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Great trade, would do again.

Our best beats Richmond. We're better. We win. Don't rate them. At all.

A minor issue. Charlie Dixon has a glass of red wine the night before a game and he's front page of the Herald Sun and suspended by his club. The AFL would happily pepperspray the likes of Jack Crisp for a $10 multi. Others convulse in anger over Hogan having a dart on a weekend off, as if he's some sort of nicotine addict. Fans lamenting drafting Melksham over a trivial betting indiscretion involving his account (sure, they also think he can't play footy). Meanwhile, Ben Cousins is a mess and never tested positive for illegal drug use and first time offenders are protected from public vilification. Somewhere, there's an imbalance.

You are forgetting that on April 25, they are "heroes". (Somehow) Best result: Collingwood thrash them. Then Eddie on an emotional high extends Buckley's contract for 2 more years.

One decent bet will cover the fine.

I've seen every second of Richmond this season and haven't liked much of what I've seen. I said North were the worst 9-0 team ever last year, Richmond are a much worse 4-0 team. Nankervis has made them their biggest improvement, as their rucks have been shot (semi typo) for years. Spencer is good enough to break even going on his form so far this year. Their stars are playing well, the same ones that go missing when the spotlight is on. They don't worry me. They're playing as well as they can and it's not impressive. If we lose to them I'm going to be furious.

Don't always agree with you, but this is spot on.

I'll bet Melksham gets dropped.

It's feeling/sounding like: In: Hogan, Hibberd, Kennedy-Harris Out: Weideman (injured), Melksham (omitted), Hannan (omitted)

You are probably right that on average, they have a hard time of that transition. But instead of additional pay rises, which will mostly go to the successful career players, any extra available money should go into career planning/training/education plus support for ex players. About 100 players leave the AFL system every year. Put on full time "retired player support officers" who's job it is to help players find training or jobs. Put money in a fund so that "delisted players with less than 5 years on the list" get a $50,000 stippend in their first year after being delisted if they take up a full time education option. Don't ask for more salary cap.

Holy crap people are going off over nothing... again! He 'Misled' the AFL over his betting account last year, he didn't use it, he let someone else use it. FFS you would think that the AFL are so bloody pristine in the way they do business, with WCE drug scandal, the 'Tanking' and Essendon Drug issues, the AFL has painted themselves in a pathetic light in terms of how they have handled any of this. What Melksham did last year in his suspended year, and how he has played for us in the first 4 weeks have absolutely no correlation. He hasn't been great so far, and TBH there is a good chance he might get dropped for another player, but for all of the Chicken Littles out there pecking away at their keyboards, this is no more likely to cause the sky to fall than Hogan's indiscretion last week. AFL has to fine him a large amount purely due to it being a betting infringement. Nothing more to see here...

Mitch Clarke has them all covered! With good reason.

Frawley was key to the Hawks winning the 2015 flag - played an awesome finals series once they put him in as KPB - he earned his medal.

Just back from the Barcelona V Juventus game and I don't think we have anything on the security here. How would we react if we had policemen ready with riot gear protecting the players race. Just a few comparisons to some of our games this year: Barca and Juventus players must have gone to the Cripps acting school Barca and Juventus have been watching replays of our Geelong game for goal kicking tips (score 0-0 after numerous attempts I was warned to stay clear of the Juventus supporters if they lost. I would have known who they were -they were in black and white. Highlight of the night was 85,000 Barca supporters singing " Su la mafia" to the 10,000 Juventus supporters. I did miss Robbos Haymes paints speckies at half time. Absolutely nothing at half time but some very good music.

My letter to the club this morning: Hello, Our family attended the Fremantle game on Saturday, and I am writing about the role of private security post-match. My daughter begged me to sit down near the fence both times we have been to the football this year so we sat three rows back right near the cheer squad. This gave us a real insight into what the AFL calls 'game day experience'. One one hand it was great to sit near the cheer squad and for my daughter to hear the real passion for the game inspired by the chanting and barracking. Not so the role of private security, who after the drama and disappointment of the last goal decided that they would swarm this area post match and move in on patrons because they had allegedly heard some 'abuse' from the crowd. From our vantage point the cheer squad was in excellent spirits all day and the intrusion of a private 'flying squad' of bouncers was totally unwarranted. The club is often criticised in the media for lack of passion at games, I wonder what security would do if it was a Richmond, Essendon, or Hawthorn cheer squad member had allegedly berated the goal umpire. There was no indication of racial or sexist abuse. If the AFL, or the club, or its sub-contracted security want us to simply turn up and jog on the spot for some inane 'run like a demon' at quarter time, and act on any other of the various queues of the ground announcer, and allow members and patrons to be pushed around by glorified bouncers then I can't really see the point in bringing my family up from Gippsland - a 250k round trip, we could just watch the game from home. I hope that the club liaises in this instance with the cheer squad and find out what, if any provocation there was that required a squad of private security to intimidate paying patrons in this way. If the alleged misbehaviour was trivial and no more than disappointed barracking at the goal umpire, I sincerely hope that the club makes its feelings known to the ground managers at the MCG and ensures that sub-contracted crowd controllers can not act in such an unrestrained fashion in the future.

Anyone else catch the end of afl 360 tonight? They had an eye opening interview with our assistant coach Craig Jennings, who in the pre-season after considerable urging went to our club doctor who found a melanoma in between his ear and temple. If he'd procrastinated and put off catching up with the doc any longer it would've spread, so luckily he'll pull through. He's very highy rated throughout the league's coaching circles and its the first time I've ever seen him interviewed. Good luck to him in his recuperation!

[censored] off then.

Zero tackles is a better one

Make sure you use your own tab acct chook.

We should make him bet 10k per game to have a 20-30 possession game, with 2 intercept marks, 6 tackles and 70% disposal efficiency

On a list of my favourite demons players hes about last

I think we judge young players incredibly harshly these days. Especially, when you think of some of the greats of the game. Blokes like Judd and Ablett weren't tearing it up in their first seasons. It took them 5 and 6 years respectively before they reached even a good, consistent player status. KPPs take even longer, as we've seen on countless occasions and yet people get frustrated that these young guys aren't immediately delivering. Jesse Hogan is not the norm. Clayton Oliver is not the norm. I understand it's frustrating when you see Sam running around and struggling to impact on the game and I share your sentiments, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's due time down at Casey or that he'll never make it. He needs time at AFL level and a base level for Weed should be his Round 1 performance. As PD has said a few times, he averaged acceptable numbers alongside Hogan in the first two weeks. This is the base level that Sam must achieve each week, but we've seen how much a talent like Darcy Moore has struggled without the foil of Cloke beside him. The same could be said of Weideman minus Hogan over the past fortnight. Let's keep things in perspective here. And that goes for the knocks on Brayshaw as well.

Exactly. A lot of trash being dished to a 19 year old, injured, key position forward.

Pedo rucked and got 32 possies. We need that, as well as his ability to play forward or back.

Unpleasant comments. Frawley didn't ask to be drafted to a basket case football club. Probably the worst in living memory. Years and years of beatings would weigh down the most resilient footballer. Numerous senior coaches, numerous assistant coaches, continuous false dawns, and a time clock ticking over your career would make many players contemplate a move. Eight years of service in that type of environment is nothing to sneeze at. He got a chance to go to a powerhouse club and got his flag, which is what every player entering the system dreams of. I wouldn't want him back though. We've moved on and have too many poor kicks out of defence to want any more.

It is seriously disgusting that Essendrug are still given this sacred day to represent ANZAC Soldiers who fought and died whilst the English drank tea in the next Cove. But i am sure Gill will be happy that "Essendrug are now paying off their Legal debts" by inflating ticket prices. Will not be watching

I dont worry about any of it. Life's better

Just on 7 news. Martin with a groin injury concern. should get up but wont be 100% fit. Hibberd right in the frame to get selected on Monday.

Right!! Ahh, I only have a partially completed PhD ! Would you like to finish it for me??

Step away from the exclamation-key Picket and take a deep breath. I'll walk you through it. Martin is in blistering form, and, as you say, is 'a bloke that breaks lines and provides inspiration.' Seems strange that an opposition fan wouldn't be at least a little bit worried about him then, right? But even stranger then that the fan has reported a sense of concern only after that player has come under an injury cloud in the build-up. There seems to be some strange reversal of expectations going on. The next step is to challenge your neural connections to conceptually work out an explanation for this apparent anomaly. Something like; in the past, when a star player has been under an injury cloud in the build-up to a game against Melbourne, that player has tended to come out and tear Melbourne what is colloquially referred to a 'new one'. Nick Riewoldt may repeatedly spring to mind. Then you can deduce that the poster was being sardonic in reference to Melbourne's past, perhaps as a coping mechanism. Finally, if you can determine certain patterns in a poster's history, their 'schtick' if you will, such as multiple exclamation points and a tag-line like sheeeeit for example, you can be reasonably confident in your assessment of a post and know whether to take it seriously or not.

OMG I have heard this sort of garbage blurted out on these pages so often over the past decade - "opposition star player "x" is out - how good is that" and almost every time it has come back to bite us in the bum. Last year's Essendon game took the cake for this total myth. How about just going out and beating the best opposition. Far more satisfying and induces far less complacency in our mentally fragile playing list.

This jumper is fantastic. With no numbers, next time Hogan bofs someone we can just blame it on Stretch.

Classic logic error. "If the police had been on the ball they would have put in place better security and I wouldn't have been able to rob that bank."

Does he have any overdue library books?

I really couldn't give a rats. He can have a winnie, a tinnie whilst filling out the quaddie for all i care. If hes up for playing 120 of decent footy im fine. So far ...very much ho-hum Hopefully compatriot Michael fares better. The Milkshake curdled a tad.

Lumumba by a country mile.

Melksham is not a great decision maker. Some bad choices along the way. Not even talking about his footy.

Not to mention Weideman is still 19. I think many forget he's still a teenager. Darcy Moore is 21 and still struggling.

It's just amazing, Dank, Hird, Thompson and others all know the truth and want it out but just can't seem to articulate it. It must be a terrible burden the verbal paralysis holding it all in against their will.

who cares.

it is absolutely understandable to want the Pies to win. I will cheer for anyone thats playing against Essendrug.

Their arrogance grows! unbelievable. Pies froze prices last year when it was their home game (not often I praise the Pies but fair play). massive price hikes to pay for their fk-ups!?!? they should be tail between their legs thankful that they have retained this fixture. The word hate in footy circles is now reserved for the Bombers only. for me. no other club comes close to this pack of morons that are doing their best to screw the sport up. a bottom 4 finish, jobe, stanton retiring and nothing on the horizon sounds good to me. I will also not be watching the drug cheats (even though I want to watch it)

It's a shame that we as MFC supporters have to worry about membership numbers, sponsors and gate receipts, wouldn't it be nice to only have to worry about wins and where we will finish on the ladder at the end of the season.

Hard to believe any sane person who would knock that percentage back, especially in this climate. The stumbling block is that 20% in the first year is fine but 1% in successive years isn't enough because of CPI. As with most pay increases, a total percentage is usually determined (in this case ~25%) and then divided into the years of contract. By getting the vast majority of the increase upfront, it has financial benefits to players. What would you prefer, 20% + 1% + 1% + 1% + 2% or 5% + 5% + 5% + 5% + 5%? I'd feel more sympathy for the AFLPA if the stumbling block was increasing the base salary for rookies, or to introduce post-career care for concussion sufferers, or care for badly injured players who needed to retire prematurely. Unfortunately, their goal seems to just be guaranteeing even more money for the 0.1% at the top, while the median salary would hardly change. Why not get some perspective from lesser-known players on sub-$100K rather than those trying to purchase their 4th house?

Go and read the Richmond bigfooty page My god they are cocky [censored] after 4 wins

I'm trying to work out whether Hemingway is attempting a pun here. If he is, I'm afraid it doesn't cut it.

I don't like union busting tactics. I wish he'd stay out of it. People who think unions have too much power should look at the history of the past forty years - a rapidly widening gap between rich and poor. There are very few powerful unions in Australia today. This is a result of the effective strategies employed by conservative governments and employers in combination with the changing landscape of the economy. There is much less job stability and the employment environment is constantly shifting. The numbers of unionised workers is fraction of what it was in the 1970s. Unions are by and large, much less powerful. Nowadays, when a union appears to have any semblance of bargaining strength, they are roundly pilloried by the conservative media. I'm not suggesting that AFL players are poor but that they have every right to negotiate a CBA which protects them, sets up a reasonable pay structure which is commensurate with the very profitable industry they work in. It is a high risk, high reward career. Their careers can be very short lived and they deserve some security.

Them playing on tuesday as guilty drug cheats is beyond vomit worthy #refusetowatch

He walked for an easy flag and he got one. Off the back of champion players who stayed at Hawthorn through the hard times in the early to mid 2000's. He left during some of the worst years our club has ever seen. I have zero respect for players like James Frawley. And I would be almost certain that if he was interested in coming back to the club, Nathan Jones would be the first one to tell him to get [censored]. Jones would take it as an enormous insult. Frawley is also overrated as a player. Yuck.

We are on the right track, make no mistake. Being at the game and witnessing the 3rd qtr, I gave us absolutely no chance to win the game such was Freos dominance that qtr. That we got back in front gives me enormous belief, we would have rolled over under similar circumstances, even last year. As many have eluded to, the result came down to leadership. Goody has made it clear he doesn't want to use our youthful team as an excuse, but it is glaringly obvious that is why we lost this game. The inconsistency we showed during this game is what happens to young teams. J Lewis is our most important player this year. Even without Hogan and Gawn, we`d have won if he played.