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As someone who is based in Sydney, I can say with certainty that the training reports during the pre-season are the most valuable/important contributions that posters make on this site. That being the case, would others please respect this and stop dragging otherwise interesting threads into mindless/petty personality-based sniping.

thats interesting, because everytime i go there i seem to have a really bad time.

All is well with the world - Essendon are f-cked, The Socceroos have won and Abbott is on the skids.

I know they call him Dunny, but this is a bit much. Could've given him some reading material at least.

As someone who has had the pleasure of meeting TDI and his lady, I would suggest that some of the snipers get along to training and introduce themselves and know the person... it might do wonders for their perception of the man rather than the poster. I know most of the comments are said in good humour, but there are a few that are definitely beyond the pale.

This is the same Bruce Francis who opened the batting for Australia in three tests in 1972 (average a little over 10). Toured South Africa early in the boycott era and later worked for the Kerry Packer circus and then organised a couple of tours to SA late in the apartheid period. Defending Hird appears to be right in character with this person. One thing, he's right about. Essendon will be fielding a 3rd rate side in 2015 but not by choice.

Alex Georgiou was only with us for one season, but moves back home to Norwood and is now the Skipper of my beloved Redlegs. Good luck to him and the boys on their journey to go Back to Back to Back to Back! Yeah baby! http://www.norwoodfc.com.au/News/LATESTNEWS/ALEX_GEORGIOU_TO_LEAD_THE_LEGS.aspx

One thing I am personally sick of, are the continual statements by people like Dank and Hird, who say they can't wait to set the record straight, tell the truth and give their versions of events. Guess what, they do everything they can to avoid it and stop others doing it.

There has been speculation that Hird only agreed to the August 2013 sanctions conditional on getting an extended contract. Chances are this extended contract has plenty of terms favourable to Hird and he has Essendon over a barrel.

I spoke to someone at training who said this isn't true.

11 games last year we led in the last qtr, twice against Port. I don't recall Clark influencing too many games last year. Our younger players are a year older, learning the gameplan is no longer an excuse. It starts now.

Hairshirt wearer.

this new model Bbo will be built on being a responsible team, to tackle hard, to chase, to hurt the opposition, to not give any free meters, to work both ways, & to play for your mates/the team. we were front runners for far too long and as soon as good opposition turned the heat on us we would fold like 18 individuals. capitulation was our inner expectation this time its being built right, on the solid foundations of love, commitment & respect. the love of club team & jumper, commitment to one another & the cause, respect; the opposition, & the values of our team & club. we've got somethings right along the way except the foundations. and we've fallen over in a light breeze because of it, leading to our recent annihilation's.

It was mad Monday FFS stop making a big deal over nothing.

Give it a rest. Pretty sure its bordering cyber bullying now.

It is absolutely BizarroWorld! Essendrug are acting like they have done nothing wrong and are the victims, you have Hird who is on a litigiousness rampage on a hiding to nothing, players continuing to train and participate in club duties in the face of infraction notices, and sections of the media that should be more learned siding with a team that has mounting evidence proving they took banned, performance enhancing drugs in an attempt to gain a competitive edge. There are also Essendrug supporters out there that still think the sun shines out of Hird's arse, and it's only a matter of time until they are vindicated, and their poor, hard-done by team can "move on" from this. When reality sets in and you have 32 Essendon players sitting in the sidelines for 2 years, major sponsors jumping off board and law suits flying left right and centre, we will have normality again, and it will be oh so sweet. This scurge that is Essendon will be a shell of their former arrogant self, and I will be on the front line laughing at their deluded stupid supporters, because I hate them and they have had it coming for a long time.

I'm still trying to get my head around the concept of provisional suspensions as they apply to the 34 players charged with anti doping offenses. The suspended players are allowed to play games (two Bombers were given permission to play in the only game scheduled since their suspension began - the IR game), they can train and do all manner of things associated with training like use club facilities, gymnasiums, pools, attend meetings, social functions, make public appearances and do interviews as Bomber players and they're still getting paid. Meanwhile their coach is nowhere to be seen and Neil Craig and Mark Neeld are taking training in his absence? They're even allowed to be injected with this stuff because it's the good juice:- This must be Bizzaroworld.

Obviously winning in a landslide no longer guarantees you more than one term. Tony's opinion polls are looking terrible. If the LNP sticks to this mantra that they're 'making the hard decisions', and it's just the 'message' that they're not getting across, they're gone. In the minds of voters, it's their unfair, ideological, hit-the-poor policies that suck. Listen more to Grong Grong and get out of the offices of the BCA and IPA.

The whole club needs at least a year ban. Sorry but a systematic doping regime that possibly involved more than just 1 illegal drug followed by obfuscation and legal action at every step putting the health of players in their care in danger deserves it. The rest of the comp will have to suck it up with a bye and a reminder to never fail their players so badly themselves.

Are you Dazzles missus or something?...

I can't see anything exceptional happening this year but hoping for say 7 wins and for us to maybe knock off a top team for a bit of a thrill. As for the list, clearly looks stronger. Quite exciting that players who played rd 1 last year like Georgiou, Byrnes, Spencer, Fitz and Terlich will most likely be out for HL, jeffy, Hogan, a fit rush and hopefully newton. Be quite nice also if Petracca/Brayshaw have a cheeky little impact early as well

Love it. I don't know one single essedun supporter who isn't an arrogant prik. God I hope they get annihilated by WADA (I think it will go all the way to CAS, due to their arrogance) Two year bans, and a whole lot of egg sucking for their sycophant supporters in the media (and in this thread) And im at least reasonably confident that CAS will ensure the suspensions start from when they are handed down, as the cheating dogs haven't been effectively banned from ANYTHING yet. 2 years with no essedun in the comp would have me smiling my arz off. Go suck a mighty big one you filthy drug cheats.

If what you're holding is powder, maybe you should relax your grip just a tad.

Let's keep it friendly here please. It's been a big night for the country. We need to share the love.

and here it is ...

There have been virtually no leaks from the AFL Tribunal sitting to date but the AFL has been giving a very brief précis of each day's proceedings. I didn't pick up anything about a player giving oral evidence to the Tribunal so if a player did give the sort of evidence mentioned on BF it must have been in one of the interviews given to the AFL and ASADA. If a player did give such evidence then it's likely that he would get an extra discount but he would be burying most of the others. My guess is that if it's true, he's a now retired player.

Not a good idea to go early - nasty condition premature celebration

It's kinda like having AFL blue balls. All the build up but no exciting climax

Hardly a stretch at all...... and its the EFC Board that makes those decisions During the worst player management debacle in the Clubs history where the coach an others are under the microscope, they do the following: 1. Sign him for a further 3 years 2. Pay him $1 million plus a year. 3. Send him to the US and France to study and executive management degree (probably all expenses paid) 4. Tolerate his intransigience and public outcries against the club. 5. Allowed him to operate his agenda I mean he is the golden boy. At the start of this event he was largely untouchable with the members. Time may have melt this. Despite the condemnation and ridicule directed at him, Hird is not stupid not protect his own interests. Where you been during this whole saga if you are now challenging the AFL's actions?

Just to follow up on M_9's post, this from the Essendon (only) Board in response: It's true. ASADA has a player who has admitted to being administered what they believe to be TB4. I've seen an excerpt from ASADA's case summary which confirms it. Names of players and those who corroborated the admission are redacted. ASADA have a player who has admitted to being administered what he believed to be TB4 and also named every other player administered with it.

I have learnt through bitter experience not to "go early" on Melbourne I will hold my powder!!

Any seen The Fan

I am not sure if this has been covered elsewhere, but since Gil took over AFLland there has been a lot said about improving the aforementioned acros all AFL clubs. I thought it was a bit of an unnecessary focus until tonight. Tonight I attended my first ALeague game at AAMI park and it was arguable as enjoyable, if not more enjoyable than 70% of Melbourne games I attended last year. Maybe it was the passionate singing that carried on for 90 minutes, maybe it was the free 'clappers' that were handed out to the crowd before the game. Maybe it was the enthusiasm of the crowd who were supporting a 'City'. Whatever it was, I left wondering why I felt more enthused and excited than I had at many AFL games last season. I am not one that sees soccer as a threat as such to AFL, but I do think the AFL have to improve their match day experience as do the MFC. It's not enough to have Robbo get on the mic twenty minutes before the bounce and get a few kids to take speccys. That really is amatuer stuff. If you want to see a match day experience on steroids watch tomorrows Super Bowl. I am not suggesting we need to commercialise things up to the extent the NFL does, but I do think its a huge area the club needs to focus on. The second part of my post match thoughts tonight lead me to ponder whether the MFC and its brand will suffer if the Melbourne City FC gather the momentum I expect they will. The 'CIty' tag is what the MFC yearn for. Geographical identity. We are trying to push into the city in a attempt to create a geographical identity, and yet there is a new team (albeit another code) already branded as the team of the city. In another forum in 2013 I was cut down when I suggested we should rebrand as the Melbourne City Demons ala the roosters in the NRL. I still believe the idea had merit. The MFC need to establish stronger brand identity. Start with thy rediculous logo. Get rid of it ASAP. Get some signage in the CBD. Move the Demon Shop to the city so people can actually access it. Anyway, I will stop ranting but with all these new 'football' teams pushing for the Melbourne brand (Rebels, Victory, City and Storm) we need to make our brand bigger and better than al of these. We should be the most well known Melbourne football team. I daresy we are to people from Melboune only. Interested in the thoughts of others on what we could do for match day enhancement and also how can we improve our brand??

I haven't come close to the High Court for many years - it's not really in the nature of my current practice to end up there. However, the amount you're quoting sounds like the cost of filing an application but it's likely to cost big bucks to have the application prepared and IMO a case of lot's more $'s down the drain to go with the estimated $1½m incurred by all parties so far which Hird or whoever's paying won't ever get back. I mentioned a couple of pages back the issues Hird and his advisors need to deal with in order to get leave to appeal. I think about one in three applications get to see the light of day in the High Court and, based on the judgments of four Federal Court judges, I think Hird's chances of overturning the judgment completely if he made it there are about one in twenty. On that basis, his best option for success is to take whatever money he wanted to waste on litigation to the Casino, lob it all on red or black (how very appropriate) at the roulette wheel and hope for the best. His chances would be much better over there.

Just to be clear, I am not talking about the kids'z I think the afl do stuff for kids very well. I'm talking about the 18+ bracket. Although the trumpeter was a [censored] and a [censored], it was a point of difference. Lose the velvet jacket and get him a drummer and a backing band and its not a bad gimmick. Although we could prob find better.

Norwood probably based their decision on more extensive knowledge than yours. You're clearly deeply attached to your own judgement, however.

So it's ok to make light of child abuse, as long as it's Mad Monday? Good to know.

From what we have seen so far of Dons nutters they would build Hird a statue, sack everyone else and have him run the place on his own. CEO, club doctor, coach, boot studder the whole ball of yarn.

Yeah it was a pretty horrible thing that they did. I hope he's sorry and apologised.

I am no expert with the High Court, but it is correct that you pay a filing fee and then seek Special Leave from a single High Court Justice to have an Appeal heard. They reject most such Applications.The High Court Appeal has nothing to do with Hird being punished. If the players are suspended I think his position becomes absolutely untenable. The club can deal with that. ASADA can also deal with the club and officials if more than 2 players are suspended for a team activity. ASADA would need to issue Notices against the Club and/ or Officials. I would imagine that ASADA are awaiting the conclusion of the AFL tribunal before contemplating any further move.

Yes. Let's judge his leadership based on one not so good choice that upset a few people.

Yeah, well done ... Rodgers got the MVP but JJ Watt can count himself very unlucky. I think if the Texans had have made the playoffs, he might have got it. Big honour for Bridgewater though.

Lets hope the Dees visit there on grand final day soon

Wonder if this guy is going to arc up again? https://mobile.twitter.com/uberageorgiou

In my opinion Dom hasn't got the attention and accolades he deserves for his season in 2014. I spoke to a bloke that had some contact with him in earlier yeaes and he couldn't rate him highly enough. we got a steal no doubt. Compare his stats to just about any champion of the game at this amount of games and there is no doubt that he is on his way to elite status. its very exciting times!

The photos are carp There was a bloke from geelong that they had lined up to do some arty black and white shots but he pulled out.

I'm just here so I don't get fined but while I'm here I'll take the pats 27-13

A bit sunnier today, but windy Absentees Neal Bullen and Trengove, spoke to Billy Stretch, said ANB is strong character handling latest setback really well Casualty ward, Howe, still checking out his hammy, said another check today, Vince hamstring soreness, Pedersen, a deload day (explained the day is just about straight line running, the bigger guys get these days regularly), Hogan, all smiles, still on his modified program, no issues at the moment, Max King rocked up, looked terrible, assume he is crook, attempted to train then left , few others on light days Spoke to Viv Michie, a man of few words, travelling really well, only missed two sessions of pre season, feeling fit and fresh (looked really good in the drills today) Spoke to the Pig Dog as well, glad to be back in full training, trying to just get up to speed, his skills were a lot better today as well, said ring rust on Monday Billy Stretch has put on 2 kilos, amusing bit today, taking on Petracca in a one on one In one drill you had to kick down the wing, a few players didn't account for the wind, was standing in gap on fence taking pictures, when Sam Frost came hurtling towards me chasing a wayward kick, whole life flashed before me, thankfully he managed to avoid me and the fence and injury, for a big guy he has good brakes Spoke to the Russian, complimented him on how he is looking at training, feeling completely rejuventated, was one of the last off today, practicing his kicking and other things with Justin Plapp (will have to get this name right before start of season) Any questions feel free

I mentioned this before - Brett Lovett was too short, carried too much weight, had thighs like tree trunks, couldn't really jump, slow as all slow and was one of the best players I have seen at Melbourne, If we recruit this kid and he is half as good as his dad i will be happy.

Watts tends to play as a wing/forward when they have match sim, Watts is Watts, I want the ball in hand creating, not at the bottom of a pack Salem is doing a lot of work with Simon Goodwin, as are the other young guys, comment from my lady on Monday, gee Christian has grown up, he is a man now, he is really solid now, best part of training today was Goodwin taking Billy Stretch, Salem, Viney and Petracca for a bit of one on one stoppage work, not a backward step to be seen Oh and I forgot a really interesting bit, rather stocky young lad training in jumper 50 today, name of Jack Lovett