Pello

Spot on! Teams have woken up that he doesn't like it tough. He is a liability on the forward line. I'd rather play a kid who is prepared to have a crack. I said last season we should trade him before the rest of the competition realises he is soft and a dud.

No law in place. But if we want to change the perception that the MFC supporters are all snow bound, front running, range rover driving, leather patch wearing toffs then "members" need to do more than just buy a membership ticket and say the club has my money. We have nearly 30,000 members, add another 15,000 MCC members who are MFC supporters and we have a potential supporter base of 45,000 plus the other casual supporters that turn up now and then but don't have a membership ticket. So let's say 50,000 in total is our supporter base. Allowing for the 4,000 Crow suupporters that turned up last night then 20% of our "supporter base" (10,000) turned up and that in anyones language that is pathetic! Yes the game scheduling was crap, the weather threatened to be crap and certainly the football standard was crap! But we as a club are just hanging in there. We are headed for back to back wooden spoons and still have a fair amount of debt to clear. For players looking to move clubs we are not a club of choice - there are several recent examples of that. Things have to change at all levels of the club and I think on field this will happen slowly and off field Jimmy has got us heading in the right direction. But as members and supporters we also need to honour our committment to support the club at every opportunity and the best way to do that is to TURN UP! Of course, some members live a long way away and you can't blame them for not coming on a Sunday night and others will have other things to do from time to time. But its just too bloody convenient to keep blaming the AFL scheduling or the weather or whatever for the poor crowds. If we are going to change the perception that other clubs and supporters have of us the we, as members, need to do our part and TURN UP! If even 50% of our supporter base bothered to TURN UP instead of 20% we would have had 25,000 plus 4,000 Crow supporters and the media would be congratulating the MFC supporters for coming out on such a horrid night!

Gotta kick goals to win games 45.

It was great to see the form of Miller and Newton on the weekend against less than spectacular opponents. But this week Rutten will probably go to Newton and Bock will go to Miller. Tough assignments for both. Miller will be under the spotlight more given his form and Newton did enough to draw attention to himself. How these guys play will be a barometer for the result of the game and also an indication as to where each of them are at in their careers. A big test for both!

Well said. We won't need to be concerned about not getting a priority draft pick. We've had one win - yes it was great but realistically we won two of four quarters and beat a very poor opposition by 8 points. If Richo had kicked 6.3 instead of 4.5 we lose. Sure we missed goals as well and a win is a win when we have been as bad as we have been. When we do get back some of our more experienced players (McDonald, Robbo, Whelan, Jamar and now Green) we will be more competitive and we may well get to 4 wins by seasons end. But by no stretch are we on the move up the ladder. There are plenty more horrible days ahead. Let's just hope that we don't get embarrassed by Geelong or a rampant St.Kilda on the gold coast or for that matter any other team that is "red hot" when we play them.

So true Wisedog. I'II put my hand up and thought Garland was a dud. Could we be wrong about Newton who has only played 17 games?

I got home and watched the replay as you do when we win. Newton was lining up for goal and his age came up on the screen - 21! (22 next week actually). I shouldn't have been surprised by his age but I was. He's still a kid finding his way and developing his body. My god we can be harsh critics at times. Let's not write him off yet. Instead praise him for a good game yesterday and hope it leads to many more. What annoys me about any player (regardless of ability) is if they don't have a crack. Newton has been accused of this in the past but yesterday he had a crack and he had some successes. Give the guy that much credit.

Marked by a former champion in the cheer squad as I recall! Well done Miller - lots of past critics that you have converted to supporters. Keep up the work rate and intensity!

Torp, I agree your comments with respect to the MFC. My view was more of a general observation and yes I made the assumption that the training techniques employed at the highest level would deliver the appropriate technical competencies. Perhaps that is a misguided one but generally I think the quality of tackling in the AFL is at a higher level than ever before.

Dwayne is a dwickhead! He is a no-name in a profession occupied by past greats and champions. He is very insecure and makes ridiculous and controversial comments to get noticed. Fortunately it doesn't work too often.

Torpedo, big bodies that have had more experience practising tackling techniques tackle more effectively no question - that's a fact. Sure Davey was and still is good in laying tackles. But for every one tackle Davey or the smaller bodied players lay there would be 5 they either miss or are unable to fend off due to their size or lack thereof. Some young kids are good tacklers straight away but as a general comment age and experience has a lot to do with it how good a player tackles.

How sad is it that you can't wait for Jamar to come back. 2 years ago most (including me) wanted him delisted! Agree he is our best tap ruckman against the AFL giants but realistically he's not our future. You can't carry a ruckman in today's footy that takes two marks a game and has 8 possessions. Probably best summarises our current plight!

Martin played on Ebert all day and kept him to 11 ineffective possessions and no goals. I think his rating should be elevated to "good."

Tackling will improve as young bodies grow stronger and continue to practice the techniques. It as simple as that!

I think a ruck role is too challenging for him at the moment. He would be brushed aside by the giants. His best asset is his pace and that should be put to good use against a leading marking forward or as a lead up forward himself. If team balance permits I'd give him a run on the forward line. He showed us on Saturday that he can take contested marks and there is not many in our current team that can do that.

Good call. Couple that with Daniher who also had no long term vision or list management skills and its not surprising we went from the best Victorian team in 2006 to a laughing stock in 2008.

Yeah its a good time of the year. We haven't lost a game, we are filled with hope (even though we know its going to be another crap season) and we can't wait to see who has improved and who of the new bunch is set to excite us for the next 200+ games. Yes bring it on and if we get caned we'll lick our wounds and turn up again the following week against Collingwood full of hope again. Its the eternal cycle of optimism that keeps us going.

Putting aside Watts (who is a few years away from being a key position focal point up forward) I think as it stands at the moment PJ is the best key position forward we have. He leads well, is quick, marks strongly and has a huge body that will cause problems for opponents. His kicking does however need work. The problem is that with Jamar down, Spencer very young and Messen useless PJ will be required to spend more time rucking. In the interim Newton should be given every opportunity and if he fails then PJ should be left at full forward permanently when Jamar is back (assuming Spencer's form holds).

It may just be NAB cup and for many clubs they just use it to blood players and try out the new recruits. But for us we are in different territory. After 2 horrid years, a depleted bank account, no major sponsor and pretty much the laughing stock of the AFL we need to be competitive every time we hit the park no matter what park it is and who our opponents are. How will we all feel if Hawthorn pump us by 100+ points on Saturday with at least 9 of their premiership players missing and having started pre-season training so much later than us. I don't know about you guys but I wil be devastated. I don't expect to win but if we are not at least competitive under these circumstances then hang onto your seat because its going to be a tough ride this year. Make no mistake we are on a hiding to nothing on Saturday. If we win the media will say Hawthorn were undermanned and under prepared so no big deal and they would be correct. If we lose they will say result as expected. But it will be the manner in which we play that will be important. If we get pumped big time then it is going to be tough to be a Melbourne supporter (as if it isn't tough already!) So the team we put out on the park on Saturday need to be competitive and give us hope. It is not a "nothing game" as some have suggested - well not for us anyway.

It is going to be hard for the club to rip the captaincy off the B&F winner. Notwithstanding the general feeling amongst posters of Bruce's worth around the club he did stand up last season and was a model of consistency and hard work. He deserves to keep the captaincy stand alone. I think Junior's best footy is behind him and whilst he should remain in the leadership group he is probably going to have less game time next season. Yes Brock is the stand out next option as the next captain and if he hadn't been involved in so many off field incidents not 12 months ago he would be the prime candidate for captaincy now. He just needs to keep his nose clean and play good consistent footy and he will be captain in 2010.

Well said - if he had failed at Sandy he would have been criticised. So we was successful and is still criticised - ya gotta luv some peoples thinking!

I love it when people criticise success. He won 3 premierships in a row - I don't care if he did with 3 pigs and a barn full of chickens! Success is the only measuring stick in footy. At any level it is hard to win one premiership let alone 3 in a row in the second best competition in Australia. I take your point on "no name" coaches but I think as far as "names and profiles" are concerned our coaches stack up against Geelongs (Brendan McCartney, Ken Hinkley, Leigh Tudor & Brenton Sanderson). But that is irrelevant anyway - as I said its all about results. Geelong clearly have the results on the board and we don't. That's not the fault of the current coaches or football department. You want to lay blame point it squarely at ND and CAC who had a decade to build a list and left us with this! If Melbourne wanted to appoint high profile coaches to attract the corporate dollar then they would have appointed Sheedy. The only way we will attract dollars into the club is success. Because of where we have had to start due to the past errors we have a long hard road ahead of us.

I haven't been a CJ fan in the past but had to admit he did show some form last year. At the beginning of next season he will be 23 and the next few years will be his best. We have done the hard yards with him and it would be a shame if he went elsewhere and played his best footy. Its not like we have some up and coming half back flanker that can replace him!

Coach bashing already! I am on the fence about DB at the moment but realistically I don't think anyone else would have had different results last year. He has shown he can remain calm under pressure and is prepared to make tough decisions - that's a good start. However, I share your optimism (or lack thereof) as I think it will be another bad year in 09. I just hope we are more competitive and not just easy beats again. We must look long term (5-7 years) and retain the faith!

Agreed, I don't understand how anyone could be critical of him given his success at Sandy. He knows what it takes to be successful - a good decision by Bailey.