Ouch!

Just as a side issue.... anyone see the irony of a player like Harry O'Brien leaving to go to another club because of money? with his selfless, non-materialistic lifestyle? I can't see it happening, the Pies are gonna be stuck with him until they force him out

Lucky I reckon with that.... now the issue is.... if they appeal, does that really show remorse?

.... isn't that the same thing? applying a loading of 30%.... and increasing the penalty by 30%??

Fat chance of him showing remorse....

Have to agree... also loved how Swallow went hard to assist Adams like he did. Obviously knew something wasn't right.

then something seems wrong with that... especially when the tribunal chairman also told them (the jury) to not consider prior indiscretions.... thats not right IMO

before pleas?? the guy has also said he doesnt think he is guilty.... now that the penalty has occurred why should he get a plea chance as well? So.... does the punishment of 425-550 then include the 30% loading he also has?

Before reading further, I am not denying that we have players that have issues with their disposal skills, but it needs to be put into context. It's chicken and egg.... Good teams know the game plan instinctively, appear to have more time to execute skills, and move the ball a lot quicker as a result. You could replace Sydney with West Coast, Collingwood, Adelaide and Hawthorn. In the case of the MFC, they don't know the gameplan and even a fraction of hesitation makes your skills appear poor, the team looks slow etc... result = turnovers. Perhaps a good example would be feedback from someone like KC from Casey or someone else that watches our players at Casey.... reasoning for this is.... when they are playing in the VFL for Casey (who are at the top of the ladder) are these players as poor with their disposal execution as their appear when playing for Melbourne? or are they "obviously too good for this level" type of thing. We will turn over players on our list as we attempt to climb the ladder. However as we climb, I can guarantee some of these players (who are rated poor or average) will suddenly appear to be a lot better with their disposal...going against your assertion that they won't get better.

MRP referred this directly to the Tribunal. Apparently he was reported for 'Misconduct' but the MRP has charged him with Rough Conduct. Meaning that they could have given him a set penalty, but have decided not to.... Uncerstain as to what that means in relation to charging him though. Glad he didn't have the option to plead guilty to reduce the charge though....

I have to say with this whole Boak saga. If he is going to leave Port then I have no issue with the MFC going in there hard for his services. But after the shite we went through with Scully last year, the 'romantic' notion is that I would like to see the player show loyalty to the club, and I wouldn't be that upset to see him stay with Port, who are struggling like we are, and its one of those 'Good for football' stories. that said.... it is frustrating to see clubs like collingwood and carlton retain their players AND yet poach other players (Visy deals etc) although some of that frustration could be a bit of jealousy that the MFC doesn't have the same appeal/lure (both on and off the field)

and here is the Carlton response in regards to the incident "Carlton assistant coach Alan Richardson defended Judd on Melbourne radio SEN, saying the skipper was intent on stopping Adams from handballing and did not want to hurt him." FFS that would have to be one of the worst defences I have heard. Hope he goes for that dog act!

agree.... and not to mention Troy Davis & Jai Sheehan ( Not to mention Troy Davis and Jai Sheehan as well....With a noted lack of strength in the midfield, I really can't see us going past the midfielders in this draft, unless we use a pick to trade, or mini draft to get Hogan from WA or something similar to that.

To be fair ... it sounded like he has a pretty solid game at Casey last week, and would have been pushing his name forward for selection I would have thought .... it's disappointing, but hopefully this gives him time to get the body right,... and work on the fitness levels that Neeld wanted him to for 2013. I agree 2013 is a make or break year, and I hope he gets a solid preseason and some form up.

Probably not as big an issue with Tom Mac back again.... Given the outs we have, that forward line is probably as good as we can make it at this point in time.

yeah... I saw it before posting above. Show me the quotes that confirm it as fact Yes it's Matt Burgan I know, my point is that the AFL looks like they fine the clubs talking about team selection when the coaches talking about it in their Thursday media conferences. I still say Matt's piece is still 'speculation' with a healthy dose of nudges and winks from people inside the club, but MFC won't get a please explain for that....

Given that there doesn't appear to be any direct quotes from the coach or anything, I suspect that we announced that Couch has been elevated from the rookie list again, (which obviously has to be done prior to team selection if we want him in this week) and the rest is a 'well-informed' assumption. But without a coach to actually say it in the Thursday media conferences... it's just 'highly credible' speculation at this point !

I would argue that we do need another ruckman. Jamar will be about for another 3 years at this stage, Gawn looks promising, but has had 2 knee recos already. I am not convinced by either Spencer or Martin in their ability to carry the ruck load moving forward. I think the question is more.... should we be taking a ruckman with such a high pick... or should these be saved for midfielders and we take our chances later in the draft... from state leagues, or from other clubs.

I am taking a bit of a punt here (but listening to the injury report) it sounded as though Tom McDonald is a pretty good chance to play this week... In: Jamar, Green, T McDonald, Davey Out: Spencer, Bennell, Magner, Tapscott Gysberts and Couch considered unlucky, but 4 changes is probably unlikely as it is.

Good work Nasher. Finally on from Home PC. Work got refreshed perhaps 100x or more today without luck. Mobile didn't get much love either.

I can see what you are getting at, but I would expect that the agreement that Melb and Essendon signed last year would have stipulated that both clubs intended or will nominate these players as father/son selections. Otherwise what is to stop every club agreeing to get potential f/s options at the club early and train them with your squads, etc... That aside, I can't see him lasting to pick 12. Interesting notion though.

It's definitely possible.... Ideally by the end of the year there are 2 standout choices that is pretty unanimous and those two picks are good enough so that we don't have to worry about playing mind games. Also if Viney is 'perceived' in the next tier that you throw a blanket over... then that doesn't help us either, because that does create the uncertainty that might lead us to blink. In recent drafts the top two picks have been pretty clear cut Patton & Cogniglio Watts & NikNat Scully & Trengove Kreuzer & Cotchin. Only one recently that has been a little less clear was with Swallow (clear first) but Day and Bennell were not so clear cut.

Fair enough... but you would imagine that players like Scarlett or Mooney would know of what Cam Ling is capable of.... otherwise why mention it in the media ?

I found it amusing that this all went on at Connors house. Connors lives with Shane Edwards and Edwards 'decided' not to check in with them and toddled off to training getting there on time. Wouldn't any normal person knock on the door and tell them to get the f**k out of bed or be late for training? Unless of course you knew there was no way they would be waking up in a fit state?

What evidence did we have that Leigh Brown could coach before picking him up last year?? This was the reason I put the comment in about Cam Mooney claiming Ling was the most likely of the Geelong players (or was it Scarlett on Footy Classified...) .... whichever one it was that mentioned it, claimed that they felt Ling was the most suited to coach... thats all I was saying. We're not talking about replacing Neeld here.... it's an assistant role after all.

pretty certain that RPFC has it right with the latest changes to F/S that were announced last week. Each F/S nomination is offered to the lowest club first and they say yes or no, ....etc