Whispering_Jack

So you know for sure that although nobody in a position to know Bate and Dank were consulting with each other and notwithstanding that MFC had already knocked back Dank, we were going to give him a job at the club. Sorry, but you're living in fantasyland.

If you read the article you might have noticed that it says the "AFL has determined the club did not put the players’ health at risk and Bates’ relationship with Dank did not constitute governance failings". Just out of interest, if Bates was conducting his liaison with Dank completely outside of the MFC and did not inform the club, what more do you think the club could do? If any employee of an organisation is associating with undesirable characters and doing so in private, what can that organisation do short of invading the privacy of the employee (for which it may be accused of breaches of the law as well as bad governance) to protect itself in those situations?

Judging by team selection for this week, it would appear that, despite the concerns expressed by many, we seem to be making some progress on the injury front. We have a squad of 25 selected for Sunday's game of which I assume two will not travel to Sydney, leaving 16 to play for Casey which would be above the usual average of past years in the early part of the season. We have 40 on the senior list, 4 rookies and our international zone rookie Maia Westrupp who most likely would have played in the Casey development team but for the fact that it has a bye. That leaves the following players not in action at the weekend due to injury/illness - Jesse Hogan (TBA) Chris Dawes (a week or two away) Mitch Clark (indefinite) James Strauss (mystery injury of the week) Colin Garland (close to a return) Max Gawn (close to a return) There's obviously still some frustration over not having those key forwards, but at least there's some hope on the horizon. Next week we play Carlton who have a fairly long injury list and they've just lost Kreuzer for 12 - 14 after getting rid of Hampson and Jacobs a couple of years ago leaving them with only Warnock to carry the ruck duties.

Thanks for the suggesting but we're actually going for a mixture of traditional and modern innovative wizardry. At the very moment that our clocks move forward or backward or whatever we're supposed to do to put an end for summer's daylight savings, we're going to offer a sacrifice to the gods of football and recite the AFL rule book backwards standing on one leg. That should do it. Expect a big win over GWS later that day.

Don't kid yourself Bub. There are myriads of examples in society, even in our so called modern democratic society, of people who for one reason or another find themselves above the law - they just need a good lawyer, accountant or the right contacts. Same applies in the AFL where, over the years there have been plenty of examples of this - take tanking where the practice was widespread for most of the last decade but only one club investigated. Power, wealth and clout remain paramount in this competition where the stronger clubs get commercially beneficial programmes and the weaker get killer draws for which measly compensation is handed out like food at soup kitchens to clubs made to feel like beggars. This entire saga of the supplement has demonstrated how one club has wielded its power and how through the influence of friends in the media, in politics in other sporting groups and even now I've heard possibly in WADA, there is a lot happening in the background in an effort to sweep under the carpet what has been a flagrant and scandalous doping scandal carried out and conducted by one club that believes it really is above the law and is doing the best it can to get away with it.

Damn ... I missed a scoop over the Michie omission. On giving his answer to one of the questions he was asked about the new players at the club George Stone referred to players added to the midfield from other clubs and named Vince, Tyson and Cross but left out Viv Michie. I noticed that but thought he might have left him out inadvertently but it's now clear as to why he wasn't named. There's definitely an effort to bring in leg speed to counter the pace of the GWS midfield which swept us aside easily in the final quarter of our game last year. Despite his tender years, Viney is a must in the team if fit if for nothing else, he always puts in 110% per cent so that the plodders and those who ran around halfheartedly last week would be put to shame to do so while this young kid's fighting for the footy at the bottom of packs. The addition of pace is good - a change of positions to bolster the attack would also be in order because while it's understood that we have to be on our game defensively, ten goals in two weeks is a disgrace.

Essendon v Casey Scorpions Sunday 6th August Windy Hill at 1:00pm Essendon B: Toy Van Unen Gregory HB: Ashby Pears Dempsey C: McLeod Colyer Kavanagh HF: Duscher Steinberg Edwards F: Tipungwuti Freezer Thompson FOLL: Tagliabue Heppell M Ambrose I/C (from) Aylett Coghlan Dalgleish Dell'Ollio Fantasia Jetta Kefford Leggett Mellington Z Merrett O'Brien Shultz Thurlow Casey Scorpions B: Jetta Davis Nicholson HB: Kent Panozza Hunt C: Evans Trengove Blease HF: Best Smith Riley F: Kennedy-Harris King Byrnes FOLL: Jamar McKenzie Gent I/C (from) Barry Clisby Ferraro Godfrey Harmes Michie Morris* Page Petropoulos Salem Shiels Tapscott Toumpas * 23rd player Casey's AFL Development League team has a bye and plays its first game for 2014 next weekend against Port Melbourne.

It was a very entertaining evening and well attended considering the disastrous week we've had. I will try to do a report as the first part of my pre match article. Highlight was The Ox who told the story of his gambling addiction and how he beat it. Redleg and I were somewhat embarrassed because our wives were over at Crown Casino. At least Redleg was consoled by Bev O'Connor who did a great job as MC. I think we might have saved the club tonight and I'm going to ... er ... plonk a monkey at Sportsbet on the Dees to beat GWS abstain from betting on anything for a little while.

And a player milking enterprise by the AFL's strongest clubs as we've seen with Sydney over Buddy Franklin. The strongest clubs rule the competition and the powers that be give lip service to equalisation while pandering to the wealthy and the strong.

Anything the AFL does is fairly meaningless if ASADA's enquiry reveals there has been a anti doping rule violation. It's not clear on what we've heard as to whether any have been committed because all we have to go on are SMS's from Dank to Dr. Bate that, of themselves would not be sufficient to indicate a breach of the laws. Hopefully, no breaches have been committed but, as the article says, the case remains open.

Bev O'Connor is the MC tonight - eat your hearts out those who aren't here! Redlegs eyes are fairly popping out.

You wearing the black number this time Redleg?

Not if the AFL has its way, I suspect. I may be reading it the wrong way but the AFL has done some strange things lately which seem to almost undermine the outcome of the ASADA investigation. There was the recent publication of a paper in a British journal based on the interim report from August last year and now this - AFL ushers in new drugs code, officially banning controversial drug AOD-9604. The AFL's new code seems calculated to serve as a support for the pro Essendon claim that these drugs were legal because their status was uncertain. By stating that AOD9604 is now banned, the AFL is giving credence to that argument because it was unnecessary to do so as WADA has already confirmed the S0 status of AOD. The AFL has lots of motives for wanting this to go away, not the least of which would be the impact on the competition if infraction notices were served on the players and clubs involved.

Posting photos on Instagram - now that is really a hanging offence.He needs a good lawyer.

OK - I know that the legal profession gets some rough treatment from the general run of the mill punter but there's a special brand of lawyer in town - the Melbourne supporting lawyer who is a member of the Devil's Advocates. As it happens the DA's are having their annual dinner tonight and no doubt the hopes of saving the Melbourne Football Club rest heavily on our shoulders but we do more for the club than merely raise funds (accumulated as a result of the excessive fees we charge). A few years ago, the DA dinner took place in the week following a crushing loss against the West Coast Eagles in Perth (not dissimilar to Sunday's fiasco). I'm happy to report that we gave the Demon officials who attended the function enough sound advice to cause a massive turnaround in the team's fortunes - we beat Adelaide by in excess of 15 goals the following weekend. Needless to say, our power as trained lawyers should tip the scales (and not only of justice) in our favour in a similar fashion. I don't imbibe in cabernet savignon or other like alcoholic beverages and I therefore may report on the event from time to time during the evening. I think the guest of honour is The Ox who will no doubt have some interesting words to impart.

Martin's behaviour as set out in this latest piece is standard for him. Nothing to see here - lots of hoons in society do the same and nobody bats an eyelid but because he's an AFL footballer, he gets a few column inches. Where's that storm in the teacup picture?

The next instalment of AFL PROSPECTUS prospects -

It's a different approach and puts players in different positions but who goes out for the three coming in?Byrnes & JKH kicked 75% () of our goals between them last week? Michie? Georgiou? We can't drop a tall because there's nobody to come in who could replace them?

You know, I've just come to the realisation that this thread is the only one on Demonland where more than 50% of its regular posters are sane. Does this mean the club's in trouble?

Really ... enough is enough.

If there's a totally appalling remark that you'd like to see deleted (or want to complain about a poster), you can report it and the mods will look at it if you like.

On the subject of former Demons, there's one highly paid one who I saw play for GWS against St. Kilda. It was probably one of his highest possession games since crossing over from Melbourne. Pity about the game low 39% efficiency but many here would blame Neeld's coaching for that so it's understandable.

I don't want to sound alarmist but I think you're being generous with your assessment of the time available to us Bob. If we can't get our act together and play something that resembles good football in the next two weeks, who on earth in their right mind would go to watch the unwatchable?

I know. I was thinking more about the strange types who blow into the thread from time to time.

But Machsy, the club does provide that on its website every week. The problem is that it's never easy to predict the length of time any one player will be out injured but when the predictions all turn out to be routinely wrong a level of frustration results - especially when we appear to be among the worst affected clubs year after year.