DemonWA

How many sherbets have you had old mate. Good read though. "old fashioned epoch-making Melbourne MCG slaughter" is a great line haha

Perfect. Close thread.

It's not clear from the reports that it was May who made the 2nd comment (about getting injured before the finals). Either way, I reckon there's nothing at all in there that should have lead to fisticuffs

I'm being facetious mate. It's actually quite humorous (as a non player that doesn't particularlyrate Smith or Milkshake) but I understand that it's not what Gawny has been trying to instill into the group

Great banter tbh

Only additional outcome I can see is warranted is a ban to Melksham (due to violence and the AFL wanting to ensure they're seen not to condone it) and potentially some fines.

....and then punching a bloke with concussion in the face?!

100%

I went to a private boys school and perhaps that's where the culture of Banter/bringing people down as a form of one-upmanship is embedded. Agree that without alcohol the line doesn't get crossed though.

We put these guys on a pedestal but at the end of the day they are predominantly Alpha males with high salaries and low education. The industry is changing and people have the best intentions to change the traits and behaviour in young men, but the reality is that it won't be for another generation or so until these sorts of things are truly stamped out. It's a terrible situation for the club but I'm shocked at the amount of reactions that seem to be disgusted to a level that suggests they are naive to the realities of footy clubs and footy players.

Banter exists. Especially in the sort of Alpha males that make good footy players. Drinking booze often makes people talk more freely and step over the line of what is/isn't appropriate. No doubt as society we need to get better, but im not judging May here for the veral low blows or drinking too much - if I did I would be a hypocrite. There's never an excuse for resorting to violence and I'm still not clear on who instigated it.

Your incessant challenge to my views suggests that you're wedded!

Not at all - team's form fluctuates for a range of reasons - injury, illness, complacency, being not quite there mentally etc. They're reasons that were currently loosing imo. To link all form to training loads is the concept I don't subscribe to, which you seem wedded to.

Just to clarify I'm in the 'were probably loading but that's not why we're loosing' camp. I hope you're right though

Huh? Self inflicted stupidity from Milkshake here

This was a recent post on the most recent post match thread. I'm not going to keep trawling to dig out more examples, but no doubt I've seen them. Lord Nev's humour only works as a joke because we're seeing the same sort of posts by others that are believing this sort of thing.

Exibit A your honour

Im interested in time because the loading excuse types will shift their narratives to suit what the W/L column is telling them. We have a hard run home and I don't think there is any margin for error. Ramping and loading training loads is a thing, and so is being out of form and jaded/complacent at this time of the year. My issue with the loading discussion is that it inevitably comes with the 'relax we've got this' attitude, using last year or the glory era Cats as examples. The links are all speculative and made through rose coloured glasses.

Again, this comment is a speculative narrative derrived from the W/L column of the ladder that suits the position that were not just down on form.

Can't believe the venue doesn't have CCTV footage

Will be interesting to see - the teams we've lost against are both contenders in their own right, so are we saying they're not also loading? Or that their game plan is less susceptible to fatigue? I see comparisons to last years flat spot, but given we went deep into finals I can't see that our high performance approach would be the same this year. At this stage no one really knows and my take is that we're just not playing good footy, regardless of training loads. Other will prefer to pray it's all part of the grand plan and a symptom of training loads. Only time will tell.

I've heard plenty of banter that goes below the belt. There is never an excuse to get violent though. Can't believe May is the bad guy here

Not at all. And to be clear I'm not saying the technique doesn't exist, I'm just saying I think the masses on hear are using it as an excuse to build a conveniant narrative around our run of poor form. I don't think the 2 are related (or the comparison to last year's form), but happy to be proven wrong.

This is how all blokes banter, no?

This is my exact issue. Articulate armchair experts fuelling group think /speculation that loading makes an excuse for poor footy. Spare me. At least it's only June.