Nasher

I guess it was more a question of what was keeping him out of at least second tier footy? The name of a club I don't know doesn't help a great deal.

Where was he before he played with Footscray in the VFL? It always surprises me a bit when these players seemingly materialise out of nowhere in their early 20s. For all talent scouting has improved in the last 20 years, there's probably dozens of gems like him kicking about in local footy leagues. He's kicked 17 goals now for the season - fourth on the list behind Garlett, Watts and Petracca, and has kicked 3 goals 3 times. Hopefully will pass 30 before the home and away season is through. Seems to be getting better and looking more comfortable each week. What a great pickup.

Obviously nobody. This thread has added 10 pages in the last hour of pretty heated discussion because nobody cares about it.

This dismal argument has come up a thousand times on this thread and it's just nonsense. If the shoe was on the other foot, I'd take great pleasure in taking the whole thing at face value, laughing at it, heckling the player and ultimately probably be annoyed our player got rubbed out over nothing. I wouldn't spend any longer than 10 seconds analysing it, because I'm not invested. If the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't have watched a replay of it 20 times, read up on the opinions of people who spend a lot of time watching sports where this kind of thing is common place, reading the views of brawlers, or applying my own experience when getting clocked by someone unexpectedly. I wouldn't read what the club doctor said or take any notice that the umpire that reported him was literally standing one meter away. I wouldn't consider human behaviour and call in to question why the player would dive when he clearly had nothing to gain from it - a free kick is usually the motivating factor for a dive. Not the case here. All Oliver stood to gain for it was flack, and that's what happened. So yes - Melbourne supporters are going to invest more in defending their own players than they would if the shoe was on the other foot. I own a bunch of stuff with the same logos that Clarry wears on match day - we are part of the same club. Being biased does not make us wrong.

He overreacted, therefore it's absolutely fine. It's not possible that he overreacted *and* it was also a dog act that should be condemned? To be clear - my position is still that we can't be sure if he overreacted or not - that hasn't changed - but ultimately it's irrelevant to whether or not Schofield is guilty.

How has his reputation been spared? The not guilty verdict has validated the view of Clarry being a stager now. It has given a green light to every dungle beetle with a twitter account to let rip. I'm f***ing furious about this.

Yes. He elbowed a player in the mouth. He clearly did that - surely that has never been in dispute.

Maybe they can try elbowing him in the mouth to try and put him off his game. Apparently it's legal now. I am bloody ropable about this. I hope the club is too.

Same here, because if I was a WC fan I'd probably also be a boorish oaf.

If what's been put on here are the sum total of the QC's arguments, they're ridiculously flimsy. Hopefully the Tribunal see through them, although I'm not holding my breath.

Look, you can all continue to argue with me and I can close the thread, or we can steer the topic away from the religious aspects of the player in question and continue to discuss the topic of MRP outcomes. I have nothing else to say on the topic.

That's a weird response to a request not to make it about religion. Clearly the result at the tribunal is relevant to the topic at hand.

Because it invites racist garbage like what Petraccattack posted. It's not relevant. See Deestroy All's post as an example of how to discuss what occurred without making it about religion.

Thanks, appreciate it. Let's talk about football instead.

Bans on offer for anyone considering making this about religion.

That's probably an argument for paying more kicking in danger frees rather than an argument against ours. Definitely thought the free was there watching on TV - he kicked the ball out of Oliver's hands via his fingers.

It's an endorsement contract - an acknowledgment that he hasn't done enough yet, but the club still believes he is capable of getting there. It's not what I'd have done, but one of those things where it's pretty hard to argue with our FD, who are professionals with demonstrable good judgement, who see him operate on a daily basis. If they think he'll get there, I'll go with it. He can play the year out now without having to worry about his future. Good luck, hope he is able to take this extra opportunity with both hands.

Exactly the word that crossed my mind too. Seems to have moved in to the "utter nonsense for a headline" territory. Shame. Oh well.

I was furious at the time with our penalties, but more because of the fact that the penalty is tied to the consequence and not the action. However, with time to reflect, footy's got a long tradition of covering up thug acts. Players saying they were fine, didn't hurt etc with hand on heart, club doctors understating the impact, resulting in light or no penalties. If club doctors start being honest about the impact of these actions, and it results in players getting harsher penalties (with the AFL's stupid system) it might - *gasp* - make the players think twice before punching each other in the head.

FMD.

Again: who cares if we'd been saying it was a stage if the roles were reversed. It is not our job to be consistent or measured - but it is our job to support our player when there is significant room for benefit of the doubt. That argument is totally irrelevant. I don't understand why Melbourne supporters would choose the worst position when other ones are credibly on offer. And +1 for the complaints that this whole conversation is around the actions of the victim and not those of the perpetrator.

What was his motivation for putting mayo on it?

Opposition supporters aren't going to understand the Prendergast effect and the fact that our 2008-2012 era drafting has been flushed down the toilet. They're not going to understand that this has not been one continuous, long rebuild. Roos-Goodwin-Taylor-Viney-Mahoney-PJ started again completely from scratch. Everything that happened before 2013 is irrelevant. Opposition supporters don't understand the anguish that we supporters, and long term players like Nathan Jones have endured to get to this point. And opposition fans don't care about any of that. All they want to do is rain on our parade now that we're climbing out of the quagmire. Try and educate them if you've got the energy. I don't, so my strategy is to just ignore it. They don't know, and don't want to know. We know, so let's just enjoy the ride together. Let everyone else cry their salty tears.

Watts a given JKH next in line midfielder Kennedy next in line flanker/midfielder Kent next in line forward Wagner next in line defender. Weid next in line key forward. No point trying to guess who will come out. Too many permutations with the number of players we had injured or sore.

He's forming a handy habit of creating goals in key moments of games. Obviously he was instrumental in the Watts goal on QB, then this week he caused a goal where no goal was to be had with his run down the wing and kick to ANB in space. It was just a great option that was well executed - there were a squillion ways that play could have gone wrong. He's a good mark for his size too. No doubt he's foot soldier class, but I think his game is developing nicely. If he ends up having to make way as our injury list reduces, he'll be very stiff in my opinion.