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That's an awful review. You may as well not do it at all. If you are attempting to foster an environment of honest feedback then I don't see how these reviews would cause any issue. I find the reviews really good because they give me an idea of why people aren't getting a game and what the coaching staff is looking for from each player. Otherwise you end up with the situation like previous years where you have no idea why players aren't getting a game. Now I know that Blease isn't getting a game because he's not working hard enough defensively and that Fitzpatrick isn't because he needs to compete in the air better. There are plenty of positive reviews, like Georgiou. He had a bad review against Coburg, but has had excellent reviews over the last few weeks and now we know that he deserves a spot in the AFL except that he needs to wait until a spot opens up. I don't find the reviews to be negative. They are just straightforward. Also interesting that the topic was raised by OLC, who has 5 posts. 4 have been about Casey and the other was giving a detailed defence of Sam Blease.

Our current recruiting manager is Jason Taylor. His fingerprints are all over Salem, Tyson, JKH, Riley, Georgiou and the other rookies. I find it surprising (even astounding) that posters find it difficult to separate one recruiter from the next. Taylor didn't recruit Morton, nor for that matter Hogan. Why are you (Fence and others) so quick to lump him in the same basket as our former questionable recruiters - as though he's on some mission to assemble soft runts! I don't get it. I'm pretty happy with the return so far and it's only year one. Let him make his mark!

yep, more money for the lawyers

So here's how it goes Hird employs dank Dank orders heaps of drugs inc Tb4 from charter Charter goes to china gets raw ingredients Takes them to alavi (chemist) Alavi doesn't label vials or test them once he's made them but gives them to dank Dank gives them to nurses at clinic across the road where they are injected into essendon players But it's the afl and asada who are at fault

Think of it as a "F-off WA clubs" premium. I'm more than comfortable with it.

Geelong is the worst of the choices he could make.

grow a pair mate.

I lived and worked in Zambia and the DRC for the best part of 6 years. Some of the things I've seen and experienced are quite amazing (and disturbing) when looking back at them.I have no idea what you do there Ascobar (I was in mining) but some of the more satisfying things we did as expats were to visit childrens orphanage's of which there were plenty of. We'd take along a few bags of maize meal and whole chickens which as you would know makes up the main staple diet - along with Kapenta (dried minnow like fish). We used to take the Sherrin along as well and taught the kids how to kick and handball and eventually tried to run some training drills. It was highly amusing to say the least. Such an amazing continent. Enjoy your time there.

I just hope if he leaves, his new club gets the James Frawley of 2014, drifting in and out of games, fumbling at the most inappropriate times, playing the game on his terms and not those that make his team better and seemingly conflicted mentally. His leadership on field has been virtually non existent. Having said that I like Chip and would like him to stay but he has not offered us a lot this season and has let himself and the club down with his actions and words both on and off the field. We will be worse off in the short term if he leaves but life will go on and sometimes the best thing to do is keep focused on the big picture, which may be enhanced as a result of him leaving.

Super stuff Mr. Positivity. A young bloke, who is a huge part of our future, signs a new deal and there are still some who have to bring the tone down.

That's the problem cyclops (is that ok?). There is far too much attention paid to the big picture and not enough to the smoke and mirrors. It's a sunny day in France, hardly a cloud in the sky, but young Lord Jimmy is 10,427 miles away, deep in thought. That evil Darth Demetriou has conspired against young, innocent, sweet, talented Lord Jimmy and Jimmy won't stand for it. "Time to launch the countermeasures"' barked Lord Jimmy. So all over the land smoke and mirrors were deployed, with zealots posted to operate them. "Oh the subterfuge", sniggered Lord Jimmy as he rubbed his hands together in glee, for he could afford the best mirrors and smoke in the land, and he was not afraid to use them.

it was all a misunderstanding over what "the good stuff" meant poor old james, the good doc and the rest of the club were duped by scurrilous "outsiders" (= not "true" essendon folk) oh and of course by AD and his cohort of dysfunctional cadres with their own agendas the supplements cost so much money there was none left over for record keeping all makes sense

now that would be real bummer

Well...Hird is the victim here, havent you been following this properly !!!

At first I was, like many here, [censored] off. Now I am coming around to the thought that if he doesn't really want to stay, he should go, we should pick up the comp pick, and move on. Either way for me now. Getting really tired of the deception. If he doesn't want to say he wants to stay, clearly he doesn't .

We should be given band 1 compo regardless. How we didn't get a PP at the end of last year was farcical. AFL said we still had Mitch Clark and Hogan to come in. Ignoring the fact that it should be based on what has just transpired and not on future potentials, both of these players have not played a game for us this year, one is now retired and one might get a couple of games at the back end. *cough* band 1 compo *cough*

I've been reading this entire thread and I'm ready to plead insanity

AD obviously suspected what the Bombers were up to and when summoned to an ACC briefing in Canberra joined the dots and called Evans. Thats very different from revealing the contents of and ACC report which he had not yet been briefed on. I think AD is telling truth but with spin. He did what he did to try and minimise the fallout to the Bombers and the comp and in the process put himself in the sights of Hird and his cronies who seem keen to blame him for everything. I recon Hird is such an egotist he believes that the only reason they are where they are now is because their hand was forced by the call from AD and they made a blue by self reporting. Either that or from day one they have taken the approach to deflect everything onto AD the AFL Dank and Robinson and ASADA in an immoral attempt to minimise the damage or create the questions to end up in the Federal Court. From where I stand Little and Hird (through idiots like Robsinson at the HUN) have manufactured the poor perception of ASADA and the ASADA/AFL investgation from day one.

Please tell me your joking. These reviews are fantastic. Do you honestly think they are not getting told this things on a regular basis behind closed doors? This is nothing new. I think this is a great report that gives genuine insight into the progression of players at VFL level where most of us dont get to see them play. We all sit here saying why isnt X, Y or Z in the team bla bla bla well finally there is some transparency and supporters are informed what areas these players need to work on. And really... if the players cant handle the heat from this report, they really dont belong in an AFL environment.

Yeah, yeah, we shouldn't have got so far behind etc. But the bulldogs shouldn't have let us back in the way they did. I'd love to know how many umps from the dogs game will get a run in the VFL this week. I'd say most will be dropped. A gift goal and 2 shocking holding the balls in the last :90 seconds that are all admitted mistakes. That's the difference in the game. We have a right to feel very disappointed in the umpiring.

NEVER!!!! I still lament the 1958 GF loss that cost us 4 in a row and I was still 24 years from being born.

Can confirm TMac is up in Darwin and a good chance to play. I have family staying in the same hotel, and have received pictorial evidence. Heres hoping!

Nice pics. DRC must have been pretty minded blowing. Were you based in Kinshasa? Definitely a place I'd like to visit when I'm back in Ethiopia. Here's something random I saw not far from Addis Ababa just before coming home, make of it what you will!

During the Depression jazza?

I want to see Hird standing on a dais one more time. "James Albert Hird we find you guilty, and sentence you to..........insert harsh penalty here................and ban you from attending AFL games, clubs or functions for the term of your unnatural life"

Odd. Someone think an innocuous word offensive. I would have though the systemic bastardisation to the health of players to be offensive. Each their own I suppose

Oxford dictionary:- bummer ˈbʌmə/ nouninformal plural noun: bummers 1. a disappointing or unpleasant situation or experience. "the team's relegation is a real bummer" 2. NORTH AMERICAN a loafer or vagrant. "baby doesn't have to be a travel bummer" From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bummers was a nickname applied to foragers of Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Union army during its March to the Sea and north through North Carolina and South Carolina during theAmerican Civil War. The designation "bummers" was used, both by soldiers and civilians, to describe Sherman's soldiers, official and unofficial, who requisitioned food from Southern homes along the route of the Army's march. Often highly destructive in nature, bummers became notorious among Southerners for looting and vandalism, and they did much to shatter the illusion that the Confederate Army was successfully defending its territory on all fronts. The bummers' activities in Georgia and the Carolinas helped ensure that the South would be unable to sustain its war effort; additionally, bummers' destruction of industrial property rendered the garrisoning of southern cities largely unnecessary by destroying most, if not all, of those facilities in their path that replenished the Confederate war effort (such as cotton gins, farms, foundries, lumber mills, etc.).[1][2] Sorry what was your point? Perhaps it is you that doesn't know what was meant!

Bummers. After everything written in this thread about those cheating bastards at Essendon and their absolute failure in duty of care to their players and you pick up on Bummers. They deserve to be called far worse than Bummers from Bummerland. Essendon are drug cheats. Essendon are lying bastards. Essendon are incompetent. Essendon are the lowest scum in the AFL. and they are ruining our game. I hope they are wiped from the AFL and never heard of again. And you think calling them bummers isn't necessary.

Just a mild case of the Syndrome. It's fine.

I am not one for political correctness but geez I find the word "dud" offensive.

So what? They were doing their job. Gerard healy is on the record as saying he contacted the AFL after hearing rumours about the peptide program at the Bummers and the number of tell-tale soft tissue injuries. A lot on the footy industry knew about Dank and the Weapon. Why do the idiot bummers and HSun think this is great news? They are truly pathetic

Probably Morton, Scully, Jurrah or Clark.

I sense the whole fiasco will eventually take its Toll

I seriously think Tyson is the one. I see some of Simon Black and Hodge in him. Its easy to forget he is a kid - if he played a few less games last year he would be elligible for the rising star this year he is slowing down in the past month but the scope to improve is massive. Also he has that x factor about him in that he has that confidence (bordering on arrogance) that all champs have and that i havent seen from a Melb player in years. another preseason and tidy up disposal and watch out We'll be popping a bottle of Dom when he wins a brownlow in 2018

Dom Tyson. That is all. After that, our premiership chances rely on Viney, Salem, Hogan, Toumpas, Trengove, getting to "elite" status, which will be one level below where Tyson is. I hope that by that stage, Jones, Frawley, Dawes and Vince still have something to offer.

Ah, The Wiz. My all time equal favourite player - shares that title with Robbie Flower, and with Sean Wight a close third. "The" day against Collingwood was interesting. Dragged in the first half, then got a chance for redemption when Ben Beams broke his arm. The rest is history. The first minute or two of the 1998 final against North had me believing. Wiz took a hanger, and I thought it was going to be our night. I knew if we could roll them we would take it out. I think that was probably the year that should've been for us, more than any, including 1987 and 2002. Was inconsolable when he left - was like the bloke on that Hilux ad when the ute went over the cliff. To rub salt in, I think he kicked a winner against us at Freo one night, and celebrated in true Wizardry style. Still brought a smile to my face...bastard! Jaded (post #5) - Miller needs to look that way, and maintain it for the next 35 years. Seen what he's married to lately?

We want the trial :ASADA "" In arguing what documents would be supplied, lawyer Daniel Starr, acting for ASADA, said he could not yet reveal what the anti-doping body's defence would be but he wanted to ''get to the real legal issues'' and banish the ''white noise'' around the issue since Essendon self-reported in February last year. ''There is a way to cut through this. We want the trial. The viability of it is tenuous,'' he said ""

I steadfastly refuse to believe it is all about previously recruiting poor talent. Jetta was a poor recruit, pederson a bad pick up - wait a second - one preseason with a decent coachng team who know how to coach and develop and a few previous poor choices are looking not so poor and this is after 8 months. Paul Roos has had a constant theme -" I need to teach these players to be AFL footballers". We are seeing the early fruits of his labour and it leaves me in no doubt that this education and development has been sadly missing in previous years. I will now exit myself from the debate on whether we recruited poorly previously as I don't know if Roos would have recruited them in the first place and more importantly whether he could have turned them into footballers.

The media war seems to have been stepped up by all sides over the past 24 hours. Some Essendon tragics a appear to have picked up on Dr. Peter Harcourt's comments about sending players' samples to a Cologne laboratory "but nothing came out of it". They claim this means there were no illegal drugs involved. What Harcourt didn't tell was about the timing of the tests which is all-important in detection. It often takes years before testing methods are sophisticated enough to locate some substances in the samples. Others are claiming his comments are proof of an illegal joint investigation which is more rubbish. An interesting item is the revelation that Dank is withdrawing an appeal to the AAT against the ADVRP Stephen Dank withdraws appeal against drugs panel with administrative appeals tribunal. The fact that he had lodged the appeal early last month would be news to many. We don't know why he's changed his mind. Is it because of the costs involved or was there a deal done with ASADA? I wonder if we'll ever find out? The one I like the most is about Essendon players determined to protect their anonymity. Strangely enough, before Mark Robinson of the Herald Sun announced the names of 14 current and former Essendon players supposedly involved in the scandal, neither the AFL, nor Essendon, nor the AFLPA, nor any player took any steps to protect reputations by preventing publication of the names. Now, why do I think the reason might have something to do with the identity of the party that leaked the names to Robinson in the first place?

Says the poster who is always first to trash the players, club, coach etc.

What the [censored] are you talking about?

What they actually need to start paying is in the back to the player on the bottom. Think about it, it will quickly clear up all these packs

i've moved on and let it go. No point crying over spilt milk, i've turned over a new page, let bygones begone, put it all behind me, gotten over it, made my peace, turned the other cheek and focussed on the positive things but............it still makes me want to spew

Not sure that is right. I think mates and club culture play a big part. Plenty have rejected dollars for loyalty. Reiwald would be a good example.

All this scrutiny on holding the ball by the umpires means that this week we are going to see another interpretationn of the rules which could mean that they then reinterprete others, i.e. during the doggies game a melbourne players legs legs were taken out by a doggie on the ground resulting in the melbourne player falling on the doggie and him getting a free kick, which is a departure from the taking the legs out paid weeks earlier. players are not going to know how to play the game until they start to see what the umps pull out of their bag.

Haha you've got commitment to the troll, I'll give you that.

must be tough over there......no padding on posts

and for most of the dullards on here, it is the difference between 'this is a resurgence" and "we won't win another game for the year, hopeless list etc"

I say we should live with it. For every mistake made by the umpires, our own players committed half a dozen. If we can reduce or eliminate our mistakes we'll soon start winning - and winning well against similar quality opposition.

Just got off the phone to my best mate who has spoken to Jesse today, she said you can't wipe the smile off his face, absolutely stoked he is staying another couple of years Can confirm there has been really strong interest from not just west coast and Freo but other clubs as well but Jesse knows how much we have invested in him and he's got some really good mates here in Jack viney Jimmy toumpas and Dean Kent He's in for a significant pay rise but I wasn't told an exact figure and also Jesse is hoping to play against the lions but the club may make himwait an extra week, he's really working hard to get back asap