Hampton 22

A measure of a coach is the extent to which they can extract the best from their players. Paul Roos appears to be quickly having a very positive impact in this regard. Here's my list of players who are in career best form: Nathan Jones (permanently at career best) Jack Watts (needs more consistent games to fully justify being on my list) Chris Dawes (see above; and, being a one-eyed Dees supporter, I really don't know what he was like at the Pies) Jack Viney (who I find has got more disposals than one G Ablett did in his equivalent number of early games) Dom Tyson Lynden Dunn Daniel Cross (see one-eyed Dees supporter comment above. I know he was very good with the Doggies.) Cam Pedersen Bernie Vince (ditto) Tom McDonald (who admittedly has been very good for us in the past) Rohan Bail Matt Jones Dean Terlich

I could see that first gamer Aidan Riley played well yesterday, but the replay revealed he did even better than I judged at the ground. He was unlucky to be dragged.

With good draft picks, a solid coaching succession plan and some favourable draws, i'd say that within a few years we could win a game.

A couple of minutes to go and we knew we had it won. Down on L1 all we Dees supporters started cheering and stamping, celebrating like we hadn't for years. A Richmond supporter behind me said in a puzzled voice to his mate, 'It's as if they have never won a game - oh, hang on...' 560 people reading this thread at midnight sums up the elation of a great win.

Ah ... So that's the reason Mitch Clark's got so few kicks from the Melbourne mid-field!

Thanks Matt the Stat Man If you'd like to hunt down some more stats, I'd be intrigued to know the relationship between Dream team points and on field success. Is there a relationship between the Dream team points of players at the end of a season and the performance of a team in the following? That is, can you add up Dream team points for, say, the top 25 players at a club and get a sense of where they might finish in the next year? We have recruited a few blokes who must have pretty high scores. You might get a sense of the value - or otherwise - in this by comparing Hawthorn's 2012 end of year player Dream team totals with Melbourne's.

It's good to see 12,178 members signed up already for 2014. That means we need fewer than 28,000 to reach our long sought after 40,000 target. And we have 9 months to do it in. Most of the membership will be MCC members like me who have added MFC membership to their packages. However, it's still a very good start. I seem to recall that we have achieved 17-18,000 members by December in previous years, so hopefully we are seeing the Roos factor at work. Anyone got any past membership stats for this early please? Now, if only the MFC could learn to punctuate in their home page membership update.

Well said Very amusing to read, but horrible to watch.

Well said, unfortunately. Thanks for this erudite assessment.

Dean's efforts and commitment were first rate. He'd have every right to feel peeved about the circumstances that he found himself in and the way he was treated. I wish him all the very best for the future.

Cale Morton as playing coach would be a better option than the incumbent.

Why on earth does the MFC Board persist with a coach who so clearly is failing? The players are nowhere near as bad as this.

Beautifully written, Mr Jack. It was as if you were there. Thank you very much.

'All goes well', instead of 'Augers well'. No surprise though that people write what they hear, or what they think they hear. I read a reference the other day to an incomplete report being 'a working progress'.

Thank you for this most eloquent post. It's the finest piece of writing I have seen on Demonland, and encapsulates my views perfectly of the whole situation. Very well done.

The pre-match bugler?

A mate's mother at the ground leapt in the air to celebrate the win. She landed awkwardly, breaking her ankle. 'I've got to be right for the finals next week,' were her next words. And she was, crutches and all.

I remember that too. it was 1983 and Dyer was referring to Melbourne's Les Bamblett playing his second game.

Did anyone else hear that wonderfully odd statement from one of the ABC commentators at the start of Saturday night's match? 'Melbourne is kicking to the left of your radio'.

We're all looking forward to getting some great young talent with all our first round picks at the end of the year. The right thing for the Dees is to take all these high draft picks and build a team for that elusive Premiership window, which might open in 4-5 years. But here's my concern. A coach with just a couple of years left on his contract doesn't have the luxury of a gradual build. Instead, he may feel that his career depends on a relatively quick rise up to mid-ladder level. You achieve this with a short-term fix: trade away the early picks for some experienced players who will help win games in the next couple of years. These players are unlikely to still be firing come Premiership window time, but they may just get a coach another contract at Melbourne or elsewhere. I will be really peeved if Melbourne trades away our vital, hard-won picks in 2012. Arguably doing that will cost us any chance of a Premiership in the next decade. I fear that trading picks is exactly what the club is preparing to do right now.

Thanks in advance for your efforts.

Great photos. Thanks very much.

Thanks Demonland - a fascinating read. Any time you feel like covering off another year, I'm sure you'll have lots of grateful readers.