Fascinating media study this one

Club comes out with an apology... player apologizes yet media calls for a "hanging."

We berated (correctly) Essendon for never apologising and the bulk of the media eulogises the players and the team.

Something badly amiss here.

 

5 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Fascinating media study this one

Club comes out with an apology... player apologizes yet media calls for a "hanging."

We berated (correctly) Essendon for never apologising and the bulk of the media eulogises the players and the team.

Something badly amiss here.

 

Until you look at who pulls the Media's strings !!

Fish ...rot....heads

1 hour ago, SFebey said:

LOL at appealing for Bugg, why would the club even consider it? He's no superstar anyway & has caused us more unnecessary limelight than we needed. He gets what he deserves and he can play the year out in the VFL & double his pre season KPIs so he lifts his attitude.

Quality post

Bucks just sent Bugg a thank you letter.

20 hours ago, chook fowler said:

Can you believe the unbridled hypocrisy of Leigh Matthews arguing for a send off rule - the biggest thug in AFL/VFL history. His frontal lobes must be gone.

Well said.

He will get a deserves six weeks. 

Like others have said it will be good for him and the club to step out of the limelight and really build himself on the training track. Get some respect back internally from the playing group that he has let down with a stupid act.

1 hour ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

I would think that this is the exact thing that people should be saying.  Punching someone in the face is a potentially deadly action.  We are so brainwashed by Hollywood fist fights to realise just how dangerous and destructive these acts are.  

One punch can kill.  Bugg punched Mills.

How many people do we need to see, stricken in a hospital bed with tubes running out of their head, before we as a society accept the simple fact that punching someone in the head is a dangerous and potenetially deadly thing to do.

Agree entirely. And doc Larkins was spot on reminding people of the death of the surgeon at Box Hill hospital. The wonder is that an AFL/VFL footballer has not been killed from a punch to the head given the frequency that it used to occur. Tragically,  probability suggests one day it will occur. 

And please give me a break about provocation. What a joke. He's let himself down and his team mates. Exactly the sort of behind the play act of thuggery that Leigh Matthews traded in. Lost all respect for Mathews when he knocked out Peter Giles and Shaun Smith. Have lost it for Bugg.

54 minutes ago, Jara said:

Never ceases to amaze me how hated we are, both by the public and the media. Last year everybody was thrilled for the Dogs; none of that for us. I see it in my mates at work. I suppose it's a remnant of the days when we were the team of the toffs. Sure as hell ain't that any more. 

 

I always remember Dermie and that "line in the sand" game. Long term, maybe turned the Hawks around. 

Bugg's an idiot, but he's our idiot. 

I have thought over the last couple of weeks that MFC is certainly not looked upon kindly by the general media. Thinking back to the raptures that were lavished on the WB last year given their injuries, I haven't heard or seen similar this year about the situation that we are in. Listening to Garry Lyon and Co on Friday night was unbearable so much that I changed to ABC. There does not seem to be the acknowledgement that we have been in a dire situation for many weeks and to have played the way we have is testimony to the groundwork that Roos put in and in extension to that what Goody and Co have achieved over the preseason.

When I listen to general media commentary there seems to be a satisfaction amongst some "journos" to our predicament. I thought this last week after an outstanding winning performance there was little acknowledgement of our outs and the fixturing of so many games with a 6 day turnaround. All I heard after Friday night was that the Club had come down with a thud almost that we had got beyond ourselves. If anyone had talked to the players and the Club they would have known that the Club was opposite to this. There was an excitement given we had won consecutive games without all of our top personnel and a belief that we could make the finals but top four or two - not spoken about. 

Now with Buggy, we are in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. We are not GWS with a list of champions as long as our arms. We are decimated. We cannot replace 7 top players with 7 top VFL players. Despite Plapp training the Casey boys with the same set ups as AFL, there is nothing like playing together. Two ring ins can be covered, seven no way. 

I unfortunately am not expecting a happy day on Sunday although I do note that Carlton had three injuries on the weekend. It is conflicting that to win a game I am excited when there are injuries to the next round's opposition. 

I wonder if having an Australian school teacher win the world boxing championship over the weekend will in some way help reduce our Toms suspension from 20w down to 4?....just saying.

3 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

I wonder if having an Australian school teacher win the world boxing championship over the weekend will in some way help reduce our Toms suspension from 20w down to 4?....just saying.

 

(can only hope)

29 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Quality post

Not sure why you liked it @SFebey. It was sarcastic.

The MRP graded Houli as Intentional, High (Head), High Impact.  A worse classification is Intentional, High (Head) and Severe Impact. 

The known facts are Lamb was concussed, immediately left the field and missed at least a week.  Mills was concussed, immediately left the field and might miss a week (but we don't know). So logically they should be graded the same ie High Impact, not Severe Impact and Tribunal penalties made accordingly (and not on media frenzy, 'the look', 'gut feel' or 'the ALF making a statement').

Please note I'm not advocating Bugg should get 4 weeks, simply presenting a logical approach.

Unfortunately, for Bugg he is seen as smart alec and if the AFL and the Tribunal want to make a sacrificial lamb of him he will get 6+ weeks and the club cannot (in light of the hue and cry), appeal it.

Be ready for an MRP classification of Severe Impact to get a maximum penalty 6+ weeks and no-one will come back and apply logic to it.

10 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Not sure why you liked it @SFebey. It was sarcastic.

Have a nice day

25 minutes ago, binman said:

Agree entirely. And doc Larkins was spot on reminding people of the death of the surgeon at Box Hill hospital. The wonder is that an AFL/VFL footballer has not been killed from a punch to the head given the frequency that it used to occur. Tragically,  probability suggests one day it will occur. 

And please give me a break about provocation. What a joke. He's let himself down and his team mates. Exactly the sort of behind the play act of thuggery that Leigh Matthews traded in. Lost all respect for Mathews when he knocked out Peter Giles and Shaun Smith. Have lost it for Bugg.

Steven?  But you are right, with the track record of Matthews, he has little credibility.

27 minutes ago, binman said:

Agree entirely. And doc Larkins was spot on reminding people of the death of the surgeon at Box Hill hospital. The wonder is that an AFL/VFL footballer has not been killed from a punch to the head given the frequency that it used to occur. Tragically,  probability suggests one day it will occur. 

And please give me a break about provocation. What a joke. He's let himself down and his team mates. Exactly the sort of behind the play act of thuggery that Leigh Matthews traded in. Lost all respect for Mathews when he knocked out Peter Giles and Shaun Smith. Have lost it for Bugg.

 

Two points:

1. Agree completely with the sentiments about punching, but want to point out that to my knowledge, the worst injuries from these one punch / coward punches  arise from the victim striking their head on a hard surface when they fall. So maybe that's why fatalities on a football field have not occurred, (stand to being corrected).

2. Leigh Mathew's and Shaun Smith's careers did not intersect. Do you mean some other Melbourne Smith?

Just read later post - Steven Smith. Didn't know about that.

5 hours ago, poita said:

Bugg will get 6 weeks minimum, because as a club we are not one of the chosen ones. That said, he deserves every one of those weeks, and then some. Absolutely gutless and pathetic.

I'd perhaps have more sympathy if he'd actually performed after the incident, but he was basically a garden gnome for the remainder of the game. 

As to his future, who knows? He's not best 22, that much is clear. I don't want us to be known as a club that condones these types of acts, and if it results in Bugg losing his spot on the list, so be it.

 

Does anyone know his contact status?

And, does our or any other club have clauses in there contracts re termination for unacceptable behaviour?  Not saying that this is a sackable offence, by any means, but just wondering?

4 hours ago, willmoy said:

Morosely, moronically quiet Media. Lost their moral compasses!!!

Pardon my pedantry, but doesn't loss require initial posession?

3 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Not sure I agree that the precedent has been set. (I assume you mean by the Houli penalty.) Doesn't Mills have concussion and a broken jaw whereas Lamb only concussion?

Has a broken jaw been confirmed?  A real one or one of the type that Lewis (allegedly) caused but that allowed the recipient to play unhindered the next week?

Thanks to this AFL chap who's taken the spotlight off Bugg by committing, seemingly, an even worse striking offence yesterday.

2 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

We weren't a Football Club then, Schwab had destroyed the joint. 

If the MFC buckles under in the next 3-6 weeks both on and off the field, we may not get another chance to stand up. 

We have to win games against the hostile public. 

Fair point (first line).

And isn't it nice that there's a hostile public? In 2012 and 2013 it was an apathetic public which didn't care whether we survived or not. And who could blame them? We were the competition's embarrassment. At least now there's recognition that we're a club worthy of being disliked again. 

 

33 minutes ago, iv'a worn smith said:

Steven?  But you are right, with the track record of Matthews, he has little credibility.

Leigh Matthews played in a different era when on-field thuggery was accepted. It shouldn't have been, but it was. That doesn't make Matthews' comments today somewhat tarnished. On the contrary, unlike many other older footballers working in the media, he's kept himself relevant by moving with the times. I expect he would know as well as anyone that what he did in his playing days would be unacceptable now and should have been then.

35 minutes ago, iv'a worn smith said:

Steven?  But you are right, with the track record of Matthews, he has little credibility.

Yep meant Steven Smith. Smith was giving him a bath when he was hit way behind play when he wasn't expecting it. Just like Bugg. 

3 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Fair point (first line).

And isn't it nice that there's a hostile public? In 2012 and 2013 it was an apathetic public which didn't care whether we survived or not. And who could blame them? We were the competition's embarrassment. At least now there's recognition that we're a club worthy of being disliked again. 

 

As long as we can push through it and win some silverware

if we wilt under pressure it will be a savage mob who will want us forgotten and gone. 

 

3 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Leigh Matthews played in a different era when on-field thuggery was accepted. It shouldn't have been, but it was. That doesn't make Matthews' comments today somewhat tarnished. On the contrary, unlike many other older footballers working in the media, he's kept himself relevant by moving with the times. I expect he would know as well as anyone that what he did in his playing days would be unacceptable now and should have been then.

The only VFL/AFL player that I know of, that faced criminal charges for his hit on Neville Bruns.  His behind the play attack on Peter Giles went beyond thuggery, it was, in my view, also criminal.  Matthews has a docket as long as your arm.

37 minutes ago, xarronn said:

 

Two points:

1. Agree completely with the sentiments about punching, but want to point out that to my knowledge, the worst injuries from these one punch / coward punches  arise from the victim striking their head on a hard surface when they fall. So maybe that's why fatalities on a football field have not occurred, (stand to being corrected).

 

Yes, you'r probably right. But none the less it is possible.

9 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Leigh Matthews played in a different era when on-field thuggery was accepted. It shouldn't have been, but it was. That doesn't make Matthews' comments today somewhat tarnished. On the contrary, unlike many other older footballers working in the media, he's kept himself relevant by moving with the times. I expect he would know as well as anyone that what he did in his playing days would be unacceptable now and should have been then.

Wasn't Mathews charged off field over the Bruns incident? If I recall he was deregistered for 4 weeks over a king hit on Neville Bruns that smashed his jaw.

Hardly the best advocate for on-field violence....

1 minute ago, jnrmac said:

Wasn't Mathews charged off field over the Bruns incident? If I recall he was deregistered for 4 weeks over a king hit on Neville Bruns that smashed his jaw.

Hardly the best advocate for on-field violence....

He was charged by Victorian Police for assault.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/matthews-charge-still-mystery-20130729-2quxt.html