SaberFang

My God, you idiots! STOP! Wake up, smell the roses, and sue the people RESPONSIBLE for putting you into this whole mess! Oh, that's right. You can't sue Dank because he has the evidence that proves you were all complicit!

Because AFL Integrity, that's why. They'll ban a player from Brownlow eligibility over a harmless incidental bump, but being a convicted drug cheat under the WADA code is AOK! Imagine if the rest of society functioned under the AFL's governance system; there'd be anarchy in the streets.

I thought you needed a semblance of intelligence to be a player manager, but I was clearly wrong. Grubby, corrupt scumbags with their snouts firmly entrenched in the trough.

Apparently his argument is that he didn't get a fair hearing, but his lawyer said he had a fair hearing at the CAS. Shortest appeal ever? Won't even make it past the first step.

Hogan's guernsey looks ridiculous here. Did they not bother hiring a stylist or anything?

Can he please, please, please be fired from his job already? His deranged lies are becoming more dangerous than those spewed by his co-workers.

Yeah, at least for the photo shoots, they really should be wearing a size too small so they're tight on their chests.

Well, at least they're transparent with their blatant favouritism of rich clubs, regardless of whether or not they're convicted drug cheats.

The photography is alright but why is nobody instructing the players on facial expressions and whatnot? Why would you even photograph Dom making such a dumb expression?

Carefully chosen words, he's good as gone.

It's actually mindboggling how mindbogglingly idiotic this all is. Mindboggling.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. I made a post about this yesterday in the Gil thread. The delayed decision for all non-Essendon clubs was by design to ensure Essendon got the best available players.

Dill can't make a decision, handballs to his lawyer, then his lawyer handballs to the 13 uninvolved clubs. Hilarious. Convenient that the AFL were perfectly capable of making so many high-stakes decisions in Essendon's favour within hours of the CAS verdict, yet need a month of internal consultation about an obvious issue 4 poorer clubs were always going to raise. Healy makes an excellent point in that if any of those traded players were still at Essendon, it wouldn't even be a question allowing Essendon an additional top-up player; why is the situation different for us? Why on earth is the team of drug cheats getting preferential treatment? Is this simply routine AFL incompetence or something more sinister? It strikes me much more as another meticulously puppeteered outcome masquerading as administrative bureaucracy. They knew this situation would unravel and they've successfully delayed, handballed and pushed back any decision for nearly a month. So why? For one obvious purpose: ensuring Essendon had exclusive access to the best available talent for as long as possible. A secondary benefit is creating uncertainty for the 4 other clubs, preventing players from resisting Essendon's advances (would you turn down $200K for 10 months work?). Significantly, former senior players are the only useful top-ups this late in the game; there's simply no time to train, condition and teach a foreign gameplan to a kid with little experience in the system.

North Melbourne is a retirement village and they made finals last year!

Meanwhile, at AFL House:

I feel horrible for saying this, as a lifelong MFC supporter, but the disgraceful behaviour of the EFC and AFL in this saga has seriously dented my interest in the entire competition. What Essendon did disgusts me, and they're being handled with kiddy gloves. Concessions out the wazoo, all because the AFL can't let one of their big clubs go under. It's disgusting and borderline untenable the way the AFL have protected a team of convicted drug cheats in this saga (I don't believe for a second that Vlad didn't tip them off that fateful night 4 years ago). Just add it to the already impressive CV of ineptitude that's created this horribly unbalanced 18 team league, including the most laughable series of concessions ever gifted to expansion clubs, almost directly resulting in the endless dominance of the same teams every single year; Hawthorn wouldn't be this successful if there were 15 clubs that got a slice of GWS and Gold Coast's players. The AFL's head-in-the-sand approach has achieved nothing but inequity, and every major player is more concerned about their own interests than supporters'. The AFLPA? Say no more. The broadcasters? Responsible for diluted talent by way of expansion, and Brian Taylor. It's just so hard to maintain optimism about the game's future with so many pigs in the trough. Oh, but at least Gil made the pies $0.80 cheaper.

All these ex-senior players, gotta wonder how many kept in shape since retiring? I could see them getting very tired by about round 8 or 9, but could be dangerous in the first third of the season.

My only reaction to this is ugh.

What about the award for Most Failed Appeals in an Anti-Doping Investigation?

Christ, I can't wait for him to sign his 6 year extension with Port so we can all move on with our lives.

I wonder if Scully is a sledge at our club?

A 10 man leadership group? Really? Speaks volumes about Ablett's off-field leadership up there.

They obviously can't if they want to retain any shred of integrity, but I've a feeling the reason for their delay tactic announcing any decision was straight from any slimy politician's playbook: wait for the opportune Friday afternoon (right before round 1, probably) to announce something hugely unpopular with the public (ie. allowing him to keep the medal), because the masses are too busy focusing on other things.

I thought about this too and the conclusion I reached is they must have rejected the option of upgrading rookies in favour of recruiting recently retired delisted players like Stokes, Kelly, Crowley, etc. A "have your cake and eat it too" scenario, which is par the course for this bunch of cheating assholes.