Mazer Rackham

Get used to it. As the reigning premiers, everything they do is automatically the best and to be fawned over.

Last time this guy tried this same caper, the AFL eagles were able to very quickly out-manoeuvre him and close him down. I would be amazed if they don't make this vanish equally quickly. Their lawyers are better than his (ie, him).

"The police are clearly at fault. If they had had more officers on duty I would not have been able to rob that bank. Also the government should have had stricter penalties, to deter me from doing this deed. Which I never did by the way."

That day at the G though. I wasn't even upset, I was so stunned. Stunned and catatonic. My wife's first and last game of footy. And all she can remember is that it was cold.

Unfortunately that's what you get with The Ox. Big personality, huge talent, but also impulsive and not prone to taking advice. Had he been a more cautious kind of person, he would not have done his knee again (and again), but also might not have had the game to make it to AFL in the first place. It is what it is. He was great but not long lived. Not so different from Jako, viewed with the distance of time. Sad but not a tragedy. (Ask some people in bourke street if you can't tell the difference.)

What if he wasn't? What if he was? Are you saying it's okay to lie provided the person you're lying to doesn't believe you? Anyway, it's all part of football realpolitik. If the bad guy lies, he's evil incarnate. If the good guy lies, he's cleverly manipulating fools and ne'er-do-wells. (For the record, Scully is evil incarnate.)

Yep. Boycott the AFL's sponsor's meet and greet events (while honouring club sponsor dos). Don't visit schools. Plenty of things they can do to p!ss off the AFL. A strike as a first resort is really poor tactics. Everyone knows they won't do it ... unless the really are that dumb.

There will be no strike. Channel 7 and Fox would have conniptions. The AwFuL doesn't want or need the embarrassment. Or the leaning on they'd get from Ch7 & Fox. Mr Marsh will find a horse's head in his bed if any strike looks even remotely like becoming a reality. And who do they think they're kidding anyway? It's a stupid ambit proposal (unless they're actually serious???), there are other actions they can take well before it comes to a strike.

They are all the worst in the league!

This sounds like the annual chest beating from those tough negotiators at the AFLPA They'll make plenty of sound and fury right up to the moment when Gil explains to them what the negotiated outcome is. Then they'll quieten down for another 12 or so months. If they really want to know what the players are thinking, get off the teat of the AFL and suggest the players pay a membership fee. Then they'll find out what the players want, or if the players even care.

The names "Giants" and "Suns" are lazy generic handles, obviously designed by committee, that could describe any number of sporting teams around the world. Because "Giants" and "Suns" are just the kind of thing that US (the Mecca that all sporting administrators look up to and pay periodic homage to) teams might be called. But what do the people of the Gold Coast and western Sydney identify with? (If anything?) (Gold Coast Beaches, anyone? "Go you bloody Beaches!!!") However .... History shows us that it's all meaningless anyway; the identity, the culture attaches itself to the name regardless of what the name is. Carlton Blues? What the hell is that? EFC Bombers? They're either some kind of warplane or some kind of mosquito. Relevance??? Utah Jazz? They were once the New Orleans Jazz ... makes some sense ... but now they belong to those free-wheeling jazz-loving Mormons. In the end it matters hardly at all. The only thing that counts in the long run is success. Tell the 7 year old who watches the GWS Giants on TV winning week in and week out, winning flags, generally being winners, that their nickname is a lazy generic handle. You will lose the battle and the war. The kid instinctively wants to watch the winners. He'll get on board with the GWS Generically Titled Football Club and not care a whit. Basically club nicknames are all fairly silly and meaningless. But when corporates get involved ... that's a different ball game, figuratively and literally.

We are the Melbourne Football Club. Not the Red Bull football club. I can't honestly say who we represent other than our members and supporters. We clearly don't represent the city of Melbourne. On the other hand. the Red Bull Demons would represent the Red Bull company and any success and all glory would be attributable to the mighty Red Bull corporation. The mighty power of the Red Bull brand has brought you this success. Please buy Red Bull products and you too can be as successful. An increased fan base, by extension, are fans of the Red Bull corporation whether the fans intend that or not. On a related note, it's distasteful to have advertising plastered all over the jumper. Check out the NRL jumpers. (We are headed the same way, gradually.) However you regard the USA competitions & their team owners, their leveraging of the team brands for $$$, not one of them puts ads on the jumper. The name "Melbourne" guarantees nothing. A 16- , then 18-team competition with its extra $$$ is what has guaranteed us a place in the AFL comp to date. If the AFL thought they could jettison us and get away with it, there have been multiple opportunities in the past. None were tied to the sacred name of "Melbourne".

Whatever floats your boat. You can even barrack for him if you prefer.

Old ground, but why would any official at an AFL club, when confronted with WADA-banned substances on the premises, not say "get that xxxx out of here NOW!"

Third person plural! Lah-di-dah! No wonder so many people hate her.

Funny, he would have been the only one. (However this poster expects that from a martian. Sheedy can probably barely remember his own name these days.) After the Tim Watson Experiment (that great '60s acid rock band), EVERYONE from Wayne Jackson down to the Dimboola thirds bootstudder knew that you don't appoint a coach without previous experience. And look where it got them. In this poster's opinion, all richly deserved ... apart from the damage to the competition, the sport, Aussie sport as a whole, the players, the families of those involved ... most lousy coaches only take their teams to the bottom of the ladder. Hird, a coach for the ages. (In this poster's opinion.)

Don't worry. It won't be free much longer. Or a world, come to think of it.

How about from the editor up? Murdoch's World. An Ethics Free Zone.

Smith is an old school journo and in the old school it was the standard of professionalism to say "this column believes" or "the author regards". It was seen as amateurish to say "I believe" or "I think". (Nowadays the standards are so low that a tipsy and inarticulate buffoon can livestream his inner voice in half sentences, without any pause for reflection, in print and on radio & TV.) But Smith is also not a particularly warm character and even a vocalised expression of compassion would probably come across as rather stiff and formal. The only credible show of emotion from Smith would be a sledge at a batsman who's been sat on his backside by a nasty bouncer.

Franky, every possible variation of everything has been offered up in this saga. The story you were told is a fairy story designed by apologists to protect Hird. "It was all above board but Dank took the money and ran." There are variations on the fairy story even. Such as, Dank knew all along "the good stuff" was prohibited but had EFC pay for it and then on sold it to bikies while injecting the players with vitamins. "It wasn't above board but Dank led Hird to believe it was. And took the money and ran." We'll probably never know the actual true story, until some player on their death bed spills what they know. (It won't vary too much from what we think happened.) It took how many years for Percy Jones to spill the beans on some minor scandal at Carlton.

Gil should write a management book. Along the lines of well-known ones like "The One Minute Manager" or "Who Moved the Cheese" ... "Sit On Your Hands ... how to resolve any issue by doing nothing for so long it takes care of itself" by Gillon McLachlan. Instant classic.

OK, I'm a bit behind the times but seeing as you asked so nicely.... I am Jessicus I'm hung like a horse And I can take a one handed grab And kick the goal of course I am Carey I am Brereton and Goodes And if you watch me play the game You can't help but get wood(s) I am flying above the ground Dragging in a screamer With three men hanging on It's not too much To blind turn and slot through my tenth I am number one (wild string section solo here) I am Jessicus I'm a Demon of course I can pull big crowds and chicks With my magnetic force I am Jezza I am Quinlan and Royce Hart and I won't ever leave you No, no, no, no I am Jesse I am Hogan I am an incredible hulk And I can fly above a pack (etc, ad lib and fade out)

I have different word to describe him but the site censor will rub it out.

With Brayshaw out of the picture we'll never again get to see that hilarious clip of Garry Lyon being carried off on a stretcher. My god, what a side splitter. And then we'll never see it repeated. And then we'll never see it repeated a few second after that. And then a few seconds after that. And then a few seconds after that. And then 5 minutes later. And then a few seconds after that. And then a few seconds after that. I'm shaking just thinking about it!!!