Elwood 3184

With Riewoldt out of the Saints team they won't line up like that. Miller might very well end up somewhere up forward and CJ down back.

The AFL should not turn a blind eye to what's happening over at West Coast. Not long ago, it took four players to task and punished them for betting on football. Now, it should investigate the drug allegations and if necessary charge the WCE and/or the players involved with bringing the game into disrepute.

It seems that Cousins' drug problem was known as early as July last year. What was done to help him with that problem? Where was the drug testing? Why was he (and the 7 others Worsfold refers to) allowed remain registered as AFL players into the finals series.

I think the football public should expect the AFL to come down hard here if the players and their club are guilty - at least as hard as they came down on Essendon, Melbourne and Carlton for salary cap cheating in the past 7 or 8 years.

Last week Ezra went off at half time with an injury.

The injury hit Saints won't recover from the hiding they're about to receive in Round 1 ...

Like to hear that but we shouldn't get too cocky, surely?

Not selecting Yze for the first game would send a clear message to the senior players, selection is not guaranteed in reputation alone.

Would be a very good move, and I bloody hate that consecutive games crap, it forced Stynes to play a couple of games he shouldn't have and it's saved Yze from representing Sandy in the past.

Tomorrow's game will do him a world of good. He has too much talent to be down at TBO but he must know now that unless he applies himself 110% (and looks like he's doing so), he'll have to learn to take in the salty sea air at least on a fortnightly basis during the season.

And does anyone know what happen to Dunn today? I thought he was in the team and haven't heard anything about him.

Dunn is listed to play for Sandy tomorrow.

Let us not forget that this was only a practice game and Richmond was a long way off its best side. A win may be a win but the real thing is still a little under 3 weeks away.

$10,000 fine with $5,000 suspended.

No match suspensions.

http://afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArti...px?newsId=38560

Decision to be announced at 1.30pm.

My tip is that Caro will be right.

The AFL can't come down too hard on the four players for the reasons she mentioned and it won't.

But heaven help anyone who gets caught betting from now on!

Surely we have to try this at Melbourne if we're ever going to be successful [read here]?

Kerr, Cousins, Gardiner, Cousins, Kerr again. The formula seems to work for them!

soft tissue injuries did u say.....Bohden strikes again it looks like

Does it really?

I remember against the Bulldogs we lost Byron Pickett and Aaron Davey in the space of an afternoon to hamstring injuries and then Travis did his before the next game against Carlton and BB wasn't at the club then. Hamstrings and soft tissue injuries happen even when the best of precautions are taken. You certainly can't blame the fitness coach without any evidence at all.

As pointed out on demonology each year he lingers in the captaincy makes a Neitz-Brock succession more likely.

Who's vice-captain?

While players betting on AFL matches is clearly wrong, surely there is another issue involving match-fixing that crops up every year.

The AFL system rewards winning less than a certain amount of games. How many times do we see teams in the bottom few spots on the ladder play all their youngsters and send their best players in for early surgery with a few rounds to go in the season? There are incentives to drop such games to obtain a higher and/or priority draft pick and the incentives are there for top level management rather than one player as is the case with betting.

I am not saying that the AFL shouldn't take this gambling issue seriously. But it is a little hypocritical to wholeheartedly promote "integrity" when there are things such as the draft system and fixture that compromise the game's integrity each year.

The AFL has a rule that says:-

(B) A person must not, directly or indirectly, participate or engage in or assist any other person, corporation or entity to engage in the following conduct:

[...]

(iii) contrive or attempt to contrive the result of a Match in exchange for any bribe, benefit or reward;

That being the case then we should investigate a few of the clubs that failed to play their best sides when a priority draft pick was in the offing. I remember the Bullies dopping Croft for the last game of the season after he kicked 5 goals.

There's a simple correlation between one's support for Yze and that person's belief in statistics as a sole measure of worth on a footy field.

Every argument for Yze is based on statistics, and every argument against Yze is based on watching the game.

You're not suggesting that statistics don't assist in determining whether a footballer is of value to his club are you?

Thanks Hards and DemonPates.

FOXTEL WINS

Living in Canberra having Foxtel was an absolute must because the last TV rights deal was an absolute Barry Crocker for any footy fan up here. I got to watch every single Dees match year with the footy channel. I mourn the passing of the footy channel, but won't really give a toss so long as there is decent coverage on FTA. (not delayed until 3am). I've still kept my Foxtel subscription, because even though I rarely watch TV of any description when I do it is usually on SBS or ABC (ABC2) which are all on Foxtel (crystal clear reception). The real issue for me as a consumer is when the games will be telecast.

The only real problem that I have is the way that they bundle up all the crappy channels that people wouldn't normally think about watching into packages rather than allowing you to choose individual channels. (still from a marketing perspective it makes sense)

I heard on SEN on Friday that a decision was pending on Monday. I don't know how they're going to work things if the announcement comes less than three weeks before the first competition game in the Nab Cup.

Unless of course, there's been a bit of brinkmanship going on and all the parties have known the outcome wink, wink, nudge nudge, for a while.

Bookies aren't stupid, which explains why sides like Brisbane and Sydney are so far down the odds.

I think that's a fair field. I wouldn't waste even a kopek on the toigs though.

The bookies might not be stupid but surely it's a bit of a stretch having the team that was beaten by one point in last year's grand final at odds of $41.00.

Has Roos stated that he's playing to lose or something?

I did not realise there was another Ryan Ferguson at the Club. I have only seen one of them at training or in games. Both appear courgaeous but seem completely different players from then on with few similarities.

For both players, bulking up is high unlikely and is not this player's panacea.

For the one I do know he will be depth in 2007. And when called up I hope he fulfils his functions.

I think you're right about the necessity or otherwise of Ferg having to bulk up. My feeling has been that he has some great attributes like courage and persistence but that he might not be fast enough for a place in today's type of game. Have any of the track watchers detected an improvement in this area for him under the BB regime? If so, he might be a chance otherwise he will be no more than a depth player this year.

Davey Shines In Intra-Club

No. It's not Aaron it's his brother Alwyn who (according to http://www.bomberblitz.com/index.php) was the star of Essendon's first serious hitout for 2007 in an intra-club match at Princes Park last Saturday morning kicking three goals and putting himself in line for immediate senior selection for the season proper.

Now didn't he do a pre season with us last year and wasn't he rejected even for the rookie list?

Will we rue the decision not to take him or was it a case of Alwyn being too similar a type to his more famous brother?

Freak, your problem is that your glass is half empty. There were plenty of things in the article that were cautiously optimistic and I'd rather read honest opinions than rose coloured ones anyway.

It was interesting reading Freak's comments about the optimism or lack thereof in WJ's report. On the other hand there are people like this fellow on Demonology who says "I don't post on Demonland because i think there is a lot of posters who overuse words like champion and superstar and are ridiculously optimistic."

It seems that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Not the full story in my opinion. When Carey was out, Roberts or Archer would fill in admirably. And you could expect to get carved up by their on-ballers.

He played well in the 96 & 99 GF but they won both embarassingly easily.

The Ox, Garry Lyon, Stinga, Jaka, Sean Charles and Prymke.

And what if Pagan kept Martin Pyke under control and persuaded Todd Viney not to become a tennis coach.

I've noticed that the winner of the Portsea Swim race yesterday was an N. Cordner of Hawthorn.

Does anyone know if he's related to the great Demon family that's produced three generations of Demon players including a Brownlow Medallist?