Whispering_Jack

Great look for the legal profession which, as usual, cashes in on situations such as these. The outcome was always going to be a monty.

Are we talking IQ here or what?

Good luck to all the guys and in particular to captain-coach elect Wise. I've decided that it's time to follow Roosy and start a succession plan. I'm travelling overseas a couple of days after the game and while I'll try to get down to watch, I can't promise full commitment. Rollo - are we getting waiver forms in from the Bomber Blitz people or shouldn't we mention it?

I must say I'm rather bemused by much of the banter here but I think I did cover this in my editorial elsewhere. I'd like to add one further thought and that is to do with the fact that Demetriou and Newbold travelled together on that so-called equalisation junket. Does anyone think that Newbold is acting as a mouthpiece here for Demetriou to justify the way in which the commission ultimately deals with Melbourne's application? After all, there is no logical way in which the AFL could interpret its draft assistance rules without giving Melbourne something. This is a club that lost its first three games this season by an aggregate of 350 points. The clubs don't want us to get pick #1. So the controversy is set up in such a way as to make the AFL look good to everybody by giving the MFC a mid first rounder, possibly the one which got away from Essendon a few weeks ago. End result - very few complaints and we get on with all of the inequalities of football life again.

Probably just coincidence - Tigers football manager moves on

He won the Magarey Medal (SANFL B & F) last night. What a week. Sacked one day and a B & F the next!

Better still, if we get a priority pick which some believe we shouldn't have even requested, we could probably get both an Aish and a Sheed.

No, we're not allowed to discuss Nirvana or Kurt Cobain on this thread. It's disrespectful.

Quite. And I'm hoping that when Melbourne talks about having interest in this ratbag, it's really doing so to deflect attention away from its search to attract some really solid citizens who can also play good football in the midfield. It's interesting also that Carro's finally decided to fully lift the lid on the Dustin Martin story and what an embarrassment he is to the Richmond Football Club. Of course, she still writes in complimentary terms of the work of Richmond officials like the hardworking club chiefs. At other clubs such people would be accused of covering up the club's poor culture and the misdeeds of its players and demanding the sacking of the board and CEO.

Right on cue Fawad Ahmed takes the wicket and its 2-1 Australia. Every worker in the country deserves a day off.

And if you have Foxtel you can watch the Aussies finally beat the Poms in a cricket series again.

Imagine if St. Kilda decides to clean up its act and, at the same time, in the interests of rebuilding its team for the future, trades Nick dal Santo and Sam Fisher to other clubs. Let's also say that David Armitage breaks a leg, Nick Riewoldt's form slips and Jack Steven is unable to back up his Trevor Barker Award (club B & F) winning performance of this year. As a result, the Saints slip back from 5 wins to 2 wins in 2014 and finish last with a percentage of 54. They apply for draft assistance (for their sake let's hope the rule wasn't scrapped after 2013) and the Hawthorns and Collingwood's of the world say they're not entitled because the club has a poor culture citing such things as the Milne/Montagna allegations, Grant Thomas and Rod Buttres tearing the club apart, the pregnant school girl scandal, nude player photos, the booze and drugs on the NZ pre season trip, Andrew Lovett, Ahmed Saad failing a drug test and the tale of the burning dwarf. Of course, neither the Hawks nor the Pies can point to clean cultures themselves but they run the above argument. I can imagine that happening but for the life of me, I don't believe the AFL should be swayed by such argument. It's role should be based pure and simple on whether the Saints' performances in recent years warrant assistance. End of story.

Watto! Hope you're not on the juice like your namesake!

Too early to say. Let's see how our final list pans out.

Robbo's take - Dustin Martin tells Richmond he wants to pursue offers from other clubs

Hard nut delisted today by Port Adelaide. Age 26 but didn't play much this year. I must say I didn't pay much attention to Port this year but I thought Thomas was a fair player and that he might be worth having a look at.

Yeah, every time someone says anything about "copping flack" it gets me going.

It was all our fault. We should have known that picks 1 and 3 that year were ratbags and refused to "list manage" that year. We should have played guys in 2009 who had broken legs, sprained thumbs or were under suspension for striking. How bloody incompetent can you be when you let Richmond beat you with a 55m kick after the siren from a hack who otherwise couldn't hit a barn door in a storm? And next time we win a flag, we should all leave the ground looking ashen faced.

The answer to the lament about not having players of the ilk of Hanneberry, Parker and many others of that ilk is to get decent recruiting people on board in the first place. Both Hannebury and Parker were well within our reach at the drafts when they were available for selection but our recruiting people chose others.

Please let us win a flag first.

Zak Jones was best on ground playing for the Dandenong Stingrays in their preliminary final and will take his place in the grand final v Eastern Ranges who are hopeful of having the favourite for # 1 draft pick, Tom Boyd available.

A couple of changes this week, the main one being Dom Sheed back in replacing Marcus Bontempelli. Collingwood takes up its place at selection. 1. GWS TOM BOYD (Eastern Ranges) 2. Melbourne JAMES AISH (South Australia) 3. St. Kilda JOSH KELLY (Sandringham Dragons) 4. W Bulldogs MATT SCHARENBERG (South Australia) 5. Gold Coast JACK BILLINGS (Oakleigh Chargers) 6. West Coast DOM SHEED (Western Australia) 7. Brisbane BEN LENNON (Northern Knights) 8. North Melbourne LUKE MCDONALD (Oakleigh Chargers F/S) 9. Collingwood MATT CROUCH (North Ballarat) 10. GWS DARCY GARDNER (Geelong Falcons) Following Elwood 3184's recent post, this is the updated draft order so far - 1. GWS 2. Melbourne 3. St. Kilda 4. W Bulldogs 5. Gold Coast 6. West Coast 7. Brisbane 8. North Melbourne 9. GWS 10. Collingwood 11. Richmond 12. Carlton 13. Port Adelaide 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Gold Coast Adelaide and Essendon are out of the first two rounds. The above does not take into account any priority or compensation picks that might be allocated.

I would not be surprised if the club was all over this by 10am tomorrow. I don't understand why the D2D group didn't just start their own site rather than hijack another well-established site?

There is also some concern that we are relying too heavily on ex-Swans personnel.

Perhaps we didn't like CW's version of the "facts" because what she was doing was giving credence to one version - that of three disgruntled and vindictive ex-employees of the exotically named "Vault" story - and gave no credence whatsoever to the other version put forward by the majority in place at the time? Perhaps, because the story she told of an "ashen-faced" Cameron Schwab after the Port Adelaide win was a fabrication which she accepted and published as truth? Perhaps because only a complete f***wit would interpret as fact what Chris Connolly joked about when he said "Jimmy fell out of his hospital bed"? Perhaps it's because everything about the issue of tanking/list management was about perception and, as Goebells taught the world many years ago, that a lie told often enough will be believed by the mugs. The truth is we are the worst performed AFL club for a multitude of reasons and should be given draft assistance while, for altruistic reasons, there are people who are fighting us.