timD

Howe for Bennell. Howe + first rounder for Bennell + their 2nd rounder.

I'd like it if he said that...no wait I'd want him fired.

You're just upset that (a) you did not start the thread, (b) it is not actually about you and, © it is not about you.

I was furious with that. All he had to do was lower his butt and move through the line of the ball. Nothing dirty and nothing dangerous in it for him or edwards. He chose not to put in the effort...and 'land stays silent. I wonder if the posters who bag Watts (as opposed to constructively assess and there is a fair difference) think about how inconsistent and frankly weak their own efforts are?

The commentary around Watts is a disgrace (not you specifically, but the issue in general!). Both Mitchie and Newton 'short-armed' marking contests on Friday night and not a thing has been mentioned about this. Chapman did twice yesterday and nothing was said. Actually Newton did a number of 'hesitant' acts and has escaped a bagging. Watts gets bagged for things that everyone else does a bit and some do a lot. We all expect more from him and i'm not sure why. We hold Watts to higher standards than any other player. Now standards are not bad, it is their implementation and consistency that matter. The scrutiny and criticism is massive. Dunn played scared for years and has copped less. Garland panics and we just put it down to "poor form" and move on. Watts will never be the player I want him to be. I've accepted that he is a flanker with the potential to be a massive asset as we improve. Everything needs to be done to retain him and see him become that asset.

I feel that. It is difficult to support a club that stinks as badly as we do. In simple terms we lost how to be a footy club and we have not re-discovered it.

Yes, our players are supposed to push through self-doubt. It's like asking if they should get up if they feel like a sleep in.

One bad experience doesn't rule out an entire diagnosis. There was (he is dead now) a psychiatrist who routinely diagnosed just about everyone with ADHD +/- bipolar disorder. He was wrong a lot. Doesn't mean either diagnosis doesn't exist. "Show us the evidence"...you sound like an anti-vaccer.

8 years. Waiting for 8 years to have a midfield better than 'worst in the afl'. Not 'best', just better than worst. Not overnight success. Just something better than worst after 8 years of trying. I hoped that wasn't aiming too high.

I don't know why you watch every game with hope. We've been awful for years and very little has changed despite lots appearing to happen. I still go - I convince my kids to go - but I expect us to be bad. I want us to be good, but know it is terribly unlikely. And I've grown accustomed to shocking performances. When I go, I support the team. I make a point of trying not to criticise players, of applauding just about anything that is good. I support the team. You should spend a few minutes considering how much better a supporter I am than you. I hold fast while acknowledging reality; you hold fast while ignoring it. There's your vitriol, as ordered. Mate.

That's exactly what I think. Another season with a midfield that cannot compete and a gameplan that looks useless because of the midfield that cannot compete. The MFC's total and utter inability to find and develop midfielders + a 'midfield team' is becoming a sickening joke. We have a whole lot of blokes who are just not good enough. They may be trying their guts out but they get regularly beaten by their opponents and I see nothing changing this year. I dread every game we play. Not losing by 10 goals will be a relief.

Thanks Wise - but I think a wrote it for me. And i'm entirely confident that PJ wants the chance to deliver on field.

I've been having a think about PJ's "get over it" idea when it comes to losses. Of course he is right. But only up to a point. The last umpteen years has demonstrated that 'faith' in people who claim to have a plan, who have good credentials and who have the respect of the footy industry (AFAIK) is the path to ruin and failure. The MFC has demonstrated nothing but the ability to perform so poorly as to be an object of contempt within the AFL and with its many supporters. We are below sympathy. We're seen as having earned our performance poverty through a genuine lack of ability compounded by weakness and handout dependency. So Peter, what I'd like to say is that I do believe. I believed long before you arrived and I'll believe long after your name is but the answer to a challenging question at a Pub Quiz. I've bought memberships, brainwashed my children, started sponsoring players and given more time and emotional energy than is sane to the club. And compared to many who visit this site, I've actually given very little. MFC is part of my very identity. Like many here, my emotional health rises and falls on a weekly (and at times hourly) basis around the triumphs and disasters of the MFC. So I'll make you a deal: start producing on-field performance, and I'll give up my well-earned cynicism about bold statements and confident men telling me that everything is well in hand. My belief, my faith, my belonging to the MFC - for better or worse - is branded into my damned soul. We all know that on-field is where it counts. Well Peter, I think that simplifies everything nicely. I'll give up my catastrophising - despite the reality of experience that has reinforced it. Your job is to put up or shut up. I'm sure we have a deal.

The nerve! You deliberately post overly positive reviews - and you boast about it. Simply put, you brag about deliberately attempting to deceive readers. Then you don't like being misquoted, after trying to mislead people here. I called this troll-like and frankly, cannot see how you could consider it in any other way.

This is the bit that I don't get, too. I'm hoping, like i said last week, that it is a preseason application issue. It's all we've got. The other idea is that we are genuinely bereft of talent and leadership. I don't really want to think about that, so let's go with the "it's only preseason" idea.

And that deficit is largely through our midfield. i had a sinking feeling before the doggies game and with tonight. Our mids are not good enough. We have a talent sink-hole right through the middle of the list and none of Saty's fanboy nonsense is going to repair it. I have a horrid feeling that the truth is that we are behind every team in the competition in terms of midfield talent.

Dr. Reid believing that others clubs do bad things is not proof. The "grape-vine" is a shocking reason to engage in any form of behaviour. If that is his justification (everyone else is doing it - they just hate us) then no wonder a dangerous and experimental drug regime found its foothold. IF this is what he has said, he should be de-registered.

I agree but disagree. He is too small, lacks skills and speed - so he cannot play forward (except defensive forward and not even then). He can't play back. He's got to make it mid. That said, he loses his feet too easily, his skills lack polish and he is not big bodied. Unless he proves remarkable at finding the footy and feeding runners, I struggle to see that he'll get game time by the end of 2016. Brayshaw at least will have gone past him. Just wait until everyone figures out that we picked up him instead of Wines, not Jimmy T. Then you realise that we'd picked Viney hoping that the Hogan/Toumpas options would see us ahead in the long run. Viney making it is a bonus feature. That draft IMO is all about Hogan and Jimmy T.

So what you are saying is that the club is understaffed and/or poorly organised when it comes to membership? That's not like you to be critical. Maybe someone's hacked your account. I'd call the mods.

I'm assuming. because it suits me, that Roos saw enough in the first half and changed things AND the players know it is a practice game and are likely to be more choosy about how hard they go. Especially after getting ahead so well in the first half. Looking forward to seeing the rise and rise of Jimmy T this year.

No, there is nothing to explain. The poster made a statement with caution - a totally reasonable hypothesis - and ended it with acknowledging a need for more information. Thought Police are not required. Saty.

You are making things up while asking others for facts. You place yourself between the club and critics and then deny that you do it. You state you don't want to make things personal while making personalised comments. You state demonland is improving when people agree with you and that it is getting worse when they don't. This is the behaviour of a troll.

I sympathise with your experience. I didn't bother going with my kids because this is the kind of thing I've seen enough of. No merchandise. Bugger all communication. This is the same club that advertised events via their MBC that never happened. When I wrote an email asking about one event, I was told that the plan either never existed or had been rescheduled/changed. Yet I had responded to an RSVP sent to me from the club website AND it was still advertised on the LinkedIn page. These are small things in-and-of-themselves. However they keep happening year in, year out. And they fail to engage and make the most of supporters who are keen - despite the utter tripe served up over years by this club - to be involved.I'd guess that a whole bunch of dads took their kids in and couldn't find any merchandise to buy for their enthusiastic/bewildered kids. These "little details" matter. If you cannot get these ones right, I guarantee that there are lots of others that we don't see that aren't right either.

Let me say this for the final time IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! Now, please go back to apologising for being entirely wrong despite weeks of desperate insistence.

No, you don't. I attended one of these events years ago. Barely any merchandise. Couldn't buy a membership. A handful of players, at best, were around after the event...and years later nothing has changed. I talked to one young chap on the day and said, in effect " I'm here with two kids, trying to spend money and you have nothing for me to buy!" Bloody amateur hour. Again. Saty, I get that you defend the club regardless of what it produces. I bemoan our state out of a desire for us not to be a laughing stock. We have so far to go it is just maddening.