sue

Maynard to be retrospectively traded to a small club.

I think he was justifying it - can't see any other reading of the words, but will take his word if he says he was not doing so. But you are right, that is how it gets applied.

Excuse me, but I think that is a ridiculous distinction. Surely faking your head was affected is exaggerating the contact. In any case, Maynard was holding his head when bent over on the ground - wasn't that pretending his head was affected? Or is there something special about being contacted by the ground rather than someone fist? Do you have a job with the AFL propaganda department or just hoping for one?

Watching on TV makes it hard to judge, but if Andrews was hampered from playing his usual role then how can you say Fritta had mimimal impact? Given he's not been kickng goals recently maybe it was a brilliant coaching move. Yes we did lose the game, but I bet we did a lot better than you expected.

Non recalled centre bounces are a disgrace to the game. Just throw it up. I’d love an explanation of why after a 666 warning they throw it up rather than bounce it. Says something presumably

Not even a vague “he went down a bit easily”.

I did just the same as the bolded bits. Still made plenty of errors.

I'm not reading the whole thread having read a few doomsayer's posts. Before the match most of those posters thought we'd be done by a large margin. I see it this way: 1. Brisbane supposedly in great form and on their home ground. Us out of form. 2. We played a lot of players with little experience and were supposed to be smahed in the middle without Petracca and an out of form Oliver. 3. Yet a game we came close to winning (and even closer to drawing bar one mistake), regardless of which team missed its chances etc. How can anyone not take some confidence in that?

That might be partly due to the way they video it these days. There are numerous close shots where you only see the ball and maybe 2 players. The ball heads out of shot and you have no idea if it is a brilliant pass to a team mate or a disaster or whatever. This heghtens the tension and I'm sure it is deliberate by Fox/7 for that reason. Certainy is not of interest to those who want to follow the game.

thanks. But was any reason given why it should take so long? It is beyond belief that it should take more than a few weeks. If he is innocent, then it's totally unfair to effectively ban him till he is too old or out of it to play again. If guilty, then unfair to the club. And similar for anywhere inbetween. Or am I missing something?

Does anyone know what is happening with this? It seems nothing at all. Who/what is responsible for the delay? Justice delayed is justice denied etc. What's the story/excuse? (I know it is off topic, but why is there no thread about this? I can't see why it can't be discussed without causing the mods any grief.)

But what supporters say here has no effect on miniumum standards within the club. So it doesn't matter if some supporters are in the view of some others over-forgiving of faults.

You think that photo is clear proof that he is overweight? Those arms are clearly just rippling with fat folds. Not so much on the waist in comparison. Surprising. In short, I don't think the photo tells us anything except loose clothing tells us nothing.

So true. I really enjoy it when a player gets a soft touch to one side of his head and then holds his hands to the other side of the head.

Serious answer: The conspiracy is not against the MFC per se (and some others), but in favour of where the AFL thinks the big $$$ are. The overall effect may appear similar.

True, but so do the players from other clubs doing it and some of them are having quite a good season. I can understand MFC supporters being [censored] off when it gets ignored until it's us in the sights.

Fine them? hah! Didn't the AFL declare a couple of years back they would pay frees against a player who ducks his head regardless of the tackle. This was in order to discourage ducking so as to protect the head, nothing to do with milking frees? As usual with the AFL it is a rule/interpretation that lasts as long as a lettuce (with apologies to Liz Truss). The only problem I have with the May's fine is he's about the 50th example this year. If the AFL was fair dinkum why not go through all the tapes and fine the other 49.

Has any one in the footy media noticed?

I have made the mistake of watching far too much footy this round. What has stood out for me is how inconsistent the umpiring has become. And this is watching matches where I'm not particularly hoping one team or the other wins, so the usual supporter biases are not there. Of course it is a difficult job, but what really gets me mad is the AFL introducing new 'rules/interpretations' which last a week or two and the inconsitentcies. Think dissent, vagueness of the stand/5m 'rule', entering protected zones and play on, HTB, the inability of umps to judge distances, penalising to discourage ducking to protect heads (promised but never implemented), etc. The lack of consistency makes it far too easy to credit consipracy theories which is not in the interest of our game. A thorough review of the rules and umpiring environment is needed by a body independent of the AFL admin (which is focussed on $), and not on our game. Won't happen of course.

Hooray we are 3 times better than Cwood

I'm amazed at the 'guilty' interpretation that has been placed on that deletion. Most probable reason to me is that by saying so he thought he was exonerating the medicos but realised later that it sounded like they were easy to overrule which would be a bad look.

The media pile-on to the MFC goes ahead regardless of facts. Some are expressing dismay that the Club has not made a strong statement. I wonder if doing that would have the same effect as feeding trolls in a forum like this. And yes, I think a lot of footy 'journos' are effectively trolls in search of click-bait, relevance and fortune.

Correct. And how would the AFL respond if we did nother review and ignored theirs? Sunday pm interstate games all 2025 for us.

Probably just based on a disposition to always think the worst which pervades this site. Or more positively, a hope that by saying such things, it will jinx it actually happening.