Deecisive

I think everyone agrees he gets a bit of the ball, problem has been his turnovers due to poor decisions or poor handpasses and kicks.

Dawes would be a far better player if he had the support around him and the players delivering the ball better to him. he was recruited to be our CHF with Hogan or Clarke beside him. But he is essentially our whole forward line now and is more often than not double tagged for the whole game as opposition teams keep their spare in defense,, while ours runs around on the ball. How many times do we actually get the ball inside 50 and what percentage of those entries are directed at Dawes in any way that could resemble decent delivery. When we get some of these other things right I am sure Dawes will do a lot better, the bloke chases and harasses the opposition players when a lot of our other players just sit back and watch or mind their own players. I just hope we dont ruin the poor bugger before he has a chance to show how good he can be for us.

We need players who set high standards who set the tone for the club, not just recruit young players who follow the culture and standard we already have. We have room for ROK even if he only plays half a dozen games a year he will be worth it.

I think our defensive approach is often being over done by the players, i.e. everyone rushing into the opposition forward line then when we win the ball we kick it straight back out to waiting opposition players and no melbourne players anywhere near them. Which results in the ball coming back in while all our players are turning around trying to run back to our goals. Players have to still keep the channels to our goal open and manned instead of ALL of them chasing the ball in the defensive half. And in those rare times that we managed to get the next kick from outside of defensive 50 we have Dawes running around with two or three opposition players who just constantly shepherd him out of the contest.

Gawn and Jamar need to rotate between ruck and ff. Need to keep a small crumbing player near them all day. this will hopefully take some of the pressure of dawes, Watts in the half forward line to help deliver the ball into the 50. I personally like frawley up forward as he does seem to mark well and kicks a few goals now and then which is something we are remarkably short on. he also seems to make less mistakes there and any turnovers from poor kicking are usually out of bounds or points. Bring in Michie, Georgio and cross or Matt jones for his last chance to impress. out Tappy, Blease, Mckenzie, Terlich

is there any reason we cannot pay a players contract out early and get him off our list? obviously $$'s would still count to our salary cap.

they are obviously setting a standard that others will take advantage of and someone (else) will get hurt. Stupid to allow a player to be able knock someone silly as long as the ball is someone nearby as you break their face.

Those players that are earmarked for delisting should not be played again, give others a chance to at least get some more AFL experience, which gives them the chance to either step up, or prove they are worse than the others.

I agree play watts at FF but i would also put Max in the forward pocket leave dawes at CHF. Max should be told he is not to move more than 25 meters from the goal square but Watts should be allowed to wander around the forward 50 but not out side as 50 is his range. if we can get the ball into these guys hands more often we will score goals, it will also hopefully take some of the attention away from Dawes who must be pretty tired carrying two defenders around with him all day. Allowing Dawes to move up the ground a bit more may make it easier to bring him into the game more.

I would not be so harsh on riley he really has not played a lot of footy because of injuries etc,,,, he needs a little more time to settle down, is probably a little to hyper and rushes his disposal, he will get better.

we kicked out of defense dozens of times directly to lions players, because all of our players were in their forward line blocking up holes and chasing the ball. The rebound from not having forwards or enough forwards is killing us as in most instances the opposition has players running free that they pass to and take the ball the length of the ground before melbourne players ever get near the ball or have a chance to contest. first option for melbourne players appears to be look backwards, look sideways, dont look forward unless you have to. we are far to slow at moving the ball. While kent did some good things his selfishness in shooting for goal instead of passing it off to other players in better positions like dawes in the goal square, and jones running clear inside him on one other instance is not playing team or percentage football. McKenzies shot from 10 meters out almost directly in front, shows he cannot take the pressure as there was not alot riding on that shot, I would hate to give him the ball in a real pressure situation and have to rely on his kicking. It also means team mates are probably going to be thinking twice about giving the ball to him in such situations.

I guess the main questions going to be how many are going to be cut from the list this year and the likely candidates. We have lost 1. Clark, 2. Brynes, likely to have lost 3. Chip I think we should delist - 4. McKenzie, 5. Blease, 6. Tapscott, 7. Evans, 8. Nicholson, 9. Strauss. 10. Clisby 11. Matt Jones? 12. Terlich? (though not necessarily in that order). Replacements:1. Rok, 2. Malceski, 3. first and 2nd picks to GWS for Cameron 4. Jaksch, 5. Shiel and/or Tomlinson 6. Strech 7. 8. and 9. use either our 3rd, 4th and 5th round picks or trades / out of contract players. picks 10, 11 and 12 take rookies. (note not sure what it would take to get ROK and Malceski but it should hopefully not be a lot given their age and the fact that Sydney would be looking to ease their salary cap woes). this will give us in the main tried and tested players, we may only get a couple of years out of a couple of them but then we are trying to ensure that the next couple of years do not require any major list overhauls so that we can have aging players replaced to bring in new blood.

time to look at the positives. 1. Roos signed for another year before we played this disgraceful game. 2. It has kind of killed a lot of discussion about lets keep bail, lets keep blease, tapscott, strauss, McKenzie, etc... if they are not good enough to get into a rubbish side like we have at the moment they probably should not be on our list. 3. We went inside 50, 34 for times for 21 scores that is not bad, obviously our pathetic kicking let us down, but we did get it through the sticks instead of having rebound out for no result. 4. We have drafts period coming up, with a couple of low draft picks (if chip leaves) and possible chance to pick up some other players who are let go by their clubs who may help strengthen our list for next year, so that we are not taking 12 new kids but a mix of older heads and bodies with some new kids. Hopefully Roos and co will do a big cleanout. 5. The season is almost over. 6. Hogan still to play his first game.

I think most supporters would agree when the ball is bounced on the day no matter who we play we hope like hell to beat the living suitcase our of the opposition and win the game and bugger where we end up on the ladder. From end of year perspective of finishing 18th, 17th, or 16th is little difference to me, yes another spoon, but i see the significant improvement in the side and sometimes you have to go backward to move forward. With that spoon comes shame but it also provides us with the first two choices in the draft that could deliver us some high quality steak knives thrown in with what ever trades Roos and co can negotiate.

pace is important but not everything if he still has the endurance, skill and ability to get the ball and dispose of it well then he is doing a let better than most if no all of our 2nd string players. When one says he has lost a yard of pace, compared to what ? how fast was he, how does that translate into real terms now is he as slow as an injured trengrove was this year, as fast as mcdonald?? how slow do you have to be before your are ruled out. I suspect Roos and team will make the right call on him, if we get the chance.

if the choice is ROK or a number 90something draft pick..... I would take ROK.

If frawley had signed it would have been announced asap. I doubt he will sign with anyone until he has had a chance to get all of the bidding teams final offers, that is what he will take to melbourne if he wants to stay. I doubt that melbourne will try to match what ever he is offered.

Frawley and his manager will continue to field offers and have discussions with any interested clubs until they have squeezed the maximum $$'s and duration out of the winner. This will obviously chew up a lot of someone's salary cap probably for the next 5 years. Melbourne will probably ask him what it will take to keep him or what is your best offer then say sorry we cannot match it, so as not to insult the lad with what we actually think he is worth per year. He has in my mind been a better forward this year than backmam for the team. I wish him luck and the best of luck in chewing major chunks off someone else's salary cap.

I think that when people say they dont care they mean finishing last is not the end of the world. The team has obviously improved significantly from last years by virtually ever measure, except ladder position. We beat Essendon, Carlton, Richmond, Adelaide... and we gave lots more including top 4 teams a little bit of trouble. That is success to me. the positiion on the ladder is irrelevant, would you rather play like we did last year and finish 17th instead of playing like we have and finish 18th.

Roos said earlier in the season its not about winning and loosing at our stage of development, but about getting our structures and team plan together. This he has started to do, but there is only so much he can do with the group he has. The wooden spoon should just be another thing to spur the team on to better things next year. Yes we will loose some supporters but they are probably supporters we would loose anyway, being equal last on points but with a higher or lower percentage will not keep someone supporting the club if they are not happy with the lack of wins. Though I still think that most supporters see improvement and recognise that this year Roos has turned things around and that next year with some more good trading, drafting and improved pre-season training we will be putting a much better side on the ground. No one wants to see us get the wooden spoon, but at the same time we need to recognise the benefits what little there are in finishing near or at the bottom of the ladder.

if collingwood does not make the finals you can bet their will be a bit of a list clear out, though collingwood does tend to want their pound of flesh for taking any of their players, regardless of whether they are wanted or not..

We are trying to compare two different measures of success. Finishing 16th 17th or 18th is not success regardless of how you pretty it up. . Playing more competitive, more accountable football is and that is what Roos has given us. Yes we have not snagged a lot of wins but we actually were close to doing so, we could have won quite a few more games, which is far better than previous years. People can see the improvement. We obviously have some major list overhaul to go through at the end of the year and we need to be competitive in the draft, finishing lower will provide us with better trading power, though it may discourage free agents. For us to win those games next year and the year after we need an improvement to our list and an improvement on the skill levels of our players. This years draft will provide some of the list improvement. As for membership, yes we will loose some members but i think we would loose a lot more if we were getting flogged by 100 points each weak. One can only hope the success that we breed in the next couple of years will give old supporters heart and encourage new ones.

The spoil was great, the accidental head high contact was unfortunate and had it been a melbourne player we would have expected to get a free. We lost this game for a whole range of reasons, Watts free was not really one of them.

i true melbourne great.

Hopefully a few clubs will continue a bidding war for frawley which will give him a much better return for playing for them and will maximise the possible depletion of at least one of these sides salary caps and we get an early draft pick replacement which we trade to GWS for a disgruntled talented giant. win, win, win, win situation.