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It feels like we kinda need a thread about everything going on at the Demons at the moment; Smith is getting banned long term as cocaine is classified as a PED during competition, May having clear attitude problems, Oliver going off the rails and only god knows what is up with Simon Goodwin. Feels like there's plenty coming and a dedicated thread might be appropriate.
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
Giving off 00s WCE vibes.The curse is dead. -
Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
It galls me no end that all they have to hang their hat on from the Goodwin era is a premiership we personally gift wrapped for them and nothing less than them reclaiming their rightful place in the bottom third of ladder will ease that pain.BORDERLINE FLYINGComment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
I'm genuinely concerned for Oliver. There are enough worrying signs that he needs a lot of help.
Joel Smith should receive a ban that goes into the season not just the pre-season.
May needs to grow up and start acting like a leader.
Who knows if the stories about Goodwin are accurate but that isn't good.
They would want to have an incident free summer so they can focus on 2024 the way they should.Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
If we go way back when, Glenn Bartlett basically wanted Goodwin sacked this time in 2020 due to his behaviour.
Bartlett also wanted hair testing done of all senior leaders within the club.
Sadly it appears Melbourne wasn?t a great culture fit for Lachie Hunter to help get his life back on track.More of an In Bruges guy?Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
Goodwin was with Hird at the Dons too they were both injecting something to make them look more tanned?
He also said this to a photographer :
In December 2005, Goodwin apologised for threatening a newspaper photographer. He was among Crows players drinking at an inner-city hotel in Adelaide, on the same street as The Advertiser newspaper offices.
The newspaper sent a photographer to snap pictures from the street outside the pub. Goodwin saw him and confronted him.
?If you run any photos, I will f***ing kill you,? Goodwin said, according to the photographer
And was banned and fined for betting on games.BT COME BACK!
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FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
From SEN
Kane Cornes couldn’t disagree more with Max Gawn after the Melbourne captain suggested that the club’s culture is strong.
Those comments came after the headlines surrounding Clayton Oliver, the news of Joel Smith’s positive drug test coming to light and Steven May’s best and fairest comments.
Speaking to Channel Seven, Gawn said he was bullish on the club’s culture and said that similar incidents happen at most clubs.
“I am certainly very bullish on the culture that we have built over the last three or four years, that it can withstand adversity like this and we are able to get in the top four again, like we have in the last three years,” Gawn said.
“I am in pretty good dialogue with him (Oliver) and we talk every day, and he’s been at my house for a while, so I think Clayton is going really well.
“I understand the noise that is coming around Clayton could bring someone down, but I feel like the support that he has got around him will help him get through it.
“There has been some stuff over the last few weeks, but I feel like this happens at most clubs – adversity here, adversity there – obviously our adversity has all come at once.”
While Gawn believes similar issues occur at rival clubs, Cornes isn’t so sure, particularly with Smith and his positive drug test.
As Smith was found to have cocaine in his system on game day, Cornes was stunned that the utility used the drug midweek.
“Can I tell you it doesn't happen at most clubs, Max,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“Can I tell you that players don’t take drugs midweek.
“This does not happen at most clubs. The thought is that okay, ‘All these players get up to this’. That may be true, if I had to guess and I'd be just guessing that four out of 10 players perhaps indulge in this. Some would say more.
“But that would be in the off-season.
“I keep saying this, maybe I am naive with this, but I would be astounded if there are many players doing this a couple of days before a game.
“Max Gawn says this happens at most clubs. Well, no, it doesn't.”
As well as the Smith saga, Cornes again pointed to stories surrounding Oliver and May’s comments as proof that Melbourne’s issues are not prevalent at most clubs around the league.
“At most clubs, your best players don't have significant issues like Clayton Oliver has,” Cornes said.
“This story from Mark Robinson around Clayton Oliver … one East Melbourne resident recently revealed that Oliver after a light training session at Yarra Park in the summer of 2022 bent a number of windscreen wipers on cars in a side street.
“It doesn't happen at most clubs. Your best player doesn't walk down the street, bending the windscreens of cars. This doesn't happen.
“We've got the Oliver (saga), then we've got Smith (test), then we've got May embarrassing himself at the best and fairest saying that they would have won the premiership.
“I know it's in an intimate room, but you've got to be smarter than that. He's 31 years of age, Steven May.
“Max Gawn’s sitting here telling us the culture's good and Simon Goodwin is doing the same.
“I think they need to be a bit more honest about where their football club is at.
“This isn't an isolated event and it's certainly I think, incredibly serious.
“Something drastically wrong is going on with one of your players' lives if he's sitting at home or if he's at a seedy nightclub on a Friday before a Sunday game doing this.
“This doesn't happen, Max, at every other club.”
Reports suggest Smith is expecting to serve a three-month suspension for his positive test which would be served over the off-season.Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
Is cocaine considered performance enhancing? Either way that ban seems manifestly innaproriate considering he was playing with it in his system.
Surely needs to miss actual games.
I'm all for education, not sure why this went public?Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
Melbourne look like they are still living in denial - they have single-handedly destroyed the chance of a premiership dynasty though their own hubris. They destroyed the competition in 2021 and then went 10-0 to start 2022. Since then they have fallen apart on the field, and it stems from corners being cut off the field where behavioural standards have been tolerated (and are still being excused today if Gawn's interview is any indication). Talent is not an issue at Melbourne - pound for pound they have so much more overall talent than Richmond 2017-2020.
Ironically if they lost the 2021 GF (as they should have when they were 19 points down and not looking like scoring with 40 minutes to play), they probably would have smartened up their off-field activities and had a proper chance at creating a premiership dynasty. That flag papered over the off-field cracks."Look at me mate. Look at me. I'm flyin'"Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
I do really hate Melbourne and LOVE their back to back straight sets knockouts - but they've won the most games of any team over the past three years, 3x top 4 finishes, a flag (and an AFLW flag), and will most likely win the McLelland Trophy for most successful club (men's and women's combined) this year, which gets the players $1 million to divide amongst themselves. Pretty impressive given their terrible culture...Comment
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Re: Melbourne Watch 2023
Nobody remembers Port Adelaide finishing on top at the end of H&A in 2001-2003, only the Brisbane 3-peat.
Relative to their prodigious talent, IMO Melbourne have squandered the opportunity for 2-3 premierships in the last few years. Richmond cashed in big time with 3 flags in 4 years (only Mason Cox catching fire in the 2018 PF stopped them getting a 4-peat) and I reckon this current Melbourne team has a comfortably better list.
It's a critical year for them in 2024. If they flame out again, they are done in this window and with this list."Look at me mate. Look at me. I'm flyin'"Comment
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