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I was talking to a close family member of Jack's yesterday. She told me that he is fighting fit, has put his heart and soul into rehab and whilst he might be ready to come back before the season's end, he will definitely be ready to go round one 2016.

A message to James Hird: "It is rare that someone acts with such little integrity and is so self absorbed that it angers me. I have white anger towards you. You are the "Head of Football", regardless of what you may say you are ultimately responsible for the entire Football Department. Your total lack of taking responsibility makes me feel physically ill. The health risks you exposed to your beloved players gives me cold goose bumps. The sell out of good people in the name of your self protection sends me demented with utter disgust and anger. You are a cheat, you pushed drugs onto your young players, you have no integrity, you are a fraud, you are worse than Lance Armstrong, because at least Lance only did it to himself." Hell, this guy systematically whacked up his players (several times a week), with a raft of experimental drugs (not approved for human consumption), over a prolonged period of time. His defence of "It was not me, but I am certain we did not do anything illegal. By the way, we have no records!!!" This makes me feel ill. The fact this dirt bag is coaching rather than facing criminal charges boils my blood. His defence is no more plausible than a drunk driver refusing to take a breath test!!! James Hird: this game would be better and stronger if you had never been part of it. You have destroyed its integrity and credibility. You have systematically drugged your players, you have taken our great game into disrepute, you have failed to take responsibility for your actions or the actions of the club, you have sold out your political supporters, your players, your supporters, the EFC, the AFL. You are scum! Nothing would make me more happy for you to be exited from our game for your utter incompetence following a thrashing at the hands of the dees. In fact, I want to see this so much I would happily sacrifice the rest our season to see you go down this weekend!!!!! Go away and rot you filthy rat.

only melbourne supporters can be worried about an opponent that just got done by a tonne

I agree. The Melbourne I know lose games like this. It is usually completed with a post game press conference admitting "we didn't come to play today". This is the game that will show me if we have learnt anything.

Love the guy and can't wait for him to come back.

I am a little bemused. Everyone seems happy to keep playing Toumpas. IMO he is not up to AFL level football.

So you don't like him GNF?

Good news folks! Plan for Gus to play! “He will now be treated for concussion symptoms through the week and be monitored...but manager of football operations Josh Mahoney said the Demons were optimistic Brayshaw would be right to play against the Bombers".

I don't think so... MFC supporters are so uncomfortable with talent performing at an AA level, that when it doesn't perform at that level for a month - they want to drop the bloke. Just...stop.

except beat his man virtually every week. Plus he also had a month out with concussion.

Perhaps Howey ALREADY has found a new club...just saying. Plays like it.

that's fantastic news. god i hope he can get back and play the way we want, and need, him to do.

Vandenberg a chance this week? Been waiting for Vandenberg + viney + Brayshaw for ages....

Gerard Wheatley, by an absolute mile. The only one with a brain.

West Coast are a very good side. Some of their work in close was the best I've seen this year. They have the ability to find free and moving targets by hand while in traffic and under good (not great) pressure. I find that sort of creative handball so attractive and powerful in modern football. That ability along with their defensive set-up and multi-pronged forward line will see them into the Prelim at least. At the moment we cannot compete with sides like them. I was far from surprised with the result or upset with our effort. Indicative play of the night for me was an attempted tackle by Stretch on Priddis. Stretch had him cold and in 1 or 2 years time spent in the gym, would have had him holding the ball. This time though, Priddis was able to free his hands, get off an long effective handball to Shuey who goaled. We are still going to struggle against mature midfields for the rest of this season at least, but I'm confident with the guys coming into the system that it won't be too long before our midfield and therefore our team will be one of the better ones.

Brad Miller worked hard on his limitations.

It's probably just that he's only 22 and hasn't yet perfected the recipe for peak performance for 22 games a year.

Bizzare thinking happening here. He has a job, he has a contract but most importantly he has a mission.

reminds me more of the Scott brothers.

The clue is in the name of the league mate...

I used to love listening to Roy and H.G. commentate the grand finals on Triple J even though they knew nothing about football.

And then go on... and on... and on.... and on about it. It happened over 4 years ago, the bloke still can't let go.

whether or not he's in play might be irrelevant, as we're at 100% of the cap, don't have anyone notable on big money going (possible exception being jamar), and have a couple of reasonably significant players - garland, howe - out of contract. also, i can't see treloar leaving gws, and if he does, i can't seem him heading for the dees.

Whoah. I can accept an argument that Bail and M Jones may not be highly skilled but I think you must be thinking of someone else when you argue that they are "heartless" and "squibb (sic) the contests". Bail and M Jones try as hard as anyone.

He's 22 What were you doing at 22 other than getting [censored] and badly hitting on girls? Form at that age fluctuates, especially when you're a KPP in a struggling team with a questionable midfield We have 99 problems but Tom Mcadonald ain't one Please also note correlation between drop in form and Salem's hamstrings. Too much extra responsibility to play attacking role which is not his shtick.

Yep, teams have a habit of coming out the week after a thrashing trying to reinstate some respect. We only seem to nab wins by surprise and always drop the ones we're expected to win. Frustrating but it's an ongoing theme for us. The fact that we're favourites in the betting sends a shiver up my spine.

My talents are many and varied PSD

Tell you what - I'd offer a "ridiculous" 6- 8 year deal to O'Meara if he was a chance. FMD twice over - imagine him in our midfield.

Hope so - he'll get 2

If you think its bad now just wait til that boring tosspot Brendon Goddard gets a job in the media when he retires

King at full forward completely baffles me. Has only just been promoted to VFL level. And no Cross who has been one of our best defenders? I'm hoping you misread the thread title and have done a team of our 'best 22- 2018'

Just about threw up when I heard Dean Wallis accuse ASADA of being thugs. Takes one to know one I guess.

Never forget...

But Dees they have Mark Neeld and the reality bus on staff to take over?!

Not much has been said about Phil's son, Cy except for a story with 'nomad' in the headline. Much has been noted about Phil rebuilding his relationship with Cy. While casually reading the sports reports I came across this from Alan Richardson: "I didn't have a lot to do with Phil. I had a lot to do with getting him to Port Adelaide. I met with Phil halfway through the year when he was with West Coast," Richardson said. "It was pretty clear his want was to get to Adelaide to get closer to his son." At the core of his being, whether drug affected or not, Cy would know that he was a much loved son. At some level he would know that his father was making up for lost time, the time lost with him. So it is unimaginable what Cy will go thru. He will have to live with his crime. More than that he will have to live without anymore time with his father. He has deprived himself of one of life's most precious gifts. That may be a greater burden than any the justice system can issue. Here is a young man who seems to have done no wrong in the past. But in a moment of frenzy has shattered his own world and the world of those he loves and love him. I feel great compassion for him. I hope he is treated well by the press as the story unfolds. And if there is to be a lesson from this tragedy it is to tell your family you love them. And, it is to spend time with them, to do things with them. This was so beautifully said in the song: 'Cats in the cradle':

I'm calling the non-call in the third after we kicked two goals and looked like getting back into the game. Nate Jones was leading for the loose ball and Yeo tackled him to prevent him from getting to it. No call, WC get the clearance and they paid a free to a WC forward for a goal. Absolute momentum-killing moment from the umpires. Imagine if we'd been paid that free and scored from it. Suddenly we're back within a goal and have all the momentum with us. Watts seems to have figured out that he has time and that he can take a tackle and still get a good ball away. If you look at the way he's played the last three or four games, when he gets the ball in tight spaces rather than panicking he's accepting the tackle, keeping his hands clear and taking a little extra time to hit a target. It seems to have clicked for him that contact isn't a bad thing.

Bombers weren't to bad against Hawks and Meth Coast in their previous outings before the bye, Like Brissy today for 3/4's, Suns yesterday and Toiges yesterday you must bring the right attitude because if you go into any AFL game with the wrong mindset it is gone and their tails are up before you can do anything about it leaving yourself playing catch up and using a hell of a lot of tickets in the process which is not ideal coming back from the heat of Darwin. We need to bring the intensity to this game which we brough to Geelong, Richmond and Dogs, make it known early we are switched on hit them harder than the Saints hot them this week under no circumstances do we allow them to get any confidence up. Play the video of 2013 in the closing stages and what they did to us and what they did to our fans, show them Bomber blitz and us being tin rattlers, Long's hit on Simmonds in 2000, numerous Matty Lloyd articles/interviews slating us, fook em do whatever it takes but it is time to make a statement against this club we haven't forgotten and our time is coming

If Hird doesn't get sacked this week and he has truly lost the players this could be a great opportunity to get some revenge. It will be a massive blow to lose Brayshaw though, that kids been phenomenal.

Wouldn't surprise me if we lose this game, after which I will tear all my hair out and question all my life choices

When a team goes in tall to expose the opposition defence you need to at least have players who can mark the ball, otherwise you are not exposing anything other than the fact you don't have the cattle to do the job. I'm sick to death of people posting rubbish on here about so & so's work rate, leadership, how they provide a contest ...bring the ball to ground. Contest & bring the ball to ground...we had 4 players in our forward line to do that job on the weekend and when they did get to the contest and bring it to ground WC waltzed away with the ball. A novel idea is to get some players who can mark the ball and a few others who can crumb and provide defensive pressure. I think Howe in current form is a waste of space, Dawes needs to be traded or retired and we can only go in with one true ruck. Someone seemed to think those of us wanting Harmes to get a game are delusional, well that might be but his form has been good, he is a tough inside player who can play outside, kicks a goal and can take a strong mark. I might be delusional but I think we could use someone with those traits.

Just as we happily call them 'Essendrug' and 'Essendope' among other things on here. It works both ways.

I think he lives in Elwood.

I hope Roos reminds the boys that the week after we lost to Hawthorn by 105 points, and had 20 less scoring shots, we came out and beat Footscray the next week by 39 points.

Can't wait for Jones, Vince, Tyson, Viney, Salem, Vanders, Brayshaw, ANB, Petracca, Trenners to play in the same side.

I gathered the stats, analysed them, had them peer reviewed, and presented them to the UN: since 1987 in Melbourne versus West Coast games, WC have had 52,542 free kicks to Melbourne's 23.

He's been doing it most of the year, too. Wonderful pick up for this club. Love his work.

We were beaten by a very good midfield last night, The big men did ok. Our midfield and backline didnt provide the run into our forward line the way WC did, which made it harder for the resting ruckman and other forwards..We missed lumumba and Brayshaw last night who run the ball out of our defense and get the ball going forward so often.

If last night's game is anything to go by, West Coast's delivery in to the forward line is second to none. Low, fast rockets all the time, impossible to defend I think. If I watched the game as a neutral and not a frustrated MFC supporter I'd have been very impressed.

Viney was good. Howe was just behind Brayshaw in effectiveness.