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Was happy to see that Nev has been nominated for this award for his community work, along with Bartel, Harbrow and Hombsch. It's a great achievement to be nominated. Well done Nev http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-09-04/four-finalists-revealed-for-jim-stynes-community-award

Are you serious? 60% of clubs have tanked in one form or another. We got thrown under the bus unfairly. CC and bailey were made scapegoats. I hated it when we were tanking, but to say that CC shouldn't be allowed to comment on football is mind-numbingly stupid. Answer this. Should Bomber Thompson be allowed to comment on football given that he was part of something far more heinous than CC? Jakovich was correct in his response apart from getting personal. For this he's a moron.

He might be a slider. I hear he carries a bit of baggage.

It's a tough time for our Richmond friends. Lets help them out with a few nominations for their new board. My nominations are - The toothless pensioner who holds up the 'TIGER TOUGH ' sign in the cheer squad. - The drunken bum from the front bar of the 'Spread Eagle Hotel' ( any one of them) - The Richmond chapter president of the ' Under the bridge wine appreciation society ' - Dustin Martins chopsticks - The guy who signed off on Dimmas contract extension - Harambe

Disagree, very bad Karma to make comments like this. Be careful what you wish for. Coming from decades of despair, I feel sorry for the true Tiger supporters. I don't know why people should get such pleasure out of the miseries of others. They are a true blue footy club with a rich history and culture and real supporters unlike many of the franchised or new clubs that have been created out of the ether. Go Tiges.

Trenners didn't play a top rated game, as has been reported earlier. But I have to say that I saw him make a couple of absolutely crunching tackles, one of them after a turnover of his own doing, when he was super motivated to make amends. Just be aware from what I saw that you don't want to be on JT's bad side in a dark alley when he's angry. On the 2 occasions I recall yesterday, he literally ran and launched himself horizontally at the oncoming ball carrier, who wasn't always looking in the JT direction, hit the surprised opponent with his shoulder in the oppos midriff, wrapped him up with arms around him and with his flying momentum, brought the oppo to earth - all in one bone-jarring motion. I just love his intensity and hope he can bring the rest of his game along at the same level to reach AFL level.

If we could somehow thieve Hanley from them it would be a good result. Im not really concerned about solving their problems.

Going out on a limb and suggesting he won't be on our list next year...

He wasn't even accurate - Connolly was at Melbourne during the late 80s when we were successful and higher up the pecking order than West Coast. He also took Freo to their first finals series and the their first Prelim. To call both sides 'crap clubs' is untrue. Connolly didn't cover himself in glory with the tanking stuff, but whilst tanking is out of vogue now, it was very much in fashion back then. Clubs that went on to win premierships clearly tanked. Perhaps the weirdest thing of his whole rant was that he said he "flew the flag" for the WA clubs with regards to All-Australian selection. Um...shouldn't you just picking blokes on merit?

Let's play AFL Board Challenge Bingo. Take a drink every time one of challengers utters one of these phrases: empower the members worlds best practice too long complacent immediately search for best available coach (two drinks if it's an "exhaustive" search) setting standards throughout the club from top to bottom rightful place at the top of the ladder legacy of Tommy Hafey core business of football

If hibberd costs anymore than our second rounder then it's time to walk away

I'll be making the effort to phone in and take Jakovich to task on this. In my opinion, the bloke just disgraced himself as an immature commentator who obviously has an axe to grind with Cuddles. Why bother bringing the club into it? What a clown.

Surely they're not trying that on? That's a parlour game for bored supporters in the off season. Yes, they may have ballsed up their recruiting. But to suggest the above is a possible game day lineup ... tell 'em they're dreaming! Every club can groan about "the ones that got away". (Except maybe GCS/GWS where they had a bigger net than everyone else.) Is this an example of the constructive thinking that this new board is going to indulge in? Might as well put on a hair shirt and whip yourself with thorns for all the good it does. There is no backwards. There is only forwards.

Loved the byline: "We're 35 years into a 5 year plan".

Toby Mitchell is experienced at running a powerful club and he has proved capable of taking a hit for the team. Would be the perfect choice as President .

I would have thought so too, but I saw something very interesting last week at my son's kinder. They had a father's day event and we were all invited down to play games with the kids. I noticed on the wall, there was an AFL logo for every club, and a picture of a kid under it, showing who each one barracks for. Melbourne had the equal second highest (5 kids, tied with Richmond), with Collingwood #1 with 6. We're in Berwick, so I'm not sure if the club's Casey alignment has had a larger impact here than in other parts of the state, but it was quite a welcome surprise. Not sure if I should disclose this, for the pitchforks may appear, but I noticed my own son's picture was not under the MFC logo. His picture stood alone, under the Lions. I asked him about it later and he said "I know we go for Melbourne but the Lion was lonely so I said Lions." I have failed to instruct my own child in the unrelenting harshness of football tribalism. I beg everyone's forgiveness whilst I correct this egregious oversight.

Allsop is an absolute livewire. Watched him a few times this year and his got every toll required to be a great small fwd at AFL level. Let him develop a few years and he will be a consistent performer for our mighty Dees. He got 3 best on grounds at the medal last night as a small fwd all in games that had the national championship kids playing 2 of which were against Murruy and Sandy so the kids a big game player and also already has plenty of senior experience im told.

Hypocrisy thy name is Jacko! Tanking accusations from a side that managed to pull Luke Shuey as a priority pick in the 2008 draft just 2 seasons after winning a drug fuelled flag! Give me a break.

Personally, I'd be happy to see one of the Queensland teams fold and be replaced by a Tasmanian team.

Because it is not longer up for discussion; a deal has been agreed.

Or alternatively... they know it's time to blow it all up and re-build. Why destroy the career of a young up & coming coach by putting him in a no-win situation (Leppitsch/Primus style) when you have a dud in place to steer the ship? Get some talent in, turn the list over, then jettison Hardwick.

Sorry mate, didn't get any sympathy from the ones I know during the past 10 years or so. I think we need to get some rivalry going not be friends with our rivals.

He is a proud indigenous man who wants to give back, the Juvenile Justice Centre is actually Jeff Garlett's, Nev embraced it along with a few of the other players when Jeff arrived at the Club he is also proud of the best practice process for indigenous players at Footy Clubs that he and Shaun Burgoyne are involved in producing Has a very dry sense of humour when you get to know him

How about the guy who spewed all over himself during the Sydney game?

I did my knee playing for my local cricket club and it was covered by an insurance company the club provided me. How is it the AFL and the clubs can't cover medical insurance for the womens league. Touch of (sick) irony that our major sponsor is iSelect. On the player payments side of things, I accept that the women aren't going to be getting nearly as much on average as the men however if those are the terms that the AFL put forward that is disturbingly inept. For one, the risk of injury and so putting them out of their other careers should be a factor. Secondly they should be at least be examining an average for a decent wage in Australia and making sure that is the bare minimum for what they get in the week. This was always going to be the concern with taking up with the womens competition, that it could potentially be a strain on club finances. But the AFL has chosen to go ahead with it, and we have chosen to be a part of it; to half ass it would be a disgrace to the game and sport in the country.

Abe, seriously? For someone they are keen to off load because they have given his sal cap to other players? So you really think we need to give up our 3rd round pick as well to get back their crappy 4th rnd pick? Surely they have no leverage here and if we do that deal we are bending over.

Essendon took drugs and cheated to win games and are getting rewarded with pick 1. Stop dredging up tanking in one season, as a reason for denying a PP after 10 years of crap.

Just saw Dr Hiscock on The Couch and he sounded like some of the delusional flogs on here. It's extraordinary hearing smart men sound like dopes when it comes to footy.

If all Connolly did was criticise an AA omission Jakovich's reply was completely over the top. CC is perfectly entitled to make such a criticism, after all, that's pretty much what every footy fan in Australia has done since last week. Jako must have a thin skin. No doubt he's aware that while he was a gun player, he's only a commentator because he was a gun player. Nothing he's ever said proves him to be anything other than your token jock. If Connolly said anything more, Jako was probably still OTT, but it's hard to see CC having a similarly caustic cut at Jako.

I reckon we should all stay very quiet at this stage, we're only 1/2 way through our rebuild, hardly time for us to be getting gleeful at others expense... Many teams I'd prefer to implode before the Tigers. Eg. Hawks, Cats, Blues, Dons, GWS, ...

Ironically the plan is to weaken the only part of their operation that is being proactive and successful. Off field they're kicking lots of goals with membership numbers that we could only dream of. The admimistration is not lacking, it's a lack of decent players that's going to hold them back for years.

Hiscock also said the game plan has to change. Sounds like the only reason Hardwick is staying on is because two years left on his contract would be too costly to payout.

Damien Hardwick should be renamed Damned Hardttoflick.

Nothing. He's Unrestricted Free Agent.

Isn't intellectual property and Carlton somewhat oxymoronic?

Vickery rarely rucks and when he does he's no better at it than Colin Sylvia. If he had shown anything then I'd agree with you. Would prefer Daw but in the light of recent delistings it would appear North are persevering with him. For our current situation, Spencil is perfect. Perfect. He's no Max Gawn or Goldstein but he is good enough at AFL level to provide a genuine contest, ensuring we don't get smashed should Gawn get injured and need a week or two out. He seems to understand where he's at and while he won't stop trying to get into the ones, will continue to ply his trade at VFL level. He's not so good that other clubs will try to cherry pick him as was the case with previous #2 ruckmen Troy Simmonds or Darren Jolly. I reckon he's ours as long as we want him and he's bloody great insurance Reckon Spencil would be quietly chuffed if he'd read his name as a potential trade target !

For some reason I could never imagine reading this from you if Jamar was in a Melbourne jumper...

Is that the sound of a bell? You seem to be only able to comprehend "attractiveness" as a binary concept - not attractive or attractive, vacuum or black hole. But attractiveness is a graduated interval scale. It is clear that Simon Goodwin's peanut butter on toast is more attractive than Mark Neeld's [censored] sandwich even if Patrick Dangerfield prefers crayfish on brioche served by Moggs Creek mermaids and wont eat either of them. [censored] sandwich - Peanut butter toast - Crayfish on brioche. Get it? Anyway, you wont be the last dueler whose hand was blown off and face was blackened by the back-fire of his own malfunctioning ill-maintained muscat. No, the fact that Jesse Hogan has not yet re-signed does not refute my argument that we are now more attractive. In fact it's quite possibly the reverse - that he'd already be gone if we weren't. The indisputable, uncontradictable, empirical evidence of this that you're looking for is that Jack Watts and his father both said that he would have left and not re-signed if things hadn't improved at MFC. Apparently Michael Hibberd likes peanut butter.

With all the talk about our need for a 2nd ruck who can play forward, I know his name's been mentioned, but surprised there's been no thread started. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-08-30/dockers-ruckman-zac-clarke-weighing-up-a-fresh-start http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/player-profile/zachary-clarke Free agent, and will be exploring his options. At 203cm, 96 kg, 101 games under his belt and turning 27 at the start of next season he fits the bill. He's reasonably mobile for a big man also. I agree that only 46 goals in 101 games isn't brilliant, but the change of scenery could certainly help. Even if he only kicks 1 a game, he should help our structure and could play more as a decoy forward for the likes of Hogan, Garlett & Watts. Would allow Gawn to spend a bit more time forward also. Given the only cost would be salary cap space, I reckon a slightly generous 2 year deal to get him to the club should get it done. Then after 2 years you can actually pay him what he's properly worth. Hopefully by then Mitch King has developed a bit more and if we draft one of or both of Dacry Cameron & Oscar McInerney who may be ready for serious game time. Clarke may not even be required by then anyway and I certainly prefer him to Vickery! Thoughts?

No, that's the whole point, it is hard to find someone to play that role well. Vickery can't/won't ruck, Vardy is injured all the time, there's no evidence Clarke can play forward and Jenkins isn't available. Who is this not hard to find someone that you have in mind? Valuing Spencer and looking for a forward-ruck aren't mutually exclusive - we should be doing both.

There appears to be no other team chasing this guy I wonder why? We should low ball him and see what happens Third round pick is all and be prepared to walk

Rubbish. His kicking is a strength. He's penetrating and accurate across 50 metres on either foot. His shorter kicking isn't as good, but it's certainly not an easily exploitable weakness. Gus needs to work on his tank and getting it more. If he can do that, he'll be a damaging player in 2 years time and possibly one of the top mids in the game.

I see a question mark in there but I don't see a question. Surely that's not an actual question?

Another idea might be for you to simply ignore this thread and not try to shut down discussion that obviously is of interest to others.

Tracc is a better basketball er than Watts. Following you logic he should be our 2nd ruck. Watts is a highly valuable forward hitting his peak who should not be used in the ruck where big guys crash their bodies at each other. The ruck position isn't about "a bit of a challenge" chap.

Do you think Watts is going to tell a supporter he doesn't enjoy playing in the ruck?

Who do you propose then? Criteria: Must have a developed body, capable of competing as a first ruck at AFL level Must be willing to sit in the twos all year if Gawn doesn't get injured It's an extremely limited field I think. Nobody springs to mind for me. I get why people don't love Spencer, but there's more to it than how highly you rate the individual player. It wouldn't take much development from Mitch King next year to render Spencer redundant - King just needs to get to a level where he's fit and we think we could scrape by if he had to fill in in the seniors - but we're not there yet. This is why Spencer is still on the list.

"..... more about me than you"? I haven't posted any rumours. Doesn't matter what the topic of the day is, there you are sprouting your sanctimonious sheet. And like any zealot, you can't help yourself.

The reason Spencer didn't play this year is because Max Gawn played all 22 games. Spencer is not a list clogger, he's insurance in case the unthinkable happens.