Generation dee

This bloody club just when you're ready to microwave the membership, they do something and make you think all is not lost and the future is promising!!

Did anyone just hear dumbo Russell on fox? "Melbourne headed for their worst season in 150 years, they've never finished 17th before."

Maybe it's his fault out players have caught dumb?

Anyone who is for Neil Craig as coach should be watching this game closely..... dropping a loose man back in the first quarter is admitting defeat. Looks like we are playing Neeld football so far.

How dare you blame him! He can't help the lazy approach and mindless skill errors. He gave them a huge serve at the huddle, if they don't come out harder now they may as well pull a Murray Newman, heap there bags and go home.

Forget priority picks, the only way Melbourne are going to be competitive is if the afl supplies an extra footy. Whilst north are playing keeping a off we can have a game between ourselves. That said we will still spend it picking the ball out of the empty grandstand and it rolling past us with half arzed efforts!

Absolutely [censored] weak. I usually find a positive. But the football being played by Melbourne is unintelligent, uninspiring and worst of all, just sad.

It's stated on the AFL site as being 'quad', but who knows.

Big game for Tapscott. Must show something.

It's stated on the AFL site as being 'quad', but who knows.

Big game for Tapscott. Must show something.

I wonder if the dry weather and quick game can get some spark about him. I've been a big fan of his potential but when I watch him I see a player who looks as if he is treading water. May need to lose a few kgsover summer, add some dash.

Does anyone think we can stretch them up forward today? Watts Dawes fitzy and Howe in the dry weather, could be a strength to keep us in it similar to the Sydney game, that is make our forward entries count.

Agree chaserj, I think Dunstan has less scope than say freeman, Lennon or crouch.having said that, we are very quick to harshly judge 17-18 year olds. I think trengove is a classic example of a player who really suffers from not having done solid preseason training for a few years. I use montagna last season, Joel Corey a few seasons ago, bernie vince and van berlo recently, Kerr.. The speed in which the game is played, the rotations and the stoppages, you can't thrive without a preseason in the season proper. I hope for his sake that he gets a chance soon.

I'm really warming to freeman if he slips. He has a ready built physique, terrific skills and reads the play from stoppages well. He and aish hopefully find there way to Melbourne, as in my opinion aish is the best mid in this draft and has a huge ceiling for the future.

Dear collingwood,

We will give you Jesse hogan for Steele, dayne and Scott pendlebury plus a million a year........

Noooooootttt!

Thanks KC love the updates.

Is it just me or are we all a bit harsh on Pederson? Yes he squibbed a couple of contests in his few games, and he can look a little casual, but considering his value as depth, versatility and the fact he probably is on little more than 150k a season makes me think he probably isn't our biggest issue. He kicks well, can take a mark and provides a bit of run out of the backline. He has some pretty obvious flaws, but even though he has been signed for 3 years, his position on the list as a handy 4th defender isn't probably the biggest issue on pur list.

I do hope he has a solid game and plays pretty hard for his sake though.

Don't be surprised if we see this set up:

Petrie - McDonald

Tarrant - Pedersen

Black - Dunn

Thomas - Frawley

I certainly think Frawley will go to Petrie but I worry that Thomas is the most dangerous forward at the roos and neither McDonald, Dunn nor Terlich are capable opponents.

I like it master. Garland probably would have taken Thomas. I think we can stretch their defence if we set up 1 on 1, but the main danger is their midfield. If its not Harvey, it's cunnington, or ziebell, or swallow. I'd like to see terlich run on ziebell and try to limit him. He is a very damaging player, and terlich has the aggression and doggedness to go with him.

Tynan and Taggert were hand picked by Neeld weren't they?

Just watching fox footy and they are showing highlights of the 98 prelim final we lost to north. We had them on toast much of the game, and we played so well offensively. It's so hard not to be optimistic looking back 15 years, and remembering our rise from last to 4th in one season. I really hope we put in a good showing tomorrow. I'd hope Neil Craig is telling them how soft north are and how they whinge about any physicality. Jeez I hope we knock them over!

Size never matters if you're good enough.

And Dan Hannebery, who was always known as a tough junior and brilliant endurance runner, also shows that size is no impediment to "head over the ball" contested footy if you are made of the right stuff.

I sometimes wonder what our recruiters were doing when they were watching these kids run around.

I totally agree- you think they just went off stats and interviews?

There would be no substitute than getting to a game and watching live. Obviously this is hard with hundreds of names, but the top 20 are usually playing in the sanfl, wafl or tac cup and pretty accessible.

Highly doubt tom hislop trained with us mate.

Why? We had several players training on with us. Thorp and hislop included

slapped 50 on us just in case going to be a very nice day if we get up

I feel the morning after will be a little dicey though, demon fan

That he did jack. He trained with us along with Tom hislop leading into the 2010 rookie draft. That season we selected Evans, nicho and Robert Campbell! Thorp was always a very prodigious talent. However he was ultimately "uncoachable" with a very strong attitude problem.

Good luck to him for settling down and finally having a extended run playing. He suffered some shocking injuries!

Congratulations! Haha!

In all seriousness, I'd take Roos comments, along with Rumsfeld's, with a grain of salt. Nothing will be official until after the season when everything is under control at board level, and the season has played out. It's not very common over the past 20 years for a caretaker coach to coach out the season, with a successor already announced during that season. The players will know they are on notice, the assistant coaches will know they are on notice, and until the season has finished, structures are in place and afl financial handouts are formal, we won't be hearing Roos confirm or deny. Or for that matter, Craig, Eade or Williams!

They can forget getting back into the first round for the draft then, they really don't have a lot on offer.

I reckon 25 for vince is somewhere around fair. But that won't get them inside the first round. If we got a end of round 1 priority pick, I'd throw it at Adelaide for him. Not a match winner, but we don't particularly need one patch winner. I'd prefer 3 Nathan jones types to Come in and add depth.

Unlike some others I have no idea what Roos will do. But nothing has changed. I watched last night and reckon people are trying to read into things that aren't there.

The simple facts are that when asked last year whether he'd coach Carlton in 2013 he said "no". When asked if he could categorically rule it out he said "yes". End of story. When asked the same question about Melbourne he now won't make "closed ended statements, but nothing has changed".

He's just as likely to coach next year as he was before. Or not.

If I had to guess I'd say he wants to, and is a strong chance to, but will baulk when asked until the end of the year, or close to it. Or not.

There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

We just had a centre clearance! Wow

Good bloodlines, did you know their mum was on the TV show "Gladiators" back in its heyday? Believe she went by the name Storm

Really???? She was ridiculously seductive. I'll never look at Nathan the same way

Yeah let's trade him because he was a top 3 draft pick and he should be the best player in the league by now.

What a rot. This year he has played his most consistent, team based footy of his entire career. It's a shame he never got a hard taskmaster earlier in his career or he might have become a more complete player. That said, I'm extremely happy with how he is playing this year as opposed to every other year waiting for him to become chapman. Like other posters have pointed out, 4.5 tackles a game, he is she parsing and chasing. I think he would be right up there in our "pressure acts" list. Sure he isn't getting 35 touches and kicking 5 goals a game, but why does he need to? This club needs blokes working hard both ways, 18 on the ground giving 100% the whole time. We have the base set for a really good midfield and we need to focus on developing what we have. Instead of this club being seen as a retirement village or halfway home for players not quite up to it.

I'm suffering from white line fever after that, rarely try to mouth off umps or other clubs, but with the 3 goal umpire handicap, and the 2 goal cost of living allowance handicap, we stormed home to lose by just a point!!!

I do like drawing positives from a 5 goal loss opposed to a 15 goal loss. Terlich is in all Australian form if the incumbent is dempster/shaw/duffield. He has been a genuine star this year. Kent, clisby toumpas all showed good signs at times, McDonald, garland and until he was injured frawley showed again that they are on track to be one of the strongest combinations of tall defenders in the league. Gawn gets another game under his belt, Dawes and watts keep getting some games together.....

But the biggest kudos I wanna give are to fitzy. For a bloke to have been at the club 4 years now, have injuries and illness issues as well as probably not being rewarded from neeld, it's really pleasing to see him kick a few goals and really look like he belongs at afl level. I really hope that he builds on his last few games and keeps improving because he has deserves it.

Negatives- dunn, Byrnes, Davey not getting enough of the ball, frawley injured and our inability to get the footy early in quarters.

Frawley subbed out. Anyone know what happened? Wasn't hamstring again?