Nasher

Because he wanted the monkey off his back.

To be fair, the guy has once in a lifetime athletic attributes. Pick 2 is over the top with the benefit of hindsight, but the idea that a player like him would have ever made it to the late pick or rookie list stage is laughable. You'd surely, at worst, take the risk that you could turn the freak althlete in to a footballer with a pick in the 20s at the lowest.

I'm not sure how comfortable I would be as a player with (one of) the coach(es) posting his feedback in such a public fashion, but I agree with you in principle. As a supporter I find Allison's reports greatly insightful.

+1 for 'never'. These always go on all year. The easy ones like third year players will be done soon, the tough ones like Frawley will take all year, and then there will be a last minute of signing or axing of borderline players as our draft/trade position becomes clear. I think it's not something worth worrying about because you just never know what is happening behind those closed doors.

It's probably more reflective of my depth of thought Time constraints and the nuisance of typing on my phone are what keeps my posts brief these days.

Spot on.I'll also add that I missed the birth of one (of four) of my children through no fault of my own, and it's #1 on my life's greatest regrets. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had elected to miss it. Then there's the thought nobody wants to consider: there are plenty of babies that don't live for long after their first breath. And some that don't take one. You just don't know what you could be giving up. But let's listen to the single blokes tell us that none of that matters if you earn 500k a year.

One obvious reason for promoting a rookie before you are forced to is so you can select them in the side. Clisby is a good case in point, he's a player in his mid 20s who is ready and capable of playing AFL football. If we'd kept him on the rookie list, a player like Harmes or King may have ended up on our senior list instead, when they're not ready to play yet.

It's never too early. I enjoy seeing how people's opinion - including my own - evolve over the year.

Let's not get too carried away. As recently as this week I saw someone on here refer to a Lynden Dunne.

Jones, Garland, daylight.

Excuse me? I didn't say it surprises me, I said it angers me. I don't appreciate being told I need to get out more. How would you know?

Presumably "monitored" just means someone was "keeping an eye" on him and not much more than that.

This makes me so angry. It embarrasses and shames me that in 2014, there's still idiots out there with this pathetic attitude that is about 50 years out of date. ^ As ingeniokinetikey said, well done to the Bulldogs administration for their response.

More interesting than a typo is that one coach thought Howe was BOG and the other thought he was second best. That wasn't reflected in the voting for the Demonland POTY votes. If anyone can be bothered, it would be an interesting exercise to compare the coaches votes with the Brownlow votes and the Demonland votes at the end of the year. It would demonstrate the real difference in perspective between the fans, the umpires and the coaches.

Well done MFC for making the right decision. The risk of lengthening the penalty of our structurally most important player far outweighed the benefits of an in-principle challenge.

Recognising that you will fight a losing battle is not laying down, it's being pragmatic. What will your reaction be if the club fights it and the one week becomes two? You might say "well done MFC, at least you tried to fight on principle". I would be absolutely livid and would curse the club for making such an obviously stupid decision.

He's only going to serve one week. You blokes who want to take it to the tribunal must want him to serve the whole two, because that's the only outcome that will come of challenging.

I don't. That guy had a habit of flinching. Absolutely love the new Dunn.

Which part of the classification do you disagree with? If you take it to the tribunal, you will have to challenge one or more of the aspects of the classification. We would just be asking for the 1 week to become 2. If we challenge and lose (and we will lose, if we challenge), that is when I'll be absolutely livid. The fact that they got the Deledio one wrong doesn't make this one wrong. Intentional or not, it should not be okay for a player's arm to make contact with a player's face to the point where he is dazed. An action does not have to be malicious or "dirty" for it to also be wrong.

As happy with this outcome as you can be with your most important player getting rubbed out. I feared the worst. I agree with DA, take it and run.

Exactly what I was thinking too. Time together and games together. Fringe players will come and go, but we have the nucleus of a decent side I think.

Probably my favourite thing is the anticipation of the coming game. I can't wait. The previous years left me feeling sick at the idea of watching, then spending game day wondering why I was yet again torturing myself by watching for the nth week in a row. I reckon there's a good chance we'll drop the ball a couple more times this year as we did against GWS, and looking at the draw there's a good possibility of a belting or two if we happen to drop it on the wrong day. I've seen enough this year though to know that even if that does happen, it *is* just temporary, we *are* getting better, and that we finally have the right leadership to get us where we want to be. Just having the light at the end of the tunnel has rejuvenated my will to support this team.

I would never prioritise anything over the birth of my child, so I wouldn't expect a footballer to either if he didn't want to. It's a very personal thing; plenty of players would choose footy, but I respect Jonesy if he doesn't; I wouldn't either no matter how much I was paid. Didn't Darren Jolly threaten to sit out a Grand Final if it clashed with the birth of a child some years ago?

Can't remember any MFC players doing it. Not that it matters; there doesn't need to be a 'precedent'.

McDonald's use of the ball is what is currently standing between he and being an A grade defender. He only needs to get it up to "adequate" and I'll be happy. And it doesn't necessarily mean improving his actual skill, which I would expect would be easier said than done, just through choosing better options. Clint Bartram was a good example of a player with ordinary disposal who learned to play within his own limitations.