TGR

I can smell a 'need for leadership' coming on. At least this bloke complements what we need on field....with outside run, metres gained and leg speed etc...

We have no choice. 1. We have never been able to chip and maintain possession with accurate foot skills for a lengthy amount of time. Petracca cant short pass so FCS he should be advised to go long bomb as much as possible. Sport science and their restriction on set shots is the biggest farce of all time. 2. Our forwards have no sense of forward craft. The amount of times we have seen Weed Melksham and TMac and co lead to the same spot smells of U/14 suburban ‘kick it to me’. We have no choice but to go like Billy Stretch (chook without head) and go ballistic inside 50.

"Frost on. Lever off." Weak as [censored]. Melbourne supporters and David King having a go at Frost....then the guy is in our best most weeks since. We are so stupid. Remember when we thought Watts was the epicentre of all our ills? Ditto Howe and Dunn. NFI.

What a con job this import turned out to be. A guy past his peak, and the best coach of the modern era knew it. Clarko has turned Hawthorn around and sped them up without a rebuild, and meanwhile a slow team got massively slower. Lewis was so slow from day 1. In fact, he slowed drastically in his last 2 years at Hawthorn. When you're slow you have no other choice but to drop to your knees in a contest or belt the guy in frustration. How many reportable incidents? How many undisciplined 50 metre penalties? His comments about umpire abuse just last week was the antithesis of leadership. On the field, when we needed him to stand up in some way, in our most important game in a decade, he failed miserably and was universally awarded BOG. This has been a train-wreck. The tragedy is though, that if you stripped emotion ("he wants to come to Melbourne....yay") and rhetoric (leadership) away, it was always a stinker of a move. Problem was that the club and most of our fans over-dose on emotion and rhetoric. As Cornes said, no other club was anywhere near offering this bloke a 2 year, let alone 3 year deal. With decisions like this, no wonder 2019 has been what it has been. Leadership? My sphincter. I called this from day 1. I love being in the 2% around here.

The orange tsunami predictably made a slow melbourne outfit look 2nd rate. Also, for those that want to look for the thinnest silver lining on the darkest big grey cloud, Davis and Coniglio were benched for the 4th quarter. I'm sorry, but young or old list stats are an nth order issue. This club has squandered early picks in a super-draft. Max King wasn't first pick but apparently ripped Essendon seconds to shreds in the VFL the other day. Our injury management and head-scratching recruiting and selection-persistence puts us where we deserve to be. Full stop. The round 1 Port game, many saw as an aberration. The smart ones here saw it as confirmation of a 3-4 year long strategy of nicking off potential leaders (Dunn, Howe) that can contribute on field, and replacing them with relatively costly ones, that either aren't worth a cracker on field (Lewis), or cost us a bucket-load in the super-draft.

Tim Kelly on track for a Brownlow. We are on track for oblivion. Collingwood on track for the flag. Easy to pick after round 1.

Preuss matches up better with Mumford than any other ruck in the comp. Time to give Gawn a chop out. I would play Gawn forward and try attract/engage Davis. Gawn should play 2nd ruck this week. Preuss deep forward is a concern when the ball hits the deck.

Short memory. Wasn't he quoted by a prominent Melbourne newspaper that "the four no longer means anything to us". Happy to be proven wrong, but.....

Who knows if its nothing more than what most of us will experience. All I would say is that the pressure on him must be immense. He would have strolled into this season like Bill Shorten approached the election....and then whack.

Jones - Was good tonight Melb - Had a crack Gawn - Wiped Vardy’s Rsss Lockhart - Something special emerging Frost - Petruccelle met kryptonite Harmes - Great 1st half Tim Smith - Luck over due Stretch - never ever finishes Hore - Great 1st half Trac - Good and bad Garlett - Good and bad TMac - Great and OK

Your speculation in the your first paragraph is totally and utterly incorrect. Typical pulpit response that attempts to get an 'A' for grammar and attempted overt common-sense, but actually gets an 'F' for accuracy. Rather than assume, it aint that difficult to do 5 minutes of relative research around here. You obviously think the current medical/training services team will continue in 2020? You remind me of the Liberals with climate change. In relation to our team, I see parallels with Jordan Lewis, who had a great history of leadership, insight, experience, respect, and bravery, but when the basics are needed (earning your spot, keeping your feet, and being disciplined) he falls short.

Simpletons can look at this and blame Oliver. It ignores the countless times 2-3 forwards have lead to the same spot. Oliver is a star. Watch the Sydney game to see a guy put his body on the line for the club. This guy doesn’t get cheap possessions wide like a lot of Melbourne ‘stars’ of the past 20 years. Look deeper than the stat. Yes, he can polish up his kicking, but Oliver is the least of our problems.

What about Lynden Dunn? Hang on. We sacked him for torping. If things don’t work out FCS, Melbourne need to go for someone left of centre like a young Blight or Terry Tan. 50 years of a conservative approach has yielded jack shizen.

58er, one overt example is enough in my book. Joel Smith's was pathetic, in a JLT when we had fit guys on the bench. Sports science with loading minutes has gone mad. Off the top of my head.... Steven May - Groin. Came off. Got assessed. Went back on when the game was done and dusted. Little wonder he will miss months, not weeks. But I guess we can rest easy trying to blame the 'way he presented'. Viney - AC courtesy of Stack. Got assessed as a partial tear. Came back on when game was well and truly over. (Viney - foot surgery fiasco of 2017) Melksham - Foot, but I am happy to give them a GOAJC due to the circumstances. Usually, us on the outside can only see a hint of what is going on. Might be lucky to find maybe 1 per year where the decision makers made a calculated risk. We have had a series of dumb decisions this year in particular.

Anyone who thinks the injury list of 2019 is just down to bad luck is absolutely kidding themselves. There may be an excuse for Melksham (game in balance - 3 injured), but the amount of times an injured player has been put back on the park when the game was insignificant and/or the outcome was essentially concluded...is mind-blowing. The overt examples that make one head-scratch, surely puts in doubt decisions made regarding other players on the list. Pert...review inevitable.

Amateur hour.

Driving past Lexus/Holden centre, Collingwood regularly train under lights. Where do we train under lights?

Massive changes over a pre-season are quite unfair in a lot of ways. Also, you have pre-season games to trial stuff. I think Brisbane were allowed to play trial games with it last year if I remember correctly. Also Hocking's connections to Geelong would have given them a lead-in or wink in relation to what changes were coming in I reckon. Now that Hocking and Gill are half way across the river and struggling, they won't turn back, even if they have reduced scoring and made the game more difficult to umpire. Get ready for more rules to come in.

Hore seemed happy with himself after slotting through the winner.

Good call. I'd rather him ping from 50 than lower the eyes. He doesn't have touch. Melbourne won't let him go with this instinct until Hocking brings super-goals in @ 2021.

Frost - Love his footy Melksham - Broken right foot? Petracca - Sulk or swagger Melbourne - 18 fit men Demonology - 1 minute hell Hibbo - body on line Brayshaw - unusually average game Frost - Take em on. Frost - Simpletons were wrong. Jones - one more year. Stretch - absolutely no vision Stretch - chook without head Melbourne - need Stretch's pace Omac - V F L Lockhart - a real gem Lewis - great without ball

Good last quarter. Should get another year for mine. Just don't play him on the wing on a big ground opposite a snail. Like Frost, has been unfairly dragged down by his comparable pairing.

Brutal. Brutal wins flags. Lewis is only getting a game on reputation and contract status; pure and simple. The trickle down culture of: paying big bucks to Lever and May....and gifting Lewis a game.

You laugh at Frost, yet defend the superannuant to the hilt. Speaks volumes. While you're at it, email Clarkson and tell him he was a fool for letting Lewis go, and a bigger fool for not picking Roughead on reputation. And while I am at it, as I said then, Watts could have easily played the easy +1 role that Lewis played in 17 and 18. Watts wouldn't have gone to his knees in a heartbeat, and he wouldn't have given away needless 50's at crucial times. Watts wouldn't have blamed others either when it hit the fan. Most importantly, Watts wouldn't have been worst on ground in our most important game (Preliminary Final) in the last 15 years. Ms. Lewis, I applaud your loyalty, but not your logic.

Is Lewis on 600-700k? Gee wiz, we aint getting much from 2.4 million (May, Lever, Lewis) are we? We have dropped ANB who was unlucky I reckon, yet Lewis gets picked on reputation only? Clarko could have used your fence-sitting approach with Roughead, but predictably didn't. The best coach in the AFL knows a used-by date when he sees it. Lewis will break some sort of record. I don't think a player of his age, has ever made it beyond a body-of-work that has been the last 4-5 games.