praha

Our problem is that we don't seem to play to win. We play not to lose, and margin minimisation. There's no proof that this team can put aside its ladder position and win knowing how important it is for their development. They don't seem to want to win because the season is shot. Roos made a comment that when we lose the team deals with it really well, but when we win it's not as big a deal as it should be from a confidence standpoint. Basically, it's a team of losers that expect to lose, and a win every now and then is cool We should beat Collingwood today. But we won't. I'll be there. Predicting 35,000-45,000. Won't be more. Pies will get 30-40,000 through the gate, and around 5-10,000 Dees supporters.

I have a good source also, albeit only with Prestia. Injury is tough, not career-ending, but in terms of investing enough to attract him to move, there is reason enough to be excessively cautious about the condition. As you would be with any young star with a major injury. Merely precautionary. Cautious more so than you would be with a healthy player.

Anyone sharing Waleed Aly or The Conversation is as bad as someone sharing Andrew Bolt.

Now Sydney fans plan to play fowl by throwing eggs at booing fans. This is eggsactly what I thought would happen. The media needs to stop egging people on.

There is a natural right to free speech. We don't need law or a document to tell us to speak. "I think therefore I am" Free speech embodies the natural right to live freely without others infringing on your right to do so. Defamation is an attack on your morality and therefore it has the capacity to hurt you. It's an infringement. You can say and do as you wish so long as you don't hurt others. "Feeling" hurt doesn't count, because emotion is subjective and relative. Of course it's not. This is what I mean by the definition being "dysfunctional". Free speech is a product of a free society, one that permits individuals to do as they please so long as they don't hurt others. Free speech fits within this. You're not wrong. Free speech embodies the right to say, the right to listen, the right to turn away, and the right not to fund one's antagonists. The AFL, player's union, they are all well within their right to clamp down and stop the booing. By definition only government can censor, because anyone that is stopped from booing at a game can easily just go and boo and let their feelings be heard elsewhere. Either way, as soon as the government gets involved to define speech in a non-subjective way (18c, for example), I begin to worry. I don't want to give bigots a platform. I just trust society enough to shout down those we feel compromise the benchmark we've set for each other. People are saying Tony Abbott took too long to come out and condemn the booing. I don't know why. This is an issue that has been covered and dealt with, debated and discussed by the general public. What difference does a politician's make? True leaders are those among us, people that empower and inspire. Goodes is one. Some might disagree. That's their right. But no one with the power to take away our rights should ever be held up as a leader. That includes both sides of politics.

It truly is astonishing how dysfunctional the modern Left's definition of free speech is. There is not "some form" of free speech. There is either free speech, or there is not. When you restrict it, you cause more harm than could possibly arise if you were to permit it. "Progressive" restrictions on free speech during the Weimar Republic are eerily similar to the ones we have in place in Australia. And our response is to tighten the muzzle even more. Let them speak so we can shout them down! Just as we are in the Goodes situation. This is a movement driven and controlled by the PEOPLE. And the people will win. Free speech is an important pillar in a liberal, accepting society. Without it, we have no way to differentiate between the good and the bad, what's right and what's wrong. The "right" shall speak, and those opposed shall challenged. That's how we evolve and improve. It's ugly atm, but good will come of all of this Goodes situation. We will all be better because of it. A "boo" is harmless when you think about what genuine, literal racism is. He is still driving around in his sports car, earning a million bucks, living in Bondi. Let's get real here. He'll come out of this a better person with a little more perspective about the complexities of race relations and Australia.

My last game for a few weeks. Heading to Germany and then Seoul for work. I really hope they at least show up because I was away for work for the Geelong game so I haven't seen them play well since the Bulldogs game.

Not sure they'd have beaten us without Roo. Would have been a lot closer and could have gone either way. He took important marks and set up a few goals that pushed them away.

As with every week, I have no solid expectations as to how the team will perform, but it would be very hard to tip Melbourne this week. What will I do if we win? Get absolutely tanked.

By "moving full-time to the MCG" I assume you mean their offices. Doesn't make sense because they have everything in place and spent millions upgrading Westpac Center. Secondly, Footscray Road wouldn't be the end of the world. Once the markets go to Epping that place is going to boom. Right on the edge of the city. Club should get in now. It passed on the Glasshouse and Collingwood swooped.

Exactly. He's a deep, deep depth player. If we didn't have him, we'd have another spud in his place.

Made out of his hair. Seriously though the title of this thread could be interpreted any number of ways...

Different game, different times. You can add one or two players that would make a difference and jump from last to first in a season. You can't do that these days. Way too many variables, and you have 15-16 teams who all improve in some capacity. Our biggest problem this year is that we've stayed in neutral. We HAVE improved, but teams like Bulldogs, Port, GWS have simply improved more. Next year we should leapfrog the likes of Essendon, St Kilda, Collingwood, but knowing this club we'll finish last llol

Efa

In his first season with Miami, he was booed hard and loud at every away game.Were you watching the NBA or the Phillipino league? He still gets booed.

Yes, he is. And yes, there was. There was certainly a racial undertone from some media outlets in their commentary. He responded with a smile and 2 championships.

Actually, no, he was booed relentlessly all season across the country. And there were plenty of racially-motivated attacks on the way he left Cleveland, suggesting that the way he did it was "totes black". He responded with two championships.

Are you kidding? This is a competitive sport. Goodes has it easy.

I think that's what clear out of all of this, is that irrespective of your thoughts or Goodes, the people booing, the commentators, the AFL, whatever, the football community is now divided. It's ugly. This is not what football is about. And you know what's funny? The most engaged people in this debate are...white. From the white rednecks who tell him to "harden up", to the condescending self-hating white people that speak like as if they know what's best for the indigenous. Both sides are white. It's comical. White people debating the feelings of...a black man. I am so sick and tired of hearing people say "Australia is racist", and I'm sick of people pretending like they're not offended by Goodes' past comments. And seriously, please spare the rest of us your guilt-riddled self-hating trash about how ANYONE -- white, black, pink, yellow -- is EVER justified in dividing by race. I don't give a [censored] what you have been through: racism is antagonism as much as it is discrimination, and if you even attempt to paint me as morally inferior because of the colour of my skin, I will shout you down like the hypocritical moron that you are. I am not responsible for another person's plight. I judge a person on their character and their actions. Spare me the "white people can't be victims of racism" crap. You're just justifying a barbaric, vile narrative that fuels the fire. That said, everyone, please, shut up, get over it, and get back to feeling miserable about Melbourne Football Club. Trust me, you'll all feel better for it. At least then we can (mostly) agree on something and get along. Go Dees.

Sorry, I should have used my words better. What I meant was that he just seems to go through the motions, play like someone that's already defeated. He doesn't "hate" the club. Bad choice of words.

My point being that I would rather establish consistency with the team when there aren't any injuries. I think there is a clear issue in player's breaking down in knowing their role, and dropping players all the time for this team in particular could be detrimental to the club's plan of winning games and getting people to games. Consistency is the next turning point for this club and it just can't turn the corner. Establishing a team and putting faith in players might actually help them play like a team, as opposed to playing like they hate one another.

I agree with your post, but this would be a futile exercise. On game day you can see that this is not a football department issue. It's just a bunch of blokes with the wrong mindset. We have a different team off-field now. How can the team be just as bad? It might be time to start looking at the players who have been at the club for more than five years, because they seem to set the tone: when they have a down day, it's like a virus that slowly moves through the rest of the team. I don't think any amount of investigating or million-dollar coaches is going to teach a bunch of losers how to be winners. It might just be a matter of moving on the likes of Dunn, Garland, Jamar, even Jones, and build around a new core. I don't accept that a "rebuild" has fully taken place until those from the club's worst ever period have been moved on. I just can't fathom how our worst performers on a bad day are those with 8, 9, 10 years experience. Since the Neeld years I have been saying that all of those part of the 186 point loss -- "the protest" match -- must be moved on. If they held contempt for the club then, I can't imagine that they all of a sudden have fall back in love with the environment. It must play on the mind. The rebuild hasn't truly begun yet. Harsh reality but without the pieces in place, it's hard to move on lockeroom cancers. I'm sure Dunn and Garland are great, but they epitomise what was the worst period in the club's history. These days in this current media climate, you can't shake that off. There is a stigma associated with pulling on the jumper, and so long as the virus remains, anyone who pulls it on will be smothered by it.

Irrespective of the changes we make, there isn't one player that can be brought in nor one player than can be dropped that would change the way the team plays. Sure, there are players of lesser skill, and players of better skill, but no one player is going to make us a better "team" at this point. I have no confidence in this game, or any game for the remainder of the season. Collingwood would lap up our center clangers and win by 5-6 goals again. Unless there is a major change to the team dynamic, no one change will have a direct influence on the outcome.

Goodes, earning a million a year playing for one of the league's best teams, is having a cry about being booed. Meanwhile, I'm here drowning in a pool of my own despair after watching yet another Melbourne loss. CRY ME A RIVER!

That article was posted a few days ago. Not sure why the date says 27th.