Outside fifty

Happy with this. Well done fitzy.

Hird has nothing to lose. To admit fault is to concede his place in AFL history as the Games biggest cheat. His record as a player will mean nothing. The scary thing is that he appears to be willing to destroy the club he supposedly loves in the process. Just as Lance Armstrong was willing to bring cycling to its knees so is Hird. His delusional ego is willing to take the game to the brink in a bid to save his reputation. High stakes indeed.

Funny I was thinking the same thing.

Farewell Aaron. Thanks for some of my fondest football memories.

Love the analogy, the scary thing is that I suspect it has more than a grain of truth too it.

Guys like Barrett exist because people click on their articles. It's irrelevant to modern Journalists whether the article is accurate or fair. It comes down to how many people view the article. If you read his crud your only empowering him. If he offends you refuse to read his articles irrespective if it relates to us or not. It always amuses me that people our outraged when he pens his dribble about us but lap up similar rubbish about other clubs.

I don't know, he has all the ingredients of a MFC coach. No Premiership success and little or no understanding of the modern game.

From memory he was only there for one season. Imagine what he could have achieved with a couple of pre seasons under the belt

The year Ratten was our mid field coach we were top of the ladder at the round 18 mark. If that doesn't impress you then your a hard man to impress chippy!

Brilliant Post.

As I said optimistically. I get it that we are crap. But perhaps one of the more dysfunctional part of this football club is our inability to develop talent. I have a gut feeling that in a well run club more than half of the names you listed would have forged useful careers. We crucify our young players because we can't be stuffed developing them and it has always been like this. I alway remember when Earl Spalding left this club he couldn't hit the side of a supertanker with a kick. Carlton developed his kicking to the point where he was regularly known to kick actual goals. This club is in the position it is in because we consistently look for short cuts rather than do the hard yards.The kids on the list struggling to make it are only a reflection of decades of ineptitude.

Bit harsh OD, although hard to argue against. Optimistically I would like to think they haven't been developed to AFL standard.

Whilst I agree with Rhino that this amounts to one disgruntled employee with an axe to grind and is no smoking gun.What the Robinson's interview does do is point the media attack dogs in a direction. As we know once given a sniff they are relentless. The lead attack dog has been let off the leash by the AFL and right now has a whiff of Jimmy's arse.

Welcome aboard. Hope you have a good dictionary. Sloppy grammar will not be tolerated.

Davis is as hard as a cats head and will never die wondering. Sure his disposal needs work but then he not on his own. Next to fitzy he has been the obvious elevation from the casey this year and has deserved a chance. I think if Garland is out this week then Davis is an obvious replacement. The kid has a good pair of mitts on him too.

All the speculation about trading Fitzy for a quality midfielder is a moot point until we find out who is available. Personally i wouldn't trade him, he is after all our best forward at the moment and his improvement is continuing at an impressive rate. I doubt very much he has reached anywhere near his true tradable value as Machiavelli suggests and if we were to trade we would be selling well short. The reality is there are to many intangibles with regards to Clark, Hogan ( hasn't played a game yet ) and Dawes. As for Cross, it's a no for me. Great player in his day ,but alas that day has come and gone.

I'm surprised that there is such negativity toward Stockdale. I might add pleasantly surprised. Politics aside Stockdale to me represents a bygone era. To be honest I know nothing of his achievements since leaving state politics other than his presidency of the Liberal party. He may for all intents and purposes be a bushy eye-browed dynamo, it's just that he doesn't project that image. This club needs to embrace modernity if it wants to survive and shake off the shackles of it's past. One of my major gripes with the MFC is that it is too rooted to the past and Stockers is just another old school tie extension of that. Bartlett sounds interesting and has a background in football, as well as connections within the AFL.

I once went to the footy with a mate of mine who was bemused by my antics during the match. This guy was a Psychologist by profession and had only started following the dee's since recently moving to Melbourne. He said that during the match I visibly aged a couple of years. He said that I displayed every symptom of a host of psychological conditions but in particular from the bipolar spectrum, e.g. depression, elation, anxiety, bravado, humiliation, aggression and ultimately self loathing. He was quite intrigued the state of my football Record, (it resembled confetti ). From that point on I always aware that he was in some way watching me and so I toned down my antics when in his presence, but somehow despite my best efforts the footy record would always end up looking like confetti, which he would duly note. Fast track to couple of years later and I run into the same guy leaving the "G" after a nail-biter.We talked for a couple of minutes and consoled our selves in the knowledge that we were robbed when I noticed the state of his footy record. What was left of it looked like it had been used to clean something a sick dog had done. I couldn't help myself and smiled somewhat insanely at him, to his credit he immediately knew where I was coming from and promptly hit me over the head with record and stormed off yelling "You did this to me you bastard". Thanks to him and my kids I have learned to control my self somewhat but you are right ingeniokinetic, I am a fraud, just ask my footy record.

GWS will survive on life support as long as long as Vlad is in charge. Once he has gone I believe they will eventually relocate. My guesstimation is that they will move to Canberra, interestingly enough they are already jumper sponsors. GWS was born out of a perceived need to fill a void in advertising and marketing. The west of Sydney is one of the largest advertising catchment areas in oz. In terms of AFL it was a black hole and the TV networks knew it, and as such could discount the broadcast deal. From the get go the AFL embarked on possibly the most difficult of all marketing tasks, marketing a product that no one wanted. A build it and they will come philosophy was adopted. The execution from the start was poor and was driven more by a need to beat soccer into the new area rather than establishing proper foundations. GWS will fail because it has no underlying support. Without that core support of welded on supporters this club will fail. Tasmania's only real vice is that it is irrelevant in terms of marketing and advertising. i have little doubt that a team from Tassie could survive in much the same way as Geelong has survived and prospered. Unfortunately todays game is governed as much by TV networks as it is by the AFL.

It's only football. A long time ago I realised that it wasn't a good idea to abdicate my own happiness to a bunch of dumb arse footballers. Once you let go of the idea of allowing winning or losing to overly affect your state of mind the process of supporting your club becomes much more enjoyable. These days I sit at the Gee in an almost Karmic state as I watch our lads butcher another kick or handball to the stationary guy with three beefy defenders surrounding him. When things get tough i simply mutter my own little mantra to help me get through the game. "Ohm Hot jam donuts, hot jam donuts, hot jam donuts". Works every time.

Good luck to Cale. I hope he seizes this opportunity and is able to restart his career. From all accounts a pretty decent bloke.

Rest assured OD I don't want Gillies either, just slipped under the Radar. There is an argument to add a couple more to that list like Seller and Byrne. In fact i'd probably keep Davis at the expense of Seller.

I have a feeling that there won't be the wholesale clean out that some expect. I see a couple of departures and not much more. Jetta, Couch, Magner, Tynan. Davey , Joel Mac and maybe Davis. Of those I think Davis would be the unluckiest. He's one hard at it Hombre, can take a grab and has a good engine, (pity about the kicking). I think this list needs stability and another clean out could do more damage than good.

I get it that Lyon stuffed up the last two coaching selections, but really do we have to dump on the guy cos he tried? Garry was one of the few MFC players I have watched in the past forty odd years who could win a game off his own boot. I would always welcome him back to the club, ( Just not on a coaching selection panel). P.S he was also the best step ladder the club has ever produced, just ask Jeff Farmer and Shaun Smith.

I'm not sure how you disassociate yourself from being sexually abused. Of course it's about him! True Harry might not be making wisest decisions confiding in the media but given the intensity of the media spotlight his judgement may well be flawed but understandable.