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Strolled down to training this morning. Arrived about 10.15 as Gus Brayshaw was leaving to return to AAMI. Not sure why he's not joining in the sessions yet. Seems more solid in the shoulders and arms. Absentees from when I got there were Lumumba, Dawes, TMac, Trenners, Tyson, Frost, Milkshake and I think Dunny. Non contact but lots of running were Nate Jones, Vince and Spencil. Hogan joined in all the contact drills after a bit of lap running. Jones, Vince and Spence were doing half lap sprints that were timed, the objective being to not let the pace drop off the more they did. Chunk was just phenomenal, fast pace and must have completed about 25-30 of these each timed within about 22 sec. Got plenty of encouragement from the others. Spencil is one huge unit. He may kill an opposition player one day. The others did tackling drills, short kick in heavy traffic drills, hand ball in heavy traffic drills, half ground and then whole ground forwards/defenders drills (advance the ball to enable a kick at goal). Other 'Landers who may have attended with knowledge in how these work may be able to describe it more strategically than I. Highlights for me were Harmes running down a lairising Dean Kent, and Nev Jetta tackling a forward, getting legged by that forward as he attacked the loose ball, then tackling a second forward who ran in to scoop up the ball. Diaspointments were some poor short kicking that forced the target to stop or missed altogether. After these there were repeat 3/4 lap sprints (or might have been length timed sprints, ie. sprint for 60 secs) in staggered groups of about 5-6. The better being, Hogan (excellent tank developing), OMac, Petracca, Grimes, Viney and a few others who I can't recall at the moment. Petracca did a fair bit of contact work, no strapping on knee, full speed and movement. Very upbeat personality on the track. Set shot kicking on goal from 45m on 45deg angle followed, with some doing low passes to the goal square running through the centre circle. Better kicks were Kent, Petracca, Salem, Watts and Pedo. The poorer set shots were by Jayden Hunt, Matt Jones (missed all shots, some OOF or didn't make the distance). Jade Rawlings stood the mark on the side where I was and made wise cracks to put the players off their kicks. Very funny guy. Got stuck into Petracca for his basketball slam dunk prowess, and Dean Kent for his apparent addiction to messaging on his mobile. The young draftees did lap running, timed sprints, kicking and handball drills and boxing. Mostly aside from the main groups. Enthusiastic bunch. Someone came off having landed awkwardly on an ankle, might have been young Joel Smith. Not sure. Didnt see Roos or Goodwin. They might have been on the Punt Rd side for all of the 2 hrs I was there, but I couldn't see them. Rawlings took the drills mostly, Misso the running. McCartney there as well I believe. On the sidelines were TViney, Mahoney, Byrnes, some of the other assistants and Jason Taylor. No photos sorry. I think 666 was there, he might link to some. Any questions, ask.

I got there about 10 but could only stay for an hour.They had 2 really good sessions of working the ball from full back to pass the centre, with full contact, handball and kicking under pressure. They also had similar games trying to get the ball forward of centre to FF. They all looked pretty sharp. Harmes was the stand out to me. Petracca put a soda through the goals from 5 metres out. Then turned around and off 2 steps barrelled a torp. as straight as a dye to the centre square. Just beautiful to watch. VB, ANB, Jetta all performed really well. I didn't recognise O McD with his hat on, but take the hat off, has his body shape changed. The difference I have noticed this year is the amount of full on intensity in every drill. I saw someone over by the punt road side, take a mark near the boundary about 40m out. Then walk back and slowly walk in and put it straight through the Centre. It was just perfect kicking style. He was wearing Yellow Fluorescent boots. I kept my eyes on him and walked around to see who it was. It was Max King. I don't remember him having such a fluent kicking action. Can someone tell me I am wrong. Anyway that's me for the moment.

Went today and took some happy snaps. Hope this works I am generally hopeless at this interweb stuff. One thing worth noting is the size of the scar on Dean Kent's hammy, massive. http://imgur.com/a/okx1R

Height- 175-177cm Weight- 74-76kg Age- 20 Traits- Speed, agility, natural crumber Disadvantages- Kicking lets him down at times, confidence Yarran Jaffer-Williams is a young indigenous prospect looking to spark his AFL aspirations back to life. He was a member of the QBE Sydney Swans academy and also represented the NSW/ACT Rams state side. He played primarily for the Sydney Swans Reserves and Sydney University. Jaffer-Williams was a highly regarded Swans academy prospect under the tutelage of now Demons mentor Paul Roos. He came up through the ranks alongside current Sydney Swans players Isaac Heeney, Jack Hiscox and Abe Davis. Due to some difficult circumstances Jaffer-Williams draft aspirations took a blow in 2014, having stopped academy training; virtually giving up his pathway to a potential shot into the AFL system. Mid 2015 saw a dramatic turn of events for Jaffer-Williams as he was scouted while doing "extra" work for a football segment of a TV show in Sydney. Determined to make a change in his lifestyle and work for his dream Jaffer-Williams packed up his life in an instance and moved to the Wodonga Raiders mid-season. His time at Wodonga was tough, his first game was his best game for the Raiders as a young and inexperienced man trying to adjust to the rigors of country footy. He'd eventually spend time in the Wodonga reserves, regularly finishing in the bests eluding to a shocking semi-final call up to take on Brendon Fevola's Pigeons. Jaffer-Williams left his mark on the Raiders with his very last game as he finished in the bests in an agonizing loss that ended Wodonga's season. Jaffer-Williams had re-signed with the Raiders for season 2016, having not completed a proper pre-season since early 2013 and with very limited football behind him since his Swans academy days, there is no ceiling to Jaffer-William's potential should he be nurtured and built up in an elite environment. As has been the case with his journey to date, it took another fascinating turn as an opportunity to play VFL football transpired. Jaffer-Williams had meetings with the Frankston Dolphins, Port Melbourne Borough and the Casey Scorpions, eventually choosing to commit to the Scorpions program. Casey senior coach Justin Plapp choosing to meet Jaffer-Williams personally and detailing a plan that would see Jaffer-Williams nurtured and educated should he earn a shot on the Scorpions list played a critical factor in Casey being chosen as the preferred destination. Yarran Jaffer-Williams has been impressing immensely throughout pre-season. Finishing with a time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds for his initial 2km time trial (top 15), further backing up his run with a very respectable score of 21.5 in the 30:15 test. He solidified his strong results with a time of 11 minutes and 35 seconds for Casey's 4km time trial at AAMI stadium, finishing 4th overall. Still only 20, YJW has high hopes of playing AFL football in near future. 2016 is set to be a developmental year for the young indigenous prodigy as he looks to rewrite the errors of his past and make amends for the missed opportunities driving his burning desire to become the footballer the Sydney Swans had hoped he'd become.

I tried talking to random people in the street about which first year players are likely to debut in 2016 but no one would listen.

I attended my first pre season training session today and my observations were: Gus was running heaps of laps in company with Cross, the latter being probably the fittest on the park... unfortunately Our captain looked strong and fit though he was restricted to non contact work whilst I was there. The most impressive sight for me was CP who looked in peak condition ,moved beautifully , and dare I say it, had Ablett-esque traits. Hogan has lost much of his puppy fat but not his swagger There were more assistants on and around the field than I've ever seen before at training.. It seems as if the football department has been cashed up.

I am really surprised this has been published by a legal firm. The article really washes over many points, or ignores them completely and basically serves to stick the boots into WADA and CAS, but even then it misses it mark. The diatribe at the end about players already missing games through provisional suspensions made me laugh!

I suspect the crowd will stop obsessing about draft picks once: a) we play some finals so we have other things to get excited about b) we play finals so we don't have a top 10 pick (less exciting than pick 3) c) we have 25+ regular senior players who everyone thinks are better options for round 1 than an untried 17 year old who gets drafted (will be accelerated if the 17 year old is ranked 10-15 rather than 1-7)

I might still play around with the colour scheme. It's a work in progress. I'm busy ironing out other things at the moment. I may play around with cream, bone, white, off white, ivory or beige.

This is absolutely it - You look at the Hawks last year - they wanted big seasons from Roughhead, Mitchell, Lewis, Rioli. Our expectation rose and fell on the back of a 20 year old forward who was in his first year of football.

Bogan Radio. Mark Allen and the Ox: they spend 3 hours talking about golf and how often they get drunk. Then they say ice is bad. They'll move onto some soft, vaguely pervy sexist crap and then back to golf and beers. What Mark Allen knows, other than what he knows about himself, wouldn't fill a thimble.

Too bad for us. We can't let our own vested interest affect our desire for a just outcome. If the players did wrong, they deserve to go. If the support staff did wrong, they deserve to go. The fact that we will suffer should not alter our steadfastness. Otherwise we're on the road to corruption too.

They forgot to mention the reason they are in the shite?? un[censored]believable as Andrew Dice Clay famously said....You could not write a better script than this whole saga in reality... This could be the dam wall breaking.....

... that's cheating JB, you've used more than 3 words.

WOW, WOW!! It seems the players 'forgot' to mention 'Thymosin': " Essendon players have struggled to explain why they omitted to mention they had been injected with substances including Thymosin when they were questioned by drug testers during the 2012 season....Several of the seven past and present Bombers players summoned last month to appear before the Court of Arbitration for Sport were cross-examined as to why — if they believed they were taking legitimate drugs — they neglected to mention those drugs and the injections" http://www.theage.com.au/afl/cas-concern-over-why-bombers-omitted-to-mention-thymosin-injections-20151204-glfnbm.html "The three-man panel of independent arbitrators indicated they found the omissions troubling." Those 'omissions' certainly aren't 'co-operation' so can't help their chances of reduced penalties, if found guilty. It also pours cold water on their claim that they were 'duped'!! Caroline also writes: "Uncertainty and in some cases blatant pessimism followed the hearing with several player managers confirming the 34 Essendon players charged would certainly mount legal action against the club and potentially the AFL if found guilty and suspended". Not looking good for the players. Hoisted by their own petard, I would say!

How does one justify thinking, let alone saying, that a mere AFL Football Club is too strong and powerful to go down. I struggle to get my head around that. It's almost that the concept is too big to be realistic. And yet right in front of us today we enjoy the monolith of FIFA being justifiably obliterated. And some of us just say about a corner local team " too big too big " Mind boggling....

The grounds for appeal to Swiss courts are very limited to procedural matters, so the CAS judgement will be final, fortunately, because it will find them all guilty.

Well it depends on the origins of the writers. Highly qualified lawyers, can be as prejudiced as anyone else - just look at the AFL Tribunal and the US Supreme Court. If the writer was a fanatical Dons supporter, anything is possible!

Just thinking out loud. Doesn't it make sense to click on a link and be taken to your last unread post? Why should you by default have to find your way back. I would be that most people don't even know about the circle/star on the left that takes you to the first unread post.

If EFC had stuck to the "Evans plan" way back when, all that would have come to pass and Hird would probably be back coaching EFC right now as the returned hero who died on the cross and returned to absolve everyone of their sins.

Let's just pretend Melksham did his ACL this week if he doesn't play for 18 months we will survive. What James Hird allowed at Essendrug is much bigger trading Melksham was always stupid in my opinion. But it was done.

"The past and present Essendon players and the AFL had remained hopeful that even if found guilty of doping violations they were unlikely to miss football games. This followed submissions from the AFL and ASADA. However all parties remain less optimistic following the CAS hearing." And so they should. Again, there are some who would say the players have nothing to answer for, and the CLUB, dribbles the same line over and over. "the supplements were all legal" Oh really? So legal, and above board, that EVERY SINGLE player interviewed, neglected to mention them, in an interview with ASADA, about the taking of DRUGS?!?!?!?! Jesus, the mind boggles that anyone can give these blokes the time of day. Every step of the way, they have been uncooperative, and boy oh boy, isn't that being generous?

No, and I don't know that anyone else outside the court does either. Remember, the AFL are not appearing at the court, CAS has not allowed them to be a party to the proceedings so I am not sure how they could request this unless it was through the players lawyers, which means about as much as a defence counsel in a murder trial requesting leniency. I am aware the AFL has said that is what the outcome should be but not sure how they could formally submit it to the court if they are not a party to it. As I am aware, and I am no legal expert, I understood the form is that CAS brings down their ruling and both WADA and the players counsels submit their pleas as to what the penalties there should be. Then CAS makes a ruling. Bluster from the AFL is just that - trying to influence the outcome from the outside, for their own PR reasons, and making themselves appear to be relevant.

The AFL tribunal applied the standard of "absolute certainty". Based on their ruling, the only way to satisfy them would be to go back in time and lab test the shipment of "TB4" sent by the Chinese lab to Charters. And then of course you would have to go back in time and lab test the "TB4" given to Alavi, because (of course) Charters may have swapped them for something else. And so on. Unless of course Dank, Charters, etc, enjoyed pointlessly risking their careers by supplying harmless vitamins labelled as TB4. Which if you're an AFL tribunal is probably a very realistic scenario.

Well Chris, just like High Court judges here, and Supreme Court judges in the US. So often driven by political prejudices, rather than the rigour of the law. That is why federal governments both here and in the US regard their right to appoint senior judges as a key way of cementing a political perspective into the fabric of the country long after they are turfed out of office. Why should the same sort of biases not be present in perhaps the most subjective emotion of all - an irrational bias towards a football team - almost the ultimate tribe. Hird played just this to its limits, and has caught up the head of the biggest newspaper group in the world, the premier and governor of Australia's second biggest state, numerous journos feeding from the snout of the AFL, and tens of thousands of loyal fans. All seriously misled, and yes continuously lied to. They deserve to go down, and they will.

This jocker has completely missed the point of the appeal. You've really got to wonder about some of these people. The point of the appeal is that WADA claim the AFL Tribunal failed to apply the "comfortable satisfaction" burden of proof correctly. Why write the article if you are going to miss the whole point of the appeal. WADA believe the AFL Tribunal applied something much closer to the criminal "beyond reasonable doubt." For instance saying a chain of emails, invoices and payments showing the ordering of, supply and delivery of TB4 isn't enough to prove it was at Essendon because there aren't any actual tests of the substance delivered to prove it was TB4. That's something beyond the criminal burden of "beyond reasonable doubt". The WADA head has made it clear in the below quote why they are appealing and it is to do with the standard of proof applied. "Quite simply, if the BALCO cases had been decided under the principles followed by the AFL tribunal, none of the BALCO people would have been sanctioned. For us, the key issue [in appealing the AFL tribunal finding] was: can investigations be done in a way that BALCO and a whole lot of other previous cases were run? Or, is there going to be a significant change due to the way the AFL tribunal decided it? Because that would change the whole way that we put cases before courts. The standard of proof that was used in the cases that led to the first non-analytical sanctions [through BALCO] was quite different to the proof used in the AFL tribunal. So we are trying to find out what the correct standard is under the [WADA] Code.That puts it into perspective. It's a big principle."

Essedon sure seems to have a lot of members and supporters still prepared to push its barrow. Its quite embarrassing. Dont they see how foolish they appear? What a nothing article. "Is CAS the appropriate body to be dealing with disputes of this nature" i mean, yeah, for sure, why on earth would we settle a SPORTING dispute, in the court of arbitration for SPORT. Maybe we could ask a construction crew at the local coucil to take a look at it for us instead. ffs, how could anyone not see through these sickening fan boys?

I can just see them now standing in court saying 'your honour, it's Cas, it's WADA, it's Mabo, it's Balco, it's ASADA, it's.....it's.......it's the injustice of it all, ......you know, just the vibe of the whole thing'.

Isn't it great that there will be competition for places in the team.

No. It has always worked that way. All I'm saying is that my preference would be that clicking on the thread text takes you to the last unread post.

Ha ha ha. I saw that a few days ago. I wonder why the guy didn't simply sign off with his EFC membership number.

The only place it took you to the first unread post was from the homepage. Ironically this is the one thing I can't get working since the upgrade. When ever your were in the forum topic index under Melbourne Demons or the Trading Board or the other Boards if you clicked on the topic link you went to the first post but if you clicked on the circle/star on the left then it took you to your first unread post. I am aware that this is industry standard but I never understood it. If you are logged in then it makes sense for any link you click in a forum to take you to the first new post since your last visit.

Have you heard of removing the old ones AdamFarr? It is surprising effective.

"Good " will be determined by which side of the table you sit jnr. I assume by Good you mean that the EFC players get the crap kicked of them!

The MFC should simply be granted the foundation licence...as should the Doggies. All others are welcome to "apply" I'd like the club to lobby for this. No more ought we allow ourselves to be trodden roughshod over. A timely reminder to the AFL about history i would suggest.

i notice bbo's says country member

The single most productive 24 hours of my adult life.

only posting to see how cool my avatar looks on the new site........

Yep Cats built their list on the drafts of 99 & 01 and the Hawks built there's off 01 & 04. Absolutely nail 2 or 3 drafts with 7 or 8 core players and some bookends and you set yourselves up very well

New Bombers Women's team captain and vice captain

We should be playing finals in 2016.

I can see him getting games early and his positive is he racks them up at VFL level so has a fantastic attitude. My Collingwood mate loves him and didn't want him to go.

This I believe is correct and what makes them quick. Pulling the trigger, kicking to position, quick thinking effective ball users/receivers sets them apart. Yes they have a couple of quick players, but the whole team works hard both ways, and they have confidence in one another that they'll win their fair share of ball and work off the ball to create havoc to space.

Spoke to a mate in recruiting. His opinion: Oliver Wouldn't have made it past 5 Will likely be an exceptional talent (better than Wines) The dees will have an amazing inside midfield in the next few years. Weideman needs time to get his body right. King and to a lesser extent Huwlet - Speculative Wagner, skilled but slow

Trengove was the right pick at pick 2 Cant help injuries, the kid was well on the way to stardom after his second season

murray from wodonga..........that;s just weird

Any relation to Anne Murray, the hot Canadian strumpet of the early 80's? Rhetorical question.