Lucifers Hero

Jayden is older than most and just scraped into eligibility on age. He is into his 3rd year so the judges may be expecting more from him than a first or second year player. Not saying that is valid thinking but understandable to have higher expectations. Anyway - still two chances left so hope he gets it.

Quite right DA, my bad. I misread the Media Release. Have edited my post.

Barrett made some interesting comments on FC last night on Hibberd: Was at the game with an EFC official on Sunday Went down to the rooms after the game Family really wants him to stay. The win vs GCS has encouraged EFC that they will keep him etc. TBH I am delighted with our back six and our depth: The stalwarts: Tom, Oscar, Nev, Sam, Jayden. (I laugh at calling them stalwarts given their average age is about 22!!) To come in: Melksham and Salem. Backups: Wagner, Bugg, M. Jones. Floaters: N. Jones, Vince. Even if Hunt and Salem move into the midfield that is a pretty exciting group to choose 6 each week. They are proving they can do the job and there is heaps of improvement to come. Our defence has gone ahead in leaps and bounds since Hibberd was first mooted. I think we have gone past needing him. And, it sounds like Hibberd is still emotionally committed EFC. Don't want a half-hearted player joining our team. I hope he stays at EFC. We can use our chips elsewhere!

http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/melbourne-youngster-oscar-mcdonald-earns-round-21-rising-star-nomination/news-story/bd0a5a57457556909a611e69ded76a66 A delightful exchange between Oscar and Roos: As Melbourne coach Paul Roos began Monday’s review of the win against Port Adelaide, a distracted McDonald was sprung chatting with Bernie Vince. R: “...‘Oi, you right there, Oscar?’" O: “I’ve gone, ‘Oh, sorry, sorry, I’ll concentrate’ and he goes": R: ‘By the way, congratulations. You’re the rising star for this week’. O: “So I thought I was going to get in a bit of trouble and then he’s backed up with that.” “I thought that he was joking, and then after about five seconds he continued on with the review, doing all our trademark sort of stuff...“So I’ve thought, ‘Hang on. He’s not actually joking’. It was a surprise but I’ll take it. But what was so important about the Vince chat which simply couldn’t wait? “We were organising a game of golf for (Tuesday),” McDonald said.

Well done Oscar. Very exciting times. 4 RS nominees from the Dees. Huge endorsement of our recruiting and development.

Except we are loyal masochists and would stay till the end and suffer through it

First thought was 'finders, keepers'. It could have belonged to any passer by and not anyone at the school Then I read the early posts and felt really guilty. So if you feel really really bad, report it to the police (hold on to the money if that is allowed), and give them contact details so if someone reports it they can call you. After a reasonable wait eg 1 weeks revert to first thought: 'finders, keepers'.

10 Max Gawn (Melb) 7 Dom Tyson (Melb) 4 Nathan Jones (Melb) 4 Tom McDonald (Melb) 3 Bernie Vince (Melb) 1 Jared Polec (PA) 1 Ollie Wines (PA) Another perfect 10 for Max from the Coaches!! Split view on Nathan and Tom. Max must be a shoe in for the Bluey now.

I doubt Oscar would have developed so much if he played most of the year at Casey. With Frost, I believe the club had little choice - we had no available forwards. Also, it probably helped Frost's game as defender by playing as a forward. Not the first time it has happened for a defender to learn forward running patterns, body positioning etc. Again, Frost may not be as good as he now is without the forward experience. Its no longer realistic to single out defenders one way or the other as it is now a defensive unit not 6 individual players and synergy happens where the result is greater than sum of its parts. The back 6 had to grow and develop together and that has happened. We will never know but I believe it is most unlikely we would have got to this point if Oscar and Frost didn't have the experiences of this season.

Hey Wise, love your posts and your support of mfc but Jesse is almost 22 and has been in the system for 4 years Injuries aside that gives him 3 - 4 AFL preseasons. He should be getting close to his best work. He will be a star for us but his contemporaries are jumping ahead of him. That is neither good nor bad but it is worth being realistic as to where Jesse sits on the totem pole.

We are blessed with small forwards so no shame in not being able to break into our best 22. Love JKH's attitude and hate to lose him but if he can't break into best 22 he deserves to go where he can. Would say thanks for loving the Dees and enjoy your career.

I'm very confident Jesse will be a star for us. But couldn't help but notice how sweet the set routine for goal from Moore and McCartin this weekend. Flawless and effective.

He doesn't count. Was never deserving of #11.

I just love that Max once wore Jimmy's 37 and I can't imagine how proud he would be to now see Max running around in his #11. Given the reverence Max shows the jumper in his pre-game routine he 'gets' it. I have a special affection for #11 as it was Jimmy's number: In our darkest days we had no sponsors and the club put the 'Reach' logo on the front of our jumper. Not being a fan of corporate logos but happy to support Jimmy's charity, I bought one of them and had #11 put on the back. It is still in the wardrobe with tags, unworn. Jimmy died about that time and I 'retired' it. Two years ago the old boys of the 1964 premiership team had a reunion luncheon at the Bentleigh Club and about 14 of them signed the Red V on that jumper. My dream is to also get the signatures of our next premiership team on that jumper. I hope to leave it to my niece for her to leave to MFC. I think it will be a rare and special piece of memorabilia for the club. So much of our last 50+ years of how highs and lows would be writ large on that jumper.

Thanks guys, explains why I can't find one - will stop looking. Edit: Thanks also 'Red and Bluebeard'

Thanks for the picture dc. I have a special reason for wanting the #11 so I will keep searching Gee Max looked so young! And skinny!! No idea what happened to post #258...lost in cyperspace It had some Max pictures but it looks like the editor didn't like them.

On a side note does anyone have a picture of Jim Stynes presenting Max with his # 11 jumper. Have scoured the net but no luck. Would really like a copy if it could be posted here or p m to me would be great. Cheers.

Perhaps his contract is playing on his mind. He hasn't kicked a goal in his last 3 games and his conversion rate has dropped and is well outside the top 50. As an aside does anyone else think Jesse is overweight? The club 'Heartbeat' magazine has him listed as 104kg...quite heavy for his height especially when compared to other forwards. The 2015 'Heartbeat' had him @ 101kg. Maybe he just needs to get fitter, sort out his set shot routine and sign his contract

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-match-report/port-adelaide-v-melbourne-demons-keep-slim-finals-hopes-alive-with-win-over-power-20160813-gqrxv7.html How long have we waited to hear/see these words about our club: "After stunning Hawthorn the previous week, they were under pressure to at long last show some consistency, and to win again in a hostile environment proves they really deserve respect" R E S P E C T Can't be bought, must be earnt. And we are; more to do but no turning back now! We are on the verge of ending opposition supporter's pity...to be replaced by their envy!!

Good sport! In the votes this week!! I have bookmarked this thread and started looking for your new avatar...the day when you will need it is coming faster than I thought!

Yes, it seems like there is a mutiny of sorts. With Ballantyne considering a transfer to any club even the arch enemy, Eagles it sounds serious. Pavlich was probably the glue that held players together. Lose him and the cracks start to appear. Add Ross's (reported) iron fisted style and trouble brews. Lyons is not a 'rebuild' coach, nor is he a developer of people (eg assistant coaches). Many people think they will do a 'Phoenix' like the Eagles and Pies, instead they may be wallowing at the bottom of the ladder for a while. Ross is talking up their new $100m sporting facility and cashed up sponsors but they don't mean much if players don't play for their coach. Fyfe is pretty smart he may have just seen the writing on the wall!

There always seems to be confusion on rules eg Future Picks, Academy/Father Son picks, Draft Points etc so thought we could put it all in one place. To start the ball rolling here is an AFL article about Future Pick rules: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-08-12/future-pick-the-trading-rules-explained There is a bit of discussion in it about MFC position as we traded our 2017 pick last year. Because we had two first round picks last year we are not disadvantage re the 'having at least 2 first round picks in 4 years' rule. Quite different to clubs who traded their 2017 1st round pick for a player. In practice it may not make much difference but it is an important distinction. Edit: Mods - is it worth 'pinning' this thread so it upfront for posters to refer to? Saves other threads getting bogged down with the rules...on second thoughts that will happen anyway...

Increasingly I am sensing that after the Geelong game Roos will not be with us at all. After the bye he said he and PJ had chatted about what the future held and decided to focus on the rest of the year. Earlier this week he said he is no longer involved with list management meetings. Then in this article http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-08-11/roos-lauds-2016-as-a-success "Roos reiterated that he wouldn’t get involved in any post-season off-field trades, unless asked...“From my point-of-view, I’ve bowed out of all of those discussions...“I’m looking forward to the three weeks and [I’m] really excited about where the club’s heading and [I’m] excited about Goody (Simon Goodwin) taking over and the coaching group that’s been assembled...“I’m equally excited about riding off into the sunset.” Am happy that PJ may think the club is solid and mature enough to have no role for him at the club. But I am incredibly sad that in a few weeks he will be gone. I just hope someone finds a fitting way (in addition to the team winning) to farewell him at his last game in Geelong where opp teams get about 1% of the tickets so we supporters won't be able to do anything there or be part of it.

Posturing by Diodoro! Nonetheless the AFL, player managers and players want a 'fuss free' transfer of players. PR, AFL image, manager commissions, player contract $ will win the day. (BTW Paul Connors is manager for Hurley, Hibberd, Melksham and Ryder.) Let's face it no-one really cares about the destination club. From that article I reckon a deal has been done where the AFL and Connors have agreed to not go for the DFA/Grievance process but EFC had to agree to accept 'reasonable trades' and not drag it out like they did Ryder. The AFL does not want that stalemate again so will be pulling the strings in the background to get the trades done. EFC don't hold any key cards and they know it! I would like our club to play hardball with Hibberd but our round 2 pick (26 to 30) is probably a fair deal. Would rather give that up than one of our budding youngsters.