On 04/09/2012 at 01:23, dee-luded said:

The majority of people are generous passionate people, Hurt people, people who have opened the hearts & extended their hand of friendship & don't want to be a doormat.

They feel cheated yet again....

Don't feel cheated

Dee-luded his contract was at an end it is not as though he walked out on a contract that was still running.

We fortunately live in a free society and he can choose to leave if he wants to.

I suggest he probably cannot see the forest for the trees at present.

I doubt we will see him again in the Red and Blue but who knows

There is probably another LJ out there we just have to find him.

Geez Farmer,Wonna,lawrence and now LJ

  On 04/09/2012 at 01:31, dee-luded said:

Well someone hasn't been honest with US...

If it's not Liam, and the club is fully knowledgable of all that is happening, they haven't bothered to let us in on it.

This is full of disrespect, & the ones most left out is the supporters.

One of them probably broke up with their girlfriend recently. Have they let the supporters down by not telling us?

Get over yourself. You aren't that important.

Could we re draft jurrah and then trade him to port?

This is good news. Factors with in & outside his control make him unreliable.

Liam wont be a long term contributor to where ever he lands, as per Wona & Sean Charles.

We need rock solid heads as well as bodies. The squad clean out that is imminent is going to move in that direction.

I imagine the selectors are relieved by his withdrawal.

Respectfully, Liam has just blown a good shot at the serious bucks. Hopefully he finds a sensible path.

  On 04/09/2012 at 01:10, Allen Jakovich said:

Have I missed something or has the club not officially conceded to losing him:

http://www.melbourne...23/default.aspx

Maybe trying to get a trade, who knows?

  On 03/09/2012 at 09:08, tatu said:

What's the point of have a Trade period if players can just walk to the club they want anyway........[censored]!!!!!

Its called expiry of contract and you end up in the preseason draft if you dont want to recommit. If he was contracted we could either trade him or even dig the heels in and suggest he plays for us or nobody(pointless). Nothing new here.

  On 04/09/2012 at 01:48, old dee said:

Don't feel cheated

Dee-luded his contract was at an end it is not as though he walked out on a contract that was still running.

We fortunately live in a free society and he can choose to leave if he wants to.

I suggest he probably cannot see the forest for the trees at present.

I doubt we will see him again in the Red and Blue but who knows

There is probably another LJ out there we just have to find him.

The cheated part isn't necessarily coming directly from Liam, but from a system that allows you to put emotion time & effort into something, then the system can allow itself to whiteant the project without any compensation.

I'm OK with Liam going, as I want us to clear the decks of any players who won't chase, tackle or do All the 1%ers a team builds from.

But I'm not happy we are yet again pilfered.

  On 04/09/2012 at 01:52, Gotzy15 said:

Geez Farmer,Wonna,lawrence and now LJ

Your point?

  On 04/09/2012 at 01:52, Axis of Bob said:

One of them probably broke up with their girlfriend recently. Have they let the supporters down by not telling us?

Get over yourself. You aren't that important.

Your not that important, thats for sure.

And you can get over your self pretensions intellect. You think your so far ahead of everyone else, you way behind.

Good luck for your future you'll need it.

Too many players want out. I am very concerned with all this.

  On 03/09/2012 at 20:58, btdemon said:

I am sickened by some of the comments on this site. I am a long-time, loyal Dees supporter and I'm very disappointed by the way things have panned out. Liam was my favourite player and one of the most gifted I have seen. I, like many followed his story with interest. I was desperate to see him back in the red and blue on a consistent basis. He has pressures on him that we don't understand. The invective on this site towards him, and then amazingly, towards Davey, is very disturbing and makes me wonder what sort of people post here.

If you think Jurrah was one of the most gifted players you've seen play for Melbourne you must not have been supporting the club long. He had some natural talents but I doubt he would have been at the club next year whether he walked out or not.

No one is doubting that he had external and cultural pressures on him. I understand them quite well as I have family that work in a community close to his. But this doesnt make him an innocent victim of the circumstances and to suggest otherwise isnt being racist - which I think is what your suggesting.

Ill remind you again that under the Daniher years our club was lauded as an example of how to manage the cultural, logistical sensitivities of our indigenous players who were living so far from home.

  On 03/09/2012 at 15:46, Darkhorse72 said:

As for Wonna, i think it came down to he didn't like the city, and that's not restricted to indignenous players but all sorts ever since clubs recruited from outside the metro area.

Incorrect. He said loudly that he didnt want 'to go back to that club.' (meaning MFC). I was there mate.

  On 04/09/2012 at 02:50, why you little said:

Too many players want out. I am very concerned with all this.

Yeah but they're mostly the same ones we all want out too...

Don't be too concerned.

  On 04/09/2012 at 02:50, why you little said:

Too many players want out. I am very concerned with all this.

Who are the other players?

We've re-signed Howe, Jones, Blease and MacDonald (Tom) in the past couple of months, all young blokes seeing a bright future at the Club...

  On 04/09/2012 at 02:50, why you little said:

Too many players want out. I am very concerned with all this.

Why your one who for the last few months has been calling for Neeld to be tough and drop those who don't tow the line.

I'm not concerned if they don't like the hard work required to play then you know where the door is. The Freo players have bought in and look at them, the fans were calling for Lyons head earlier in the year. I say to Neeld stick with what you are trying to implement

  On 04/09/2012 at 02:50, why you little said:

Too many players want out. I am very concerned with all this.

You lift the bar higher, and some can no longer get over it...

  On 03/09/2012 at 22:48, hardtack said:

Martin Flanagan has once again produced a fine article describing the issues faced by LJ A new turn on Jurrah's journey. It's just a shame that a number of people on these forums cannot see beyond the MFC in this instance and instead turn to abusing him.

missing the point

I have to admit I have not read all of the posts on this thread but I'd like one point clarified since some posters pour sh*t on Jurrah for not giving the club a chance to trade him. Could someone who really understands how the AFL works please answer the following:

What could Jurrah have done to engineer a trade?

As far as I can see he would have to first sign a new contract with Melbourne. Is that correct?

But if MFC is convinced he won't live in Melbourne (or were thinking of de-listing or rookie-listing him anyway) why would MFC sign such a contract? What if no-one wanted to take him - we'd be stuck with a contracted player who wouldn't play. So we'd have to sack him and that would look bad for the club in the hands of the media no matter how well-intentioned MFC was leading up to that. If I'm right, then there is no way Jurrah could help the club to do a trade - so why jump on him?

Also to RR and those who say 'we all love our families, so why consider Jurrah differently', I say 'get real'. Families in modern western culture are enormously looser than they were even a few generations ago, let alone in comparison to a tribal culture like Jurrah's. So sure we 'all love our families', but we are prepared to take jobs overseas or interstate or on the other side of large cities, or go on long holidays overseas and maybe only see relatives a Xmas etc. The level of 'love' may be the same (though I doubt it extends as far), but the practice of it is completely different.

  On 04/09/2012 at 03:13, sue said:

I have to admit I have not read all of the posts on this thread but I'd like one point clarified since some posters pour sh*t on Jurrah for not giving the club a chance to trade him. Could someone who really understands how the AFL works please answer the following:

What could Jurrah have done to engineer a trade?

As far as I can see he would have to first sign a new contract with Melbourne. Is that correct?

But if MFC is convinced he won't live in Melbourne (or were thinking of de-listing or rookie-listing him anyway) why would MFC sign such a contract? What if no-one wanted to take him - we'd be stuck with a contracted player who wouldn't play. So we'd have to sack him and that would look bad for the club in the hands of the media no matter how well-intentioned MFC was leading up to that. If I'm right, then there is no way Jurrah could help the club to do a trade - so why jump on him?

Also to RR and those who say 'we all love our families, so why consider Jurrah differently', I say 'get real'. Families in modern western culture are enormously looser than they were even a few generations ago, let alone in comparison to a tribal culture like Jurrah's. So sure we 'all love our families', but we are prepared to take jobs overseas or interstate or on the other side of large cities, or go on long holidays overseas and maybe only see relatives a Xmas etc. The level of 'love' may be the same (though I doubt it extends as far), but the practice of it is completely different.

Pretty sure Jurrah was also prepared to take on a job interstate when he joined MFC.....just saying

  On 04/09/2012 at 03:13, sue said:

Also to RR and those who say 'we all love our families, so why consider Jurrah differently', I say 'get real'. Families in modern western culture are enormously looser than they were even a few generations ago, let alone in comparison to a tribal culture like Jurrah's. So sure we 'all love our families', but we are prepared to take jobs overseas or interstate or on the other side of large cities, or go on long holidays overseas and maybe only see relatives a Xmas etc. The level of 'love' may be the same (though I doubt it extends as far), but the practice of it is completely different.

Sue the point re loving families is general and I don't want to streotype any indigenous people the same way I believe you should not streotype western society. Everyone is different even the indigenous families differ. I choose not to work as a fly in fly out worker despite the monetary rewards. It would mean I am away from my children for 3 out of 4 weeks.

Does that make a Fly in fly out worker different to an indigenous player who leaves his home to play AFL

  On 04/09/2012 at 03:17, olisik said:

Pretty sure Jurrah was also prepared to take on a job interstate when he joined MFC.....just saying

I'm assuming you are sarcastically trying to say that Jurrah was prepared, just like a modern westerner to move interstate, so therefore what I said about the difference in the cultures is bunkum. If so, that is a silly rebuttal. Clearly he tried to be 'western' and failed - I would have thought that strengthened rather than disproved my argument.

  On 04/09/2012 at 03:12, Norm Smith said:

missing the point

Not really.

  On 04/09/2012 at 03:22, Pennant St Dee said:

Sue the point re loving families is general and I don't want to streotype any indigenous people the same way I believe you should not streotype western society. Everyone is different even the indigenous families differ. I choose not to work as a fly in fly out worker despite the monetary rewards. It would mean I am away from my children for 3 out of 4 weeks.

Does that make a Fly in fly out worker different to an indigenous player who leaves his home to play AFL

I agree there is doubtless variations in all cultures. But frankly I'd say a family which insists on living in the same suburbs of a major city for example, is more mutually dependent on each other's presence than mine for example, where my nearest relative is hundreds of km away and the rest many thousands. I claim to love them, but I can clearly live without them happily. My point is that tribal cultures where for millennia people have not got on jet planes and lived miles away is more likely to be at one end of the spectrum than modern western culture. And western culture a few hundred years ago was also 'closer' than it has become recently.

Perhaps we should talk in terms of 'mutual dependence' rather than 'love', though I personally suspect that there is a correlation between the two.

BTW, the fly-in worker gets to spend more time with their family than an interstate AFL player who can probably only get home twice a year. The fly-in worker gets to fly-out every few weeks for weeks at a time.

This is my last post on this topic but here goes:

1. I very much doubt Liam would have been at the club next year irrespective of whether he chose to walk out or not. If you think otherwise I would respectfully suggest that you havent been watching the club develop in the last year under Neeld.

2. Jurrah walking out is probably a win;win situation - if we had dropped him at the end of the season we may have been put in an awkward no win situation via the media for not supporting him.

3. Whether we like it or not, Liam had some pretty massive off-field issues that have negatively effected his ability to perform this year. The club has done the right thing by Liam and done everythign we can to support him in his personal issues. We could have walked away given that he has been charged with indictable offenses.

4. Being angry at Liam does not make anyone a racist. Suggesting people are being outrageous for being angry with Liam is just juvenile. Few of us understand the personal circumstances of Liam and his community.