The AFL's dirtiest player.

[Bradley.]

I don't know about you, but I am predicting 'Saint Mick Martyn- of the order of the cowardly behind play punch' will yet again get off at the tribunal tonight. If he does actually get pinged, it will probably be a reprimand! I might die of shock if he actaully gets games or a fine!!! We all might!

I am sick to death of this Mick $&%$*%! Martyn. You sir and some of your fellow 'shinboners' are a disgrace to our great game. I hope (hope!) that for once in your life they throw the book at you, and hard.

 

[Shinboners]

Yeah, Mick is a dirty player....y'know, us North fans are so totally sick of him breaking opposition players necks and fronting up to the tribunial every week. It's a wonder that he's even managed 250 odd games. I mean, did you hear Plugger when he retired? He blamed retirment on Mick and his remarkable ability to knee him in the balls when all six umpires and every single camera were facing the other way. Otherwise, he would've played on and tried to get 2,000 goals. And Ablett. Word from the Cattery is that all of Ablett's problems are as a result of the dirty, filthy, behind the play treatment that Mick used to dish out to him. Poor Gazza...in the two or three games during the year when Mick wasn't suspended, it would always be against Geelong. And ever wondered why Jason Dunstall has been so surly since his retirement? It's all Mick's fault. Oh, and James Hird....whispers say that he really wasn't injured in the past few years...he was just afraid of Micky Martyn just in case his ugliness was contagious. Yup...Mick...dirtiest player the league has ever seen...worse than Robbie Muir, Greg Williams, David Rhys-Jones, Dermott Brereton and that lovely Phil Carman. The only surprise is that North didn't issue Mick with 666 as his number instead of 4.

 

[Pessimistic]

I hear Mick's other job is a computer programmer !

What do you expect when Carey and Colbert take up 1/3 the salary cap between them !

 

[Pete]

Bradley, you are kidding arent you. Ugliness and mean looking doesnt qualify as a thug. Half of the Essendon team has been at the Bewick school of taking dives and Lloyd passed with first class honours. That explains the sheparding incident. He did get up pretty quickly when he got the free. Are you worried Braddles that his pretty face might get a bit more bruised. (Im assuming your a bombers supporter, could be Carlton)
You want a thug look at your own team, No 1 Johnson is a full on !@#$$%$ pyscho. He was gunning for everyone on Saturday. Its all right occasionally but he spent the whole game with target contact lenses in. And after Blakey was knocked out with blood pouring out of his forehead in two places who was it that ran up to him and had a go, your other maniac Paul Barnard. That was one the worst exibitions I have seen in a while.
Seriously now, picture this. Its the 3rd round in the Ansett Cup Round Robin and your team is going to play the team that you play in the first or second rounds of the Prem. Season. You have no hope of making the night finals, whats to stop a team just putting in a few thugs from the reserves (who arent going to play during the year anyway), and just telling them to knock everyone unconsious. This round robin format is opening up this potential problem. The only reason it hasnt happened before is that it was a knockout comp and most teams took it seriously.
Any thoughts? Im sure teams have thought about it.

North Melbourne in Melbourne 4 eva
Pete

 

[colley31]

Bradley,

Get your head out of the sand. Mick Martyn - the dirtiest footballer, noway, one of the hardest ever to play the game is what I think you mean. He is one of the greatest full backs ever to play the game. Tell me what other full back has averaged throughout his career just over 2 goals kicked on him per game. True football supporters recognise champions from other teams, not bag them. You are obviously not one of these.

 

[Dave]

Pete, take it easy. Micky got a week, so maybe there was more to it than just a dive.

BTW, maybe bradley's a lions fan, Remember the prelim? Most non-roos fans thought Micky was pretty lucky not to get reported.

And, no, I don't think he's a thug. He's a tough, hard, damned good player who occasional goes over the top.

As for Johnson, you're *way* off the mark. His bump on Blakey was absolutely legit, and if he spent all night throwing his weight around, so what? He didn't do anything I haven't seen plenty of other players do, and he wasn't reported so lay off him.

As for Barnard, I just watched the incident again and I'd say he didn't know how badly hurt Blakey was, he ran in straight after he was bumped & before the stretchers were called for.

He certainly didn't "have a go" as you've suggested, as he was never close enough to touch him.

You also can't see on the TV what he does do, so I'd be highly sceptical of anyone who claims to know what happened. Only he & Blakey would know as no-one else was close enough.

I've also played enough footy to know that it's not unusual, in fact it's the direct opposite, to get asked how it feels when you've just been poleaxed.


take it easy

Dave

 

[Kym]

Couldnt agree more Dave some of these half wits obviously have never played the game.The game the other night was a good hard game and I enjoyed the contact, something that is slowly being abolished.

 

[Eagle_Fan]

This is changing the topic a bit, but the AFL's dirtiest player is still Libber. I think the number of Brownlow medallists and other highly rated players who won't shake his hand backs this up!

Although, Ablett was pretty bad. And Misiti could be, given his 'hit' on Cous last year! Nah one-offs don't make a player dirty (or two-offs in Matyn's case), long time bad sportsmansship does.

 

[Grendel]

Martyn is no dirtier than can be gotten away with in todays game. And thats coming from a Hawk with one eye, libbel ahh i mean libba is as close to old game style (70's stuff) as you get and he wouldnt survive if he had of played back then, god imagine bremmner dropping the little ^&%$*$*

 

[rafter]

Libba by far.
Then Martin. The video on the broken eye socket of Simon Black says it all.From what believe there may still some legal action occuring about that against Martin and the AFL. Something about assault and a duty of care. The kid was blinded for months.

 

[Longjohn]

Rafter, The Biggest Cry Baby on this board.

Brisbane must be full of whingers..

 

[ben]

I am not a Brisbane supporter, but I thought what happened to that Black kid was appalling.I went to that match, with some mates , I am an AFL member of another club. I went the other night as well, and low and behold Martin was up to his old tricks.
Basically, he is getting older, he was beaten on the night by a faster more skillfull player. Lloyd was leading out, Martin couldnt keep up, got frustrated.You can guess the rest.
As for Brisbane being whingers on this forum. Essendon and North supporters do a pretty good job of that.
My team didnt make the finals last year, but tell you what if they had of, and what happened to Brisbane in the weeks coming up to the Prelim and the Prelim bloodbath, I would be angry.
Also they are a merged team, with open wounds still at the fore.
Maybe North should have ot been as greedy in their wishlish, then all the other AFL clubs would have backed their merger plan. Then they would be secure in the knowledge that they can survive financially in the competition.
The thing is North needed the money on Saturday, and thats an awful lot of pressure for anyone to continually play under.

 

[larry]

Is Ben, Pat's nickname?

 

[Shinboners]

Mick Martyn must be doing something right if he's getting up the noses of so many opposition fans.

In regards to the Simon Black situation....if Mick Martyn really did deliberately want to punch the poor kid, then Black would've had a much more serious injury than just a fractured eye socket. Martyn is probably one of the five strongest players in the competition. And when strong players want to really throw their weight around, then the damage can be horrendous.....just ask Peter Caven after being taken out by Tony Lockett or that St. Kilda player....can't remember his name, he was ex-North....who was taken out by Gary Ablett, or (ex-) North's Sam McFarlane who effectively lost his career after being punched by Barry Hall.

By the way, why are the Brisbane people being so holier-than-thou? They're coached by Leigh Matthews...one of the best, but toughest players ever to have played, and they named their best and fairest after Roger Merrett, an enforcer if there ever was one. Must be the heat methinks.

Anyway, as someone so succinctly put it, don't mix up strong play with dirty play. Martyn is in the former, not the latter.

 

[Pete]

Isnt strong debate grand!!!!?
Theres nothing like a bit of AFL footy team rivalry to really get a topic going. A few strong words to stir a bit of tension makes compelling reading.
Dave,
Johnson was fair (within the rules) but did not play much of the ball if there was any slight change he could hip and shoulder a North player. I call a lot of this stuff charging (not within the rules) but the AFL sees differently. I know, if it was a North player Id be defending him but it wasnt and a 299 game player looking at his 300th got ko'd.
About Barnard, having a go entailed saying words. Now, you could say he said "Are you alright? I love you. I want your baby." Whatever. But I was at the game and what the TV didnt pick up was him saying words and then running off laughing. That effected me a bit. Anyway, its over now, no reports were laid on Johnson (Probably correct) and Blakey seems... well..alive so Ill leave it at that. I just dont like to leave a topic open ended in my eyes.

North Melbourne in Melbourne 4 Eva
Pete

 

[Ben]

For your information. I do not know rafter. I am not a Brisbane supporter. I live in Melbourne and I am a Hawthorn supporter.
I just happen to like to take my kids to the footy and not have them say Dad how did he get away with that. We cant do that when we play footy.
I also think that some teams really on agression,, instead of skill.
As a parent I certainly would not have been at all happy to have my child receive a broken eye socket.And the idiot that said ' only ' a broken eye socket. Put yourself in that players place. He is only a kid. Enough said.
I like to watch footy, but when uneccesary acts of violence occur, I think its dengratiting the game.We have a very skillful game, lets keep it that way. Buy the way I happen to think that the shirt front is a great skill. I just happen to think that thuggery isn't.

 

[John]

Wow. It can only be North supporters sticking up for Martin and Carey and co.Just like the Doggies supporters love Romero and Libba, the rest of us hate them. Not because we want them in our teams, but because they are plain dirty players.
They are all getting old.Not long till they no longer play.
Maybe the tribunal will enforce the rules this year. I would love to see that.

 

[Bradley.]

I never said Martyn wasn't tough or dedicated now did I? I said he is a dirty player and no one here for all there chest beating can prove otherwise. So what if he played all these games? So what if he was never reported more in his career? As some of you have said, Libba won a brownlow but he's a dirty little prick too, which shows somewhat 'selective' reporting by the umpires.

It seems strange to me, that everyone seems to miss other incidents in Mick Martyns career that are just as questionable as the Black incident. Anyone remember Aaron Keating from the Crows?? Martyn broke his jaw in 1998 and ended his AFL career, no report. He argues / screams and intimidates umpires when he doesn't get his own way, no reports for that. He hangs on ALL the time (yes I know full backs do that sometimes), but rarely are frees paid against him for the offence even whan it is obvious.

Anyone got anything else to add?

 

[Dave]

Pete,
you're getting the Johnson boys mixed up. MARK Johnson threw his weight around most of the night. Jason Johnson laid ONE perfect hip & shoulder, and from what I saw wasn't overly agressive for the rest of the game.

Shinboners: You're correct to say that if Martyn wanted to punch Black he would have suffered a worse injury except for one point - Matryn IIRC was falling to the ground when he hit him so he wouldn't have been able to put the same power into it as had he been standing with both feetr on the ground. Keep defending him though )



[This message has been edited by Dave (edited 02 March 2000).]

 

[Shinboners]

Okay Ben

When does a shirtfront become thuggery? Last year, Byron Pickett shirtfronted Brendan Krummel from Hawthorn, and unfortunately, Krummel had a cheekbone broken. Now, I don't think anyone felt that Pickett was being a thug....there were certainly no complaints from Krummel or the Hawks. Johnson shirtfronts Blakey last Saturday and Blakey has concussion. I don't have a problem with that...it's a fact of the game. In most cases, the "targetted" player gets up and gets on with the game, but every now and again...as in the case of Krummel and Blakey, they get injured. Martyn injures Black's eye in a tangle which I believe was accidental.

Now, in the shirtfront, a player is targetted. In Martyn's case, Black was not targetted. You cannot condemn Martyn's incident with Black and then accept the shirtfront since the former is an accident while the latter is the result of deliberately targetting a player. Either you reject both as thuggish or accept both as being part of the game. You cannot logically have a foot in both camps.

In the end though, with things like trial by video, the game is far less violent than it was in previous years. What I don't want to see is the game sanitised to the extent that the physical aspects of the game are eliminated. While I enjoy the skills of players like the Harveys, Hirds, Longs, and Jarmans of the game, I also love watching the efforts of the Martyns, Libbas, Hockings, and Johnsons as well. For the game to be entertaining, you need both types of players.

 

[Dave]

Shinboners,
it's a matter of opinion as to whether Martyn "targetted" Black or not

I also think it's wrong to compare a punch with the shirtfront's you mentioned. The concussion in Blakey's case came from an accidental clash of heads. Sure, the shirtfront was "targetted", but the head wasn't.

Anyway, just my 2 cents worth

 

[ruth]

I was a North supporter.I know that Black was taken out of that particular game. I know cause we were seated on the fenceline, and we could hear what was said to him as they went to the ground.
But then again poor Mick, he's so badly done by. Pardon me, he breaks a persons eyesocket.
If that had of occured away from the footy field, in those circumstances, things would be totally different.
I heard on here that the person he hit still has blurred vision. Shinboner, how can that be ok.
Shirtfronts are a part of our game. Hitting someone isn't.
I know I have a female point of view. But 50% of AFL crowds are women, and we dont like to see someone hurt like this, and then get away with it, and have idiots stick up for him.
What a load of tripe.

 

[Shinboners]

Ruth

Obviously you have never played team sports. I have played football and soccer and said many, many things to intimidate opponents, threatening them with physical harm, and I've had things said to me, but no-one would seriously carry them out. On the field of play, what people say they will do and what they actually do (in terms of threats) are usually two totally different things.

Do you seriously believe that Mick Martyn, or any other player in the modern game, would go out with the intention of breaking another player's eye socket? Mick plays a hard game, he does take the rules to the limit, he even breaks them every now and again, but to say that he would want to end another players career is simply crazy.

 

[Pessimistic]

Shinboners

When picket floored Krummel eh went from a low position and went up with full force under Krummell's chin. He knew what he was doing and that will always deliver a knockout.

I believe that had he repeated it, or others copied (as most dickheads went on about it being 'legal' then the AFL would have needed to act, as it Is AFL, not Boxing

 

[Shinboners]

Pessimistic

So, what did you think when Dermott Brereton took out Dean Chiron with a shirtfront?