Nasher

According to the MFC website, he broke his foot kicking the shin of an opponent. I know it’s unkind to laugh but I don’t know how else to react. He must think he’s cursed. Completely unrelated to the existing foot issues though supposedly, so that has to be good news.

I hate them all equally. Although I hate Essendon and West Coast a little bit more equally than the others.

It’s Leigh Fisher in the pic. If that’s his grasp on the rules it might explain the fairly premature end to his playing career!

I often wonder if the likes of the author of this piece are self-loathing people. Honestly, how could you ever take pride in your work when this is your chosen line of business? Then again, he’s probably not bright enough to be that self-aware. Also, are there people out there that actually pay their hard-earned for a Herald Sun subscription?

This to me is just to address the oversupply in the guts, and Harmes is just the logical choice to move out of there as he’s more versatile. It was never going to be Viney or Brayshaw and Petracca already has a secondary role at HF. Harmes’ ability to defend first then balance it out with damaging offence is what made him a good midfielder. It should suit him well in defence also. I don’t particularly love the idea as I really enjoyed the player Harmes had become in the middle, so there’s an element of risk of ruining something that was working. But I can also see how it might benefit the team, so will watch with an open mind.

Not just that; many had already decided how they felt about it before they watched it. Which comes back to @ProDee’s point about watching stuff without expectations.

People invest in the women’s game for a few reasons. For some just the presence of a MFC jumper is enough; personally for me I just think it’s important that the competition succeeds for the good of the game. The one thing the batshit boring “world game” has had over us for years is that girls can play too. Once invested, you see the spectacle in a different light. The standard in my son’s year 4 basketball team is pretty low compared to the NBA, but I’m invested so when the games are tight and tense I stress, barrack and feel all the same things I do during a tight MFC game. I don’t sit there thinking “man the standard is low, I’m bored.” Of course people who aren’t invested are going to be bored watching it.

Honest question: why do you pay any attention to what happens in the off season if all you want is to “see it happen in front of you“? Literally all that happens at this time of year is hope gets sold, words get said and houses get trained down.

He got it from the same place Hardie got the info that MFC signing Bennell was “unlikely”. His arse. I don’t even need to be from WA to know the reputation these guys have for never letting the truth get in the way of a good story. Toss in Karl Langdon and you have the perfect trifecta of tiny WA fish trying not to get eaten in the small pond, battling for relevance.

In the interview that was mostly about Gawn, Mahoney said Bennell’s calf strain set his rehab back 3 or 4 days and it’s the kind of issues they were expecting to encounter. He said Bennell has done everything asked, is popular among the team, and even explicitly said he was well placed to earn a contract. That’s as close to “it’s locked in” as you will ever hear. So I guess Brad Hardie was pretty close when he said a MFC contract looked unlikely ? I honestly wish I could make a living out of just making s*** up.

Nah, it’s annoying when people bump current topics off the most prominent part of the forum with ancient stuff that has no currency. My stance on that hasn’t changed since 2005. I’m not stopping anyone from reading old threads.

It’s been so long since I’ve locked a thread that I’ve lost the button. Found it!!

I always thought the Franklin deal was done by the Swans knowing full well there would be a bite-in-the-arse factor in the back end but the increased flag prospects in the front end made it worthwhile. And I think it was.

I nearly puked when I read this post. Maybe Petracca’s progress is evidence that we should be patient and let players develop at their own pace instead of heckling, abusing and carrying on like impatient, entitled twits.

Surely it was obvious it was going to be a fluff piece by the title. Why read it if it’s not your cup of tea?

I got this book for Christmas and knocked it over while camping with family in the last week, and it was an absolutely fantastic read. It’s his life story (obviously) but looking through an analytical lense — his philosophies in life in leadership and how they were shaped by his personal and professional experiences. You get some insight in to his time in to the MFC - in particular how he transformed himself over time, his relationship with Chris Fagan (his right hand man and underrated influence in the relative success over that period) and how the club never really gelled at any stage he was here (financial issues, revolving door board and CEOs and so forth), particularly in contrast with his stint at West Coast at the end. Personally I got more out of reading about his time at Essendon though as a player and then a coach. It painted Kevin Sheedy in a very different light for me. It even made me want to watch the 1993 grand final - puke! Given that it’s heavy on the philosophical side of life, if it’s a yarn with all the gory details of the ins and outs of Neale’s time at the MFC (or anywhere else), this isn’t the book, but personally I lapped up every word and it cemented Neale as one of my life heroes and all time favourite footy people.

As I was reading through that excellent, detailed, insightful post, with no recollection of it, I thought, “the first reply is going to be a one-liner from a long term member with a very high post count about how all that is just an excuse and other clubs have injuries too”. I think I’ve been here so long I actually know how threads will play out without even needing to read them.

@Clint Buzzkillstill probably has the box of leftovers.

That just sucks. Life really is a bastard sometimes. Best of luck to him. Love that the club will extend his contract. At least he doesn’t have to go through the mental stress of wondering if he’s going to get the chop, on top of a second consecutive year of rehab.

What? Jeez, sounded like he was just getting going. Got to feel for the guy.

I think it goes without saying that I’d like to be told the truth - if half the side is injured then that’s an issue I’d like to know about. All I’m saying is I don’t need the reports to be “tempered”.

Just another voice of thanks for the great training reports. As an interstater I obviously can’t go watch training but even if I did I doubt I’d pick up on the detail you guys do. Awesome stuff. I’ve seen a few calls for balance in the reports - personally at this time I’m looking for all the reasons we’re going to be awesome. Reality may or may not kick in later, and that’s fine, but it’s not what I’m interested in in the off season.

How have Adelaide and Geelong played one game less than the other teams? Was there an abandoned match in there somewhere? Edit: Googled it, match in 2015 was abandoned following the death of Phil Walsh.

Goes in the same basket as player salaries for me. Got no idea how you can assess it from the outside and therefore don’t know why anyone cares.

I think it’s just reality - I agree that ideally all players would have their kicking technique down pat by AFL, but in practice plenty of them have ingrained bad habits, and it’s not isolated to the MFC. I also doubt they’re using the ball to teach them how to kick from scratch. They would all know the theory. It’s more that it gives the immediate feedback and it comes cheaply, or possibly for free. A 1%er, if you will. I think in terms of concerns, this ranks a solid 0 out of 10