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Hogan has been cleared by the MRP. Christian determined there was contact to the throat and, therefore, the reaction was not exaggerated. Common sense prevails for once!

The way I see it is that he is that his role is highly structural. We want to play a territory game and he creates a contest every time the ball comes near him. If he doesn't take a mark he is quick at ground level and instinctively tackles to force a stoppage and reset. He rarely gets beaten. As his confidence and strength grows he will clunk a few more marks, he has decent timing in the air. His chop out ruck work is serviceable, which frees up Tommy to roam the wings when going through the midfield. I have a feeling the coaches would be quite pleased with how he is going.

I will say it again. Clarry will win at least one Brownlow, and will be remembered as the best handballer in the games history. Kid is a freak.

Just quietly I don’t think Jordan Lewis’s game has received the attention it deserves. I haven’t been his biggest fan since he arrived here and thought he hadn’t shown much of those elite kicking skills he was renowned for at the Hawks. Having said that he was bloody good yesterday Disposal efficiency stats don’t show the whole story but 23 possessions at 91% is a true reflection of his day. He was almost flawless with ball in hand. Also that fist from behind that resulted in a goal for us showed his desperation even well into the last quarter when the game was already won. His best game in the red and blue.

This is exactly the same as the Clarry thing a few years ago. You don’t know exactly what happened unless you were involved. It’s very possible the fall was unintentional as a result of the impact and shock of being punched in the throat. I’m happy to criticise our players to a point if they’ve clearly done something wrong (the Bugg incident last year for example), but if I’ll always give a Melbourne player benefit of the doubt if there’s room for it, and clearly there is in this case. I reckon starting a thread labelled “that dive” is very poor form and not in the spirit of supporting the club.

Weideman is in the unique position whereby his influence on games individually won’t be judged as harshly due to the structural flexibility we’re afforded when he plays. At the moment it’s working a treat. Weed provides Gawn the rest he needs which is unbelievably important. Gawn becomes a super threat up forward also when Hoges is roaming up the field and T-Mac Is playing forward. Weed playing forward also gives us the licence to play Tom Mac in a number of positions. He becomes the ultimate swingman which is a massive headache for the oppo. I think it changes our look completely and is suited to the way we play. We’re not blessed with super skilled players and we struggle to hit targets going forward. So having a taller forward line is much more conducive to that style of play.

Good on Mahoney for jumping on SEN earlier and scolding the media for the unjustified and error ridden criticism of the throat jab by Carlisle, which clearly showed Hulk being jabbed in the throat as he moved towards the goals and Carlisle. Hogan was off balance as he moved his head back in an instinctive reaction to try and to avoid full impact, then fell backwards as the jab impacted. At no stage did he flop onto his back as if struck by lightning nor throw his hands out to exaggerate the impact as some of the scribes have attempted to mislead some to believe. His only reaction afterwards was to to alert the ump of the impact. Big deal, i've been watching the likes of the Hawks, Eagles, Essendrug etc emphasise what they feel are genuine free kicks for years and getting favourable outcomes from the umpiring fraternity as a result on many occasions. Well done Hulk. Having a fine year so far!

I am not sold that he dived at all. as a matter of fact, I want the club to come out and slam these spineless sods calling him a diver and would be thrilled to see a case for defamation taken against the weasels at places like news limited who ran with the headline “Diving Hogan....”. It is about time we stopped being soft off the field, we are getting a hard edge on field, need it off field too. If we don’t vigorously defend our players, then as a club, we are still as soft as we have been for the best part of five decades. The admin have a choice here, stand up for our players or undue so much of the good work they seem to have done these last few years.

Nev Jetta was punched to the head. No free or no comment from the commentators. the McCartin hit on nev was also late and could easily have been a 50.

And we wonder why so many men in this country get away with unnecessary violence against one another and against women. Jesse is cleared so at least common sense prevailed. Just wish Goodwin wasn’t so weak and actually stood up for his players. He defends them when they perform like crap, but he doesn’t stand up for his star forward he is being branded a soft diver. My mind boggles.

It's beautiful to watch.

Here's the response from the club. Melbourne feels vindicated about the MRO’s decision, and footy boss Josh Mahoney has bit back at the reporting of the play. “The reaction has been excessive in the commentary about this incident,” he told SEN’s Time On. “When you consider the vision that was made available, you can maybe understand people’s reaction, but in light of the vision that has come out more recently, people can say they probably hung Jesse out to dry for the last 24 hours. “The commentary has been excessive. No player wants to be linked to staging, it has gone through the MRO process and we are happy he has been cleared.”

Why is Carlisle getting off scott free ?

Weideman has now played 3 games and will be starting to feel more comfortable at the level. As Steve said, he's invaluable for Gawn and means McDonald doesn't have to ruck much. Oscar McDonald has improved immeasurably because they kept the faith and kept playing him. It's the same for Weideman. He's shown glimpses of what he'll become, which is a contested marking key forward, who can provide ruck relief. He's still only 20.

Totally agree Jr this is crap. Why is Goodwin not defending Jesse like other coaches would and do. Why is the punch to Jetta not being highlighted. The umpire was a few metres away and side on with an unimpeded view and paid the free instantly. So therefore unless Jesse gets a smashed windpipe he is a stager. Give me a break. Ben Brown now goes to ground every arm chop and gets a free. No one calling him a stager. No other footy stories today obviously so trash someone else’s reputation.

A worthy wearer of jumper 31!

Clarry is 20 years old and would already come close to being one of the top five Demon midfielders of all time. You know you've picked up a good player when his only fault is that he utilises his laser like handballs too often. The kid is a freak.

what a storm in a teacup. just ridiculous.

How many times over the last ten years did demons "run teams back into form?" I know it wasn't a massively classy or tough game... but I'm still celebrating heartily. We beat them a couple of times last year, but we haven't been "used to" beating the Saints, particularly at Etihad, in a long time. They're awful. Putrid in fact. Even with the draft gifts they've gotten. We're a 5-10 goal better side. I know we have a long way to go. But I'm already celebrating this being the new normal. Go demons.

Those coming up for the game, if any, don’t make it a hit and run. Central Australia is amazingly beautiful, you can be busy for a month and not see all the sites. Anyone coming up for the game and want some advice on the area, feel free to ask and will do my best to guide you in the right direction

Fair play to BT who when shown the footage from behind the goals on Talking Footy admitted that he was wrong and apologised. Wayne Carey also asked the question why a strike to the throat wasn’t worthy of a sanction. I await the retractions of other buttheads like Matthew Lloyd but won’t hold my breath.

For the life of me I cannot understand this reaction. Is it just possible that Hogan was not expecting it ? Did he go down holding his throat and roll around like he had been hit by a Bazooka ? If he overreacted when he went to ground then yes...call him soft...but he got straight back up again. I think I’d prefer to give him the benefit of doubt rather than label him soft because he got pushed in the the throat and went to ground.

I posted about this incident in a different thread and I feel like my take is right on the mark if I do say so myself. It did not warrant a free kick, the rule is if you don't make contact with ball, not if you don't attempt to mark it. It's normally a poorly adjudicated part of the game but this was the correct decision. "He had a chance early in the game to impose himself when Hannan skied the ball. He needed to launch at it and mark it in his hands. He tried to mark it on his chest and this allowed Webster to run back and spoil without giving away a free kick for not looking at the ball. Great spoil but an easy free kick to draw for a marking player".

Petracca has to work on his set shots. He is at a putrid 1.6 for the year.

It is insane. Cant believe this is the big story of the day He got hit in the throat, but Jesse is the bad guy? So pathetic

Jetta was punched in the face by Dunstan, with the umpire right there. No reversal. No free. No report. No nothing.

His extract with one hand and then punch it out with the other though traffic to a team mate, all in one seemingly effortless motion, is a thing of beauty. I still don't think people (outside of Demonland of course) quite get the genius being displayed because it all happens too quickly. Or the commentators are too busy discussing the length of socks or the curious facial expression of certain players?

Every week we have the media beating up a story, whether it be a story on the successes or failures of a particular club (Richmond is the success and St Kilda the failure ) or a story coming out of a match (Hogan/McCartney). Everything is dramatized and exaggerated for purposes of footy talk shows, journalists etc). We really have to try and ignore it because the media circus relentlessly moves on from week to week. I guess they achieve their objective by folks watching shows, reading articles and talking about it. But so much of it is nonsense and just a waste of time. Despite their healthy remuneration, I do have some sympathy for the coaches and players who have to absorb this bilge and have to defend or justify their position.

The umpire said twice, clearly, "you hit him in the throat". More media BS. Its like when Jetta was punched to the chin, no comment from the peanuts, move on. Or when Jetta was poleaxed by McCartin after Jetta took the mark. Way too late, no 50m penalty and all of the commentary was about poor McCartin and his concussion. Well if he cannons into people with his head he aint gonna play too many games,

I love how someone like that peanut Selwood can dive around every week and be lauded as tough and incidents like this are highlighted. Pathetic.

I saw two key structural improvements. Firstly OMac is now playing in a position where he's the last player between the play and the goals instead of getting sucked up the ground which was allowing teams to open us up over the top. Think N Riewaldt there a couple of seasons ago. This time he was finally picking off opposition kicks several uncontested. It's made the whole backline play better especially Lever. Also Wagner kept being the 3rd defender jumping up into contests and stuffing it up for the other 2 and leaving his opponent to lick up the crumbs. His absence has eradicated both these problems so they look much better collectively. Forward line is structurally much better collectively. They are not getting in each other anyway and are leaving space for forwards to lead into. Improved upfield options spreading into space started last week and continued. All big steps forward. Enjoyed all of that but like others frustrated by a wasted rare percentage opportunity against a team with one player on the bench for the last half of the last quarter. GC are good I'm not underestimating them. They will be a greater challenge. Hope to see an even better performance for 4 quarters. We're heading in the right direction.

Were you in the same position as the umpire? He had absolutely no hesitation in paying the free and saying he went for the throat.

Turnovers can also be handballs. When you dispose of the ball 32 times the law of averages means you may turn over more. Harmes will be dropped before Gus. One of Gus' best games yet. Also 8 inside 50s and 659m gained and most have him in top 4 on ground. But haters gonna hate...

I want to see more of this. Rd_7__All_The_Goals.mp4

Can anyone explain why Weideman wasn't given a free for front on contact in the first qtr when the Saint player ran straight through him? He did hit the ball with his fist but made no attempt to mark the ball. I thought this was an automatic 'front on' free? I have seen much lesser incidents paid....

The focus should be on the commentators calling an umpire a liar. Edit:- Is this the only action on a football field caught by only one camera? Spare me, behind the goals vision would show it but nothing! Perhaps it doesn't suit the media beat up to show the facts. Edit2:- Come on media show the vision of no contact to the throat.

You can compare him to Diesel Williams (on his proclivity for handballing) - I don't think anyone ever criticised Williams for over use of handballing. It is all about how effective you are at handballing. Oliver's handball is an absolute offensive weapon and can open up sides by the way he frees up our players. I have no problem with it all.

Just because they were great footballers it doesn't make them exempt from criticism. Both men have an issue with MFC and have been called out on it. Watson called out on other things, but that is what you get when you defend drug cheats.

You don't waste a player like Viney in the twos.

Must have missed Petracca firing. Only just a game. Still waiting for his breakout alluded to here on DL. Can he please spend the week practising kicking for goal

I just wish he got the goal

rotation forward / ruck who competes in the air and at ground level

I must need my prescription checked. On closer look he does get hit in the throat. I initially thought the fall was a delayed reaction to the bump inorder to get a free.

Disappointed but there is also a cockiness within the team also that needs to be put to bed, Hogan also gobbed off at Carlisle before missing the easy shot on goal. A few weeks back v Hawks he rubbed David Mirra’s Head after a stuff up, was pretty much the turning point of the game. Also noticing a few cocky incidents during games, Lever last week. We have to remember where we came from and step down off our pedastal IMO.

There certainly was a very loud MFC supporter on L2 39 letting all and sundry know about it!

Gee Charlie Spargo doesn’t do much wrong. Makes good position, looks composed and disposes well. Good kick for goal as well. Lot to like.

No to JV for mine let him get touch and game fitness in the VFL. 1 week or 2 and bring him back in firing on all cylinders