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Yep ... That's me at Grand Final day parties.

Pfft .... Ancient history those flags. I'd argue they don't count since we went from VFL to AFL.

I never said he should go to the saints. It's a strange decision. Both clubs are basket cases.

That's a debatable subject.

The club yes. We've got a long list of destroyed careers. Both coaching and playing. Truth hurts.

Would've been a shame to wreck his career after footy. Poisoned chalice this joint.

Went to rubbish as soon as they started letting C & D grade "celebrities and comedians" have a run around.

Most of the problems stem regardless to who was on the ground was our inability to execute basic skills. This has been an issue for longer that just this year and won't be magically fixed during the off season.

Yeah I was gutted too. Was sure we were headed for the prelim at 3/4 time as we looked unstoppable. I remember an interview with Trapper Johnson after the match. Never have you seen a bloke more pleased after losing a final. He'd played a blinder for 2qrs and stated he had nothing left in the last ...... Typical.

Hearing you man. The 2nd and 3rd qrs was some of the best football I've seen us play. The 1st and last were garbage. That game was typical MFC in a nutshell.

This 1 sticks with me at 14:10 from the boundary during a rampaging comeback during the 2002 semi final. Had me redlining bigtime.

Barrett comes out with these half arzed cryptic statements and tries to make a story from nothing hoping every-one makes up their own dots to fill in. He's a folg.

Yes it would have been a risk but it was around the same time that Pederson had his nose spread over his face late by Merrett and not 1 Melbourne player remonstrated. I knew a bloke like Robinson wouldn't have stood for that. And I've watched us get physically beaten up for as long as I remember so probably would have taken him over Jeffy for that reason alone. But anyhow ..... He certainly has exceeded what i thought he would have produced football wise though. The move up north was obviously the wake up call he needed.

Well there you go. Seems Robinson might be more intelligent than he looks. And for the record .... I would've taken him when Carlton unloaded. Has the c#*t in him that we needed.

I can't believe they went with the headline earlier in the year on the eve of the Essendon game "Footy's biggest cover up" and then it was about us tanking. Not the "Darkest day in sport" being Essendons drug cheating cover-up. Not only is the AFL corrupt but 'Slobbo' Robinson the Herald sun chief football writer and Essendon supporter is too.

I voted but he won't get near Ryans on Gawn.

Well he's been stinking up the joint.

Robbie Flower retired after 278 games in 1987 after kicking 5 goals (including a towering speccy) in the Elimination final and another 4 the following week in the Semi. Let that sink in.

The others are probably 5 of the 6 richest clubs in the AFL. And we hardly have 2 brass razoos to rub together and we fork the 250k.

Collingwood played in the 2002 and 2003 GF only to tank and lose their last 11 games to scoop up Thomas and Pendlbury at pick 2 and 5 in the 2005 draft. Hawthorn tanked in 2004 to get both Roughead and Franklin at pick 2&5. Richmond also tanked in 2004 with Wallace admitting as much to pick up Deledio at 1 and Tambling at 4 Carlton tanked to win both the "Krueser and Gibbs cups" with assistant coach Libratore again admitting as much but warned to keep his mouth shut by the AFL. Eagles tanked in 2008 to get Nic Nat at pick 2 after playing in both the 2005 & '06 Grand Finals. And we were absolutely garbage for multiple years and yet were the only club that got stung for tanking. What a hatchet job.

There'd be some shonky sheet going down for sure.

Thanks for the post Drunkn. All the best to Dec in the future. Any parting insider dirt? Like WTF is really going on down there? Do they think the game plan is crap, is there a player split etc... etc?

Wouldn't trust Sheedy. He'd play to his favourites and holds his grudges. There's a reason he went after Scully so hard. It was payback for overlooking him for the coaching position. And he was prepared to pay a kings ransom to get it.

Who did his best under trying circumstances.

And I was just as disgusted then. Even in the good years we'd get on a roll, win 4-5 games and look unstoppable. Then lose the next 4-5 and look like spuds. Often we'd solidify a spot in the finals 3-4 games out, then get lazy and lose the rest going in with no momentum. One year being on top rd18 and losing to bottom placed Carlton for the 2nd time that year. Unacceptable then, unacceptable now.