Cranky Franky

Pencilling in Hunt for Round 1 is ridiculous but continues the great Demonland tradition of supporters creaming their pants over someone who hasn't actually done anything yet. Hunt has some ability but is yet to establish himself at Casey much less getting picked in the ones.

Who cares what journalists do or don't do. Melbourne supporters should stop foaming at the mouth & having nervous breakdowns about Robbo, Caro, Damo, Dwayne Russell or the clowns on the Footy Show. They are a sideshow & not the reason we have been crap for the last 10 years & flagless since 1964. I worry about, the Board, the Coach, the Footy Dpt & the playing list - they are the real issue.

A number of Melbourne supporters are continually obsessed with laying blame on the media. Mark Robinson is a prat but he is a sideshow & was just doing his job. To me the real story of DB's last year at the Club was: 1. How he was being undermined by certain people within the Club 2. The fact that a delegation of senior players complained to the Board about this interference. 3. The failure of the Board to deal with the matter properly. To my mind these events directly led to the capitulation at Geelong & DB's sacking.

I also have never understood the animosity towards GL. He was a great player & bled for the Club. Sure he was involved in some appointments where they got it wrong but the only reason he was involved was because the Board was dysfunctional & disorganised & he put his hand up to help. As a footy analyst I reckon he is pretty solid & a lot better than many of the clowns out there.

Sadly mental illness is often wrongly used to cover up a lot of bad behaviours: Did something wrong & lied about it - I had a mental illness. Cheated on the wife or girlfriend (& got caught) - I had a mental illness Got drunk & did something dumb - I had a mental illness.

Don't think that is a fair comparison. Jordie only had one string to his bow & that was his tackling/tagging ability. He was one dimensional, slow, had poor disposal, no goal sense, couldn't mark & never racked up high stats. Matt Jones has good speed, height & can play many positions - he is let down by decision making & disposal which at times can be horrible. Ditto Terlich who is actually a bit of a ball magnet but tends to ball chase & loose his opponent as well as having disposal issues. If either of these 2 can work on their deficiencies & play well they can be part of the team NB Getting to the last year of contract makes them desperate.

This is not about potting Toumpas - I wish him well - its about the 5 picks taken straight after Toump - Stringer & Wines look like being superstars & Macrae, Mayes & Vlasutin very good players. Anyway you look at it ouch !!

That's all very well GRRM but we have seen one rebuild totally botched partly due to disastrous recruiting choices & high picks wasted on Cook, Gysberts, Blease, Tapscott & then the terrible selection of Toumpas ahead of Wines & Stringer so its not surprising that supporters are a bit nervous.

For me one of the most fascinating things for 2016 is to see if our recruiters got it right in selecting Clayton Oliver, especially after the stuff up with Jimmy T. There is clearly no perfect formula for selecting young players but I think the current recruiters have done very well except for the Toump stuff up. My concern this year is that if you read all the draft comments Parish seemed to be the better player ie - a natural footballer - whereas Oliver filled the criteria of the big bodied mid fielders which are all the rage at the moment. I will be really peed off if Essendon come out of this in front of us. Time will tell but its going to be an interesting year.

"who's midfield looked freakishly bigger then any other club in the AFL" That is a freakishly silly comment - you can say a lot about Brisbane but their midfield happened to contain 3 Brownlow medalists plus Lappin & what they had was talent. .

Once again what did you want the AFL to do ??? Suspend or deregister him because of a verbal allegation when the cops have found no evidence Are you implying we should act on allegations rather than evidence ?

Maybe you could enlighten us on what the AFL was supposed to do. The only fact established seems to be that Martin was intoxicated & was asked to leave the premises.

Quite right. Forget about the Police. The correct way to deal with this is to raise a lynch mob - I'll go & supply the torches

Yeah right - I'm sure if you were unemployed & got offered $200,000 for a year's work you would knock it back on principle.

Love Col's loyalty but really for someone who nearly won & B&F a coupla years ago he has been pretty disappointing. At his best he plays with dash & confidence, takes the game on & provides lots of run out of defence. At his worse he is timid, lacks any physicality, hesitates & won't take the first option & invariably goes sideways & backwards.

As usual Stuie you are confusing the issue. It's hardly a matter of sexual harassment in the workplace - we are not talking about Mel being harassed by her boss or co workers. And by the way sexual harassment is not alright its totally wrong but if you want to be a female TV journalist & interview people live then be quicker on your feet than Mel was or go and get another job - its really no different to a politician trying to change the subject or weaselling out of the question during an interview - maybe Mel should of handed over to Fran Kelly to do the interview.

I have to adjudicate that SWYL is quite correct on this matter. Mel is supposed to be a professional journalist & this is not play school. She should have been prepared with something to put Gayle right back in his box - being sharp & quick on your feet is the hallmark of live journalism. I'm sure that Leigh Sales or Caro Wilson would have embarrassed him on air quick smart.

A lot of History seems to get re written about Jurrah. The Club bent over backwards for him lots of times. When trouble broke out in Central Australia the Yuendemu Community pleaded & begged Lim him to stay at Melbourne to continue to set an example for their youth. Liam walked out on Casey on the eve of the finals. Has been in trouble with the law time & time & time again since - just lucky its not a more serious charge so far. But hey lets not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

BOOORRING. Every 6 months or so there is a Jurrah redemption story. Had a million chances & blew them.

Colin leaving resulted in us getting Bernie Vince. We are forever in his debt. Mind you Tom Scully jumping ship got us Jesse Hogan so maybe Tom deserves Life Membership as well.

I still can't believe how badly Magner was treated. He was never going to be more than a top up player but gees in his last year he was clearly in the best 18 at Melbourne but they would not pick him despite the fact that our mids got smashed week in week out.

According to the statement I read he was clearly heavily intoxicated yet they kept serving him drinks.

Talk about a lame post. I recall exactly the same stuff being written when they appointed Dean Bailey & Mark Neeld. Only one way to measure Goodwin & that is on field results. Anything else is B/S.

Lovely bit of work WJ & I hate to be a pedant but I don't think Marty Lyons & Kim Smith were local juniors - both were established VFA players.