sue

that

hmm, that might also address the lack of talent spread over the now 18 teams which some have pointed to,

I thought the AFL decided players would get a free against them if the charged with their head. True? I can't recall seeing any such free paid this year?

I'll be waiting. If GWS are tanking and select all their players getting pre-season surgery you should be able to leave me in stiches.

very calm but would love an joke that was positive.

FCS, it says we weren't thumped (or narrowly beaten) until sometime in Q4. If you don't see that as a significant plus compared to the past, then you are wearing the opposite of rose-coloured glasses OD.

I don't follow stats much, but that is surprising. Trouble is when the Hawks kick it, especially into their forward line, it's unstoppable.

Amazing how every second thread degenerates into Watts bashing/defence. Just as well join the fray. They'd be a lot less bashing if he hadn't been taken at pick 1 and hailed as the messiah. They'd probably be a few of his critics saying they'd wish the rest of the team had his skills. Disappointment makes people bitter.

That really gets me. Bunch of dirty ingrates.

I'm all for winning all the remaining games too. It will make a difference for next year, plus some positive effect on membership and all the other benefits posters have listed (though I don't think there's much of an effect there). You are considering the outcome of games played by the other spoon 'contenders' more than I and many others did in responding to the poll. Many of us just responded to the abstract notion of ending on the bottom. If we win enough and other cellar dweller lose enough we won't finish on the bottom. Your position is to equate 'non-spoon' with wins by us (coupled with the outcomes of the other cellar dweller's remaining games). Fair enough. I think everyone who has posted would rather win some more games than finish bottom. But some were just considering the notion of a spoon per se.

.. My beef with those who voted 1-3 is that they need to at least acknowledge that there is a bigger picture at stake ... sponsors, foundation heroes, fixturing, reserved seating sales, membership, prime time games, the corporate dollar, gate receipts, crowd numbers etc etc can all be adversely effected by winning a spoon. ... And please, read my post carefully. I haven't tarred everyone with the same brush so don't take offence. I think a number of 1-3 voters did acknowledge all that. I see the point but I don't think being actual bottom has much effect on that. Being pathetic in the bottom 2 to 4 is sufficient for all that.

Many people were saying he couldn't take on the doctor for fear of this being raised in court so I wasn't aware he claimed that. They'd be enough witnesses to back him up or contradict him, so I'd guess he's either very stupid (unlikely) to claim it or in the clear. Not that it is relevant to Essendon's guilt or innocence.

It is only an extraordinary revelation to those with their fingers in their ears shouting na na na that the AFL 'knew' is was Essendon. To cove his bum, AD should have rang every club after he rung Essendon so no one could claim he breached the law. Was he stupid enough not to have done so, or maybe he has another defence? AD's 'guilt' put him on the back foot last year, but how it absolves Essendon in any way is beyond belief.

Don't know if it means anything but I enjoy his new pose of deliberately looking like he is not interested in the coaches box. I don't recall him sitting sideways with arms folded when he coached Geelong. Or have I forgotten?

You can mismanage like crazy but with enough luck it may not be devastating. You can mismanage a bit and with some bad luck as well you can go down the gurgler. It's clear to me that we mismanaged and had some extraordinary bad luck as well. To put it all on either factor is foolish.

Huge sigh of relief from AFL HQ. What does it take for them to miss the finals?

AFL all but knew Bombers were under investigation: documents

But it does as suggested by biggestred in one direction and by monoccular in the other.

I don't think so. Rather I suspect that their tactic is to just cloud the issue in the public arena, get on-side those who hated the previous govt etc. So it looks like clutching at straws but is something else. Without evidence that as a result ASADA acted improperly it would go nowhere in a court I would think.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-08/essendon-claims-asada-under-pressure-from-federal-government/5659086 umm, why should that matter even if true. They'd have to establish that that pressure actually affected what ASDA did and futhermore that ASDA acted badly as a result.

I think some are reading too much into the words 'I don't care'. I expect many who voted that way just wanted to indicate they don't think ladder position matters compared to other things. eg on the one hand the improvements we have seen, on the other the randomness of another bottom team fluking a win when we didn't. Personally I'm happy for other teams and supporters to think we are the pits if they are silly enough to base that on being on the bottom of the ladder, because with a bit more skill, some new players and some luck with injuries (like not losing our main forwards all year) and luck in games, we may sneak up and surprise them soon.

It is continually surprising to me that some posters cannot see that trying to be bottom is not the same as listing what advantages might accrue to us if that happened. Nor that those who are not very upset by finishing last still want us to try as hard as possible to win every game.

On the other hand, maybe Misson is using Saty to bluff Hawthorn....

A different journo for a change ~ Tanking isn't to blame for the Demons' seasons in hell

Probably, but we don't dare enter it. The again maybe we don't have to enter to win.