Pates

I'm not against the idea of him eventually handing over the Norm Smith medal, perhaps to the next Essendon Norm Smith medal winner (may it never happen!). But for me this is too soon for so many reasons, on every major one as others have alluded to is the fact that mentally he hasn't been in a good place recently. Now if he does this and gets cheered, it will probably be a good thing for him, but I would say more than likely he'll get booed. Just look at Adam Goodes, he got booed relentlessly, some would argue different reasons but either way it got ridiculously out of control and it clearly affected him. As for Scott McGrory's comments (and to be honest I'd never heard of him before), it isn't quite the same. Hird won the Norm Smith medal for being a bloody good player, untainted by drugs. He earned it 100% and was a great player in the 2000 premiership, that is something no one can ever take away from him. Lance Armstrong won SEVERAL Tour de France's whilst rorting the system and being bully about it at the same time. He disgraced the sport while he was a competitor and didn't earn some of his titles through being a good clean athlete. Hird f---ed up, badly. He placed his trust in the wrong people, and he arrogantly played the ignorance and innocence card when he failed in his duty of care to the players. I think it's a mistake that he awards the medal while there are players that were affected still playing. I don't expect it too happen but imagine if one of the suspended players wins the medal. It'd be a horrible look for the game.

Betts should be insufficient force, if he does get charged then the club MUST make a big thing of it after Schofield was give then all clear. The bump is 50/50, I feel like he had eyes for the ball and braced himself when he saw the Adelaide player coming out the corner of his eye. But he has a bad record so if he gets anything it could go up to 2-3. I'm really trying to look at it impartially, his actions are that he's down to pick the ball up, he second action comes when he sees the Adelaide player coming, he doesn't lunge into the player he rather seems to slow and brace. The question to ask is what's his alternative? If he kept going it's probable that he would've copped head contact himself, his saving grace could be the fact he put one of his legs out to stop. As I said it's 50/50 and given our record this year it's probably going to fall on the negative side for us.

I think for the rest of the year Jesse should be played as a CHF, at least until his confidence and match fitness returns. He can be quite mobile for a big guy and getting him further up the group will keep him involved in the play. Its going to take time for things to click for him, he's had a rough year by any measure. With any luck he will really hit his straps towards our last finals push.

I gotta say as someone that works in the sports TV industry it's one area I feel the most uncomfortable about. I hate injuries to anyone, I hate them being replayed time and time again, and I hate seeing the TV broadcasters highlight the anguish on the faces of players that have had particularly severe/career ending injuries. But it's also a reality of the world we live in, everyone wants to be "in the action" and given a front row seat to everything going on. I hate seeing it but someone who misses 10min of the coverage turns in and says "what's happened to Smithy?" And so they play it again for the benefit of the viewer. Must be horrible for family watching the games and seeing their son/brother/husband/friend etc injured and in pain.

It's always fun when players line up for a shot after the siren from crazy distances, they load up for the barrel and 90% of the time they skew off badly and most of the other times they just don't make the distance. Seeing Hunt bang it through would've been something special for the Demon faithful who traveled up there. Love this kid, I reckon he'll be a star.

It's very possible that those images you saw could have been recorded and by the time it was played out there were people there with him. I didn't see the broadcast though so I couldn't be sure, but it's fairly common for rooms shots to be a minute or two behind the live pictures.

Now that I've seen, first angle doesn't do it justice. The wide shot shows how far he actually kicked it, this kid's going to be a star.

Despite what Port produced this week I don't rate them, at home we can definitely beat them. I don't think it's likely we'll lose, I rate it a 50/50.

Finals are far from a lock but the Carlton win helped ease the pressure a lot. Given the injuries this loss was always coming, if we can get Tyson and Watts back against Port and get the job done there it will really help. Lose to them and we're back in a big pack where literally anything can happen. Let's keep taking it one week at a time.

I wasn't able to catch the game but the result was more or less what I expected. The fact we were in the game at 3 quarter time is pleasing, looks like Kent might've blown his chance though, he's been given plenty of games but has failed to make a place for himself which is really disappointing. Question for those who watched, is it worth me trying to watch the replay? Do I confine my viewing to a single positive quarter? Or should I just move on to next week?

I missed Bruce's comment but if he seriously said Essendon will become people's second team he obviously underestimates how much the competition hates them. It doesn't matter if I find out my soul mate is a mad hatter Essendon fan, I will never support them above being slightly less hated than Collingwood.

I have zero ability to have an opinion on this. I never saw him play or train and I always considered him as a smokey as a part of the Hogan package. I trust that those in charge will have eyes on him if he's worth a look, they've done very well in recent years so I back them in to do their homework with Dom.

Look I think everyone can agree the JKH was very underwhelming when he came in earlier this year, he has since had to work VERY hard to win his spot back in the team. Sometimes that kind of thing can really make a player because the hard work is paid back to them. He will play in the middle which is his natural position not in the forward line and let's see how he does.

I feel for the most part this site is very well run in this respect. A lot of the time if moderators notice things straying away from debate of a topic and into personal attack they step in. Obviously I don't think personal attacks are on but at the same time I feel people can be baited into back and forth responses. We're all here (or at least 99% of us) are here because we love the Dees, common ground is always a great place to start when arguments get out of control so let's always remember that.

Fox Footy are seriously the kiss of death. Every time they analyse a team and say "oh they are definitely up there and here's why" that team hits a brick wall. Watch them jump right off and call them pretenders who believe their own hype and have a bad culture.

I get that the AFL are doing it in order of years but I think they should have skipped Hird at least for now. Time will pass where that saga may not be the first thing we remember about him and we do remember that he was a fantastic player. But it's still so soon after the final ruling and placing him on a stage on the biggest day of the year in front of 100,000 people and national TV, it's not a good look. Not to mention we don't know how the crowd will react, you could end up with the entire MCG being filled with booing. Its also not a good look for the game internationally, not many people know about our game but the supplements saga made news around the world. Having him hand over the best on ground at the grand final doesn't send a good message in my opinion.

I haven't bothered to read to full thread but I'll give my quick 2 cents. Ideally it would be nice for some of the players (perhaps two emergencies + young player) to get up there a day before the full team and do a clinic with a school, I'm not sure if anything like that has happened. In terms of recovery, we're coming off another 6 day break going to Darwin. I don't see any need to go over the top with much up there. The players recovering from injury (Watts, Tyson, Jones etc) are surely better placed doing this in Melbourne at AAMI Park rather than hopping back and forth on a plane. My impression of what PJ said earlier this year might disappoint a few on DLand. I think we've got at least a few more years of this and as others have said we need to be a team that is "anytime/anywhere". That said I do think PJ should say to the AFL, "if you want us up there make damn sure we have the bye the following week".

I wouldn't say they're "out to get us", but 3-4 years ago the pitied us. They definitely don't pity us now and it's more marketable to bring us down at times. That said they also like to pump us up too, or probably more accurately they like to jump on a bandwagon. Ultimately it's just enjoyable to have us in the media, even if it is a couple of articles that feel a little made up.

Interesting to hear, good on him for saying it too. He's definitely because a club man, come a long way since the party boy at Adelaide (though I'm sure he still loves a froff). It was be interesting to know how he personally rates his year, he started really well but after his toe issue seemed to lack a lot on confidence with his kicking. Smashed Sloan against Adelaide which proved crucial. Still best 22, but will have and more of a fight on his hands as time goes on.

I'll be tipping against us this week, so we're a decent chance then! I've tipped us incorrectly 10 times this year!

Loving the fact that we're talked about, loving the fact that teams are hating us, loving that fans of teams fear playing us (or at he very least know it ain't gonna be easy), loving the media trying to bring us down, and loving that every time they try to we seem to shrug them off like Jack Viney shrugs off a tackle. This culture stuff they've been talking has been the biggest load crap I've ever heard. It's actually funny it's that bad.

I disagree that there's an issue, I've always known there to be a lengthy amount of time for players being able to line up for goal. It's been made an even 30 seconds now and it gets utilised in tight contests. Good luck to those doing it, too bad for the opposing team. Next time man up.

It's also worth considering that we'd be flying him to Darwin and he'd have to play in 33 degree heat without a lot of conditioning. To me this all screams bad idea to bring him in, get him right for our final push into September.

Simple question for the Carlton players, why weren't they manning up Lewis? If they man him up and ANB is forced to kick and he misses they get their chance. They didn't, so they don't get their chance. As for the 30sec rule, I agree with those who say "no grey area". If a player has 30sec he has 30sec, it's on the other team for allowing them the opportunity. Beyond the player just standing there laughing about it you can't say for sure he's not having a shot. As I say it's the responsibility of the team defending to make sure they can't run the clock down like that.

What's going to happen to you in 3 months?