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This should shut up the smart alec, uninformed commentators in the media. petracca-describes-traumatic-internal-injuries It took two lots of scans to detect anything more than two cracked ribs. "I don’t think we all understood the severity of it, to be honest. I think we got an initial scan around 8pm (or) 9pm. The first scan showed two cracked ribs, and then just a little bit of bleeding around the lung,” Petracca told Nova radio station. “I don’t know what happened. I think 15 minutes later one of the doctors was just checking my blood levels and noticed my haemoglobin was dropping severely, and my blood levels were dropping. So I [had] another scan, and that’s when they noticed on the next scan I had four cracked ribs, a grade-five spleen [laceration] and a punctured lung, too". “It went from being a four out of 10, to basically a 10 out of 10 – equivalent to a car accident. It seemed pretty full on. I had to go straight into surgery at 2am; open surgery. I wasn’t under anaesthetic because my blood levels were so low.” There is no way anyone could have known the extent of the injury at the ground so any criticism of our doctors for letting him play on is completely unfounded. Can't see it happening but Whately, Purple et all owe our doctors an apology. Unimaginable what Petracca has gone through especially having surgery without anesthetic albeit being 'gassed up'. A very brave and tough person. May soon elevate him to 'Hero' status in my eyes.

And I'd add, why should she say anything? Presidents make statements when there is a crisis. However much the handwringers and media flunkeys would like us to think, a stretch of poor form does not equate to a crisis. I don't hear any noise about the cats wretched form. I'd prefer the president not buy into the fugazi

I find it interesting that these comments from Malthouse get so much attention on here, but the following quote from Grundy’s interview with the ABC this weekend hasn’t had similar attention: “Despite the move to Melbourne not panning out as Grundy had hoped, with premiership glory, he doesn't hold any ill-will towards the Demons. "The culture that Melbourne has is really high-performing in terms of the standards they set, the work ethic, and I'm really grateful to have gotten a glimpse of what it's like in that side," he said.”

It seems to be a weekly occurrence now that games are won or lost due to crook umpiring decisions. Fer C/Sake, there's four of them now and yet yesterday two E Coli Wobblers were allowed to run over the mark of a North player and four umpires turned a blind eye. There is now an epidemic of these contentious and or/ non decisions which in my case have caused a kind of contempt for the state of the AFL, bordering on suspicion that more sinister aspects lurk behind the mythology of a Level Playing Field.

Our docs didn't have high-tech scanning equipment but even the hospital which did have them got it wrong initially. Why should you in your hotel room know better? Does your daughter often diagnose without seeing the patient? Of course it looked very bad, but we've seen that sort of thing before, and while the player may not end up playing out the game, they don't often end up in ICU. I foolishly though the report about what initially happened at the hospital would have quietened the keyboard doctors on here. Seems I was wrong.

I don't know why this conversation still has legs. We gave up a second round pick and his wage was partly subsidised. It didn't work out and we moved him on for a second round pick. The only slightly embarrassing part of it all was Goody declaring that he was now at a club that valued him.

A lot of Richmond supporters state that once Dusty sustained a very nasty kidney injury he was never the same. Wish all the best for Trac I hope he can recover mentally and physically.

Ffs talk about clutching. Who needs journalists to kick us when we’re down when we have our own supporters. Gawn is not now or ever will be a forward and neither is Grundy, if you think differently you have NFI

Getting rid of Grundy smacks of an overcorrection possibly due to egos at the club not willing to give things enough time to find a good balance. Max Gawn was always the better forward of the two. When Grundy came to the club I thought the plan would be to move Max forward/ruck and have Grundy be our main ruck. I still think that could have worked, except Max couldn't or wouldn't do it. I love Max, but this was a huge fail from him imo. Goody also, for not putting his foot down and making it work. Just banish Grundy to the VFL for no reason and play a backup ruck he's not even willing to put on the ground. Awful.

We clearly need some key position depth, ruck depth, mid talent and depth as well as some speed and class. I've leant towards targeting free agents and players out of contract because I think we should bring in a top end midfield talent in the draft if we miss finals and have a reasonably early pick. I'd be going after the following players: Josh Battle- Unrestricted Free Agent who would be a long key position defender for us to replace the loss of May. Was also drafted as a forward and has a great set of hands... Reef Mcinnes as a young, developing key forward at 194cm who is mobile and versatile. Won't get games once Mcstay, Mihocek are both fully fit. Ned Moyle- the long term Gawn Replacement. High priority imo. Conor Nash- Unrestricted free agent, mid depth. Has pace and great size. Will Phillips, Josh Ward, Ben Hobbs - Mid depth with upside due to potential lack of development/injury troubles. All high picks. Have also heard we are into Ryan Angwin from the Giants for some outside run/skill. Seems like a depth player at this current point in time but, was an early pick. Pipe Dream: LDU- star Finn Callaghan- could build our midfield around him for 10 years, best mates with howes.

Cornes is right this time. Disgraceful job by the umpires gave Collingwood the win.

Textbook fishing from Ralph, wants her and Pert to start jumping at shadows so they can really kick off the media frenzy. The board don’t report to Ralph, or Cornes, or Gerard - those guys just want drama to fill their radio slots and newspaper columns. No good outcome for the board to start making big calls “we fully support Goody and the boys” = we’re going to sack Goody, “we want the team to start playing better” = we’re going to sack Goody, “we have no comment to make” = we’re going to sack Goody”. Better to just stay quiet and let the footy department get on with it.

according to the sun... 1st year of contract post concussion forced medical retirement: up to 90% covered 2nd year of contract post concussion forced medical retirement: up to 75% covered 3rd year of contract post concussion forced medical retirement: up to 50% covered 4th year of contract and beyond post concussion forced medical retirement: no cover gus had four years to run

As Christian was in ICU for the first 2-3 days I don't know what other 'lack of care' or contact from the club Morris could allude to. Alluding is just another way of throwing mud at the club with no facts to back it up. He is a lowlife.

I'll wait until there is more info on this before commenting too much. For now suffice to say that it is very rare for non-family visitors to be allowed into ICU especially post covid.

I'm not sure it has been a PR disaster for the club. It was more like a lynch mob mentality among the brainless media. However, I would have liked the club to release the scan results (assuming they had Christian's permission). I'll settle for apologies writ large by every media person who went in boots and all.

We've obviously changed the way we play to minimise injuries so as to avoid getting to the finals completely banged up (again). Unfortunately: * We don't have the skills to play a less contact-style game, which has hurt us * We lost Gus and Clarrie in the pre season, which has hurt us * We haven't been able to cover the loss of Lever through stubbornness (why is Petty still up forward?) and inability (Tommo / others can't do it) We do have some good kids coming through, it feels like we aren't *that* far away from being a factor again. There will be a bit of a clear out at the end of the season, hopefully it frees up some salary to bring in some talent to top up and let us make a charge again! Very excited to see how we go at this, 2017-style, for the rest of the season - nothing to lose!

It may not be if the pressure and positioning is so poor that we gift opponents easier-than-average shots at goal.

in truth, what's really cost us is dog leaving at the end of 2022 - the knock on effect for the way we play was enormous we had adapted a game plan built around gawn + jackson and dogga's defection was a clear factor in trying 'grawndy' when there was opportunity to get grundy on the cheap, we took it - it was a risk worth taking, and it clearly didn't come off

The mistake was getting Grundy in the first place, not trading him to the Swans. The whole football world and 10% of Demonlanders couldn't make sense of getting Grundy, because both he and Max need to be the no.1 ruck to be effective. I'm more annoyed with getting the likes of Hunter and Billings in, whilst allowing Jordon and Bedford to leave due to lack of opportunities. The biggest issue I have with the club is how often they've got it wrong with mature aged acquisitions over the past 3 years. Grundy is just one of many.

A player we traded out is playing well for another team Get over it. Never heard so much whinging in my life. We got him in, it didn't work. Move on

I would love for us to become a watchable side again.. besides St Kilda we are the most boring and frustrating team to watch. Focus on free, fast footy for the balance of the year. Work on what will take us forward next year.

Surely getting rid of Grundy, Jordon & Bedford & bringing in Shcache, Hunter & Billings & oh yeah not trading Petty for two first round draft picks is enough to stamp Goodwins papers We tried the Gawn/Grundy experiment for about two games, played Jordon as the sub more games than not & preferred Hunter!!! & to top it of hardly gave Bedford a chance & re signed Chandler, Spargo & Laurie But we’ve got a great culture??? We will lose to North next week, put your house on it Its been a disaster since the 2021 Covid premiership Over & out

the biggest issue this year is that there's little or no free agents on the market free agents who haven't signed on yet who may interest us somewhat: elliott himmelberg, jarryd lyons, oleg markov, will hoskin-elliott, bailey banfield, matt taberner, patrick voss, brendan parfitt, tyson stengle, alex sexton, levi casboult, sam day, harry perryman, isaac cumming, cameron zurhaar, francis evans, jack graham, josh battle, mason wood, tim membrey, andrew gaff, elliot yeo, jamaine jones, jason johannisen, tim english but, really, there's only five or six who would make our side discernibly better; at least, if the stories are true, we're interested in josh battle so really we're looking at either pre-agents (those coming out of contract next year, like ldu) or alternatively players with long contracts who may have fallen out of favour (grundy v2) if we have cap space to throw around we could look at the likes of josh rachele, darcy parish, luke davies-uniacke, logan mcdonald or - please, for the love of all that is holy, no - rory lobb if we're looking to add depth who may / may not be in our best 22 it's the likes of ryan angwin, those younger players on the edge of selection at their own club that might see a fresh opportunity with us and / or a means to return 'home' to victoria personally i would be very pleased if we could add battle as an unrestricted free agent, ldu as a pre-agent, and angwin as a youngster looking for more opportunity back 'home' in victoria this off-season, but it's going to be tough to achieve

In the last minute two frees to Norf were missed, a 50 metre penalty was missed. A hack kick out of defence by Collingwood went straight a Collingwood player. Two shots at goal by north within comfortable range were missed. Seems to happen all the time. Umpires and luck always goes with them.

If we lose: "Sack the coach". "Burn the joint down". "I'm cancelling my membership". "Wooden spoon". If we win: "It was only North". "Should have won by more". "Do it against a good team". "Sack the coach".

Any truth that Gawn threw the toys out of the pram?

Agreed. We have to keep challenging, that is the aim. That probably defines Culture in Sports the best way. Right now The MFC is at that Crossroad. This Year worries me, because of the way we are losing games, the Fight has dissipated and we haven’t managed to Trade in anything like the talent, that has left

Anyone else wanna stick the boots in in the media? Surprised we haven't had damo Barrett - IF dees are bad at footy THEN they don't win games

great post the only caveat i would is that if we continue to allow teams to 'walk' goals in to within 20m as we did in the flagmantle and filth combo, they more than likely will maintain that accuracy

The one thing that might see our fortunes change for the better is nothing to do with us. It's actually to do with the opposition's accuracy. From rounds 1 to 8 when we went 6-1, the opposition scored a combined 61.78 (43%). All but one team scored double digit behinds in our wins and teams like Adelaide and Richmond were absurdly inaccurate against us. However, from rounds 9 to 13 when our season has fallen off the rails, the opposition has kicked a combined 73.36 (67%). No team, that's right no team, scored double digit behinds in that run of games. That accuracy is just plain sick and unsustainable from the opposition. I realise Freo and Collingwood beat us fair and square but think about how many of their shots just snuck in the right side of the goal post. Once teams we play become more inaccurate, and they will, I expect us to win some games again. Clubs ain't going 71% against us every week like Freo and Collingwood did.

So, it's 'Bye-bye, Blake'? 😏

We do have one advantage to some other Melbourne clubs

I've definitely shifted my expectations for 2024 and think finals will be difficult to make given our issues. I still want the team to go 100% to win every game, however we need to make decisions with an eye to 2025. This means playing guys like Kolt, Kynan Brown and maybe even Jefferson if his form warrants a crack before the end of the season. Missing finals this year wouldn't be the end of the world, as it would give the players a full off season to freshen up and also give us an extra few weeks pre-season on the finalists. We would also get an easier fixture in theory given the way they structure double up games for the top 6 versus the middle and bottom 6 teams.

The failure of the FD to make Gawn/Grundy work was astonishingly poor. They had one plan! One! It's a 23 game season, why was it necessary for them to both picked every week? Could we not have planned for them both to play ~16 games? Hence 7 games where only one of them plays? Could we not have been smart enough, injuries permitting, to make sure these games are against teams that play two ruckmen? Could we not have used this flexibility to avoid Max travelling interstate 8+ times a season? Could we not have subbed one of the two off occassionaly if it wasn't working mid game? Max didn't hit the scorebard for a run of 4 games, in June... R13 defeated Collingwood 66-62 (BG: 13 disposals, 5 marks, 26 HOs 1g1b; MG 15 disposals, 6 marks 17 HOs) R15 lost to Geelong 63-78 (BG: 13 disposals, 5 marks, 19 HOs; MG 15 disposals, 1 marks 23 HOs;) R16 lost to Giants 45-47 (BG: 15 disposals, 3 marks, 16 HOs, 1g0b; MG 20 disposals, 2 marks 17 HOs;) R17 defeated Saints 79-58 (BG: 13 disposals, 3 marks, 17 HOs; MG 16 disposals, 6 marks 21 HOs;) After neither of them were able to hit the scoreboard, in the middle of winter. During a period where our highest conceded score was 78, we went 2Ws & 2Ls vs 4 teams that played finals where one game was played in a hurricane we completely abandoned the concept. Brodie was sent to the VFL until R22 a 56-60 loss to the Blues in the wet! Please! This was a balls up of epic proportions. Had we played one ruck v Giants and one v Blues we probably win both those games. Why on earth did we pick Max, Brown and Grundy to play the Giants, in a Hurrican in Alice??? Max should have been rested that game and come in cherry ripe v the Blues. Many of us raised these questions at the time and we were 100% right! I am a big SG supporter, have been all along but not being able to at least try another tact or two is utterly pathetic and now we've gifted the Swans exactly what they needed to jump from 6-8 to no. 1.

Why are people having a pop at Gary Lyon. To say he has disdain for the club is way off the mark. He was obviously delighted in the rooms after our victory in 21.

We can all dream about getting some superstar, but the reality is that elite players rarely move while already in their prime. 2023: None 2022: Taranto 2021: None 2020: Treloar, Cameron, Daniher 2019: Kelly 2018: Lynch, Neale, Hogan, May Slim pickings. We are fighting 16 other teams for their services... or they are moving for personal reasons so we'll never even get a shot. There are players who surprise everyone to become great players (e.g. Stengle) and young players who will likely become elite (e.g. Jackson JHF) but they rare too. If we are to contend next year, we need to find they B grade players who can be A+ in their role. Ed Langdon, Blake Acres, Bobby Hill, Jack Ginnivan are recent examples of the type.

It’s much more complex than that. The game plan is all wrong and needs a major overhaul. How can the midfielders deliver if the forward line is always flooded by the other team’s backs and midfielders and forwards??? We delay delay and then kick it in when the 50 is flooded with the opposition backs. Or we get it out over the back of the flood occasionally but there’s nobody there in the forward fifty to kick it to because we’re flooding back into their fifty to defend and have left no forwards in any position to kick to,

Or not. Plenty of obvious reasons as to why we're struggling at the moment.

Still very angry with the last month if footy but i think we must back Goodwin in to get things right. Sacking him before his contract is up would be disastrous and would set the club back a decade. HOWEVER the footy dept must get a shakeup. Assistant coaches need a freshen up and for the love of god get a proper forwards coach in. I would also like a ball movement coach (eg Caracella). With Petracca done we should be looking to send any players who need it off for surgery early so they are ready day 1 preseason. Viney I'm looking at you.

So I know nth shouldn't have dropped that game but wasn't the 4th umpire bought in to see things that maybe the other umps missed. I mean how did the other 3 umps not call that a 50 against those 2 pies players. Also I just saw that touched crisp goal. Clearly touched but it was let through as a goal. I mean last week kozzie got denied but crisp didn't. It was so obvious

This will be an unpopular view but I think Max was somewhat culpable in Grundy wanting out. He fully embraced his recruitment and on multiple occasions said they would make it work. So, most of us had an idea neither were natural forwards. In that case perhaps it would have been a great idea to extend Max's career by giving him regular games off. Grundy was good when Gawn was injured. Problem with this was that Max always wanted to be the main man week in week out and, in my view, wasn't pleased at the prospect of watching on. I think he was part of the problem. He is rising 33 and can't have long left. Following the Geelong model was the way to go resting ageing stars. As for Grundy at the Swans that would be an issue if we were vying against them for a flag this year which looks highly unlikely now.

Yes you are entitled to it. I can see why people would think that his words don't always help. I do respect Garry though and always appreciate the brutal honesty. It doesn't always sound nice but more often that not I find that it is warranted. I prefer this to the Brad Johnson pom pom waving type that doesn't say a bad word about anything. It doesn't mean that everyone has to like it though.

In the last few minutes, there was a North player leading in an open chase for the ball heading towards their half forward line. The chasing pies player just blatantly pushed him in the back sending him sprawling. Two pies player's just scooped the ball up and took it forward. Pushing in the back is rapidly disappearing as a free kick as well.

I do get it. There’s a lot of people on here scared that we’re falling back to the dark times of winning twice a year and racking up wooden spoons and they’re coping with that fear by getting in first and weeping and moaning about how it’s all falling apart so they can psychologically protect themselves if it does come true, and also pat themselves on the back and say they called it before anyone else, and called it harder than anyone else. It’s fine, do what you need to do. But stop lapping up every half arsed article knocked out in their sleep by journos and ex-players and ex-coaches and whatnot as if it’s wisdom from the gods. We’re not playing well, no [censored]. We’ve got some issues off field, no [censored]. Good clubs work through those issues and tough times and make changes and get better. [censored] clubs panic and sack everyone and set the whole place on fire. We’ve previously been the latter, I think it’s time we were the former - but some on here want the flames cos then they don’t have to fear being disappointed.

recruiting him for a second rounder or trading him out for second rounder. what’s your specific issue? clearly he didn’t work as a fwd and clearly we already have the best ruck in the league. I personally thought he was worth the risk with very limited fwd options to trade in

He hasn't nailed anything. All he's done is taken the dots and come up with a story that fits. See below, the one in purple.

I was talking to a former board member during the week who alluded to as much. She is still very involved with the club and would not elaborate but implied something is NQR behind the scenes.

This is the same Mick Malthouse that recommended Neeld to Lyon when we were looking for a coach. The same Mick Mathouse that destroyed Carltons list and culture when he coached there. I just dont think he's credible enough to take seriously these days.