The Great Pretender

Goes perfectly with his dunny brush haircut.

I assume our New Zealand international player will get his groundbreaking introduction to the game at Casey?

Steve Smith is a spinner? When did he last take a wicket in the longer form?

I don't know why you're so surprised about Russell bagging the club when we have supporters and even an ex-president kicking the club when its down. Treat yourself to a banana smoothie and relax about it.

Blowed if I know why we haven't picked up a nippy crumbing forward who can kick goals.

There's no need for jokes around the place when dealing with the club and its leaders after a couple of years under fire.We held an AGM two weeks ago and there wasn't a word of dissent against McLardy or his board at any time during the evening. There was ample opportunity for critics to question the administration over any aspect of club policy. Since then he showed himself to be statesmanlike in steering the club through the difficult "tanking" negotiations. Where were the snipers who want change when the club had its AGM? Where were the people to put their hands up who want to take over and effect the change you're talking about? I know where the snipers were when times were tough and we were copping criticism over sponsors, poor performances on field, questioning the coach's appointment, the Mifsud/Davey affair, Brock McLean on On the Couch and countless other issues. Some of them were talking to Wilson or snitching to the AFL or bagging the club in the media and elsewhere. Leaders need to roll up their sleeves and work hard when the going gets tough. We don't need division and people who would throw us publicly under the bus because they have personal axes to grind. I say well done to Don and go Dees tomorrow night and throughout 2013 and beyond.

Are we being investigated for breaches of AFL rules or for something that's legal but offends some people's moral values?

I understand that but don't accept that people have licence to condemn others over what is as yet unsubstantiated information. I was commenting on the irony of the situation.

I find it quite ironic that the mods on this site find it necessary (and quite rightly so) to suppress posts about rumours of the alleged activities of a certain (opposition) player and his future at his own club while a so called "leading newspaper" in this town allows its own journalists to routinely publish rumour and innuendo about other clubs. Why do they allow Wilson for instance to write that "Melbourne will be harshly punished. Cameron Schwab and Chris Connolly will be finished at the club" (back in November) well before the outcome of the tanking investigation is known, indeed before charges are laid and those in question are allowed to defend themselves. Similar attacks have been mounted on Essendon and its officials and coaches on the drug allegations before the facts have come out and an investigation taken place. Why does an alleged drug cheat with an already chequered history and his club get more protection than respected figures in the game?

Meanwhile Kero wants James Hird sacked. Hird future hangs in the balance

3AW's Tom Elliott tweets that Andrew Demetriou just doesn't get it. Any other business that suffered the equivalent of tanking and widespread drug use in its ranks would see the CEO sacked, but is this likely at the AFL? For some reason it seems not. Perhaps the Commission will do him a favour today and wipe the tanking stain off the books.

Standard BDO behaviour ... Nothin in it - The Video

... and the lesser lights will always sound stupid too ...

I think it turns out that WJ was right about Barry not weighing anywhere near the 78kg as claimed. 8k is more than 10% above the weight originally attributed to him and quite significant.

Did Adelaide really beat us in round 22? Not possible - we must have been tanking!

Nothing wrong with diversity. Bring it on.

Good luck you two blokes and take care when you visit the Crows tomorrow. They're more feral than the Port people.

Yes, it would bring some of the rats out into the public eye. I'll bet none of them work at the club these days and each and every one of them might not have left the club in happy circumstances. Does anyone know if club members will have access to the evidence at some stage? Freedom of Information?

I don't think the AFL can get us under any of the known offences so they'll have to make something up or pressure us into submission on spme pretence whilst, at the same time, buryingtheir heads in the sand about ten years of clubs trying hard not to win enough games to give up the priority pick. As my daughter says, "the AFL sux"

They were exciting times back then. Six games a week in Melbourne (including Geelong) and you could recruit players from wherever you wanted except that you had an exclusive local zone. No Vlad and the rules stayed the same from year to year and you knew who you were playing every week just by their colours which were constant. Sometimes, I wish ...

One should add that those are very much minority Demonland opinions at that. I think the connection between the tanking investigation and Cameron Schwab is a spurious one and not warranted by any of the evidence I've seen presented.

• After the Jordan McMahon game in July, 2009 Wilson appeared on Footy Calcified and was particularly aggressive towards Dean Bailey and the Melbourne Football Club over what transpired during the game which Richmond won after McMahon's 50 metre kick after the siren. It must have irked her to write this piece on 5 August, 2009: AFL boss backs Dees after loss • Remember that final round game of 2009 against St. Kilda that Melbourne was supposed to have tanked? The odds for that game were: Melbourne to win $11.00 St. Kilda to win $1.02 And some people are surprised that Melbourne failed to win the game?

Could somebody please enlighten us as to the date of the payment of the $10k vis a vis say, the date of the Jordan McMahon game? If the donation was made after that game then wouldn't the inference be that he made the donation notwithstanding the so called "tanking" or "experimenting" that was going on around him and that, as a consequence, he was lying when he appeared on On The Couch?

If you're talking about the wide definition of the word, we did it and every other club in a position to gain from the AFL's system of priority picks did it. If you're talking about the AFL's definition as stated by the AFL and its officials for a number of years leading up to 2009, its doubtful on the evidence so far that we can be found guilty of anything.

Does Tippett's old man get a job at GWS as well?