Jaded No More

Nick Daicos has already phoned in 10 free kicks

In true MFC fashion, pioneering this game and pushing it forward. Well done Daisy, the true definition of a female warrior!

Bolton on plenty too and Young just signed a monster deal for 8(?) years

We don’t know that he won’t want to go home in 3-4 years, but exactly as we have done with Trac and Clarry, we will hold the cards. It gives us the leverage that a short term deal never will. And let’s worry about what is in front of us right now. We have no idea how this deal is structured. It could be heavily front ended, from the money we didn’t spend on Houston (thank god!) and which we aren’t spending as planned on Gus. And as has been said before, the cap continues to go up each year. So money will become available for those types of deal. We also always have the option of trading out players to make cap space. If you always think “what about”, then you’ll never get what’s in front of you. Everyone here would be devastated to lose Kosi. Well this is the price of not losing him. We aren’t setting the price, the market is. He would get this and more at West Coast and Freo wouldn’t be far off. You have to deal in realities.

You’re welcome to your opinion and I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to feel worried about these types of deals. But if you look at where the game is moving to, and how premierships are won in the modern game, Kosi is exactly the sort of player you build a midfield around. Key forwards are nice, but they don’t win flags. Brisbane won with Daniher, Pies won with (?), Geelong the anomaly with Hawkins and Cameron. But ball movement and speed is where the modern game is heading. Kosi is pound for pound the most influential player in the game right now. He’s capable of being a genuine elite clearance player who kicks 40 goals a year. That’s Dusty territory. At 23, he’s more consistent and kicked more goals per season per age than Cyril ever did. He averages 2 goals a game and 19 disposals, playing midfield on a consistent basis for the first time in his career (a few dabbles last year hardly count). In 5 years time, $1.2mil is going to be an average salary for an A grader, and Gawn, Viney, May and Fritsch will be off the books and Trac and Clarry will be finishing up. And Kosi will still be in his absolute prime. Every great reward comes with an element of risk. Losing Kosi and watching him tear the competition is a bigger risk.

Anyone who thinks Kosi is just a small forward doesn’t watch football. Period.

We don’t have cap space either if this Kosi deal goes ahead. Isn’t Jacko on about a million a year? We’d need to trade Clarry or Trac to make this happen in terms of draft capital and cap space. Not happening.

Also lol at calling Trac timid. You almost die playing footy, and then tell someone off for not wanting to do it all over again. It’s frankly a miracle that he’s back to this level of intensity so soon after that horrible injury. Most players would never be the same. And playing in a game where it happened, would have brought back a lot of trauma. Sometimes I swear people think players are robots.

Jacko would need to take a pay cut now. I wonder if he’d be happy to be paid in crystals and good vibes?

These journalists are an embarrassment to themselves. With apologies to Cal who’s pretty good. Didn’t little Ralph tell me last week Kosi still wants out?

It gives us 7 more years to refuse to trade him. It's very simple. Kosi has also seen that in the last 5 years, we have always gone out of our way to accommodate his desire to spend extra time at home. I am sure there are clauses in this new contract that allow for that to continue to happen (eg- spend extra time in WA doing his own program in the off season etc) Besides, these types of players demand these types of deals. You think Freo isn't luring him with a 7 year deal? He isn't going to walk out and go to Freo for a hug and some slippers. He might be homesick, but he's not silly.

The way he plays also means he is more likely to not hit targets. He's very often disposing of the ball in tight spaces. Yes that last kick of his inside 50 was bad. He was trying to hit Fritta and he overcooked it. But he's hardly alone. This season his DI is sitting at 70%. Compare that to other elite inside mids: Tom Green 69%, Serong 66%, Taranto 68%, Cripps 64%, Neale 71%, Liberatore 72% (which is above average), Anderson 69% and Trac who is only at 66%. It is a total myth that his ball use is bad for his role, in fact, he's better than nearly all those elite level inside mids. Edit: his career average DI is actually 70.4%

So suddenly people are having at go at Clarry's kicking? They didn't seem to mind his kicking when he was winning B&Fs and AAs and back to back coaches awards. Clarry is a pure ball winner, and when he's on there is nobody better than him. 9 clearances yesterday and 30 touches. The only reason we nearly won yesterday is because we smacked Collingwood in the contest. And Clarry was a big part of that. To expect him to be an elite kick is like asking Chin to be an elite ruckman. You can't move the goal posts to suit your agenda, because you want to be proven right that Clarry is past it. He is getting back to doing exactly what we want, need and know him to do best. 30 touches, game high 9 clearances, equal game high 7 tackles, 6 score involvements, and 23 pressure acts. An elite game by most inside mid standards, and a good game by Clarry's standards.

I guess we will see if money can make up for home sickness. Kosi can set himself, his partner, and his daughter (and future children) up for life. He won't get that money at Freo, as they simply don't have the cap space with Young, Jackson, Brayshaw, Serong, and Bolton all taking up significant cap for a very long time. Even an extra $200k a year, over 7 years, so a ludicrous amount of money to walk away from. Careers are short, and life is long. He'd be silly to turn this down.

I think he was blasting Kosi for that 50m penalty, which he also was penalised for the week before. Fair play if true, because that was a stupid 50 to give away two weeks in a row!

Absolute nonsense. He is filthy at himself when he stuffs up, and he always puts his hand up when he does it. In fact not that long ago, there was a behind the scenes video from a game the club posted, and the defenders were chatting in the rooms at half time, and May said to the group we did really well to stop them scoring, except my stuff up that handed them a goal. If you think May doesn't hold himself accountable for his performances on the field, you haven't been watching him. If he loses a contest, he's winning the next one almost without doubt. He got shown up in the first quarter versus the Saints, and then went on to be BOG for us in the next 3 quarters. You can say a lot of stuff about May, but to say that he doesn't hold himself to very high performance standards, is absolutely false! He holds everyone to high standards, and that makes him someone you want to play with. People defended Trac when he put the club thru hell last year, because he wanted to raise standards. But a conversation between two senior players is suddenly bad?

They are obsessed with our culture. May didn't need to do that in front of the cameras, but likewise he's a very emotional guy and he was upset. I doubt he thought it would even be shown on camera. Oliver was right in front of us, and he got down on his hands and knees and punched the ground when Max miskicked. He was that upset. Give me this level of passion and anger at losing, over Fritsch giggling every time he misses a shot on goal! May is a hot head, always has been, and it's why he's one of the best defenders in the league. He gave Elliot, who is in superb form, a total bath yesterday. If May was having a go at a first year player, I would be getting stuck into him. But Gawn gives as good as he gets, and those two are senior players who should absolutely demand more from each other. And the most laughable thing is those who think that the coaches are giving these guys hugs and kisses everytime they make a mistake. Like they don't hear hard truths and negative feedback all the damn time! I reckon Jones yelled at Gawn plenty when he was a young player stuffing around. If May was giving that feedback to Lever, nobody would bat an eyelid. But because Gawn is Gawn, it's a story. How dare anyone give the great Gawn feedback?!

Every AFL umpire as far as I know, works a full time/part time job in a different profession, and then umpires on weekends, with some training thrown in during the week. They are essentially the same as VFL players who are not on an AFL list. They all have jobs and play part time on the side. Like AJ who worked full time in construction, while also playing for Werribee, until he was drafted by an AFL club. There is not enough money to just be an umpire, or just play VFL.

If this is what you're focusing on today, you are focusing on all the wrong things. Find me 2 more competitive guys, who are in the twilight of their careers, and who care passionately about winning. If May gave Gawn negative feedback, then he did it in the heat of the moment. Remember how YOU, as a supporter who exerted 0 effort yesterday, felt watching that kick, and then think about players feeling that time 100 + adrenaline. Do you really think Max is going to give a single [censored] about receiving feedback? He is a big boy and nothing anyone could say to him would be worse than what he would be feeling in that moment. Which is probably why he reacted the way he did. As much of a non story as Trac losing it post game versus Geelong.

Forgive my ignorance, but is there any other professional sporting league in the world that has part time umpires who umpire as a side hustle?

I’ve made plenty of commentary around our lack of composure and the lack of skills of our best players versus theirs. And at no point did I say the club should focus on the umpiring in their review. However that passage of play should have resulted in a free to us. Whether Kosi is asking for it or not. He ran way too far in a critical moment in the game. It was obvious to everyone who watched it except the umpires. But sure, let’s highlight the Melbourne player for yet another umpiring mistake. Because only Daicos is apparently allowed to ask the umpires for frees and then get them. Melksham also totally at fault for letting Moore push him into a contest. If only he stood his ground instead of being sandwiched between two guys!

Viney?

Ed was having an easy day with only 87% TOG tagging sooky lala. He is probably cycling all over Melbourne to burn off all that extra energy.

I’ve seen toddlers take bigger hits at the playground and cry less than Nicky. Goes down as easily as an OF star.

But so is footy. If you paid umpires well and made them full time Professionals you would get more kids getting involved in umpiring at the lower levels, and hence more opportunities to get good umpires at the top level. Right now being an umpire is not a viable career path. It’s a part time hobby. Make it a career that people can easily get 15+ years out of and make good money, and you’ll see how the standard rises. If we can grow umpires at lower levels, exactly in the same way we do players, the standard will lift. We train them from under 13s or whatever, and they work on their craft 5 days a week once they get to the big leagues. Umpires can’t even bounce the [censored] ball these days! Most people don’t stay in one career forever. Umpiring is something you can do for many many years at the top level if you keep fit, which if you’re a full time professional you can absolutely achieve.