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So he's capable of growing both muscle and hair. Sadly, I can do neither.

This is what I believe. I beilieve....... 1. Essendon set out to structure a drug based strategy that was illegal as shown by "whatever it takes" and Hirds pursuit of undetectable drugs to assist performance. 2. Hird is a liar and needs to take responsibility for his role in the whole affair. His 'defence' of the players is hypocritical as the only thing he continues to defend is his own tattered reputation. He was one of the prime drivers of this strategy. 3. The board and the Administration at the time is also responsible for the position the club and players are in. 4. The AFL also shares responsibility for this situation as they believed they could "control" the process and outcome. 5. Dank is a bit player who is a convenient patsy. Comes across to me as dumb as a post with just as much personality. 6. The strategy employed by Essendon to delay, delay, delay has been successful as there are only 12 of the original 34 left on the list. an earlier resolution of this would have had much more impact. 7. The players collectively have played this in a very dumb way. Right from the beginning they should have realised that the ultimate responsibility for what went into their bodies is theirs and theirs alone. 8. The AFL should, if they had any guts, punish the Essendon football club for running this drug strategy. To not do so now is to allow the 34 players to accept all of the blame for this fiasco. Dank the patsy gets a life ban, the club get punished for governance short comings (as they should) Hird gets a paid holiday in France... the club collectively is responsible for an illegal performance enhancing drug program that they appear to be going unpunished for. 9. Jobe Watson's Brownlow should have been removed as soon as the verdict was given. He has no defence to retain it. if he retains it in any way shape or form it devalues and tarnishes the award for the best and fairest. Would he have been the best had it not been for the drugs and would it be fair to the others in the competition if a convicted drug cheat is adjudged the fairest? If you cannot answer 'yes' to both these questions Jobe, then give the medal back and ask for your name to be struck from the records. 10. Tracey Holmes is a dill and not an interviewer's elbow. 11. Essendon are as guilty as hell and I am going to make sure I do all i can to ensure that not $1 of mine goes to benefit them. 12. I feel not sympathy for the club or the players. They chose the path they followed and have to accept the consequences. 13. Once the players have served their punishment, they should be free to continue their careers in any way they wish. 14. The architects of the program should be banned for life from any role in sport. That is what I believe and I am not about to change those beliefs.

After discussing Angus Brayshaw, the attention of the St. Kilda recruiters went on to Christian Petracca. I'm going to quote the part of the book below but I think it's relevant that (as I understand it) St. Kilda coach Alan Richardson is a friend of the Petracca family. On that basis it's worth noting how detached he had to be when considering potential recruits - possibly in the same way that Todd Viney had to be a couple of years earlier when looking at the Toumpas/Wines selection. It's not easy and hindsight can be wonderful at times. "Christian Petracca had been voted Metro’s best and fairest at the end of the tournament, and won the Larke Medal as Division l’s stand-out player. He had matured a lot in the last six months; Elshaug reported. He had worked his way into the midfield, his improved endurance helping him spend more time in there. Was he a full-time midfielder, like Brayshaw? Probably not, said the recruiting manager, but he was a different sort of player. 'He's still learning how to run both ways. It’s still a bit foreign to him, but he'll tackle and compete in his area. Will he pick someone up? Angus is better at that at this point, because he’s played in the backline, but having said that, Christian can do some things Angus can’t do. At the start of the year you wondered how he’d go with keeping his feet on the ground and he’s been questioned about that along the way, but he's grown up a lot over the year. I think he's a much more level-headed kid now. He lifted the team in a lot of games, he had a lot of good second halves and he’s strong, he has an AFL body. We think he could take a bit more care with his kicks at time. His penetration is fine but sometimes you think, Can you take more than two steps before you kick?, that’s all. He just needs to remember to take more care, but there's nothing actually wrong with it.' 'When you talk about growing up, what do you mean by that? Is he immature?' asked Richardson. 'He’s a little bit excitable,' said Elshaug. 'He’s funny, a character. If there’s a distraction, he might be the one causing it. There’s always something happening when he’s around.' 'He has incredible vision,' said the coach. 'Is he tough?' 'Tough enough,' said Elshaug. 'There was one ball we questioned at the MCG, but that was the first time he’d played against men. He got a bit cute that day, but I haven’t seen any sign of that since then.' 'Which one do you personally like, out of him and Brayshaw?' 'I like both, and they’re not far apart. That’s the truth.' 'I didn’t ask that ...' 'I'd have Petracca a bit ahead of Brayshaw, but Brayshaw’s the one where you say, "Jeez, you’re a really solid pick, nothing could go wrong with you." Not much could go wrong with Christian either, but one has a bit more safety about him, I think. It’s a fine line. I like them both. I don’t need to decide between them yet, do I?’"

Thanks Saty and good to have you back providing information.

Dustin Martin knows a good one

Emma Quayle is one of the more knowledgeable writers on the AFL Draft. Recently, her second book was published - The Draftees, a sequel to her first which covered the 2007 AFL Draft, The Draft. This time she covers the year-long journey of five potential 2014 draftees (Isaac Heeney, Jake Lever, Tom Lamb, Clem Smith and Peter Wright) and looks at the issues and the highs and lows involved in being a potential AFL draftee, including the pressures, the disruption to normal family life and education, injuries and a raft of other matters that arise during the course of the season. Interspersed with the diaries of the players are insights about the drafting process from the recruiting team at St. Kilda who made themselves available to Quayle at various times during the year. You get to understand their thinking and the pressure upon them to make the right calls on players. Obviously, from an MFC supporter perspective, the book would have been of even greater interest, had one of Quayle's subjects ultimately been a Demon draft pick, but there have been some interesting snippets so far (I'm halfway through the book). Some examples:- Saints recruiting manager (and former Demon Tony Elshaug) and another recruiter flew to Adelaide in May to watch an South Australian Under 18 trial game and called Glenelg pair Alex Neal-Bullen and Billy Stretch the "two stand out players". Discussion about Angus Brayshaw in the early stages of the Under 18 championships: "Brayshaw was next. 'He was very good. He had plenty of the footy,' said Barnard. 'I don't know if it was planned, but he got more on the outside than the inside, which I wasn't expecting. He's been really combative in the games I've seen previously. He gets caught a few times but his work rate is through the roof.' 'His leadership is very good,' said Elshaug. 'He was always talking to the others. He can't do much more. I don't think he could possibly be playing much better than he is right now. He was best on ground.'" Being a NSW/ACT representative, Isaac Heeney can only play in the second division of the Under 18 championships and expresses his frustration that the new championship format means that he couldn't do the thing that he most wanted: "take on Angus Brayshaw, Christian Petracca and the other really good midfielders ..." The importance of buildings up a good fitness base when coming back from injury was discussed in the case of Peter Wright, an early draft favourite on his recovery and on Jake Lever who spent the entire season sidelined after a knee reconstruction. Late in the season, one of the Saints' recruiters sat in freezing-cold weather at Ballarat watching Oscar McDonald play well at CHB in a TAC Cup game. "He works really, really hard and he's able to accumulate possessions because of that. He's a smart player, he reads the play well and he's competitive. There's just a slight lack of athleticism that worries me at the moment". I'm just getting to the part where the Saints recruiters discuss the top six draft prospects which included Paddy McCartin, Brayshaw and Christian Petracca - I'll cover that discussion in my next report.

As far as I can gather with Jayden Hunt, through talking to him and fitness staff, back issues are over, but like Hogan keep a close eye on any niggle

If people are concerned about the "look" of Essendon taking on Crowley and maybe Saad, I think they're looking in the wrong direction. Surely the appointment of Worsfold as coach is far more problematic. Not because of the irony of his Pharmacy qualification but because he was in charge at West Coast when that club obviously had uncontrolled problems with players taking unusual substances.

Title of game analysis and education coordinator. Originally drafted by the Roos but never played a game.. Worked with Sheedy, Hird, and most recently Luke Beveridge. (Happy to pick a few tricks from Beveridge...) Analysing game plans and strategies. This is a new role for the Dees and reminds me of what Clarkson is doing at the Hawks. Getting educators in with game knowledge. Backing up McCartney and Goodwin. Unless you can get the message across to young men its all a waste of time.. Good that we are adding more and more quality and hopefuly cutting edge education to the coaching staff..... http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2016-01-19/jennings-rapt-to-join-melbourne-journey

No comment needed. (Source: Mark Hawthorne's Twitter account. He's a senior journo at The Age)

You don't get injuries playing on your playstation. You also don't become an elite footballer. We want to draft competetives beasts. They will always do physical activities in their down time.

Now.... When drafted.....

I'll look to get an answer for you over the next day or two (know the family). Pretty certain back issues are behind him (if you'll excuse the pun).

My new job is really good, for a job of course, some of the places I have worked didn't give it much competition......get to training now and again, trying for at least once a fortnight, if not more Choke, watching Hogan train, when he is not having a light day, is frightening, he is a big man now, but his running has not been affected at all, he has put on about another 3 or 4kg, think they want him playing at around 98-100kg, a lot of the players look really strong now compared to past years, there are some serious builds, Kent is another one, he is just solid....and of course the transformation of Hunt, even Matt Jones looks like he has actually toned his sinew

Does anyone read Matt Burgan's diaries on the MFC website? I got about one paragraph into the first one.

Brilliant thread wj. DL at its finest. Love the last extract. How brilliant is it that we ended up with both brayshaw and the trac.

Except Hal Hunter who is taking them to court to find out what drugs they actually gave him. How dare he do that! AFL the house of whited sepulchres.

Very interesting. I hope we make a fuss too. I bet the AFL did not offer Port, Saints and us the top-up option in case we diminished the stock of players that EFC could pursue. Then again, maybe I'm ascribing too much foresight to the hapless characters running our game.

hmmm...let's give all our players fractured toes to stop them doing ACL's before the season starts......hmmmmm

With the Under 18 championships behind them and leading up to the 2014 AFL Draft there were six players who Tony Elshaug and his recruiting team believed had started to separate themselves from the rest, and who could wind up being worthy of the No. 1 slot. "The first four, in no particular order, were Angus Brayshaw, Paddy McCartin, Christian Petracca and Peter Wright. The other two - Isaac Heeney and Darcy Moore - were tied to Sydney and Collingwood, with Moore the son of two-time Brownlow Medallist Peter Moore and available to the Magpies as a father-son selection. Elshaugh talked through Brayshaw's form first, as some footage rolled on the war-room television. 'He's ready to go,' he said of the Vic Metro midfielder. 'He was ready to go three months ago when he was the best player against Collingwood's VFL team. He was in the leader¬ship group; he's an All Australian. He had three very good games and the others weren't bad either. He's tough, good at stoppages but he can spread and he's improved his endurance over time. He sees every¬thing around him, makes good decisions. His dad is Mark Brayshaw, who played with Claremont and North Melbourne and was the CEO there. His mum is a part-time teacher and he has brothers coming through the system as well. He's made of the right stuff.' 'Can you compare him to Josh Kelly?' asked Pelchen. 'They're very different players,' said Elshaug. 'Josh was an outside player trying to play inside, learning that. He's more of a silky-smooth player. This kid will drive it from the front and be a strong inside player.' 'He looks a bit like Josh Kennedy to me,' observed Richardson. 'He's a good size. 'He has some presence,' said Elshaug. 'He does most things well.' 'He doesn't play slow, put it that way' said Elshaug. 'He's not necessarily a quick player, but he doesn't get caught.' 'Does he look to kick quickly, or run with the ball?' asked the coach. 'Both,' said Elshaug. 'He can run with it and break away. He's got a pretty good all round game, but he's not Stephen Hill.' 'Is his endurance strong?' 'It's improved but he knows he needs to keep getting better," said Elshaug. 'If he got in the right shape and had no more injuries he’d run a good time trial at the combine, but I’m tipping he’s done most of his work already. I’m not saying he’s done, but he’s had a pretty big year to get to the point he’s at. He’s a good kid and he’s from a good family. They have strong values. His younger brother gave their mother a bit of cheek one day after a fun run, so Angus took him for a drive, dropped him off and said, "This is how far Mum had to run. See ya," and left him there. He’s been through school, he’s been through an injury. He’s handled everything that’s come his way so far. It’s hard to pick too many holes in him.'"

It's been a while since I've done a training report so I'm trying to make up for it with this fairly lengthy piece. I hope you enjoy. I managed to get down to training with a mate of mine who’s an Essendon supporter, but I’m trying to convince him to join the Mighty Dees. Funnily enough he did work experience with Melbourne back in 2005. Anyway onto training, It’s a muggy 27 degrees up here in Maroochydore (weather has been very average since arriving on Saturday). We got to training around 10.30am and walked to the back oval to find a few of the rehabbers in Trenners, Vince, Weideman and Mitch King having a kick around with Crossy. Trenners is moving really well and can see him joining the main group soon. On the main oval we had some more rehab guys in Dawes, Oliver, Frost, Jetta, and Smith doing some contested marking drills on the boundary. Dawes still can’t clunk a mark, but I was impressed with the way he was teaching Oliver how to use the body when contesting from front and back positions and creating space to allow the ball to drop at his feet. On the main oval now it’s a half ground simulation (blue vs green) and the guys in green are working really hard to get the ball out of defence using the boundary while the boys in blue are using short and sharp kicks, giving the defending team no time to close down on their opponents. The boys were being vocal but the coaches still wanted to see more aggression. Something that really impressed me was Hunt’s pace. He burst away from a stoppage play with Chunk nipping at his heels until space opened up and he eventually gained 10 metres on him and kicked long down the line. All the boys and even the coaches had a chuckle, looking around at each other as if to say (did you just see that?) After that the boys split up into groups, mids on mids and forwards on defenders. We watched the mids go at it for a while with Ben Mathews running the stoppage drills and McCartney keeping a watchful eye on the group in the distance, while Roos was standing on and electric platform lift getting a birds eye view with the filming crew. We overheard McCartney at one stage telling Whitey that he “wants to see good habits, and to keep a tighter check on his opponent”. Apart from that the midfield group were going reasonably well, but the coaches still wanted to see the players be more vocal and aggressive. At the clearance the guys were also getting way to close to the ruckman during the tap outs and weren't watching where the ball dropped causing fumbles or multiple turnovers. Mathews quickly clamped down on that and told them to “follow the flight of the ball instead of the position of the ruckmen and to give more space at the clearance”. Around 11.30am the boys all participated in the same drill (except for the rehab group) splitting into 4 groups using the whole ground. During this exercise the players would contest each other 1 on 1 trying to stop each other winning the ball and using their body to block their opponent from marking the ball coming towards them. They would continue this at full intensity and then break out into a full on wrestle and just when you thought they were spent, they had to sprint half the field to the next location. It looked exhausting just watching them. I don’t know how much of the session we missed but overall I’d give it a solid 7/10 in intensity. Players missing were Hogan, Melksham, Petracca, Newton and Max King. I think Hulett was having an off legs day (swim) like Hogan because we didn’t see him train at all. ANB spent most of his time between the exercise bike and the ice bins. Stretch had taping on his calf, Nev had his shoulder heavily strapped, Tyson had no tape on his knee which was good to see. I believe Watts was having trouble with his groin and was stretching out a lot, while Vanders hurt his foot and required icing. Players we were impressed with today were Kent, Frost, T-Mac, Bugg, Brayshaw, Tyson, Michie and Hunt.

Proved your point. Hogan missing from the Geelong game meant that the Cats were completely unprepared as they had only planned for that one scenario. With Hogan out, they were completely unprepared and lost.

Will he work on the most difficult job in the history of sport - getting effective Melbourne kick-outs.

given kelty was on the afl board for the duration of this saga (till end 2015), shouldn't he stay out of this and stop politicking?

I certainly don't want my clubs money to pay for this. If it does then there will be no financial assistance given by me next year THIS IS AN ESSENDRUG PROBLEM..Not a collective AFL one...

How is the new job? Are you able to get to any training? PS:- Good to have you back.

He'll really need to toe the line now if he wants to get a foot in the senior team. Stop being a heel Truck! Sorry, I'll go now...

Mr Kelty has made his view known to senior figures at the AFL and Essendon that the game will need to find a substantial sum — between $10 million and $20 million — to redress the ­financial and reputational loss suffered by Essendon players. The alternative, Mr Kelty has warned, is drawn out litigation that would potentially cost $50m. Why would "the game" need to find this money? Surely the drug cheats have to pay up?

no building required to be that, dazzle

I'll meet you halfway - I was never big on previously rushing Trengove and Toumpas without a good solid foundation. I am not big on rushing Petracca, Oliver or any other young player until they are fit and considered ready. But seeing an injury as a blessing....lots of injuries heal quickly without problems - others don't . Frost had a four week toe injury which kept him out of action for the best part of the season. The blessing we want is to have every player on our list injury free.

We can only hope when Richard Ings says "I do give up", he means it. Oxygen thief of the highest order.

It's a Saad situation

There were so many its hard to know where to start! eg "Dank said what he was giving was legal" and "I'm not a medical person" etc and we believed him ... followed by" we all agreed to sack him but Robson stopped it". Why sack him if they believed him so much? or, if not, why was EVER allowed to continue. Or "I never got the letter Reid sent" ( which would have made such a difference apparently) followed by describing how close they are and that everything in the letter was already discussed! I think the letter was only ever about trying to save both their arses if anything ever came to light ie they BOTH knew they were in something up to their necks and took that action to shield themselves. Strangely, I did feel for him in that interview ... his life is being destroyed and I get no pleasure from that with anyone. But the longer he fights whats happening the bigger the hole he's digging for himself and the more untrsutworthy he becomes in everyones eyes. I sense that he probably has, or had, a lot of charisma and presents himself in ways that people are affected by ... but trying to use that gift when the whole world can see through his words, must (if you were a player) make everything he has ever said to you seem untrustable. I would say quit while your ahead Hirdy, but in this case I'll say quit now, even while the bus is running over you, because, if you don't the next vehicle will be a steam roller.

loved the comment that worsfold wouldn't have time to understand and check supplements. lol, ffs he's a qualified chemist.

I liked this, Essendon gave its players false assurances about the substances that club sports scientist Stephen Dank planned to inject them with. The club has already pleaded guilty to criminal breaches of occupational health and safety laws for failing to provide its players with a safe workplace. Civil claims for negligence are established on a lower standard of proof. As one lawyer involved in the case remarked: “It’s a lay down misere. Negligence will be admitted in due course.’’

blessing in disguise. wow.

Of washed up pensioners.. Crowley will be 32 and not played for nearly 18 months while Kelly will be 33 and was on his last legs and struggling to keep up with the pace of the game. Building a laughing stock if you ask me.

Just my opinion. I was never big on rushing Trengove (previously) and Toumpas without a good, solid foundation. I do think it is a blessing in disguise with CP, others might disagree, as they are perfectly entitled to.

My first thought about legal action by players against the EFC suggests that the consent forms they signed which got them into strife with CAS may now be their undoing in the legal action.

I can grow hair but in the wrong places

No injury is a blessing and as for CB stance yes he's correct you only have to look at Roos response to know it was a stupid thing to do when in rehab.

Im glad the bombers have to take their medicine. Most demonland posters were right. They will be down for years. Its over, their prolonged punishment will continue until Hird, Reid and Danks are hounded out of the state or put in stocks. But continual gloating demeans us, IMO.

You look back and don't trust anything he's ever said

Why? He took a drink one day too late. Drank it on Friday and would have been fine and legal if he had it on Thursday. Hardly an injector of substances on a regular basis.

Sitting next to Dion Prestia in a great Japanese restaurant in Surfers. Think we need a great Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, wink wink.

Interesting. Roos almost seems superfluous. Great management by Jackson. Goodwin gets to coach this year and Roos takes the heat. Perfect.

It's just been suggested that there should be a Royal Commission in to the Administration of the AFL.

This is what I really like about him, he may not be ready round 1 and plenty on here think he needs time at Casey. He may well. ...but he is not putting limits on himself, he's having a crack. We had another KPF early pick a few years ago who only talked of development time at Casey and where is he now.

They've signed Crowley. The jokes just write themselves.