Straight Sets Simon

Junior's back!

It didn't fill me with great confidence to hear Neeld say he is competing with Sellar. We lost that trade badly if that's the case and Neeld is probably thinking the same thing.

I have a terrible habit of typing "is" when I mean to write "isn't", "with" instead of "without" and so on. My bad.

I just got back from the game. A few comments, I was on the grandstand side and most of the play seemed to be over the other side so I probably missed a lot. The bad: Basic skill errors and fumbling of the ball. Inexcusable for AFL footballers to not be able to hit targets over 20 metres. Umpiring. Yes, Melbourne players still love nothing more than jumping into the back of their opponents but to be honest I was surprised the free kick differential was as close as it was as every 50-50 contest seemed to result in a St Kilda free kick. The contrast between how St Kilda play as a team (players linking up and thinking two, three or four moves ahead) compared to Melbourne was stark. The old handpass to a flat-footed teammate was back again. We are all crying out for a star, but we also need to be crying out for a team. Toumpas looked overwhelmed. Really needs to back his instinct and go with the first option. He looked to be really struggling with the heat which is understandable, no doubt will improve with experience. Watts still doesn't quite go hard enough at the contest. Hogan was always going to struggle as the main target up forward, it just looked to lack structure without Dawes there. Lack of small forwards was a big concern (as many of us have been saying), the ease at which St Kilda cleared the ball out was scary. Do we have anyone on the list capable of getting 30+ possessions per game? Garland still has handful of brain fades or not thinking moments. The good: I thought Terlich and Matt Jones did a few nice things and got involved as the game went on. Sellar looks to be holding his marks better. Pleasantly surprised to see the overall possession count was even. Melbourne started off well, looked sharp early kicking with the wind but that soon faded. Dunn's torpedo. Gilles looked composed down back, best that I have seen of him so far. A much better kick than McDonald. Overall, I left pretty flat, mainly with the basic skill errors and lack of team play.

Yes, typo.

Where did I say Opel and Webjet aren't jumper sponsors? I merely pointed out that they were very much last minute deals and their value has never been promoted by the club. What do you mean by "more than just a shorts sponsor"? I was pointing out we currently don't have one. I noted that it is not easy to sell Melbourne (you either ignored or did not read that), however we have been poor at maintaining sponsor relationships and we tend to leave things very late.

Did you even read what I wrote?

I was never excited by his highlights videos from the U18's. Anyone with a flawed kicking action will eventually be exposed.

Let's look at our recent history with sponsors: 2009: Went into NAB Cup without any sponsors, Kaspersky and Hankook come to the aid at the last minute, both through supporters of the cub. 2011: Kaspersky and Hankook both don't extend their sponsorships. Reports they were poorly treated by the club (not confirmed, but we never heard anything to say otherwise, Kaspersky then sponsor Collingwood). 2011: Melbourne sign lucrative deal with EnergyWatch. 2012: EnergyWatch deal is ended by the club. Whilst no one could have foreseen the fallout from the CEO's Facebook page, the fact that the ACCC were investigating them and that such a small company was managing to sponsor three major sporting teams and spend thousands of dollars on advertising was a massive alarm bell (for me at least). 2012: Again, the club going into the season without sponsors. Webjet and Opel come to the party, the value of their sponsorship isn't announced (unlike when the EnergyWatch deal was announced). 2013: Melbourne going into the season with a shorts sponsor. The ad in the Herald Sun isn't for a major sponsor, and I understand that selling Melbourne isn't the easiest of jobs. But let's be honest, our recent history with sponsors hasn't been great, in particular going into seasons without sponsors.

The problem is that link on the banner doesn't work, I saw it too and thought I'd check.

I'm hating the word "elite" more and more every day.

Watching that game I was amazed how slow it looked. I am actually starting to see why the AFL want to slow it down a bit and reduce rotations. From that game, I would take Whelan again.

I agree 100%, the problem is that umpires are instructed to pay a free kick if they see it no matter what. That's the fundamental issue which I believe leads to poor umpiring. As you say the Grand Finals have the best umpiring because the consequences are so high they pay decisions only if they are certain it is there.

He's not alone.

The best way to cure tanking is to not talk about it in team meetings.

There's an investigation going on, why would you expect to hear anything before it has finished? On Offsiders a few weeks ago, Gerard Whateley made the comment that those who have seen the full initial document say that it is as bad as first reported. I'll back Gerard.

What I don't get is how they came to the conclusion that to reduce congestion around packs, they should limit interchange. I understand their thinking in terms of tiring players out, but why that particular rule change?

In the past Melbourne have played Challenge (practice) games where membership gets you in. This is a NAB Cup game where membership doesn't get you in.

Every time I've seen Melbourne play at Casey you couldn't. You can in VFL games, just not not AFL, unless something has changed.

You will still make more sense than most of us.

I can fully understand why the club went after Jack Hannath.

Tough players put their head over the ball and body on the line, they don't niggle their opponents.

I was praising Sylvia you peanut, saying that he and Tapscott have all the ingredients to be very good players. One of stupidest posts I have seen on here, that's an achievement.

He should be good, another Sylvia-type who has all the ingredients. With so many players who are poor kicks of the ball he is the exact type of player we need to step up.

No, that would be stupid, a waste of time and resources.