Whispering_Jack

It's been fixed.

I'm being serious when I say it's more important for us to get the draft assistance by way of a mini draft or a priority pick which would give us two early picks and possibly a midfielder with experience than whether we end up with pick 2, 3 or 4. One of those picks should give us a quality young midfielder anyway and, in any event, we have no control over whether St. Kilda wins one or more games so it doesn't worry me. Sorry to be discussing football on this thread by the way.

History repeating itself there. WCE finished last a few years ago, got their early pick and zoomed up the ladder. Nobody at the AFL noticed because there was no investigation.

Couldn't let the opportunity pass to bring up this draft perennial. Perhaps we don't need his type but didn't he train with us at some stage? Former Hawks draftee Mitch Thorp ready to grab a second chance at an AFL career The added responsibility he's carried and his maturity might aid his cause.

Does it really matter?We could get some draft assistance at the end of the year but it's hardly likely to be a #1 PP with the AFL's primary protected species GWS finishing last. Whether we get pick 2, 3 or even 4 won't make a great deal of difference in this year's draft. And who knows? If we lose more games, there's nothing to stop someone with an agenda from going to Robbo at the Hun with a convoluted story about players being rested or played out of position and next thing you know, there's a double page spread alleging that it's all proof that the club committed crimes against humanity. Nothing suspicious about St. Kilda leaving Riewoldt and one or two others out of their side to play the Dockers a few weeks ago or the Doggies losing 10 in a row in a vain bid to finish with picks 3 & 4 in last year's draft. No, we must go all out to win every game because its mathematically possible for us to finish 11th and if Essendon and two others lose their points for some, as yet, undiscovered misdemeanor, we'll be seeing action in September.

It's getting ugly as saga takes its toll Dons power struggle Things usually do get ugly after several months of rumour, innuendo and subterfuge. The Hird image has definitely taken a few hits this week but the ructions off the field have to date had little of no adverse effect on Essendon's performances during games and, in fact, the Bombers have been tracking well above expectations to the point where they sit in second place on the ladder. That could well be due to the alleged assurances that were supposedly brokered in order to give the players ultra lenient penalties in comparison to what the rest of the world's sporting fraternity would expect in the same circumstances. It will be interesting to see how the players go if there's doubt thrown on that proposition or if they now see their coach in a different light as a result of this week's revelations.

Do I detect a touch of "Before the Game" in that Collingwood team with Hellier and Strachan?

Bob Dylan is literally quaking in his boots with envy at that masterpiece.

As improbable as it seems - Melbourne eyes Dean Laidley as possible senior coach

By comparison our opponent this week is missing these household names who form North's entire injured list:- Tom Curran (foot) season, Mason Wood (knee) season.

Runners up to Bentleigh with the consolation being the fact that the winners are called the Demons and wear the famous Red and Blue.

Well I think you might just about be right on Mark Neeld. I can't see him being at Melbourne next year.

So I take it that Taggert went back to the ressies the week before due to the wisdom teeth issue rather than for reasons of his form? If that's the case then I think there's cause to believe he might be a chance to emulate the story of a few Carlton players who were plucked out of their VFL alignment going from Development League team to Northern Blues seniors to Carlton in consecutive weeks when the Blues had injury problems last year. They were Tom Bell, Levi Casboult and Frazer Dale and the first two made decent contributions to the team effort when they looked like losing to the Bulldogs. We have nothing to lose at this stage by giving Taggert and Davis a run over the next three weeks.

From the boys at the Mad Monday Show: Stats: 19 kicks 4 handballs 23 disposals 8 marks 2 tackles 3 goalsPostscript I don't know what they mean about Norwood's "dissapointing result" (sic) as the Redlegs beat Sturt easily 9.12.66 to 2.8.20.

I've always wondered why Essendon was so smug and assured about the ability of their players to beat the rap. Leaked ASADA file reveals favourable AFL treatment If this is true, its consequences on the future of Australia in the world sporting community could be dire.

The Age's Jake Niall believes that the Bomber players will beat the AOD-9604 rap - Dear Bomber fans I find that an extraordinary conclusion in view of both overseas and local precedent but let's see.Niall does go on to say the Bombers do have other drugs to worry about like Thymosin Beta 4 and Hexarelin and they are likely to face heavy sanctions including loss of points as a result of their handling of the whole injecting thing. Expect more heads to roll as well.

Nothing posted here for in excess of 24 hours. Do I close the thread down for lack of interest?

Good thinking on Mr Ed's part though. If we can convince him the game's on at the Gabba, he might not front on the night at Metricon.

Agree that Jimmy T's debut year has been rather unspectacular but he's doing it hard in an ordinary team and, for the first half season, under ordinary coaching. Jamie Elliott, on the other hand, is coming along nicely but given that he played 13 games in 2012, I don't think the comparison is warranted.

Will end up at Essendon supervising the pharmacology lab.

Remember it well. We had lost the first six games and our golden era was behind us. Barrie Vagg kicked 5 goals and first gamer Ken Jungwirth got 3. Unfortunately, we were badly hit by injury that year. We had already lost boom recruit Ross Dillon to a season ending knee injury and we lost a few more during the game against the Bombers. We didn't win too many more games that year.

And Jack would have some fantastic memories of Darwin having gotten us across the line a few years ago with the one point play from the ball up in the goalsquare against Port Adelaide.

The stakes are so high and some of the characters in the current scenario are so shady that it's important that strict adherence to the WADA code is maintained. I would not put it past anyone to manufacture and play around with the evidence in this case and I am personally suspicious of the recent claims that someone in ASADA somehow gave Essendon/Danks the green light to use AOD-9604. The only so called documentation produced so far are the leaked emails from Danks which look ambiguous to me and, in any event, they don't back up the claim that Danks has been making. There have been enough letters lost and found and so many timely leaks from various sources that I'm starting to view this all with a great deal of cynicism. If there is a letter from ASADA that, on the face of it exonerates the Bombers, I would like to think it's put to stringent forensic testing.

I thought we could start today's game day with part of JVM's preview of tonight's game. THE LATE MAIL by JVM My late mail delivered by Bill Lawry's carrier pigeon returning after fleeing Lords is that Jonathan Brown and Mitch Golby are out of the Brisbane Lions side for the game in Darwin. They join veteran midfielders Simon Black and Brent Moloney on the sidelines for the Lions which probably offsets the fact that former Brisbanite Mitch Clark continues to be missing from the Melbourne line up. Now, if only Mark Neeld was still around, he would no doubt explain the significance of the absence of the Brisbane quartet in terms of raw numbers of experience as expressed in games played. Leaving aside young Golby who has added some grunt to its defence, Brisbane is missing more than 700 games of AFL experience and almost the same number of goals scored. In economic terms they together comprise the equivalent of the gross national product of some South American banana republics and enough to raise even Alan Stockdale's eyebrows. What this means is that the game takes on an entirely different complexion. I don't have the precise figures (actually I don't have any figures at all) but I'm guessing that the differential between age, experience and body strength has narrowed markedly while Melbourne's main advantage over Brisbane (average IQ) would have gone through the roof with the absence of Brown and Moloney. This leaves only two considerations - the weather and the superiority of the opposition midfield. These were the two factors that in my view, led to that embarrassing record inside 50 differential against the Cats last week. I checked the weather report and they're predicting warm, sunny conditions during the day (max 32, min 19) and little or no rain although humidity will be high up to 95%. That means it won't be bucketing down as it did at Simonds Stadium so the Dees will have some respite on the weather front. Unfortunately, the Lions still have the advantage in the midfield even with Black and Moloney missing. Leuenberger should have the edge in terms of experience over Gawn and Fitzpatrick and Rich, Redden and Rockliff are likely to dominate the clearances with Raines sitting on Nathan Jones. Elsewhere, Melbourne needs to capitalise on the absence of Jonathan Brown who always manages to do a number against the unlucky backman who draws the short straw and has to play on him while the forward line should relish the additional opportunities and score more than four goals. Notwithstanding, the Lions late surge to come from over 50 points down at the Gabba last month still resonates and the fact that they fancy themselves as finals contenders is enough to convince me that they have the added incentive to get themselves over the line. Brisbane by 15 points. I haven't been following the Lions all that closely but another omission in Polkinghorne surprises me a little in that he always seems to cause us some damage when we play them. He kicked 3 goals against us in round 1 last year, had a decent game later in the season at the Gabba and picked up 30 disposals and was close to BOG when we met in round 5 earlier this year. We're a definite chance if we can fire and get some ball out of the middle.

In all likelihood I can't make it this year but I highly recommend. It's good value, there are plenty of Demons around, food's reasonable, you can talk footy with knowledgeable people and you can park for free in close proximity to Metricon. Last time I was there Chris Connolly did a fantastic job as host, Ron Barassi was in attendance and it rained more heavily than last week at Geelong.