Blistering

Mark Stevens thinks that might be the case. He just tweeted "Jeremy Howe is of interest to GC, but interest not red hot. Could warm up this week with meeting looming ... $$ pivotal in conversation".

You raise some interesting points. Look at the first sentence in WJ's post - that is the crux of what's happening. I hope this doesn't sound pithy in comparison but think about how we as Melbourne supporters are expected to put up with comments about our team and how bad it is and the patronising remarks people make about us and the club and then multiply the hurt it causes a thousandfold and consider what it means to be called an ape and a monkey, especially in a society where the majority of your people have been murdered, bashed, brutalised and raped within a society that considers you and your people a joke and they then tell you, well we're booing you constantly at every move you make during a game, week after week, because you play to get cheap free kicks. Sheesh.

You really believe that? Liam Jurrah was never known for having the tank necessary for the style of game that they play these days. It certainly frustrated his coaches and held him back despite his undoubted talents. I was at that St. Kilda game and when he was taken off after kicking a goal, he was blowing hard. He would have come off the ground no matter who was coaching. Roos would have done the same and he never would have kicked ten and St. Kilda was toying with us in their last game before the finals. When they put on the afterburners after half time, they blew us apart. Liam's mentor and biographer often came on Demonland to compliment the way the club looked after him. He was made an ambassador to NT communities along with Aaron Davey to promote awareness of glaucoma among indigenous communities and Josh Mahoney put in a lot of work with him. Not only that, the end of Jurrah's career had nothing to do with tanking. He injured himself, didn't rehab well and then made that fateful trip to Alice Springs. I can understand how people forget these little things if they have other agendas.

Comprehension doesn't seem to be many peoples' strong point does it?

JR: What is your take on what has been a catastrophic failure to develop high picks at this club? PR: The more I delve into it, it was the perfect storm. There was interference from coaches and managers and tension between them and then that rubs off on to players. They are quick to pick up on problems and they picked up on a lot of them. Then you have a hard coach (in Mark Neeld) come in and it might have been good for another club, but not Melbourne. That was the circumstance over six or seven years.

What's your problem? Can you damn people for the loss made in one year when things went bad on a number of levels including a selective and costly AFL investigation without also praising them for saving it from extinction when it was deep in debt and friendless?

Some people are forgetting they have to be found guilty first. It seems to me that we all know that the players are in fact, guilty of having consumer TB4 because everything points in that direction but will the evidence be to the comfortable satisfaction of the tribunal? If the players are found guilty, I don't agree that expediency (like the AFL's interests or avoiding appeals to CAS) should come into it although these things will probably be on the minds of the tribunal members. The rules are that strict liability applies. There's no discount for co-operation available because the co-operation must be of a type that results in sanctions against other parties. The players are staring at 18 months and, failing that, we're off to Switzerland for an appeal.

Anyone have our profit figures over the last decade?

Don't you understand the difference between a court or tribunal decision and a bargain between parties to avoid having to go to a court or tribunal? The difference explains why it isn't nit picking.

Fair go. Port Adelaide under Ken Hinkley in 2013/4 is in a different universe to Dean Bailey's Melbourne in every aspect of the game, starting from style and going through to fitness, discipline, culture etc. Nothing even close.

Time to ban horse racing. It's a cruel sport for animals and punters alike. Enough.

Except Dion.

I'm hearing a lot of he saids and she saids about people without a shred of substantiation or quotes from the time. I am aware that it was Bailey who had a screaming match with Chris Johnson after training one year when Johnson told him he was leaving. I always thought it was Bailey's decision about Junior and I've never heard of the CEO addressing a team before a game. I suppose all these things have become gospel five years down the track.

I started reading this thread from the first page and was wondering if anyone knows whether this prediction from 2010 about Sugar's son is still valid?

Surely there will be movement at the station today?

Well done LG. I see what you're doing and your take on GenY was just perfect. Well done also by WJ for not taking the bait. According to this article Talkin bout my label "Generation Y: Those born between 1981 and 1994. Common put-downs include lazy, debt-ridden and programmed for instant gratification. They are portrayed as demanding and unrealistic in their career aspirations. Now we can add "internet-addicted" and "lonely" to the list." You got it in one LG.

I don't know where you've been lately but the possibly seems to have escaped you that a large segment of the media that covers football including the News Limited publications and the duo that host AFL360 on Foxtel, media commentators including Rohan Connolly, Andy Maher, Mark Fine on SEN, Tracy Holmes and many others (especially until recently 99% of Bomber fans) have pushed very different viewpoints about Hird.My point is that they're all finally waking up including even Mark Robinson who is now questioning whether Hird has become "delusional".

IIRC the Stynes/Schwab administration had a similar impact in the 12 months after it took over from the Gardner administration that left the club bleeding with $5m black hole in debt and according to Demetriou a club that stood for nothing. You really need to take a long term view and look at things from the perspective of cause and effect if you really want to understand how things come to pass.The story of Hird is becoming very clear. He was very driven and after losing badly to Carlton in the 2011 elimination final he together with Dank and the Weapon hatched a plan that was on the cutting edge of sports science. No doubt he believed it was all above board as did the snake oil salesmen around him but they were all a bit overconfident and Dank was careless with his understanding of one of the drugs he injected into the players. Turned out it was a banned substance and not in a grey area classification that he expected. Hird couldn't face the facts and is now paying the price. Had he really accepted responsibility back in Feb 13 he would have been free to coach into the future.

The situation at Collingwood vis a vis the coaching - not just Buckley but the entire set up - is dire. You can have your rumours about Dangerfield and Pendelbury meeting for coffee but I reckon the two attractions for Dangerfield would be Roos and the money. As poorly performed as our team might have been in the recent past, we will still be a better destination for players in the years to come than Collingwood under Bucks.

Kevin Bartlett always says that the language of the AFL is lies and that sums up the official AFL response to our application. Sure, we beat a couple of the teams that snuck into the top eight but we failed to beat the wooden spooner or any of the other teams that finished in the bottom five and we lost the last nine games. We recognise the crock of lies behind all of this and if the AFL was honest it would remove the sham benefits that allow Sydney an easy ride as well. The Swans have champions like Franklin, Tippett, Kennedy and co, they beat just about everyone including fellow finalist Geelong by 20 goals. Why do they deserve to continue to benefit from the COLA and the scholarship scheme? It's a sheer obscenity.

Not sure if I can post all of this message from a FB Page so I'll leave out what might be contentious but a Demon fan was travelling home from FNQ and sat next to Spencil on part of the flight yesterday. Made the following notes (some of which have been redacted): 1. Chip is gone. Likely to Geelong, hates the travel that Freo would force 2. Wattsy loves the club but could be offered up for trade 3. Crossy goes alright on an end of season trip. Boys had a BIG one in Bali. Bernie, loves a drink. 4. Harry-o is almost a done deal. We will speak to Malceski. 6. Good times Grimes, getting married just after xmas. Ripping bloke, really serious cat and should retain captaincy next yr. 7. Roosys man-management is his strength. He keeps things simple. Sarcasm is his weapon of choice. 2 incidents talked about (Dawsey kicking into the middle against port / Howe having a shot from 70) - both players dragged, both players sarcastically 'applauded' for their decision making. Roosy also tore Terlo and Mr Bean a new [censored] over the Rolf Harris incident. 8. Neeld was a rubbish man manger. 9. Schwaab was a rubbish communicator. 10. PJ dominates. 11. Dawsey the sharpest bloke at the club. Real switched on unit. 12. Preseason is going to be a [censored]. 13. Pencils ankle better and will be raring to go at the start of preseason. 14. Ben Hudson is 1 of the harshest sledgers Pencil has played with. Reckons he's a real [censored] bloke. 15. Speaking of [censored] blokes, Hawthorn are arrogant, especially Roughie. 17. Rookie listed players are on about 40k p.a 18. Pencil can bench 140kgs. Chip leads the club ~160kgs 19. Aaron Davey didnt want anymore kids after his 3rd. He then had twins lol 20. David Rodan is struggling with the Waltz on dancing with the stars. His knees are shot. 21. Melb Victory boys are tossers - except for Archie. 23. Roosy has a magnificent house! 24. Hogan is an animal. Will be a super player. 25. Harsh for expectations to be back on players to question doctors about injections. If the doc clears it, that should 'clear' the player. 26. We almost had Dank play a role with us. 27. Pencil was visiting family and not visiting GCFC or the Lions 28. Pencil loves MFC. He'd love to spend more time up forward. 29. Nicknames you may not know: good times Grimes, doug (gawn) and chuck ( N jones) 30. Umpiring decision , 1-2 mins to go, last night was disgraceful, robbing Port of a potential GF appearance.

The AFL assists every club with funding of different sorts. Whatever you want to call it, the sort of assistance you're referring to is necessary because some clubs don't get the benefit of the better fixtures which I referred to in my post (vis a vis Carlton). This application is quite different. It's an application made by the club not for money but for draft assistance under exceptional circumstances. If you really have a problem with it, why not telephone the club and ask for Peter Jackson or Paul Roos.

Guess what? I don't want to be like Carlton either. However, every club in the competition should be treated the same so I do think the AFL should treat Melbourne like Carlton which means if we get investigated for tanking they should. If they get 8 or 9 favourable fixtures a year like Friday and Thursdays on top of their usual blockbuster v Richmond, I'd like us to get a few so that we can improve our bottom line, attract sponsors and supporters etc.

The "no" case is a nice philosophical argument but in the real world it doesn't really work. Imagine if we were negotiating to get Dangerfield and missed out because our application failed and we didn't get the necessary draft pick that could have gotten the deal done?

Evans should not be pre judging the situation. Firstly, he's a former employee of the club. How doi we know he's not holding a grudge against it because of some perceptions he might have had whist he was there. Secondly, because the club has put it for the commission to consider and if he has said this, it's a disgrace.