Gator

He's often isolated deep because of his one-v-one contested ability, as evidenced in round 23 against West Coast and in the semi against Sicily. In reality, they all rotate around the front half of the ground, so where you put them doesn't overly matter.

It's a big year for Nathan. At best he gets one year and at worst he gets tapped on the shoulder. I suspect he'll get one year.

I don't think May should be suspended. Did you see the drivel I was responding to ?

Why are you quoting me ?

I plan on making this my last post re this matter, as it's not a big enough issue to warrant too much time wasting. Your post is drivel. I don't know if you've ever played football, but one player knew there was a collision coming and the other didn't.

Unfortunately, I think that's right. A few pages ago a poster posted a slow-mo video. I paused it at around 5.7 seconds and it appeared to me that the first contact was to his chin.

Being on the ground or off the ground is irrelevant. The only thing that's relevant is where contact was made.

I'd like to know what was in the ''medical report''. Like others have already said, the ''look'' of the incident should be entirely irrelevant. If the first contact was to the chin and not the neck then unfortunately he will not get off. Hard to tell from the video. He could have hit the chin first, or he may not have. This is where Berry's recollection of events comes in.

I didn't think he got him in the head. I'm obviously wrong. But gee, the game has been sanitised to within an inch of its life. Yeah yeah, I know it's still tough and they hit hard, etc.

I suspect your cousin is right. No-one is better placed to know a player's deficiency than a teammate. This is where the good clubs develop players and improve their weaknesses. That said, I believe we've earmarked him for an outside wing role.

I have more patience for a 21 year old key forward still learning the caper.

Do you think that Goodwin and McCartney would have recruited him if he wasn't hard enough at the footy ? It's in their DNA. It's part of the club's ''esprit de corps''. Clearly there are degrees of hardness, and Kolodjashnij isn't an inside mid, but the club wouldn't have recruited a player they thought had been to the Jack Watts school of hard knocks.

Haha I don't even know who you are. Btw, it's not my side of politics that needs ''safe spaces''.

Just another typically derogatory Leftist term.

This term always amused me, especially as he was taller than Hawke.

May won't be lucky if he gets off as it's not reportable. Melbourne like the fact that May plays on the edge and won't be encouraging him to change. If he cops a week here and there so be it. It was a trial match and clearly there are things that need to be improved. That's what you want from a trial match. I prefer a tough hit out like that game than the game Port had where North only had 20 odd tackles for the entire game. Naturally, the usual nuffies will vent and carry on. They know no other way.

You can't put people in cotton wool. He needs another hit out before round one. The Preuss injury will make zero difference.

Couldn't disagree more. I've been going to the footy for over 40 years and have never once thought the game went too long. And I've never once had someone say it to me either. Even watching other teams on tv it's never occured to me that I want shorter games.

Why ?

I'm happy to see no preseason games as long as they don't reduce the length of games.

He'd be easier to understand if he wore one.

In a bad way. I saw every player you mentioned and there's not one great of the game other than Flower. There are greats of the MFC, but not greats of the VFL/AFL competition. There were great stories, like Stynes, who was a champion of the MFC, but wasn't a great of the game. Simon Madden and Dean Cox are greats of the game, but Stynes falls short of their lofty status. By the end of his career, if not now, Gawn will go down as a better player than Stynes. For me he's already better. In the midfield group you've listed there is not a single champion midfielder in the Voss, Black, Judd, Ablett, Riccuito, Williams, Buckley, Fyfe mould. There's no Matthews, Bartlett, Skilton. There's no Lockett, Dunstall, Carey, Lloyd, Riewoldt, Brown, Quinlan. Or Blight, Jezza, or Hudson. And I've missed many. In fact, I don't recall a single club with as little star power as Melbourne in the last 50 years. We're simply bereft of the ''greats''. In my opinion our best ''collective'' would be the worst in the league among the established clubs. I could not disagree with you more.

In 2018 we were second in contested marks behind West Coast.

Strange list. Wingers like Flower and Alves weren't really mids in the sense they are now. They weren't on-ballers. Woewodin in your top 10 ? Wow. Yze and Wilson were much better than Woewodin. Greg Wells was a much better player than Todd Viney. Anyway, we all see things differently.

Matthew Lloyd just said that to elevate his game and join the absolute best mids, like Patrick Cripps, he had to kick more goals. Cripps and Oliver average the same amount of goals across their career (.4) and averaged the same amount last year (.5). I don't necessarily disagree and think Oliver will kick more goals, but at least get your facts right.