sue

agree 100%

looked to me like he had trouble jumping - seems unlikely he was dropped for any reason bar foot.

I'm confused. Are you saying they told the board during the week that they would throw the game in protest? Surely not, so what are you saying?

just watched it. Totally agree. Green did a reasonable job. Going by some of the early reports on here , I'd have thought I was watching the wrong video.

Some of the negative remarks made in this thread amaze me. People turning off after the first 10 minutes for example. Yes it was deplorable, but we then kicked 3 quick goals in a row jus afterwards. We hung in there for a long time - admittedly it always looked like we'd fall away, but we didn't throw in the towel. I don't recall the TV commentators mentioning the usual effects of post-Darwin games, but maybe the odd Demons supporter might. Clearly we lack the skills and the bodies - but who thought otherwise before the first whistle went? So why be so depressed when the inevitable happens and the miracle didn't.

Re the 50m penalty awarded against Martin(?): Could someone who knows the rules explain. (I rule out most commentators). When a free kick is awarded for an off-ball infringement 50 metres up the ground from where a player has the ball, who is he supposed to give it to? I would have though the umpire was a good bet, but apparently I'm wrong. Do you have to return it to the player on the full with a perfect 50m pass?

Glad to hear you know more than me. I presume you mean in general and not about the specific points I raised or you might have answered them. Why do you keep going on about"'we can't discuss it"? What do you think all your posts and responses are then? Yes, the question was legitimate and was answered to my satisfaction (if not yours) by the facts stated. Give it a rest.

I'm amazed at how anyone could be so sure that 'he should have been there'. Obviously you have more facts available than I do, eg. how many metres between the cool room and the room where TS was being treated? Was it possible to interrupt the treatment underway and get there in time? Would the docs know when the siren was going to sound to get him off the table on on the way to the cool room in time? I'd want top know all that before I even thought of saying 'should have been there'. And as for taking the next step to draw conclusions about implications for contract signing - just amazed anyone would do it.

Probably as in other businesses, not directly but by being in the cosy Director-CEO club environment. Exec salaries have grown enormously over recent years - the ratio of CEO to low-paid workers wages used to be a factor of 10, now it is 100. This is never justified except by 'we need to pay this to retain the best'. But what were the best doing 20 years ago? Working hard for their 'miserable low' pay and being retained. Shifting the 'blame' to directors in business is a joke. These guys are all mates in the same circles. You'd hand out free beer if you knew free beer would be returned. But I can't understand why this would apply to AFL directors. Are they in the cosy Directorial-CEO club that abounds in business? What's the background of the AFL Directors?

But have you ever seen anyone else leap over a player to apply a tackle so far from where he left the ground?

So, we have lots of inside sources at Melbourne leaking the information that he is gone. If this was true and writ in blood and unchangeable, surely they'd have him playing at Casey. What would there be to lose - a non-finals win or two at most? Doesn't the fact that he is not at Casey imply either the sources are wrong, playing games, or there is hope he will stay within the higher levels of the club who presumably are more in the know than anyone? Please explain.

I hope people saying things like the above aren't accusing our Admin in particular and are not engaged in the all too common MFC bashing. (Not accusing RR here, just many posters seems to think they would do better than our people close to the action.) As an earlier post pointed out, the arrangement the clubs (not just us!) agreed to is worse for clubs who have put several years into developing a top player only to find him snatched away. Are all the CEO's blind to these flashing lights, or did they have no choice?

As stated elsewhere Llyod spent the whole match making excuse (unneeded) for Collingwood and didn't mention our outs or the fact that so many of or players had played only a small handful of games. I think he hasn't recovered form us beating his club last week and cam'r keep his bias out of his supposedly neutral commentary. Of course not only is that unprofessional, but the worse we are, surely putting us down imply Essendon is even worse.

Gasp. Modern morals have reached a new low when lying just because you can within some 'system' is considered acceptable by anyone. Now if he was trying nobly to 'show up a (corrupt) system', (corrupt as it is) it might be acceptable, but he wasn't. He was simply trying to get off. Very sad.

Who cheated more? No contest. In one case in the heat of the contest a player kicks an opponent's hand while the hand was in contact with the ball and thinks he kicked the ball directly. Makes the usual actions a player does when they kick a goal but subsides the moment the ump indicates touched. In the other, a ridiculous story is concocted in the days after the event which was either a lie or the biggest case of self-deception I've seen. I can understand a player deceiving himself, but how could their Admin self-deceive? I'm sure they wouldn't have chanced it if there was a possibility of an extra week penalty for challenging. Stones and glass houses come to mind. Will anyone in the media dare make a comment?

Be careful. Collingwood players will be fired up to prove they can win without some of their stars. Of course if we win, it will be because of their outs. If we lose excrement will be lowered onto us given the circumstances. Hmmm, a lose lose situation.....

Yes. I hope his coach doesn't think he was cheating by making such a patently absurd claim.

A mate of mine just told me he was following the proceedings on the AFL website where Mark Macgugan 'live' states the arguments the lawyers are making, allows people to post comments and answers some questions. But he censored any posts my mate made which commented negatively on the defence evidence presented. Typical sham AFL.

Whatever criticisms have been thrown at Bailey about his coaching, the article shows him in a good light. Best of luck to Aussie - hope he's back soon.

Sure he hasn't been playing well, but maybe some of those who poured %#$#$ on him, even suggesting his injury was a fake 'injury', might apologise now that he is out for 6-8 weeks - a little long for nothing wrong with him

I didn't say I was 'positive'. Just that in the midst of your cyclone there are some positives. trying not to be swept away by the tsunami of moaning and wrist-slitting around here.

3. The crowd - almost 50,000. Yet the TV commentators still made disparaging remarks about the number early in the match.

Please post your negative comments in the myriad of other threads. 1. Didn't lose 3 more players this week to injury (apparently) 2. Didn't get blown away in Q1 (or Q2) despite fielding a team of a mix of newbies and some probably never-will-bes.

I think the stay-at-home forward pocket idea is an interesting alternative to Casey. It takes an opposition backman away from the play, makes a long misdirected bomb into the empty forward line interesting. Just a few kicks for Davey there might get some goals which is more useful than five times as many kicks in the middle. It may boost his confidence which is clearly in a deep hole at the moment.

I know it is disappointing/frustrating/etc/etc that we are not pushing towards finals again, but what can you expect given the circumstances? If we were forced to field the entire Casey team you'd still be moaning 'mediocre'. If Grimes, Tapscott, Scully, Trengove, Bail, Jamar (and main backuo Spencer) etc had been playing, maybe you'd be justified, but you are just wrist-slitting. Won't make you feel better. Did they roll-over today? No. Will they get clobbered over the next few weeks? Probably will, and would be even if the season was on-track. As long as they have a crack you can't expect too much more.