Pirlo

Melbourne is no longer the right environment for him because he doesn't need Dave Misson or our facilities anymore. I reckon he's signed a contract elsewhere and will front up in a few weeks. CAN NOT WAIT FOR ROOS ON 360 TONIGHT, now that GNF has let the cat out the bag. Many thanks for the info, btw.

I expect he will be leaving the AFL, his partner and he city of Melbourne then. He'll also be bleaching his hair and dying his skin. You can't run away from adult responsibility like he has, especially with what you said about him using Misson like he has.

This will be Scully x 100, can't wait until the raft of Demon mad QC's get onto it pro bono.

The Bosman rule in soccer, anyone familiar? This will become the Clark rule. I want to wait until Mitch Clark officially confirms it himself before I say what I want to say to him. Mitch - we're waiting.

No way. Depression is a serious illness. He wouldn't be screwing someone over and getting himself into a contract for Melbourne. Consider the fact that any club that picks him up will only do so after extensive dialogue and a medical - and you have your theory debunked. The way I see it is this. A mate said to me it's all or nothing and I don't disagree. Either Mitch was being truthful all along and will now come back to the Dees, or he saw a way out, ft. payday, and decided he'd pursue his options when he retired. I know I've posted a lot in this thread, but I don't mean to slander the guy yet. It's an emotional issue, from the perspective of a long suffering MFC fan and a sufferer of anxiety and depression independently. In real life, you can't take a severance package on account of depression and then hand pick your new career after breaking a contract in good faith. In real life, and that goes for most of us, you get up and go to work and try and get on with things as best as you can whilst sorting yourself out - often with expensive help. In a footballing sense, Mitch Clark absolutely owes a debt of service to the club. If he was to, as we thought he planned, walk away from the game forever - we move on from what may have been. If this turns out to be a 9 month sabbatical and he goes anywhere else but Melbourne (or Freo, at a stretch) - and I hate to think about the idea of it - then we have been royally shafted. I think Paul Roos and Peter Jackson are far shrewder operators than Schwab/Neeld/Clark/Young and more, so I don't see us being [censored] over, but Mitch is a chance of trying. If what has been suggested - and we need to give MC the benefit of the doubt until we know more - is that he wants to go to a successful club because losing exacerbates the depression then I say get real. Life isn't one big orgy, and you were incredibly fortunate to be paid the amount that you were for doing nothing for over a year. He's simply not cut out for life if that's the case, because it's pure petulance. I feel we will be hearing a lot about this over the next week. Clark has to show his hand soon if he wants to start negotiating a return, because any club who takes him back will be very wary of him. Melbourne also needs to resolve it soon, because the issue was dead until today and we can't afford the negative press. I feel we'll announce something before Roosy gets on 360 and he'll do his thing from there.

So why is he coming back to football?

What he wrote on instagram to some guy whose comment is no longer there. Perhaps the earlier poster?

mitchclarkI wasn't aware that I made an announcement. @fitwisedon't comment on things you know nothing about

Were they offensive questions, can we get some quotes?

Utter [censored], depression doesn't discriminate by status.

This is serious talk now. Mitch has deleted his tweet after retirement, not sure when, that said: Thank you for everything demon family and @melbournefc I love you all! http://twitter.com/MitchClark11/status/477351079068188672/photo/1pic.twitter.com/rssnc9CaxO Only place you'll find it on his feed is from RTs, the picture was him holding the jumper after beating Essendon

Until today, the impression we all had was that he wasn't talking Melbourne because it was all too hard to be around it all.

I highly doubt he'll care if this is the case. Highly doubt it.

It's finished.

Whilst his football analysis is par of that of a 5 year old, Barrett has an excellent news breaking record.

An excellent post, LG. I would be upset with Clark on a personal level if he did this. Depression isn't a free ride to escape adult responsibilities. When I was suffering most recently, I couldn't afford to get myself out of work or to leave Uni. He is extremely fortunate that he has been allowed to have the freedom that we have contractually given him. The more I consider the possibility of him walking, the more horrified I am. I'm not saying Mitch will do this, but there is plenty that he can do right now to stop the talk. How about a: "I have never said I wouldn't return to the Melbourne Football Club'.

Smoke and mirrors, taking the pressure off him by playing games etc. I would be very surprised if we haven't been talking to him, but I could certainly see a situation where the club put faith in Clark's values by signing off on a severance package that removed any 'debt of service' if you will and allowed a clean break. Depression is a volatile disease, I know this first hand, but you'd have to be a real dog to come back and go elsewhere. Depression sucks, but it doesn't remove all responsibility on a sufferer. And yes, it is just football. But if MC leaves and goes to a different Melbourne club and they say 'it's just football', then he can go do something else because this is all part of it. I repeat that Mitch could come out and say something to stop the whispers, especially if he's well enough for his manager to announce he might make a comeback.

Yep. One thing they can do is just come out and say it. Worries me that Mahoney seems to be out of the loop, but perhaps it all ties in with what Grand New Flag said.

Merge with a vic club, I don't know.

James Wagner?

Quote working on Mac Mavericks with chrome

This is the part I disagree with. For us, it's a wait but for the players the pre-season is 6 months of vigorous training. For Hogan to be in the system for two years and not debut, it's tough on him. It's as if it's all going against him. I'd like to see him get a game to get the monkey off his back, so that he can come into the PS with some understanding of how good it is to play AFL. Lets give the guy a reason to smile. If he's fit, he's fit.

Sounds a bit like Crows fans and Tom Lynch... But I agree, Merrett should have gotten a week.

Cross is four times the player that McKenzie will ever be IMO.

It was one of the weakest moment in our club's history when Jim and Don left Bailey on his own and waited until he was in the bathroom before they went home. An absolutely disgraceful show of sportsmanship from the boys club. At least PJ had the class to sit next to Neeld and explain the decision. And yes, you can have views like this and still love Jim Stynes for what he did for the club.