John Crow Batty

I was at that nightmare. Can't remember that play well as I was behind the goals on the other side. They crunched us in every other way also. This style of football has only come back in recent years and only they seem to be doing it as a deliberate tactic. Look at Sam Mitchell, he hacks the ball everytime to avoid a hard contested possession whilst our Jones always takes possession and gets buried by tacklers.

Just another vanilla footballer.

He will be a good player for whoever gets him. But with Melksham debuting and maybe Hibberd coming in, the maturity of OMac and others, he will be an expensive luxury for us. He will be a starting defender, not spare parts and priced accordingly.

Clarkson also invented hack football. Don't bother contesting under extreme pressure. Keep moving the ball along anyway you can. They structure well for the chaos ball. No other club does it. Leadership, discipline and organisation they have in bucket loads.

Seriously, what you said applies to most footballers. How they handle it helps sort out the real champions from the wannabee's and shouldabeen's. He is far too gifted and talented for patience and compassion. And his average body language has been around since last season.

Good summation. If he was to leave I had it too in that order, Freo, Collingwood and Port as suitors. Would not be surprised if the Pies are looking for an instant replacement for Cloke.

Good player and hard worker. I think he has a few good years left in the game. Perhaps another one of the more than a few disgruntled Freo players?

This is what the OX has to say about Hogan in the Geelong Advertiser just now. Mirrors the thoughts of many supporters. "The last few games of the year saw Melbourne’s key forward Jesse Hogan really struggle to keep his focus on the match. His body language turned negative. He lost his ability to pick himself up from a poor kick. He seemed to give up on the contest. The Western Bulldogs had a similar thing happen with star forward Jake Stringer, and they dropped him to the reserves for not giving enough effort. If Melbourne was playing this week, I doubt Hogan would get a game. It is really important for Jesse to use the off-season to think about his on field behaviour. Inside the club there are people working with Jesse to ensure he can turn this around. Hogan isn’t the only player on the ground who can kick goals for the club, but he is the one the crowd is constantly watching, so when his shoulders slump and he shakes his head, we all see it. I hope he watches some videos of Tom Hawkins to see how the big Cat manages to keep presenting and keep persisting when he’s a bit down on form. Hawkins had a couple of shocking games this year, but he never let his insecurities show. And nor should he. Leave that stuff for the locker rooms."

Are you sure he is unsure?

If he plays like Ablett, Franklin and Dangerfleild in their last season at their first clubs he gets a game. If he flucks us around with half arsed efforts he can pasture at Casey.

You must be a very confused person.

Don't know about the modern generations but when I grew up it was common for young adults to move away as far as possible at the first opportunity from parents to be independent. These days a lot of young people stay at home far longer due to economic considerations like high cost of housing and lack of career structures. It is unlikely though that Hogan needs the spare bedroom at mummies. He can afford to buy his parents their own mansion soon enough.

He may take a swag of marks upfield and usually in no mans land but his decision making and disposal afterwards has been unimpressive and usually momentum killing.

Those names you mentioned also played some really good football as they were deciding on leaving. Good players deliver for good clubs no matter what. We had Scully and Frawley making time and Hogan appears no different and likely wasting our time.

We are too fragile a club to cope with his massive ego. Better for him and us if we part sooner. Only come to grief like a bad arranged marriage.

The 'for family reasons' reason is just a polite catch all excuse for many players going home. May be true or not but useful for snuffing out prickly questions on real intent for some.

With your final line there you are wavering too. You are right it won't be the end of the world if he goes.

Fixed.

Aside from the disgrace that this has been left to fester for so long is the timing of the leak of this scandal to the public domain and questions to how it got out. A conspiracy theorist may link this to the Grubby/Balme power struggle that is currently going on at Collingwood. Highly plausible.

Hogan would have fallen over also if your 4 year was playing on him and applied that jumper tug.

Has been doing that all season, even in round one. As with his wobbly goal kicking, defensive efforts, etc, nothing much seems to have been done about it. Posters here have brushed aside his deficiencies due to his age and experience. But fair enough, young players with deficiencies get to learn better ways in the seconds, He has been cut too much slack with no consequences and poor attitude and NQR ways seem quite entrenched these days.

When we have been playing well, everyone knows talking us up be it by hostile media or the opposition will set us up for a fall and easy kill. DId you hear Chris Scott's glowing praise and the fear they had for us last week? Very worried they were.

Five scapegoats. The buck stops with the senior coach.

Heard on the radio that he is keen on Hawrhorn.

Don't worry about the darts. Teamates are at risk of being chundered over.