TGR

Might have been different if I was a yes-man. Would have become a life-member I reckon.

Get the basics right. Like Jesus H Christ.did when he fed and healed people. He didn't life-coach them or set up a wellness retreat. He didn't ask if they wanted Chia or gluten-free wine. My rant was the extremes that the MFC culture invokes. We either display hubris (2018 finals and 2019 pre-season) or we wallow in a veil of negativity. We either employ the wrong person for the wrong role (Rooke?), go for irrelevant 1%ers (hypoxic training, hyperbaric chambers) or go for the messiah to salvation. I am not saying other clubs don't share some of these flaws, but bloody hell, no other club in the AFL has overtly got the simple stuff wrong like we have over the past 3 years. The management of Viney's foot, Smith's soft-tissue, May's soft-tissue and the like has been amateur hour; when you think about what was at stake. Then you look at a slow team, recruiting Lewis to help our leadership woes. Then you look at the Lever trade, and how we sold a farm in a super-draft...and guess what, we want another intercept defender? We are next to Gold Coast on the ladder. Our For and Against is woeful. You hand-clappers may be surprised, but I aint. I'm sick of supporting mediocrity.

Strikes me as (a) panic, and (b) confirmation that medical services has been below par for years; as alluded to in many examples on here over the years. Like Barassi in 1981, this is like going for the messiah which rarely works. No good having a guru if you can't implement the basics in pain-respecting (acute) injury management. Is this guru going to stop Joel Smith returning to the field hobbling in a dead rubber? Is this guru going to grab Jack Viney by the hair and insist that returning to the high-wire act of AFL footy within 10 days of foot surgery is a tad mad? Typical Melbourne. We probably got close to getting the basics right in the Roos era. Other than that, what a joke.

Give me Garlett's strength over Spargo's and Stretch's and Kennedy-Harris's any day of the week. Goodwin has bet on some putrid horses (Lewis wing?) in the past year or 2. For the life of me, why he preferred Spargo over Garlett in the 2018 flag tilt is beyond me. Spargo will be in a boy's body until 2021. Many MFC supporters were comfortable with our 'bold showing' in 2018, because like the club, they thought that this was merely a prequel. The bulldogs in 2016 showed the footy world that sometimes you just have to go all in and maybe you have only one crack at it. The hubris really filtered down from the top right through the supporter base for mine. Even after the Port loss in round 1, many here thought it was an aberration, and only a few on her were clear that it wasn't. We are a slow team, and we have the luxury of our fastest player playing VFL? Come back Roosy for C-sake and set some straight. Credit to Roos who has always pushed for Garlett and Frost playing in our first 18.

Jordan Lewis’ rating of Rawlings as a coach floored me on VFL 360 tonight. If I interpreted him correctly, Rawlings is top of the tree. Any bozo could politely ask Weed not to lead to the same spot that TMac leads to. Rookie has been a disaster.

As for commentators, Robbo looks very simple and probably is. Dermie tries to appear like a professor when he really is a mechanic. Carey's IQ is overrated. Matty Lloyd, even though he allegedly needed outside help at StBs to get his VCE (Hardwick reference), has a very very good footy IQ. Rarely sits on the fence. Goes hard and early.

Overall, I think your list is pretty good. What about Emotional Intelligence? Bevo is hardly done by I reckon, but your top 3 is indisputable. Rossy would eat anyone for breakfast though with pure footy IQ. Probably finding his EI lately. Fan rated Buckley early on and it looks like he was eventually proven correct. SA have dumb and dumber over there, so Ken shouldn't be that high. As far as Goody goes, gee wiz, only Krusty the Clown wouldn't have played Jordan Lewis and Nathan Jones on the wide open wings of the G in their twilight years, but he has a mulligan.

If Grundy returns to SA, something tells me Darcy Moore can emulate his old man and become an elite ruckman. Having said that, nothing but full-marks for Gawn who has pushed himself to the limit. I rated Grundy ahead of Gawn last year, and if Grundy was 100% fit, then that rating has to be questioned. Gawn has many 10/10's, but does he take enough clunks; does he convert as much as he should; and do all of his possessions count.

Club must show imagination in this last half of the season. Viney needs another string to his bow. Expect a stint up forward with manic pressure and helping split Weed and TMac to different parts of F50. Find out ANB is the real deal. Put him onball and see what happens. Might have to see how May goes forward in a few games. Can the club afford to bank on Weed and TMac in 2020? We need an insurance policy. Hibberd wing. Can't believe he has only had 1 go at tagging a gun mid, and pantsed him for memory. Jones HBF. Play Lockhart. Keep Joel Smith away from our medicos. What a loss he has been? McCartney coach and Goody running? Rock bottom...no ideas left.

Perplexed that many are putting Jones in with the Lewis bucket. Jones hasn't been gifted games and been hidden as a +1. Jones deserves another year full stop.

Overrated. Look at his 'instant defence' when he loses a contest. From the grandstand, more interested in 'me' than 'we'. I miss Joel Smith.

I'm calling Weed and McDonald 'velcro' from now on. For goodness sakes. In 2nd game tackers, if you saw 2 big forwards lead to the same spot together, you'd expect that they would understand and lead to different spots by game 3. Really is an indictment on the forward coaching, individual common-sense and supposed 'forward craft'.

Frost is top 5 B&F this year at Melbourne. You had 70% of Demonland simpletons wanted him banished to Casey 2nds, and David King called him 'premiership dynamite' one to two months ago. Where did Ryan Burton finish at Hawthorn B&F last year? Clarko traded him.

You play every game as a senior player, it aint hard to poll well with that system of voting. If 2nd in the B&F in 2016 was such an achievement, why did Clarko show him the door right after he accepted his trophy? Lewis might get top 10 for us this year. Never rated B&Fs. Never will.

Emotion and subjectivity always trumps clinical decision making and objectivity at Demonland. I understand why most of you think he was an on-field success at Melbourne: 50 years of mediocrity has set the bar so low for us that we trip over, rather than bump our head. 50 games? He was lucky to play 15.

Imaging the 'green shoots' that Bolton would have applauded at Melbourne in his lifetime? Cale Morton Mark Neeld His hands would have been bruised with the clapping. Was never going to make it. Some people should stick to what they are OK at, which is playing no. 2 or 3.

You win the prize for the most one-dimensional thinking I have come across since election day. Who do you blame for us going backwards in 2019? The injury gods? Jack Watts and Oktoberfest? Diamond Jim? If your post had a scintilla of truth imagine if Lewis stayed at Hawthorn. Tom Mitchell may have won the Brownlow by 20 votes. Ricky Henderson would have notched up dual AA; Worpel would be captain now; and Sicily would be as placid as Gawn.

No other player his age in the past 30 years has had poorer form in his last 10 games. When you look back and the hill is so far behind you, you only have 1 or 2 mulligans in your pocket. Goody gave him a trailer-load. If Goody can't work out when the writing is on the wall, and keep gifting spots on reputation only, then he aint going to last long at all. Clarko is smarter than most including Goody, and infinitely smarter than the average Melbourne supporter.

Very surprised he is willing to finish in the VFL. I take my hat off there, as long as there aint the financial carrot in his contract to continue playing. I can see him giving away a few more 50s and a few suspensions so he won't play that many if I had to guess/bet. My head-shaking has been more at the club than him. Those that think he got slower suddenly, or started dropping his to his knees in the past 8 months, haven't really looked at him between 2014 and 2016 at the hawks where he had an OK 10 games out of 65? I watched him closely at Hawthorn, and couldn't believe then, that he was earning a cemented senior gig. Like Cornes said, no other club was going to offer him anywhere near what we did. Smell like paying over the odds to me. If you have a 1994 Mercedes C 280 with a faulty wiring harness, leaking oil and 400,000 km on the clock, you pay market value for that at the most. In the past 30 years, only the desperate or those wanting big bux have ever seen MFC as a destination club. When Lewis, via Todd Viney, saw Melbourne as a destination club, we were seduced and didn't think he was really coming due to desperation or dollars. The big error on our part was that we were a one-paced side to begin with. If you want to insert leadership on field, you can't do it, and make a slow team slower. Our only option at that time was Brent Harvey...that was all. On field, did he make the difference between non-finals or finals; finals or GF? No. He wasn't an asset to us on field at all. On leadership. A true leader can keep his nerve on the field. A true leader is completely selfless on field. A true leader facilitates leadership in those around him, and makes the joint better on departing. IMO, Lewis aint no true leader.

Froscar has finally become Oscar around here. Even the simpletons have woken up. Looks like Jonewis will ultimately becomes Lewis. The ease and laziness of pairing? Do we still think Brad Scott is as intelligent as Chris?

Can't understand the obsession with getting Lever back in ASAP. If his knee goes again, he is finished at AFL level. The season is gone. Mathematically possible but practically impossible. He is a massive investment for the club. Not only the dollars we are forking out; not only the length of contract; but also what we gave up. No need for him to return until late July for mine. This may prove yet another example of a risk-reward decision that is out-of-kilter. For where we are at and where he is at, I'd rather us 99.2% confident over 97.6%, even if that means that he/we forgo 6 games or a month-and-a-half of football. Then, at least if the worst happens, we can look back and know we gave it every opportunity to succeed by being overly-cautious and risk-averse.

Not for long

Why? Typical comment that is easy to make but hard to justify.

You make it sound like he cost us a pizza box. What about coin? 600k? 700k? What about the guy the pushed out? The '+1' gig really in 2017 and 2018, was the easiest in football. Watts would have smashed it, and provided plan b, c and d options. You never know who didn't get the opportunity and security of a spot in the team either. Not directly related but we had a guy playing for Casey 2nds that is playing for a team that is vying for top 6 this year.

Fan, I concede that his kickouts are elite. I concede that he finger-points very well after the dam-wall has busted against us. I concede that he comes with some pluses. The problem is he was always going to make a slow team slower. The other issue is that that his main brief was "leadership". How can someone who can't control himself on-field with 50's and suspensions be given a pass for on-field leadership. You are fence-sitting a bit. The thing I ask you is that turn the clock back 2.5 years, and what, you would do it again? This has and always was an epic fail. If we wanted leadership, get leadership that makes us more competitive on-field. I said at the time, Boomer Harvey was the one we should have got.