Dr. Gonzo

This is what you're referring to https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-employee-jason-mifsud-revealed-as-source-of-racism-allegations-directed-at-demons-coach-mark-neeld/news-story/06b85b6b49cdeb04f094f8d7e589f965 Judging by that article alone it seems the rumour was false and that Davey quashed the rumours. I still would like to see MFC commission it's own report into the welfare of past players and specifically indigenous players if only to absolve the club of any wrongdoing if nothing else.

https://www.zerohanger.com/one-year-on-from-the-do-better-report-have-the-pies-changed-their-ways-117099/

This is cult like behaviour. The AFL needs to undertake an independent review of each and every club, probably down to and including the feeder systems for junior players, to determine whether there are any other organisations with similar issues relating separately to both the welfare of indigenous players and all players as a whole. I am disgusted that this type of thing could be going on at our footy clubs. Edit: oh the review should include head office too, particularly considering the issues at AFL house a couple of years back.

But I bet you they'd welcome back Hird with open arms 🤣

They are trained to win flags for the MFC. Once the MFC was knocked out of finals everything should have gone towards preparation for 2023. TMac came back way too early to try and play finals for MFC in 2022. Once that was done no need to keep persisting.

We still have Turner coming through who looked pretty good in the half a game he played against the Pies.

Yep hopefully if we take any learnings out of this season it is that we can't rely on defence alone to win games. We played the season with Lever/May/Petty in defence and didn't go close to a flag. We need to capitalise on our forward 50/midfield dominance and moving Petty into attack would be the smartest move.

It's interesting they bring this up just after signing a new rights deal. Surely they wouldn't be adding extra games for nothing so the TV broadcasters must have already been promised these extra games to help bump the price up. So it's to be held in Sydney/NSW but no sides have home ground advantage? So will Syd/GWS be playing each other? I'm sure WCE and Freo will be happy to have to make another cross country trip for an additional game where they are not getting an additional home game in return. The problem is it is just another money grab, how about focusing on the inequities in the fixture instead of creating even more?

What a stupid [censored] idea. Bring in Tassie, 19 teams, 19 rounds (9 home/9 away, 1 bye) alternating home and away each year. Everyone travels to WA, SA, Qld and NSW once per year. Makes too much sense which is why the AFL will never do it.

Or sending a great young key defender to the forward line where he becomes the greatest goalkicker in the club's history (Neitz).

Nah the Cats are alright, plenty of other teams I hate way more than them - Collingwood, Essendon, West Coast, Hawthorn for starters. Geelong are pretty inoffensive in the scheme of things - obviously 186, getting belted on our 150th anniversary etc but I don't mind them, even if I wasn't married to a Cats supporter. They were fantastic to watch during their heyday, Scott and Dangerfield are annoying but I dislike Sydney far more with all the free hits they get.

Regardless of the extent of the injury, once we were knocked out by Brisbane he should've been placed in cotton wool. Idiotic decision to let him keep playing/training for Casey.

They were stuffed without a proper break last offseason so the skipper wants to go cycling around Europe? 🤔

Not only that but we weren't quite dominating clearances like we should have been with the ruck domination we had.

C'mon Geelong!! Couldn't stand the Swans getting a flag with all the handouts they get - priority "academy" picks Heeney, Mills, Blakey, Gulden, Campbell, poaching Buddy using their additional COLA Salary Cap, who knows what other "ambassador" payments they get to make outside the cap? Plus my wife is a Cats supporter 😜

If the next coach is not Hird he would want to get off to a bloody good start or there will be groups behind the scenes agitating for Hird to come back. A disastrous situation that couldn't happen to a better club.

Was back running within 2 weeks of the GF wasn't he? At the time I thought it was great but now it seems it was a big mistake. Obviously you don't want to go full Tom Liberatore in 2016 and decondition completely but you need some recovery time too (physical and mental). From memory I think part of it was the lockdown in Melbourne - there was nothing else to do except sit on their [censored] playing FIFA or NBA2k22 so might as well get out there and do some running sessions.

Yep I thought it was an extremely strange take on the Mongrel Punt as well - I think we clearly had the toughest draw including when and where we played, not just who. I mean we didn't even have a real bye!

Not according to The Mongrel Punt https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2022/09/11/ten-things-i-learnt-after-the-semi-finals-3/ Ten Things I Learnt After the Semi-Finals 1. Melbourne’s soft draw made them look better than they were

If Essendon go with Hird it will be one of the craziest moves in the history of the VFL/AFL and will cement their status as cellar-dweller/mid-table club for another 10 years. Going the saviour route never works, especially one as inexperienced and tainted as Hird. What are they thinking?!

Par for me is top 4 (Prelims) - we finished 5th. On that measure the season was under par. If you call that a failure or waste then I guess it was. My nagging concern is we are a one hit wonder who won a drought breaking flag when the majority of our supporters could not witness or celebrate it - I don't want to waste this list, another flag is a must. But things move quickly, no-one would've thought after 2000 Essendon would win only one flag or that after 2001 they wouldn't be back. Collingwood in 2010 and Bulldogs in 2016 were talked up as young teams built for sustained success. No one hands it to you in this comp, you have to demand it and be ruthless. This year we were anything but ruthless despite the rhetoric. I hope the players and coaches rediscover that selfless and ruthless edge that led us to the flag in 2021 or I worry we will just meander along for another few years and watch our chance fly by.

And a proper bye! No Thursday night game the week after Queen's, oops King's, Birthday!

Seeing the scragging going on at every single contest without anything from the umpires is one of the things that makes me question why I bother watching the sport

Sad to see him go but can't hold it against him. Seems like a decent guy and he's an MFC premiership player which isn't a huge list in the scheme of things. Hopefully he has genuinely said he wants to go to WA and not Freo so we can secure decent compo for him and not settle for two mid-1st round picks.

I was thinking about this too and even going back to post-GF and Pert requesting out first game be against the Dogs so we could unfurl the flag in front of them.