RalphiusMaximus

I was an arrogant over-confident [censored] when I was younger, and I could very nearly back it up too. I know how I would have been in his position. It might not have been a great look, but I would have been a lot more confident and I would have been talking the club up for next season. I got that too. He seemed to me to be genuinely unsure about where his future is. His handling of the questions was very poor and he probably should have been coached better, but I would say he's still very much undecided. For the rest of it, I really take exception to his little line about the club being on the way up three years ago. As has been mentioned, he is one of the players who was supposed to be making that happen, and he simply doesn't have the onfield presence we need him to have. It was particularly jarring given that Neitz was there and seeing the footage of him crashing through players and throwing his body in just accentuated Jack's inadequacies in those areas. He's never understood that the way to get the team playing better is to work harder and lead the change. I just hope he is ashamed of performing in such a meek and insipid manner in front of two club legends tonight. It might be the spur he needs to pull his finger out and fight for a win or two.

So, do we add Voss to our list of candidates?

I do indeed. In this case I agree with you too. There is indeed video footage on the club's website. It clearly shows that there was no injury at the time that the two players were pulled apart. I would say it is conclusive evidence that he is innocent. Hence my stance that it is [censored] weak of the club to back down and cough up a pathetic excuse that he might get to play a final assuming Casey are still afloat in four weeks which history suggests is highly unlikely.

Is an exercise in logic which states that when faced with competing hypotheses you should stick with the one with fewer assumptions until there is sufficient evidence to make a more accurate assessment. It is a rough guide and can in no way be considered as evidence in and of itself.

Maybe one of the "conditions" of the financial package is that we don't challenge?

Oddly enough, if we challenge, he gets to play the last few games with us AND the VFL GF if we make it.

I just don't think Swallow is worth more than that. In fact I'd say pick 2 is paying overs given he's not really setting the world on fire up there. Maybe a straight swap for Watts would work instead then we could still use pick 2 on Sloan.

What about just pick 2?

No way is Swallow worth Watts and pick 2. That would be just about enough for me to walk away.

Wellman. He's a bloody good coach.

The egg came first. That's simple logic. In this case, the egg in question is Brian Royal who has stuffed up every coaching appointment we've given him.

Club FB page says he's challenging as of 2 hours ago.

Utterly bizarre. The footage clearly shows Clisby being dragged away by several GC players and Sexton holding on to him with both hands. If anything, that is the motion that damages his shoulder as his arms extend above his head. It's an entirely self-inflicted injury. We should be fighting this on general principle. Especially since it will make no difference if we fail. Three weeks or four, he's still out for the rest of the year.

I will... Shrug. No biggie.

I don't disagree that he should be cited, but you need to bear history in mind. We have repeatedly seen that there is a get out of jail free card when you injure a Melbourne player. Look at Col Sylvia as a case-study. He's been taken out by blatantly illegal acts during the pre-season several times, and there has never been a charge laid against the people who did it. For whatever reason, there just seems to be a bit more leniency for players who do this sort of thing to Melbourne.

Steven King on Jeff White. Kicked him in the head, broke his face. No report. Brown won't be cited.

Well, for one thing I think Ben Holland needed a good belt in the face But it's not just the one guy, it's the overall strategic change that came with it. We stopped getting that sort of player into the club and look where it's gotten us. No Dustin Martin, no Jack Darling. They were both on the "poor character" list. Tom Scully was considered an upstanding and professional young player. As it turned out, he's not so much professional as mercenary. We've placed too high a value on character and leadership over actual football ability. Really, how many leaders do you need in the one side? Give me a couple of thugs who fight like hell for every ball and can kick and I'll be happy. I don't care if they go out and get drunk every now and then or get suspended for a high elbow to Chris Judd's head. I just want them to fight.

Bit of a correlation there. The club decided a few years back to clean up their image and do away with "the wrong sort" of players. Look at what's happened since then. We have clean-cut, nice young men who have no mongrel and no fight and can't win a contest to save themselves.

WTF? Did you watch the last quarter? The bit where we had them on the ropes, were dominating through the midfield and had repeat f50 entries AND HE STILL KEPT A SPARE MAN IN DEFENCE. You saw that right? Craig conceded any chance of us winning the game when he refused to send another player forward. Our boys worked their asses off but were being actively hindered by his coaching. He's just killed off any chance he had of coaching this side next year.

Nathan Carroll gets disrespected, but he fought pretty damn hard for us as an undersized fullback. I'd kill for a couple of players with his fight and determination, even if he lacked polish (both on and off the field).

I'd love it if we could talk him into a move. Only 26-27 or so too. It would be a huge help to have someone of his quality in the side.

The good is that on another day he might have kicked 5.1. Yes, today it hurt, but next week with his kicking boots on he could win the match for us. We have been crying out for a small forward who can hit the scoreboard for years. I do agree that Blease should be the answer, but he has consistently failed to deliver after that outstanding five goal haul. I'll take Byrnes ahead of him for the moment.

Shared job. Galrand took him when he rested forward and Jordie took him in the middle.

Can't agree with the Byrnes hatred. Yes, he missed his shots, but when was the last time one of our forwards had 6 scores? When was the last time we had a small forward capable of getting 6 scores? Sure, if he'd gone 5.1 we won the game, but he's hardly the only culprit. Personally I'm thrilled that he got that involved. Now all we need to do is get him to handball to players' hands instead of their feet.

I'm impressed Joeboy. That's a surprisingly positive assessment this week. Not that I don't agree, we did play a reasonable game, but I would have expected harder marking and commentary on the poor goal-kicking.