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Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere on here or if it warrants a seperate thread, but MFC is due to unveil a new major sponsor most likely in mid-January. Haven't heard any precise details regarding $ value or deal term as yet, but I have seen a mock up of the jumper as the front-of-jumper logo is being refined for best visibility over the red and blue chest area. Anyway, MFC and the sponsor will announce in due course, however I think you'll be seeing a lot of MFC players getting around town in luxury Japanese vehicles from next year.

I don't understand comments like these at this point on the issue. It's like you want a pat on the back for being a social justice warrior or something. We have no idea about what the allegation is, no idea who the players is and, at this point, no idea if it's even true or not. All we know is that an allegation was made almost 3 months ago and nothing has happened since then. So how about we all get off our high horses and wait for more information. We can hold off on calling people 'scum' until then, yeah?

Step down the player as the matter currently stands? Don’t get me wrong, if down the track a player was charged and convicted of course I agree, sack him. But based on what we’ve been told and what we know I don’t agree with standing down the player. A statement hasn’t been provided to police nor has the woman engaged with police since the initial disclosure.

No they don't. They have tp respect the complainants decision to take the matter no further for whatever reason the decision was made. I highly doubt she has leaked this to the media. The club would be foolish to push it any further into the public

Take your own advice. It boggles the mind that someone who enjoys what Demonland offers, free of charge if you wish, would be critical of the owner having the audacity to take precautionary measures against any possible legal action or its potential closure. When you run your own footy forum, you can opt to be a lot looser on the naming of names in a matter such as this

The site is taking every precaution to ensure it doesn't get itself into trouble, regardless of whether it's facts or not. I don't see any problem with that. If you don't like it, then go and start your own forum and you can talk about it with yourself.

Rather than a lynching there's such a thing as due process where facts and testimony precede adjudication.

So much for my plans for NYE

And don't leave the supporters out of it TF ... we act and think in exactly the same manner - well, at least a fair percentage of us do. And hypocrisy abounds too. We may not be making any decisions either 1 way or the other but we'll still share the same thoughts & opinions. And it's the same the world over ... in any sport in any competition in any country.

I was in the interesting and unusual position of meeting a current player & some of his family. Really lovely and polite people and feeling quite comfortable with them I asked him about the “boot camp”situation. His response was quick and direct. In his words ... “ an absolute “media beat up” ..... players and coaches sat down and had a frank discussion about the camp. A joint decision was made to abort the camp. If the coaches had wanted us to do the camp ...we would have done it. The media are just trying to intimate there is a division between “ players & coaches” and it is not the case. That was pretty much his exact words. His family was a bit more direct and Danny Frawley had less than complimentary statements made about him. This is a 5yr player and I thought he was very honest and forthright. There will of course be the usual cynics out there who will decry this info but I am quite content and happy with this explanation and express the same sentiments as his family who are “hanging out for the season” and so excited. Go Dees !!

‘Better own up to protect his team mates.’ What exactly is he owning up to? For about the tenth time, the woman hasn’t provided a statement or assisted police since her first contact. He doesn’t have to ‘clear’ himself at all. Why does he have to suck up the distaste of the allegation? One of the poorer posts I’ve read on here.

Send them into a Myer or David Jones Boxing Day sale... that’ll sort them out!

This is a point worth reiterating as it often gets overlooked in these discussions. Just because there is no advancement of a report does not mean everything is hunky dory. The imbalance that exists between offences and convictions is still grossly out of whack. That's not to say that we shouldn't be waiting for facts to be uncovered or hanging any person involved without due process. But let's at least acknowledge that a lot of women don't pursue these matters through the courts because they know the likelihood of success is minimal.

That's the thing, some players are gonna have their names tarnished because they were on that trip. Only 4 players in question and people are going to make assumptions.

not the ones in unions though, uncle

[censored] me Ethan. The prisons must be full of tradies!

I use twitter daily. You are 100% correct.

At least is isnt Range Rover.....................

Also known as the Dan Jackson/Dusty Martin conundrum.

I've deleted the last several pages of gender pay gap discussion as it's not relevant to this discussion. If you want to discuss it then please start a new thread on the general board.

Spot on! Bali is just another bogan suburb of Australia with cheaper booze and beaches. Add Phuket and Pattaya to that list. Western bogans know how to [censored] up once beautiful locations in the world.

Angela Merkel is on Twitter?

True d77. Im sittin out the front of my place admiring my Christmas lights drinking rum and eating corn chips and twisties as I’m typing this. My lights look really good even if I say so myself!! i also follow ball and cricket so I really don’t have an off season but the crap that gets reported in the off season drives me nuts.

Would never question Bellamy on what it takes to prepare an NRL player for competition. ...but I would question his experience in preparing an AFL player. 2 different sports and no other AFL club is doing this type of training. Maybe they're all wrong as well... Kokoda is a whole different thing for those about to jump in with the Hawthorn example.

I missed the race, but saw the results. Looks like the handicapper got that one right! Crazy small dividends.....would be hard to win i guess..... Do you think Bowman can do it? What about the last gasp for Kitazan Black? Quinella perhaps? I also sent you a pm.

Lexus would be a fantastic sponsor for us, if this is true Premium brand, and part of the overarching Toyota sponsorship of the AFL as a whole Now, about that 50% off for members...

He would have continued going through the motions at Melbourne. Not pushing himself and coasting. What he does at Port is irrelevant to us.

I know the races from Japan are on Sky racing (cable) but not sure about racing.com Wadda. The Trifecta pools were very high for that Sha tin meeting a fortnight back so if that happens again, there can be some excellent dividends to be had. Both Bowman's mount (Cheval Grand) and the fans favourite (Kitasan Black) should feature but there's a number of good horses in the race. It's a good betting race if one can reduce the 16 horse field down to 6 or 7 realistic chances

I think that part of the appeal of esports is that anyone can compete "competitively" in video games. Professional competitions are a league above, but anyone can jump into a game of Call of Duty or Overwatch, and play the "competitive" component to receive a skill rank. Most professional players start off this way and if you play for long enough you'll eventually climb the rank and work up into a ranking where teams are looking to recruit you. So for a young kid, it's fun but always a way they may be able to turn their past time into something professionally and financially viable. I have a friend that is top 500 in Overwatch and received a nomination to represent Australia in the world cup. Didn't get beyond the shortlist, but once you make that tier you can join a team and earn anywhere between 10k and 200k a year competing in competitions. I used to work in game publishing and went to Seoul to see a World of Tanks tournament, just for a bit of research (South Korea is the esports mecca). With World of Tanks, all of the teams are owned by Wargaming (maker of the game), and each player gets a base salary (starting at around 50k). The Overwatch League is similar but teams are privately owned. Players are given a salary and bonuses for performance. It's essentially the NBA of esports. Evidently, there will be an NBA 2K league (that's the NBA video game for you oldies), and most teams are actually owned by Nba teams. As I've mentioned in other threads, esports is still finding its feet and isn't a guaranteed money maker. At the least it's a branding exercise, but gamers are fickle, albeit with high purchasing intent, so if AFL teams can build teams that are competirive on a global scale, the money will roll in. But it's not easy. You need to attract the best players, and the brand needs to be engageable enough and successful enough to attravy the right sponsors.

Im really interested in the Arima Kinen race in Japan. Last race for Kitasan Black before retirement. Only a 5yo, gee do they always retire them that early in Japan?? Should be a great race and with Bowman as the extra interest factor ill be watching on 3.25pm Sunday. Hopefully it will be on racing.com Great article, thanks.

Having worked at the sex assault squad, I’m well aware of this. My thoughts are very similar to PSD’s earlier post.

So you want the player stood down before he's been offered the chance to defend himself and before the charges are, or if they are sustained? What sort of society would deem someone guilty before the facts are established, maybe you live in one but I surely don't. I suppose you'd prefer he was incarcerated and, if found innocent, after trial, offered an apology.

Thanks rolling! I really hope this works out as you have foreshadowed. We could do with a healthy dose of good news around now.

Sued? Hilarious. Rumours? Its not a rumour that a certain four players went to Bali. It's a fact. You can't be sued for stating facts. Get over yourselves.

Lexus pray you are correct.

The club needs to do their best to get to the bottom of this as difficult as that may be. I have no idea of whether innocent or guilty but I do know that three players are under the microscope unfairly

Kids have been spending plenty of time sitting on their arses getting good at video games for a couple of decades now, that hasn't changed. What baffles me is it is now a spectator sport ? And yeah my 4yo son likes watching YouTube vids of kids reviewing/building Lego sets. A lot of the time I just tell him it's not working but when he gets old enough to figure out I'm bullshitting him it's gonna be an issue haha

Spot on, mate. I'm hardline on this. If it's one of our better players, I couldn't give a toss. I'd strongly encourage the club to step down the player and if charges are laid, sack them altogether. I've no time for scum and it's scum that commits sexual assault.

Who knows what the real facts are though? Maybe she hooked up with a footy player expecting to get a long term relationship out of it and he was only looking at a one night stand. I've heard of just as many psycho women as I have "alpha male" wankers.

As someone with many years investigative experience I would advise many to just let this ride out. No complaint is the same and for various reasons the complainant doesn't always tell the truth for a number of reasons. I've investigated many incidents where the complainant has held details back due to trauma inflicted and not wishing to relive it again Boys can be stupid and alcohol can cloud their judgement but there can also be situations where regret and feelings of shame can make people twist the truth for a justification for their sexual inhibitions. We are not the only club to have a player subject to such an allegation this off season we are just the club whose allegation hit the media

I have a rather alluring photo of myself at a nudist beach but I imagine posting it would overwhelm the like button.

Probably about the same amount of time it takes sitting on your backside to learn a musical instrument. Probably similar to the time we spent watching the tele growing up. Maybe the same amount of time wasted on forums and facebook... The world moves on for better or worse...somethings are better, somethings are worse.

Ted Van Heemst Stakes (Ascot) - G2 WFA 2100m I'd like to be able to find a horse at good odds that can win this race but the only non-fancied horse that I reckon might feature is Dark Musket. But I don't believe it can win up against Pounamu, Material Man or Trap For Fools. So I'll throw Dark Musket & the other 2 outsiders into the mix in a trifecta & F4 and hope for the best ... otherwise the more fancied runners will fight out the finish and the dividends won't amount to much. Stranger things have happened though so you never know. I might have a few trifectas at Japan on Sunday all the same ... there's at least 2 feature races on show including the big G1 race over 2500m - Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix) Preview (Hugh Bowman rides Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand in the $6 million classic) Anyway, good punting to all!

Malthouse's Razor. When Malthouse was still coaching he swore blind that there were no favourites, each player was treated equally, etc. After he retired he freely admitted that of course the better players are treated differently. A fringe player acting up got punished or delisted and a star would get a slap on the wrist for the same thing. Depends on who this MFC player turns out to be ... if a star, the club will do everything it can to keep him. If a fringe player, they will probably be sacked. (All contingent on an assault actually happening and how bad it is.) Malthouse's Razor. The amount of effort to keep things under wraps and protect the player is proportional to how indispensable the player is. MFC will prove to be as indulgent and selectively forgiving as every other club.

you post a selfie of yourself at the event of course.... No selfie...you were never there ! In Asia at present ... went to Star Wars movie last week. The pre movie ads featured two long ads for phones both highlighting their selfie taking ability not to mention the ability to photo shop your selfie. Nothing about whether it worked as a phone !!

Lol. Oh dear. because the lives of women have never been ruined by men have they? Or gone unnoticed or uncharged. I think the pay gap between genders is a simple example of women's lives STILL being ruined by men.

Here's the final field for the CB Cox Stakes to be run on Saturday at Ascot ... it's a G2 WFA event over 2100m and the race is often used as a lead-in to the Perth Cup (G2 2400m - Jan 1) Here's a bit of a write-up ... 2018 Perth Cup Horses Head Ted Van Heemst Stakes Field (Formerly the CB Cox Stakes) It's only a small field but I don't mind races with just the 8 starters # Horse Barrier Weight (kg) Rating Jockey Trainer 1 POUNAMU 4 59 107 PATRICK CARBERY ALAN MATHEWS 2 MATERIAL MAN 5 59 102 LUCY WARWICK JUSTIN WARWICK 3 ZARANTZ 8 59 98 CHRIS PARNHAM ADAM DURRANT 4 DARK MUSKET 2 59 74 CLINT JOHNSTON-PORTER GRAEME BALLANTYNE 5 SUNSET SUPERMAN 1 59 62 DANIEL STAECK BRETT POPE 6 TRAP FOR FOOLS 6 58 94 ALAN KENNEDY LINDSEY SMITH 7 COSMIC STORM 3 57 93 JARRAD NOSKE GRANT & ALANA WILLIAMS 8 SHINTA MANI 7 57 85 JASON WHITING SHARON MILLER