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You people would have passed on McCartin purely because Tex *might* have been available as a FA next year? Right.

...on Tex, I think it's a good thing for our game to see him sign on so early amid the speculation. Given the (right or wrong) perception of big name players taking the money and running, it's nice to see the balance tip in the other direction a little bit.

Don't ya hate it when you miss an autocorrect before posting.

I've come to accept that although my preference is Lever, I'll have to watch him with interest from afar as he lifts the standard at either Collingwood or GWS. Brayshaw and McCartin it shall be. And we're very fortunate to get 2 players of such ability, class and most importantly, so driven.

Dean Bailey tried. Mark Neeld tried. Paul Roos tried. Two caretaker coaches tried. Were they all imparting the wrong message or was Blease not listening?

You can't win. Posters complain the club was negligent with Jack Trengove when he was 'obviously' injured. Yet wit the Toump they say he's useless and should be over his medical problems by now. Gotta laugh.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH GOLD!

Honestly...the whole debacle is a joke There needs to be a Royal Commission into the governance of sport in this country.. Its farcical Sport has been the hallowed turf of this Nation. So much pride and glory as Individuals and Teams often compete above their weight (sts) . It's woven into the national psyche. Its sacrosanct. Those who run the large commercial competitions seem to think they are above the rest, that those silly pesky rules are not for them. Those who effectively condone the untoward and nefarious amongst the leagues need to be themselves named and shamed. Yes this does indeed rot from the head down but it stems from higher than a single club. You have to wonder about ideals and standards of an organisation when the first instinct upon learning of impropriety was not stand fast and co-opt further investigation but to go running to the transgressors to warn them !! That to me said it all as far as where the AFL stood on this. They for this reason alone should have had NOTHING whatsoever to do with any investigations and/or deliverance of penalties. A lot of change must eventuate from all of this.

You can talk till youre blue in the face, this was the biggest selection gaffe in the draft history of the club. Other recruiters will tell you that if you spoke to the kid before the draft you would have known that he didn't have the temperament for AFL. It was obvious from his first training session that he was going to struggle. How did we not pick it?

I don't think they said we needed to play attractive football, rather I recall them saying we needed to play competitive football and to be in games (as supporters don't want to see matches that are over by half time). We really need to break the season down into two components. Unfortunately we always seem to reflect on how a team finishes a year - in our case that was really poorly. There's no doubt our last 8 or so games were terrible (taken as a whole) and there were patches where we looked as bad as we did in 2013. But we also shouldn't forget what happened in the first half of the year (after the first two games) - beating two finalists in Essendon and Richmond, knocking over Carlton who we hadn't beaten in years and winning in Adelaide for the first time since 2001. We did everything but beat the Bulldogs at the MCG, were reasonably competitive against the Grand Finalist Sydney, led preliminary finalist Port Adelaide midway through the last term and were right in the match against the Pies on QB. It's not exactly world conquering form but from where we had come from in 2013 it was bordering on an exceptional performance from the coaching staff and players. At that stage Roos was being bandied about as a potential coach of the year. Yes we fell away significantly and played some shocking footy late in the year. But we need to look at the season as a whole. While we only won four games (compared with four in 2012 and two in 2013), the 2014 season for me was on a different planet to what we saw in 2012 and 2013 because of what we showed in that 10 week period earlier in the year.

A win over the Cats in Geelong next season would be cause for a quiet pint or ten.

Massive LOL at Geelong thinking taking Melbourne players will get them back into the premiership window.

Geelong seem to have taken a few punts this time around. Clark, Stanley, Blease. Maybe it's boom or bust for them, the last hurrah. I don't rate Stanley, I think Blease will be only a bit part player at best and with Clark it's purely an injury thing. We know he can play.

hold the phone...Dank has just come out and said he has evidence that will clear the players. Farcical. Wallis has a photo of a vial of something legal and so teh whole case is in doubt according to the sun. im getting a headache. A question to the AFL and Lets keep it simple..." do we or do we not accept performance enhancing drugs in AFL". AFL.. "of course not.....but if its the whole team...and the press supports them then hmmm thats a tough one. I mean In theory we dont. But let me say this.... if we ever catch a solo player ( from a low club) doing that then lord help them!"

just 2 more seasons at least now Nev Congrats..

Our average losing margin for the last 10 matches was 41. We almost *should have* beaten Port in Adelaide. We played very well against North. Should have beaten the Dogs and Lions. Our 2013 season comparatively over the last 8 rounds (8 loses in a row to end the season) was an average 47-point losing margin, but we never, ever looked like winning in *any* of those games. Our average losing margin for the whole year was 64 vs 36 for 2014. Our only *bad* loss in the second half of the year was against GWS, which was our worst game for the year. We lost to Freo and Geelong by 10 goals. They finished top 4. We should have bloody beaten Port in Adelaide and they were a kick away from a GF appearance and probably a flag. Roos didn't lose the players in the second-half of the year. A bad team just came up against some good opponents, and in some cases came very close to beating them if not for just broad inexperience at crucial times. I reject the notion that we were as bad in 2014 than at any point in 2013. It's just not true. Yeah we lost our last 10 games. This is just a team that doesn't know how to win. I'm not blindly following Roos here, but I'm just looking at this objectively. We had some bad loses, but we also had some good loses (if there is such a thing), and 2014 was far and away a better and more promising season than 2012 and 2013 combined.

I choose to liken the Toump to Nick Malceski. similar run, carry, distributor type players, albeit Malceski is a bigger body. Malceski was a slow developer also, was drafted in 2002 and didn't consolidate his senior spot at Sydney until 2007. Nobody batted an eyelid because he was taken at 64 in the draft and, like Toumpas, was recovering from some injury troubles. Has gone on to become an All Australian and one of the more damaging half backs in the game. If Toumpas wasn't an early draft pick, we'd probably be taking the pragmatic view that he is young, developing, managing a developing body and an outside player, who will also struggle in a side that has great difficulty winning and keeping the footy. Malceski struggled in the Swans 2's that was playing in the Canberra league and winning by 100 plus points every week. Toumpas was running around in a Casey side that was getting smashed, in often heavy conditions and had lost their best inside ball winner from the previous year in Magner. I'm still amazed at how he was able to play his best senior game for us in 2013 in horrendous conditions in Geelong. We're all a bit jumpy because it is vitally important to us that he develops into the player he was drafted to be. Give him time, he'll be fine.

He's the softest ranga to have ever played a game of AFL.

He said he didn't run. He just ran some laps to make an appearance for the occasion. Says he is fit and ready and his mind is in a better place, soft tissue problems gone and his foot is good. All I know is if I see him playing forward and turning it on like he did for 10 games in 2012 for the freaking cats I may be physically ill!!

From FB.

Photoshop xpert at bigfooty has exposed Thymo photo as fake! Take a look at the bottom of the vial (where the photo is creased vertically) you can see where two shots have been combined. They have made the vial appear wider in order to display more of the p/shopped lettering and hence the magic thymo word. What a bunch of crims that includes the H/S!

A (nicely) reasoned analysis of the information that can be drawn from the photo in question (from the thread on BF): 1) Whoever is holding the vial is holding it between his thumb and index finger giving you some idea of the size of the vial. It is likely to be a 2 ml vial so no it wouldn't be one of the ones supplied by Alavi. Also being from July 2012 you would expect that the first supply would be long gone. 2) The concentration appears to read in the "thousand microgram" concentration range (x3 0s visible and mcg is microgram) so it is likely to be at 1000-9000 micrograms/ml (or 1-9 mg/ml). Typical doses of Thymomodulin appear to range from 80-120 mg so the vial wouldn't contain enough for a single shot (well assuming that it is at 10,000 micrograms (no-one would ever use those units, you would state it as mg) and the vial contains 2 ml of extract then you would need 4-6 vials/dose.) Interestingly TB4 is used at the 2-4 mg/ml range .............. 3) The photo was taken after Dank "discovered" that TB4 was prohibited and after he tried to manufacture documents saying that Alavi produced Thymomodulin. If Dank is capable of producing fraudulent backdated paperwork for the purchase of Thymomodulin then it would be logical to conclude that he would also be capable of producing fraudulent photos for its presence at the EFC. Ditto with the "Spreadsheet" which appeared a day after the fraudulent paperwork 4) I am still yet to see a single reference to "immunostimulation" during the design or implementation of the program. If this was going to be the "cornerstone" of the program then you would expect it to be extensively discussed in the correspondence between Dank and Hird/Alavi. Instead we hear about soft tissue injuries, and recovery from injuries in general, not players fighting off the flue ........ There is so much which stinks about the "Thymomodulin" story that it is laughable that anyone could take it seriously .........

That was a fair question until the last two words

Deano just had the picture in his wallet and only stumbled on to it last week. He had run out of money after losing large on betting on the footy and was scouring his wallet for any money. He had mistakenly bet on Ess beating Melb in a replay from 2012.

This is what you want to read when you have #2 . http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-11-18/top-pick-not-clearcut

I just love those creases.

You are a weird unit.

The Age is reporting that the Bulldogs will pay $800,00 of Griffin's 2015 salary (yes, even tho he no longer plays for them). This is of interest because it shows what he was being paid as captain of a bottom 4 club and may be a good indicator of what other club captains get and perhaps what Jones should get. I posted this earlier in this thread as a good option for MFC: I know year 1 looks crazy but think of it over a 4/5 year period: Post # 37: Yr 1 - $1.250m Yr 2 - $750K Yr 3 - $750K Yr 4 - $600K Yr 5 - $250K So $3.6m over 5 years. Averages @ $840K over 4 years and @ $720 over 5 years so may not be enough. Why is my suggested year 1 so high you ask: - we have the salary cap, - it gives us the sal cap in 2016 to go after an FA, - if Jones can't play out year 5 risk is quite small (this can be protected further by making it a 4 +1 contract) and - Jones' sal scales back as our young guns are looking for more. Knowing what Griffen was getting this type of schedule doesn't look too far fetched. From the Age: "He will earn close to $1million next season and about $1.5million over 2016, '17 and '18. He seems to have been on $1m for 2014 so that is $3.5m over 4 years. I doubt there is anyone who would say that Griffen to the Bulldogs is worth more (in $ and non-$ vaules) than Jones to the Dees.

Yeah Wallis (zero credibility) says he has a picture with Thymomodulin written in crayon on the label. Yep ASADA won't pick up in that. Its sad how stupid these people are.

Bloody great game by our D today, smothered Denver all game, couple of massive hits too! Keeping Denver to one TD and shutting them out for the first quarter and then the second half was amazing. Our offence looked much better with Hill, I thought Davis was great early in the season and pre season but a older wiser head was the right call today. Bloody stoked!

Thanks for the report saty. Interesting to read the bit about Toumpas. From memory he was looking the goods last pre-season too, even snagged a bag in the intra-club match, but then was out of the side by round 3 after a couple of so-so performances. Would love to see him make a good fist of it next year. Probably more so than any other player. A great kid who has been unfairly maligned so early in his career.

Was there again, will be posting pics on my Twitter Demonpk, including Garlo photo bombing my picture of Jeff Garlett. Quick rundown warmup, run, kick, box, run, handball, grapple, kick, run, handball, box, run, kick, run. Asked Dom Tyson about the work he seems to be doing with the harness, his finger injury stops him from joining in the boxing drills, so is working on his explosive speed away from stoppages when the others are boxing. The whole group bar Nev Jetta was out today, Nev is about to become a father for the second time, got a phone call at the club this morning ... interestingly Tapscott was a no show again. Rehab group as such, Gawn, Spencer, Terlich and Vince, joined by Bail and JKH (who has his knee strapped). Toumpas put Nathan Jones to the sword when they were running (sprinting) in one of the drills, spoke to him afterwards, is in a really good place finally. The new boys were all there, HL, Garlett, Newton (who is slightly bigger than Michie, so quite a size for a midfielder) and Billy Stretch, his Mum and Dad (who I believe played a bit) were there as well. Another gruelling session that went for over 3 hours, Shannon Byrnes is his new role as coach was in attendance as well.

Can you all please give yourselves a two week holiday. How dare you think that you can come on here and have a proper football discussion without resorting to name calling, puerile arguments and bagging Jack Watts. Its a disgrace.

Don't think our culture had anything to do with his taking his eyes off the ball at his first training session with us and then fumbling every time.

Ahhh, I remember the excitement when Isaac Weetra's name was called out!

Yes 2015 will be more hard yards, so will 2016 and 2017 as we do have a long way to go to compete with the top sides. But i expect a lot more given the new players we have coming in plus hogan. We had no goal kickers this year other than Dawes who was usually smothered by multiple opposition players, inclusion of Hogan and Garlett alone should improve that, hopefully Kent can find more consistency. Midfield is stronger so I would expect the ball to be going our way more often than it did last year. We were ahead in quite a few games last year but lost it in the last quarter or two. I would hope the changes made will mean we will win a few of those games and perhaps surprise in a couple of others.

Beating Geelong this season is the dream.

IMO Essendon must be removed from the AFL 2 year penalties not back dated for any player the is convicted of drug cheating. Life bans for any coach or Club officials that was involved in the supplements program if its determed illegal substances had been purchased or used.. Players who have been issued with show cause notices and decided not to answer them, should be banned from playing and training until they have faced an AFL tribunal. AFL tribunal should be independent of the AFL and NO ESSENDON FC supporter, Members or club officials should be allowed on the tribunal. Removal of any awards that a banned player has received during the supplements program. Removal of any past awards and a permanent ban on being inducted into the AFL hall of fame for any coach or officials that were involved in illegal supplements program. An investigation is needed into the governance practices of the AFL. AFL officials found to not have acted in the best interest of the code should have their employment contrast terminated.

A young fragile mind in a fragile toxic culture was more than likely his undoing. Hope he goes well at Port.

So if I get booked for speeding and then can produce a photo of a speedo showing 55kph that means I'm innocent of speeding. This is so ridiculous it beggars belief. This Dank fool is staggeringly stupid, what amazes me is that the EFC brains trust could not see it for themselves. If Dank truly could get the players off surely by now he would have done it. This is the most incompetent ruse I have ever seen. The media mostly have been inept, worksafe apparently MIA and the sound of shuffling deck chairs is deafening. If in trouble, fire your best shot first. I feel that EFC Dank and Hird have already done that. Now we have the smoke and mirrors pantomime. Time to dish out some pain.

Griffins best is better IMO but Jones gets it done week in and week out. For us to march up the ladder we don't need a Griffen every 5 or 6 weeks - we need more Jones' week in and week out.

http://instagram.com/p/vhAXGap7hI/ Essendon releases some fresh evidence that it just remembered about.

Wait til more grainy photos emerge from a grassy knoll across the road from the drug clinic. I think I can make out the label on the vial .....It's.... wait.... yes its thhymo....modulin.. And the date on the vial.....it's......yes its 2012. And the home made label off Stephen Dank's printer is stuck on with clag....and written in crayon.. HERALD SUN HEADLINE ASADA CAN"T SEE THE WOOD FOR THE TREES. ESS ARE INNOCENT They really are that stupid.

I laughed so hard when I saw that blurry image complete with the home made label, cut unevenly..

Development league ...

As if this wasn't laughable enough already ...

Good luck to him.

Pay him what he asks, he has earned it.

I rate King. He told us Neeld was no good very early with his "mature bodied game plan for a bunch of kids". He was spot on whilst swimming strongly against the tide. There are a few home truths in his article. He tells us our last 8 weeks (which is a fair slab of the season) was in fact no better than our last year under Neeld/Craig. I for one didn't realize that. He tells us we are the highest stoppage team with the worst stoppage numbers. Surely that's concerning. He tells us we are the worst tackling team in the competition. Rather ironic given Roos' ethos and scathing criticism of Richmond's failure to tackle in previous years. Most of the world including DL have unquestioning faith in Roos. King is now questioning that and is one of the first to do so. I don't expect him to be Nostradamus about next year, in fact I'd think less of him if he tried to be. I happen to be in the King camp and have for some time questioned Roos' game plan and methodology. I'm not saying it's wrong, just not accepting as most do here, that "is Roos is good". The reality is that the last third of last season, a time when we should have been adapting to the Roos game plan better, was as bad as we've ever been. That's a worry. I thought it was a good short form article by King, let's face it, he's not writing a thesis he's writing a article to the footy reading public about MFC. Pretty good I would have thought.

She's not really pretending that it's anything other than her opinion but what she is doing is presenting her list of preferences in order and highlighting the challenges faced by recruiters in this draft. Given that Melbourne bidded its second pick for Heeney, I think it's a fair call for her to make that he's the best of this lot in the draft. It points out the unfair advantage Sydney has in this draft (and is likely to have in the next where they will be in a similar situation) and why the AFL is reviewing the bidding system. I've found most of her work to be thorough, well-researched and professional which is well above the norm for journos these days. It's interesting to note also that she not only found it necessary to increase the size of her list from 25 as it was in the past but up to 30 and for good measure has added another dozen who she found hard to leave out. That means we can expect our pick 40 to possibly be of reasonable quality in this draft which matches what our chief recruiter and our list manager also believe.