fr_ap

This place is bizarre. We have one semi encouraging win against one of the favourites for the bottom 4 and all of a sudden 9/10 on here tip a huge win. The hawks are a serious step up in on field and in box quality and form wise, have had probably the best start to the season (maybe other than port). I'm hopeful we can win but think it will be close. Worried about their speed off the wing (Smith impey) and in the forward line (breust puopolo) whilst our smaller defenders seem in poor form (no hunt hurts in this one). Think they will beat us by 3 goals.

I have been saying for some time (not on here necessarily) that if we are on a premiership journey, this will be 'the year we had to have', ala Richmond 2016 or St Kilda 2017. Not saying St Kilda will win the flag this year but I expect them to be in the 6. Save for inaccurate kicking they would have been in the 8 last year, I have no idea why the media has joined our wagon instead of theirs. The football public and media has extremely short memories. As to why this won't be our year (I predict a finish of 11th-13th) I can't entirely put my finger on it. Too much expectation, not enough proven. I think so long as our weapons and best players week in week out have less than 100 or 50 games (Trac, Gawn, Oliver, Hogan), its simply not going to happen. Definitely not in a finals series if we do indeed get there. These players will remain inconsistent and can't be relied upon to win games. I expect Hunt to regress significantly, Lever to have a very difficult year, Hannan and Jeffy to regress, ANB to regress,as well as a gradual decline in the value of Vince and Lewis and to a lesser extent Hibberd who after a year off will struggle physically with the cumulative effect of 2 seasons plus the pre season. I see continued improvement from Harmes, Oscar, Brayshaw, Frost and not particularly many others. Viney if he can get on the park. Add Goodwins second year blues and continued emotional education on how to handle his players, plus improvement across a number of other teams like Freo, perhaps Port,Hawthorn, Essendon and St Kilda as mentioned and I see a 7-8 win season as most likely. Tom McDonald will also leave at the end of the year as a FA. Despite the above, I think next year will more likely be the one we make a leap, though the key players I mentioned will still be too inexperienced. We are told continually progress is not linear yet that is exactly what we are expecting - linear growth. Some will say this is very negative and I hope I'm wrong on all fronts except the players improving. Just the way I see it.

You must be some negotiator mate - anyone who disagrees with you is told to sit down and shut up. Nice. You're clearly running with your own narrative on this, aligning it with previous failures of the club, and I doubt I could convince you of anything otherwise, so good luck finding peace with the decision. I know I have very quickly. We have put Jack on the table and to those who have asked why, been upfront that for a senior player of his experience, his inconsistency is unacceptable. How this equates to dragging him through the mud or 'dismissing' him, I have no idea. And yes, in the recent past we have kept inconsistent senior players, and have not used their inconsistency as a catalyst or excuse to trade. That recent past has also been extremely unsuccessful. I don't think that's a coincidence so I for one am pleased the club is taking a harsher stance. But hey, my opinion isnt as valid as yours is it?

I don't post here very often but this appalling post has motivated me to do so. I don't think any of us here know the full extent of this story so for you to come out and attack Mahoney's and Goodwin's character in defence of Watts, using his apparent 'loyalty' as an excuse - is really poor. He has been a well paid employee over this time and appears to be (see how I don't portray this as fact?) the type of character who was happy to go along for the ride, or do the easy thing. You have no idea if Jack has always had the best interests of the MFC at heart. Zero idea. If he did, he certainly had a strange way of showing it by in my view picking and choosing when to perform. The one thing we have been told is that after 9 years and 150 games, his inconsistency cannot be tolerated any longer. Given we failed as a club this year due to inconsistency (was not rd23's fault, not Adelaide's fault, but the losses to NM x2,freo,haw that stood between us and top 4 - let alone finals), i think that whether they are right or wrong on Jack it is clear they are trying to address why we came up short. That is their role and they should not be attacked for it or have their motives questioned. Personally, I had held some hope he would stay and turn it around, but his little video he has released eroded that hope and replaced it with anger. Lovely for him to respond to a young concerned supporter yes, but to use that as a chance to overlay a swipe at the club and go on to essentially pisstake the club (my interpretation, others may differ) left me furious. How many other 26/27 year old 150 game players would release that when moving clubs? Compare to Jarman Impey's message to PA supporters - classy and gracious. Jack's approach to me is childish and immature. Perhaps that is why he is so well loved, perhaps it is also why he's always been inconsistent. There have been a few other indicators of this over the journey. Do keep in mind Paul Roos was in a highly fortuitous position during his tenure. He was to be judged only a little on wins, moreso observed cultural change. He needed to build mateship and unity - I have little doubt Jack is top notch in these areas. We are through that stage and now need to break the ceiling. Evidently the FD think Jack, who appears to have developed so poorly and slowly on field and arguably (per video) off it, is not the best exponent of the breakthrough year. Whether we make top 4 next year will have nothing to do with Jack, and him thriving elsewhere will not mean this was a bad decision.

May be nothing, but flying home at 930 last night and Hunt was on the flight. Looked to have quite the swollen right cheek/jaw area. Not a lot of bruising but certainly looked odd. Who knows, could have been chewing gum but the way he flew alone sunday night made me wonder if he spent Saturday night in hospital with a cheekbone injury. Ben Brown was also on the flight sitting with the common folk. Dresses like a bum! Good player though.

What are those outcomes out of interest? Its sunday and I'm feeling lazy.

Talk of trading Frost is both wrong and highly disrespectful. He is a key reason we are doing as well as we are. There is no other KPD in the comp like him, he's unique and he's ours.

I love him but this is a bit much. Daniher is still young and if he can sort his kicking will absolutely be a great. Far more weapons than jesse too and a much more difficult match up. Lynch is already the closest thing to Carey we've seen for a while. Wills his team all the way and does it all. Special player.

Smith may be named as we will need HBFs once lewis and or vince go in the guts.

Fair enough

Bizarre. The overrating of our list on this board is absurd... I post about the opposition's 10 best players and you think I am overrating them? Like us, their issue is their bottom 6 and their depth. Ours has managed to play reasonably well this year, fitting in to a good attacking gamestyle. Their bottom 6 is average (see N Graham) and they play a heavily defensive gamestyle which won't win them many games but is keeping them in the hunt. All I am saying is it would be foolish to underestimate them. You can bet Goodwin and the club view it the same way I do. Consider that your reaction to my listing of their top 10 is how every non dees supporter reacted to David King's article about us.

I hate this attitude. Yes they are their 3 best players. But consider: -kreuzer beats gawn at the best of times. If max stinks it up like he did on Friday, this will go a long way to winning them the game. -the trio of weitering plowman marchbank is a good young hungry backline. Whoever plays forward out of tom mac watts hogan if fit is going to be double and triple teamed by these 3 given our lack of firepower -kade simpson is a jet -sam docherty will be the dual AA hbf at the end of the year. If he was ours we'd be putting him in brownlow contention. -charlie curnow is going places -matthew wright is always good for 2 or 3, even with jetta on him -casboult can now kick in addition to being the best mark in the league. I could go on. Carlton are 2 years away from being a serious serious threat if they can keep gibbs. They are doing great things under Bolton.

Why is our doctor being questioned? He said that oliver reported a sore jaw. Why is he being hung out to dry? This is bizarre, from people ignoring claytons admission he shouldnt have dropped, to implicating the umpire for passing on what the player reported. People must really hate us and oliver - i dont get the witch hunt

Agree. I would love PJ to come out and support Clarry here. This can follow a player forever.

He's going to get off here schofield. What annoyed me is grant thomas and others saying he has made it worse by not admitting it....he said he shouldnt have fallen over and was sort of scared...isnt that him admitting he shouldnt have done it? Finding the attacks on this 19 yo's character from all corners quite distressing

I think all of you and the media need to seriously pump the brakes. Weve had a fantastic month but there is a way to go to 'safely assume finals' (cannot believe what I am reading from an mfc supporter). We have a young team and combative game style - it will catch up at some point, tipping around rnd 17-18 if not through more injuries (which is starting with sore groins, hammies and hips - the first to go) then definitely through a lack of run. We are relying on big and good games from kids in hunt, petracca, oliver and to a lesser extent harmes, anb, hannan, frost to win games. It wont continue, inconsistency is inevitable. Try your best to ignore the media circus. They get on and off the st kilda train, it's quite bizarre. They literally say whatever pops into their brain. Reactive with no foresight, sense of the game and often, limited actual knowledge of our team. We may scrape in, we may be safely in at 5th or 6th, we could easily miss. Either way, I think we will look back at this year as the year of injuries. Its just too hard to overcome.

Not enough love for melksham. Was in everything early won some key 1v1s and his speed and gut running was crucial to the many over the back goals that kept us in it. Plus slotted his own. Quietly building into good form, looks a better player with a very clear role that plays to his strengths.

There was actually a far more obvious soccer style 'dive' earlier in the game. Go back and watch in the 1st Q when the eagles go i50 over the back to Petrie. Jetta was with him and caught underneath and they grappled a little, holding each other. When the ball was eventually out of his reach Petrie just folded at the knees. He had the stronger position in the contest and arguably Jetta would not be capable of grounding a 200cm 100kg 300 game player in any case. It was as clear as mud and I'm surprised none of you have mentioned it. I am not disputing the free kick, which was likely there as jetta didnt always have eyes for the ball. But given the size differential between the players, the ump wasnt going to pay it unless DP went to ground, so he did. This was an in play staging attempt that resulted in a free kick and a goal if memory serves, exactly the same thing we all hate about soccer. Clarries hit was at HT, no free kick could be given anyway. Why would he have staged? I honestly think it just caught him off guard.

The jones article on the AFL website says Hibberd is under a cloud. Wouldn't mind seeing maynard but would be a fair slap in the face to tren and jkh

No worries, cheers. Seems not a lot of substance to it then! We need to be wary of mortgaging our future on a player like this when trac, hogan, gawn and oliver are going to want massive paydays reasonably soon. That said, the CBA should increase so to what degree that effects the decision I'm not sure. Mahoney has shown he's a bit of a jet at this stuff so let's hope it continues.

Care to copy and paste? Cant get past the paywall

Wouldn't be surprised to see Trac pull out of this one. Oliver mentioned on MMM that his knee is very sore.

By comparison the Hibberd DOOB makes much more sense as an error, he was handballing down the line, the umpire was (potentially) blindsided and saw him point at the boundary and pass it out. The Salem free however I just cannot fathom. Don't even know where to start. We may as well lie on top of the opposition's 17 players on the boundary line and watch Hunt torch a single opponent repeatedly.

I don't post here often, but the rabid mood on here is contagious. I am absolutely fuming about the MRP farce, and also this: In all seriousness I would love to know what the club is doing about all of this. We have been scapegoated and taken advantage of. I am all for taking the high road but the time has come to ask serious questions of the AFL. I would say Karma will get them, but its BS and doesnt exist. Unfortunately we as a supporter base are well aware of that. Does anyone have any AFL connections? This is [censored].

This. If you think Kent was poor - watch the replay and look off rhe ball. All the contests when JKH was getting outmarked the last few weeks, kent actually jumps at it and brings it to ground. His off ball work was good all night and he sets the tone for aggression in an area of the field that has lacked some. With the ball, 20 touches and 2 goals is a good small forward's game. If he could kick set shots he could have had 3. Not sure why he doesnt run left in run up as he has a huge hook and always hits the right behind post