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lot of naive posters on this thread booze and drugs (and other things) have been common across all clubs

He was exactly the sort of player we needed to get out of our club - as he himself says, he was partying too hard I think he read the play beautifully and got himself a nice extended and expensive contract at the Blues when his form over the previous few years probably didn’t justify it - he definitely wasn’t the player he promised to be; more Marc Macgowan than Rob Harvey - the article talks about his ‘leg speed’ and I genuinely lol’d cos Chook was as slow as treacle I wonder how much gear he was raging on the night he poured a bucket of pish all over us on the couch... Ironic that he did so while at Carltank, the only club with an assistant coach who happily admitted they were tanking

I reckon on field experience will be even more important with reductions in coaching ranks. With reductions in runners, there is a reason why teams like West Coast, Collingwood and Richmond win games and how Geelong and Hawthorn have been able to keep in touch of finals despite ageing lists. I reckon post 2021 we might see the draft age increase to help in reducing list sizes through natural attrition. In my opinion this is the ideal time to increase draft age.

From broken to smelling the roses. Awesome, I hope he makes it to the games record for us and hope above all hope gets to lift the premiership cup before he’s done.

Not sad at all.He was very much the author of his own misfortune and part of the problem at the club.Not even gracious enough to leave without embroiling the club in an unwarranted and debilitating enquiry

C'mon it's mid May and we've only dropped one game. ?

I’m saying that, do you keep a proven 300 gamer over. Young kid who may not even get a game?

Jeez the picture of him for the article doesn't look great. I'm not trying to derail the conversation to mitigate his own personal choices, at the end of the day he had free will to make his own path, but our club at the time was such a disgrace and I really did think we had a player with him. He absolutely killed it in the final against the Saints, he racked up possessions easy and was a decent kick of the footy. He should've been a long term top player for us, instead we brought in the tanking culture to go on top of an already poor club culture. He went to Carlton, which to me smacked of arrogance when talking with distain about the tanking attitudes at Melbourne. Carlton were just as bad as us, they just did it early enough to not cop any sanctions.

Dale Lewis. The AFL led the lynching. Don't turn over rocks if you don't want to know what's underneath. Demetriou's personal motto. I believe we did interview Franklin and, along with several other clubs, were put off by his putting his feet on the desk and taking calls from his mates during the interview. Character. Amazing, the character defects that incredible talent will compensate for.

Or we might have taken Richard Tambling and Tom Williams, who were around that mark. Just sayin' ?

yep, know that. anymore questions? who was the player few years ago who said drug use was rife and got pilloried from all angles by the afl, clubs and the sports media?

Don't you know winning solves all problems, West coast had the worst drug culture in history and are one of the great clubs.

Highest order To leave the MFC and go to Carltank, blabbing to the media was a low act No Sympathy at all

Yep im on also....come on Santa.

Yep good day so far fellas. Also on the early double. Apart from our multi i have an interest in Teleplay in Race 8 Syd. Suffered a little set back during the run in Adelaide last start, represents value at $21.

2 winners so far but both have come from the ADATR team. Put the feet up and let my teamates come through with goods As previously stated, Go Santa! .

Well done lads! Got the early double for a very nice 3 figure collect! Come on Santa!

Wonderful pastimes dc …….

Collingwood, Richmond...

If he can bring his JLT form playing as a half forward against Adelaide to the season, I still think he has a lot to offer.

I see Harpo Marx going around at Race 2 @ Rosehill....surely a Day at the Races special ! EDIT: 9th

The culture question is an interesting one. I'm not sure the partying and drug binges are an issue as far as winning games of football is concerned. West Coast are a prime example of that. The current top 4 teams are also renowned. Clubs, the AFL and fans will turn a blind eye if you're winning... However as far as beyond football goes a few will fall by the wayside...it's sad but it also mirrors society.

I was originally going to go Ranier, but the odds on last weeks pick were hard to go past. What a pity it didnt get a start. (follow) OK, well we will do our best to put up a few comments as the day goes along. Have a good day.

I had Ranier on top along with DZ's pick (Sikorsky) as well. A bit of luck today and we might come out on top. Fingers crossed Wadda! At work today so you blokes might want to give a bit of commentary on proceedings!

Ok, looks like my selection is scratched. My replacement is Rosehill Race 6 No 3 Ranier $5.50 (W) @Macca @Dee Zephyr

The turning point ... Round 5, 1964 Essendon vs Melbourne Saturday 16 May Venue: Windy Hill Attendance: 27,000 B Crompton Massey Tas Johnson HB Anderson Roet Leahy C Watson H Mann Adams HF Vagg Groom Kenneally F Jacobs Bourke Townsend Foll Wise Barassi Rov Emselle 19/20 Foster Matthews Windy Hill was never a happy hunting ground for the Melbourne Football Club and it was proving to be so for them at half time when inaccurate kicking for goal saw them trailing by a goal against Essendon who began the game as favourites by virtue of their demolition of the reigning premier Geelong. The Demons lifted their game in the second half in what was probably the catalyst for turning around a season that was in danger of slipping away. Tony Anderson and Neil Crompton stood firm all day in defence while Norm Smith’s move of third gamer Graeme Watson into the middle allowing Hassa Mann to take on the main roving duties proved to be the master stroke as the team dominated the rest of the game despite their continued inaccuracy in front of goal. In an interesting sidelight, both of Melbourne’s reserves, including first gamer Robert Foster, sat out the entire game on the bench. Runner Sam Allica was reported for illegally delivering messages to players other than the captain or vice-captain for the second time in the season. Essendon 2.0.12 4.4.28 5.7.37 7.11.53 Melbourne 1.6.12 2.10.22 5.18.48 10.25.85 Goals Barassi Bourke H Mann Vagg 2 Groom Jacobs Best Anderson Crompton Watson H Mann Emselle Kenneally Reserves Melbourne 10.9.69 defeated Essendon 6.13.49 Goals Carroll 5 Bartlett Wood 2 Slade Best Carroll Vaughan Bartlett Under 19s Melbourne 13.18.95 defeated Essendon 9.7.61 Goals McNabb Schultz 4 Reinholdt 2 Coutts Osborne Russell Best Stewart Minton-Connell McNamee

Dude's an idiot. Hubs aren't the issue. It's border closure. Specifically the border he closed & keeps closed despite their comparatively low incidence of covid cases. FMD. We've actually had a bi-partisan "all hands on deck" approach to this pandemic. Then old mate farkface in the West decides to indulge in a cheap shot point scoring exercise. Clearly he hasn't covered himself in glory here

All things happen for a reason ... McLean bleating about the tanking ultimately served a decent purpose. We were completely stagnant and going even further backwards in 2012/13 and the massive changes that happened once PJ arrived might not have happened unless we reached rock-bottom. The investigation saw to that. And massive change often only happens when the proverbial hits the fan (big time) But we're still behind a number of clubs with regards to professionalism & having a ruthless winning culture (IMO) The answer is to have top people filling the 6 Pillars required ... Pres, Footy Manager, Coach, Captain, CEO & Chief Recruiter. A top list of players therefore follows as a matter of course. And then you win (hopefully, win big)

Still can’t believe we got pick 9 for him from Carlton then wasted it on Gysberts. The silver lining was we ended up with Pedersen but what a waste of a draft pick.

Geez ya don't have to be dead to be stiff, Wadda That's a heartbreaker Might take your lead and go the place & win multis tomorrow at Sha Tin. Just a series of small outlays to win a bit. Moreira & Purton are sure to feature

If Harley plays 70+ games for us I will become a religious man and pray to the great Burgess daily

You got fired on your day off?!?! What da hell is wrong wit you?!

Knowing when to do it and having the senior players to pull you up when “needed” is possibly the difference? Who knows it’s just a sad end to so many MFC players careers and our hard earned during that time.

Given that drawing crowds will be a pretty much irrelevant consideration in 2020 then I’d prefer to get some momentum going. Collingwood after WCE might not be such a good idea.

That’s probably 4 or 5 times for Nathan. Let’s hope he gets the opportunity this year.

Not only did we make what turned out to be some shocking draft choices in that era, we were also in the wrong place at the wrong time. We drafted Sylvia and McLean with picks 3 & 5 in 2003. The same selections in the following season would have given us Ryan Griffen and Lance Franklin.

It would have been Mike Minton-Connell who was a solid key defender who played some good games in defence but struggled to break into Melbourne’s team with players like Roet and Groom ahead of him at CHB. His brother Adrian arrived in 1966 and looked a likely ruck type but injured his knee. What a pity we couldn’t leverage off the connection to get Peter Hudson!

Surely AFL will schedule the first 7 rounds split between Suns, Lions, Crows, Power, Eagles, Dockers, Swans, Giants - play each other in Qld, NSW HUB Remaining 10 Victorian teams stay in Vic. Nil travel outside the state. That gets the draw to round 8 after end of July with 9 rounds to play. Review fixtures in 1st week of July for remainder of the year.

Only Brock Mclean could get the sack in a strip club!!!

Playing any games at the back end of the season will be a miracle. We might get through to June 11, a little like we scrapped through to the first round but all bets are off after that. If they're relying on player discipline for 5 months as part of the formula then we have no hope. ...but a 2nd wave will finish things off before we get to that.

A player's decision to binge on booze and drugs has nothing to do with how 'disgraceful', as you put it, a club is. West Coast won a flag with drug binged players...

Me too. Although I thought it was 10k and at the time I vaguely remember him in line for the captaincy? Anyway he didnt get that or a big contract and the rest is history. He left a gigantic knife in the clubs back and I hope he is never welcome back.

Search sacked on Apple podcasts and you can hear the whole conversation.

Based on our rd 1 performance I’m with you Clint. We looked very similar to last season and that worry’s the hell out of me. We have had another preseason to work on kicking the ball into the f50 and we still bomb it in like we are playing Auskick. Why is it so hard to fix ffs.

The only way to stop it is to beat them..

Terrible story. I remember seeing him out relatively frequently in that 2012 - 2015 period. Venues where that sort of stuff was rife although it was never my thing. He was always too slow. Looked like he was 38 when he was 28. Hang on, I'm 38 and look younger now ?

If they played it at the MCG with no crowd, it would be an MT Grand Final.

What an utter ****show our club was. Toxic environment under Neeld is an understatement.

That's very generous to Neeld and his approach to development, communication and people management. Each to their own, but tactical footballing nous is just a small element of coaching and you don't 'toughen up' young people by neglecting to nurture and support them. If a player has a positive relationship with their coach, they will run through brick walls for them. You don't hear many stories of Sheedy, Matthews and Malthouse being cold to their players - they were more akin to father-figures. The club was at its lowest point in its long history when Neeld left. He, and the regime that he was working under, completely gutted the club.