Webber

Well done after quarter time, despite another totally gutless and mystifying umpiring performance. We all know it's always worse out west, but do we have to expect them to be this bad? Someone of bravery and vision needs to fix umpiring, and soon.

yep. Gutsy, excellent decision maker, reads the game well, good disposal. Will be very good. Salem is very special, Neal-Bullen will also be very good.

Well done in the last 15 minutes boys. Freo are basically doing whatever they like to obstruct any of our players from the marking contest, and the umps haven't got the slightest interest. Somebody needs to have the guts to call the umpiring for what it is, in every game, wear the fine and get the conversation started. It is destroying our game otherwise.

When was the last time a team went goalless?

No it isn't. Head high contact is penalisable whether accidental or not, and that's the way it's been played all year, with the exception of conscious ducking. It's a further embarrassment to the umpiring of the game. Utterly woeful.

The biggest problem facing AFL football is the quality of umpiring. It is destroying our game.

Of course it's in their heads!!! All footy is. That's why we needed new coaching personel. 50% practical/50% mental.

Wasn't quite the quarter Zemplas was counting on I think. Why is he commentating football????

Hmmm....worst post of the day?

Port Adelaide did this to Hawthorn early in the year. Confidence feeds on itself, and EVERYTHING goes your way. Boyd's hanger a perfect example. We strangely could win the second half.

You just don't get it, do you.

Basil Zemplas.....words fail. He is beyond woeful.

Wow. 186 is looking like a good day right now.

The Bullies just play a completely different game to us. They play on to a forward runner at every single opportunity and then sprint for the next 10 metres. It completely destroys any defensive structure we might have. Unless we play one on one, it will be a 25 goal victory. How the MFC coaching team don't get how the Bulldogs take the game on just baffles me. You can't contest unless you can get near them. By contrast, our team find new ways to embarrass their supporters.

Agree rpfc, he's still a few years from his best. I think he's matured early, actually.

I think it's hard to overstate big Maxy's potential significance for this team. He's a massive favourite of both players and fans, a team focussed talisman who has has shown that his best footy (still only 23) can drag the team along with him. He's a heart and soul player like Jack Viney and Nathan Jones, and someone who can instil 'team' ethos and a love of the game and the club into others around him, particularly the new younger guys. A great signing of a future huge leader for this team.

Nobody IS arguing that.

Great work Deespicable, a dees nerd's delight. I'm about as worried about Salem's pace as I am Jesse Hogan's kicking technique. Salem has the Sam Mitchell/Brett Lovett thing going on, he reads the play so well, and with such elite skills, he much more than compensates for any minor speed issues. Utterly A-grade in the making.

That may be, and I'm not arguing it, but how does that devalue my point, and how does it justify the personal nature of the criticism toward Chris Dawes? As for the Joan Kirner comment, you're joking I presume.

Of course this is true, but it is not a measure of effort or ability, it is a measure of expectation.

Django, you've just illustrated the flaws and frankly personal offensive presumptions that is much of the criticism of Dawes on here. How could you possibly know he hasn't been doing as much as he could? To call it a 'fact' is indefensible. You and I have no idea whether he's giving his all, but I'm pretty sure the club has a much better idea. Whether he's 'justified' his salary is equally fraught. He is being paid the salary that market forces allowed him when he was contracted to the MFC. Justifying it depends only on him doing as much as he can, thus we come back to the original point. Any expectations of him being a better footballer, with a greater output than he is or has shown are entirely yours. And your expectations are based on WHAT knowledge of him as a man or of his innate abilities? Precious little I think.

And what we have seen reveals limitations as well. Most players have them oddly. Frost is not a great mark, and an ordinary kick. He may yet be an essential part of the Dees for the next 5-7 years, but his real status is unknown.

It's odd that Chris Dawes brings out so much derision on here, given that he would be one of the first selected every week. The selectors/coaches obviously see him as a much more valuable player than the haters on Demonland. I wonder how many of those haters have really analysed the reasons why this is? Do you all think you might be missing something? Who do you want him to be? Jarryd Roughead, Jack Darling, Jesse Hogan? He isn't, but nor is he Jesse White or Liam Jones. He's got limitations and he knows it, but his presence as a big, hard working physical presence in the forward line who demands significant attention from a key defender is vital to this current team. Look to the future by all means, but accept that Dawes is a big part of the Dees as they stand and whether he really deserves the whinging, moaning negativity he gets......every week. I wonder what Jesse Hogan thinks of him?

Me too.

Pretty much what he intimated about Barassi. Apparently he was too 'private school' for Ronald Dale. Not enough toothless uneducated mongrel about him.