Its Time for Another

If the outcome is what CW is claiming the assets will be at risk. The Club don't necessarily get what they want. But let's hope the AFL aren't that stupid. They will need to come up with charges that will stick in a court of law not an AFL Kangaroo Court. That means no tanking conviction and that means no $500000 fine. Maybe a CC and DB rapped over the knuckles for something less than tanking. Ie making stupid comments that bring the game into disrepute but nothing coming from them. A few months gardening duty.

Wrong, this outcome has the potential to destroy the Club. It's gaming licences for the pokey machines at The Bentleigh Club and Oakleigh are the foundation of it's financial future. It has inherited a $5mill debt on The Bentleigh Club which is ok for the value of the site with the pokies. This debt is being serviced by the pokies. If the Club is held to have been guilty of tanking which is regarded as match fixing by the gaming authorities it can be stripped of its licences. This will cut off the financial viability of the Club going forward but more seriously it will have a huge impact on the value of the Bentleigh Club. I don't know how much but it will be worthless to the Club without the pokey machines. The commercial damage to the Club probably can't even be estimated. What sponsors are going to want to be associated with a Club found guilty of match fixing. It could wipe out sponsorship now and in the future for the Club. McLardy in his earlier statement mentioned how much damage the investigation has already been to the Club. Caroline Wilson understand this is to sponsorships etc. I don't believe if these are the consequences that the Club has any choice but to take it to the Courts. It's not about the $500,000, it's about the potential existence of the Club. It might be over $10million. The Directors can't allow the Club to continue if it isn't financially viable or they can be personally liable for it's debts. They have indicated that their legal advice is the charges won't stand up in court and I have little doubt about that. Let's hope some sanity from the AFL prevails here and they realise these issues. It would be their responsibility if they leave the Club with no choice but to have to go to court. If they are found guilty I wonder if we are going to hear anything from C Wilson about CarlTank, WestToast, Pies, Saints etc. If she has any credibility as a journalist she should be impartial which means bring it on for everyone.

I read that late in the week before last. So my understanding he should be starting skills work this week. I watched Adam Goodes at the Swans intraclub on Friday. He was running laps while the intraclub was going on and then joined in skills training with the group after the game. Mitch will probably be eased in, in a similar way. On a side note. Kirt Tippett looked awesome. Teddy Richards was playing on him and couldn't get a hand on him.

Or the other way round.

There's an awful lot of players in the two decades '90's and 00's who played and weren't even good enough to get into this team. Jeez we've suffered years of crap from this Club. Poor facilities, poor football departments, poor players, no money. I would suggest most of those issues have been fixed now. Time to see if the team starts being competitive and a few of this current crop are good enough to push players out of that team. Although I just read Neeld says he and Misson are only 2yrs into a 3yr program to get their physical development up to competitive.

Agreed.

Great team anyway, but a few suggested changes. Febey over Grimes. Would have Howe not Robertson. Woewodin on the bench. Travis out and B Wilson in as follower. Grinter replace Whelan. A Johnstone in for Stretch. Darren Jolly in Jeff White out. White's leap is nullified with centre line in ruck circle. I know many would regard this as blasphemy but Scott Thompson over T Viney. Almost as hard but much more skilled.

You try kicking a helicopter. It takes a lot of skill and finesse to be able to do that consistently like CB.

Unfortunately we also have the oldest and most ageing membership in the league.

Where is all the talk about "disgusting" behaviour etc etc she was labelling the D's with and when it comes to another club all of a sudden it is reported totally differently. If you ever needed proof of how poor a journalist she is, this is it. A journalist is supposed to be even handed and report on facts. CW is a shocker.

This is why I never worry about optimistic training reports too much. Poor decision making and skills killed us more than anything last year and we will only know if they have improved once the season starts. Nothing else is a gauge including NAB Cup. No amount of fast laps are going to change this other than the fact that improved fitness generally means skills for what they are are maintained longer before fatigue sets in and they go to total cr@p.

And all of them got over their documented niggles and went back into the main group. So no problems with the truth there.

Anyone know why we are training at Moorabin when we have two grounds of our own now. My uneducated guess is that they wanted to do closed training where no one could see it. But does anyone know for sure. We must be really moving ahead with our game plan if we are starting to need to hide it.

My reasons for believing in.....being more improved than last year. Not much more to believe in yet. List Improvements Pre season training numbers. Probably the healthiest since about '05. Neeld and his FD have had a full year to teach standards, game plan and get to know players individual development requirements Fixture - last year's fixture was going to kill a new coach with a young list. It was always going to be 9-10 losses in the first half. That was always going to shatter the confidence.

I hate to say this again because it is exactly what I said at this time of year last year. "It can't be as bad as last year." But I truly believe there are more reasons to be optimistic.

Love your optimism. I have rushes like this every now and then. I have a great reality check for you. Turn to Fox Footy and watch any Demons game from last year. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers by head and by foot. Doesn't matter how many reports of running around an oval you read about when its decision making and disposals under pressure that have killed us for years. We won't know the answer till round 1. Fingers crossed it translates.

Thank God the Don's the President and not some of you mob. They've just put the submissions in and this week will be a very very important one for the Club while the Commission review the submissions. For the next week frankly, we Supporters are the least important part of this equation. Acting in a way that makes the Club as small a target as possible for the Commission and for the Press is the only way to go for this week. If the Commission come out and charge them then the Club should remain a small target until the hearing. So far the AFL have treated these matters as a press circus. Everything going on with the Tippett issue was in the paper before any of the hearings. It was a disgrace. So much for natural justice or the right to be heard. This isn't just about the MFC. This is also about three servants of the Club who by acting with the Club's interests at heart at no benefit to themselves, in fact against their own interests, find themselves fighting to save their own careers. Spare a thought for Bailey who whether he was good or bad, acted with throughout to develop the team for the long term not for the short term to get wins to save his job. He is having to fund a legal battle of massive proportions with only some financial assistance from the Coaches Association. I hate to think of the cost of paying top lawyers to forensically read through 800 pages of evidence, then conduct hours and hours of interviews themselves then write extensive responses. And he's not at the Club. Same goes for Connolly who only ever acted with the Club's interests in mind. I for one are happy for the Club to say no more than has been said. I suspect we are in for a long drawn out saga on this one. Having to spend $100,00's of dollars in legal fees to save their careers.

And how bizarre is that given that he posted the fastest non indigenous 20mtr sprint in Draft Combine history. You'd have to think it's going to come.

Davey

Just shows you. There's two players who's first years were as good as any. Hill was amazing at that weight. Robbie wouldn't have been more than mid 70's when he retired and he did all right.

If Barry turns out to be a decent player the deal will have been even better than that. It can be debated forever what we really got for those Scully compo picks but at the very least the direct trade was Hogan, Dawes and Barry. It will be argued for all time that it also included Viney being left to 26 and Toumpas being left for us at 4. Without the Scully picks according to Harrington the Club would have used pick 3 to get Viney and then we would have picked whoever was still there at 26 and if you look at the draft picks within four places either side of 26 there isn't anyone I've ever heard of. So if that logic is remotely close to the truth then the Scully picks delivered us Toumpas, Hogan, Dawes & Barry, assuming Barry is more valuable than who we would have got at 26. Barry was a NT player GWS had tied up so we wouldn't have got him without trading with them. It's a hell of a result either way. Mind you let's hope Dawes delivers and if he does we might look back and thank Chris Judd. His massive salary meant Carlton didn't have the room for Dawes who they surely need even more than we do. I'm sure if they had the salary cap room to match us he would have gone there as they are much closer to finals and Premierships than we are. For the moment.

I don't

He did a knee and unbelievably Richmond dumped him. I couldnl't believe it at the time. He went on to be a great player at Port and be a significant contributor to their premiership. By the end of 2012 they have a new coach and are doing what Bailey did in his first year which was to say anyone who isn't here in 5 yrs has to go. No reflection on how he is playing footy at the moment. He came back from injury during the season and tore a few games apart as a super sub. He will be great value. I have no doubt about it. Bit surprised he didn't make the leadership group.

Very surprised at Jordie over Rodan. Can't help thinking it indicates the FD don't think Rodan will be playing a lot. Maybe he will be a fill in or a super sub. I thought his training reports indicated he might do more than that. Also no Sylvia. Not a surprise, I guess, but still a disappointing reflection on the most naturally gifted player on the list. Doesn't surprise when you hear coaches saying sometimes in reviews when they ask him why he is standing out of position he answers that he doesn't know. Leadership groups do a lot of things nowadays. I went to the Swans first intra club match last year. It was fascinating how much work the leaders were doing on the ground. Right down to guiding the younger players on exactly where to stand within the centimetre, so that they were in the correct position for the team structure. We can certainly do with plenty of that.

This is a great season for me for you to have picked WJ. It was my first year of going to games. I had a student pass which got me entrance into all games home and away. I visited most of the away grounds that year. It could be pretty intimidating for a 13 yr old getting off the train at Victoria Park and walking the gambit of Collingwood supporters from the station to the ground. Many of the houses had the team colours out and you coped plenty of abuse. Windy Hill was probably the scariest in those days. There were gangs just looking for fights and you had to keep your head down and stay out of trouble. It was still a great era when teams were still their local suburb's team and tribelism ran supreme. We all used to wear duffle coats with your favorite players number on the back and player badges and other paraphenalia attached to them. I wore a scarf I'd knitted myself. A bunch of us sat around knitting them together one school holidays. I got to see Robbie's first game and he was magic. The number on my back changed to 2 by the end of the year and it's still my favorite number. There were some real characters in that team who had big histories. Biffen was a classic. I found out towards the end of the season that his father had come over from Tasmania when he started playing for the D's and he worked for my father. I used to speak to him every time I went to my father's work. He gave me an old training footy from the team that I loved. That team had one of the greatest centre lines of any team in any era. Alves Wells Flower. The great signing Johnny Tilbrook. I once saw him kick a ball from the centre circle at the Western Oval and it sailed through the points of course, not the goals. Not sure if it was that year or the next. Parke and Hardeman and CHF and CHB. Park could mark anything but couldn't kick straight to save himself.