sue

Not really. The club could be saying if the cap is $x, you will get deal A, if it is $y you will get deal B. He says he is happy to sign either, but obviously can't sign anything until the cap is known. And presumably there'd be a sliding scale between x and y.

I can just imagine Demonland if we didn't play him and announced finals were not our goal in 2020.

In almost every game I find myself shouting 'shepherd FCS!!'. But I suspect the reason it happens far less than it did, and not just at MFC is that players are instead racing to a position to provide a receive option. Need to be smarter about when it would be a bad option to do that and instead shepherd.

Sadly I expect that's the case. It would be unacceptable PR-wise for the AFL to do it. My suggestion of something coming back to the club worth $50k would be more likely to fly.

there sure is a big crowd for a home & away match so I expect it was 1964 GF (or did we play C'wood twice in those finals?)

I have thought a similar thing, though the fact he is now gone doesn't help that argument. It's not as if he attempted to return to the hub thereby endangering other players and the AFL season. He just left. However, the employer does control your freedom of movement if you sign up to such an agreement. And can penalise you if you disobey. But did individual players sign up or does their standard agreement have such a clause or one that gives the club the ability to impose it at whim? I expect not. Doubtless there is a "don't bring the AFL/club into disrepute" clause. But I don't see how just walking out and not returning brings the AFL/club into disrepute. MFC did not take him back into the hub and presumably would have made sure he did not. So while I can see that the AFL should be able to suspend him for 2000 weeks if he continued as a player, I don't see the rationale for the club's fine. I'm not even sure I see a rationale for that in any of these cases, unless the club tries to cover up or get some advantage somehow. So I wasn't entirely joking when I suggested the MFC find a way to get the $50K back in kind from the AFL. (His apparently poor behaviour afterwards are reasons for the MFC to be hard on him. But that is a separate issue.)

Very subtle?. I'd suggest we pay the fine and separately ask the AFL to fund a position in the club justified by some fairy tale that the MFC and AFL concoct.

It was great to not have some asinine voice over intruding.

You have a funny way to avoid looking for an argument.

If so why would you read/post Demonland, media or anything? Just watch the matches. I expect everyone on here agrees with you - we will believe it when we see it. But that doesn't mean we ignore everything else and discuss nothing, including the nuances of what the captain and coach say publicly. Personally I thought Max's comments were relatively refreshing compared to what we often hear. Do I believe it guarantees a better 2021? Of course not.

What effect on you would it have been if Max came out with the usual platitudes and for example boasted that we moved up from 17th to 9th? I expect you'd be spitting chips. Perhaps absence of a negative effect is a positive effect?

I should preface this by saying I haven't followed this closely and don't know what lies Bennell may have spun etc. But I note that for whatever reason he did not return to the hub. Is it too cynical to think that if a star player from a big club had done this, the AFL would have loudly announced the penalty was reduced because he did not return to the hub and put the season in peril.

We’re all doomed. So many misery guts on here. Hunt trac nothing to see there. Bennell yet to know full facts. Don’t deserve finals. (Nor do dogs if they lose. Final 7 required).

Sorry to those posting we don't deserve to be in the finals - but if Dogs lose today, presumably they don't deserve to be in the finals either. I wonder how the AFL will manage a final 7.

Looking at his recent performances it doesn't surprise me much that he wouldn't get a game. Almost always runs or is pushed under the ball. Trouble is we have noone else.

Sometimes I think MFC has shares in a medical practice specialising in thoracic surgery and depression.

More TV interest in the Freo vs Dog's game?

Yes GWS are hopeless but the umpiring is even worse. Dropped chest mark paid by remote umpire, several 50m missed but paid when a player runs from behind to man the mark which happens all the time with no penalty (another example of poorly worded rules BTW)

and you post on demonland? Weird. (But welcome.)

I was drafting a broad agreement with you when I think I was clobbered by the name of the thread being changed. But that was based on IF what happened at the end of 2019 was as you say, ie. if he and the club had already agreed 2020 would be his last year and sadly the 300 was cruelled by Covid and injury. But he seems to have a different view: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/814841/jones-hopes-to-continue-career-in-2021

If that happens we may well lose a match we might otherwise win. Once players feel we won't smash them by enough they may start to throw in the towel and lose.

Reasonable points, but will our year suddenly not be wasted if we beat bombers and other results go our way?

I reckon if the players at training were hit by an asteroid, you'd be screaming 'excuses, excuses'. Are you aware that excuses and reasons are not synonyms.

Just like they thumped us?

That probably requires exactly same for and away points for both teams to make sure the % are the same to 1000 decimal places. I think seeing which team beat the ones above them the most (good in a season with everyone playing others only once) etc. But I'm sure the AFL would come up with some forumla to put whomever they prefer into the finals.