Season 2015 will be ruined if some but not all teams play a depleted Essendon.

Will be the difference between sides finishing top 2, top 4 and top 8.

The premier will forever have an asterix next to its name due the compromised season.

Even if they were to get only 6 months , which I personally doubt , their (EFC ) season is stuffed anyway.

As part of the ban they can have NO association with the club for purposes of training etc. Even if they (players) were to maintain their fitness theyd have NO match fitness and bugger all normal preseason effectively.

The Premier will be the Premier

As a Melbourne supporter I will happily accept the premiership with or without an asterix.

Me too, especially if we can play Obelix at FF and move Jesse to CHF.

Just don't hire Getafix as club doctor.

Wouldnt mind getafix. His magic potion would sort us out.

Mind you thats what essendon did

Does the latest court finding change anything?

Fine.

Then rub them out the entire season.

Don't go half pregnant.

It's either suspend them for the entire season, or nothing at all.

Don't compromise the season.

Should the Dons players miss the first half the season, how is it fair that St Kilda get a 'free' 4 points in round 5, where as Melbourne have to play them at full strength in round 15.

THE ESSENDON 34: ON TRIAL (has a nice ring to it!)

Some things I know I don't know:

Assuming the players get a substantial ban E.G 12 matches, Essendon will need a squad from "somewhere" to be able to compete so: can suspended players still train at the club and how does that fit with a list limit of 42?

If they are allowed to train how much focus from coaching staff will they get given coaches have to prepare the "playing" squad for match days?

Once suspension is served how long before these players reach match fitness and how long to meld again into a competitive team unit?

What becomes of the "from somewhere" squad members (above) once the suspended players return? If some talent(s) is discovered in the "somewhere" pool do they stay? How?

. . . and so on!!

Probably there are things I don't know I don't know . . but I can't be sure!

Even if they were to get only 6 months , which I personally doubt , their (EFC ) season is stuffed anyway.

As part of the ban they can have NO association with the club for purposes of training etc. Even if they (players) were to maintain their fitness theyd have NO match fitness and bugger all normal preseason effectively.

The Premier will be the Premier

The problem is they are already in provisional suspensions and have been since the end of the season. A provision sentence allows them to train with the club but backdate it if found guilty

Unbelievable really

Does the latest court finding change anything?

It throws a lot up in the air for ASADA.

They have hours of interviews with the two they failed to subpeona, but the players lawyers will correctly argue that recorded interviews can't be cross examined. That's not an issue in the tribunal, but this will end up in a court appeal regardless, so it won't be admissible there.

The problem is they are already in provisional suspensions and have been since the end of the season. A provision sentence allows them to train with the club but backdate it if found guilty

Unbelievable really

I think I may have made a woman provisionally pregnant once.

For goodness sake you are or you are not suspended, and backdating penalties when no penalty has been taken is a mockery.

Two years from the beginning of the penalty. Then and only then should the clock start ticking. Appeals are fine but you stay suspended until the appeal is finalised. Don't mess around with trash.

Should the Dons players miss the first half the season, how is it fair that St Kilda get a 'free' 4 points in round 5, where as Melbourne have to play them at full strength in round 15.

If they were suspended for the first half of the season, and then we play them at full strength and lose against a team that has little to no match fitness, cohesive training, etc - then we don't deserve the 'free' 4 points. Actually I feel for St Kilda who don't get the opportunity to knock the comeuppance out the drug cheating #### like we do.

I also still strongly beleive that no football supporter (non essendon) should attend an Essendon home game, so that we can send a strong message as that we don't support what they have done(doing)and it will hurt them in the hip pocket - attendance figures, marketing (empty stadiums) and sponsorship (company will avoid them like the plague if the public shows such distastes). All my friends have adopted this philosophy and are spreading the word: "the greatest evil is when good people do nothing" - drugs in sport is evil and we can do something 'don't support Essendon home games'

I still cannot get my mind around the fact that we will know nothing from these proceedings.

Just before Christmas we will get a verdict and that is it.

Justice being seen to be done has been abandoned here.

Where is all this pessimism that we will lose to EFC next year coming from!! Last time I looked we beat them 2 of last 3 years. So we can/should win regardless of who, when, where!

Privately, I dream thrashing EFC would make for a beautiful season in 2015! Will settle for a win!

Wouldnt mind getafix. His magic potion would sort us out.

Mind you thats what essendon did

No they used Danks instead

It throws a lot up in the air for ASADA.

They have hours of interviews with the two they failed to subpeona, but the players lawyers will correctly argue that recorded interviews can't be cross examined. That's not an issue in the tribunal, but this will end up in a court appeal regardless, so it won't be admissible there.

If this ends up in a court you might find they will have to appear. It's just in a tribunal situation that they don't.

Anyone listen to Rohan Conolly this morning on SEN?

James Hird has done nothing wrong & the 2 new board members are a great idea!!!

Unbelievablethat this club has got such a soft ride thus far in the media.

I will never attend another Essendrug home game.

I don't see how the witnesses not appearing does anything but potentially drags this out longer if there are appeals because they can't be cross examined.

Asada should leak some of the evidence to ramp up the public hate efc campaign a bit, sick or all the pro bombers delusional garbage and the supporters who have this supreme confidence they are innocent that Is based on as much as their original court challenge was.

Anyone listen to Rohan Conolly this morning on SEN?

James Hird has done nothing wrong & the 2 new board members are a great idea!!!

Unbelievablethat this club has got such a soft ride thus far in the media.

I will never attend another Essendrug home game.

Missed it this morning 'wyl', in fact I turned it off. It seems to me that the 2 new board members are way out of their depth but time will tell.

Anyone listen to Rohan Conolly this morning on SEN?

James Hird has done nothing wrong & the 2 new board members are a great idea!!!

Unbelievablethat this club has got such a soft ride thus far in the media.

I will never attend another Essendrug home game.

I haven't watched these pricks play since 2000.

I love Christian Salem.

getting popcorn ready for monday.

I think I may have made a woman provisionally pregnant once.

For goodness sake you are or you are not suspended, and backdating penalties when no penalty has been taken is a mockery.

Two years from the beginning of the penalty. Then and only then should the clock start ticking. Appeals are fine but you stay suspended until the appeal is finalised. Don't mess around with trash.

Agreed i think if they accepted a voluntary suspension waiting on the result (which they have invoked) they should not be able to train with the club

The fact they can is a disgrace

Essendon have done all this to themselves - it is not for the AFL to facilitate their getting around a penalty, and Essendon fielding a team post-penalty will not be realistic. For the sake of the rest of the competition, and to send the right message, Essendon the guilty club should be denied the right to compete for whatever one or two or four seasons' ban that they get.

I do not support any suggestion that Essendon be helped to field a team, or be allowed to put a VFL team into the AFL. The rogue club Essendon should be simply rubbed out - forever in my opinion, even more for the legal carry-on since they got questioned than for the original mindbogglingly dishonest and destructive doping programme; but if the ultimate sanction is x many years, the AFL should be quite clear: "We don't want to see you for at least the next x many years". Sure, curse them for stuffing up the roster etc - but more important is an unambiguous and strong (and now diluted by delay) message about the game being drug-free. EFC are GONE. Has to be that way - smack and a cuddle will not work for this one - not for Essendon, not for the footy public, not for the credibility of the AFL, not for Australia's sporting image.

Essendon, you broke relationship with us - and we cannot, will not, stretch the friendship that far...

Does the latest court finding change anything?

Not really in my view.

It was important for ASADA to show they did all in their power to ensure that witnesses like Charter and Alavi would attend so as not to enable any inferences negative to their case to be drawn. In the absence of their attendance, the players will not be able to cross examine the witnesses but, by the same token, they don't appear to have made much of an effort to persuade them to attend (in fact I understand they were represented at the Supreme Court over the past few days and are asking for their costs). I would argue that in these circumstances, it's a bit of stretch them complaining about the lack of ability to cross examine and further, if they do go down in the action, they couldn't possibly argue they co-operated with ASADA and then seek mitigation of any penalty.

I agree that we should all have the popcorn well in hand for next week's events..

just stocked up on popcorn and bananas this morning, thanks jack

Not really in my view.

It was important for ASADA to show they did all in their power to ensure that witnesses like Charter and Alavi would attend so as not to enable any inferences negative to their case to be drawn. In the absence of their attendance, the players will not be able to cross examine the witnesses but, by the same token, they don't appear to have made much of an effort to persuade them to attend (in fact I understand they were represented at the Supreme Court over the past few days and are asking for their costs). I would argue that in these circumstances, it's a bit of stretch them complaining about the lack of ability to cross examine and further, if they do go down in the action, they couldn't possibly argue they co-operated with ASADA and then seek mitigation of any penalty.

I agree that we should all have the popcorn well in hand for next week's events..

From the press reports I've seen it is not clear what the players lawyers were doing at the proceedings (other than asking for their costs). Were they for or against these guys being compelled to attend?

I presume the latter in which case you'd have to wonder why they'd want their testimony suppressed other than being able to whinge they couldn't cross-exam them. In which case they should have joined with ASADA & AFL to be able to cross-examin. Can anyone suggest a consistent line they could take to explain this apparent contradiction between their approach to the court and the tribunal?

BTW, I don't think the title of this new thread is entirely appropriate. There will be a lot more discussion about Hird and the admin, not just the 34 players.

Surely it would be in the players interests to be able to cross examine Charter and Alavi, for I have no doubt that ASADA will be introducing evidence they have garnered from them. The evidence will have less value than if they attended but the players will not be able to cross examine, so for mine I think the players are the big losers and ADADA can say we did our best to get them here but they declined.

anything less than 2 year bans will be unacceptable and you can bet ASADA will be pushing for the full 2 years