Whispering_Jack

I have a tape at home of the 1981 Under 19's grand final and Chris was fantastic that day. Being true Demon fans we turned up with the sparrows and when the siren rang and we had our flag, I kind of lost interest in the rest of the day's activities (my policy these days is that I don't go to grand finals unless we're in them). Anyhow, I think his record early on in his career was that he finished in a place in the Bluey for the next three seasons and I thought he was a vital member of the team right through to that debilitating knee injury which didn't end his career but severely curtailed it. I've always maintained that had he not suffered that injury and had we been able to get Darren Jarman (who we picked in one of the early drafts) to the club, we might well have been serious premiership contenders circa 1990/1. Off the field, he's done really well in his coaching endeavours and he's been a fine ambassador for the club in his most recent role as attested by the letter from the Cranbourne Football Club in today's Herald Sun. All that aside, although I don't know him well, he's always been good fun at club functions and had a great sense of humour which seems to have escaped some members of the media and even a few cretins who purport to be Melbourne supporters.

Thanks for reminding me of that Hazy. The only thing I don't recall is the embarrassment you supposedly subjected me to. IIRC my face didn't deviate from its normal pale pink let alone turn the shade of crimson that Schwab used for our guernseys in 2012. Moreover, the embarrassment was, and remains, all yours. I was arguing at the time that it was important while the club was at such a low ebb for there to be unity. It went along these lines:- That comment came in the early days of the tanking enquiry and all that which has followed since has only strengthened my conviction in this regard.

Correct and I expressed my opinion that you couldn't rule out the possibility that certain people who dislike the board and some officials of the club may have provided information to the media that was unhelpful to the club. Can anyone disprove this proposition?On the other hand, there are times when it helps to have some evidence to back up what you have to say. Nothing wrong with the search for proof. Has it never happened before that a member of the previous board has dumped on the club publicly over this tanking issue? Has any member of the former board ever gone to the media on issues involving the current board?

Tim. I didn't mention Fan in my post. I did refer to Hazy. Here's a quote from one of his posts of last year when he was railing against Cameron Schwab and the Board:- He chose not to expand on the above comment beyond that. If this is a quality poster you can have him.

Quite frankly, so do I.Perhaps I should have finished the last effort by waking up and realising it's all been a bad dream.

How are you going to do that? You're supposed to be tied up to a chair ATM, dummy!

It's been well known that the licensing authorities had an interest in this investigation and it's my understanding that this is the very reason why the AFL has treated the manner in the way it has - including the strong arm tactics used by the investigating team.

I must confess that I'm one of those who only a month or so ago believed that his career was over and rather than endure the sad sight of a club stalwart fading into obscurity at Casey, it might have been for the best if he retired and took up a post at the club in a coaching or mentoring capacity. Ultimately, I think the Flash definitely has a future in these areas. However, from all reports he has been training particularly well and here's hoping that he can re-invent himself and play a role in our resurgence in 2013. Anyhow, I think I was wrong in those initial assessments.

Yes ... and hopefully I've managed to wipe off the recently posted rubbish on this thread that's been off topic as well as childish and vulgar. The participants will be closely watched and if necessary, banned in future if it's repeated.Please adhere to the code of conduct and stick to the topic folks.

Well ... it seems nothing much has changed here in the last couple of days although I must say that it's strange spending days at sea when you have no contact whatsoever with the rest of the world. Here's an update from when I previously left you:- The banana yellow Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Spyder was resting silently and alone in the car park in front of a building that bore the name 'The Choko Williams Gymnasium'. We were inside the Breakfast Point complex. It didn't take long for us to overpower a couple of security people and switch uniforms and though I felt uncomfortable wearing the charcoal and orange shirt, the disguise was perfect. We burst our way into the gymnasium building and were immediately confronted by an unexpected sight. Lined up in front of us were hundreds of sky blue fruit crates with images of bright, sun ripened bananas on their lids. When we prized them open, we discovered something far more dangerous than everyone's favourite fruit. Inside the cases was a cavalcade of heavy weaponry ranging from handguns to 12 gauge shotguns, repeat action firearms, bazookas, Uzis, RPG's and mortars. It was dawning on us that this was no ordinary gymnasium. Moreover, we were now sensing that this place held the secrets to something far more diabolical than merely the setting up one AFL club as a patsy on some clapped up tanking charges. Just then, we heard voices and so we quickly hid behind a row of banana crates as they walked past us. I could just make out the formidable outline of Phil the Michelin Man and his son who limped behind him but it was the third man who caught us completely off guard. It was the man who had been instructing Dean Bailey on the stolen audio cassette which Phil was now handing over to him. They called him 'Mr. Demetriou'. "That was a fine piece of work Phil and it more than makes up for you missing out on Kurt Tippett and the embarrassment caused when you confused O'Rourke with Toumpas at the November draft. Still, once I destroy this, we can proceed with my dream of taking over in this country and tomorrow, we'll rule the world". He threw the cassette to the ground and was readying himself to stomp down hard. In a moment, it would be smashed into a thousand pieces. I had to do something but I failed. They came up behind us and got me twice, once hard across the back of my neck and a second time with a blow to the kidney. I noticed from the corner of my eye that Redleg was already on the ground and then nothing but blackness. When I woke up, we were both gagged, bound and tied to chairs. We were back on the ship as it headed towards Brisbane. If nothing else, it shows that I'm quickly running out of ideas and my story doesn't make sense or have much of a plot but I'm told this is a prerequisite to getting a gig at Fairfax Media so I'm cool with all that ATM.

I don't think you can dismiss out of hand the possibility that some (not all) of the controversial events surrounding the club over the past 1½ years have been fueled by either former board members or officials with axes to grind against the incumbents and against officials of the club. Leaking stories to the press is not confined to providing internal information. For example, you didn't need a leak from the current board to know Ian Flack lost his job. From there, it would be easy to mischievously pass on a false story about how the decision to terminate his position was unpopular with the indigenous players at the club and that the coach was treating them differently to the others. And how easy would it be for someone to set up the club by encouraging a mate in the media to introduce a particular line of questioning in an interview with a disgruntled former player who has a penchant for shooting off at the mouth and who is not all that smart? Not saying it happened that way in the case of the leaks to which Connolly is apparently referring but rather that there are many ways that disaffected people, formerly associated with a club can "leak" information to the media and often, these people get passed off in stories as "sources close to the club" when in reality, they are nothing of the sort.

There were a few posters who "railed" against hazy and America et al for "showing dissent" but many others, myself included, "railed" against them because they were talking crap. Those who did so usually gave reasons for this belief, which was predominantly based on the fact that hazy and America's posts are often made up of agenda based ad hominem attacks without evidence or proof of their allegations.Consequently, I think your post is way off the mark and gives them far more credibility than they deserve.

Me too. It's obvious that the AFL is totally incapable of thinking at all and needs Caro around to make all of the important decisions for it in this case

Hot off the press. We were at wit's end. The ship was about to dock in Sydney and the tape was missing. The cruise line's entertainment director was heavily concussed with no memory of the vicious assault that preceded the theft of the tape we hoped would prove the Melbourne Football Club innocent of all charges against it in the forthcoming tanking trial at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The ship's security cameras proved useless; the criminals who committed the outrageous theft were far too clever; all footage of the passage outside was blocked by a large figure rendering identification impossible. We had reached yet another dead end in a series of dead ends and decided the situation was so hopeless that the only thing left for us to do was to disembark and mingle on shore with the ship's American tourists. We were carrying the thoughts of that depressing prospect with us down the gangway when we noticed him. He bore a distinct resemblance to the Michelin Man, obese beyond imagination but the furtive looks over his shoulder and the fact that he was ripping into one of the largest ham sandwiches you would ever see, gave him away. It was the ship's guest lecturer - Phil of the fifty banana a day diet and it dawned on us both at the same time that he had to be our man. His huge shape was what had blocked all vision of the attack on the security videos. The give-away was the back pocket of his trousers bulging with ugly excess fat and from which you could just make out the outline of an audio cassette. He was a fair way in front of us and before we could apprehend him, he noticed us and took flight landing on the dock with a thud that registered 6.5 on the Richter Scale. The banana yellow Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Spyder was waiting for him and we immediately recognised the young driver who was revving up the motor with a sense of urgency. He managed to prize his passenger inside (I'll never know how this feat was achieved so efficiently and expertly with a man that size but my guess was it had been rehearsed many times) and, with wheels screeching and the exhaust belching acrid gusts of smoke into the dockside air, they were on their way heading in the direction of The Rocks and the city centre. Hot on their heels, we jumped into a waiting taxi and I pleaded to the driver, "Follow that car, driver!" He gave us an expressionless look indicating he failed to understand my request but fortunately, Redleg is a linguist of great cunning and possesses an expert knowledge of the Urdu language. Seconds later, our pursuit began and, though our quarry was at least a hundred metres ahead, I was confident I knew the place where the chase would take us. Breakfast Point.

No it won't. The media is so lazy and so obsessed with Melbourne that they've become completely incapable of stringing together more than a few words on any subject without dropping in the obligatory reference to the Demons and the T word no matter what story they happen to be covering at the time:- http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/star-hawthorn-recruit-brian-lake-issed-infringement-notice-after-drinking-heavily-in-sorrento/story-e6frepf6-1226552981484'>Footy star Brian Lake and wife locked up for four hours after drunken verbal stoush "The weekend incident caps off a turbulent off-season for the AFL. A group of Melbourne players was involved in an ugly spat with fans during the Boxing Day Test. A decision into the Melbourne tanking allegations is due this month ... " Take a bow for your flatulent reporting Alex Whatsyourname but you've been completely outdone by the Karachi Daily Dawn (thanks to Redleg's expert translation from the Urdu language):- http://dawn.com/2013/01/13/six-arrested-in-new-rape-of-a-bus-passenger-in-india'>Six arrested in new rape of a bus passenger in India

Pardon me if this piece of tunnel vision journalism has been discussed somewhere else but it's so hard to keep up with things these days:Tank or no tank, Dees sunk Certainly the cost and expense of this very selective investigation into the alleged tanking practices of one club will not be insubstantial and may well end up being taken into account when a final outcome is reached but Pierik obviously isn't aware of the capacity of sportspersons and sporting clubs to rise to the occasion in times of adversity. When I arrived in Sydney this morning it was to the news that 20 year old Bernard Tomic is the flavour of the month after winning a major tennis tournament here on the eve of the Australian Open. Hard to believe that it was just four months ago that the pundits were claiming his career was over after allegations that he "tanked" a series of matches. I have a feeling the club will make a similar comeback from this travesty of a farce - it's the best way to answer our detractors.

BH - I share your enthusiasm for Barry and think he will be a player for us in the years to come. However, I have seen different sets of statistics for him which suggests that when drafted he weighed only 65kg. If your information is correct then we might see him in action at the top level sooner rather than later but, on the vision I've seen of him, I would suggest he's still way too light to be considered at this stage. Happy to be proven wrong though.

Geoff Tunbridge

Biffen & Stuie - could you both please pull your heads in with the insults and the rest would do us all a favour by staying out, checking up on the code of conduct and most importantly sticking to the topic. We don't like banning posters but will if we have to!!!

Liam (Jurrah).

Just woke up, opened the blinds and had the Opera House staring back at me. Some disappointing news to report. We've lost the tape. Here's what happened after we left Hobart on the trip north: Back at the ship we played the tape over and over on the entertainment director's machine. It contained several clues as to Melbourne's innocence in the tanking affair. It opened with an instruction from football manager Chris Connolly to skipper James McDonald concerning what to do about the coin toss before the Round 18 game v Richmond. "Remember James. Heads you win. Tails Zulus!" It went on and on like that until well after the final siren without a skerrick of evidence to suggest anything other than that the coach and his assistants were doing their best to win the game with an undermanned and wounded side: one that lacked talent and which, like Carlton and Richmond two years earlier and Collingwood and others before that, fully deserved the benefits of a priority pick in the AFL draft. There was even a brief interlude when Bailey and one of his assistants discussed whether or not they should give Jack Watts another game before he reached puberty. Even the entertainment director who knows nothing about AFL was suitably impressed as well as wanting to hire Connolly for the comedy gig on the next leg of the voyage to Auckland. Just then, the ship's alarm rang. It was time for an emergency drill and the voice on the loudspeakers called all passengers onto deck 7 where they kept the life rafts (or "ve vill shoot you!"). We returned to the entertainment director's cabin after the drill and encountered a horrific scene. He was bound, gagged (they had put a banana in his mouth) and tied to a chair, the furniture rearranged and the room in a mess. Either, he was into something kinky or some foul play was afoot. We settled for the latter when we saw the cassette player. Our precious tape of the Jordan McMahon game was missing! The evidence was gone. I'm sure you're asking yourselves whether Redleg and I made a copy? More bad news. We didn't have time. However, there's no need to panic. I'm sure we'll think of something to ensure that we get the tape back.

I don't find it surprising at all that Jim and the Board are being implicated in some quarters. After all, it was suggested by some very early in the piece that forces opposed to the Board and some officials have been strongly involved in a campaign to denigrate and deligitimise them stretching back much further than the current tanking investigation. I think even Blind Freddie might have noticed this.

I'm sure the MFC's legal team is on top of the issues that have been raised here and that Ray Finkelstein has a number of answers. I'd love to see his final submission on behalf of the club because I doubt that there's going to be any need for anyone involved to step into a court of law on this. Let's get back to the footy and celebrate the way our current team is being rebuilt. That's even more fascinating than the legalities of the tanking debate!

Good news in this tweet from Jack Trengove:

Stop posting at such a momentous time in the history of our club and the game?We have work to do in Sydney and neither of us will rest until the club is vindicated and we can drink our banana smoothies once again without looking over our shoulders.