even accurate - Connolly was at Melbourne during the late 80s when we were successful and higher up the pecking order than West Coast. He also took Freo to their first finals series and the their first Prelim. To call both sides 'crap clubs' is untrue. Connolly didn't cover himself in glory with the tanking stuff, but whilst tanking is out of vogue now, it was very much in fashion back then. Clubs that went on to win premierships clearly tanked. Perhaps the weirdest thing of his whole rant was that he said he "flew the flag" for the WA clubs with regards to All-Australian selection. Um...shouldn't you just picking blokes on merit?

Cannot thank this bloke enough for what he's done for our footy club. This club is a huge part of my life and my family's life and I just couldn't see a way out in 2013 such was the hopelessness of the situation. The state the club was in was breaking my heart. To feel genuine excitement about the dees again was something I thought I had passed me by. In short, Roosy has given us back something really important that I feared we may have lost forever. On top of that, from afar, he appears to be a terrific bloke who is a template for a modern leader. He seems to combine high expectations with genuine warmth and empathy for those in his charge. Thanks for giving us our club back Roosy.

Loved the intro song fellas...made me lol and then cry...

Did this is in 2000 and 98.

Max is a certainty. Viney was on all-Australian pace early but has slowed down after his injury. I reckon he might make the squad. Watts may also sneak into the squad. I don't reckon he deserves to but he seems to be a bit of a good news story so he might get in on that basis.

People overstate the favourites thing. We were favourites against Gold Coast twice, Brisbane, Collingwood and Freo. I know we've lost to Essendon and Carlton and there was a stage there where we were literally no hope if we were favourites but it's really not the case anymore.

U wot?