Nasher

Wasn’t that a typical Frost game? I mean that in a light-hearted banter way, not a bagging way. It had everything, his desperate best and... the rest. I actually felt a bit bad when he kicked the clanger straight to TMac, but I also 100% expected it. Completely to script. Contrast that with Lever’s game. Just wow. Hard to fathom how far we’ve come in defence.

Now: yes. Immediately before next game: no. Won’t matter how good we get, I’ll always have an upset stomach immediately before the game.

I wasn’t convinced at the start of the year but I’m definitely convinced now that there’s room for TMac in the side even once Weid and B.Brown are in. It’ll be smalls such as Jones to make way. Interesting conundrum once Fritsch, B.Brown, TMac and Weid are all available, but Goody will want to try and make it work given the quality and characteristics of the individual players.

Angry again P2J?

Out: Brown (stiff) In: Weideman

Very, very pleased with that. Scrapped and fought and wrestled for an ugly lead, then blew them off the park when the young opponents tired. Super mature performance. Loved it.

I think we’ll win, we really started to wrestle momentum at the end of that quarter. Frustrating game so far though. Hopefully we can clean it up in the second half.

No pressure though ?

If we put this one away you’ll have a lot more trust... until gameday next week. It’s only you, me and every other scarred mofo on this site that feels that way ?

Whose bath water should we be bathing in if not our own?!

Melksham to kick 4 and silence the tiresome conspiracy theory about special treatment for a few more weeks.

I think it was @jnrmacthat said that Jayden Hunt said the high HF role was hard to play- you would play the same way two weeks in a row, in one touch the ball 4 times, the next touch it 20 and kick 4 goals. That’s the role Melksham plays and I think it needs to be taken in to account when judging performance. I reckon he gets a bum rap on here generally; the conspiracy theory that he gets special treatment will run rampant for a few weeks and then he will break a game open. That’s just the type of player he is.

No doubt Jetta has been on the brink all season, but I’m not calling him finished. Long way to go in the season yet.

Cam Pedersen was still being called Pederson 6 years in to his career here. I got so sick of it that I added the word Pederson to the swear filter and made the software replace it with [Pedersen]. @Demonlandfound it and took it out though. :(

I got on board with the MFC in the 90s when the AFL started being regularly televised in Tasmania, so I don't associate any colours with anything; we've been mostly garbage with the occasional popping our heads up here and there irrespective of what jumper we've worn. My favourite jumper though is the colour my first one was (from the 90s, circa 1991), which was a very dark navy blue and a very vivid red colour (the current one is a bit pinker). I can even remember how that jumper smelled. I miss it.

I realise this is easy to say now that it's done, but I was never really worried about this. This is the guy who, when told he needed to lose weight as a junior, just stopped eating. Getting bogged down in details isn't his style. I highly doubt he's the type of person who would want to bother himself protracted contract negotiations to squeeze out a few extra bucks, or to make ultimatums about team success. I feel the same will be true when he's a FA in 2023. So long as the MFC open with an offer that is fair and reasonable for a player of his calibre, it will resolve with no fuss.

As long as we don’t start calling him Zerrett. Jeez I hate that. Maybe when we had the McDonald brothers we should have called them OcDonald and TcDonald.

Me too. He’s just a machine. A real introvert too living in an environment that doesn’t cater for that too well. Just love seeing the long hair and long sleeves cruising down the wing. We got told he was a ball butcher too. Not withstanding his comments that he’s worked hard on it, I haven’t seen any evidence of it at all since he’s been here. Hard to believe he came so cheaply.

In 2023. But if he’s taking 3 premiership medallions with him, he has my blessing.

That’s fairly inconvenient when you’re attempting to resurrect a career. Best of luck to him.

Agreed. He has added a one-on-one contested element to his game that I don’t recall seeing before.

Indeed he should have. And as if we’d have subbed off arguably our least replaceable player and send him to hospital if it was just a cut. The club doctor could do stitches in the rooms. I love Robbo but he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Have you seen the photo of May? They have a ranking for “unreasonable contact to the face, careless conduct, high/extreme impact, high contact”. If this situation doesn’t meet that definition, what situation would, in your view? A player flying for the mark with arms outstretched is an expected action in the game. I wouldn’t penalise that for the same reason we don’t penalise (other than a free) when defenders accidentally punch players in the head when attempting a spoil. It’s mal-execution of a normal skill in the sport. What normal football skill involves flinging one’s elbow backwards at head height? I didn’t see any other head high reverse elbows fling about in this match, or any of others. Did you? Whether the MRP should assess actual outcome or not is irrelevant. The fact is they do, so we can only judge Hawkins on what the rules are, not what they should be in your opinion.

My assessment is just from looking up the MRP’s chart for assessing incidents. I am not angry or emotional about it, and I’ve got nothing against Hawkins. I accept it was an accident, but that’s not the question. I don’t believe there is room in our game for players having bones in their faces broken in regulation contests. If it was a head-on collision we were talking about, I might agree with you. But I can’t see how swinging an elbow backwards like that is any less than “careless” (per the MRP’s chart), and surely the impact is at least “high”, if not extreme, given the injury. Which part do you disagree with? My view wouldn’t change, irrespective of which players or clubs were involved.

Indeed. I don’t doubt it was accidental, but as you said, it was careless, which to me implies avoidable, and the injury appears to have been severe. I think Hawkins should be facing suspension. Edit: according to the MRP guidelines, it would fall under the “unreasonable contact to the face” offence, graded “careless”, impact “severe” (or at the very least “high”), contact “high” (as opposed to body), which carries a penalty of 3+ weeks, or 2 if it gets graded as high instead of severe.