pantaloons

Cometh the hour, cometh the Matt Jones.

There is zero doubt that it is racist. Zero.

"Unless it is well-founded" are you kidding? Think of the decades of research abotu bias, unconscious bias, racism and Australia. you are aware of this literature, aren't you? Because, it would be pretty daft to be talking about a subject in an unfounded way, wouldn't it? I'd be concerned about your thinking on this issue were you to be speaking from an - dare Ai say it - ignorant position.

The "it can't be and if you think so, maybe you are" argument is, well, it is the equivalent of "I know you are, I said you are, but what am I?" My god. That sort of dodgy rhetoric is best left out, don't you think?

And the war dance! Darling, sweetheart. Seriously. Who cares about a war dance. It is a dance FFS. A dance, from a man regularly racially abused, on the round that celebrates his race - a race that has been pushed into what will probably be a fatal decline. And we are a bit sensitive about hurt feelings of the crowd? Precious much? Maybe missing the point just a little?

Lewis is a sniper but doesn't get booed.

Fletcher is a spiteful jerk, but doesn't get booed.

Selwood plays for frees constantly but doesn't get booed.

Lindsay Thomas dives and gets booed. Whoops.

There is no doubt this is about race, fueled by race, denied because of race and bubbling along because of race. Just got to get big enough to admit it.

Tim. It is amazing that you have been able to enter the minds of every person booing to understand their rationale. There are plenty of examples of non-indigenous players who have been booed and taken to by the crowd for prolonged periods of time.

As for the dance itself - I don't care about hurt feelings in the crowd. As I've said, when you've directed you attention and behaviour towards opposition supporters, you have to be prepared to cop it from them.

Shite thread. Well done Picket

As picket fences are generally white, I take offence at this.

And...down the rabbit hole we go.

The issue for me isn't that Goodes performed a war dance. He's played an important role in raising awareness of issues facing indigenous people and used his profile to do this. Good on him.

The issue is that he ran over to the nearest Carlton supporters and directed his act at them. Now I don't have an issue with this. Players can celebrate a goal however they like, provided they don't give the nazi salute, de-robe or bring out an ISIS handkerchief from their shorts. When you direct your attention to an opposition crowd however, you have to be prepared for the abuse that inevitably follows.

There shouldn't be a furore over whether Goodes was 'right' or 'wrong' for his actions. There should however be an acceptance that he will get booed from time to time because of the way he conducts himself on the field.

I haven't followed the Goodes stuff that closely, but who was it that first asserted the booing was race-related and what was the rationale? Unless it is well-founded, I fear there is an element of racism from the person claiming it. Ie. "Adam Goodes is indigenous, thus he is 'different', thus the crowd must have interpreted him as different, hence the booing". It is bizarre logic that I can't believe has gained traction in 2015.

If, say, 5000 Hawks supporters were booing him, maybe 50-100 neanderthals might have been doing so with a racially motivated bent. It's not acceptable, but not illustrative of everyone's motivation. I recall booing him a decade or more ago after he destroyed a Melbourne player from behind in a marking contest in a very poor act. I'd like to think booing is directed due to on-field behaviour but I guess there is no code of conduct for this.

As for tonight, I'll wait to see what comes out in the interview wash-up. Indigenous war dance in indigenous round - classic, go for it. Directing aggressive behaviour towards opposing fans just invites abuse though, and I would expect that if someone does that, they would anticipate and enjoy to an extent the vitriol that comes their way afterwards. Again, I'll wait for the wash-up. Who knows what's been said over the other side of the fence prior to it.

How does Trigg still have an AFL job? He's probably on Talking Carlton as we speak telling them how useless they all are.

When you look at the guys out of contract, there will be 4-6 players most of us would agree will get the chop. The one of most interest to me is Jamar. Four weeks ago, I was lamenting our desperate ruck situation, with an ageing Russian and his protégés barely progressing. When Roos replaced Jamar with Spencer I thought he was having a lend, but full marks to Roos for not waiting until the end of the year to act on the ruck department. While beating the lifeless, fetid corpse of Ayce Cordy might not be a true test of Spencer's mettle, we are at least now making the necessary steps towards the ruck division of the future. Hearing that Gawn and King played well on the weekend is great too. More of that please.

The loser here is Jamar. I like him, he's battled manfully for years now and is the longest-serving player on the list. It'd be hard to be bothered turning up to Casey Fields to play out the rest of your days, but hopefully he gets a farewell game in Round 23 (provided we're not playing for a top 4 spot) and gets to steamroll T Scully on his way out. If we can get continued improvement out of Spencer, Gawn and King, then we should be able to avoid spending valuable assets via trade on a ruckman at season's end.

If it keeps his next contract under eight figures, it's ok by me.

How many weeks will Goodes get for his hit on M. Jones?

Looked head high, Goodes jumped off the ground to bump, and Jones was subbed out with concussion.

And yet no free kick with the umpire right there. Bizarre.

As for Leigh Matthews, is senility a taboo subject in all seriousness? I say this not to be a wise guy, but I have genuinely felt he has been losing it over the last 4-5 years.

Before the season, I had round 8 pencilled in as our first win of the season. Before the game today though, I couldn't see us winning due to the injury list. I haven't been wallowing over the previous three games. Those teams are clearly in a different weight division, and while I'd prefer not to have our trousers dropped in any game, I'm more concerned with how we measure up to the rest of the comp, and cobbling together as many wins as we can.

This was a superb win today. Career best games for spencer, Fitzwilliam, Toumpas and van demon. Meaningful contributions from almost everyone. I was happy for Grimes too - his best game for a while. Hopefully we'll get a couple of players back next week, get on top early and go from there.

We seemed to use a bit of third man up at ball ups as the game wore on, often ineffectively. Something to work on.

Tom McDonald must have reveled in the opportunity to be just a boring defender, for once, rather than the gatekeeper between the MFC and complete oblivion.

If McDonald was the gatekeeper, then Fitzpatrick was the keymaster today.

This thread needs a priority pick.

Cool, thanks lads, good posts. So if it's not footy then straight to American sports or the round ball? No closet NRL fans?

I'm thinking these teams:

Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)

Don't know anything about the sport or the city, but I used to like their guernseys when I was playing the old NHL games.

Swindon Town F.C. (soccer)

Met a hot British chick with an excellent accent at an airport once who said she lived near Stonehenge. This is their team apparently. Works for me.

Might go for Tottenham if they're rubbish. Don't know anything about either.

Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA)

Dunno about this team, I used to go for Chicago as a kid, but I have no plans to visit there and at least I have mates in Minnesota.

Might have a think about NFL later. Was there for superbowl this year which was wild, but I only remember the first and last 30 seconds of the game. Katy Perry on a golden tiger was the highlight.

What do yas reckon? Are they perennial battlers like the Dees or am I onto a winner? I do like an underdog, but the Dees are taking it to the extreme these days.

Classic work. I'm afraid the Minnesota Timberwolves are sheer toilet though. There is a far greater chance of you seeing Melbourne win a premiership than Minnesota winning an NBA championship. The cold (get it?) reality is that people who earn millions of dollars don't want to live in Minneapolis. Heck, even Boston, with its storied history and being in a great city, can't attract big free agents. Don't do it unless you truly hate yourself. It's one thing to choose lame teams as a kid and get stuck with them for life, but you've already got an AFL team to ruin your life - don't add to it.

Pittsburgh Penguins is a decent choice though. I accept that proposal.

I don't like it. I've been reading some of Pete King's thoughts on it and he's obviously a better Football mind than me, but I preferred the old method. I get the argument that something like 4-5% of PATs fail so it's a waste of time, but I think the weighting (unlike rugby union) on the scoring is about right, with the focus on all the work that goes into a TD rather than some piddly play afterwards.

WHO DOES NUMBER 2 WORK FOR?!

I started following the LA Lakers in 1989 (just missed Showtime) after a kid in grade 5 brought a Lakers basketball to school. I'm often thankful that it wasn't another team's ball. While choosing Melbourne has been a life of pain, following LA has been very rewarding. Five championships since 2000, a storied history, and a great team to support. LA is the obvious entry point for US visitors from Australia and I've managed to see the team play in person several times over a few visits and will look to get to a couple of games at the start of next season. I recommend choosing sporting teams in cities you're likely to visit at some point. I also chose the San Jose Sharks in their inaugural season in 91-92, and have seen them live a few times. My main error was choosing the Kansas City Chiefs in around 93-94. I'll likely never go there unless I do a road trip in retirement, and it is a pretty useless franchise.

Had I been choosing my teams as an adult I'd probably have chosen teams from the one city. Mind you, that'd have meant I'd have chosen the LA Kings and that would be just unacceptable.

But yes, I've been super keen on US sports for a number of years, and the advent of the Internet certainly helped. The sense of engagement with the teams and leagues is much greater.

If Brisbane beat port, we may end the weekend having lost by 105 but seen four teams embarrass themselves even more than we did.

Goodes requests to play in the seconds to find form = heroic and noble act of selflessness worthy of praise.

Watts requests to play in the seconds to find form = shameful and gutless act of treachery worthy of involuntary euthanasia.

20 possessions through three quarters to Dee-on Prestia.

There are some seriously pants teams around at the moment.

And by 'pants' you mean 'awesome', RIGHT?

Seriously, what a sad individual I have become that I am taking perverse pleasure in the Suns score and calculating what sort of frenzy would be required for a West Coast to win by 191.

Rubbish.

He was already good when he left Melbourne. I was gutted when he left because anyone with half a brain could tell he was going to be a champion. Didn't get on well with Danners apparently that helped him make his decision (sick dad), but would have liked MFC to do a lot more to keep him.

As I recall in 2004 we were looking seriously good until he injured himself just after mid-season. We managed to win a few more and top the ladder after round 18, but his loss was felt. I was filthy when he left.

I wonder which loss was worse? 100+ points to Hawthorn, or 70+ to GWS?

I mean, we are talking about whether you'd rather eat dog poo or a drunkard's vomit, but GWS had 40 scoring shots to 12.

The last 8 years must have really desensitised me to these sorts of performances. I left the game disappointed obviously, but not tearing my precious hair out. My pre game prediction of a 78-point loss was optimistic unfortunately, the Hawks far too efficient moving the ball forward and in front of goal. The difference in pressure was certainly unacceptable and it's up to us to force opponents into error, but really, it was largely an unsurprising flogging of the worst 22 fielded under Roos by the reigning premiers who couldn't miss.

The absolute clown comments from poons like Kennett I just roll my eyes at. Yes, this was a poor display, but after the Richmond win, every Melbourne supporter not partial to the crack pipe knew we would get done the next three weeks, and probably find it tough to get close to any of the clear best three teams in the comp. we just aren't in the same league sadly.

Chin up and move forward. While we need to continue to make every post a winner at the trade and draft tables after being royally Prendergasted, today doesn't change the fact that the core group of youngsters at the club remains promising. Hogan, Viney, Salem, Tyson, McDonald, JFK, Brayshaw, Petracca, Kent, Frost and Stretch are all under 23. Yes, all clubs have good youngsters, but I'm no less confident in the people at the club to get the best out of these players now than I was at 2pm today.

Why do you feel sorry for him? He's going to get six figures at Freo.

Six? His next deal will be close to eight, whether here or elsewhere.