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Just got back from the session myself, dragged wife and kids (8 and 5) along. Not too much to report as Jako said: - they were out 8 minutes late which was a bit outrageous but gave us time to get a photo of PJ with the kids. Asked him for a guns shot...no dice. - they jogged a half lap and did about 5 minutes of stretches and then some kick-to-kick followed by shots at goal. The highlight for us was the players wandering around the fence signing autographs and handing out team posters ... kids got autograph book, footy and cap signed and were absolutely thrilled (not to mention awestruck). They both got their faves: Jeremy Howe for the daughter and Angus Brayshaw for the boy (his namesake). Pretty simple stuff but certainly made a huge impression with the kids, credit to the club. Will load a few pics shortly, fair to say as a family we're pumped for tomorrow. Unfortunately, I've already been warned about not setting a bad example to the kids $cully-wise.

Clark wanted out and found a loophole. Enough people realise this, hence the public booing and general poor reception he receives.

You don't retire from a club like a melbourne with depression, then 6 months later join up with another team. It is what it is and we shouldn't show him any compassion, he didn't give a [censored] about us, so why should we do the same for him. He let us down and we all know it.

are you serious? I think it's awesome that fans who don't have a horse in the race still recognise a dog act when they see it, and want it known that type of behaviour should be reprimanded. It's taking a stand against something that's just plain wrong

Newman is a tool. Attack Clark for having depression is ridiculous. Clark has declared himself fit to play, he'll cop it over the fence but he shouldn't have to cop it from players. You wouldn't sledge a player for having any other illness. I doubt anyone is laying in to the several diabetics in the AFL or Tom Lonergan who lost a kidney. Anyone who attacks Clark on part of depression is a gutless wonder. If you want to criticise his move from Melbourne, the retirement etc then you can but have some class and leave the depression out of it. FFS can some of you people move on. Aligning yourself with the views of Sam Newman is not a smart idea, this isn't the 1960's.

Mitch Clark, Scully, Chris Judd, Robbie Warnock..... Have all taught me a lesson. They all rejected MFC and the result was often better for us. I really liked Clark's replacement's game last week. He gave MFC something it's been missing for years. A player who can single handedly change the momentum of a game. Who know's this might be more important for us in the next few years than a Full Forward. It really doesn't matter if it doesn't because it is what it is. Let's move on and enjoy the resurgence. I bet you on Monday night no one would have been more aware than MC of how differently he would have been feeling if he'd been there on Saturday instead of Monday. He picked a team that is undoubtedly on the way down. None of their wins are going to mean as much as our wins over the next few years. That's what he gets to look forward to. Time to move on. Go Heritier. (Had to check the spelling three times) He's the only person that is relevant out of the MC saga.

I have an issue if people are sledging him for his depression, but I bet they aren't. I bet they are sledging him for being a disloyal, money hungry little [censored], which is exactly what he is. He was applauded for being brave enough to speak out about his depression, and good on him for that. What he did next however, was a whole other issue. As I've said over and over again, depression isn't an excuse for being a [censored]. If Clark thought he was gonna go through this whole charade and not get slammed for it, he's a fool. Players get booed all the time, for silly on field mistakes, for silly off field mistakes, or for just being annoying and irritating. Why should Clark be immune from that?

Methinks Clark expected to become the feel-good AFL story of the year, only to come crashing back to earth with a thud as 50,000 Hawks fans let him know what they thought of his little stunt last year. Depression is a mental illness and a serious issue in society. I won't speculate about whether or not it was a fabrication by Clark to escape his contract. What I will say is that having worked with countless sufferers of depression, it is never an excuse to [censored] on the people who help you. He showed his true colours last year, and maybe, just maybe, he was being booed because fans of the sport see him for what he is (and not the illness he may or may not suffer). It doesn't change my opinion of him: a little man who only looks out for himself, no matter the collateral. Worse, he's a type who uses his apparent illness to excuse his abysmal treatment of others. He does this because he knows people in the media wouldn't dare criticize him for fear of looking insensitive and/or ignorant about mental illness, and it's always his fallback answer for anyone who does criticize the selfish decisions he's made.

please tell me exactly what was said hating Mitch Clark has become a passion of mine

The ground looks in good nick. I expected it to be heavier after 63mm of rain in Canberra on Monday/Tuesday. The centre square was still covered today, so not sure what it will be like tomorrow. The weather forecast is perfect ... 22 degrees, patchy cloud and light winds. As Jako said, not a lot to report from a training perspective. Just an extremely light session to loosen up after the travel and get a feel for the ground. The only structured component was a series of stretches conducted by Misso. Nonetheless, I got the impression that the players were really up for tomorrow. Lots of banter, back slapping and high fives, and the skills (about 15% intensity) were crisp and clean (as you would hope). I tried to keep an eye on Vince and Dawes, and didn't see any fumbles or dropped marks. Dawes set shots from 40 to 50 metres were spot on most of the time. H looked fantastic in everything he did .... so sharp. Crossy (as expected) was the last one to leave the track. Some solid tackling, one-on-one with Goody, who still has good evasive skills. The players were very friendly and spent lots of time lining up for photos and autographs sought by the Demon faithful. Well done MFC!

Here's why: This club has not won a flag for 51 years. We have not even played in the finals for 8 years. At various times in recent history our very existence has been in doubt. We have no respect. We both NEED and DESERVE some real success very soon. Now, it looks like PJ and Roos are making some ground at least to make us competitive again. Do you know what would be really, really handy right now? How about a coleman medal type full forward? Well, we had one. We traded a high draft pick and put a lot of money into one even though he battled to get on the park. When he really crashed out we stood by him and supported him. Then he turned around and royally screwed us. You can talk for 1000 years but nothing will change the fact that his stated reasoning for not coming back to the MFC is not fair nor reasonable. Nor does it even make any sense. If he had lined up for us this year, which was obviously the decent, honourable thing to do, we would absolutely be looking at finals. Getting Lumumba out of the mess took a lot of the sting out of it, but still, it was a dog act that has cost us dearly. There will be no construction of bridges from this poster.

There is more to this than depression. Clark has played our club like a violin and that is why he is so reviled.

Clark is full of BS & everyone in footy knows it. Whether he had depression or not, he ditched the MFC cause he needed a new environment for dealing with his depression according to the unnamed medical advise he got...... However, he was already back at the MFC rehabbing, using our staff & facilities when he 'got better & started working towards a comeback'. What other life changes have been made? He stayed with the same mrs he got depression with & what do you know, went back to his old profession of AFL player within a few months, all he did for this 'life change to help him deal with depression' was go from a bottom 4 fancy to a top 4 fancy. And he got paid out 90% of his over the top salary for hardly any games with us, including his wage he would have earnt for this year from us!!! He is a spineless weak creep. I'm soo glad he went to the ailing aging cats so he be there for their downward spiral. Meanwhile we can wave to him in the next couple of years as we pass them on the ladder. F u Clark, mentally ill or not, go rot, case closed! Good riddance & welcome H!!

Finally the hard hitting photo journalism...the kids getting stuff signed. I politely asked NevJet to: a) smash $cully; and b) call him a [censored] little [censored]! Wife elbowed me, hard. KK out for 4-6 weeks (ribs).

As far as I am concerned, give us back pick 12 and say $1m of the $2m that we wasted on him and I would have no problems at all with MC and what happened. It is also laughable, that MC returning to us, was touted by Mark Evans as one of the main reasons he wouldn't give us a PP.

Don't you love Demonland. A "who cares" or throwaway story on the worse TV show in town with comments from a bunch of clowns with two neurons who simply love a headline or the sound of their own voice. Then we have a thread full of assumptions, generalizations, moralising, baseless opinions, counter opinions, medical opinions, bruised egos, indignation. And from a bit of useless gossip on a useless TV show from the mouths of useless commentators, the opinions on the thread become the new story. As Ernie once said "there is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man, true nobility is being superior to your former self." Having said all that it makes for great reading and you gotta love the strong opinions and personalities on show on this site. Priceless.

Not sure I agree with this. Does that mean we don't tackle Ablett hard and try to test out his shoulder? Whatever happened to "if you're on the ground you're fit" argument? This is a highly competitive sport. If Clark is not in a position to take a few barbs then I'd suggest he may not be in a position to play. Also if he's having a bad day and getting upset, do we give him the ball to make him feel better? Na, get on with it Mitch. You're fit or you're not.

Get off your high horse mate. Firstly no one can confirm he was sledged specifically about having depression. It's more likely he was sledged for being a shite bloke. Secondly people like me are venting at Clark screwing us over and you are extrapolating from that we have no respect for people with depression. We view is that is not an out for every decision you make. If you have depression you still should be accountable for your decisions.

Ok now back to the discussion on the Giants game Cant wait to watch more of this on Saturday

Again.

Barrett had the "exclusive" that there was an "incident" (a popular journalistic term to exaggerate and incite something of little consequence) involving Hawks players sledging Clark on Monday. It was never stated that the sledging was depression/illness related, but Barrett left it vague for people to draw this conclusion. Could just as easily been sledging for the way he royally [censored] us over, but the bleeding hearts all defended Mitch while Sam called a spade a spade. Never agreed more with Newman in my life but he basically said "fair dinkum, why don't we just ban players from speaking? Will that solve the problem? If he put himself out there after doing what he did then he leaves himself open to criticism on the field." Then Selwood waffled off some rubbish, clearly rehearsed line about how much Clark has brought to their club, and that their culture allows them to protect and nurture Clark through issues like this (geez, thought he got over those just in time for trade period!). Gibbo claimed ignorance but danced around the issue and seemed mostly unapologetic. They aren't soft at the Hawks and there's a reason they're such a good team. Gibbo would dish it out as good as anyone on the field to throw off his opponent. In summary, Clark knew this would follow him after what he did and can't cry foul now. Zero sympathy for him. The fact that he went and cried to the club about it just reflects how narcissistic and toxic he is. Everything's all about Mitch and he deserves the red carpet to be rolled out. Classic attention seeker.

You spelt Melbourne wrong.

moonie, as is my custom in giving to the less fortunate here is some good advice (approved no doubt by c&b)

Newman is an insensitive boor who represents an age long past. I was watching the Barrett segment and I thought both Joel Selwood and Josh Gibson discussed the issue sensibly and showed Newman up for the jackass he is these days. Incidentally, Gibson stated that although he played most of the game in Clark's vicinity, he heard nothing which suggests that the alleged sledging was in all likelihood very limited if it happened at all and possibly just another Barrett beat up. We may not like the manner of Clark's defection but we should accept at face value that he was acting on medical advice when he made the decision to leave and that he actual does suffer from mental illness. There is no need for the booing or sledging on that score. On the other hand, both Hird and Scully deserve everything they get.

The way Hogan protects his team mate as much as he can and cleans up Malceski is brilliant. Then because Newton was going across him he gets the best of May. It might just be me but Hogan doesn't even lose his feet entirely. It's brilliant. Newton isn't quite a complete player. I want to see a bit more run from him as he's not the biggest or fastest midfielder so he'll need a high work rate. But I love his toughness, he laid a great tackle at one stage. And he gets collected here and only a few minutes later gets collected backing back for another mark. That's serious courage when you've been cleaned up once and you aren't afraid to have it happen again.

So by anything and everything you meant: - Not the death of a sister/cousin Presumably, unless you are a bigot you meant - Not racism - Not religion - Not sexuality But you're fine with mental illness, which just like your skin colour, sexuality, death of a sister you can't choose? If there's proof Clark was a lying weasel then I'm all for it. If you want to take the [censored] out of his photography, knocking up some chick in Brisbane, stupid tatts or even saying he shouldn't have left the dees then that's fine we me as well. But you can't attack a guy for having an illness. If you're smart you wouldn't do it because the karma bus can hit pretty hard. 1 in 6 will have depression. 1 in 4 will have anxiety. 1 in 2 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer by the time they are 85. The odds aren't on your side buddy.

Sitting here with about sixty odd Demon faithful at Manuka Oval. Peter Jackson and Glen Bartlett have just arrived and we're waiting for the boys to come out. .

absolutely marvellous innings, that

vandenBerg's calves, just for DA.

Has he been checked for multiple personalities? Maybe he was sledging himself. The demon was sitting on his left shoulder saying "you [censored] idiot, if you stayed with us you could've had a win in round 1, instead you're getting booed and Chip Frawley is running away from you at half pace."

What drills are PJ and Bartlett doing?

A thousand times this. The first time the MFC found out about Clark wanting to leave Melbourne was when his manager got on AFL Gameday and let slip that Mitch had 'been advised' that playing elsewhere would be beneficial. the fact that he didn't have this conversation with the club before making it public is a stain on his character. It appears that the club supported him to the hilt, and then perhaps offered him a lower performance-based contract than he anticipated. He went searching for $$ elsewhere, and didn't have the decency to repay the faith and $$ that the MFC had invested in him. We were never going to get fair value for him until he returned and played good footy... and he knew it. (Although I'm pleased with Lumumba!) He ditched the MFC in an underhanded fashion, when he owed the club much more, and cannot be forgiven for that.

He's a good replacement for Cross when the end comes... I won't write Trenners off just yet. edit; write for right...lol

Maybe but there are two things you should not forget. Trengove has been injured for three years. And Grimes does not have the delivery skills required to be a top player at AFL level. Don't just blame everything on the silly captaincy issue.

Quite a few bleeding hearts here quick to assume that Clark has bee sledged about his depression. The jump in logic Damien Barrett was hoping everyone would take. I'd say, if Clark can't handle a little sledging, about his depression or otherwise, then he's not ready to be back playing AFL footy. Or should we protect Clark from anyone being able to say anything to him, in case he construes it as depression-related abuse? It's a tenuous link for anyone to brand asking Clark "don't you feel bad for leaving the dees?" as depression-related abuse, but I'm sure Clark would make that link in his head.

This just in from Purple, the Hawks were quoting Demonland posters to sledge Mitch Clark during the Easter Monday clash at the MCG. Melbourne players are considering visiting the site ahead of their clash with GWS on Saturday to put high-profile signing Tom Scully off his game.

1 in 4 people have depression and they just get on with it. This bloke is a sook and a tool with no morales. That is why he is getting sledged. Walking out on a struggling club and just generally being a selfish [censored].

Don't automatically assume the comments were re his depression. I was at the game & there was booing every time he got the ball. The comments were also more to do with his treatment of melb......never heard any comments re mental health. It's just so easy for people to jump on the high moral ground & make politically correct statements ........I would suggest that only Mitch Clark would know best about his mental health .......however from an outsider .....he's seems to be doing pretty well in one of the most scrutinised work places going round .....& I am a big believer in the "conspiracy theories" floating round

The second Hogan goal likely did, I can't see a replay. Either way several of his marks did. JKH's forward pressure is overrated. It's likely a big part of why he was left out of the team. The swap is Dawes for JKH. Dawes provides similar defensive work rate and pressure, yes he's not as nimble but he's a much stronger tackler and smarter defensive worker. Frost will likely play the same minutes and role forward. Watts will still have plenty of minutes deep. Watts makes a great marking option when matched up against a patchy (at best if not soft) Gold Coast defense, but even GWS are likely to provide more resistance with quality medium sized players like Haynes and Patfull. Until Watts shows consistently that he can be a reliable target who can compete in the air then we are better of using him as a mobile player who gets up the ground as well as deep. If Jack Watts shows himself to be Jack Gunston then fine, get him in alongside Hogan and a 2nd ruck and we are rocking, but 1 game isn't enough evidence yet. The other thing is it's round 2. Winning is a big priority but not winning at every cost. Exposing Hogan to a full season carrying the load as the only notable tall forward is not a wise thing to do at this stage. It was fine against Gold Coast and might be fine against GWS but eventually we will play Sydney, Freo, Geel, Port and some other teams with physical key defenders who will take it to Hogan. Not to mention we will play teams who will carve up our midfield and badly limit the supply. Dawes will be important for Hogan and I'm pretty sure Hogan will be very important to Dawes, he'll take the best tall defender and the attention. The benefits right now are overwhelming in favour of getting a 2nd big man in the side IMO.

The Grimes bashing bother me a bit. Yep, his disposal last year was poor and he has some cringe moments in the NAB cup, but he had to lead the club through the Neeld years. Let's not forget before he was made captain he had be injured consistently. I get it, at the moment it looks like we have better options, but no need to kick the guy while he's down. Let's see him rip it apart at Casey and press for a spot. I won't forget the spoil he made on Dangerfield last year in Adelaide. I reckon he can play, just needs to regain his mojo. Keep him at Casey until someone's form in the Senior's falls and bring him back.

No one has said Newman attacked him for depression. Get over yourself. If thta was the case then yes it would be a low act. Dont ffs go on about it becuase of some innuendo from the purple.headed [censored] Other than that his behaviour has been deplorable and he should cop it.

Finding it hard to think of a way to sledge him about depression that would upset him this much. On the other hand, I can see how it would be very easy to upset him by sledging him about dogging on all his former clubs, or about his 'pseudo-retirement', and about the likelihood of it happening again at his current club when the chips are down. So I highly doubt that they sledged him about depression. And nobody's actually saying that they did. Again, it's using the depression to deflect criticism about character issues, and Geelong FC is getting sucked in too. A big distraction for them.

obviously the issue is not that he (allegedly) has depression but that he pulled a shifty move on our club and everybody knows it

It always makes me wonder if there was more to his departure from our club. Players would know, and they would sledge him for it. Not saying there was anything more to it, just that it makes you think.

Reported that the Hawks were sledging Clark about his "issues." Horrible if true, and I love it.

Hoges took 3 or 4 after well timed body work. Jamar will play 10% forward, 70% ruck. Frost will play 30% ruck, 50% forward. Hogan 85% forward. Dawes 85% forward. In total that leads to 230% forward. So really only 2 will be in the forward line for most of the time if the rotations are managed correctly. Watts pushes up and plays as one of the mobile forwards taking JKH's role. Frost plays closer to goal as a pacy lead type and also does a lot of defensive pressure. It's his speed that has him in the team and will allow the 3 bigs to work together. vandenBerg has to play higher up as well. Plus the big luxury is Hogan can now be used both closer to goal and more up the ground as he and Dawes can isolate. He spend a lot of the game kind of 30-70m out for goal as the main big guy. Now he can get up the ground knowing Frost or Dawes will be in behind and he can also send Dawes out ahead of him and stay closer to goal.