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Gawn the only ruckman picked

It started Saturday afternoon.

Regardless of who he supports, nothing he said is wrong. All of those who would excuse in any way, a 100+ point loss, regardless of youth/lastgameofseason/no top 8 spot on the line/insert excuse, only serve to make us weaker, by giving the soft underbelly of our club some wiggle room. Utter disgust is the only way my feelings about that game can be summed up, and it's still us (this time joined by the tigs), who are a laughing stock.

Not in my view. Typical example of Monday 48 hour syndrome. If MFC supporters are so stupid as to let one very poor performance colour their view of the future I wish them a long and miserable summer. Anyone with half a brain could see we were cooked for the last two games and were probably cooked from the midway through the 2nd quarter against Port. Young team, huge efforts against West Coast, Suns, Hawks and another away trip to PA and they were clearly exhausted. Couldn't run. It's pretty easy sitting in our chairs to be critical of effort but I doubt any of us have any idea of the mental and physical toll 6 months or so of competitive AFL footy has on the body - unless of course you've done it. Roos has said time and time again how young we are. Does anyone really think that playing older teams with games and preseasons under their belt isn't a significant disadvantage? Give me a break. Connolly of course wants to be "hard hitting" but his analysis covers 48 hours and not the progress we've made this season. So the irrational naysayers can slit their wrists for all I care. I'll watch the Hawks replay and think of another year under the belt of numerous talented youngsters, the added strength and experience of two former Bombers (how that must niggle the Ivory Tower brigade especially since our Coach was "first in line for the good stuff) and the promise that next year holds. Crap article by Connolly. Rubbish, garbage, junk and sadly misguided.

Geelong are always good with the outfits. Mitch Clark is going to rock up dressed as an AFL player this year which will be a hoot. Can't wait to see what Terls brings to the table. Trengove was planning on going as Usain Bolt But that idea was quickly shut down by H. Pedo apparently will be coming dressed as Cardinal Pell.

Let the blood flow. Hope the media swarm over the [censored] pile of bottom clubs. I hope Brendan Bolton starts getting the blow torch next year . Boring twerp . About as charismatic as Siri.

The longer Richmond and Collingwood keep Hardwick and Buckley, the longer they'll languish. Give them both 10 year deals!

How dare he!? That's OUR job! No coincidence that he's laying in the boots on the same weekend the EFC won. It's the duffle coat talking.

Hardwick must have some photos because how else does he survive? It's the fault of everyone who reports to me that is the problem! It's not me, they just won't follow orders? Really not sure how he can survive given that the club has recognised the need for a purge of their coaching and player development.

Hard to argue with him, however maybe next time to keep some credibility he could use an example that doesn't involve his team. After all Essendon played against a bottom 5 team at the MCG, both Melbourne & Richmond played away to top 2 teams. I would have thought the obvious comparison would have been Collingwood yesterday. Nothing like gutter journalism!

I have never come across anyone in my life who misinterprets and jumps to conclusions like you do, it's a gift.

My god this thread is rubbish, he started the season as one of the best mids in the comp and he's tired and been tagged, he's very young, he'll learn and build his fitness like the rest of our side. i am 100% sure Jack Viney is of no concern to the coaching staff, he'll be a jet for the next 10 years, it'll be for the MFC and he'll be our next captain, he got touched up by Danger sure, but basically everyone who's come up against Danger this year has.

There's an article on the Box Hill v Casey game by Paul Amy of the Leader Newspapers ~ Box Hill Hawks farewell Iles, Casey Scorpions say hello to finals which might provide us with a clue to the Pedersen omission for the Carlton game. Amy discusses the long list of MFC players available for the Scorpions' finals campaign and then says, "But the Scorpions will have to do their premiership bidding without Cam Pedersen, who was among their best against Box Hill, his former club. "He slotted three goals — one after taking a ripper mark, another after converting from a tight shot in front of the terraces — but he played with a shoulder injury and will go in for surgery, an indication that he’s in Melbourne’s plans for 2017." The suspect shoulder may well be the reason that he wasn't played in those two final games.

He's 22 and has had 2 poor weeks in a breakout year

Jack Fitzpatrick played his first game for Hawthorn today after being delisted by the demons at the end of 2015. He kicked the matchwinning last goal of the game that secured Hawthorn a top 4 spot. A fantastic roving off his own ruck work to run forward and let fly from 65 metres. In the post match interview he said it was only his 3rd win of his career since his debut in 2011. Now is well placed to feature in September. Good luck to Jack.

After the Port Adelaide match

He's undefeated in every game he has coached thus far.

Interesting. "Brisbane Lions Football Club sack Justin Leppitch" "Damien Hardwick sacks Richmond Tigers Football Club"

Five scapegoats. The buck stops with the senior coach.

Should never have let him go in the first place.

Puts Chris from Camberwell to shame: https://t.co/hSLZWRxvz2

I wouldn't have had Pendlebury or Scully. Zac Merrett had a better year than Scully.

I think this should be put away in the 'emphatic meh' basket. "Let's cherry-pick which veterans and speculative picks worked out well and declare we made a terrible mistake missing that opportunity"

If your name is Pendlebury you get an automatic spot every season even if you dont deserve it

Wouldn't go as far as "deserves success". Nathan Jones deserves success. I agree that it's pretty hard to hold anything against Fitzy though. He's no better a player now than he was with us, but he's found himself in the right place at the right time, as can happen sometimes. Good luck to him.

My mail is after Hurley, Hooker etc and Watson to come, the Bombers had to offload someone and Hibberd is the one. We made an offer to him and Bombers declined to even match it, in either years or amount. That is why there is such love between the parties. This is a unanimous deal, with ex club and player happy.

Are you going Saty? Can you post real time updates please?

In many ways the fallout of the past two weeks is that it gave ammo back to those with an axe to grind against our footy club. The Damien Barrett, Greg Denham, Rohan Connolly brigade will start up with this stuff again when they had largely fallen silent or turned their aim on other clubs. Anyone who watches MFC enough knows we improved this year, and has good reason to believe we will again next year. But the meek, shameful performances in the last two weeks gave the portion of the media determined to protect North and Essendrug by potting Melbourne enough that for the next six months we will hear how Kelly is better than Tyson and Salem, that Hogan is going and that Goodwin may not be a good coach and Melbourne may not be improving. None of these things may be true, but these muppets will peddle it, and perhaps our players deserve it after those games. The great shame is that MFC supporters don't deserve to hear it again, we have stuck fat and have a lot to be proud of and to look forward to. Our season was more promising than at least 7 other clubs, but you won't hear that. I admit I was hoping for a good showing against Carlton and Geelong (aside from the obvious finals chance) because it would make this offseason the quietest one on the MFC bagging front for many years. The players now owe the fans the crap (like this RC article) we will now have to put up with for six months and that is bloody annoying, improvement or no.

Not sure a 69 year old (69 next month) who hasn't coached for nearly a decade and whose last appointment as coach was a failure would be my choice.

I wonder at the comment we didn't try. We had 40 less disposals than the Cats and were better in some categories. Where we lost badly was in ball use. We were also as a result, down in inside 50's. Our ball use was disgusting. That led to countless clangers and turnovers and easy Cats goals. You don't get the ball without trying. We got the ball and butchered it. What would have happened if our ball use was at say 75-80%, a closer game. Then we wouldn't all be so upset. We desperately need to fix up our ball use. It is our biggest problem.

it's hard to be positive when you finish the year with two really bad losses. It has been a strange year with Dunn & Garland, two of our stalwart defenders no longer able to get a game, Dawes & Lumumba falling by the wayside through injury. looking back it has been a watershed year with the changing of the guard. The kids have shown that they can play AFL footy, we won 10 were very close on another 4-5 times. Nat Jones, Bernie Vince, Jack Viney & Big Max were all showing signs of wear and tear after the PA game in Adelaide. We broke a few more hoo dood's, in games that count. We have a talented list of young players that Can Play AFL, they will continue to grow and improve. Our leaders will lick their wounds and come back stronger than before and we will break some more hoo doo's next year and beat more teams that we have struggled to compete against in the past, we could be playing Finals if this team lives up to expectations, it could be a second coming of our '87 & '98 teams who possessed both the talent and the belief. We need the FD to bring in another 3-4 players that can improve our overall list for an extended run of Finals Footy, hopefully culminating in a FLAG!!! GO DEE's!!!

And if people want to classify it as 'second year blues', I've never seen second year blues as good as this.

Disagree, M. Jones certainly showed improvement, Bugg was welcomed and VB did more than enough to stick around.

It is a 23 week Season not 21 Weeks for the players to switch off after the Port game is not on The same excuses i have heard for a decade.

Sorry, I can't look past Connolly's Essendon colours shining through in that article. An opportunity to turn the disgrace that is the EFC and their supporters into the feel good story of the year. Pass the bucket. As for the contrast with the MFC (which is just an excuse to pump up his own club imo), it's a sad end to the year and the Roos era, but as VP alludes to, when you remove the emotion it can be explained to a degree. Articles that give little creed to reasons outside of "the players don't care" are basically lazy. The youth at all costs policy adopted at selection this season yielded some pleasing and surprising results, but the bite in the backside seemed inevitable, and it arrived in the last two weeks. My greatest hope is that the last game acts as a driver for the players over the off season.

You need an explanation? wow. Something happened that I take exception to as a supporter, in that I disagree that the teams effort was fine and acceptable, and that we should think a 111 point loss is ok because the boys were tired. Standards are spoken about often, particularly in regards to a clubs culture. If you are prepared to swat away anything that is negative, then you accept a repeat. Hawthorn have not "copped" slack standards of effort for the past 3 years, which has contributed to a run of 3 consecutive premierships. That's not "copping" anything unacceptable from your playing list. It's probably the most common phrase in football. Why would anyone need to explain that to you?

Always liked him, happy for him to have a big moment to tell the grandkids. No hard feelings and don't feel like the club make the wrong decision, either.

Really? Why? Whats he done wrong to us? We delisted him after a long struggle with a variety of illnesses. He tried hard and gave his all. I'm so happy to see him get a second chance, and as much as I hate Hawthorn I'm thrilled to see him getting a go. Deserves success!

Was great to see Fitzy slot that goal from long distance. He's had a long, hard road, and I'm thrilled for him that he's been given another chance. Just hope he gets to now play in September! Would be great reward for perseverance.

so don't use him as a tagger. vince was the obvious tagger for danger/

We don't have to upgrade the deal, it is done.

We're already there, or worse. At least they used to come 9th.

But he's right?

I can't believe some of the critics, Jesse is a second year player, he's still miles ahead of any key forward i can remember in their second year in the modern history of the comp and he's definitely been down this year. Jesse will enjoy some time off, come back in shape, get his goal kicking sorted and i am backing him to kick 60 next year and get his contract sorted somewhere in between now and round 1, i reckon if he's going to request a trade he'll do it this off season.

I think Stuie is a closet Pedo fan. Roos calls him Pedo on TV, it's his nickname.

Delighted for Fitzy - that goal was about the only kick all day that wasn't a shank of some sort. The tragedy for Fitzy is he probably won't play the next game when McEvoy returns. But I'm dirty on him! If Hawks had lost they would be playing WCE in Perth and not Cats at MCG. Win or lose their next game is at the MCG. Get my drift. At worst they play the Prelim interstate. Can't bear for Hawks to be in the GF again and it seems they now have a dream run to it with their games predominately at the G. I will be really filthy if they fluke another flag after 5 wins within a goal!

Was very happy for him. Was a great goal!

Where was a Thread When he was starring earlier in year. There is too much negative & not enough posotive this bloke would die for the club. How about going after players that don't put up effort reguarly instead of going after Viney he is not the problem