Is it Trevor Marmalade ??

I don't particularly care for the character of the Prime Minister so long as the country is run well. To say lying is an expectation is an understatement.

Feel the same way about the coach of the football club.

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BLUES 2010: PAV AND JUDD = FLAGS. DOING IT FOR THE LOVE OF DICK PRATT.

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR TALKINGCARLTON SUPERCOACH 2009 YET?

We are really going places ....

Give Madhouse another 10 years!

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I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!!!

Madhouse! That's a new one!

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dane's trolling again

So witty as well

I don't disagree with most of what you've posted on this BV but are you seriously suggesting we should be trying to rebuild an AFL club entirely based on character, ethics, morals and honesty?

Is there currently a club in the AFL that you could describe in that way?

Is there currently a successful club in the AFL you could describe in that way?

Has there ever been?

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"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen."

Mort Sahl

I don't think BV is suggesting that, GWS...he just wants to people to see MM for all his human frailties and be honest about them. Or for how BV interprets his frailties.

And how does focussing on MM's character flaws help us as a club when the entire industry is replete with similar?

I don't mean to defend Malthouse. He's big enough and ugly enough to either do that himself or avoid the question entirely. I understand BV's frustration but I think I'm finally close to being beyond giving a damn about the ethics of the game.

It's a seriously flawed competition filled with seriously flawed individuals of whom 99% would have zero chance of ever earning a similar income outside of the game. If that's not a recipe for a boys' club wank fest I don't know what is. And it's not that I wish to highlight the income side of it for that's in no way the reason I was so taken with the game when I was a kid but it's the money that's now in the game that's truly [REDACTED] it for good.

I'd love to think that it's possible that a navy messiah will arrive and lift the supporters, the club, the league and the game up from where it's fallen and rebuild us a league anew but unfortunately I'm an atheist and I don't believe in messiahs.

I stopped watching cricket a while back because money [REDACTED] it up. A bigger bunch of corrupt, spoilt posers I've never seen.

Footy's getting close.

If it wasn't for TC and the fact that it's possible to hear dissenting views and distress outside of the media cash cow I think I would have left footy by now too.

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"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen."

Mort Sahl

Padre, Mick's not your padre is he? Yes Big John did behave dishonestly, he was a hopeless gambler and he took money to feed his habit, assuming, like all hopeless gamblers that he would win, but of course he lost, and he suffered public humiliation and public punishment. And after that he gave the club magnificent, unparallelled service for nearly 20 years. He engineered what I think is our greatest triumph in 1972. He then walked away from coaching at the start of 1976 under mysterious circumstances. Whatever John's personal issues, they have hurt him much more than anyone else. Mick's dishonesty is personal and not to do with a self destructive gambling addiction, but to do with unassailable pride and narcissism. A man with everything, earning $1m a year, intelligent, successful, but totally unable to admit fault, at once petty and self indulgent. I am not sure your greatest player is determined by to what degree he has feet of clay, but what I do know is that John, (for all his frailties, that hurt no-one but himself) was the greatest player and captain this club has had. I can't believe he could be mentioned in the same sentence as a millionaire who has wandered in over the last couple of years to take us to the heady heights of 14th.

I am wearing the rose coloured glasses of my childhood, but I can't imagine that anyone with any sense, understanding or interest in our history and what made us great could mention Big John in the same sentence as manipulative mercenary Mick. John, for all his faults has built up lots of credits with this Blues fan (and please spare me any pathetic jokes about credit). Mick has no credits, and wants none. He is not Carlton, and never will be. And as for John being "nothing but a thief", you are so ignorant. You want to stick up for Mick, then fine, just don't do it by denigrating the club and the contribution of far greater Carlton men than Malthouse.

So the resident gate keeper of rational argument, data based evidence and factual accuracy on this site deflects when they themselves trip up?

And "big picture" FFS?????

What's so "big picture" about the fact that MIck is a prickly, disingenuous, narcissistic, meglomanical misanthrope of the journalistic kind. Without facts to back it up, I'd say all coaches have elements of the above. Some just disguise it better than Mick.

You dislike MIck for his personal traits amongst other things. I get it...I got it at the start.

It collides with your values and beliefs. I've no issue with that at all.

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

I honestly haven't seen anything wrong in the way Mick answers his question in the media. This is just one massive beat up.

Mick understands that journos ask questions to get answers that they can write about to sell papers. Most of these questions tend to be them trying to bait him to get a controversial answer. The more controversial the better.

Mick understands this game and he plays it accordingly. He will punish those journos asking stupid questions or haven't thought through their questions accordingly. In my view this is totally understandable and acceptable.

If those journalists can't handle Mick's responses, maybe they should think about starting a new career. I find it frustrating that they clearly try to bait him but can't handle the heat coming back.

I find Micks responses refreshing compared to Ratten's use of meaningless stats. At least he shows some fight and passion.

I can't believe what a total beat up this has become.

Without wanting to buy into your argument one way or the other how does and individual's theft "hurt no-one but himself"?

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"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen."

Mort Sahl

Nicholls just lost his wife. From the people I talk to there was no past player more dedicated and more in love with their partner than Nick was. This is a thing not really talked about normally but with Nick it is made a special mention. Nick was as good as a life partner to his wife as anyone to represent the club.

Now moral equivalence comes into question.

Yes. Nick ripped off a bank.

The only difference between Nick and a million other Carlton and VFL players is that he got caught.

In this instance the fact that he got caught is an indication that he actually was not very good at being dishonest.

Make no mistake. On the grading of good person bad person for VFL/AFL players Nick is firmly in the good person half.

Do not pretend otherwise.

Makes you look like a flower.... and a bad person.

I see! two sets of standards.
By the way i was not trying to denigrate big nick, merely making a point, which has been well made by the reactions coming out in support of big nick. I dont think i need to say more.

Can't argue with this.

Yes, it probably hurt the bank (and we all know what good citizens banks are) to the tune of .00000000000000001% of their profits and I have probably personally paid back the amount for John about 1000 times over through interest and fees and charges. It hurt a corporation and not an individual. Yes it was wrong and he paid a heavy price for it, and it happened 50 years ago.



Good work padre, you keep barracking for Mick and following his career as he chases the money from club to club to 3AW, book launches TV and back again, and I'll keep following Carlton.

WTF???

Let's not rewrite history on Nichols and let's not pretend that he's all of a sudden Mr Nice Guy. He still has his issues - one thing him and Mick have in common is that neither could be described as a 'people person'

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Between our dreams and actions lies this world

"Good work padre, you keep barracking for Mick and following his career as he chases the money from club to club to 3AW, book launches TV and back again, and I'll keep following Carlton."

Oh please. Poor carlton they got taken advantage of by big bad mick. He was offered , he took. Does this make him any different to anybody else?
What should he have done after eddie came up with his masterstroke to replace him? I dont blame him for telling eddie to gagf. Why not go into media street? He wouldnt be the only one who has gone down that path. This is beginning to sound like petty jealousy.

He took the $3,000,000 with the job description to deliver the premiership Ratten couldn't with the group.

He failed and misjudged.

He wasn't contracted to rebuild.

He has still got next year