PaulRB

Smiling at training!!! more fodder for Caro's next piece.

With a face like yours BH maybe it wasn't Trenners legs thinning down you noticed, but something else, hardening up?

What tanking?

They'd be freeing up salary space for Kurt then...

He was. Ain't no more.Attention starved big mouth now.

The AFL have already penalised us for the 2009 priority pick, they took it off us last year. Case closed.

Looking at the boys back at training reminded me why I follow footy and my belief that we are now prepped and poised for a significant upswing in our fortunes. Why? Well i'm glad you asked: - Draw is in and looks favourable with many winnable matches at home in the first half of the season. - the player cleanout is almost complete and there are young stars and hungry experienced players coming into the playing group - our large collection of talented kids have returned to the club, trim, focused and aware of the gap they need to close over the next year to compete in finals, and now know their success rests on their shoulders. Go Dees, bring on 2013 and lets shove it up the rest of the footy world.

I don't mind being booked as long as we both are. The more being booked the lower the fine.

In an ideal world Journos would only tell the truth from a perspective of univeral knowing and we could trust everything they write. I don't live in that world, in my world Journos are time poor, under resourced lackies competing for eyeballs with every semi-plausable piece of info or rumour that crosses their desk. Being aware of the world I live leads me to take their writings with a grain of salt. That said, If the MFC were a well run organisation with integrity then we could get on your high horse and take others to task for stretching the truth. Unfortunately we have a sordid history on the integrity front including breaches of the salary cap, losing games to improve draft picks... Funny how people defend their clubs lack of integrity by highlighting the lack of it in others.

Unless it leads to the club being publicly labels as "tankers" and cheats, and subject to an AFL integrity investigation, possible sanctions etc... To me thats where the actions we took were flawed, have damaged the club, and are yet to be explained to the rank and file as to how we might avoid a repeat in the future...

Thanks BB. I'd be keen to for such scheming, white anting, Judas's etc to be exposed if you and others in the know are able. It makes it hard for the club to honestly examine itself and improve if there are some intent of bringing the club into public disrepute so that they can then arrive on their white charges.

yes. I'm not justifying her bias. My point is for us to use this fiasco to focus on improving the club. The reason we're on the rack is not simply down to one woman at The Age having a grudge, and to paint it that way distracts from the lessons we need to learn from this episode.

A world where they have to milk a daily story from an industry that is dormant over the pre-season.

I guess I see two fronts in this issue: The first is the MFC's Public fight on "tanking" - is our fight to avoid sanctions from the investigation, our fight to not be punished alone for what many clubs have done. CW is wrong in honing in only on Melb, applying retrospective logic to events to craft a story (i.e. player revolt at half time...etc). But I'm less worried about this ending badly for us, especially now the Heraldsun has highlighted the actions of Carlton doing exactly the same thing in 2007 and people like Eddie coming out saying we'd have been idiots to do otherwise... It is the second issue that concerns me more. The internal cultural issues within the MFC and whether we are building a culture as a club that will take us to a flag. This year we've seen a purge of 15 players, over the past couple of years most of our playing leadership group from 2009 has gone. We've all seen the need and applauded Neeld for this change. In addition, since 2009 most of the football department has been turned over, coach replaced, Chris Connelly marginalised, etc... However, we don't seem to have publicly touched on or addressed the role the executive and board have had in the culture issues at Melbourne. As a relative outsider to the inner sanctum at Melb I don't know who or what or why we have ended up being on the rack for alleged tanking. I don't know who or what or why we've been a basket case as a football team for the last 5 years. But if we've turned over the players, the FD, the coach, then the surely an honest look at the exec and board is warranted? And if CW's persecution of the MFC is the catalyst we need to do this, then bring it on.

You may well be right about her agenda, issues with CS etc... and boo to her for that. However, there is an ongoing AFL investigation into tanking at Melbourne, which CW did not instigate (thank Brock for that). Given the AFL investigation has dragged on without updates from the AFL she (being in the media) is rightfully asking questions, probing , speculating. But she's only progressed this far through 1. the MFC running a loose ship in 2009, and 2. the MFC, as a result, being under investigation by the AFL. I don't think we should blame the mirror if we don't like what we see, irrespective of how distorted the mirror is in this case. We need to learn and improve from this episode, and turning our focus on CW (no matter the extent to which she may deserve it) only distracts from the core business of improving our club.

She's not the story, the MFC are.

This is starting to make more sense of our recent history, including 186 the player schism and issues with CC and CS... Perhaps this is part the cancerous culture that we need to fully address and eradicate from the club in order to move on. Is Caro taking us on a cathartic journey deep into the heart of the MFC?

I think as the implications for the other "tanking" clubs of Melbourne being retrospectively investigated and punished sink in, a few other presidents will be having a quite word with the AFL to go easy.

Hey Sloonie, given we just moved on or delisted over a dozen players we may be dealing with a player who has already left the good ship Melbourne. And, irrespective the gene is out of the bottle. The club needs to keep talking to the AFL so they know what the AFL may be planning and develop appropriate and rigorous responses. If we get away with no draft sanctions we'll have done well, and a witch hunt of who said what would only serve to agitate the waters further.

Given how we stumbled into this years season while the Dons were already in fourth gear, I'd be circumspect about predicting the round 2 result going our way.

So according to the logic of The Age article, the crime that the MFC should be punished for is NOT tanking, but "talking about tanking"... It being OK to tank if no one from the club involved talks about it. What a joke.

Broad definition to me would be: to consciously gain advantage though losing.

Some key factors in our favour. 1. everyone knew and understood it was to the MFC's advantage to lose those games. 2. at the time CS was supported by AD who in effect "approved" our strategy. 3. the previous year we have experienced Carlton doing exactly the same thing we were to do the next year, and get away with it. 4. the rules in this area are ill-defined unlike salary cap breaches, and to date no club has been sanctioned for "tanking". 5. analysis of the finishing positions of many clubs over the past decade indicates a broad statistic trend toward "tanking" by many clubs. 6. the then president is unavailable to be called to the stand (apologies if this sounds callous), so unable to prove it was a decision of the "club" or several over-zealous administrators. 7. the MFC has lost many games, and had bad, worst seasons than the year they "tanked". 8. the evenness of the AFL competition will be damaged by the AFL hand the MFC sanctions. Any fine would most likely be paid by the ALF anyway. 9. the MFC may be prepared to take the AFL to court to contest any sanctions they may seek to impose That said, when the dust settles I'd be keen for the club to move those involved in this period on, and ensure such foolish episodes are avoided in the future.

A good draw with winnable home games in the first half of the season, when we'll need them.

Should be able to drag it out given "Tanking investigation "timeless""