Whispering_Jack

Until such time as the site is updated, you'll need a time machine:-

There's a substantial amount of evidence there to build up what is a circumstantial case against the players and officials of the Essendon Football Club and most of these aspects have been discussed from time to time through the pages of this and previous threads here on Demonland and elsewhere. The gathering of this sort of evidence has to be painstaking and laborious and explains why we're nearly two years down the track and only now seeing a distant light at the end of the tunnel. The players have already suffered pain and there's more on the way irrespective of the AFL Tribunal outcome: their reputations as clean sportsmen will be tarnished because of the clear cover up and the absence of records of what they ingested during the programme.Those who planned and perpetrated this disgrace should be run out of the sport.

I think you might be right. The ears have it.

The team is back in town today after 11 days on the Sunshine Coast and the coach has deemed it a success ~ Camp achieved what we wanted: Roos The players now have "three days off before returning to training on Australia Day" and hopefully the return session will be open to the public because, to date, many of us have not had the opportunity to catch up with training due to work commitments. Thanks to all those fans who posted their reports from Maroochydore, particularly Roosy's Bruisers who was meticulous in following the various sessions and reporting on them. He's set a high standard for our regular Melbourne track watchers and I hope I can join them all on Monday wherever training takes place.

Is it Nicholson? I seem to recall that Billy Stretch was the other AIS participant at training at the same time. It could be him.

Burgos Diary Day 10

Burgos Diary Day 9

Completely different anti doping rules in place, different burden of proof. Surprised Galbally would offer such an opinion in those circumstances. Surely, he's aware of the WADA Code and the AFL's anti doping policy? No?

Enough.

Photo Gallery Tuesday 20 January, 2015 Spare a thought for Jack Trengove. Still on crutches and in a moonboot, he's reall taking a pounding physically trying to get himself right against the odds. I'm wondering how the medicos are monitoring the foot injury after his latest operation. Would anyone with medical knowledge or some experience with the injury know? How often do they take X-rays of the affected area to make sure he's healing properly?

Burgos Diary Day 8

I'm not sure who your referring to there but the Bombers' influence within the Murdoch empire is far more powerful than senior editorship at the HUN. Try CEO of Newscorp - Rupert has got a crush on you

"Substantial assistance" would essentially mean giving information to assist in the successful prosecution of at least one other person. That might end up being S. Dank but it would almost certainly involve the Essendon players. I wonder what they would get? Still seems extremely light to me.

Two former Essendon players are reportedly considering deal with ASADA. Take it with a grain of salt if the penalty is two games.

I haven't had the opportunity to listen to any news today but he apparently signed a 3 year contract with the Dogs last year. So what's the story behind this - pushed or fell?

On the other hand, Day Eight was action packed as these Photos attest.

Burgos Diary Day 7 It was a rest day so there's more trivia and jellyfish than anything to do with football (which sort of fits in with the direction this thread's been going)

I've just listened to an SEN Podcast of a discussion earlier in the week on the prospects of three teams Geelong, Hawthorn and Melbourne. Cam Mooney felt we can improve and thinks we should be happy to finish in the 7 to 10 game range. I think for the most part, critics still assess clubs on their immediate past performances which is natural and on that basis, even 7 to 10 wins would be a bonus year for us. However, I just have this Tiriel Mora-like vibe that this year there is a clear difference in the mood at the club. Paul Roos has had the opportunity to assess the players first hand for a season, half of the list has been changed in 18 months and the entire outfit is going about things with great professionalism. Call it the vibe but I have a feeling that we're going to lift around about the time we play the Doggies in Round 8 and by the time we play the Saints in Round 11, we'll be flying.

It was you? You should have worked out I wasn't interested when I fell asleep ...

The Paleo Diet: Should you eat like a caveman?

The silence in the media over the course of the AFL Tribunal hearings is somewhat deafening in comparison to my expectations during the build up. There are a number of theories around and the introduction of a new poster Ian Rush over at Saintsational has made interesting reading since he was brought to my attention yesterday by a Saints fan. He's the BigFooty poster CozzaD who was mentioned here late last year and, while there's a lot to get your head around, he's worth a read on the "Essendope" thread. Even acknowledged support from Demonlanders in his first post. If I get him right, this saga has much wider testacles tentacles than just the Essendon and Cronulla situations (yes, we knew that because of its origins in the ACC investigation) but extends to sports other than the football codes (look at what's going on in horse racing) and also into business and politics. Other AFL clubs have been mentioned as well, including us (it's OK - we're safe) and a recent premiership team that produced some interesting test results after winning the grand final which were just inside acceptable limits. Interesting times.

We might well be older but the richness of those memories is priceless. Imagine waking up every Saturday morning and knowing that your team was going to win.

At a kid's birthday party yesterday I was bailed up by a fellow Demon fan who was waxing lyrical about our prospects for 2015. I don't think he knows about Demonland or my connection with it but since he wasn't stopping to take a breath I didn't get the opportunity to tell him I already knew a bit about Lumumba, Petracca etc. so I just let him go until we were both exhausted and he still went on with another topic that was even less interesting and took up even more time. Anyway, his point was that he's keenly looking forward to a season of major improvement, possibly a finals appearance and he says "we'll know by the middle of the year." God bless him for his optimism (much better than the naysayer types who tend to the polar opposite view and think we won't improve at all and complain about everything) but he did get me thinking about how far we could go if things went our way this year for a change and when would we know that we've definitely turned the corner? There are many who say that the course of an AFL season is often determined by the half way mark and that, after that point, there are very few changes to the make up of the finals. Last year, Richmond challenged that by storming home with nine wins in a row to fall into eighth place with 12 wins, a game ahead of West Coast, Adelaide and Collingwood. The Tigers only had three wins at the mid point of the season but they had a good run home and gained in confidence and momentum as their winning run continued. Leaving the Richmond scenario at a side, it's usually that case that for a team to really be in contention at the halfway mark, it realistically needs to have five wins on the board at the very least. Looking at our fixture for the first half of the season, that could be a tough ask but if we can get a good start and win the first two, then who knows? Port Adelaide surprised everyone two years ago when it flew out of the blocks early. What's your view as to where the Demons are going to be placed at around about 7.00pm at the end of our Round 11 game v St. Kilda at Etihad?

Thanks to all the posters who have contributed reports so far from Maroochydore. If only I had known a little more in advance of the venue and timing, I might have managed to get there myself. That part of the world's great for a holiday on its own. On top of that, from the reports we've been getting on the views of club officials, it sounds like this is as good a venue for one of these pre season training/bonding exercises as the more costly and exotic parts of the world tried by others over the years.

No idea at all. Let's not forget that judges have to work very hard and they need holidays etc. In a perfect world, they would be aware that some rather expensive proceedings of a quasi-legal nature are taking place and their decision might impact those proceedings. However, it's not a perfect world.