The heart beats true

You’d be uniquely well positioned to recognise this trait in others.

This was clearly leaked from the club against theirs, and the players wishes. Someone should hang for this. A player being up front and honest with the club in a professional manner that allows them to plan for the future, and someone betrays that and runs to tell a journalist? All that means is the club won’t have players come forward in the future, and will leave them scrambling. It’s hugely disappointing.

Garry Lyon said last week that Clayton’s hand is virtually unusable, and then this week said that the club made the decision to keep him on the park, as all parties concluded it was the best thing for the club, and for Clayton’s mental health. He’s been very loyal, and so have we. I think that suggests a really productive period coming up for Clayton, once he gets his body right.

I don’t want a celebration of Brayshaw anywhere near Collingwood.

Is it fair to say that he didn’t got on with Bolts?

Oh I’m sad. I love Nibs.

I’m only going to the footy now if Petty plays forward. If he has to move back for any reason I’ll immediately vacate the MCG, but stand near the gates in case he runs back over the centre line and I can go back in.

I go every week, and I love a win, but from an objective perspective last nights game was dull. You only need to watch 5 minutes of AFL to realise it’s entertainment first, sport second in the eyes of its administrators. I do hold concerns that our game style suits us, but only us, and it’s not our world we exist in. It’s the AFL’s. They aren’t going to make life easier for us if that’s what we deliver.

I feel for Carlton fans. They just relearned all the rules for nothing.

I spoke to a few members at the footy last night who said they got an email from the club this week asking their opinion about Wildcard round. Anyone else get this?

Hayden Young is a gun.

Colllllllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggggww… Oh.

Nice goal JJ!

Same as I always am, terribly. I can’t be performance managed out if I’ve never performed in the first place.

I’m all in on this too. The AFL does everything in its power to orchestrate results, so I love it when their plan fails and it costs them money. They’ll try spin it into a PR win about ‘the strength of the national competition’, but then give Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon the softest fixture imaginable to make sure they are all top 6 in 2025.

In 1996 I played for the Geelong Falcons. As part of their player development they held a family night where all the players and their families came down to hear from a current AFL players family about the transition to AFL life. Gary Moorcroft’s mother came to speak to us, and gave the most scathing, angry review of the AFL system I’ve ever heard. This was only confirmed by my friends who got drafted - who were told in no uncertain terms not to include their families and girlfriends in club business. I know first hand of former Melbourne players who were told by the club to end relationships that got in the way of their football. You only have to look at what we know from the Hawthorn debacle to see the battle between the personal, family and professional is very messy, and clubs want it cut and dry. We pay you, you belong to us, and us alone. A lot of families feel very isolated by the clubs, and the clubs often make it that way, as they need it to be clean. It’s a massive transition from being involved in every aspect of your child’s sporting life to having absolutely no involvement, and it creates a lot of resentment and disappointment. It’s not the dream people imagine.

Last time we recruited a tall in the mid season draft we got Disco. He took a while to get going too. Luker was drafted at the end of May. If he was drafted in the National draft it wouldn’t even be mid January yet, and he wouldn’t have played a single game. Let’s not kick a kid because our season didn’t work out. It’s not his fault.

Sandpaper.

Such a classy move by the AFL to sell the sponsorship rights to player retirement announcements. Maybe I should do the same thing on Demonland? ’The Heart Beats True’s 💩 opinions are brought to you by Sorbent 3 Ply Toilet Paper’.

Agree. I think he’ll be our Josh Kelly.

D’ya reckon Caleb will stay on the wing long term? I think it’ll be interesting to see what the plan is.

Weak from Freo. They’ll never be taken seriously.

What a game.

lol. This season is like a race to the bottom.

De Goey hamstring, about to have a month off. I’ll notify the NYPD and Balinese Police.