deespicable me

Geelong are 8 points closer to us than they should be. 8 points. I understand people saying, we should have been better and if we blame umps for our inability to win the game we are delusional. I also believe that good sides overcome bad umpiring and I remember when we were a poor team and a few frees against and we were out of the contest. But in an era when almost every sport that has had umpiring issues has evolved and improved their adjudication by technology and ,third umpires etc, to the point where there are very few games decided in the wrong, we are left in the past where our umpiring is not unlike boxing. A joke.

Surely we are broke now. We have to go to the draft for the next couple of years and squirell away some money for Jacko, Rivers and Kossi. I spose we'll be a destination team for a few years but they will have to come across for peanuts.

Well at least it's after the seniors game so the super sub and emergencies (touch wood) hopefully can play

It was almost like he lost his balance. There was no intent to hurt, there was no hurt. It's rules one way, then not the other. If you injure a fellow player with what is considered an illegal or poorly judged act then you have to accept the consequences, so surely the opposite should be true. Nothing in it, no injury, no hurt, no reversal of the free to Kossie, play on. And you can't compare it to Lynch who initiated the attack on his opponent, McDonald was sticking up for Kossie after Ploughman nearly took his neck off. Crude and violent poorly executed tackle. Even then he wouldn't get off or let go of Kossies jumper. If anything it could have been 50 metres but we haven't got to the round where they pay them yet.

I agree. Nibbler should definitely be dropped. Good work Binners.

Well call me a conspiracy theorist, but I've got a theory that this is orchestrated. You need an excuse to rest someone otherwise you're disrespecting your opponent Max may not be sore, he may just have lost confidence by giving Jacko too much time at the centre bounces. We got smashed in the clearances, especially when Max was in there, so give him a bigger responsibility. He's been working with Yze and Viney to fix up the clearances and needs time in the middle to sort things out. Everybody has been wanting Weidemann back in the side and yet Ben Brown needs time in there as well to get match fitness and start gelling with the forward entries. BB out for the Weid is not a good move, this allows Weid back in and takes the pressure off the call for BB out. Jacko is young and will only benefit from a couple of weeks off and while we will miss him, the leaders who make the calls and keep structures etc are still out there. As a conspiracy theorist Its a win, win, win so I have to consider it. I hope if it is the case it doesn't backfire.

There's also a bit of luck. Tom Mac was so good on Saturday night. We handled it well. Goody handled it well. That is obvious by allowing him his chance to prove us wrong without any ill feeling. I had him done. A lot of us did for sure. He kicked 2 massive goals on Saturday night. They were great. I felt so good for him. He was so happy.

Even after being 9-0 in 2016 North were not considered a premiership contender, they were still about 10-1 to win the flag and about 4th favorite. Most predicted a drop off and weren't surprised when it came. Our aim is to finish top 4. So we have to beat the teams around us. Having wins against Richmond, Geelong and Swans are important. Last Saturday nights win was super important. If Swans won its 28 points to us and 24 points to them and they can replace us in the top 4 at some stage. Having won and now being 12 points ahead of the Swans gives us a chance to hold them off in the run home. A problem for us though is our inability to get an easy win. A kill. Most good teams of the last 20 years had the ability to kill off the contest quickly and then could cruise through a few games. All our games the opposition were well in the game and in many cases ahead. It's good that we found a way to win but we looked cooked in the 4th quarter on Saturday night. The next part of our maturity as a football side is learning how to dominate. If we can't start putting games to bed earlier, we will almost certainly tire and drop off.

I'm still non-plussed that Nankervis can come up behind Max off the ball and whacked him in the back while Gawn is unaware and knocks him to the ground. No free, no fine, nothing. Kharma at least caught up with Edwards for raising his elbow and cleaning up Oliver. Suck eggs on your 8 weeks off Edwards.

Are North Melbourne aware that he flops?

Listened to Whateley interview Sam Mitchell today on SEN and eventually after all the adds it was a great interview, with an insight into Sam Mitchell coaching the Box Hill Hawks etc. He along with maybe Yze are the two most likely untried coaches in waiting. It made the constant advertising they subject you to almost worth it. On the other hand after 7 minutes of mind numbing adds in the afternoon they come back to Maher and Murphy and I want the adds to come back on. Why do Whateley and Murphy team up with such dollops? Murphy had so much credibility before he put money and security in front of being listenable. Now he's just a lazy bloke making up lists with a sycophantic [censored]. Bloody Melbourne media. What happened to quality control.

Hi, just in light of Steven May getting two weeks a year or so ago for standing still, not moving and a player running into him, I'm just wondering how many weeks Edwards should get for lining up Oliver, who had to go off for 10 minutes or so, and raising the shoulder in a deliberate act to hurt Oliver. Also did anyone see the dog act by Nankervis on Gawn. Off the ball, ran straight into Gawns back, knocking him over and giving him a whiplash type injury, again we are very lucky Gawn shrugged it off but surely Nankervis has a case to answer. Both acts of thuggery that certainly in Edwards case deserve weeks. Did others see and agree.

I watched a bit of the Freo/ North game tonight and Zeibel was good off half back. Melksham would be the perfect fit to play the forward negating role on him.

I think a couple of players that you could do comparisons to, are Bontempelli and Adam Goodes. Both are tall, athletic utilities who can play ruck, forward or midfield. Both are/were superstars. Goodes became more a forward towards the end of his career but was used in a variety of positions as the team needed. Bont is similar, not as much a ruck but has taken many ruck taps in the forward line. Bontempelli is only developing now into a very dangerous forward. Both players are premiership players. I think Jackson has the same scope as these two players and definitely the potential to become a superstar and play wherever the team needs.

No, some people are missing the fact that the Crows player had handpassed the ball. Dangerfield was late, the ball was gone. If he still had the ball at impact it becomes a different argument. He was concentrating on giving off a handball and was open when Dangerfield cleaned him up. Late. He has to take responsibility for that. It moves from accidental, towards it being a vicious act. You can argue that its not in Dangerfields nature but he chose to do it and didn't execute within the rules of the game. He has to take responsibility for that.

Jackson, Rivers, Kossie, along with Jordan and Sparrow. Pretty good crew of youngsters.

He's a gun and as have everyone on here has done we have enjoyed every one of his 100 games. I don't need Robbo to tell me he's good. He can kneel down and slobber all over the Dusty Martin statue he's put up in his backyard. What did he have Oliver ranked at again?

I am really looking forward to watching what Jackson can do. He is a top rising star candidate ( if eligible) and I am hopeful he is our "Bontempelli". His upside is enormous. Mind you he could take another year or two to develop but I'm hoping it's this year he shows his talent. My whipping boy candidate is Gus. He has shown he has good talent but the penny hasn't dropped yet as to how hard you have to work to achieve your goals. From listening to him on the podcast I think he believes he has already made it and is one of the top players in the game. He is not. He could be. I think his 3rd placing in the Brownlow was a setback for Gus. We are getting impatient for him to play good consistent football week in week out.

It's interesting but a few on here are showing the same instincts as the racist attitudes that the report is trying to recognize and change. To label Collingwood supporters in such a manner has the same roots as racism. And before anyone gets too excited I do the same myself. I sort of stopped labelling people when I got sick of the "get in your Range Rover and head off to the snow" comments. But I love the comedy that belittles the typical pies supporter so it's hard to change but I'm pretty sure it's the comedy and throw away lines that the indigenous players are sick off.

Probably won't peak for another season or two as he hasn't built enough strength into his body yet. He is still too easily bodied out of contests. But with three tall options and some smarts around playing decoy and sheparding for one another and leading patterns he can definitely be part of a functioning forward line. As for Brown he was an Apex predator in the classic full forward role of Carey and Lockett. Weids is not an Apex personality, he is more similar in personality to a Matthew Lloyd. Lloyd was under a master coach. Weids desperately needs good coaching.

I think they might be towing Eddies boat. Think about it, Collingwood have a horrible trade period and stink it up especially with their emotional fans. How do we get the fans back on board? Give them a big fish. Combined with the fact the show is seriously pukable material. They were vaguely funny with Dr Turf who sacked them. It is an atroscious show. Pickering is a creep. Hutchy is a fruit loop of a bloke. How do they increase relevance? Give them a big fish.

He reminds me of a player for us we took at 5 or 3, Colin Sylvia was the other, and then he went to Carlton and put us in for tanking. Laurie looks slow with those chunky legs but doesn't mean he can't play at the top level, but probably best suited inside mid which I'm not sure we're after. I really liked the tape of Perkins, Where is he likely to go?

Interesting situation. TMac would be a proud bloke and probably extremely upset and embarrassed by the situation. It's one thing to think you're not being used properly by the coach or the game plan is stupid or you are far better than your output might indicate but when the whole football world doesn't rate you it would be a harsh / bitter pill to swallow. It is definately not the way he would like to end his career. He has one chance now to work his butt off and get back into the top 22 and contribute and earn not only his salary but the respect of his peers and the wider football world. The danger for the club is having a sad sack roaming the coridoors and bringing the standards and feeling of success down. Its hard to ask a player to put their body on the line when theres a bloke on the sidelines earning a shirtload and contributing nothing. One of the first things Roos did when he arrived at the club was demand the biggest contribution from the clubs highest paid players. Same with Harmes. No use on the sidelines. Just creates unrest. In fact it may be cancerous. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't paid out. The club must give these players a role or get rid of them, nothing else can work. They must contribute.

I think Mahoney has done reasonably well. His big task now is to reduce our wasted money by trading out TMac and any other mid category contracts with players that are'nt playing top 26 football. As seen with Collingwood and Grundy, De Goey and Treloar its not hard to get bogged down in player payments. How do Collingwood improve their list? They have to get money off their books before they can look at bringing anyone in. We have some difficult contracts coming up, and trying to keep our talent together won't be easy, for us to have the ability to bring in Brown on a mid-high pay packet means Mahoney and his team must be doing a reasonable job. But his head will swing if we get into a Collingwood type scenario trying to keep our talent. There are problems in our payment structure ( TMac and Harmes and maybe others ) but up to and including this off season he has done a good job, he just needs to get Toms money off our books and move onto securing the likes of Trac and Clarrie for their next contracts.

I don't think we have the money. Menegola is a very good footballer and a great wingman, exactly what we need, but either way it would be nice to see one of the Cats good players leaving.