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Great to see Kyle Cheney out there for the Crows. There is an ex demon who has made the most of his talent. Third club and 10 years since he was drafted by us with pick 53. Always liked him as a player, dependable type but didn’t have enough speed. Delisted by us in 2010 when we thought we had a star studded list of young talent.

Apart from our games, football is hard to watch this season.

Yarra Park training and admin base. Near Jolimont station. Lock it in, er, Perty

Huh? I smell troll. Angus has been our best midfielder in games, and a strong contributor since his return. wears a helmet because he went in too hard back to the craft room for you, to sniff some more Uhu glue.

During PJ's time the President and board have pretty much remained in the background. This year they have had to tick off on 3 big calls...selling off poker machine money, selecting a new CEO and developing a new home base. I'm sure many share my trepidation as previous boards/presidents don't imbue me with confidence but with these decisions best of 3 won't win. All 3 must be winners.

Or someone at AFL House said "settle down, Tom".

Same could be said for us last week.

The Suns should fold after that.

Was really upset losing Jw but thankfully the Mfc has wiser heads than mine.

My son hit the bars in the centre of town last night ET. He is a bit slow this morning but he has mentioned scenes of hundreds of Australians singing Waltzing Matilda. The vodka selection here is incredible. One complete side of a supermarket aisle filled with literally hundreds of brands. Very cheap as well. Had my first cafeteria meal yesterday. They're big in Russia. At about $2 all up I can't say it was an epicurean delight. Kazan specialises in horse meat which I am yet to try !!

Spot on re Silvagni, terrible recruiting. Bonus points for recruiting his own son who has constant entitled cry-baby face.

I definitely trust your gut instinct based on a shift job 30 years ago over multiple contemporary official and unofficial sources.

Demons start to play attractive footy and now everyone wants to change the rules? Go get [censored].

Could be because the average MFC supporter is smart enough to avoid the evil that is Facebook. At least I'd hope so.

No aggression. There is a reason he wears a helmet during the game.

I'm not so sure of this huge dormant supporter base that you speak of. Our club punches above its weight with supporter to membership conversion. However Roy Morgan research has the MFC as the lowest supported club outside of GC and GWS in the AFL. http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7345-roy-morgan-afl-supporter-ladder-2017-201709210118

the point is that you won't see them any more tired than they are now with minimal rotations they won't try (or be able) to run both ways constantly clogging up play. they (and the coaches) will be forced into a different sustainable game plan where they will spend more time in their traditional position you also might see more natural footballers playing than athletes. skill vs grunt.

I am not in favour of any change to the rules, they have been buggered around with enough already. the current congestion that we are seeing will naturally work it's way out if we keep making new laws very soon we will not recognize the game at all. reducing rotations makes the players more tired and slows them down is a suggestion people make, but why do we want to see them tired running around. I want to see the players at full speed and effort. zones fundamentally change the structure of our game. and the ideas around about certain numbers being excluded from the square until the ball comes out and other such ideas would be a bugger to officiate and would only slow the game down while we wait for players to be in their set positions and the umpires to check. leave the numbers of players alone too otherwise again you drastically change how the game flows and matches up. leave the length of the game alone too lazy bastards (looking at you dangerfield) Keep the hard tackling and the bump. I am for the abolition of nominating the rucks. just bounce the ball, if three players go up then a penalty is imposed. I have heard counter arguments that it would be open to manipulation and trickery about who was really going up but that is actually a positive in my mind, and throws some added tactics to the ruck contest. the game has had too many changes and what we are seeing is a result, let it evolve, and it will become something much improved than what we currently are seeing. you can see it in the better games this year the game is actually headed in a great direction, if we don't stuff it up first.

There’s just too much irony now I’m actually laughing. Keep ‘em coming.

The irony. You’re usually the first poster to come out in defence of players when they’re shitcanned and here, in such an obviously wrong assertion you’re in support. Unbelievable.

Would love Lachie Neale at the dees

Paul Roos is a decent judge of character Andy has known him since their U19 days. History was no doubt ratified by Roos. As for Malthouse, the last bit of advice he gave the MFC was about Neeld ticking all the boxes.

Spoke to Ross Lyon yesterday and wished him good luck today. I told him to smash the Blues as I hated them and he obviously took me at my word.

I see the Blues are saving themselves for the Pies next week.

After the two relatively dour early games the Spain v Portugal match was one for the ages. The goal by the lone Spanish player against two defenders and the keeper was astounding. Blue skies and sun here in Kazan with a match commencement temp of around 17... a perfect day for football

I’m so glad I set the alarm Macca. I even woke up my 10yr old son to watch it with me and he was thankful. Absolute treat to witness it.

If Malthouse hates Pert, then I am confident Pert is a good bloke. MM is a bitter, twisted and a selfish person from what I have heard. He had no need at all to comment about Pert, except out of a need for revenge. As Eddie said, they both don't like each other.

I really wanted to put the Hussler in BM so good choice. Yes its got the weight, but its the class runner. should be good for a place.

i'm so bored of this 'watts was a sacrificial lamb to marketing' narrative i'm almost certain - and, please, someone with access to stats correct me if i'm wrong - he was doing very, very well in the vfl in the weeks leading up to qb 2009, including a bag of goals the week before everyone remembers him being gang-tackled in the opening moments on field but no one remembers the pirouette away from a tackler minutes later and the drill kick down field he has / had all the skill in the world...just none of the application

It was PJs choice to leave, once he's made that decision it is up to those who will still be here to determine the best candidate for the position. PJ had the option to stay, I doubt he was pushed so it would be pretty petty of him to crack the sads on the way out.

It's building in Kazan. Summer is coming and after a week of 14 it hits 18 tomorrow !! My son has headed for the bars of Bauman street which will be full of Australians. I just realised that although I have seen many Aussies I am yet to see a Frenchman. Perhaps they are waiting for the knock out phase a la Hawthorn supporters. Both games so far today decided almost at the death. O that own goal by Morocco(Met a lovely Moroccan couple based in Dubai while standing in the Aeroflot check in queue in Moscow... they must not be happy.) Spain v Portugal kicks off in an hour. I am becoming an expert (not) in the Russian TV commentary.

Get out! He is the type of player we have been trying to eradicate from our list.

Dill's AFL is a little bit flakey for me, I don't put a lot of store in their acumen. For all his short comings AD did have a clue...

There was rumours of a rift between Jackson & Bartlett a year or so back. I just hope Bartlett's ego is not getting the better of him here. Melbourne Presidents don't have a good record of appointments.

One UK pundit quipped about whether the Saudi's had ever played 'football' before! Anyway, we're off and running and the home team might progress past the group stage at least. The atmosphere for the opening game was something else. Here are the games for the weekend ... SBS are broadcasting live the Australia/France game as well as the games in dark italics. SBS are also showing a 1 hour nightly highlights package at 5.30pm daily All times AEST. Friday, June 15: Russia 5 Saudi Arabia 0 Egypt v Uruguay, Yekaterinburg (10pm) Saturday, June 16: Morocco v Iran, Saint Petersburg (1am) Portugal v Spain, Sochi (4am) Australia v France Kazan (8pm) Argentina v Iceland, Moscow (Spartak) (11pm). Sunday, June 17: Peru v Denmark, Saransk (2am) Croatia v Nigeria, Kaliningrad (5am) Costa Rica v Serbia, Samara (10pm) Monday, June 18: Germany v Mexico, Moscow (Luzhniki) (1am) Brazil v Switzerland, Rostov-on-Don (4am) Sweden v South Korea, Nizhni Novgorod (10pm).

I'm more confident in the decision now that Mick Malthouse has come out against it. He's always the contrarian for the sake of being one.

G'day punters. Can't leave out Moss n Dale. Great strike rate, 8 from 11 at the distance, likes it soft (8: 3 - 3) and coming off a good win (albeit with a month break which concerns me a touch). To be honest struggling to select another horse. Luck Hussler is the obvious but big weight and has average form in soft (9: 1 - 1). The only other horse that vaguely appeals is Most Important, but form is just too poor, though this is not a deep race. So i'll hope for an improving track and trust that class and the Weir factor will get him close and select Luck Hussler for a place.

Agree 100%. He is too professional to crack the sads. I was referring to the external noise ('fugazi') about him being unhappy with the process than thinking he actually is.

Talk of PJ being ‘shut out’ of, or unhappy with the process might be ‘fugazi’ or there may be some substance. I don't know. But before we get hung up about it, it is worth looking at a typical Executive Search process - Bartlett/Board engages Russell Reynolds who use their network to identify, interview and profile candidates from which a short list is compiled to give to Barlett. He (and nominees eg another Board member, AFL rep) choose which to interview and who to recommend to the Board. The process happens at RR premises or other neutral venues. RR would have strict confidentiality protocols precluding them from discussing candidates/short list with anyone outside this process (and certainly not with the boss or referee of a candidate). So on a rational level I can see how the process by its nature, excludes an incumbent CEO/boss of multiple candidates ie PJ, from the loop. I can also see all sorts of things that may displease a candidate or PJ during that process but I would only be speculating to write them here. However, on an emotional level, if I was in PJ’s shoes I would desperately want to have a say in who takes over the care of my ‘foster child’ and push for ‘my guy’ or 'guys' to carry on my work. Which of course is exactly why independent executive search firms are engaged. It would be a very sad day, if PJ was to leave us on a downer as he deserves to go in a blaze of glory. So I will assume the talk of him not being happy is just 'fugazi'.

Watts and Trengove, maybe, but Toumpas had a year under Neeld etc., but then had two seasons at Melbourne under Roos and co. The other thing that gets me about this, is that Watts has done no different at Port than he did at Melbourne, and no different under Hinkley than he did under all his preceding MFC coaches.

As I said to my old man, I'd be worried if Malthouse had endorsed Pert. I remember what happened the last time he endorsed someone that came to our club from Collingwood. The bloke is a doddering old gronk.

Reduce the interchange bench back to 3 players. And have 2 emergencies, for serious hospital cases only. Reduce the number of rotations by 10 per quarter, from where they are now in 2018. I'll give him a clue; take the rules of the game back to what they all were back in 1993;,,, and then leave them the Hell alone.

especially when so much of the camera work is close-up

The interesting thing about this situation is that everyone thought there was a PJ succession plan for an internal candidate. How come then there were 3 internal candidates not just one? So if an internal PJ candidate had got it there would have been 2 that missed out and be looking elsewhere anyway.

So do I Biff

Short answer: No. But it is common to have succession planning in place. Long answer: Ultimately it is still the responsibility of a Board to find the best candidate. Bartlett drove the search process having engaged head hunters: Russell Reynolds. In our case it is our Board and the AFL (who still pull the strings as we are not entirely out of the woods). Caroline Wilson reported a few weeks ago that MFC wanted Mahoney but the AFL had other ideas. No idea if that is true. However, we do know the AFL is not beyond using Machiavellian methods to get its way. If the AFL did lean on our Board to appoint Pert I understand why. It is highly probable they will chip in land and or $ for our new facilities and they want to make sure the CEO can deliver. Pert has a track record of achievement in that area which is our next and critical phase of development. He is definitely the low risk option.

TBH, I would have Murphy if he was available. On the wages listed that’s sod all, wouldn’t cost us draft picks and could be the cherry on top. He is a good footballer in a crap side. Has also proven a good footballer in a good side. I’d rather him on a wing than Tyson, Vince or Lewis and hell, play him off half back from time to time and also in the middle. As stated in the article, a small a fall back if Gaff goes elsewhere.

He is everything we need, old, injury prone, expensive, small, looking for a retirement nest egg and seeking some personal quick success at the expense of an MFC player who might have earned it.

I’m pretty sure our ‘saviour’ Jackson left Essendon under acrimonious circumstances... that obviously didn’t impinge on the results he’s achieved with us