WELCOME TO THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB – JAKE MELKSHAM

[Dee1987 277]

29 minutes ago, Choke said:

I won't be cheering Melksham when he takes the field in 2017.

I'm extremely disappointed that we have a convicted drug cheat on our list, and would prefer that the club find a way to delist him out of principle.

I don't care that it'd mean we made a loss on the trade. This is bigger than that.

Not so black and white Choke, even though they were found to be guilty, and they are individually responsible for what goes into there bodies, they were as a club duped lead to believe that the supplements they were taking was all good.Had all these players known that this was dodgey None of them would have participated

 

[dees189227 12,507]

So Jake isnt allowed near the club for 12 months? Or the other banned players for that matter. So what do they do? Can our training guy still work with him? Maybe Jake has to live in the real world for 12 months and get a job. That would be interesting. 

[Mydee 288]

Why not suspend the Essendon football club for a year and give their current innocent players  one year transfers to clubs of their choice.

it would be a fitting punishment in line with the penalties handed out to its employees.. My view is that it was the club that should bear most of the responsibility not the players. I am not suggesting that their punishment wasn't warranted, like any other drug cheat they brought the game and themselves into disrepute. But they are young men, often teenagers, subject to enormous pressure to both perform and conform in an  occupation where the odds of making a successful living are low. The Essendon club let them down. As it stands, Essendon,  will be allowed to play matches and field another team when the club has quite clearly shown no responsibility  to the young men to whom it had a duty of care  The club will be able to keep its playing personal and develop new players while the players themselves may have had their careers terminated.

Can't see it happening though.

[bing181 9,454]

33 minutes ago, deefella said:

they were as a club duped lead to believe that the supplements they were taking was all good.Had all these players known that this was dodgey None of them would have participated

They weren't as duped as all that. Either they knew and kept quiet, or they went to some lengths to make sure they didn't know.

As for the players, their behaviour only confirms they knew that what they were doing was dodgy as all hell.

[junk 342]

Under the buyer beware thread it was mentioned that Jake could be suspended yet the Dees as usual made a poor call. The question is does Melbourne get compensation for Jake along with other clubs who pick up Essendon players? Does Jake get paid by the Dees under the buyer beware rule. Why does the morrons who run the AFL allow Essendon players to transfer to other club whilst being accused of being drug cheats.Suspended players are likely to take class action against the Essendon Football club this will also likely to include de listed players providing they can get a Dr of… on their side to say that injection of chemical X led to a down turn in their ability or whatever.Lawyers will be the biggest winners. Is Essendon going to be entilted to priority draft pick if they come last in 2016?

[junk 342]

What I forgot to say if the Dees don't  obtain compensation,who is getting off the rookie list. The AFL should have policies in place if the Dons are found guilty.

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

2 hours ago, CBDees said:

I am not worried about Melksham as we escaped lighter compared with the Saints and PA who gifted Esendon first round picks and now lose potentially key players, whereas they they could have drafted Parish etc.

I don't follow your logic in that because 2 clubs have it worse there is no need to be aggreived

I would rather be one of the 13 clubs not involved at all

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

2 hours ago, Choke said:

I won't be cheering Melksham when he takes the field in 2017.

I'm extremely disappointed that we have a convicted drug cheat on our list, and would prefer that the club find a way to delist him out of principle.

I don't care that it'd mean we made a loss on the trade. This is bigger than that.

I'm with you. I'd love to chalk this one up to an idiotic trade decision and wash our hands of it completely

[Thehardtackler 785]

Jake Melksham is a very talented footballer who was misled by members of the EFC that should have known better. He is now an MFC player and I wish him a successful career with us.

 

[Bitter but optimistic 22,289]

8 minutes ago, Thehardtackler said:

Jake Melksham is a very talented footballer who was misled by members of the EFC that should have known better. He is now an MFC player and I wish him a successful career with us.

 

Yep he takes his whack and then, hopefully, he becomes a successful (and welcome) member of our successful team!

[junk 342]

Jake could end up being F.ck in the head after the wada decision,a bit like Neeld players I suppose.!!!!

[jnrmac 20,338]

3 hours ago, old dee said:

I was surprised too bb

But Gil the pie man said words to the effect of " the current suspend player payments will have to be included in the EFC total player cap for 2016 but they would increase the cap  for the make up players"

 

Just because they are included in the TPP doesnt mean we have to actually pay out the money....

[monoccular 17,746]

6 hours ago, stuie said:

To me it just feels like a watershed moment for footy club culture as far as peer group pressure v personal responsibility and leadership trust v individual careers. I can't remember another time like this where the trust of players has been so comprehensively destroyed. Footy players everywhere will see the players being banned and not avoiding responsibility and it will change the dynamic of the group think and blind trust in leadership that as been a hallmark of clubland since footy began.

 

stuie.   Well said.  A watershed moment.  I doubt that players will blindly follow ever again what even blind Freddie would have seen as something questionable at the very least.  ASADA and WADA have resources available for all (professional at least) sportsmen should they have any concerns. They chose, albeit under peer and staff pressure, to take the risk and were caught out.  

[dee-luded 2,959]

7 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Sounds good. Not back in Oz for two weeks however.

Might need to revise that no beer, no wine ; unless it's straight to the top shelf

you skiing in the east of france` again?

[Trisul 674]

13 hours ago, stuie said:

Yeah, I guess I see it differently. I have a lot of sympathy for the players. We all know what footy clubs are like, you are expected to trust the coach, believe what he says and do what you're told. I can't help but feel that kind of pressure tipped most players into not asking questions and towing the line, even more so if they felt their careers were on the line.

I don't believe the players willingly cheated and were duped into it by the coach and whichever admin staff knew what was actually happening.

 

Playing thread catch up, but I had to comment on the bolded.  It's a line I've heard numerous times today and it grates each time.  Footy is a professional team sport and it has internal pressures just like all the rest of the team-based WADA signatories do.  In fact I'd assert that pressures in the international team-based WADA compliant sports far exceeds that of the average AFL club.  By willfully withholding information from ASADA (before we even get to the 'what were they injected with' question) the players have/had already cheated the most fundamental aspect of the governing anti-doping system.

Melksham.. not ideal.

[Coq au vin 755]

Interesting on here that most are laughing at the Bombers and condemning their actions but many are supporting Melksham (who did the same thing as the others who are being banned) just because MFC were foolish enough to draft him. MFC should condemn his actions and delist him now. How can we point the finger at Essendon when one of our own was one of them and we have welcomed this drug cheat into our club? Not to mention Trengove and Jamar who were accused of using Mr Danks' substances also but seem to have slipped under the radar.

Edited January 12, 2016 by Diamond
Spelling

[Coq au vin 755]

It's toe the line not tow.

[Deecisive 1,709]

2 hours ago, Diamond said:

Interesting on here that most are laughing at the Bombers and condemning their actions but many are supporting Melksham (who did the same thing as the others who are being banned) just because MFC were foolish enough to draft him. MFC should condemn his actions and delist him now. How can we point the finger at Essendon when one of our own was one of them and we have welcomed this drug cheat into our club? Not to mention Trengove and Jamar who were accused of using Mr Danks' substances also but seem to have slipped under the radar.

They are footballers, they made the mistake of taking the easy way out by not having to think about what they were given. They mistakenly trusted/believed their Coaches and doctors, etc would do the right thing the legal thing. I doubt even Herd knew or even cared what Dank's did to the degree needed to assure himself everything was ok with his program. Who even knows if Danks told them the truth to the players anyway on what they were given, if that was the case how far does a player have to go to validate what goes into his body if the guy leading the program tells him its one thing but gives him another. Jake will serve his time and then be eligible to play again. I want him in our team rather than having him playing against us for some other side that has not chosen to climb to the lofty high ground you aspire to. Given your logic Trengrove should be dismissed, if someone slipped something into Hogans drink and he tested positive would you discard him permanently/as quickly.

There are levels of culpability I believe these guys are innocent of willingly taking illegal drugs, but they most likely did take them so they serve the time.

[beelzebub 23,392]

8 hours ago, dee-luded said:

you skiing in the east of france` again?

No...some friends in Finland.....then Kathmandu on the way home.

Someone's got to do it....sheesh !!! 

[Wiseblood 24,637]

9 hours ago, Curry & Beer said:

I'm with you. I'd love to chalk this one up to an idiotic trade decision and wash our hands of it completely

Really?  You've said plenty of dumb stuff over the years but this is up there with your best work.  Well done.

[Mach5 4,768]

16 hours ago, GM11 said:

Personally I don't think Taylor, Mahoney, Viney, Roos, Goodwin or Jackson are naive or stupid.

They would have been well aware of this possible scenario. They have taken a long term view.

 

We essentially traded a 2015 2nd round pick for Melksham to come onto our list on a 3 year deal for 2017 season onwards, with the possibility of him coming across for an early bonus year in 2016.
Doesn't sound like a horrible deal, especially remembering that you need to pay overs to bring in established talent from opposing clubs, and we sorely needed to increase our quality depth.

Focusing on the opportunity, rather than what has been potentially lost.

[stuie 7,374]

13 hours ago, Nasher said:

My answer is a non-commital "I dunno". It sucks, no doubt, but he still has a truckload of time to redeem himself. If we were talking a life ban I might see your point.

Ask yourself this: if Melksham has a spectacular 2017 and 2018 for the MFC, was the decision to trade still a bad one?

How about if we did the trade at the end of 2016 or 2017 (ie after the ban is served)? Assuming we paid the same price, would that be better? If so, why?

Hogan missed a year, Petracca too, were they bad draft choices now using the same logic?

 

[stuie 7,374]

10 hours ago, Curry & Beer said:

I'm with you. I'd love to chalk this one up to an idiotic trade decision and wash our hands of it completely

Right, so you want your cake and to eat it too?

You want to call the trade itself a horrible trade because he'll miss a year, but then you want to delist him and get absolutely nothing now for the trade.

Baffling logic.

 

[Curry & Beer 5,444]

48 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Really?  You've said plenty of dumb stuff over the years but this is up there with your best work.  Well done.

Yeah I tend to be anti-cheat. You can go ahead and cram it with your petty insult you peasant

[Bombay Airconditioning 6,489]

10 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Just because they are included in the TPP doesnt mean we have to actually pay out the money....

Great point.