sue

Article about the man himself in today's Age states: "Well, he likes golf, has a penchant for real estate and describes himself as ''a bit of an introvert''. ' penchant for real estate - oh dear.

huh? like forgive enemies and people who have done you wrong. Turn the other cheek etc? Am I or you missing something in Theology 101? All very noble and something to aspire to. When it involves forgiving someone with whom I really have no actual interaction with, I feel I can indulge in a little bitterness. Makes my day (and helps me be nice and forgive people I really do deal with.)

I'm over it - we are probably better off with things as they are now. But what lasting feelings am I meant to have for a guy who has lied etc and damaged our club. I'm not a Christian, why should I 'forgive' him. Who would you rather see win a Brownlow - Scully or ... almost anyone from any club? (OK, I'm sure there are some other players people will have a long-standing issue with, but he has to be high on any MFC's supporters list surely.)

It won't go away during the season, it will just not be the only source of entertainment when there is footy. A lot of us will be watching how he goes and hoping he proves to be a rich B grade player. He may not play for MFC anymore, but he lied and hurt a lot of supporters (if not the players) so you have to expect interest, mostly malevolent.

Leaving aside putting it down to the megalomaniac in charge, why would the AFL control this? Do they say how many laps and push-ups can be done before Xmas too? Amazing.

I just watched the Port match in Darwin again. I don't know if it was a typical performance, but it looked like he didn't want to get scratched and other than taking a good mark he stuffed up almost every time he went near the ball. Of course he may turn out to be a great player, but it seems to me the $6M was driven more by PR and perhaps revenge by Sheedy than anything realistic.

I wonder why the mods have allowed a topic headed "Time Trials" to go off topic into a "Cale Morton" thread for so long when they deleted posts from me and others in the Foxtel thread for going off topic when all we were doing was politely discussing how Foxtel's marketing policy affected take-up of the AFL channel. Did someone seemed scared we might get on the wrong side of Fox? Consistency please gents/ladies.

Agreed. Seems to be a bit selective as to which posts are considered 'inappropriate'. I would have thought the issue of whether Foxtel was worth getting at all was at least as significant as things like 'will they have the umps' microphone.

Yep, that's their business plan. But it is dated. I will be very amused if Optus wins the court case. In the meantime I will pop along to my local club and watch Foxtel for $0 usually with a group of supporters of each side which makes it a bit more like going to the footy than watching at home anyway. (I'd go to the match but sadly I don't live in melb.)

If you are right then it will be the death knell of Pay TV. On the internet I can download (and pay for) a single music track, I don't have to buy an album. And that is for an album of a performer I actually like. On PayTV it is like having to download an album of tracks from performers you don't like just to get one track of a performer you do. Of course you can expect to pay more per channel if you only select one or a few - depends on what their real set-up costs are compared to what they charge for installation. But at the moment Foxtel doesn't give you that choice! Wouldn't the fact that I had the equipment installed and a good experience for one channel, make it easier for Foxtel to sell me more.

Rhett I agree with Diesel. I have no interest whatever in the raft of Foxtel packages. I want to pay for individual channels (ie Footy). The way Foxtel is currently marketed I either pay for a pile of stuff I don't want or I get nothing (and pay you nothing). Please tell your marketing gurus that that model is not the wave of the future.

I agree. You really can't expect any significant information so don't criticise the club for these reports. Why tell the enemy clubs your status just to help those supporters (me) suffering from of-season withdrawal symptoms? And you'd be mad to state what is wrong with a player in public - who wants to be humiliated like that. If it ever happened you can assume the coach thought such a shock was the only way to help that player fix the problem. In the meantime all we can do is read between the lines and speculate.

How can you say 'unleash hell in round 13' when we play GWS while at the same time asking us all to drop the topic! Sounds like the topic is of some interest to you. In a boring off-season the GWS scandal offers something of interest. Obviously what happens at the MFC is our main concern, and maybe we are victims of a GWS publicity-at-all-costs machine, but anything that pushes the AFL towards honest conduct in future is important, especially since most of their motivations are driven by $.

Sorry if this is repeating a previous post, but you can import the MFC draw into your calendar program from http://subscriptions...2012/index.html

Looks like some disgruntled ex-(or current) GWS staff are leaking so I wouldn't be surprised if irrefutable evidence of $kulduggery emerges. (Yes, I agree it looks clear already, but there is nothing like documentary evidence.) What really riles me and would make me engage in some healthy cathartic booing is $cully's recent 'courageous' and chaos at Melbourne statements. What a nerve.

Spot on. I was one of those who gave him the benefit of the doubt. I now know I was a naive fool.

Because Scully/management was threatening to sign with MFC and GWS couldn't live with the embarrassment of not getting him (and dosh is no issue to them)???

That doesn't explain why MFC still offered him a bundle since we'd be monitoring him all year, nor why GWS upped their offer near the end. If it is indeed true that GWS did up their offer, then either: - his managers are cunning negotiators OR - $cully was seriously on the verge of signing with the demons and more bucks were needed to lure him away. If the latter it true, all this hair-tearing about the bad MFC culture etc swaying his decision wasn't a concern to $aint $cully.

I'm starting to speculate that Sheedy is driven too much by his desire for revenge on MFC for the good of GWS (hooray if so). JMac may be a good idea, but the payment to Scully is just plain silly. They can' be that desperate. It could break any club bar one that the megalomaniacs at the AFL will move heaven and earth to protect. Will we one day see a breakaway league formed at the top level in Aussie rules?....

Or maybe because the embarrassment to GWS from him not signing would have made Sheedy look a twit

As I posted elsewhere - Alternatively, GWS couldn't afford the embarrassment of him not signing at this stage. Downside for them after all this was bigger than for us (at least in PR terms). Let's hope they lose the gamble.

Yep. GWS would have been massively embarrassed if he had decided to stay with what many see as a basket-case club instead of taking an enormous offer from GWS. Downside for them was much bigger than it was for us. Looks like they had to make the offer even bigger to tempt him away (unless you religiously believe it was all a done deal earlier on, including a charade of a last minute increase!) That should bring some comfort to us supporters.

I agree. Handled the China question well and also all the other scuttlebutt simply by saying we asked Tom about these things and he said it wasn't a consideration and they believed him as they did about the decision delay. They painted Scully as honest, so unless Scully announces to the world he is a liar, that should be the end of all that handwringing by some of our members (not that will stop the hardened cases from wringing away). It was quite believable that the decision was made in the last week or so given that mfc says they started to see the writing on the wall when GWS upped their offer to an extra year. Of course you might believe a conspiracy or bum-covering if that gives you comfort. But who cares - just get decent compensation and congratulate ourselves we may have dodged a dodgy knee and have retained the better player chosen at pick 1.5 - Trengove.

Well, thank our lucky stars that when the MFC tossed a coin to decide whether Scully or Trengove would be nominated as #1, it came up Scully #1. I expect GWS would have tried to poach #1 regardless of the player's performance just for the publicity. (In fact it seems they did -I think we get to keep the better player.)