binman

Trenners has to play. In a side screaming out fro leaders why would your co captain play VFL?

Pure gold.

Oh please RR can you re write your pearls of wisdom. All that great content gone! Now i know there was a debate (tragically lost now) about irony and sarcasm. To be clear the above statement (and the one in parenthesis) was sarcasm. No doubt about it RR you a terrific content generator. It would appear however you seem to have been hit by the leave of absence of Ben Hur and feel you need to compensate for all the content he would be generating.

HG what's the word on what happened?

Quantum field theory?

Look i'm a believer in Neelds approach to lift training standards and building an 'elite' culture (though i'm getting a bit sick of that word) but apart from track reports it is pretty hard to prosecute a case that change is happening based on the game i just saw. I reckon that is the worst loss i can recall bar the Geelong 186 fiasco and to be honest it's not far behind that game. I'm a Neeld supporter and perhaps stevetheman is right in saying we just have to carve out all the players who are connected with the woeful past culture. But we need to see improvement this year, even if only incremental. If not as sure as the sun rises Neeld will get chopped at years end and if things don't improve from that game he may not last 'till then. Which, as another poster noted, would mean this playing group will have cost two coaches their job.

Spot on. Great post. I was away with the family on the weekend and watched the game yesterday without knowing the result. Unfortunately (or fortunately i could only watch the second and last quarters as the Big Pond download of the other quarters froze). I can't believe what i saw. This rubbish about not knowing what happened is ridiculous. I'm sorry Mark but it is your job to know. And it is your job to have the players ready to play. They weren't. I feel completely betrayed by the club. Every year i find a way to be positive and optimistic. This year on the back of Neeld and others at the clubs optimism i thought perhaps we were ready to start climbing the ladder. I backed us to win this game and make the 8. How stupid am i? (nb: rhetorical question, no need to respond). Can't add much more to the post quoted above. Some random thoughts however. Watts did not handle being tagged (only took till round one for opposition coaches to work out he needed to be shut down) and was poor all day. That said where was the support from his team mates like Dunn who could have run through Stewart or the coach - who could have thrown him to another position. Why did Neeld allow 2 players to sit on Clark all day? Where was the sort of gut running that Nick Riewoldt showed where he ran the length of the ground chasing a smaller player and eventually got the ball out of bounds (and nearly then collapsed through exhaustion)? Why was Terlich not selected given he was probably out best player in the pre season games? What the hell is going on? Why did i choose to barrack for Melbourne (yes it was my choice!)? Geelong were awesome yesterday and i couldn't help be pleased for Rivers.

Yep.

Give it a rest WYL. Your constant bagging of Rudeboy is bordering on obsessive.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/former-afl-footballer-liam-jurrah-arrested-again-for-assault-reports/story-fnex616o-1226608367193

Alanis Morrisette could have used this as example of something that actually is ironic (as opposed to the non ironic examples in her song).

Yep spot on RR. No doubt about it NN is a gun. I don't think he should have made AA last year but agree he deserved to be in the initial squad of 40. And yes it is time JW delivers on his promise. There was a terrific interview in the MFC mag late last year that suggested he is aware the time is now and my gut tells me he is going to take it to the next level this year. I reckon Watts has a huge upside, to be honest i'm not sure NN does. His game relies so much on his freakish athleticism that any issues that impact on that (eg his current injury) will make it very hard for him to keep improving. That said he doesn't have to improve much, he's pretty bloody good at the moment.

Tipsters shmisters. The bookies have us as favorites (albeit just). Money talks bulltish walks.

Its been a blessed relief to have a thread where actual footy is discussed as opposed to club politics and tanking related palava. Nice also to have a thread where people can have opposing views yet the discussion not devolve into name calling and 'i know more than you' posturing.

WJ i could not agree more. I would support locking the thread. To my mind the thread (and the other one it is based on) is in breach of the Code of Conduct. Violence against women is heinous and is a huge issues in our society. There have been any number of young men who have been killed or received serious life changing injuries as a result of king hits (and some older blokes - David Hookes being just one tragic example). This thread may well be jocular in nature but joking about violence trivializes and normalizes it. It help create an environment where violence is acceptable, where it is ok Forty years ago making racist jokes was fair game (and of course reflective of a racist country) - just joking, if you take offence you're just PC blah blah blah. This is not the case any more and one would hope would no longer be the case with violence. I wonder if people think it is funny to joke about Ricky Nixon and his assault on his ex partner? If the poll is actually about who is least liked why not make it about who is least liked? Why tie it to violence and allow a forum for people to make stupid jokes about mindless violence?

Golf swings are a good analogy. The better the technique the better it stands up under pressure. I'd also add that a player with a poor technique is also perhaps more likely to make what appear to be bad decisions as there will be scenarios where they know what the right kick should be but are not confident to execute the kick and take another option.

I largely agree - however i would say that Jones increased the length of his kicks substantially, which is partly technique.

Which would be a pretty good effort for a guy that one poster believes doesn't have a competitive bone in his body.

Didn't want to start a new thread so chose this one as perhaps there is some vague link? Anyway good to see the ox talking Wattsy up. His thoughts echo mine very closely: http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/afl/david-schwarz-says-jack-watts-will-be-a-more-consistent-player-than-nic-naitanui/story-e6frg1xu-1226604376862

My diagnosis: too long an off season which followed a season from hell. A tanking investigation that left demon fans a little fragile. My cure: bring on the footy. We win. We lose. We dissect the games. With the federal elections coming up we have enough politics

I found the bolded bit interesting Don't get me wrong I thought the club and in particular The Don handled the tanking drama really well and also handled CW well, particularly the measured comments directed at her by Don after the unofficial defence crap. But I thought her her snide comment about Dank in an article that had nothing to with the MFC was out of order and if the club were not going to remain silent when besmirched I wonder why they seemed to have in this case (perhaps they've done something behind the scene?)

C'mon Jack Watts

Nope i'm with Chook. I can't believe they convinced them to do it. Why did they convince them to do it? In fact embarrassing doesn't really cover it!

I agree Franky and as i've posted elsewhere i get the impression the club do also

With a decent run with injuries sneaking into the top 8 is a possibility.