Ok maybe its just me but it seems whenever a Melbourne player does anything unsociable on a field its always a free kick and often a report.

To me Rohan Bail getting a reprimand for tackling Doughty into the fence in a perfect example. Doughty was on the boundary line in play when the tackle started and Bail's momentum has driven him down and into the fence. No doubt it was heavy handed but if you stand with no momentum on the boundary line you should expect to be taken across the line and sat on your backside. If you end up in the fence then good luck to you. Early this season Jackson from Richmond converted a Grimes tackle into putting his full force through Grimes' head and knocking him out. It wasn't a reprimand at all.

I'd really like to see Neeld adopt a brutal physical approach next year and if it means players get suspended or give away undisciplined free kicks for the first half of the year then I'm fine with that. For too long we've been playing with a little league approach in the big league and I think its time our players all run out there at 110% intensity. Then we can always scale it back. But I'm sick of complaining about half hearted spoiling and tackling efforts.

We seem to get punished every time someone in the red and blue does something forceful and I think a lot of it is because its been years since the football community has seen uncompromising acts from someone is those colours. At the very least if we give it out a bit more a few of our players might learn how to take a bit of pressure.

  On 28/08/2012 at 03:04, the master said:

Ok maybe its just me but it seems whenever a Melbourne player does anything unsociable on a field its always a free kick and often a report.

To me Rohan Bail getting a reprimand for tackling Doughty into the fence in a perfect example. Doughty was on the boundary line in play when the tackle started and Bail's momentum has driven him down and into the fence. No doubt it was heavy handed but if you stand with no momentum on the boundary line you should expect to be taken across the line and sat on your backside. If you end up in the fence then good luck to you. Early this season Jackson from Richmond converted a Grimes tackle into putting his full force through Grimes' head and knocking him out. It wasn't a reprimand at all.

I'd really like to see Neeld adopt a brutal physical approach next year and if it means players get suspended or give away undisciplined free kicks for the first half of the year then I'm fine with that. For too long we've been playing with a little league approach in the big league and I think its time our players all run out there at 110% intensity. Then we can always scale it back. But I'm sick of complaining about half hearted spoiling and tackling efforts.

We seem to get punished every time someone in the red and blue does something forceful and I think a lot of it is because its been years since the football community has seen uncompromising acts from someone is those colours. At the very least if we give it out a bit more a few of our players might learn how to take a bit of pressure.

i was wondering what the incident was......for that.....really. a free kick was not even warrented. the umps were sucked into that. they hate us, always have, always will.

  On 28/08/2012 at 03:04, the master said:

Ok maybe its just me but it seems whenever a Melbourne player does anything unsociable on a field its always a free kick and often a report.

To me Rohan Bail getting a reprimand for tackling Doughty into the fence in a perfect example. Doughty was on the boundary line in play when the tackle started and Bail's momentum has driven him down and into the fence. No doubt it was heavy handed but if you stand with no momentum on the boundary line you should expect to be taken across the line and sat on your backside. If you end up in the fence then good luck to you. Early this season Jackson from Richmond converted a Grimes tackle into putting his full force through Grimes' head and knocking him out. It wasn't a reprimand at all.

I'd really like to see Neeld adopt a brutal physical approach next year and if it means players get suspended or give away undisciplined free kicks for the first half of the year then I'm fine with that. For too long we've been playing with a little league approach in the big league and I think its time our players all run out there at 110% intensity. Then we can always scale it back. But I'm sick of complaining about half hearted spoiling and tackling efforts.

We seem to get punished every time someone in the red and blue does something forceful and I think a lot of it is because its been years since the football community has seen uncompromising acts from someone is those colours. At the very least if we give it out a bit more a few of our players might learn how to take a bit of pressure.

Nice conspiracy theory. I'll go with it. As you say seems to happen often enough. Most likely more the case we all follow Melbourne more closely than the other teams and don't notice when it happens to them.

Bail was in a pretty tough situation. His opponent was right on the edge of the field of play so he had to tackle him forcefully, but the fence at the 'G is close enough to the white line that if you execute a tackle like that in the outermost legal zone, by the time you've finished your tackle, your opponent could be in the third row with a broken tibia.

Interestingly:

Bail copped a reprimand for a sling tackle.

Doughty did the same thing: not even a free.

Fletcher banged Tapscott into the fence in round ten: no free.

Something to ponder.

I'm not talking up a conspiracy, more a self fulfilling prophecy. When you aren't tough or intimidating it stands out when you are. Look at Nathan Jones, no doubt he's a good player now, but we all think he's a top midfielder, when really its hard to tell how good he is its just blatantly obvious he's up a level on the rest of our spuds. Similarly Moloney has gone from our go to mid to a VFL player. A lot is perception and focus. If we up the focus on being uncompromising the football community will expect it more and it wont stand out so much when we are.

The problem is that Melbourne players think it is tough to crunch a defenceless player in a marking contest (Tapscott v Collingwood), throw a player into the fence (Bail v Adelaide) or elbow a player in the head (Jetta v North), whereas these actions are actually just cheap shots. If our players started performing truly tough acts such as standing in the hole in front of a leading forward, or winning contested football in the centre, they would be rewarded accordingly.