Redleg

Now you are talking.

Casey will get mauled against that Carlton side.

Paul Roos in his Herald Sun column today on tanking, used Paul Gardner's comments as proof of it happening. That is one of the reasons PG shouldn't have made the comments. It has hurt our club.

Guerra will get three for hit on Chapman, will get off on bump to Podsiadly and Shiel will get three for elbow off the ball on Christensen. I think there was another but I can't remember. Great game though. Hawkins has really come of age. Took him a few years. I hope Cook gets a bit longer to see if he can make it.

Brett Ratten on AFL Access said he thought there was nothing in what Brock said to the AFL. Believed it would all go away. Defended Melbourne saying they were into development as were all sides who missed the finals. Leigh Matthews said some of the moves against Tigers looked funny, but Ratten said they weren't as he had seen them before even against Carlton and other clubs tried players in many positions as well. He agreed with Matthews that no one has ever been told not to do their best on the field. Also said he believed there was no smoking gun.

No problems sunday, it will be 16 lovely degrees. I will be in my usual seat in the AFL section.

The reality of all this "tanking" talk is simply that unless a coach admits that he directed players to lose a game, or a player admits that he was directed to play poorly by a club official, there is no evidence of "tanking". That of itself would have to lead to that coach and maybe the player being banned for life. No one to date has reached that level. The best we have is suspicion, at unusual coaching selections or moves. That is so far from proving "tanking" as to be laughable. Unusual coaching selections and moves have been part of football since it started, especially involving teams that are out of the finals race. Sheedy even dropped the whole forward line two weeks ago and brought in a bunch of first gamers. Was he trying to win or develop his list? Freo dropped 12 players against the Hawks in Tassie when they were due to play them again the next week in a final in Perth. For the final the 12 came back in and they won. Did freo therefore tank that last game? How many clubs and games would need to be thoroughly examined if there is action taken against the Dees? I just hope no Dees officials are interviewed because that means it never even got to first base. Would this be the question asked of McLean by the AFL-" did any MFC official tell you to play below your best". Did you hear any MFC official ask that of any other player? If the answers are "no", how can it go further if the best answer that can be given is " I thought some of our moves were strange".

You already do if you are a member. You get to stand for election to the Board or vote who gets on, if there is an election.

You are correct, Paul and his Board like all our Boards tried to do their best and he and his Board did a lot of good for the MFC. That should never be forgotten. Having said that, Wednesday was not his finest day.

Yes in 5 more weeks. I hate to admit this but I am listening to a 70's disco mix while I read Demonland.

Good luck Clint.

Oh well, I get to see those orange jumpers this week, that should be my footy highlight. Oh, I forgot, Gary Ablett.

First OTC on monday with Brock, then Insider on tuesday looking at our 09 game against the Tigers, then the former President bags the club on wednesday and today the back page of the little paper goes into detail about a function we are having to raise money for a war chest to chase players. Now I was invited to that function and my invitation arrived two weeks ago. Who leaked that invitation to the press and why have they sat on the story for two weeks? Obviously timing is why they sat on it. Now we are being hammered, is the perfect time. It is becoming clearer that there are people within our club who want to see the club harmed. They obviously have links with the press. Maybe they just want the current administration turfed and will do anything to see that happen. If this is true, then it is very sad. Jimmy as one of his main goals wanted to bring all supporters together. Looks like that is a dream.

Finally a little gem on this thread.

And so it should have, as nowhere has he said" I deliberately threw games or told players to do so". Every coach would do the best thing by their club and clearly have in the past.

Disagree. I was offended by it, as were most Dees fans I spoke to today. You are correct in what you say he said. However, as a former President he should not say anything that is critical of the club publicly, especially when those comments may lead to a sanction against the club. If I was him I would have said "no comment" or something like " of course they weren't tanking, they were looking at development of the list just as every other club does when you are not playing finals". If you love the club, you don't sh-t on it and he did. I am also a former official of the club and I would never, ever have done what he did. Privately yes, publicly no. He could have said nothing at all.

The blurb on Insider this week said they will look at strange events in the 2009 Tigers v Dees game. If this was advertised on Monday or earlier, then we know the OTC tanking issue was a setup. Does anyone have access to the program summary on Monday or earlier?

What if Anderson said, "shut up boys and let me take care of this?"

I loved this from Lynch on Insider, to Dermie, who said GWS will lose every game for the rest of the year because they want the number 1 pick and will rest players and change their positions, Lynch then said that is ok as that is development, not tanking. He said that when we did it, that was tanking. This is the same bloke who said Melbourne fans should be optimistic on T$ staying when as his manager knew he was going. How does he face himself in the mirror.

Even sadder.

If Morton gets picked we will be accused of tanking.

I think the term is "dogging".

Paul Johnson has. Says in today's Age that we didn't tank but rather concentrated on developing players when we had no hope of finals as other clubs do. Cited GC this year. Answers Tigers game when he played on Brown, by saying first choice to play on Brown was injured, so he played on him. There is also absolutely no evidence whatsoever, that any player was told to play poorly or lose.

That's what I said.

Hope I am right behind you and can go next.