Whispering_Jack

... and on the Essendon front Chip Le Grand (who seems to have all the inside info from Bomberland these days) reports on this extraordinary development in club governance - Paul Little in dual role for Essendon Bombers

There is no question that we are regarded as a world leading sporting nation, especially in view of the relative size of our population compared with many other nations. Nevertheless, the way in which our authorities deal with the current AFL and NRL doping crises will have a far reaching effect on the esteem in which our sporting position is held. We are definitely in the spotlight of world opinion over this.

Thanks to the OP for bringing out the usual suspects.

Will no doubt leave having signed a non disparagement agreement with a confidentiality clause.

Could well be but here's WADA's advice on the subject.

Agreed ... what we don't need however, is posters embellishing the truth with distortions and confected stories of supposedly past events. The Roos story will be an interesting one to witness as it unfolds. I suspect that if he succeeds in lifting the club back where we want it to be, it will always be looked at in the context of what we were like when he took over in much the same way as the cricket fraternity is looking at Boof's contribution to our Ashes victory in the light of our poor test performances in recent years. That doesn't mean that Micky Arthur was a psychopathic axe murderer as well as being an ordinary cricket coach.

Condolences rjay. Well over the festive season to all.

Kicked three goals in a quarter for the premiers in the TAC Cup grand final so he can't be too bad. At 186cm he's a handy size for the VFL.

Watching the first session of play in the First Test, SA v India, at Jo'berg. Incredibly, not much of a crowd bothered to turn up despite the high standing of both countries. We'll have more in the toilets at the G at any given time on Boxing Day. What is it with South African cricket crowds?

A couple of interesting tweets from Mark Robinson who appears not to have much love for Damo:- Robbo should know of course.

Let's just keep this one under the rug, Mr. Little - Doctor warns of deadly supplements and in the unlikely event that Essendon's million dollar man runs short of funds, his old mate can help out - Shane "Dr Ageless" Charter links with loan dealer.

How in heaven's name did Trengove, Watts and Strauss become "trashed talent" in the past two years?Were they champions under Bailey who suddenly went into steep decline under Neeld and Craig? Trengove's problems for the last two years have IMO been more physical than anything else. In 2012 he could barely run and his kicking was godawful. He sustained a preseason injury this year and who knows what effect the claims about the cream that was allegedly prescribed had on him? Watts continued to be Watts for most of fhe time under Neeld but IIIRC he played some good footy when played as a spare player mopping up in defence - a move that many praised Neeld for. If he was "trashed" it was more by the experts in the bleachers who delight in starting threads knocking him or comparing him with Naitanui who plays in a much better side and is second fiddle to one of the best ruckmen going around. Strauss played under Bailey for almost three years and was given 10 AFL games. The last of them was 186. Did he cover himself in glory so much in that time that he could possibly have gone so far backwards as to have his career "trashed" by his next coach? I don't think so. After Bailey was sacked, Strauss was picked to play in the following game against Carlton at the MCG. We all know he broke his leg badly in that game. So badly that he didn't make his comeback until round 16 of the following season - his first under Neeld. He went on to play the next seven games in a row and he played a couple of very good games in that time. He was slow coming up at the start of this year but was selected in round 6 v Carlton and played four games until Neeld was sacked for a total of 10 games under that coach . He then had two more under Neil Craig. I would suggest that it's a bit of a stretch to suggest in view of Strauss' horrific injury to suggest this player was. "trashed" by Neeld. I'm not suggesting for one minute that Neeld's coaching was good for this trio but rather, none of them had much of a grounding from their previous coach, that both bear responsibility for their lack of development and that someone's having a lend of us by suggesting that Neeld trashed their careers. My expectations for this trio under Roos are as high as for anyone else in the team after a decade of sub par coaching at the club but they don't figure in my three pivotal players for 2014.

The old Baghdad Bob hasn't changed since the days when he was in the Ministry of Misinformation. Note when I quoted Denham, I used the word "even" meaning that even someone like Denham concedes that which Bob and Comical Ali will not because it suits their particular agenda. To actually respond to a point of debate is an art lost in those with agendas. Three anonymous football departments from opposing sides in a competition of 18 clubs would know wouldn't they? No doubt most of them would be happy to have Dave Misson on board, I would suggest. Anyhow, enough of that, this thread is about Monday's training. If you want to start another anti Neeld thread please feel free to do so but kindly don't derail another thread with your obsession about Neeld.

Now on the outer with the Tiwi Bombers - Liam Jurrah in limbo after high-speed police chase in Alice Springs

The other possibility is that Fitzpatrick could be tried in a different position on the ground altogether. Key defence perhaps? Nothing wrong with having versatile players or experimenting with someone of his attributes - height and pace - to see if he can add something to the team effort in places other than the obvious.

Bottom line surely is we improve our off and on field performance so we're less reliant in %age terms on what we get from the AFL and we're more attractive to the consumers of media rights and not just died in the wool Demon fans but I'm being Captain Obvious in this respect.

Brett Clothier has been the AFL Integrity Officer for some time. His job involves overseeing its entire integrity programme including the enforcement of the leagues rules with respect to gambling, match fixing, player conduct and anti-doping. The fact that he apparently came out in 2011 to warn Essendon about the potential dangers of the use of peptides and supplement programmes suggests he was doing his job but the failure of the AFL to follow up with information programmes for all clubs and action to ban their application altogether is indicative of the shoddy handling of this serious issue of integrity within the AFL. One wonders whether the AFL would have acted at all had it not been for the ACC investigation into the bikies and peptides and the money trail that led to Dank and Essendon. Where is the integrity in this organisation?

It must have been comforting for the Essendon faithful who attended the club's AGM last night that their players never took any illegal or performance-enhancing drugs -Essendon chairman Paul Little tells members players did not ingest anything illegal. The meeting was highlighted by the fact that there was hardly a dissenting voice among the crowd which included the man already appointed to coach the club in 2015, Jimmy Hird who once took responsibility for that which now never happened. No mention of $60,000.00 chemist bills for substances which Little apparently now says were never taken by the players or 4,000 injections, many of them administered off-premises and which must have contained placebos. Or the fact that the records of what was taken have mysteriously disappeared which makes one wonder how Little is so certain of his "facts".

That's the way I like it. Three hard games in the preseason will tell us exactly where we are and we can only get better by playing the better sides, even if they are only practice matches.I also agree about the issues Casey Fields has with access and egress from the car parks at the ground. It's an absolute shocker and they should something about it

Maxy at Casey Fields today (with friends):

Good idea

Pity about young Stuart Broad. Back in England, he wouldn't walk. Now, he can't.

Sad really.

They would have played Richmond in front of 85,000 (probably 84,765 of them ferals) at the MCG. The Toigs most likely would have won. If it wanted to, the AFL could have charged them with bringing the game into disrepute off the back of Essendon's own Switkowski Report. It did not need an interim report from ASADA/AFL.

Monday's training is at Casey Fields in conjunction with the Casey Demons: Celebrate Christmas locally with the Demons Come and support your local AFL team Date: Monday 16 December 2013 Time: 10.00am - 11.30am Venue: Casey Fields, Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Cranbourne East Cost: FREE