SaberFang

It's a practice match for crying out loud. The whole point is to get rid of the cobwebs.

Yeah, as if we had any hope of getting him.

Didn't those waivers they signed disappear? Ie. They probably listed an illegal drug and were destroyed by Essendon. Therefore, how exactly were the players "duped" if they knew it was TB4 and were too braindead to check its legality? That isn't being duped,that's failing your independent duty of care as an athlete who is responsible for everything that enters their body. Period.

Thanks to McQueen and Leucopogon for the great reports. Sadly wouldn't be a training thread without the usual suspect turning up to put all the attention onto themselves. God forbid some other posters try to contribute something without the high horse rolling in to inform them their opinions are wrong. Leucopogon, maybe you could get Kent's autograph for your son after the match? I think they're getting the red-eye home so they'll probably be leaving the ground fairly soon after the match.

Bloody awful injury and terribly unfair on young kids. Feel for all 3 players. On a positive note, returning Lion Daniel Rich shined in today's match against the Saints after doing his ACL 11 months ago. Just shows that determination and patience reaps its rewards.

Now a week later, Mackenzie from the Eagles also suffers an ACL. Also appears the signs with Libba from the Bulldogs (their B&F from 2014) are quite grim after a knee injury in today's praccy match against Tigers. Really horrible few weeks for this injury but surely the "woe is us" mentality of Demons supporters should be in perspective today.

His antics were embarrassing and he's let the team down by being unavailable against Gold Coast. When's the last time Nathan Jones antics got him suspended?

Dawes shows some real questionable leadership. Still haven't forgotten his spray against JKH for burning him, then him doing the same himself a few rounds later.

Carlton absolutely embarassing. Have been saying since the draft that Carlton will easily be bottom 4, and I've seen nothing tonight that changes my opinion. Awful.

Could the AFL take over the Essendon FC if all this goes as catastrophically as we expect? NRL just took over the Gold Coast Titans due to the drugs scandal that's hit them. Would show some strength from the AFL to do the same in light of the seriousness of events.

Jetta's amazing turnaround continues. Hard to believe where he was 18 months ago.

Maybe I missed something here, but what happened to that clause where if more than 2 players in the same sporting team are found guilty of taking performance enhancing drugs, then the entire team faces sanctions (ie. can't compete)?

They really are living in cockoo-land over at Essendon. So the drug cheats in the team have pressured the 9 innocent players from 2012 into the 'drug cheat' basket, just to preserve their anonymity? Are they going to do that for the entire duration of the 2 year bans as well, to protect the athletes that were too dumb to take common sense precautions about a clearly dodgy drugs program? Just staggering what is happening at that club. Where on earth is the AFLPA in all this? Continuing to paint the AFL as the bad guys, no doubt?

Nah, spot on. I still think back to those photos of Trenners on his scooter at training with nobody around him, looking totally depressed. I reckon he'll take CP under his wing and they'll get through the season as brothers-in-arms. Jack's an inspiring influence, especially for a kid like Christian.

Love this kid! So glad he's onboard... hopefully Salem's signature isn't far off either. Really want to see all the younguns under Roos stick through with it long-term, and not worry about the last 8 years.

Very impressive presser from Petracca, and Brayshaw was very well spoken in his little piece as well. We've picked up two gems here. Sad that Christian will need to wait an extra year to debut, but there's plenty he can do in the interim to motivate teammates and push the club forward. Anyway, everyone seems to have forgotten Roos' core message of "stop putting our draftees on a pedestal." This injury isn't the end of the world and, as Christian himself said, we shouldn't be expecting first year players to be match-winners.

Caro, as always, is spot on. The AFL have been made to look like inept, spineless fools throughout this saga. Indeed it appears the tail does wag the dog. Gil might want to protect the interests of Essendon and their large supporter base, but he's a fool to do it at the expense of the other 17 clubs. Let's not forget who is to blame for this entire mess.

The misery Demons fans wallow in is well-founded given the last 8 years of results, but far out... it's time to move on! Do you see every other club that passed on Wines wallowing in their own pity every time this kid takes another step forward? Be happy for a great young man making his mark on the game. Port have experienced a rags to riches story we all hope Melbourne can replicate, but the longer we dwell on the past the harder it is to look forward to a bright future. Lamenting the past achieves nothing. You can't do anything about it, so be proactive about what you can control, what you can change. I'm yet to see a single trade or draftee since Roos came onboard that hasn't been a raging success.

Rest assured, no matter the outcome there will be an appeal from either side.

An 18 month suspension would basically spell the end Fletch's career. What a way to go out. Not sure whether to feel pity or laugh at it all. Idiots.

My shrink once told me to stop worrying about mistakes made in the past, because there is nothing you can do to change it. That even if you had made different choices in the past, there's no way of knowing what potentially worse events may have occurred in its place. Moral of the story? GET. OVER. IT.

Couldn't have planned his exit any better. No doubt he knew exactly what was coming.

Agreed. I know Roos said it was going to be positive to see how much progress we'd made by playing against the best teams, but that was simply an embarrassment. We were being mocked when Josh Gibson went forward to kick goals. IIRC Clarkson didn't even bother turning up to coach that game, and left it for an assistant. It killed all confidence we'd gained over pre-season and the Tigers victory.

Anyone else find it blatantly transparent that Essendon's 3 NAB challenge competitors are the bottom three teams from the 2014 ladder? Saints, GWS and us. The AFL don't even pretend to hide how manipulative they are in an unfavourable situation.

How on earth are they not bringing the game into disrepute with this childish and embarrassing behaviour? Why the hell are other teams constantly forced to suffer due to the illegal decisions made BY ESSENDON, BY HIRD, BY THE PLAYERS? Farcical. And oh, so typical of the AFL to do absolutely nothing about it. Where's Eddie when you need him? He'd be absolutely ropeable if his team had to miss out on a practice match just because of Essendon's pathetic behaviour. I say the entire team, and every player participating in the boycott, should be fined the absolute maximum allowed under AFL rules. Exactly the same as if a team boycotted a home and away match.