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Can't wait to see Viney, Petracca, Oliver and Gus playing together in the same team.

Spoke to him earlier this year and he is now 202cms and he said one of his main targets is to put muscle on over the next couple of years. These blokes who can ruck and play forward and kick goals don't grow on trees. He will be given time. We gave plenty who will go before him.

29 disposals, named in the best, a couple of goals and presumably on reduced game time after a long lay off. Seems like a pretty fair effort from Gus.

You want me to make a new thread for one post? This is the most relevant thread for it so live with it

Kharma is a b.tch. Brad Scott complaining about the terrible standard of umpiring. Sicily modeling his game on Ducker Thomas. Hawks just continue getting away with it. Cyril's throws,blocking the man standing on the mark,creeping over the mark,plays on all favour Hawks. Take away their skill at cheating and blowing the umps and they are nothing special. Clarkson and Mitchell have piggish faces on their short stupid bodies.They speak through their noses and have bogan monotones. Strike them down with thunder , Thor, and end them. I hate Smiley Mitchell more than No mates Harvey I think I just hate short ,skillful footballers who need a punch in the head. I want these guys targeted with EXTREME PREJUDICE. Sicily is my newest object of hatred-I am the boot of Italy and he is the Shyte on the end. I think I just woke up hating short men-they are nearly all detestable. Put them in a Hawks/North jumper and it compounds.

This has nothing to do with footy but I just wanted to share with my fellow Dee's. My son played his basketball under 14 Division 1 Grand Final today and won by 5 points. His team played exceptional "team" Bball, the best of the season He played the first three quarters like a bucket of puss and then came out in the last and nailed all his shots including a three point play. So proud that all his hard work has Paid off. BTW the team they beat went undefeated during the normal season. It was a great day.

That approach didnt work with Gawn so why repeat the same mistake......oh wait...

Shhh everything is fine

Round 4 - 2015 the Dockers had a good win over the swans. Round 5 - 2015 the Swans were coming up against the improving Dogs at the SCG and were expected to have them covered. In hard and wet conditions the Dogs played fantastic tough and skilled footy to beat the Swans by 4 points. From a football season perspective it was a season and a half ago. 18 months if you like. Paul Roos has repeatedly said that he believes we are about 18 months behind the Bulldogs from a development stand point. Tomorrows game will give a strong indication of where we are. I think we can win. It will be hard and wet conditions just as it was last year. The Swans team that lost to the dogs was stronger from a personnel perspective. We keep waiting for a statement game. I'm hoping that this will be it.

I was being facetious. Player contract amounts aren't something I give any real thought towards. As long as we are fitting all our key players under the cap, I'm happy. It's why I've never understood the complaints over what we were/are paying Dawes. We had a minimum spend, and Dawes was around at the right time to be deemed worthy of the reported salary he was given. Good luck to him.

Finally someone's tackling the tough issues. Ta ET.

Same. Brayshaw is a gun. At the end of last year he looked by far and away the best talent of the 2014 draft. But he has had a slow start this year - not helped by an injury interrupted pre-season, and now a series of concussions. I have no doubt he will be an A grader. Those 4 will make a very ruthless midfield. Very competitive - and physical - young guys.

Good to see Brayshaw with 13 disposals and 1 goal. Hulett with 11 disposals and 3 goals is impressive.

C- post

I am seriously over worrying about what players stay or go. If they want to be here they will stay if not then don't let the door hit u on the way out.

First time poster.... interesting when comparing direct opponents on afl match centre team sheets using afl rankings Melbourne actually leads 13 to 9. Last week against Collingwood it was 11 each. Sydney has the 5 highest players then drop away to quite a few inexperienced players. They are missing 7 players from there finals loss to north last year. If a player like Tommy bugg can do a similar tagging job on one of there gun mids like last week it could really tip the balance as they seem to rely on those top five players. Go the jugular Dees!

Here are some of the comments from this thread ... all of the below comments came from different posters (and no double ups) All the comments could be interpreted as "letting him walk" (depending on which side of the argument one sits on) " Doesn't bother me either way." (whether he re-signs or not) "Would love to sign Cale Hooker as a free agent then trade McDonald out." " Selfish sod! If he doesn't want to be part of what the club is building and just looking out for himself then just go,Tom!!" " I'm sorry, but if a player with the weaknesses of Tom McDonald tried to hold us over a barrel, i know where i'd tell him to go." " Seems like the Howe situation all over again" " If he left I'd lose no sleep." " He may want to join creepy at Hawthorn." " This guy is not worth 400k a year, and if he doesn't sign, he has to be traded - a huge win for the club." " If Tom Mcd doesn't want to buy into that team culture, then he can and should go." " After today I really don't care if he doesn't sign." Furthermore, he's played well in the last 4 games and hasn't made any glaring errors ... so much so that both coaches gave him votes in the game against the Pies. He's not an A grade defender but is that a crime? He may well reach the heights of A grade status but I have no expectation that he will do so. We all see the same footballer but 'expectations' often govern where we sit on a player. I'm constantly amazed and astonished at the unrealistic expectations that people have with footballers - primarily, they all get to be as good as they can be.

North need to realise, before they implode completely, that Brad Scott will not lead them to a premiership.

I'm Derryn Hinch

The quickest way to fix the ducking and staging is to charge the offending players using video evidence ... asking the umpires to sort it all out when they've already got an impossible job to do is unrealistic. The AFL needs to act but they won't (at least not for now) ... they are poor custodians when being good custodians is their basic task/job. If there isn't a dollar in it for them, they either won't act or are super-slow to act. The latest controversy could easily be viewed as helping to maintain high interest (from the AFL's point of view) ... they'll act when these sort of things effects the viewer numbers (eg the rotations and how the high rotations led to numerous stoppages & congestion)

Let's not forget that there was a fair bit of ducking by certain Hawthorn players when we played them a fortnight ago.

Rubbish. That was a victory in the war against staging. Cyril barely touched him under the arm and he threw his head back. Great umpiring, good for the game.

I reckon the North bloke threw his head back and played for a free kick, Cyril barely got him. Deserved to be pinged for holding the ball.

He's recently turned 25. Has a lot of footy ahead.

We are 9th now lol, love your work Freo!

I think you will find Shane Warnes camera man is responsible....

I think SWYL said it best. Wasn't so long ago that they won three in a row. Perhaps they can go through a little fcucking hardship like the rest of us. Character building.

Disagree.

This is a bloke's career and he and his Manager are entitled to take their time and get the best outcome, without any concern to supporters impatience. I find it funny that supporters think they know what salaries players should get and get affronted when players want to get what they think they are worth in the marketplace. FWIW i think both Macs will be with us for some time yet.

JW is having a fantastic year and everyone should be delighted. Done.

I've said before. Use video after games, give a warning, then a $1000 fine, then. $5000 fine, then if a fourth time suspend them.

I'm a pleb and I take offense to this nomenclatural co-opting of my class identifier for pejorative purposes.

I had some trouble trying to decide who to barrack for last night. Until I remembered who was North's coach.

A round of AFL footy wouldn't be complete without one of the Scott's having a whinge.

I met Martin Flanagan (at the footy) through a mutual friend. He's a top bloke!! He even bought me a beer. Love his writing too.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/expert-opinion/chris-mcdermott/memo-to-essendon-keep-your-hands-off-john-worsfold/news-story/ad178d269c3d759344431fabe3fae230 What at a fing [censored] you are John.

Pretty disrespectful to the bloke who keeps this site going so you can fill up your free time reading it. Just saying.

Didn't hear Brad Scott criticise the umpiring when they got a great run from them against us in Tassie

Its hard to imagine an umpire actually saying that. More likely: Lindsay won't get a free kick because he ducked (...meaning in this instance). Scott said they won't lodge a complaint! If he has a legitimate case then take it to the AFL...don't just bleat on TV about it, stirring up a frenzy and more headlines!!

Max King is a big man and they take time to develop. His problem is that he is playing second fiddle to Jake Spencer as a ruckman at Casey and Jake is probably one of the dominant ruckmen regularly getting a game in the VFL and he can't get a look in at AFL level because of Max Gawn's outstanding play at Melbourne over the past 12 months (I would have played Spencer against the Swans this week to take advantage of their ruck weakness without Tippet). The club was also trying to make a key forward position player out of him but he also has opposition in that area at Casey with Tim Smith, Liam Hulett and Sam Weideman fighting for KFP places. His form this year hasn't been all that great (the conditions at Casey and the fact that they've played a few times under lights haven't helped the big man) and I think he needs a big second half of the season to assure himself of a place on the list next year.

We'll play finals if we win tomorrow.

Will go down in history as one of our finest, not only for his career, but how he conducted himself, stayed loyal and bought a lot of belief and mate ship over a young team. Anyone disputing that, gtfo.

Did you watch the Casey match? I don't think the extra day to recover would outweigh the slog they had to endure. No point in replacing a tired player with a buggered one.

Wouldn't get the 2 completely intertwined. Roos clearly viewed Howe as expendable last year, especially with the footy department desire to bring in competitors. Macca is a competitor, is on the leadership group and is our number one key back. My mail is and has been for a while that he will sign soon as well as an extension to oscar, around the bye. Just out of curiosity, have you or anyone else ever seen a player contract? I mean, there are literally pages of criteria and elements that go with the salary. My pet hate of the media is saying "player X is on a deal for 750,000 a season." For example. That's never the case, unless player X played all 22 games, plus media contributions, kpi's met and so on. 750k is the absolute maximum speculated. Very rarely is it accurate.

I reckon a club would do well to rookie him. He's worth a punt imo (assuming he's delisted subject to contract status).

Yeah your on your own there mate..

When people are quoting dictionary meanings, it's time to leave the thread.