Ron Burgundy

I suspect Oskar Baker also sends him his thanks for that info.

This is bloody unreal. We arguably have the best bookends in the comp now.

He strikes me as a difficult dude to manage. Having managed teams for years, it’s my experience that it’s wearing to continually have to motivate people who lack natural enthusiasm and self-motivation for team-oriented behaviours and goals. Perhaps he’s just in that category - it’s a personality type thing. Perhaps he’s just not naturally suited to a high performing, highly regulated, disciplined team environment, despite possessing the DNA of a really good footy player. Even though, intellectually, he might be aware that it’s in his interests to commit to certain behaviours and actions, he can’t sustainably do this week in week out, because his personality type is possibly more individualistic (i.e. it’s not necessarily his fault). Whereas, while Dustin Martin is an individual, from all reports I’ve read, he loves ‘team’ and places ‘team goals’ above all else including himself as an individual. Hence, the club and the players alike love having him around the place, on and off-field.

Our colours are red and blue. They’re pretty cool colours. If we can’t sell this over playing in purple for an entire season, we’re pretty bloody hopeless. This alone should convince this kid to want to choose the Dees over the Purple Headed Anchors.

Yep, you are a gun. That Goodwin, Clarkson and Chris Scott really wanted him absolutely reinforces your innate ability to assess talent.

And, relevantly, he seems not to have matured or changed his ways since then.

This sucks. I just feel we needed to land a free agent like Smith during this trade period. He would've been great for us. Seems to have taken a 2 year deal with the Cats over a 3 year deal with us. Not exactly a vote of confidence. Now, where's this Phillips kid at?

I’ve been supporting this club for a very long time now. I won’t list all of the hard decisions it has made because, quite frankly, it’s too depressing. Rest assured though, this club has a history of making hard decisions. Pity virtually all of them have been wrong. Jones will add value to this player group next year. He’ll train hard, he’ll share his knowledge, and he’ll continue to bring leadership - much of which might very well be off-field. But that still counts. I genuinely hope Jones becomes a 300 gamer. I hope also Goodwin doesn’t gift any games to him. IMO the club has shown maturity and class in extending Jones’ contract, maturity and class that (but for discrete periods, eg, the Roos years) it has generally lacked when it comes to these issues. Hats off to Josh (again).

I feel a bit sorry for Tom McDonald. His loss of form since 2018 has been dramatic and inexplicable. It has hurt us enormously. That said, can we please remember that he’s been a fantastic clubman and has always exhibited a very respectful and professional and, I think, loyal attitude to this club. He was a superstar in 2018. Regrettably, that body of work is a distant memory and he just hasn’t been able to re-capture any form at all since. I don’t believe however that this has been due to a lack of effort or commitment from Tom. Or, in fairness, from the club to him. It’s unfortunate how this is all panning out - probably most of all to Tom. Ben Brown is the future for us now.

No brainer for us.

It seems clear to me that Treloar wouldn’t be a target for us for all of the reasons outlined above. That said, he strikes me as a thoroughly good fella. The way he’s been treated by the Pies has been absolutely appalling - almost sickening to watch. I hope he gets to another club and enjoys genuine and sustainable success there. Sometimes life throws up these ugly curve balls - only for them ultimately to turn out to be for the best. I really hope we’re looking at one of those moments here. I feel that the entire AFL community is backing him in here. I wish him (and his wife and little kid) all the best.

I’m really pleased about this. Finally we haven’t knee-capped a club legend at the end of their playing career. There’s good karma to this - it’s the opposite of what we witnessed with James McDonald. That was a disaster. It was a culture killer.

It seems there is unanimous praise for this contract extension, which is to be expected. I love watching Hibbo hunt the ball, gather it, and then sprint with the intensity of some dude who’s just escaped from gaol and has 10 fat cops running after him threatening to shoot him. He always brings 100%.

Geez I hope you’re right.

Quality post. You get the gold star Dr D.

You’re seeing the ball like a planet at the moment.

No way. Not possible to dislike the Melk.

Melksham and Hibberd are also two players whom I used to dislike, who quickly turned it around in the affection stakes.

Jeffy Garlett - I didn’t dislike him at Carlton, but I loved him in the red and the blue. Jordan Lewis, Byron Pickett and Gary Moorcroft come to mind. Bernie Vince is possibly my favourite ever Demon.

Phil Read. The angry human thumb.

It’s funny how that happens. There are several players over the years who I’ve really disliked, only for them to join the Dees and then they’ve become some of my more favoured players. Remember that West Coast hard-nut who joined us about 15 years ago - I can’t remember his name (Phil?), but I used to loathe him, and then he joined the club and I absolutely loved him.

Brown has always demolished us as an opposition forward. It’ll be interesting to see how he goes playing for us (if we land him).

Rejecting that offer is in the territory of Don Trump retardness. He should be suing his manager, his parents, literally anyone and everyone - even himself. That said, I hope he comes to the Dees.

Good to know. I want to see board members with proper passion and knowledge about the club, not CV builders who wish to boast about being MFC board members at South Yarra dinner parties for social purposes. That’s why the likes of Collingwood and Richmond make us look tres ordinaire - they’ve got rid of their politicians and get around people with legitimate passion for the club.

I reckon he likes the club, he’s mates with many of the players on the list, he was grateful we drafted him, and he’s previously said he wants to win a flag with us. That’s just based on observations through following the club as a supporter - nothing else. He just doesn’t seem to be a flight risk, other than if he’s not being sufficiently rated internally and not being paid properly (which plainly he would be).