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This comment (in response to why he didn't return the call) from Mags is gold: jamesmagner ‏@jamesmag23 1m1 minute ago @Robbo_heraldsun I'm a busy man and only got the voicemail today! Not a huge fan of your work so there's no point in calling you back...

Why can't you praise his good games then? He has played many others outside the Collingwood game. Why do you admit to HATING one of our OWN players? Hate the opposition but not a Demon. Criticise as much as you like. That's your right on this forum.

INTERVIEW ON TRIPLE M RUSH HOUR TODAY: http://www.triplem.com.au/melbourne/shows/rush-hour-with-james-brayshaw-and-billy-brownless/best-bits/melbournes-jesse-hogan/ Has some cockiness/cheek about him. Love it.

I Don't understand why we can't have a demon pitch forking the Collingwood mascot. Mind boggling.

Forget the comparisons and other stuff. It's clear we have finally picked up a genuine gun (possibly a generational player). Let's enjoy what we've got. Let's hope the MFC can pay him whatever shite load of money is needed to contract him forever. Let's hope Petracca is a gun. Let's hope that Brayshaw continues inhis development. Let's hope the [cens ored] we win a premiership!! Soon!!

Was he smiling?

I think based on our performance there is a good case for seeking a refund.

There's a lot of self-righteous indignation within the Essendon camp about the leaking of information but it seems to me that the most prolific leaking is coming from the mischief makers in the Bomber camp directly to the Herald Sun which is recycling tired old discredited stories to distract attention from the mess that the club's doping programme has created. Hence, they deserve all they're about to get. What they're doing is damaging their own club and adding to the woes of the 34 players. Before this is out, their names will surely be leaked out as well and even if all or a majority of them either escape sanctions or end up missing minimal game time, their reputations will be tarnished forever. Hird's has already suffered immeasurable damage (you only need to hear what his peers in the AFL community say in private) and the club is in a real hole because it's not really in a position where it can start afresh as Carlton can when it appoints its new coach at the end of the season.

He's had some erros, missed chances he should've taken and failed in a few 50/50s. He's not in the range of Betts or LeCras, BUT He has added an element of danger to our forward line that we haven't had for some years. Now, if an opposition defence screws up, there's a real chance they'll be punished. That affects the whole way a team plays. On track for his best year of AFL and hopefully this is the groundwork for another 5+ good years in the role. Considering what we gave up for him (basically nothing), he's a super bargain. Really happy with Garlett.

Rofl! Robbo is such a nob. Trying to push the demons angle as far as he can to distract from Essendon, thinking he can get into an ex-player who may be disgruntled. Jimmy saw right through it. You ripper Jimmy. Also the comment from Brock was good too.

You mean you don't enjoy watching standard definition games with poorly timed replays and annoying commentary?

Those pages in the AFL Tribunal judgement are well worth reading to provide an insight on the lengths to which the Tribunal went to satisfy itself that it wasn't comfortably satisfied that the 34 players had committed an offence. With a de novo hearing at CAS and the rightful application of the burden of proof, there is every chance that the outcome will be different this time. Reading the decision convinced me (if I needed convincing after all this time) that the 34 in all probability ingested TB4 and a range of other concoctions that have no place in a properly designed supplements programme for sportspeople.

I've said it before - getting Jeff was not the result of a good trade. It was a gift. Thanks Mick.

Excite me Franky. Maybe the slightest grab of what has been said in-club. First thing I would have asked my non-suporting mate. Every last f'king last detail and facial expression,

Robbo is a bloody disgrace. Sounds and looks as if he is drunk on stage. How does someone as professional as Gerald Whatley even bear to appear with him. And congratulations to James Magner for his responses. Well done.

Great read. Robbo is a farkin joke!!!! Respect to Magner

Looks like a kid drew it. The traditional MFC one on the jumper is much better than that.

He is not a [censored] he is a slimy disgusting piece of work. Deliberately targeting Magner as he had appeared to have left the Dees unhappy and then quickly dropped in to Ess this preseason. Horrible muck racker trying to push this story off onto others.

Good get...it is worth spelling out the exchange: jamesmagner ‏@jamesmag23 5h5 hours ago @BMcLean_Ally @Robbo_heraldsun cheeky voicemail left by him yesterday sniffing around for a story on the dees! #writearealstory Mark Robinson ‏@Robbo_heraldsun 22m22 minutes ago @jamesmag23 cheeky? Why go to Twitter and not ring me back. All I was going to ask was: did you get injections in the stomach... What a low act by Robbo...Hirds 'ambulance chaser'? Is Robbo so dumb that he needs to ask Magna: 'Why go to Twitter and not ring me back' Well done for Magna for exposing this low act!

I am all for keeping your best players but is Howe one of those? I know he draws crowds - wait till the kids all talk about Hogan at school the way they talked about Franklin - he will get the crowds in. But if I picking that forward line he is 4th or 5th picked and struggles to make a first choice backline. If he gets you something you need and he can be replaced.

You must be in the Skimming Posts and Not Really Reading Them Club... It's ok, you aren't alone.

Id have Watts in any position on the ground over Grimes.

Irrespective the Demons were very close to getting into bed with a very shady customer, presumably due to his "impressive" track record and involvement at EFC. Thankfully the liaison ended very quickly once the bombshell hit. Fortunate timing. Does not cover us in glory.

That's the core of the whole saga. The Dees kept the records you would expect and those records provided proof that cleared us. It's completely inconceivable that you would run a campaign like they did and not have extensive records not only of what they took but email trails discussing it. I've never seen a team come back from one pre season so physically altered as that team in 2012. They all looked like body builders. By mid season half the list was suffering from soft tissue injuries and their season collapsed. I'd personally never seen anything before like the impact the sports science/medicine people were having on that Club that season. I wasn't thinking PED"s at that time because I didn't dream any team would be that stupid. What would be the point of running a program like that if you weren't scientifically tracking the effect the "supplements" were having. They were taking blood tests to assess what they needed so how weren't they taking blood tests to see what effect they were having. Eg your bloods show your immune system is down take this injection to improve it. Two weeks later we are taking a blood test to see how that worked or whether you need more. There would have to be records of all of this. It's logically impossible there weren't. You telling me that a coach wouldn't be asking questions and wanting to see answers to explain the most extensive injury creating program in AFL history. Oh no, no emails, no records. Yeh right. Logically there had to be records and logically the fact none were found indicates they were destroyed. Logically the only reason you would possibly have for destroying them is that they recorded something you didn't want anyone else to see. Connect the dots. I'm comfortably satisfied.

And more importantly Doc Reid, and we followed WADA protocols and kept complete records which were made available to the authorities, and were cleared of all wrong-doing. There is no comparison between the two situations. They are desperately trying to deflect blame - including Dank. Can't wait to see what he says under oath, and be cross examined by a skilled, fully briefed counsel with high levels of expertise in this field. He (the barrister) will have a field day. The only danger is if he is silly enough, or desperate enough, to lie under oath, in which case he could be in even greater trouble than he is at the moment if that were possible

If we are talking literature, for mine it has to be Moby Dick. A sea captain with an obsession drags a crew of inspired misfits along with him to wild adventures on the far-flung ocean. Gradually it becomes clear to the crew that the captain is insane, and is a danger to them all. However, once they realise this, there are in the middle of nowhere, and get sucked into an almighty battle which they cannot win. The captain remains obsessed to the last, even once the ship is destroyed, and he and all the crew are drowned. Slam dunk to the white whale!

Wowee

Haven't been paying much attention to draft prospects this year. Is Riley Bonner a real person's name or something out of a Pynchon novel?

He came straight off and swore at himself on the sidelines Watts was poor on the weekend in the one area we know he excels in, disposal. He actually was ok defensively. I'm giving everyone a free pass this week given the flu rumours. I had to work with the flu last month, and it nearly killed me. And I'm no footballer.

http://demonland.com/forums/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=new_post&f=2 An article discussing recruits from other clubs with Higgins, Crisp and Garlett nominated as the top 3. It seems to be a foxtel thing so not sure how 'official' it is. Nonetheless, it is great for Jeff to be recognised for his efforts and he certainly seems to be enjoying his football and the club. He is on track to kick a career high number of goals. Along with Jesse and his Rising Star performance and Bernie in AA form it is really good to have our players recognised as being at the higher performance end of the comp.

Robbo is the fine upstanding man who last year wrote a scoop article revealing the names of 14 of the Essendon players, and in the very same issue of the paper wrote an opinion piece lamenting that players' names had been leaked.

I hate the Cameron Schwab styled logo. Always have. I really like the traditional MFC style logo. Hope the club adopts it. And don't get some Demon style logo - looks tres ordinaire. The Demon is our mascot - not our logo.

you ignore my 3 excellent points in order to be negative and talk about a superstition whatever

That was awesome, thanks for posting. Interesting that he grew up a Crows supporter, maybe people can stop posting that stupid pic of him wearing a Freo scarf now Billy Brownless dropping hints Jesse should move to the Cats - "You seem to spend a lot of time on that side of town" Jesse - "Absolutely dreaming" :)

Interesting Twitter exchange between Mark Robinson and James Magner here.

Not only has the tide turned there is a tsunami building against Hird: -On SEN with KB Waldron said Hird has lost all his coaches, including Harvey!! -Clearly he has lost the players! -As noted in my post #2618 yesterday Bomber, Tim Watson, Lloyd and the Essendonians have jumped off his band wagon. -He has no friends at AFL. -Little is hardly a fan. That leaves only EFC members and fans left to support Hird. I can see a tug-of- building for the hearts and minds of fans and members. All the recent leaks are probably Hird's way of shoring up their support. But the fans have to be won over before deposing the golden boy. So would expect a subtle anti Hird campaign from those club legends above (who are all in the media) to soften up supporters. This tug-of-war will be played out in the media! Yep, a tsunami is building!

I think it's fair to say that the average Hawthorn fan is a smug arzzhole. I am looking forward to being a smug arzzzhole one day.

insipid(ɪnˈsɪpɪd) adj 1. lacking spirit; boring 2. lacking taste; unpalatable in•sip•id(ɪnˈsɪp ɪd) adj. 1. without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid: an insipid personality. 2. without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland: a rather insipid soup. insipidadjective 1. Lacking an appetizing flavor:bland, flat, flavorless, tasteless, unsavory. 2. Lacking the qualities requisite for spiritedness and originality:bland, innocuous, jejune, namby-pamby, vapid, washy, waterish, watery. Jeez, Hardwick didn't like what the Tiges were cooking against us... Very watery soup apparently.

Putrid. Insipid. Disgusting. I get the desire to use evocative words to describe the performance of footballers, but these, and a few others, are such appallingly exaggerated, misused, and overused that I now judge those that use these terms with similar words... Is that irony? No. It isn't. #wordsmatter

His output against what he cost us to get him is a massive win for Melbourne.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/wada-commissions-new-drug-test-for-use-on-essendon-samples/story-fnca0u4y-1227479390581 A test for Thymosin Beta 4 has been commissioned

Someone telling me they're a Hawthorn fan gets about the same reaction as someone who's into rugby league from me these days.

He frustrates the hell out of me with the simple errors he makes, but then I remember we got him for a 5th round pick and he's kicked 33 goals for a side that isn't renowned for kicking many. He hasn't kicked a big bag to skew the stats so he's fairly consistent too. Excellent recruit.

So the drugs were bad when they were allegedly at melbourne but at essendon they were just vitamins and fine. Ffs

I don't meausre player performances against contract or draft position. That's just juvenile.

I don't think they'd be used for tears...

We shall see I guess.My understanding is that WADA see this as effectively a "retrial" (as they regard the AFL Tribunal Hearing as a joke), and like many royal commissions no one knows where this might go. What did, I think, Paul Keating say; "never call a royal commission unless you know the outcome". Not that this is a Royal Conission, but it has some of the opened ended nature to it which will make it unpredictable, particularly as much of the truth is yet to come out as all the previous enquiries were very closely defined in order for the vested interests to control the damage. Further, with the AFL being asleep at the wheel through much of this saga, and their wish to repress the truth, and allowing Hird and Essendon to get away with outrageous behaviour in so many areas, WADA are determined to uncover these practices and expose them once and for all. In so doing, make the price of them so high that no one will dare try them again. This means very severe consequences for Essendon and Hird, but it also means "looking under rocks" which have been known only by rumour. This will be far more extensive than everyone believes, which I would suggest includes grilling all the major players at Essendon and the AFL. I can't see how that would not include the list I posted before, particularly Demitriou and GM. It will also include the outside players who were muzzled by Hird's henchmen just before the AFL Tribunal hearings, plus some further afield such as the Chinese suppliers who sold the drugs. I have no doubt some of the Essendon players who are the subject of the hearings will be asked to testify and be cross-examined.

I think Roosy is great on TV. It is a fascinating dynamic on monday night 2 Bitter rival clubs who train next to each other Both long and prosperous histories The Filth have clout and the MFC have bought Roosy in to reclaim our clout.... They get along as did Roos and Thompson Slobbo is the one who brings it down. I wait for the day he is forever silent just like Christopher Pyne

Agree with your sentiment, but the Saints thriving is the biggest misconception in football at the moment. Media beating up how well they are going relative to Melbourne and other clubs and how they are ahead of expectations. Saints have beaten us twice, but they are hardly thriving and are in a worse position with their list than we are currently. Had we had a legend like Nick Riedwolt who can provide such a presence and win games off his own back we would easily have 8-9 wins. Media beat up in the worst of ways, St Kildas form is vastly over rated.

How reliable has Nate become at kicking goals when the team needs one!