On 7/25/2016 at 1:20 AM, deespicable me said:

Equalisation is a crock of rats entrails.

That plick Frawley said pay me $700- k or I'm gone and went to Hawthorn for about $350- k. Thanks ####!

Thats what they do. They tell the free agents they're interested in "come and play in a decent team, play finals, enjoy the glory, but don't think you can command big money. It's on our terms or don't bother."

It's all very well for Hawthorn and a couple of other big clubs but the smaller clubs having to pay their own players more money to keep them will keep the premierships in the big clubs coffers for a long while to come.

Gil (who I believe is an empty headed puppet and a political appointment that will just pay lip service to "equalisation" in the interests of Hawthorn) has done nothing to change the alarming direction the game is heading. 

The AFL has to ask itself a basic question. Is the game for the fans?

If the answer is yes then how much joy is enough for the Hawthorn supporters? When are they going to meaningfully intervene to share the joy of the game around to the other supporters?

Shouldn't the charter of the AFL be to create the game in such a fashion that over a ten year period we see at least 15 different teams playing off in a Grand Final? Not easy to do but shouldn't they be at least trying to achieve such an ideal?

Where is there someone, anyone in the media railing against this ridiculous monopoly.

Melbourne will never get there. Never.

Sometimes I wish they'd just fold.

Sorry about that, but it is the way I feel.

 

This post reminded me of this scene from Seinfeld.

 

On 24/06/2016 at 2:38 AM, schmuttt said:

If he goes and Hurley is available, package a 1st rounder that we'd get for TMac plus our 2017 1st for Hurley. Essendon won't turn that down if Hurley wants to come to us.

Yeah they would - pick 20ish from Sydney and pick 10ish from us? Theyll want at least a top 5 pick plus something else

7 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah they would - pick 20ish from Sydney and pick 10ish from us? Theyll want at least a top 5 pick plus something else

If Hurley was set on coming to us he will get here. They took unders for Ryder, I don't even think my proposed deal is unders and it would eventually go through if Hurley genuinely wanted to come here.

15 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah they would - pick 20ish from Sydney and pick 10ish from us? Theyll want at least a top 5 pick plus something else

When did Hurley become a better player than T Mac.   I must have been asleep the last 5 years 

12 hours ago, AdamFphlebeb said:

I reckon we'll get both Jesse and Tom signed up by the start of 2017. I've no information of that, just can't see either of them leaving now. We're on the rise and given our inexperienced team week in, week out, a part of me says 7 wins already this season is amazing.

Can't get Tom signed up before the 2017 season when he is currently out of contract right at this minute..

5 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

When did Hurley become a better player than T Mac.   I must have been asleep the last 5 years 

Sometime around the time he was All-Australian...

 

8 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

When did Hurley become a better player than T Mac.   I must have been asleep the last 5 years 

 

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

Sometime around the time he was All-Australian...

 

And that time when he hit a target by foot multiple times.

25 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

When did Hurley become a better player than T Mac.   I must have been asleep the last 5 years 

Hurley is the better player, but not by miles. At this stage though I'd say McDonald has more value on the trade table. Two years younger, hasn't just missed a full year of football and whilst inconsistent, has a heap of potential to be the best defender in the game. And will have played 100 games on Sunday afternoon.

Firstly, Hurley is easily a better player than TMac, to think otherwise is just parochial thinking.

Secondly, I didn't necessarily say that is what Hurley was worth, only that that's what the Bombers will demand for him. He is still contracted and despite everyone's wishes there's no way any of the EFC players will just walk on the club as a DFA going through the grievance tribunal. So if we want Hurley we'll need to come up with a top 5/10 pick.

 

19 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

The way Tom talks in these two stories sounds like he is staying.  I also found it touching how he worries about his 'little' bro Oscar, when he gets injured.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-07-28/mcdonald-proud-to-notch-up-100-games

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-07-28/big-mac-proud-to-watch-over-junior

Have been doing a bit of checking and Tom has achieved far more at the age of 23 than either of his 'star' contemporaries (Rance and Hurley) did so early in their careers.  Any comparisons should be based on when the latter were Tom's current age of 23.  He may well will surpass them before long.  Certainly will before he gets to their current age of 26!

Tom is a must, must keep and hope he signs up soon.

•  

Tom Scully said similar and look what happened! 

I was disappionted when he left, will be much less so If T Mac goes! 

4 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Yeah they would - pick 20ish from Sydney and pick 10ish from us? Theyll want at least a top 5 pick plus something else

 

Essendon always want overs 4 their players. But will only pay unders 4 anyone else's. We paid 2 much 4 Milkshake.

i find the lack of noise around this to be a good sign, but really strange, when both Tom and his brother are OOC, that's a huge part of our planning for the next decade and there is little to no noise in the media about them being unsigned.

 

 

Easy to forget O Mac is only 19 - lots of upside

5 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Firstly, Hurley is easily a better player than TMac, to think otherwise is just parochial thinking.

Secondly, I didn't necessarily say that is what Hurley was worth, only that that's what the Bombers will demand for him. He is still contracted and despite everyone's wishes there's no way any of the EFC players will just walk on the club as a DFA going through the grievance tribunal. So if we want Hurley we'll need to come up with a top 5/10 pick.

 

What do you base it on? You are kidding yourself to think he is easily a better player.   T Mac is a better mark, defender and has more speed.  The only thing Hurley has on him is foot skills. 

9 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

What do you base it on? You are kidding yourself to think he is easily a better player.   T Mac is a better mark, defender and has more speed.  The only thing Hurley has on him is foot skills. 

Delusional

T Mac is also 2 years younger

I thought the only drawback to Hurley was his age, but he's still very young. All Australian CHB already. Granted he's had 2 years more experience but irrespective, he's AA. TMac was in AA form until he was toweled up by Cloke, then he was toweled up many times after that. From AA form to Casey form. He's picked things up and gotten more consistency and has potential, but he's nowhere near as good as Hurley was with his consistent form over 2 or 3 years.

Hurley v McDonald is no contest. 

It took Hurley a while to find his spot, but if you've forgotten, he was dominating in contests and with his disposal. A far superior player to Tom. Tom might be younger but Hurley could kick off both sides from day dot and hit targets. His left is better than Tom's preferred. 

On 7/25/2016 at 1:27 PM, Fifty-5 said:

Wow MFCSS at its finest.

You do realise that we got pick 3 - Angus Brayshaw, as compensation for Frawley's departure.

Only 10 years ago Hawthorn were struggling and Kennett wanted to sack Clarkson - things can turn around.

In my opinion this is the exact argument that will keep the strong strong and the weak weak.

And it was one of the more expressed comments on radio and even here on Demonland.

55 I believe your attention is misplaced, its got nothing to do with what we received, it is what Hawthorn got and what they paid to get it that is the main point.

The politics of the AFL, Eddie (who falsely believed Collingwood would benefit greatly but has had a terrible few years admin instead), Hawthorn and the stronger clubs who went hard when "equalisation" was put on the table and attacked COLA and the priority pick and put up "free agency" as the trade off for the tax on "football dept spending".

Consequently the movement from bottom of the ladder back up riding on a priority pick or two of the late 90's and early 2000's is gone. Everyone blames the expansion clubs for the "holding pattern" of the ladder which sees the same teams play finals year in year out but I seriously don't believe it's true. The lower teams are in a circle that sees them rise to mid or lower 8 then back down they'll go.

Richmond has peaked, Carlton won't get far past mid table and Melbourne are showing promise but may / will probably peak around lower 8 in the next year or two before we are torn apart by salary cap problems and are picked apart by the strong clubs. I'm actually pretty excited by our side. (this is me excited )

If one team has to pay less money for their talent than another you work out whats going to happen. Its pretty obvious to me 55.

Look at Brisbane, without priority picks or AFL support, surely they are going to be a decade long basket case and in essence should go out of business.

Yes, I'm a socialist or communist when it comes to running the game. I wear drab green clothes and I harp on.

Thank goodness there aren't too many like me.

But I wish there were less "greed is good" clubs like Hawthorn in the world too.

 

Unbelievable that some of you think TMac is a better defender than Hurley. Have you watched Hurley at all? TMac doesn't have the core strength to be a good 1 on 1 player, and he isn't exactly going to develop it now he isn't a kid anymore.

Goodwin, Melksham, Hurley and Hibberd, Wagner, Frost & Jetta

Cmon you Melbourne ReboundBombers, it's the last lap of the race, bring it home.

9 hours ago, schmuttt said:

Unbelievable that some of you think TMac is a better defender than Hurley. Have you watched Hurley at all? TMac doesn't have the core strength to be a good 1 on 1 player, and he isn't exactly going to develop it now he isn't a kid anymore.

Get the pensioner card out I'd say then.  He is 23

9 hours ago, schmuttt said:

Unbelievable that some of you think TMac is a better defender than Hurley. Have you watched Hurley at all? TMac doesn't have the core strength to be a good 1 on 1 player, and he isn't exactly going to develop it now he isn't a kid anymore.

That's a 1st, Hurley is a better player because of his core strength and T Mac can't develop core strength because is 23.  Let's sack the strength and conditioning team also as they seem to be wasting their time. 

Could we be playing with fire trying to take on these drugledites? They were human cushions for a year,  they have sat out all of this year, and it's really not known what kind of physical and mental impact this saga has had on them. Is there an element of risk we are overlooking in our eagerness to pick the bones of this cheating organisation? How do we truly know what kind of form and mental state these guys will come back to AFL with? 

Still think we will go for outside run in the midfield as opposed to a defender regardless of what Tom does