george_on_the_outer

Nothing really new in the Four Corners report that we don't know already. It's a pity the revelations made about what the players were probably injected with, is not something that will cause anyone to be charged criminally. But on the programme: Ben McDevitt from ASADA claimed peptides were sourced from Mexico, not New Mexico that Dank claims. A player saw a vial marked with "for equine use only" before being injected. A cocktail of peptides and vitamins included drugs used in the horse industry in the USA Players were injected with drugs obtained by a muscular dystrophy patient overseas. Peptides sourced from a research facility in china. Approval given "not for human use". Ziggy Switkowski in his original report to Essendon spoke of a pharmacological experiment. He was right on that aspect.

Thread locked. Points made. Now move on......

Set your TV's for the following on Monday night: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/03/17/4426753.htm Given their recent exposures on Comminsure etc, this should make for compulsory viewing......

Large Polo on me fits perfectly. 181cm 76kg but broad shoulders. Quality good as well.

Unfortunately, both these observations are correct. He takes just that bit longer to get a kick, handball away or takes a step too many. He puts himself under pressure because he can't operate at a faster level. Contrast the sharp reflexes of Hogan and Oliver. They know where they are going to put the ball before it even gets to them. Jack doesn't have that capability. And when you are playing in the backline, this failure gets shown up with opposition scores. When Lamumba and Dunn return and the rest of the backs are fit then he won't get a game. Frost is another who will pressure him out, and O'Mac will do likewise when he reaches AFL level. A good foot-soldier, but nothing more.

This is exactly the problem. Hit the nail on the head. Let's knock down 2 stadiums, build 2 more and we will break even? Spare me!! Notice how the proposal for the new stadium isn't where Collingwoods training ground is at the moment? It would fit perfectly. Perhaps we could knock down the Lexus centre for another tennis court as a replacement? Perhaps we just give Collingwood this whole new ground free of charge.... Mc Chins has another agenda to better Collingwoods position, at the expense of everyone else.

No commentary is needed about MFC employees on this Forum. If you have concerns, raise them with the club.

Poor old James still doesn't get it. The conversations went on between lawyers/solicitors/QC's and their opinions is irrelevant. The case is about Chubb not indemnifying him for initiating legal action. He chose to do it. It would appear he was not insured to do so.

The times are for the middle 50m over 100m. So they are going full tilt at the point timing starts.

Brayshaw really is one out of the box regardless, but he probably played more games than anyone wanted him to, due to injuries. We lost Vandenburg, Viney, Petracca, Trengove, Kent, Salem, and Tyson at various stages last year. At the moment all of them are available. In a way let's hope we don't have to play him too early. We have enough history of putting players forward before their development allows.

There didn't seem to be too much trouble sighting the players at the training session that I went to this afternoon. Apparently the lights were on so it was all on display to see. Injured and missing first: Jones not there. Dawes neither (not unexpectedly). Rehab group: Vince, Lamumba, Max King, JKH?, Petracca, Newton. All the rest were training with the main group including Trengove. * Petracca bandage on knee, which I didn't see last week. * JKH ran a lot of laps but didn't seem to have anything wrong, maybe just a training load situation. * Newton with tape on achilles. * Lamumba and Vince must be very close as both seem to be moving very freely. Lamumba putting in a 3.9 for 50m. Hope I don't jinx him because Dawes did a 3.6 last week, and look what happened to him. * Petracca complaining about having to do the continuous sprints. " there must be an easier way to do this apart from 30 times over..." * King must be just building up condition as there doesn't seem too much wrong with him either. The Rest: * Trengove moving freely and while I didn't see a left-foot kick, neither did he have to in the drills I watched. But he looks comfortable and is back in the game. * Hunt can move and as one of the conditioning coaches said: " he now has the body which can tolerate what the coaches want him to do". His speed will be a real asset come the main event. * I can't describe how good Max Gawn is with his mobility and quick hands. Then he is a mountain to get around when he sits in the goal-square. Watch out Todd Goldstein! * Joel Smith is a chip off the old man's block. He has a really good spring on him, and once the body is up to AFL standard, we might have something special * Hogan, Hogan, Hogan. What can you say! He is just seriously good, as if anyone didn't know that already. He owns the whole forward half and demands the ball when it comes his way. Poor Weideman had to take him one-on-one in a drill. What a lesson for the kid. * But Weideman was with the main group and while Hogan showed him how to play, he is like Smith someone who will develop quickly and has that something special. Never dropped the head, and knows how to get his own ball. * Oliver is already playing with the mids, and has trimmed down so much from his U18 days, he now needs to build up some muscle mass up top. Has the legs already and has the smarts and toughness. Might get a game at the end of the season, but then also nice to have him developing while Petracca and Kennedy and Trengove take up spots in the middle this year. * Kennedy showing plenty in the middle and will be up there for selection. Didn't see enough of Bugg to draw any conclusions. * Dunn is an absolute lock at FB and Col and Tom his permanent henchmen. Just solid all three. There is nothing like these older strong bodies when it comes to contests, and each of them holds their own. Not much more to add, but it would be nice to see Vince, Petracca and Lamumba back with the main group soon. It would give us nearly a full list going into round 1.

Thanks to the lop-sided AFL fixturing it is going to be difficult for us to move up the ladder this year, despite what I think will be improved performances on-field. As Chelly has shown the bookies have 4 teams below us. We play each of them only once. Maybe that gives us 4 wins Above us in the betting we have Suns, Giants, Adelaide, Collingwood, and Bulldogs. 2 games against Collingwood and the Suns. Adelaide game is fortunately in Melbourne. Can we win half of those games? That gives us 3-4 wins. Win them all? Gives us 7. So beating all these teams gives us 11 wins. I don't think we are at the stage of beating Hawthorn, Fremantle, WCE, or Sydney. To really progress we have to start putting wins up against North, Richmond, Port and Geelong. We have shown we can beat or compete against these. So with our draw we need to beat 2 or 3 of these sides, not drop games against Bulldogs,Adelaide, Suns, Giants and Collingwood, and definitely win against Carlton, Essendon, Saints and Lions. A big call in anyones book.

It has been a week since I was down at Casey, and Dawes must have been very close to full training again. He posted the best time in the rehab group for 50m, but then look what has happened in the last couple of days! Pedo was very impressive. I think I said many have thought him to be slow around the ground or just simply not up with the play. That was not the case with what I saw on the day. He was playing a CHF type role and was providing link ups all around the forward line. What stuck out was his mobility, which I haven't noticed before. Like Gawn, he was in everything. So while I hope Dawes gets back to playing, Pedo will be a more than capable replacement, and if he plays the way he is training, he will become first option very quickly.

Speculation over for another 2 years..... http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-02-10/port-young-gun-wines-signs-twoyear-contract-extension?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=RSS+feed%3A+AFL+Latest+News

Still kicking only with the right foot, same as last week. However, while I'm no physio or doctor, I would think that there is more stress placed on the left foot when kicking with the right. The left bears all the weight and is being flexed, the right remains straight......so maybe the foot is actually quite strong....

Her are some simple numbers for a couple of clubs: Melbourne Revenue 44M Football expenses $22M Sponsorship, membership, Fundraising, marketing $8.6M Admin $3M Other $3M Profit 0.5M Hawthorn: Revenue $71M. Employee and Staff $32M. Sponsorship, marketing and membership expenses $13M Other? 10M Profit $5M Collingwood Revenue $66M Football expenses $22M Sponsorship, membership, matchday and commercial expenses 18M Gaming expenses and functions 12M Other? 8M Profit 0.8M Carlton Revenue $54M Football department $22M Marketing, membership, venue expenses $26M Wages and Salaries $24M Loss 2.7M Football expenses seem to be much the same ( which is what you would expect with salary cap) The expenses in "other staff" "wages and salaries" & "admin" is the big ticket item. There is certainly a relationship between membership size and the number of staff you need to service them.

Or even more so the Swiss franc. ....the Swiss weren't silly enough to take up the folly of the Euro. I'm sure they will adopt the same attitude to the Essendon folly.....

The southerly wind at Casey in the winter is a sure recipe for a miserable day. However, on a mild summer day in summer it just made the training session a sheer delight. I won't go into the actual drills, as there is little point in describing them unless you are there, and the important thing is how they translate to match conditions. So for those not there here are the observations: * In the rebab group we have 8 players, and no Jack Watts to be seen today at all. Not a good sign at this time of year for numbers. However, Trengove we all know about. Was really testing the foot with shuttle runs back and forward and lots of drills which put plenty of pressure on that left foot. Despite what was told to others, he is NOT yet kicking on the left. Dawes had a knee strapped, but that has been the case while he has been at Melbourne. Nothing on the calf. He, Weidemann, Trengove, Mitch King, Petracca and Lamumba ran a series of sprints with timing over the middle 50m ( my guess). Most were recording mid 4 sec times, but Dawes topped them all with a 3.6. One can assume he is not too far from being back to the main group. Newton managed to run a few laps before disappearing into the rooms. * Garland has changed his running and kicking style, I had trouble recognising him until later. * There is a real emphasis on moving the ball quickly, and other running to receive downfield. The mobility of Gawn is simply breathtaking for such a big man, and his first real pre-season should see him really break-out in the coming year. His strength is also incredible as he rag-dolled a couple of forwards in marking contests, who thought they had position. * Spencer still can't mark overhead or kick the ball properly after all this time on the list. However, he has learnt to jump off the ground in ruck contests, instead of aiming at the opposition ruck. The result was that he got his hand to the ball nearly every time against Gawn in the ruck contests. Some hope there.... * Neville Jetta is a seriously hard defender to beat one-on-one. He was pitted against Hogan and then Gawn and managed to stifle their opportunities, when it should have been only a one way contest. Still a bit slow off the mark, which can give the opponent space. * Vandenberg is still a beast although a much trimmer version. Bad news for the opposition is that he has replaced body fat with muscle, so he is even stronger than before. He simply ripped a pack apart in the match simulation. * Frost will be another welcome addition to the backline this year, but he is NOT a ruck option in defense. He simply doesn't have the body to grapple against some of the gorillas. However, he reads the play beautifully and took an absolute scorcher of a pack mark during the match simulation. * Hunt, Hulett, Harmes, Kennedy, ANB and JKH all did what they had to do when required, and will get their opportunities as required during the season. It is nice to have all these options in the side now. JKH has spent a lot of time in the gym, and will be able to hold his own much more in the coming season, as some considered him to be too small and light for AFL. Not now! * Oliver still has a lot of work to do. His skills and endurance seem to be OK, but needs a lot more work on his upper body. That will come, as one can see he has the frame that will respond to AFL level training in a big way. * Don't let Jeff Garlett a yard spare, because he cuts defenders to pieces if they do. I guess we all know that already, but he is simply lethal around goal. * Hogan was simply a presence on the field. He demands the ball wherever he is, in front of goal or up the field. Pity the backman this year, because he was simply too mobile and strong for any of ours today. * Bugg is like a blow-fly in the middle. Is very, very capable in and close, so hopefully his addition will make a serious improvement to the mids. I only hope his size doesn't limit him, as I was reminded a lot of James Magner. Hope I'm wrong. * Good to have Kent back and running. His input was truly missed last season, and todays efforts were matching his best from last season. His acceleration opens up space and if the game plan is based on spread and speed, then he is the man. That's enough of the good news. Now that there is more physical contact in the sessions, then the injuries start to happen. I would love to put a lot of them in cotton wool until season opener, but that is not practical. So we saw Jones leave the track very early. Brayshaw came off and had his knee bandaged with what looked like a knock. No ice, and then he went for a run and took the bandage off. However, he too left early. Vince followed, but returned to run some laps. Then Oliver came off. Nothing looked too serious and I think all were just bruises, but the heart finishes up in the mouth when half the mid-field is forced off the track!

I doubt that any top up rookie would play in the seniors this year. However, if there is someone we genuinely had our eye on, it enables us to get 12 months of development into them, and keep them under our wing. It is this development that enables them to be match ready come 2017, as opposed to a rookie selected at the end of 2016.

From the article: "The key take-away point is that Thymomodulin is not a Thymosin. This needs to be kept in mind when it is claimed that the players were injected with Thymomodulin. Mr Dank demonstrated his awareness of this difference, when Mark Robinson from the Herald Sun asked him if he had ordered ‘Thymosin’ for the Melbourne Demons. Mr Dank replied: ‘No. It was Thymomodulin.’" IF we had not dodged that bullet, I would suggest it would have been the end of our club after the tanking saga, and our on-field performances recently. We have seen the effect it has had on Essendon to date, with more to come, when civil actions are brought to the courts by the 34. Our whole history could have been wiped out by this quack.

I coached my nephews U16 side last year with a parent from the Brighton Grammar side where Jayden and Christian Salem played. He said that Christian was an absolute blinder and a great pickup. Also that Jayden could be anything and maybe even better than Christian, but for the injuries which never allowed him to get on the field, and also be picked for the Sandy Dragons squad. If his body responds, then we could have another talent from that draft. If it doesn't then it will be yet another tale of "what could have been...."

That would have been enough to cause this site to go into meltdown!!!

Should have flown Calgary direct to LHR. 3 services a day. BA or Air Canada.

January sessions may be at Casey due to Australian open.

Jack.....you are assuming he has paid his bills!!