Oh good. The old 'he bleeds red and blue' cliche resurfaces. That's extremely irrelevant in the age of free agency. A bloke by the name of Moloney was said to bleed red and blue.

Enter Neeld

In disappointed that its all coming to a messy end. I dont think Mitch will return to footy via the Dees and tbh im now ok with this. My last Melbourne Mitch memory will be that fateful day.

He certainly gave us some great footy and even more reason for hope when sfa was there for much else.

If we are to be somewhat more objective though the Mitch experience/experiment was flawed and in the. cold light of day an abject failure. 15 games and a truckload of scheckles realised us not too much.

He finds himself now drawn to the prettiness of the outside world ? Go.

Please do as you supposedly wish and facilitate some meaningful return but go.

I can only feel the ghost of Benedict Arnold about all of this. What was actually wasn't and what is,is.

We need players of calibre that CAN make it to the park, we need players to earn their keep and ideally players to rise to their abilities and lift us up.

Im over my anger. Melbourne needs to move ob and discard anything and anyone that doesn't add to the equation.

Go Mitch. Hope your life picks up. Where you go matters not.

Im Melbourne, you're obviously not. I was to suggest caveat emptor to your new home but then I don't really care.

Seems you were an ill fit to #11 in many ways. Au re voir. ...happy snapping

Jonesy is an interesting one (off topic i know)

Out of contract next year

getting no respect from wider afl community when he would walk into every teams midfield

has played in 2 finals in 2006 with us and will be 27.

why would you not leave and chase finals and a flag, and play in a team that wins most of their games?

youd be happier because youre winning and possibly on big $, and if you win a flag youre set up for life pretty much..

he might even get an AA gong playing for a successful club!

the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.

Edited September 11, 201410 yr by biggestred

Do we know if MC is meeting with the club again this week? I thought he was meeting the club again soon.

Don't underestimate the influence a greedy manager can have on his client bub- I do believe there was sincerity in MCs desire to return to Melbourne and repay the investment we made in MC the player and person.

There are two ways to look at this-

MC was playing us since day one and devised a monstrous plan to extract top dollar from us for minimal return and then screw us at the final hour, or-

His manager saw an opportunity to make more money and sold MC- a guy that has just dealt with depression- with some twisted logic and half truths about how a fresh start at a new club would be nothing but beneficial to his health, and also played to his damaged psyche that he deserves better than a rookie position- ignoring the overall risk that MC is. All for his own means.

I look at option 2- as option one destroys any last bit of hope I had for humanity.

Jonesy is an interesting one (off topic i know)

Out of contract next year

getting no respect from wider afl community when he would walk into every teams midfield

has played in 2 finals in 2006 with us and will be 27.

why would you not leave and chase finals and a flag, and play in a team that wins most of their games?

youd be happier because youre winning and possibly on big $, and if you win a flag youre set up for life pretty much..

he might even get an AA gong playing for a successful club!

the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.

There are still some players out there that see loyalty as the ultimate success. Not saying that chasing success is necessarily a blight on ones character, but being a one club player brings with it a sense of nobility and strength that some people cherish more than on fiels wins.

Anyway for chunks sake, I hope we start our rise soon. If chunk leaves he devastates 30 odd thousand people. Couldn't blame him but it would hurt all the same

Don't underestimate the influence a greedy manager can have on his client bub- I do believe there was sincerity in MCs desire to return to Melbourne and repay the investment we made in MC the player and person.

There are two ways to look at this-

MC was playing us since day one and devised a monstrous plan to extract top dollar from us for minimal return and then screw us at the final hour, or-

His manager saw an opportunity to make more money and sold MC- a guy that has just dealt with depression- with some twisted logic and half truths about how a fresh start at a new club would be nothing but beneficial to his health, and also played to his damaged psyche that he deserves better than a rookie position- ignoring the overall risk that MC is. All for his own means.

I look at option 2- as option one destroys any last bit of hope I had for humanity.

I don't.

I don't.

So you think he was just using us for our resources, and all the lovely stuff he said about the MFC was just bulllshit?

Sorry but I can't bring myself to that conclusion. I don't know Mitch personally but I don't think he has that kind of deception in him

Do we know if MC is meeting with the club again this week? I thought he was meeting the club again soon.

Was supposed to be either yesterday or sometime today.

So you think he was just using us for our resources, and all the lovely stuff he said about the MFC was just bulllshit?

Sorry but I can't bring myself to that conclusion. I don't know Mitch personally but I don't think he has that kind of deception in him

I tend to look at his actions not his words.

I also don't go with the poor naive Mitch, look what his manager has made him to do.

SEN news reported that AFL boss Gil Mac said if Clark ends up playing somewhere else MFC should be compensated in some way. Best outcome might be for MC to go and we get consideration from the AFL Commission of Drones for assistance under the existing rules.

In disappointed that its all coming to a messy end. I dont think Mitch will return to footy via the Dees and tbh im now ok with this. My last Melbourne Mitch memory will be that fateful day.

He certainly gave us some great footy and even more reason for hope when sfa was there for much else.

If we are to be somewhat more objective though the Mitch experience/experiment was flawed and in the. cold light of day an abject failure. 15 games and a truckload of scheckles realised us not too much.

He finds himself now drawn to the prettiness of the outside world ? Go.

Please do as you supposedly wish and facilitate some meaningful return but go.

I can only feel the ghost of Benedict Arnold about all of this. What was actually wasn't and what is,is.

We need players of calibre that CAN make it to the park, we need players to earn their keep and ideally players to rise to their abilities and lift us up.

Im over my anger. Melbourne needs to move ob and discard anything and anyone that doesn't add to the equation.

Go Mitch. Hope your life picks up. Where you go matters not.

Im Melbourne, you're obviously not. I was to suggest caveat emptor to your new home but then I don't really care.

Seems you were an ill fit to #11 in many ways. Au re voir. ...happy snapping

You know, as I read that, Inj my mind I could hear stirring music playing that kept building and building until it reached a wonderful crescendo at the end (at which point I imagined fireworks going off in the background). Nice stuff BB!!

Jonesy is an interesting one (off topic i know)

Out of contract next year

getting no respect from wider afl community when he would walk into every teams midfield

has played in 2 finals in 2006 with us and will be 27.

why would you not leave and chase finals and a flag, and play in a team that wins most of their games?

youd be happier because youre winning and possibly on big $, and if you win a flag youre set up for life pretty much..

he might even get an AA gong playing for a successful club!

the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.

jones leaving would be the biggest blow of them all.

I would hope we'd be the first club under free agency to exercise our right to match an offer.

I'll tell you 2 facts about Mitch Clarke

1. If he stays with us, he will re injure himself in his first game back, re triggering his depression, and retire permanently

2. If he goes to Collingwood, he will return to full health, fitness and per injury form, and team up with Cloke to make a potent and much envied forward line.

Let me tell you, nothing is more certain.

My opinion though the week has oscillated, feeling ok once it was suggested, that we were actually in control of what was playing out, but since finding out he spoke with collingwood before having the courtesy to see Roos, my opinion of him has plummeted.

Not ok.

While I'm at it, did you hear that paddy Ryder is apparently going to not Brisbane but Sydney? (sen) Now I'm glad that essendon look like they will lose him, (they still haven't received punishment that really hurts), but if if this rumour is true, footy is the loser and the afl needs to adjust their FA rules, now. Top 4 teams not able to access Free agents of that year. That would be a start. Even though it would be fun to see Eddie spluttering with indignation!

Last thing, now I hear on 3aw that we are certain to sign Goodwin for 5 yrs guarantee e succession, as others have said, and what if Clarkson is available??? And we offered pick 2 and 2 quality players for danger field, and Adelaide told us we're dreaming. Happy days.

hopefully all this rumour will turn out to be only that, and I should get a life and stop listening to this lowbrow crap.

Ok, back to my assignment...

This is clever posting. You provide two "facts" of which only one can be ever disproved. That leaves your other "fact" not disproved. Like I said, clever.

Nice to see that McLachlan is onside.

Nice to see that McLachlan is onside.

GS but we haven't heard from Eddie yet!

I tend to look at his actions not his words.

I also don't go with the poor naive Mitch, look what his manager has made him to do.

I'm not absolving MC from all responsibility in this saga, but before we get out our pitchforks lets not forget that there are many factors at play that we don't fully understand. When the dust settles I wouldn't be surprised to hear some kind of statement from MC saying that he was ill advised, maybe even pressured into seeking "greener pastures". Time will tell

SEN news reported that AFL boss Gil Mac said if Clark ends up playing somewhere else MFC should be compensated in some way. Best outcome might be for MC to go and we get consideration from the AFL Commission of Drones for assistance under the existing rules.

Some drones would fit in nicely across the half-back line ...

I think his manager is trying to double dip, and MC being naive at best is going along with it. I think MCs manager is playing Mitch like a fiddle. Maybe the advise to remove yourself from an environment where you developed symptoms of depression could be valid in some instances, clearly this is not a normal circumstance and it would be removing him from his support structures and throwing him into the thrust of media scrutiny and the judging public. No thought has gone into that.

Dollar signs are over riding logic. I'm starting to feel Mitch will be the one to pay for a conniving snake manager that has twisted the reality of MCs position and used a statement from a doctor that doesn't fit Mitches circumstances to suit his own end.

You think, or would like to believe?

I think many of us would like to believe the latter.

Anxious to hear the big reveal...

• From Jon Ralph's twitter: Mark Evans please read this trail of destruction & sorrow from a Melbourne supporter. Then hand them a priority pick http://t.co/muwWmCFZSJ

  Depressing read. Be warned

  The best part of that is the youtube clip of the guy going off his [censored]!

Edited September 11, 201410 yr by AzzKikA

Nice to see that McLachlan is onside.

He's not, he was his usual non comital self. He will wait and see what Eddie says and then go to the public opinion polls before he has his mind made up for him.

You know, as I read that, Inj my mind I could hear stirring music playing that kept building and building until it reached a wonderful crescendo at the end (at which point I imagined fireworks going off in the background). Nice stuff BB!!

Geez ...... and I thought the Wagner thread was the musical one!

Nice to see that McLachlan is onside.

I suspect we went to afl for advice on the clark retirement. They wont be impressed if plays afl again considering his mental issues. The last thing afl would want is another situation with clarkregarding his mental wellbeing

The goodwill given to Clark has evaporated in a millisecond.

Ross Lyon referred to him as "Mitch who", and is obviously still bothered by the "guarantee" Clark gave to Freo a couple of years ago.

It was reported that he wanted to leave Melbourne FC in September 2013, but Roos talked him out of it.

There is a stench here, and it will grow and linger if he finds himself at another Melbourne club.

Some may see this as leveraging on psychobabble.

SEN news reported that AFL boss Gil Mac said if Clark ends up playing somewhere else MFC should be compensated in some way. Best outcome might be for MC to go and we get consideration from the AFL Commission of Drones for assistance under the existing rules.

The news grab was probably part of the interview on the Morning Glory earlier today.

The full extrapolation was that Gillon would not comment on any matters relating to a priority pick as that was up to the other to determine (operations, commission) but felt that Melbourne should be compensated via trade if it was determined that the best circumstance for Mitch Clark’s health was to continue at another club.

He was pretty careful in clarifying that they weren’t asking him to talk about any compensation offered by the AFL in the event Clark left Melbourne.

It was in response to Dermott probing on whether Gillon felt Melbourne warranted compensation Clark walked, given the amount of work put into him on top of the clubs other struggles.