Spirit of '87

Adelaide have been referred to as the fruit loops, and sometimes licorice all sorts, because of their coloured looped jumpers, rather than fruit tingles. But yeah, Adelaide.

A good weekend for MFC. Not only a win and still in finals contention, but thanks to Gold Coast, they have now avoided the humiliation of being the only team to have lost to Essendon this year.

Nathan Jones was asked at the today's press interview whether they could find a spot for Hogan, and he replied: "oh come on, that's a drastic call. I think we can easily find a spot for him!"

On Footy Classified this week Matthew Lloyd made the comment that T Mac should not be expecting as much as $700k because of his delivery, or lack thereof, then they crossed to footage of one of TMac's classic brain-fade passes across ground last week as evidence.

Well he said he thinks he'll stay anyway. Later Jonathan Brown was the most positive of the panelists, backing Melbourne to play finals next year, adding that he thinks Melbourne has the best talent of the teams outside the Eight.

No not 65k last time, it was 47,558 in the round 4 Collingwood home game. 65k+ today would have been good, but it was largely the Collingwood supporters who didn't turn up today - I think a number of them had already put their cue in the rack for this season.

For all the AFL's talk about protecting the head, the danger of concussion, the head being sacrosanct and effectively banning the bump out of the game, they still just prefer to turn a blind eye to players ducking their head and putting their own head at risk.

Are we are deducting cut up membership cards from the total, may have dropped back to around 25,000 this week.

Didn't take long for this to become another Watts discussion thread

AFL.com game summary: NEW FACES Hawthorn: Former Demon Jack Fitzpatrick juggled a mark on the lead and fired an errant shot on goal late in the first term, but didn’t look entirely comfortable in his first outing for the Hawks.

No, his dodgy calf wouldn't last out the additional 50m required.

Jobe should keep his Brownlow Medal Mark Robinson says Jobe Watson should keep his Brownlow. Might as well give Lance back his Tour de France medals while we're at it.

Koch only suggested that his club was "hoodwinked" in relation to Monfries, who was recruited at the end of 2012, before the shi-ts torm started. "Angus Monfries was recruited before all of this happened" Koch said. "So we have a view that we were hoodwinked by this and we didn't know the system that was in place at Essendon". In relation to the others who were recruited subsequently, including Melksham, I agree that there can't be a suggestion that the clubs including MFC were hoodwinked. MFC, St Kilda etc. were just, as you said, gullible and stupid enough to still go ahead and trade with EFC and recruit them.

So no comment from MFC at this stage? Haven't seen anything in their website yet. Bulldogs and Port have both at least made statements in some form in relation to their players involved.

Apparently their new Chairman says that if found guilty, Jobe Watson should be allowed to keep his Brownlow medal. They might as well give Rolf Harris back his OA and CBE too.

Why would they have Essendon above Melbourne, effectively implying that Essendon would improve next year? And it seems to ignore that nearly a third on their list could well be sitting out next season (or more), watching on from the stands, after the CAS drugs outcome.

It seems to be the Saturday, not Sunday, which should be slightly more financially beneficial.

Jeremy who?

Thanks, thought so. I'd still prefer that we were not into him at all though - I can only see downside potential, and little or no upside.

A four year ban for Melksham would coincide nicely with the four year contract that Melbourne are supposedly offering him. Although I believe he's only up for a maximum of two years?

Of those premierships quoted, Cats had waited some 44 years before winning the first of those three flags, Brisbane/ex-Fitzroy even longer, and the Swans won the first of those two flags after waiting over 70 years. So it doesn't seem like those clubs had been dominating for years. Admittedly though, it does feel like Hawthorn have been up there for years.

Yes I agree, although if the contract was only for say two years instead of four, those two seasons may be spent by him looking on from the stands while serving a two year ban. I just can't see why the club would bother with someone of his standard, regardless of the term of his contract - there doesn't appear to be much upside from getting him, but a lot of potential downside. If the club is really considering him, I'm concerned that they've been drawn in by the general local complacency about the WADA outcome, and this apparent local view that the players will either still get off, or only be banned for a few weeks or so.

Yeah, always best to keep it simple.

The WADA hearing outcome will not be swayed by any populist or even popular views, most of which are no doubt uninformed anyway. And if the club really is looking to get him, they could also be taking too complacent a view about that outcome. He's not worth taking that risk of a two year ban for.

Perhaps if we're interpreting what was overheard, they were saying "How (not Howe) good are we, to have landed Dangerfield for just $400,000 a year for the next 5 years.