Jaded No More

I agree completely, except for the comment about Martin, who was very good and tried his absolute best to not only win the ruck contest but also get the clearance. He was excellent, especially when he was injured last week, thrown into a first ruck position this week with no support and copped a hit to the knee during the game. He is the least of our problems. I think everyone needs to remember that in today's game, being down on rotations kills you. We lost a very important part of our structure in Garland early on, and we then lost Bail who gives us so much run and has great endurance. We played more than a quarter with 2 players on the bench, one of which was Jurrah with a sore back, and Jones with a corked thigh, and the Roos ran us into the ground. We were also missing our single most important player structurally in Jamar and when you combine that with Beamer having to battle with the best tagger in the comp, it was always going to be hard to win. Yes, it is inexcusable that we still have guys like Jones turn the ball over under no pressure, that Davey still chooses too many risky options at critical times in the game, that we got caught several times during a quick switch and that we turned it over too much up forward. Chippa said after the game that we "gave up", which is not good enough, but everything that could go wrong this week (and today) did. I have no idea how we are going to win the next 4 games without Jamar, Bail, Trengove, maybe Garland and Grimes. That is a chunk of talent from a young inexperienced list that can barely afford to lose a single player in their structure, especially when only McKenzie looks like a good replacement in the not too distant future.

Green has been in a shocking form this year. I don't know if he's carrying an injury but god he's lost his pace, and his kicking has totally gone down hill. He was cruising out there today, which is so disappointing after he made great inroads last week. I think it's easy to blame Bailey for everything that goes wrong, but often there are plenty of things that are beyond his control, and which he cannot be blamed for. A captain going at half pace is one of those things. Greeny has absolutely disappointed me this year, and I've always been a fan.

I don't know what was worse today, the umpiring, the horrid injury luck or the absolute friggin morons I had to sit around today. Shite game.

Freezing my arse off at Medallion Club. No confidence at all. At least Dees supporters outnumber Roos fans 9 to 1 here. Go Dees!!

The AFL can go suck a big one. Biggest screw-over we've received by the league in my time as a Melbourne supporter. This entire week has been nothing short of a disgrace, and I hope we send the AFL a nice little tape of 'dangerous tackles' from this weekend with our very own please explain. Bastards!

I doubt it or they would have named Gawn as an emergency last night. All it means IMO is that they needed to name another emergency and it's good encouragement for Gawn to be named.

I'm still spewing about this disgraceful decision, and it only makes me like Jack more!

Marshmallow tossing? Oh that's easily high, negligent, rough, excessive force and behind play. 10 weeks. Minimum. Campbell Brown is all over this one.

I can't see any court of law in Australia awarding damages to someone like Dangerfield for receiving a concussion while willingly participating in a contact sport. There is no negligence, he was taken care of immediately after the incident, and the player was performing a lawful act on the field. If the AFL is so worried about duty of care, why do they let morons like Brown continuously snipe players behind play? Why is Judd allowed to draw blood from an opponent's face? Why is smothering allowed when it can cause serious bone damage? Some moron gave this case the wrong grading and the AFL, never one to admit a mistake, did not want to back down and prove to everyone that they are idiots. I just wish that the club takes this to another level, publicly or privately. For all our great club has done for this game, we deserve much better. Stynes should give the AFL his own please explain.

Do you know what would be our next avenue of appeal if we chose to go down that path?

Channel 10. And the cameras will definitely try and get shots of any Trengove banners. (I hate North too and didn't realise how many other people felt the same. Pack of whingers).

It definitely would have been nice to hear from Dangerfield, but it needed to happen on Monday, because as we know now, we couldn't present any new evidence tonight. I mean that in itself is a complete joke. WTF is this appeals board's job anyway, except for stamp some paperwork? It's a disgrace. They wasted our time and wouldn't consider any relevant and very recent evidence that have been brought to hand. Disgusting.

How is Dangerfield to blame for all this? Seriously, I doubt any Melbourne player holds any hard feelings towards him. He got concussed and the rest was out of his hands. If you wanna get angry, get angry at the farce that is the MRP, the tribunal, the appeals board, the AFL's judiciary system, Demetriou, Anderson, Adelaide' medical reports and the birth of dictatorship. Anger towards anything else is misguided.

McKenzie!!! AFL next week. Make it happen Melbourne!

If you have a reserved seat membership you don't need to book a seat.

It would be more awesome to take our anger out on that little turd Brent Harvey instead. Smash him into the turf, and see if the AFL dare lay another suspension on us.

I got free Medallion Club tickets. Can I still go, or should I stand outside in the cold instead? The best protest would be to compile a video of every tackle made this weekend by every player, send it to the AFL, and get them to come to the club and explain to the players what they are and aren't allowed to do.

This game is going to be ugly. That's all.

Except no matter what we showed on Tuesday, the same medical report would have been taken into account. It has since changed. How could the AFL not take that into account? Screw the proper proceedings, where the f*$% is the common sense??

I want a FREE TRENGOVE t-shirt!

We had all the evidence we could get on Tuesday. The friggin medical report has changed since Tuesday and the corrupt panel won't take that on board, because apparently nobody in the AFL gives a sh*t about fairness. WTF how can we just accept that Brown gets 2 weeks for a deliberate punch to the head and our boy has to get 3 weeks off for a tackle, plus have a terrible record going forward? God this is such a joke, there is just no way we should let this go. It's sick how corrupt and unbalanced the AFL is. This would NEVER happen to a Collingwood player, or Chris Judd. Enough said.

In my absolute rage I agree with you. I hope we take this further. This hearing was a joke, it was pretty much paper stamping, and took no new evidence on board. WTF?! You'd get a fairer hearing in North Korea.

[censored] joke. Screw you AFL I hope we kick up a MASSIVE stink about this and take this further somehow.

That's exactly what I want to know. If he comes out and supports Trengove that could be very important in getting him off.

In an action that takes less than 10 seconds I doubt you have any time to think or know or adjust how far you're going to take the tackle. Dangerfield did not let go of the ball and tried to evade the tackle, his fault, not Trengove's. It made the outcome unpredictable for Jack. I know you're the messenger, but the message you're bringing lacks one very important element... common sense! Rules are rules, but the one overriding rule should always be common sense. If a large majority of fans, players and commentators can look at this and see how ridicilous the penalty and explanation for the penalty are, then there is little argument is there? This decision is stupid and needs to be fixed. I'd be shocked if this time tomorrow night we're still here bemoaning a 3 weeks suspension. I'm certain he'll get his sentence reduced, at the very least. The AFL are notorious over-reactors and back-flippers, especially when it comes to bad PR, and surprisingly this bad PR has come directly as a result of their desire to over protect and over sanitise the game. One of those hilariously hysterical "won't someone please think of the children" moments.