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More details emerging ... Vickery charged with impersonating an AFL footballer.

I can see why VIC police decided to deal with this directly rather than take it to the AFL tribunal.

Tyrone vickery has been extorting money from the hawks and tigers for years

FFS no one is defending Bugg's hit. It's all about the 2nd highlighted point. The questions of degree are all about intention and 'deliberateness'. Bugg IMO did not intend to knock Mills out - he didn't in any case - he clearly lashed out in a push and shove situation. Wrong and dumb. But not intentional or deliberate. The tribunal on the other hand is a desperate joke and has no consistency whatsoever. If it did Cotchin would have got 3 weeks for his 'jumper punch' (like that is some kind of fake punch or something) Houli took a look at Lamb and then swung around with a fist and hit Lamb in the head knocking him out. The media hullabaloo about Bugg (the person) was insane compared to Houli - who appears to be some kind of a Saint. There was even an article in the HSun saying that because Bugg has been up at the tribunal as a DEFENDENT many times that he somehow deserved a bigger punishment. That is pure madness and shows how the world has ganged up on Bugg. He is a 24yo who did a dumb thing. I feel for Bugg.

I would like to set aside the on-field acts and their penalties and just look at the behaviours of the 3 players in the aftermath: Houli: Apologised on the field to Carlton leaders and later to Lamb. As far as I recall he did not front the media. His club called in people from high places to help mitigate the penalties. His lawyer played the racial abuse card during the Tribunal No one from his club apologies to their counterparts at the Club and simply ignored it. No after Tribunal/Appeal interview by Houli. Bugg: Apologised on field to Mills Apologised immediately after the game and immediately faced the media and took responsibility for action Coach and Leaders personally apologised to their Sydney counterparts Our captain came out and condemned the action. Did not call in friends from high places. Manfully and courageously fronted the media immediately after the Tribunal finding and took responsibility for the consequences. Fahour: As far as I can tell no apology to Saddington until after the sh**t hit the fan in the media. Played the 'pity' card with faux tears after the event Is hiding behind the apron strings of the AFL. Regardless of what people think of the 3 events and the penalties, I hope all can agree our club has handled this with dignity and maturity. Very proud of mfc for their handling of this. They are setting an example for our team to learn what constitutes humility and respect. Can't say the same for Rich or the AFL.

Spoke to Jesse after training today. Said he was happy with what he did with the main group, it went well, but will see how he goes at training on Friday. JKH was training with the forwards, Trengove and Maynard with the mids as was Vince. Not sure on Maynard's status as a rookie but he could be the 'smokey' selection if available to play and if Tyson is not fit, his place could be taken by either Maynard or Trengove.

Good grief! Fahour says how great a guy Houli is, then next week Houli is saying how great a guy Fahour is. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/bachar-houli-defends-ali-fahour-ahead-of-afl-tribunal-hearing-20170705-gx58ol.html Reminds me of the old adage 'birds of a feather stick together'! I would have thought Houli would keep his head down given he is serving a 4 week suspension for knocking a player unconscious. Neither of them are looking like great guys!

Can't understand the logic of playing Hogan in the VFL. He's either ready or he ain't. You'd take the same approach with him as we did with Gawn, surely.

I just watched this. He strikes me as a quality individual who has genuine remorse and who is absolutely standing up for his actions. In short, he's not shirking this at all. Not remotely. Really glad the club recruited this bloke. Hope he trains the house down over the next 6 weeks and immediately makes a positive impact upon his return.

Yeah, a pop gun.

My Essendon supporting sister has done a 360 on Tom after taking her grandson to a kids football clinic at Caulfield Grammar today (his old school) . He was one of the instructors and she thought he showed guts to appear in public so soon after such massive negative publicity . She sought him out and told him such as she shook his hand .

Bugg should've been rubbed for a long time. And he has been. But, despite some of the views expressed on this thread and in the media, it seems unlikely that he intended to knock Mills out, or indeed punch him in the head at all. That said, he delivered the perfect KO punch. I suspect had he wanted to deliver that punch, he would'nt have been able to. Luck went against Mills. And Bugg. And, for this, Bugg's been rubbed out for a long time. Rightly so too. His actions since he delivered that freak punch however have been commendable and have demonstrated true integrity IMO. I like the guy. He's become the face of cowardly thuggery in sport, and, quite frankly, he's not that guy. Not even remotely.

The silence from the AFL is disgusting. The excuse that they are waiting for the Tribunal result is pathetic and irrelevant. There is enough evidence for them to take immediate action and remove him from his position. The AFL need to grow a pair.

Bugg = spontaneous reaction. Fahour = premeditated action.

Even with 8 wins on the board I still think we'll need a little luck to slip into the finals with our injury list. I firmly believe we can make it and we should have a fit list to pick from which means we can cause some havoc, but the next three weeks will tell us plenty about our chances. Win 2 and we're almost there. Anything else leaves us on the edge.

I hope they make this into an Underbelly series.

Vickery shouldn't have cut his hair - harder to plead insanity

Surprise surprise Houli jumping to the defence of his brother - in - forearms.

I could only see Hogan play VFL if he asks too.

Got to love the Juddy red card article, the convicted eye gouger, and pressure point tactition trying to exagerate himself into history as an all round good bloke.

I can't believe some of you people are trying to justify what Bugg did and paint him as some kind of hero. It was a disgraceful act, and he is fortunate to get away with a six week penalty. If his AFL career continues into next season, he is doubly lucky. I have no sympathy or tolerance for any player from any team who strikes an opponent to the head. The sooner these all too common actions are eradicated from the game, the better.

you need to do a course on clear, unemotional thinking chazz if you believe bugg's incident is equivalent or worse than fahour's.

We are a win over Carlton away from being 9 and 6. Forgive me if I am not depressed about some [censored] injuries. Get a grip people.

I think the club could have said more in mitigation even if it was going to make no difference to the penalty. It is significant that Bugg hasn't been charged in 94 matches and if there was provocation and lack of intent it is unjust to Bugg's reputation not to mention that. I don't mind him being rubbed out. I do mind the inconsistency of the MRP and the media freanzy. The head should be sacrosanct especially if it is intentional. Instead we get a frenzy about Clarrie diving and random interpretations from the MRP with a strong element of who you are not what you did.

Misson sounded confident that Garlett and Hogan will play it is up to Jesse apparently... We can win

This weeks game is huge. We need to win this, and the last three minimum to play finals

The Northern Football League has ended the playing career of AFL diversity manager Ali Fahour, handing him a lifetime ban effective immediately. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/fahour-faces-tribunal-over-striking-incident-20170705-gx5eog.html Justice has been done and seen to be done. Now over to the AFL to cut its ties with him.

We would wipe our bums with the Swans with a full compliment.

He is

The good news is the Push up King has a great reference in Toby Mitchell.

And there are no phones, emails and Skype. It's the altitude you see.

The Scoreboard flattered our midfield who were abysmal, and our backs did well to corral and force the Swans' many entries wide. Sometimes that's the best that any backline can do when their mids are being beaten.

We were off from the first minute of the game, I'm not sure the short breaks explain how bad we were, taking nothing away from the swans who were fantastic, but we were miles off what I expected of us.

I have prepared a speech for Ali to read to the media bloodhounds.... Thank Yous all for coming to to hound me out of a job today,I appreciate it. I was nearly going to resign a few days ago, but I wanted to sort out me compo first. In light of the video of me involved in a brawl last week for the West Preston FC and the punishment received from the Northern League I will be retiring from football effective immediately. Immediately after I square up one or two more guys next year. My role as Diversity officer has been a complex and challenging one.Challenging mostly because I don't know what I am supposed to do ..The lunches have been awesome, and some of the night out were huge, all on the company credit card. In the past when I had no work to do at work I would leak a private conversation and get somebody sacked which kept me pretty busy.Then i had to mingle with the suburban kids and get them interested in the safe and friendly game of AFL. Now it seems my hypocrisy has been full exploited by someone with an iPhone. I will learn from this experience and hopefully earn more money if the afl terminate my contract prematurely. Thank yous all once again.

I said it after the game on Friday (watching on Fox Footy) and I'll say it again now... Paul Roos was the only person on that commentary team that had any idea what he was talking about post-game (e.g. not pumping up Swans, not bashing us, citing valid points regarding the 6-day breaks, injuries etc). Maybe it's because of his ties with MFC, but maybe it's because the rest of em are clueless imbeciles. I'd go with the latter.

Swans didn't kick badly in the first quarter. Most shots were from distance or wide. No glaring misses. Defence was the only redeeming feature on a poor night.

It is to you but not to me. I was mainly responding to those who felt we didn't go in to bat for Bugg and should have done more. You talk a lot of Bugg's intentions but you don't know, you're just guessing. Only Bugg knows what his intentions were. I'm unconcerned about the length of the penalty, I'm concerned that he did it and hurt the Club. You and I are concerned about different things. I'm concerned about the Club, you more about Bugg getting an extra two weeks. That's garnish to the main issue The Club is much bigger than a player. It's a worn out cliche but in this situation it's spot on for me.

An interesting stat I just realised, that at 4,628 members, Demonland on face value, nominally represents a little over 10% of MFC membership. Couple of things to take away from this: 1. The MFC should take fare notice of the views on here as reasonably statistically significant representation of club/supporter membership; 2. If there are any non MFC members within that 4,628, get on board and help take us beyond 42,000 heading towards 45,000 MFC members.

I have to admit there's something strangely likeable about Bugg. I gather in these comments, even before this incident some posters see him as representing a kind of culture shift. Obviously, no one wants to see a repeat of what occurred on Friday. It was ugly. I think the incident deserved for 4 - 6 weeks. I'm not entirely convinced he was aiming for Mill's head, but not even Bugg has said anything to the contrary. What I don't like is the the cliche-riddled sanctimony from past players, even those with a record of committing similar acts. They then try to conflate this incident with a wider 'culture issue' which they raise in the same breath as Oliver's 'dive'. In truth, the culture at Melbourne hasn't been this healthy for 10 years. I think there is a willingness in some sections of the media to keep us down, which is often evident in the in-game commentary (particularly BT). We probably are being too defensive, but I think we have been down for so long, some of us are afraid this media gang attack, will send our players back into their shells and we'll stop playing with confidence and flare.

This is exactly my thoughts. It is not the length of the suspensions that we have suffered this year that irks me. It is the gross inconsistency when comparing these suspensions with other cases that have gone before the MRP and the Tribunal. Houli and Bugg incidents fall into the same categorisation for mine and what applied to one should have applied to the other.

$850K for Lever spread out over 4 years is fine. He's a bona fide star in the making and with him in defence, Gawn in ruck, Hogan CHF and our building midfield we'd be a force to be reckoned with. Oscar, Tom, and Frost are a NQR defensive unit. Getting Lever would be a huge fillip. Yes, it would shake the tree and the above named 3 plus Lever don't fit, but Lever is comfortably better than all 3 of them. If you could get it done you would.

Not worth what it's take to get him

Rubbish. We have talent across the board and if you couldn't see the endeavour last week you're blind. We got smashed but we'll be better for the rest. We still have more potential in each area of the ground than they do. And all this talk about Carlton's midfield...the worst clearance team in the comp. Lewis and Vince are more than adequate replacements. Not many teams can lose their entire midfield and throw former AA and B&F winners in as replacements. We'll wipe the floor with them.

Imo we'll smash Carlton. Our defense holds up well and was impressive considering the circumstances vs Sydney. We have more talent across the board. Very confident regardless of outs. They can smash the midfield but we best them elsewhere. Also Gawn will be better for the week's rest and 2 games. He'll go on a tear.

Mills wasn't knocked out. And Fahour's was far worse. Doesn't excuse Bugg, but Fahour ran from a mile away to deck a bloke. That's worse in my book.

Wow.

Rubbish. The club would look absolutely stupid trying to defend Bugg in any way. There is nothing to defend.

Why the hell did we use this Findlay guy? Didn't he not get Viney off a few years back? Bugg might not be a star but he's an MFC player and on that basis we should've done the best we could to get him the lightest punishment. In my mind that means hiring a decent QC who will present all of the evidence. All I heard was that Bugg had pled guilty, apologised and was remorseful. Nothing about: - No weeks suspended in 94 games - Mills started it - Boxing expert Danny Green's comments about the force and intent of the punch - No intent to cause injury This was a 4 week suspension that became 6 weeks because it was Friday night footy and the expendable Tomas Bugg and I'm disappointed our club that rolled with that.

'King hit'? Hyperbole! And to be honest a lot of what is done on an AFL field would be classified as assault in 90% of workplaces so any comparison is misguided IMO. The more I re-watch it, the more I'm convinced Danny Green was fairly spot on. At best it was a misdirected jab at the shoulder region whilst running, at worst an intentional half force jab at the chin. Either way it was not in the same ball park as the full blown uppcut that Hall floored Staker with, which only landed him 1 week more on the side lines.

Out: bugg, viney, white in: hogan, garlett, trengove