Robbo does not even speak or write Standard English. His grammar and vocabulary are lacking any real sophistication. The Guardian, The Australian and even The Age would not employ him.

Edited April 4, 20196 yr by Thehardtackler

Can’t get past the paywall. 

Anything in this cheap shot we didn’t know before?

Christ we got Watts didnt we>? Scully..?? Bit like winning the lottery and the cheque bounces..

The majority of the reaction I've seen has been 'who cares'? Its such a non-story

  On 04/04/2019 at 09:52, Wadda We Sing said:

Christ we got Watts didnt we>? Scully..?? Bit like winning the lottery and the cheque bounces..

Ha ha! ... very true Wadda

I reckon we had the worst run in drafting ever ... no other club comes lose.  Abject failure after abject failure yet all had stellar junior career's and close to 100% of our supporters were all-in on the picks.   The list of failed first rounders is simply astonishing.

And if Petracca doesn't get to at least B+ standard,  he will cop grief for his entire career ... I can almost guarantee it  "He's supposed to be a Star" is the belief system.

But you'd probably have to go to Philadelphia (sixers) in the NBA.  Started tanking years ago and then kept picking duds.  But they were never perturbed and they just kept on tanking - year after year after year ... and now they've finally got a decent team.  Go figure!

  On 04/04/2019 at 10:05, Macca said:

Ha ha! ... very true Wadda

I reckon we had the worst run in drafting ever ... no other club comes lose.  Abject failure after abject failure yet all had stellar junior career's and close to 100% of our supporters were all-in on the picks.   The list of failed first rounders is simply astonishing.

And if Petracca doesn't get to at least B+ standard,  he will cop grief for his entire career ... I can almost guarantee it  "He's supposed to be a Star" is the belief system.

But you'd probably have to go to Philadelphia (sixers) in the NBA.  Started tanking years ago and then kept picking duds.  But they were never perturbed and they just kept on tanking - year after year after year ... and now they've finally got a decent team.  Go figure!

Exactly.

I personally think this is despicable to be raking over the same muck as soon as it looks like a club is under performing because all the media overrated Melbourne before the season started. The media is becoming the equivalent of these terrible so called 'reality' shows who feel the need to inject sensation and nastiness into them for ratings. For some reason this reminded me of the time Tom Scully looked a dying Jim Stynes in the eyes and declared he wanted to remain a one team player. (Stynes tells this story in his book). Treachery and deceit everywhere. What a poisonous atmosphere must have existed at the club at that time. RIP Jim and Dean Bailey. ( If the media will let you).

How did Mick Warner get this documents? What someone at the AFL just handed them to him. 

I feel sorry for Dean Bailey's family having this saga dragged up and of course Jim's family. I wonder of Chris Connolly will come out and say something. 

again I ask why do we need to hear about this 10 years on. 

Interesting that Wellman and West are the two that are probably the most compelling bits of testimony, and both of those guys are outsiders, with allegiances at other clubs.

Not this [censored] again. Christ on a stick can we let this go?! 

How about looking into Carlton Tony Liberatore who was an assistant coach at the time basically admitted to tanking and not wanting to win. Funny about the timing of this article doesn't look like you have any confidence in your own team Essendon Robbo to win naturally. 

 

Isnt it great we had to go through all that while a tanking Carlton got away scot free.

Nothing new in any of this. Ironic isn’t it - if Jordan McMahon doesn’t somehow smash one through from 55m after the siren none of this ever matters - a real sliding doors moment.

I hope this has the effect that I think it will with the current club - use it to galvanise, band together and come out roaring from the bounce tomorrow night.

Old hat.

Yawn. No surprises. 

It’s sobering to get a reminder of a good man like Bails being dragged into that mess. RIP.

 

Edited April 4, 20196 yr by P-man

  On 04/04/2019 at 11:40, solly21 said:

How about looking into Carlton Tony Liberatore who was an assistant coach at the time basically admitted to tanking and not wanting to win.

Libba was publicly mocked by Demetriou when he said that. What a leader.

Of course Demetriou knew, he just wanted to protect the comp from licensing & gaming laws, didn't want visits from the anti corruption police, etc.

 

  On 04/04/2019 at 11:42, Petraccattack said:

Isnt it great we had to go through all that while a tanking Carlton got away scot free.

It was when he went mid-season to the Olympics and left Adrian Anderson in charge, that Anderson got the bright idea to look into Brock "bright spark" McLean's TV comments about it all.

Demetriou was horrified but couldn't stop it. Best he could do was thwart any finding of "tanking", which is how we got found guilty of "not tanking".

What supreme irony that Boy Scout Anderson was the only one in AFL house with any integrity, and because of that, we were the only ones pinged for not tanking! Thanks AFL! It's ancient history now but like a blood feud, is not forgotten.

  On 04/04/2019 at 08:44, rjay said:

Agree 'Diamond'...

...but get really angry that other clubs are not held to the same standard.

2 clubs coaches have come out and basically admitted tanking yet nothing has been done about it and we are forever going to carry the can as the only club that tanked.

I guess like everything else we did at the time we were bad at it. I mean look at who was running the place and his offsider, jobs for the boys. Should never have been allowed back into the club.

It was a disastrous period and nearly sank us, we've still recovering.

If we pick the clever clubs then Collingwood, Hawthorn and West Coast covered up well. They set the standard...

Carlton had influencers (the guy who leaves the room) at the top to help them cover up and the Tiges, who knows why Wallace (and club) was never investigated over comments he has made.

Agree Rjay.

I remember when Libba came out and said point blank that Carlton tanked and he was part of it. He was threatened by the AFL and recanted. Eddie admitted Collingwood had done the same. Wallace admitted the Tigers had done the same. There was reference to the Saints doing the same to get Reiwoldt and Kosi.

Guess what, only one club has ever been investigated.

Yes we tanked, just like many other clubs, but only us were put in the sh-t.

Warner has got his hands on 80 pages of Interviews that could only have come from the AFL. Who has leaked them? that should be the question that is now investigated.

Of course Essendon fanatic Robbo is up to his eyeballs in this and it is released when, on the eve of the Bombers must win game against the Demons.

I hope we beat the druggies by 100 points and refuse to comment on 10 year old non news.

 

Hawthorn got Hodge, Lewis, Franklin and Roughhead.
Collingwood picked up Pendlebury and Dale Thomas in '05 after playing off with the lions in '02 and '03 GF.
Carlton won both the Gibbs and Kruezer cups.
West Coast played in the' 05 and won the '06 GFs only to pick up Nic Nat at pick#2 in '08.
And we were the ones who got lynched by the media.

Now during the week Slobbo throws out his good mate drug cheat Hirds name again as a "potential" replacement for Worsfold.
And then has the gall to drag up our tanking labelling it Footys Biggest Cover-up on the front page the very day we meet his precious drug cheating footy club.

What a Forking joke of a biased journalist.

 

Edited April 4, 20196 yr by Fork 'em

Are these documents available outside of the Murdoch domain? If not, why not? And why does Newscorp have them?

If they were leaked from AFL House, I'd argue that that would constitute bringing the game into disrepute.

 

The arguments and the counter arguments lie buried in contemporary news items and can be read if one wants to delve into the archives on this site. Some is fact, a great deal is fiction based on supposition including quoting a dead man in a different way to the manner in which he told it. The purpose of the article is clear and needs to be treated with the contempt it deserves - not even as tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping.

That era is over now and I’m looking ahead to tonight’s game.

When will the MFC ever ride itself of continued controversy 

Slept early for once last night without my usual few glasses of wine before bed (missed all the media on this) and woke up in 2009... Weird!

It’s good. Us against the forkers of the world. Has ignited a bit of venom in me about tonight. 

Go Demons!

  On 04/04/2019 at 09:21, Little Goffy said:

Honestly, after 30 minutes trawling through, I'm not seeing a single unexpected word.

Have to wonder if this is the Herald Sun actually trying to influence the result of a game? Don't really think it'll work, it'll just get added to the symbolic 'mean tweets' banner really.

Other possibility is that the plan is to spit this out just before the game and then imply (in the event of a loss to Essendon) that it is a factor in a club spiralling back into crisis. Or, of course, if we win, it is the other sensationalist article, 'club rising above adversity'.

I'm starting to think the sports media are a bit shabby.

 

 

The media are shabby - Fixed

Clearly there was pressure from Schwab and co. to try to maximise the draft picks, however I have not seen any concrete evidence that it was actually enforced and that we intentionally lost games.

People point to players being played out of position, going  off for surgery or playing the kids, but that happens every year.

I want some hard concrete evidence that Melbourne intentionally lost games of football.