Mister Ed

Isn't that admitting defeat? They have to sack him.

Meh, sounds like Tom Scully. How much does his old man weigh?

What do you expect? After all, he works under Caroline Wilson.

And I reckon he might replace Colin Sylvia.

I like but do you realise that even a win of those proportions won't lift our percentage over 100%

Has anyone considered that the accusation against Hird is a ploy to deflect blame away from the players and avoid a mass exodus. If the coach goes, you can withstand the consequences a lot more than the loss of 14 players.

If that's what we're going to produce in 2013, then we'd better prepare ourselves for a long, hard year. We are painful. Our shining light in the first half will be a star but not in 2013 - Jesse Hogan.

No Kent today and he wasn't at training yesterday. Perhaps he went back to Clacky for the long weekend of another mystery injury?

Obviously the kid whose going to run out with the team this afternoon has been brought up exclusively on a diet of bananas.

The more I think of it, the decision by Foxtel/the AFL to exclude Melbourne from the full length NAB Cup games, was a disgrace. Did we really need last night's GWS v Essendon game between two teams that haven't done much to date ending up a debacle and reminding us how far ahead of us the world game is in the western suburbs of Sydney? At this time of the year, when your team needs to be at the forefront to increase memberships and sponsorships, it's pretty poor that a dedicated to football channel isn't showing any vision at all of your club. And it doesn't help when those two muppets on AFL360 went for four episodes without a mention of the MFC except for a little graphic which showed that Chris Dawes was among about 20 players unavailable for this weekend's game.

Let me get this right. She's saying that we don't have the right to defend ourselves even if we have a valid defence? If this is the chief football writer at this rag, how bad are the hacks?

I didn't say that.I asked you what it is that you think we did that makes us guilty of breaching any AFL rule and how did we do it? You really have no idea.

I can understand this coming from someone who obviously took no notice of the comedic way in which Carlton played out the last half a dozen games of 2007 but exactly what is it that we did that makes us guilty of breaching any AFL rule and how did we do it?

Yes but the case will go to appeal and if that fails, who knows? Journos have been prepared to go to prison rather than reveal their sources.

Happy to leave that part here in view of the directives from above but please don't misconstrue my views and I'll not do the same with you. CS was the subject not because you mentioned him once but because this was about mjt's accusations. And don't misinterpret me as meaning that I'm not interested in causation. I am and I believe there's a different aspect of cause and effect operating here than you obviously do so let's leave it just there.

Sometimes it's not enough to just join dots. What I can see is a thread about Dean Bailey's comments on the tanking inquiry being hijacked into a hate Cameron Schwab thread. Fact of the matter is that comments were made by non board and non staff which got the investigation going. The dots connect to a point where the anti Schwab people set up a situation to unseat him and prevent him from being reappointed which has resulted in the MFC coming under investigation for tanking - that does not make him responsible for the tanking farce. It makes the fools who set McLean up as the responsible parties. Whatever Schwab did or didn't do is a matter for a different discussion but if, after the WC game in 2011, he formed the view that DB's position at the club was untenable because he couldn't coach, then I can tell you he wasn't an orphan for holding such a position.

All good fun and some great performances in that clip. I reckon if Max Gawn establishes himself as a player with the club then he will become a real personality in the game because he's got the looks, the wit and the humour and who on earth would take on someone that bi who's 6'10" tall?

The grapevine.

What I don't understand is how a kid can get rubbed out for virtually two whole seasons when he hasn't even used the substance while others with 2 strikes can run around unaffected and without sanction?

Neither Bailey nor McLean were members of the Melbourne Board or employed by the club when they made their comments. The argument you were supporting before was that we were being investigated because people from within said things they shouldn't have said. How does this support those who blame Schwab for everything under the sun including the end of the world which doesn't even look like happening now?

Of course, this all ties in with what Mark Neeld has been saying all along about players with all the talent in the world and not getting enough out of that talent because of a lack of application. Quite a few of this year's departures fit very nearly into that category and we can see from some of the players being overlooked in the draft how important this aspect is these days.

You thound like Carowhine Wilthon.

What's a supposition anyway? I thought it was something they stuffed up your rear end to make you feel better?

Best mates with another highly thought of draft prospect Dale Roberts who hales from nearby West Wyalong and starred with the Murray Bushrangers this year. The pair had some problems getting leave to attend the draft combine from the juvenile detention facility where they currently reside after borrowing a neighbour's ute and driving it to Shepparton where they smashed said vehicle which is now a write off. Nobody's quite sure how they made it that far given the volume of moonshine they consumed during the trip and their blood alcohol level readings. Shame really but I believe Sheedy's still interested (he once wrote a book about second chance heroes and is currently thinking about drafting Andy Lovett as a mature age rookie).

A Collingwood mate of mine said he hand injury last year (split webbing?) and has struggled with his marking ever since. I'm sure that if we are making approaches to him (and any other player) that we also arrange the appropriate medical testing and that we're absolutely sure about his fitness including his capacity to take marks in the future.