Melbourne Discussion

[Mailman the 2nd]

Rok did win the norm smith 2 years ago. He can provide as much if not more on what Cross has given

[Purple 77]

O'Keefe would be an on field coach to help implement the game plan.

He'd need to be there for longer than a year then. There's senior guys at Melb who have already been under Roos for a year and would have a much better grasp on the game plan than ROK would coming into a new club. I'm certainly not doubting the leadership and work ethic he would bring to the club but just don't think he is right for Melb.

Would he though? ROK would be familiar with Roos' coaching, being a premiership player in his tenure.

I think, seeing as Melb only have Cross and Jamar 30 over now, with the retirement of Byrnes, that we can get at least another 1, maybe 2.

Cross will be playing for the Dees next year, he has earned the his second-year clause in his contract.

[Ricochet]

O'Keefe would be an on field coach to help implement the game plan.

He'd need to be there for longer than a year then. There's senior guys at Melb who have already been under Roos for a year and would have a much better grasp on the game plan than ROK would coming into a new club. I'm certainly not doubting the leadership and work ethic he would bring to the club but just don't think he is right for Melb.

Would he though? ROK would be familiar with Roos' coaching, being a premiership player in his tenure.

I think, seeing as Melb only have Cross and Jamar 30 over now, with the retirement of Byrnes, that we can get at least another 1, maybe 2.

Cross will be playing for the Dees next year, he has earned the his second-year clause in his contract.

Yeh I would have definitely thought so. I'm sure there are some similarities but it was 4 years ago that he last coached Sydney and with different personal.

I guess I'm looking at it this way, you grab ROK for a year and you gain two main things. 1) his AFL ability on the field 2) leadership and teaching. But since you already have senior boys like Cross, NJones, Dawes, Dunn, Garland, Vince, Jamar, MJones and Frawley (if he stays) who will all be 27+ next year and have had a full preseason and season under Roos already, do you really gain much more leadership or another teacher. As an outsider it only looks like you gain his onfield ability because you already have some experienced heads in your group. But I'm only an outsider so yeh, just my thoughts anyway

[Big Mac]

He would be a great pickup if he was happy with playing in the reserves but i'm not sure if he would be. Apparently has lost a lot of pace and more slow mids isn't exactly what we need in the seniors. Would be great in terms of setting an example for training standards + work rate but how much more would the players take from him that they don't already get from seeing Cross?

[Mat0369]

He'd need to be there for longer than a year then. There's senior guys at Melb who have already been under Roos for a year and would have a much better grasp on the game plan than ROK would coming into a new club. I'm certainly not doubting the leadership and work ethic he would bring to the club but just don't think he is right for Melb.

He would either be there one or two years. So he either stays the entire time Roos is coach or he retires after 1. We are talking about a guy that has played most of his football under Paul Roos (9 years), he would have a better understanding of the game plan then a guy that has only played under this system for 1 season. He was a major part of that Swans culture which Roos is now trying to establish at the Dees. As a one or two year signing it would be a good pick up for Melbourne if he came at a vet minimum price

[Ricochet]

He'd need to be there for longer than a year then. There's senior guys at Melb who have already been under Roos for a year and would have a much better grasp on the game plan than ROK would coming into a new club. I'm certainly not doubting the leadership and work ethic he would bring to the club but just don't think he is right for Melb.

He would either be there one or two years. So he either stays the entire time Roos is coach or he retires after 1. We are talking about a guy that has played most of his football under Paul Roos (9 years), he would have a better understanding of the game plan then a guy that has only played under this system for 1 season. He was a major part of that Swans culture which Roos is now trying to establish at the Dees. As a one or two year signing it would be a good pick up for Melbourne if he came at a vet minimum price

Culture and game plan are a fair bit different. Dees gameplan certainly isn't what the Swans was under Roos. Similar yes but completely different personel. Completely agree with you on what he brings in terms of culture/effort/leadership though. Disagree that he suits what Melb need but

[Mat0369]

Culture and game plan are a fair bit different. Dees gameplan certainly isn't what the Swans was under Roos. Similar yes but completely different personel. Completely agree with you on what he brings in terms of culture/effort/leadership though. Disagree that he suits what Melb need but

This year he is trying to rebuild them as footballers, get them to do all the basics right and this is in part due to not having the cattle yet. While the personnel is different, Roos wants to get them to play two way defense orientated possession footy which is exactly what he had the Swans doing. While he might not suit the type of player they need on the field, one thing Melbourne has severely lacked the last 4 years is leadership. When Neeld got there one huge mistake he made was letting go of James McDonald. Melbourne have lacked leadership on and off the field since. Jones was one of the only guys that showed leadership capabilities and was passed over as a captain in favour of two younger guys who were not ready for the job. Obviously Roos has started the process in the last 12 months by giving Jones the co-captaincy and by bringing in a couple of mature guys in Vince and Cross. If he was to also bring in O'Keefe that would be massive in that aspect. It would allow the younger guys to mature naturally and step into that role without being thrown into it before they are ready.

[Ricochet]

Culture and game plan are a fair bit different. Dees gameplan certainly isn't what the Swans was under Roos. Similar yes but completely different personel. Completely agree with you on what he brings in terms of culture/effort/leadership though. Disagree that he suits what Melb need but

This year he is trying to rebuild them as footballers, get them to do all the basics right and this is in part due to not having the cattle yet. While the personnel is different, Roos wants to get them to play two way defense orientated possession footy which is exactly what he had the Swans doing. While he might not suit the type of player they need on the field, one thing Melbourne has severely lacked the last 4 years is leadership. When Neeld got there one huge mistake he made was letting go of James McDonald. Melbourne have lacked leadership on and off the field since. Jones was one of the only guys that showed leadership capabilities and was passed over as a captain in favour of two younger guys who were not ready for the job. Obviously Roos has started the process in the last 12 months by giving Jones the co-captaincy and by bringing in a couple of mature guys in Vince and Cross. If he was to also bring in O'Keefe that would be massive in that aspect. It would allow the younger guys to mature naturally and step into that role without being thrown into it before they are ready.

Two way footy isn't an aspect of their gameplan that someone like ROK would help. That is built over preseasons in developing the tank and mindset to do it, not necessarily a directional part of a teams game plan. Though agree he would help with onfield leadership and direction when around the footy. Yep they also have lost guys like Moloney, Sylvia, etc which has only put them backwards in terms of experienced players. But as i listed before, Melb already have brought in experience to add to the older group of players. 9 guys who will be 27+ next year, along with guys like JGrimes who will be 26. And as an outsider nearly all of them strike me as leaders by the way they go about it and speak. Surely adding another won't add enough to this group to warrant going after him.

[Mat0369]

If he came on the cheap he would be worth it. It all depends on his asking price and I think O'Keefe is realistic enough to know that at his age he might have two options. One is to be rookie listed by a club and play as a nominated rookie, the second is that he would have to play at a bare minimum price due to his age. No team in the comp is going to offer up 300k for him to go and play for them, regardless of how much money they have to throw around. I think if he went on the cheap or as a rookie listed player (much like Scotland at Carlton this season), he would be a very handy pick up considering what he brings to the table as a total package, not just onfield performances

[Purple 77]

Jeez, just took a look at our interchange this week:

Kent, Blease, JKH and Riley

I got pretty excited when I saw that, but I have a feeling JKH will be sub  :'(

I love that kid.

[MTTY]

Don't forget, ROK has the flexibility to play as a marking forward (much like Sylvia played, when he was actually playing well). That's been a huge issue for us this season, without Sylvia spending time there and Howe playing back. We've had to rely on the two big forwards to take marks, rather than a medium forward being there to take a few on an undersized opponent.

Would have no issues offering up a 1 year deal to play ROK as a full-time medium sized forward.

[Purple 77]

This sense of blinding fury I have at the moment...

I just can't think adequate words to portray my despise for today's performance.

Think I've only been this angry after round 1 this year.

[Purple 77]

This sense of blinding fury I have at the moment...

I just can't think adequate words to portray my despise for today's performance.

Think I've only been this angry after round 1 this year.

Nah, it was more devastation Round 1, I have never been this angry this year.


Delistments this year:
Sam Blease
Michael Evans
Daniel Nicholson
James Strauss
Luke Tapscott
Dean Terlich (although not our worst performer today)

Trade for chips:
Rohan Bail
Matt Jones (just a list filler, will never be much)

My current black list (has to do something special to get out of:
Jack Grimes
Aidan Riley (new inductee)


Fury fuelled this, but 8 list changes would be nice. Hopefully, we will get rid of the fodder this year; be realistic.

[Purple 77]

Good post from demonland

Aside from a 10+ goal loss, how much worse could today have been?

Sun, no wind at all, for 51 points.

Our opponent didn't score, not once, for 30 minutes. At the end of that period we led by just 7.

We had a 14 point lead 7 minutes into the fourth quarter, to lose by 23. A 37-point turnaround in 25 minutes.

We lose our 19th consecutive game at Etihad.

We had more of the ball, again, but just 34 inside 50s.

This is a negative. This is a step backwards.

And to think there are people who think we have nothing to lose in these last 5 games.

[Big Mac]

Howe was great down back, and Jetta has been a revelation down there. Tommy Mac positioned himself well all day and made some good spoils. Tyson and Jones good as usual. That is all.