Longsufferingnomore

Bailey said "soreness"

A couple of weeks ago someone made a comment about the Mt Bulla ski lift pass on his car. BT is ego driven searching for the next headline.

Kegs, can't let her go to the dark side. Go on Ebay and there is a cute demon doll for sale. I typed in demon football doll and it came up. good luck

Two words for DH - sanctimonious p.....

Today when the players joined in a group to listen to Greeny the TV cameras were focusing on Tom. He looked up at the screen and quickly looked away and then Nathan Jones gave him a friendly clip over the head. In just that one second he looked so uncomforable with the attention being on him and not the team. I dont know that we can blame Tom for the mess that we are in. I think that blame lays squarely on his Management Team. Not only do they win handsomely from any huge deal that can be done with GWS but the continued media circus surrounding Tom also keeps their brand in the media spotlight. Don't forget he is 19 ears old and he and his family have suddenly been thrust into an area which they would have not had any dealings with before and they are taking advice from a group of car salesmen (apologies to any car salesmen on the site). It is very sad that the Club and Tom have been put into this position. There are no winners. We will breath a sigh of relief if he does sign but there will always be a note of doubt because we will always wonder if he has squeezed us so hard that we could lose other players that would have really loved to stay at the Club. If he goes he will always be looked on as mercenary and the Club will be asked if they did enough to make sure that he stayed. Opposition teams will not be sympathetic and some will question if MFC will ever be a Club where players will want to go to. A nasty situation.

Watts to Scully - how long have I wanted to hear that

He walked off with the other players after the game!!

Oh, wouldn't that be good fodder for the media gurus. Scully didnt want to stay at Melbourne so his way out was GWS and then get back to Carlton or Collingwood. Gee our membership would really climb. Why then would any player come to us if we were so unprofessional that we couldnt keep a 19 year old.

No he didnt actually say that and I was taking a little licence with those comments but I can't see what other reason he would have to put the contract negotiations off for such a long time. What I can't understand is how can all these other players out of contract and probably of interest to GWS can commit and have their management start negotiations but Tom cant commit to the Demons. How could he be more distracted than with what is going on around him at the moment. So if that was the reason to put off negotiations it seems pretty lame excuse. Surely he and his management would have known exactly what was going to happen in the media and amongst the supporters once he made that statement. It was never going to quell the rumourmongers and I cant believe the Club also believed that it would quieten the jungle drums. The only statement that will bring it all to an end is I WILL BE A DEMON. So I might have taken licence but I unfortunately cant see any other reason for him to defer negotiations until he knew either what Melbourne could come up with to counter what GWS had already offered or see what both parties were willing to offer at the end of the season. They can't contract him until the end of the season but a nonbinding agreement could be reached prior to the end of the season. I wonder if they would have given him a final offer given that anything could have happened prior to the end of the season. Also wouldn't they probably want him to go through a medical to ensure his knee injury may not cut short his career. I just believe that there is something else going on whether it be Morton or Colin. Someone is lying through their back teeth - Sheedy, Demitriou, Tom or the Club. We might be shocked to know who it was at the end of the season or we might not be. Whoever it is will never be trusted again but we will move on because the team is the sum of all parts not just one midfielder.

Because Tom has said that he does not want to negotiate a contract now and wants to wait until after the season so that he doesn't have to worry about contract negotiations whilst he is playing ie. wants to see 1. what GWS have to offer and 2 what the tv rights will bring in the form of extra dosh.

He has said exactly what I said he would say "it's not my fault ...blame the CEO's who approved it". To bring up Jeff White - despite giving up draft picks it was at that time more of a level playing field. We cannot, the Bulldogs, North, Richmond, Port etc cannot compete against what is virtually the AFL. To say that he knows nothing with regard to the trade picks is absolute tripe. If GWS had not been able to attract any named players who do you think they would call. Yeah right pull the other one. As if the GWS is the reason for the huge increase in the value of TV rights. What a load of crock. This team will be a burden on the AFL for years. Will Demetriou take a pay decrease when they are not successful. We all know the answer to that. If Tom goes he goes and we get done over again by the AFL.

I know what most people here think of Kevin Bartlett but this morning he was modified in his comments which were (and I did come in at the tail end) that he hoped that the Melbourne Board were aware when measureing the year the Club has had and the way Bailey has handled the year that they take into account: injuries,development of younger players and other issues behind the scenes that normal supporters were not aware of and keep in mind that Geelong after 7 years under the same coach seemed to outsiders not to be going anywhere. Instead they kept the faith despite calls for the sacking of Thompson and the end result came. He obviously believes that Bailey should be retained. At the moment I am sitting on the fence but I want to see improvement in the way they play as a "team" not just Scully and others and individual development. With so many younger players with so little game time I think it is reasonable to wait until the end of the year before deciding Bailey's fate. The poll questions are so biased that the result has already written itself.

My source has also told me that he was really disappointed how it all happened but he has moved on and typically Macca does not now hold any grudges.

100/100 point 1 - outbodied - did anyone else notice how big the Coll#@**ingwood players backsides were. I heard their conditioning coach interviewed on radio and he was boasting the enormous weights that most of the players were lifting. They obviously do a lot of squats but it gives incredible power in their legs which made our boys look like "boys". The number of times our players just bounced off an opposition player was embarrassing apart from the score line and everything else. Just an observation.

I cant blame Sculls if he goes for that type of money but all the talk of him being such an upstanding type of person will take a battering. I think we should be aiming our bile at Demetriou and the AFL for allowing such a thing to happen. It is just crap to say that it is an even playing field. For some it is more even than for others. I wonder if Sculls was at North Melbourne would the same thing be happening. For Demetriou to claim that the CEO's all gave the tick to the GWS "rules' so they should take the blame for what is happening. Can you imagine once they got it pass the CEO's they would have been standing behind closed doors rubbing their hands wiping the sweat off their brows thinking well we got that passed that lot. And of course who of the Clubs was obviously going to miss out - Melbourne and Richmond with the most number of high draft picks. So how come we didnt see this coming. How can the AFL claim the moral high ground when they have no morals when it comes to Suns or GWS. Kennett was right, Demetriou runs the AFL like a fiefdom and his forty pieces of silver are growing and growing.

There was a report after the game that Liam has "reinjured" his calf which is an injury that he has been carrying for some weeks. Clint Bartram's eye was closed up so depending on any other damage he may not be ready in 6 days time.

HT they will probably check your bag

Border Collie 9 years ago. Still cant talk abaout it.

It's good that you at least acknowledge it.

How many times over the weekend did we see players claiming to have touched the ball either in marking contests or goals. Are they all cheats or maybe sometimes genuinely think they had touched the ball.

This is going to be huge with a massive Melbourne crowd to balance the woods hordes. Be there early especially MCC Members.

Didn't they ask Sheahan if he had seen proof of him signing and Sheahan said no. He said that he spoken to Gabby at GWS but he also siad that he could be wrong. FFS talk about having a foot in each grave.I think Mike Sheahan revels in knowing that everyone believes that he has the inside information at Clubs. I liked that Richo and Matthews said that it was wrong that a bottom club could pick up some drafts and then have them poached by GWS. Both Richo and Matthews thought that they shouldnt be poached before 2-3 years at a Club. I also found it interesting that Ablett had an agreement in place with GS and then changed his mind during the season. When it all blew up with Bomber he changed his mind again and decided to go with GS. Hopefully if there is any truth to what Mike Sheahan is saying that Sculls has "an agreement" and nothing signed. When Scully was walking down the ramp to the rooms with Bennell he looked genuinely happy. After kicking that goal everyone rushed over to him and he looked stoked.Waiting for all the players to come back to the front of the race he was animated with the other players. Coming off the ground up the race he looked up to the fans so hopefully that feeling will stay with him. He certainly did not look like a player that did not want to be there. I want this to go away. I don't want this to become a sideshow like Ablett's departure became.

DB on radio this morning said that Sylvia would be fine for Queens Birthday because of the extra couple of days and also because Col is a player that recovers quicker than most.

WJ an excellent preview to this weeks game. I thought Clyde had lost it when he yelled out BLITZ. I agree get on the odds - although not so politically correct these days.

Dont get me wrong but I love to see the newbies come in and add a bit of excitement but I have two problems with the team picked. I don't believe Scully should have been bought in after only one game at Casey. It smacks of desperation of which I know we are but he really only played three quarters and was having his knee iced during the last quarter a good look. I hope I am proved wrong. The second is that if we all so critical of the "game plan" and the teams inability to cope with a press how on earth can we expect anything different with so many new kids in the team. Those that go to Casey games know that the press is not utilised in the VFL. If the older players have struggled with it for over twelve months how can we expect the young kids to be able to either cope with or carry out a press. If Jared Rivers was critical of the lack of organisation in our forward line then I don't know if he/we can expect much better tomorrow/tonight. I am not critical of the FD in picking the younger kids because if they believe our future is with these boys then play them so they can build up a history with the likes of Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Frawley. I am excited to see Gawn and Howe play. I remember thinking during a practice game at Carlton that Howe looked promising. As Gary Lyon said tonight he didnt expect them to win but it was how they played the game that was more important. I believe that the team psyche will alter with the infusion of so many young kids and I hope that they play with the hunger that some of the "older" players seem to have lost. Frawley was right - he is sick of losing so these young boys they don't have that monkey on their back and hopefully will play with the passion that we all have here.