Grapeviney

Was our only genuine goal-kicker.. the other 3 majors all came from free kicks!

Another moment of mismanagement from the senior coach.

He moved him to the wing, then up forward, then he subbed him off after he got the ball, looked up, saw an empty forward line, so fluffed around with the ball and turned it over.

Immediately after that incident, Watts was hobbling for a minute or two. I know he didn't have a great night, but I'm not 100 per cent convinced he wasn't subbed because of injury.

I think they had something like 50 more i50s!

Apparently it was the most i50's a club has ever had (or so said the bloke sitting behind me, who heard it on radio).

I can't remember a side ever finding it so easy to clear the ball from centre bounces as the Bombers did tonight.

So much space, so little pressure.

Is it the players or the bloke who's coaching them?

I never thought I'd say this but thank god for the umpires - 3 of our 5 goals came from free kicks!

He was a good sport last year when he was on this forum, took the criticism in his stride.

The weekly shopping bill must be huge, hope they've got a Coles discount card.

The club should hold a raffle. First prize - dinner at the Viney household, with Jack, Jesse and Jimmy (and of course Todd and Meghan and Max).

Todd's already in the MFC Hall of Fame; if the three young guns living at Casa Viney all come good, as expected, then Meg should probably be inducted too.

Nup. You must have missed it. Garry tamped down a rumour right at the start of the show. The word "rumour" was used.

Ignoring it doesn't make it not so.

I stand by my account, and yes, it was at the start of the show.

Making it up does not make it so

Garry just denied a rumour on TFS tonight that Neeld is in strife.

Smoke? Fire?

Ha! You must be joking. That's not what happened. They asked him if he'd called for Neeld's head after the weekend and he said it was an erroneous report.

No smoke. No fire. Just a naughty little boy distorting reality to fit his current viewpoint ..

As it's an away game, there isn't a designated area for MFC members (even though your membership will gain you entry this week in lieu of the Darwin game).

During previous away games against the Bombers, the MFC cheersquad (and many supporters) tend to be at the city end of the ground behind the goals.

If only Sunday's game could disappear into the same black hole ..

All those who questioned the make-up of Col's family obviously didn't read their 2013 HeartBeat season guides - the 'did you know' factbox which accompanies Col's profile says that he has a large family of four brothers and three sisters

Footy Classified is about to start now for those interested.

As I said in another thread, I can't for the life of me understand why Howe isn't the go-to man for long kicks out of defence / in transition to attack.

Best mark in the team but each time we kicked out, it was to the other flank than the one Howe was on.

Found myself asking similar questions as I left the ground.

7 disposals. Must admit I didn't notice any of them.

Those words which caused so much anger over summer - 'pathetic' and 'disgusting' - look prescient now.

Hard to imagine a more disappointing start to the year.

I won't recap all the problems that others have already identified, but I cannot for the life of me understand why we don't use Jeremy Howe more as the go-to man when moving the ball out of defence / transitioning into attack. He's the best mark in the team yet every kick-in seemed to go the other side of the ground to where Howe was.

I was torn between booing the team and applauding Jack Viney

Couldn't agree more...but I'd have his dad in that list as well.

Until last night I always thought Gary Snr was the more freakish player, while his son the more well-rounded, but some of last night's magic reminded me very much of his father.

Beautiful to watch.

If you're wheeling out Peter Landy I can only presume we can use Jack Dyer ?

'He made a great debut last week and an even better one today.'

I recall the pre-trial judge stating that it (hype and 'celebrity') most definitely had adverse effect on the situation Jurrah found himself in.

I don't recall that but wouldn't he have been referring to Jurrah's celebrity status in his family / community ? This was certainly raised by his defence - the tactic of targeting the tall poppy in the community.

The point I'm making is that Jurrah didn't create - and certainly couldn't stop - the hype about him.. he was a star on the rise, and the story was a fairytale that was always going to accompany his career.

Great post, enlightening as usual

The book seemed to come out a bit too hastily. Liam was still a novice player when the book was published and he was no way prepared for the celebrity exposure that has

descended on him. The club did not help by exploiting his media value too. Like all were cashing in before it went pear shaped which it has.

Celebrity exposure? FCS, it's not like the guy went on a book-signing publicity tour through shopping malls. I'd be surprised if the book sold more than a couple of hundred copies, so the notion that it somehow threw him off course is absurd.

The reason for the excitement around LJ was not a result of the book, it was built on the sublime skills which we saw in the all-too-brief time that his star shined at Melbourne. That's what captivated the football world about Jurrah, and that's why guys like Flanagan - who probably wrote more words on LJ than BHM did - were naturally drawn to his story.

This notion that hype somehow caused his downfall is just nonsense in my opinion.

Value for the money I am spending getting down to the game with my son, from Sydney.

Hope you have a great day out hardtack, and get to the sing the song at game's end.

His Mentor has a lot to answer for imo....

Learn a lesson Rudeboy.....

You really blame all this on Bruce and that bloody book, don't you?

I suggest you dig up some of the older threads on Jurrah's initial arrest and read some of the posts from our NT forum members which shed light on his family's long-standing feud.

Just for a bit of contrast, here's a direct quote from Bulldogs President Peter Gordon at their season launch:

"We've come off a tough year, and we'll face more challenges this year and in the future. We have the polarised issues of an ageing, and yet a very young list, and a shortage in between. In some games we might struggle to score freely. We've made some mistakes along the way, and we're gonna make some more. When we lose games, even if we lose sometimes by a substantial margin, and we sometimes will, I want our people, especially our coach and our captain, to look the press and the cameras in the eye for that game and say, 'we weren't good enough today, we're fighting on'.."

So for all the talk of reality buses and tempering expectations, be thankful no-one is resigned to losing games by significant margins.

Not exactly the best way to convince supporters to fork out for a membership.