Not too long ago, the blogosphere lost one of their mainstays, one of their elder statesmen, in the shape of Shaun Hanns. Providing fair, balanced, and most important of all, coherent arguments, Shaun helped to promote Melbourne in a way I can only dream of doing, and gathered few enemies in his time behind the keyboard. However, as with all great things, they must all come to an end sometime or another. I wish Shaun all the best as he continues his PhD studies.

So, I now sit here, typing away furiously as the changing of the guard gets underway, trying my utmost best to fill the considerable shoes left by my predecessor. You can probably guess I am on to something here with this theme.

There is another changing of the guard that I want to see happen this year, and no, it isn't Kevin Rudd voted out of office come November, but rather concentrated around AAMI Park. There is only two things I wanted this year, and that was the retirements of Kevin Muscat and Tom Pondeljak on Merrick's desk by June 1.

Both champions of the club, one of them heroic, battling and brave, the other just Kevin. Both have provided for this club in ways I just can't thank them enough for, but their train has just pulled in, and it is time for them to hop on board, because it just isn't happening anymore, for either of them.

The last thing I want to see is Musky floundering as he desperately tries to cover his mates, to see Tommy attempt a step over, and only to see it snatched from him by a 12 year old. I want them to retire whilst they've still got a shred of dignity left in their aching bones, after pushing those upstarts from up north all the way this season just gone, holding their heads held high as they realise what great things they have done for this club. I want them to remain in the shadows of the club, urging on the next generation of champions as they continue to take Melbourne to the great heights of Australian and Asian football.

Most of all, I don't want them embarrassing themselves.

On a somewhat less morbid note, I'm the first to admit that Melbourne have not covered themselves in glory in the ACL just gone, bowing out with barely a whimper. It just goes to show how important and integral Danny Allsopp was to our dynamic setup. We have enough quick, small, skilful players Ernie. I want to see a great big oaf stamping his presence up front this season, tearing limb from limb as he takes the brunt of the force, leaving our china dolls in Kruse, Thompson and Dugandzic to ferret around the goal mouth, slamming in goal after goal (well, here's hoping!).

Now that the FFA has loosened the purse strings slightly, I want to see Melbourne bag Kanu as an international marquee, and nab three of the most promising youngsters in Australian football to these three ‘youth marquee' roles. I know, nothing much, but we can't afford to be letting every Matthew Leckie slip through our net. We also need to signal our intention to become a powerhouse on the continent, and that will require an international marquee of some pedigree. Get the scouts out there Ernie, and sign them up, because remember:

You reap what you sow.