Tom McDonald

[DemonOX 8,530]

2 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

Tom just tweeted that it’s disgusting the way some supporters talk about Oscar.

He is sticking up for his bro which is what u would expect. 

[640MD 2,794]

14 hours ago, DemonOX said:

He is sticking up for his bro which is what u would expect. 

But its also correct, some posters say things that they would not say to their face.   Not just about Oscar. but quite a few others. 

One wonders how far in football some went to call players what they will.

Not best 22 is fine or best 33  whatever,   but I was a "spud" I'm sure in some eyes but still one one flag in my comp. Definitely got the best that I had to give.   Like I would hope most of our players.

[spirit of norm smith 12,890]

I think it’s ok to say Oscar has been disappointing and has not improved to reach ongoing AFL standard.  Definitely agree he must be delisted or traded for a pick in the 60s ( 4th round pick). One satisfactory game and then three poor games does not warrant staying in the list.  

Tom also probably needs to move on. He’s given his best but unless he gets more agile, he’s lack of pace is detrimental, even for a tall. Maybe a good summer may recharge him. 

[Ungarieboy 354]

Tom's right!  Many supporters seem to think that unless a player is elite, then they must be junk and fair game for abuse (not being relevant).  No team has won a premiership comprising only A grader's (supported by elite) look at our very own Stephen Armstrong as a Weagle premiership player.  There's even a Morton who won a premiership.  

Oscar performs admirably and as strange as it seems I am more relaxed with him kicking than most of our other talls (he's safe, despite others like May being better kicks).  Many seem to base a lot of their opinion on his early output when he was thrown into a struggling team, as a KPP, while very young (and not fully developed).  

As a coach I do not just see the numbers as performance.  I currently have an inside midfielder who doesn't wrack the big numbers expected of the role (which others in the team could do better), but when he plays in the midfield we never lose it and rarely is a goal scored against us (they predominantly happen on his rotations).  I seem to recall Omac coming into the team this year which equated to May and Lever performance lifting to new levels, which they then maintained ' making Omacs role less of a need; but would they have gotten to that point without the confidence gained from Omacs inclusion.

This is not say he cannot be traded, it's just an observation that he does have value, he is a contributor, and can form part of a premiership team. Ironically calls for him being traded is actually recognition that he can play such a role (for someone)!

[dimmy 1,114]

Agree wholeheartedly with Ungarie Boy.

Some Posters :

• Use possessions as their criteria
• under rate the opponents
• especially for the defenders , do not take into account  what /and how the ball is coming down to your zone/opponent. So many people have criticised OMac for Membrey's mark . There was nothing he/or 90% of AFL defenders could have done. Once a bloke gets 3 yards in front and the ball is delivered in the right place all you can do is hope !!
• A lot of criticism of players really does go beyond the pale. They are all young men with different attributes who are playing their hardest. That does not mean they are insipid/mentally retarded/ absolute S#$$$@ etc whic is routinely leveled via some contributors.

The Mc Donalds ( and I am not related or have met them) were both No 51 draft picks , and neither came to the club with reputations like TRac, Clarrie etc so they have been very good team players for MFC . They have been a credit to have played as much AFL as they have and would not have done it without massive personal efforts. So....lay off the personal insults !!!

[Binmans PA 25,997]

Is Tom staying or are we trying to get more value out of a trade deal for both parties?

[MadAsHell 4,088]

2 hours ago, A F said:

Is Tom staying or are we trying to get more value out of a trade deal for both parties?

Sam Mclure made an interesting comment on Footy Classified about GWS should target him for a role down back. This could open a potential muti player trade scenario. We send McDonald & Preuss to GWS, they send something to North who send Brown & Polec to us maybe???

[dazzledavey36 48,708]

Apparently Jon Ralph on the Herald Sun trade chat today mentioned that we are still open to trading Tmac.

[Lampers 563]

8 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Apparently Jon Ralph on the Herald Sun trade chat today mentioned that we are still open to trading Tmac.

Why on earth would Melbourne look to trade arguably the highest impact player in the 2020 season?

These footy journos are following the US Fox News formula of outrageous comments to generate eyeballs, to generate revenue. It is ramping up out of this world and I suspect it’s because traditional print media has been on life support for years now, and COVID means advertisers are keeping their money too.

Anything news.com was already sensationalist and heavily biased, just as other publications have biases, but it’s now on its way to National Enquirer and British tabs levels.

“DUSTY TO MARRY ALIEN, REFUSES TO COMMIT FUTURE OFFSPRING TO TIGES!”

A waste of time to listen to any of that dross.

[Ohio USA - David 107]

On 10/6/2020 at 7:19 PM, Ungarieboy said:

Tom's right!  Many supporters seem to think that unless a player is elite, then they must be junk and fair game for abuse (not being relevant).  No team has won a premiership comprising only A grader's (supported by elite) look at our very own Stephen Armstrong as a Weagle premiership player.  There's even a Morton who won a premiership.  

Oscar performs admirably and as strange as it seems I am more relaxed with him kicking than most of our other talls (he's safe, despite others like May being better kicks).  Many seem to base a lot of their opinion on his early output when he was thrown into a struggling team, as a KPP, while very young (and not fully developed).  

As a coach I do not just see the numbers as performance.  I currently have an inside midfielder who doesn't wrack the big numbers expected of the role (which others in the team could do better), but when he plays in the midfield we never lose it and rarely is a goal scored against us (they predominantly happen on his rotations).  I seem to recall Omac coming into the team this year which equated to May and Lever performance lifting to new levels, which they then maintained ' making Omacs role less of a need; but would they have gotten to that point without the confidence gained from Omacs inclusion.

This is not say he cannot be traded, it's just an observation that he does have value, he is a contributor, and can form part of a premiership team. Ironically calls for him being traded is actually recognition that he can play such a role (for someone)!

Not in my mind. O Mc is not a good "safe" player. Gives away too many errant kicks. He plays too far behind his forward player and frankly we would be better trading him. Frankly O Mc and Smith are deplorable players. And while I am at it I think T Mc's playing days with the MFC are over.

[Wrecker45 3,378]

1 hour ago, Lampers said:

Why on earth would Melbourne look to trade arguably the highest impact player in the 2020 season?

These footy journos are following the US Fox News formula of outrageous comments to generate eyeballs, to generate revenue. It is ramping up out of this world and I suspect it’s because traditional print media has been on life support for years now, and COVID means advertisers are keeping their money too.

Anything news.com was already sensationalist and heavily biased, just as other publications have biases, but it’s now on its way to National Enquirer and British tabs levels.

“DUSTY TO MARRY ALIEN, REFUSES TO COMMIT FUTURE OFFSPRING TO TIGES!”

A waste of time to listen to any of that dross.

I wouldn't have thought TMac was our highest impact player.

[dee-tox 4,796]

35 minutes ago, Wrecker45 said:

I wouldn't have thought TMac was our highest impact player.

Fair to say Tom made the least impact of any player on the list!

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,579]

1 hour ago, Wrecker45 said:

I wouldn't have thought TMac was our highest impact player.

 

29 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Fair to say Tom made the least impact of any player on the list!

I'm wondering if old mate @Lampers mis-read Tmac for Trac?

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,579]

The thing that worries me about trading either McDonald is what happens if May, Lever or Weid get injured?

Petty just spent the entirety of this season with groin problems.

One of the things that T Mac in particular has going for him is his versatility in that he could play forward, back or pinch hit in the ruck.  His endurance use to be elite, with him being one of the few players in the league that could go with Nick Riewoldt.  Can he get that back?  I'm not totally sure, but to me he's only played one ordanary season (this year) in the whole time we've had him, so give him a break.

Certainly don't count me in the Oscar haters either. As pointed out by @Ungarie boy, he may not be the most fashionable player, but he gets the job done.  I think it's notable that some of our players (I forget which ones) have called our Oscar for the good leadership that he brings to organising our backline behind the play.  At the end of the day, we made a prelim final with a backline that comprised Oscar and Frost for most of the year, so he can get the job done (can't lay all the blame on Oscar for the bag Hawkins kicked on him at the Cattery in 18 with the laces out delivery Hawkins was getting straight out of the centre that night).

One thing that does strike me as ironic is that while Tommy is the one with questionable kicking out of defense, but being a dead eye [censored] in front of goal, the complete opposite is true of Oscar from the evidence to date.

[Rednblueriseing 649]

13 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Certainly don't count me in the Oscar haters either. As pointed out by @Ungarie boy, he may not be the most fashionable player, but he gets the job done. 

I was in the same camp as you on O Mac, I actually thought he was improving slowly, but when he let that young kid from port run rings around him I lost all faith, even if he didn't have the ability to beat him he should of physically intimidated him. 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,579]

4 hours ago, Rednblueriseing said:

I was in the same camp as you on O Mac, I actually thought he was improving slowly, but when he let that young kid from port run rings around him I lost all faith, even if he didn't have the ability to beat him he should of physically intimidated him. 

Agreed that his performances this season were a bit all over the place.  He played a few good games and probably several that weren't so good (a bit like the side in general).  Also like the side in general, he certainly wasn't Robinson Crusoe in having rings run around him against Port though.

[Lampers 563]

5 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

 

I'm wondering if old mate @Lampers mis-read Tmac for Trac?

Wonder no more, I certainly did.

I still think there’s sensationalist click baiting going on though.

[Lord Travis 10,162]

From what I've heard there is still potential for TMac to be traded if a club comes to the party with a deal that takes majority or all of his salary. His salary being around the 750k mark is what's stopping deals flowing. Plenty of interest in the player. If no club is willing to take on that salary, then he'll be staying and hoping to get his body leaner and back on track after being mis-managed the past two years.

[BrisbaneDemon 1,494]

9 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

From what I've heard there is still potential for TMac to be traded if a club comes to the party with a deal that takes majority or all of his salary. His salary being around the 750k mark is what's stopping deals flowing. Plenty of interest in the player. If no club is willing to take on that salary, then he'll be staying and hoping to get his body leaner and back on track after being mis-managed the past two years.

Can you please elaborate on the bold? Is this his belief that the club/medicos have mismanaged his injuries/program?

[Garbo 1,328]

19 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

The thing that worries me about trading either McDonald is what happens if May, Lever or Weid get injured?

Petty just spent the entirety of this season with groin problems.

One of the things that T Mac in particular has going for him is his versatility in that he could play forward, back or pinch hit in the ruck.  His endurance use to be elite, with him being one of the few players in the league that could go with Nick Riewoldt.  Can he get that back?  I'm not totally sure, but to me he's only played one ordanary season (this year) in the whole time we've had him, so give him a break.

Although he may be useful as a backup assuming he can get some level of agility back, you don’t keep players on 750k as backups, we can go get another A grade player if we can offload him. Keep Brown on the list for that purpose.

If you sign a contract of the size he did and don’t deliver this comes with the territory, we wouldn’t be having this discussion if he was on 300k

Edited October 9, 2020 by Garbo

[BDA 20,032]

This notion that once TMac drops some weight everything will be hunky dory is wishful thinking imv. He has to tell himself something to give some hope and motivation over the off season.

In 2018 he had Hoges beside him taking the best defender. He has limited forward craft.  at best is a no.2 fwd. so is weid. They are not a good partnership. One of them needs to go and I’d much prefer it to be TMac.

I’d also wonder what can of impact TMac has on the dressing room. He’s highly paid and not producing. I wouldn’t be happy as a teammate. I’m not questioning his character at all. He seems like a good egg and I feel for him as regards the injury but he needs to be traded by whichever means possible. Based on some of the decisions they are making recently, North might just be crazy enough to take him on.

[Redleg 37,556]

19 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

From what I've heard there is still potential for TMac to be traded if a club comes to the party with a deal that takes majority or all of his salary. His salary being around the 750k mark is what's stopping deals flowing. Plenty of interest in the player. If no club is willing to take on that salary, then he'll be staying and hoping to get his body leaner and back on track after being mis-managed the past two years.

Are you including this year, under the World’s greatest player sporting conditioner? 

[loges 6,021]

1 hour ago, Better days ahead said:

This notion that once TMac drops some weight everything will be hunky dory is wishful thinking imv. He has to tell himself something to give some hope and motivation over the off season.

In 2018 he had Hoges beside him taking the best defender. He has limited forward craft.  at best is a no.2 fwd. so is weid. They are not a good partnership. One of them needs to go and I’d much prefer it to be TMac.

I’d also wonder what can of impact TMac has on the dressing room. He’s highly paid and not producing. I wouldn’t be happy as a teammate. I’m not questioning his character at all. He seems like a good egg and I feel for him as regards the injury but he needs to be traded by whichever means possible. Based on some of the decisions they are making recently, North might just be crazy enough to take him on.

Good post except for the has limited forward craft bit ytou don't kick 50 goals with limited forward craft.

[nosoupforme 3,085]

It has probably been mentioned,  Tmac played a number of  seasons in the Back half and was a solid player until he was tried up forward with good success.                                                                                                                                                                                        There is a position down back and that is CHB  or play deep  With a good pre season the confidence can return  and  Tmac might find his feet again.  Surely he isn't a  deadbeat and anyway he is contracted.  Imo he can force his way back into the best 22.  Could find his mojo and when needed go up forward to help out. 

TMac is out of favour at the minute however  imo he can play a role in the side and succeed no doubt.  He is not finished.

 

 

[rjay 23,888]

15 minutes ago, nosoupforme said:

It has probably been mentioned,  Tmac played a number of  seasons in the Back half and was a solid player until he was tried up forward with good success.                                                                                                                                                                                        There is a position down back and that is CHB  or play deep  With a good pre season the confidence can return  and  Tmac might find his feet again.  Surely he isn't a  deadbeat and anyway he is contracted.  Imo he can force his way back into the best 22.  Could find his mojo and when needed go up forward to help out. 

TMac is out of favour at the minute however  imo he can play a role in the side and succeed no doubt.  He is not finished.

 

 

He had lost all form down back and was played forward as a last resort.

It worked for a year or so and now he has lost all form forward.

I don't think moving him back is the answer.