Nasher

Yep. Thank God for Jesus Watts McKenzie. In all seriousness though, pumped the boy is alive and kicking (no pun intended). Straight back in the side for me also.

I think the very reason young sides are inconsistent is because they can't consistently apply the effort.

Should we though? It's well documented at what stage teams should be in flag contention in terms of games and age experience, but at what point should a team start expecting consistency? Yes it feels like this rebuild has been going forever, no I don't think we should accept poor efforts, but really I'm not convinced it's reasonable to expect consistency yet.

Interesting. I think that's the right list of names in the wrong order.

FWIW I totally agree with you, but the up and down of emotions in the last few weeks has been nauseating. My expectations needed realignment after the massive downer against West Coast and the massive upper against Adelaide and I forgot to do it before this game.

The rollercoaster continues eh? Good-poor-good-poor. STOP THE RIDE I'M GONNA CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK

Dunn will be rubbed out for that I think and I for one won't be mourning. FFS, man.

Move on.

It seems pretty heavy handed given how tame the comments were, but let's be honest: the boys should have known better. They all know the rules and know the system they work within. Non-event - cop the (suspended) fine and move on.

Guess what though? Today's kids still adore AFL.

A++++++ post. Would read again.

Nice.

As has been said already - don't let your anger at the AFL stop you from supporting the MFC, or more specifically the boys on the field.

I'm going to vote "no".

+1. The boys will have additional fire in their belly after this - give them even more fuel by being there and being noisy. I'd be there in an instant if I could.

That's how I feel too. I'm not going to make a big stink about it, but I feel that the club has let the player down by its initial meek defence. I'm not going to labor the point though. Time to just move on I think.

This, with moderator's endorsement added on top.

How is it that some of this evidence wasn't presented to the tribunal? This seems to me to be shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.

I don't think there's anything to be gained by dredging up ancient political history of the club again. There's only one way threads like this go and that is south.

Do you not consider Campbell's considerable lack of match fitness as an issue? And are you absolutely confident his body is actually capable of playing a full game of footy at the top level? Bearing in mind the Hawks didn't believe it was and we haven't in any way tested the waters yet in so far as playing out whole games of footy - at ANY level. It would be like starting your 1974 Toyota Corona - which you haven't started since 1996 - to drive to Broome in. After all, that car was crackingly reliable in its day.

Agreed. It's not just a key point either, it's the entire reason the whole thing is a bunch of horse poo.

I'm still struggling to see how this is a better answer to having a fully fit, fully big Gawn in the side, rucking for the majority of the game.

And half a game of VFL reserves match fitness behind him since coming out of retirement. He'd be vomiting on the boundary line by quarter time; we'd have better luck with Stef and his broken ribs I think. Big Maxy has been playing out full games for weeks. It's got to be Gawn.

Thanks, I didn't have the thread open at the time so I couldn't see who it was. I'll edit my post to give you credit. And thanks for your concern, yes, I'm loving the interest. I love problem solving and our current ruck situation is a problem to solve. What's the question mark over Gawn? I realise he's coming from a long way back, but I think if we think Warnock and Dunn are the best we can come up with, we may be vastly overstating how far back he is. He's a lot bigger and is actually has a lot more experience in the ruck than those other two. You wouldn't choose him over experienced ruckman (hence choosing him last, after all of Jamar, Spencer, Martin and Campbell are exhausted), but surely he's better than nothing at all, which is essentially what you're proposing.

I agree and I think the most likely response is for the guys in the team to rally. The club's response of, as Jaded put it nicely, "this is bullshit" and its commitment to challenging it is clearly backed up by the players as per the response on Twitter, is clearly backed up by the media as per the articles published today, and is clearly backed up by the members as per the response on here. The overwhelming momentum of a unified response is empowering. The players will all be 5% stronger than normal this weekend. If the fight as successful and Trengove is out there the response will be better still.