The heart beats true

It says you've had your shot and it's time someone else gets a crack at it.

This is what makes the Cam McCarthy thing so fascinating. Of all the coaches in the league I would have thought the one with the least tolerance for this sort of behaviour is Ross Lyon (remember Col Sylvia?). I think it goes to show that this no D*#khead policy that gets thrown around is a bit of an external misnomer. Ross would love to have Jesse. But my god he's going to have to pay and I don't know what he's got except years of draft picks that are a huge risk to give up if you look at the age profile of their list. We are, for once, in the box seat.

This is what has annoyed me in both the AFL and media's handling of this since the game. It's not about whether the umpire could have adjudicated those as free kicks - clearly they could have because they did. It's about the consistency of the rule within the game. Not one media 'observer' has shown the Hurn incidents in the context of the 2 free kicks paid. That's the issue.

Did you watch the footage mate? The umpire went to Oliver afterwards. Possibly not the adjudicating umpire as he would have been moving the mark. They can't overturn something based on what a player says, but they realised something was up. They are only people.

The umpires knew they'd made a mistake as I don't think I've ever seen an umpire console and put their hand on a player to see what was up after he gave away a free kick. Incidentally, I love Clayton Oliver. He's just what our club needs.

Now I'm hungry for fish n chips.

Couple of years ago (when we were horrible) I went to a game against Richmond and a bloke in front of me kept giving it to Chris Dawes for being a spud. I reminded him he was no star like Tyrone. That shut him up. They knew then what we don't need to find out.

Free Agency has filled holes in their list. That's not purely canny recruiting. That's a manipulation exploited so guys who makes 500K a year can make 480K but play for a team that with them will finish top 4. Don't get me wrong, they've done a lot right, but events have lined up well for them.

AFLPA need to answer to the fans on this too. They pushed to breaking point on the introduction of Free Agency at exactly the same time as all the draft concessions went to GWS and GCS. As a result we have an EPL situation developing in a competition that tries to mimic the NFL. AFL has failed on equalisation - and it'd be really nice if some of the football 'journalists' in town started putting heat on them instead of the boring baying for blood that happens to the coaches this time of year.

We played all over them yesterday and didn't win. In the context of our list it means 2 things: 1. We won't go back there with any trepidation. We know we should have won. 2. We are leaning how hard it is to win. We aren't playing finals this year so in a lot of ways I'd rather we learn how hard this competition is. Get angry, but use it to our advantage.

So, we lost by a goal or less to 2 top 8 teams as you pointed out, but then we are miles off? Calm down mate. St Kilda play Etihad like millionaires. Away from it they have been completely uncompetitive at times. This is reflected by their percentage. They've been gifted 2 games against the team with the worst record on that ground by a mile. I'd take our list over theirs any day. And honestly that's what matters at the moment since they aren't playing finals and either are we.

If we had 20 blokes that get as much out of themselves as Bernie does we'd win the flag. He makes mistakes but he has a crack. He's playing a vital role for us until the next generation evolve.

I'll tell you why I can't find positives... Because it was typical Melbourne. We need a poor game against St Kilda to spur us into action. I said last week it wouldn't surprise me if we got to within 3-4 goals this week as it would be bloody typical of our efforts after poor games. We have to be able to stop momentum in games and make the difference in the moment and we couldn't do it last week. It shouldn't take a week of being ripped by coaching staff to motive the playing group. You could tell by the 4 changes that the coaches were very dissapointed with the Saints game. Only a win this week would have made the difference (like it did against Geelong last year).

I would love to see Hurns 2-3 to the boundary compared to the frees paid. I literally couldn't believe he got away with them in the context of what's been paid this season. I hope the club at least asks the question.

For what purpose? They've been coached for 10 months to follow a game plan, changing it now would be next to impossible and an utter waste of time. You don't show young players that the key to success is chopping and changing. It's actually doing the small things well - over and over again. Success is a habit.

Not convinced you're not Picket.

Oh, you don't like the McDonalds Picket? I hadn't notice - from the 40 other threads you've potted them in over the last 3 days. Definetely needs its own thread.

The boys looked shattered - and they should be. They need to remember that all preseason. Work harder, for longer. All these people asking about final quarter fade outs need to remember most of our list are 4-5 preseasons behind the team we played today. That's why we lost. That simple.

I don't think I've ever seen a game of footy won by a team so poor as the Eagles today.

I know it won't look good on the statisticians but I think our game plan today is to not get caught in their midfield web and turn it over. Therefore I think we are going forward with less efficiency than hoped but with the intent to simply hold the ball forward. I don't think we rate them on defensive rebound run as much as we do on midfield turnover. I reckon Dawes came in for that ugly kick forward to simply compete in the air. Roos at quarter time on Fox seemed like he could care less about forward 50 ratios. I reckon he's got it pretty right. Pity about the 4 free kicks in a row to them in the middle of that quarter that got them back into it.

Wow, 4 free kicks in a row result in 3 goals. That's bloody terrible.

North Melbourne have spent the last 6-8 years building their list to get to this. I can't imagine at last years board meeting they set the expectation as 'hope we can finish 8th'. Their biggest concern, as it's been for 7 years, is that their most important players are still Harvey and Wells. Can you tell I can't wait for them to fall off the cliff? ?

Somebody needs to tell Bucks that Howe is a forward. This playing him down back thing isn't his go. ?

Congrats on some next level negativity. In honour of you unconscious 'Litter'al awesomeness...

Why? Because he might stay - and we might become a great footy side, and then you'd have nothing to be so bitter about?