Deecisive

Mortan has the potential to be a really good player, his form over the last few years has just been the issue. Hopefully he will take a leaf out of his brothers book and do something positive about it. He could be a great wingman if he can get his attitude and fitness right.

Do key position players really take longer to develop, or is it just Jacks body type that takes longer to develop into a key position player. I would love to see Jack tackling more

Excellent worker, solid performance, suggested development acting school, so he can learn how to pretend to punch the ball when lying on it.

Today was typical of the old saying a a champion team will beat a team of champions. The swans to their credit all had solid work ethics, hunting in packs, and backing each other up. Saw a stat of one player not sure which, 15 tackles. That is the type of side you dont want to play, something that perhaps we can aspire to in the future.

I dont think we can keep using young side as an excuse, most teams have young players in their side and they are capable of getting the ball, how many young GWC players played all over us when we played them. I think RobbieF has it right we have had a lot of low draft picks that have gone no where. I doubt they were the wrong players I just suspect that we dont teach them properly, didnt install the right attitude and work ethic. This years melbourne team really did0nt do enough to help each out, we look for man on his own for the easy kick and get punished pretty quickly when we are sloppy and turn it over, I still cringe when i see some of our backmen get the ball and start looking across the field. Coaches can only do so much for teams its still up to the players to chase, to tackle, to shepherd and mark.I personnally favour the old style man up NO EASY KICKS, that is the sort of game play I was expecting from Neeld, we look a long way away from that side. Regardless of the gameplan the 22 out there should be trying there best and so far I dont really see that sort of effort from some of the players, which is probably why I wont be seeing some of those players again. A change in attitude would be a significantly improvement for a few of these guys.

Melbourne has to be active in the FA trading, this is the only place that we can target specific players with a greater level of certainty of getting them. We need a couple of mature players to help provide strength around the midfield and on field leadership for next few years while our younger players mature, the draft should predominately for raw talent, and future years. Sorry to hear so much rubbish about why would anyone come to Melbourne, yes we have $$, but we also provide opportunities to some players who may not have them otherwise. A lot of other clubs hav salary cap pressures which means they need to get rid of other players, demons and others offering better deals forces these clubs to pay more for their players, tightening the salary cap forcing some good players out. . How quickly would Fev pull on a Demon jumper if asked. A change in a few personnel, increased fitness and improvement in our skills or get rid of those less skillful/lazy and we will win a lot more games, we probably wont be top 8 next year but we will be a lot closer and getting better each year.

So if brock twitters, does that make him a twit?

We dont need to buy the best available mid fielders but good midfielders who give us more opportunities and help our existing guys grow into better midfielders. I kind of like the moneyball theory get guys who work hard and add to the team but are not necessarily big stars and not paying overs. There are a lot of potentially good players being discarded by top clubs or walking from top clubs because of the lack of opportunity to play, theres probably enought there to put together a pretty reasonable team on their own. These guys are walking away from far better performing clubs than ours because they only have a few years to make their name and money, they cannot do that stuck in the twos. FA should be used to get mature bodies and guys who fill a short term specific needs, with a lifespan of at least 5 years. Draft picks should be to pick future stars who will start to produce in 1-2 years. I like the idea of banking and early pick to get Hogan or other elite 17 year old to keep new good talent coming in over the next year at a cheap price and to back up future trades.

Cloke probably always wanted to stay at collingwood, they do have a pretty good side and this whole charade was about $$. Thankfully his staying with an even larger salary will help erode the side a little as they need to shed some other good players. Martin is a possible trade as they do need a big man backup for Jolly and they dont have a lot of cash to spare. Martin would fulfil that need quite well, what Martin does not do, the rest of the collingwood team does do, so they can manage with him quite well. Who knows they may get paranoid enough at collingwood to go for 2 more ruckman just to make sure, i just hope they take someone like hille.

I suspect people in this forum are confusing supporter loyalty with footballer loyalty. Why would anyone come to Melbourne, why did Garry A go to Gold coast, Scully to GWS or McDonald go to GWS, Money and opportunity. That is what Melbourne offers, there are some good players who cannot get a regular game with their clubs who are not prepared to sit on the sidelines while they get older and their dreams pass. Melbourne will get players, it may not be the side that some of these players would have chosen with their first pick, but it maybe the club that provides them with the best opportunities and financial reward. GA got 25 votes playing in dare i say a side worse than we were this year, that may appeal to some. Who knows maybe Swan from the woods will be a bit [censored] that those two games he was suspended in may have cost him another brownlow and that playing with melbourne may mean he does not have beams and others taking votes away from him. This draft is about picking up the best players we can now through FA and trading so that we save our draft picks for new or high value talent. It is also a time to clean house a little, in doing so it puts the players on notice that they must lift their intensity if they want to continue to play AFL football, cause if they get dumped by Melbourne they are unlikely to be wanted by too many other sides.

I expect most footballers know when they stuff up, and why? constructive comments on how players can be better can be a positive, jobe watson got advice from someone that helped him turn himself around, who knows maybe some constructive advice to some of our players may help them. play the ball not the man.

Jack certainly has ability, but lacks the 2nd and 3rd efforts that make a champion, this does make him look lazy at times.

With so many potential players leaving I dont see any real value in getting rid of Stef? He is agile, can mark, can kick goals, can run. Another good pre-season and try to bulk him up and he could play potentially forward in the pocket which would soak up another tall backman taking some of the load off the other forwards. He can also play ruck and back in a pinch, a bit of coaching to help improve his shepherding and tackling would certainly not go astray. He may occassionally run into some wrong spots but when you have a side that goes backward as often as we do what where is the RIGHT spot. Stef would do very well at another club, because that club is likely to provide far better support for him than melbourne players do for each other which will allow him to mature and play better. We have some decent draft picks, and the potential to pick up some reasonable FA's that will add to the quality of the team.Yes I believe we have some quality players, but we also have some lazy players who turn the ball over far to easily which kills us. If we now just kill of the 'zone' or lazy mans defense and spare man in defence and maybe we would be more competitive. I would keep Stef and play him forward and concentrate on getting some more depth in the midfield and defence with our picks and FA signings.