Dr. Gonzo

Two things to mention; The current investigation was kicked off while Demetriou was overseas at the Olympics This is the only investigation into tanking to date undertaken by the AFL's new/expanded integrity department - the prior investigations were low level compared to this one so you'd think they should be re-opened and investigated just as vigorously as this one has been

Why don't you call them?

Dusty by name, dusty by nature.

Just to clarify - I still don't think we've done anything wrong other than acting stupid. Every time the MFC played we played to win, no one has come out and said the players were told to lie down. I don't think we should cop anything and if we do the. As you say others should be in the gun. But you can't believe the opposite & then say its all the AFL's fault. Sure the system them had in place was flawed and sure they didn't address these issues at the time when every man and his dog knew the Blues amongst others were flagrantly tanking but there is still some personal responsibility that needs to be accounted for if you believe what we did was against the rules/against the spirit of the game.

It's one thing to say "we didn't tank" or "we didn't break any rules" it's another thing entirely to say "yeah we broke the rules but its their fault for making it so appealing". If this wasn't Melbourne in the gun and it was Carlton would you say "yeah they tanked in the Kreuzer Cup but it was the AFL's fault"? Get a grip, you can deny or you can say we did what was best for the club but you can't blame your actions on others and think people will just turn a blind eye.

The reason we don't get a home game against the Bombers is because we get a home game against Collingwood. As these are apparently the two biggest clubs, the AFL splits the home games against them for most teams (except of course Carlton and sometimes Richmond). While we host the Pies on Queens Birthday you can take it that we are unlikely to host the Bombers again anytime soon.

Mate you can't blame the AFL for this. You can blame them for singling us out but blaming them for clubs taking advantage of the rules or flat our breaking them is ridiculous. They put the priority pick in good faith as an equalisation measure, to claim it is entrapment or some other garbage is complete drivel. I should add that I was glad the club did what it had to do in 2009 and would have been furious if we once again gave up a priority pick while the likes of Carlton and Collingwood were ruthless enough to do what was in the best interests of their club. Obviously I underestimated the ego's and shoddiness of our leaders who couldn't keep their mouths shut and realise what was in the long term best interests for everyone. The fact anyone had to even mention it is incredulous. No-one at Carlton talked about it because no-one had to - they all knew what had to be done and did it. No-one should have had to remind Bailey or the FD of what was at stake, it was self-evident. And if Bailey thinks he was sacked on the back of a poor record due to tanking think again. It was his coaching display in 2010-2011 that was the issue, not in 2009.

If any of you have AFL memberships, cancel them immediately and sign up as MFC members. I did this 4 years ago (after having a Gold AFL Membership) and haven't looked back. Much rather give the club $500+ a year for a Tridents membership than give the money to the AFL who will use it to spend on rugby players and new franchises in backwater markets.

The Judas' are the ones rolling over to the AFL investigators and leaking to the media, not the ones who acted in the best long term interests of the club.

The best thing we as supporters could do? 1. Make sure you buy your 2013 membership as early as possible. 2. Make sure any other friends/relatives who have let their memberships lapse oveer the last couple of years sign up for 2013. 3. Turn up to every game possible in 2013 and make sure we bring as many people with us as we can. 4. Turn up to the AGM next Feb. with prepared questions to ask in a reasoned manner to show our anger at the inept way the club has been run - hold the board accountable (assuming they're still there). 5. Continue to donate to the club and buy merchandise through the Demon Shop to ensure the fine the club is handed down can be paid off immediately and doesn't cripple the club. In summary stick fat with the club at a time when every man and his dog are lining up to kick us in the nads. Show them that we as supporters actually SUPPORT our club when it needs us the most instead of using a crisis to further divide the club to push individual agendas. Also get behind the club to voice our rage at the fact we have been made a scapegoat for the AFL's image when many other clubs have done the same thing before us and name those clubs (assuming the investigation isn't widened). This is all predicated on the assumption that we will actually face sanctions. The media campaign at the moment doesn't look good, but on the other hand there haven't been any "smoking guns" to show that the club threw games to gain priority picks. Every indication so far shows that the players were never told to go out and lose so there is no indication so far that we will actually face punishment.

As AFL mouthpiece? She was just doing her job in 2007 as well when she tried to send the Kangaroos to the Gold Coast.

I was hoping Cam Schwab might want to come on here and reach out again - I've got a feeling there's a few people who wouldn't mind having a bit of a chat with him.

First response is it's an absolutely horrible draw financially. Horrible. Only 3 home games at the G against Vic sides (Coll, Haw & Bulldogs) and Bulldogs will be a worse crowd draw than North next year. A home game against North at Etihad is disappointing but offset against the away games at the G against Saints and Bombers. Not surprised we play the Bombers away again - while we continue to get a home game against the Pies each year we will also get an away game to the Bombers. No Friday games I can handle - until we prove we are not putrid on field I won't complain. 4 Saturday night games is OK including 2 I believe broadcast on channel 7. From a football perspective there's no excuse to not improve dramatically next year. Return games against GWS, GC & Bulldogs should give us 6 wins straight up (though not counting any chickens yet). Surprise, surprise we play at Geelong again. Who woulda thought??? At least we don't play them twice I guess. Disappointed we don't get return games against North & Richmond. 12 of the first 14 at the G is great, 1 in the last 8 is horrid. Consecutive games in Geelong, Darwin, Docklands, Skoda & GC is pretty poor. Surely we could exchange one game from the start of the year at the G. All in all our away games aren't too bad, at least we don't have to play WCE in Perth this year. That is becoming our worst draw next to Geelong at Geelong. Will be interesting to see how the team responds (especially with the tanking [censored] hanging over our head) but I can imagine the admin side won't be too happy with this fixture (for the second year in a row).

Exactly - the crime isn't in undertaking a strategy to ensure we got a compo pick in 2009 - the crime is in rolling over and spilling your guts to the AFL inevstigators. Low dog act by those no longer with the club, absolutely incredulous act by anyone still there (Mahoney). Anyone still at the club who has dogged it needs to be shown the door NOW. I am absolutely furious that these idiots would come out and lay bare what everyone at the time was the best strategy in the long term interests of the club - you want to know why we have been targeted and not Carlton, Collingwood, WCE, Richmond etc etc - it's because loose lips sink ships and these idiots have not an ounce of loyalty or integrity to back up their actions while at the MFC. Liberatore & Fevola no longer work or have anything to do with the Blues but when questioned on their comments they went to ground. Our ex (and current it would seem) employees [censored] their pants and spill their guts. I am dumbfounded and disgusted and the club needs to come out swinging on this, no way should we cop these scumbags taking a dump on the club like this.

Please don't tell me these kinds of things....

I agree which is why I can't understand why we didn't go after Clinton Young. Sure he may have knocked us back but considering we went after everyone else would've been worth at least making a play for him.

Woudn't think one week in those conditions would be enough though. Maybe a couple of months.

That isn't a very sound strategy.

Of course the desire is to have both but many players, especially coming straight into AFL from juniors, can only fulfil one role or the other. Morton was an outside midfielder, Viney will be inside.

Mate I feel your pain but do you really want to throw away a lifetime if support over a petty squabble on an interent forum? You're in a no-win situation - if Richmond becomes successful it will feel hollow and if Melbourne becomes successful you will regret jumping off.

Go to 22 seconds in. [media=]

Haha, yeah, that's not gonna happen.

What. The. [censored]???

Yeah I'm really hoping (praying) we take Wines and that he is still available - I don't see Toumpas still being there he'll go #2 you'd assume. While O'Rourke may end up being a very good player I don't think he is what we need now. We need to work on getting the hard tough midfielders first and then can complement them with the silkier players in subsequent drafts once we have the core there - I see this as a similar strategy to North where they have gone for guys like Ziebell, Cunnington, Bastinac to get the core of a very tough midfield unit and then they can complement that with guys like Atley and whoever else they pick up in subsequent drafts. It is a fine balancing act. We tried this strategy in 2003 going for "inside" midfielders Sylvia & McLean - adding Moloney to that saw us have a tough but pretty slow (with the exception of Sylvia) midfield unit (although had Thompson stayed it could have been different). So we went back the other way trying to recruit in quicker, silkier players like Morton, Blease, Strauss. Getting the balance right is difficult but I think getting the tougher guys in first aids the development of the skinner/skilfull players as without the other guys doing the grunt work and feeding the ball out to them they will get smashed. Of course there is more to it than this (and guys like Sylvia and hopefully Wines can be both hard tough midfielders as well as skilfull goalkickers).