sue

No it is not a cop out. They all do it and presumably for the reasons which a number of posters have mentioned. We just feel particularly aggrieved and frustrated about it at our club now because about our hopes for immediate progress with a new 'star' coach, new admin, stronger mid-field etc have been railroaded by a spate of injuries to our tall players. They'd be far less concern about the spin if we were winning games.

Having only a small handful of reliable players in our club our doomsayers have the 'luxury' of redefining who the good players are all the time. They are the ones who are injured. Hence we have the worst injury record. Point 1 - no not surprising. Just need to not let emotion rule us. Point 2 - fine, as long as people don't complain about us being worse than or spinning more than the other clubs. We are all frustrated that the hoped for new start for the club under Roos with a new midfield, a decent backline and 3 serious forwards has possibly been derailed by injury. Just need to bear it and hope for better times as the the year goes on.

Didn't say there was no link. Just that one thing has a much much bigger effect than the other. IMO, most of us obsessive supporters who lurk about this forum are far more emotionally involved than the average supporter. I think nutbean has nailed it.

Good to see a post about the actual training. But surely you were just being fed spin by the players.

The performance on the field will matter about 1000 times more than any amount of anger supporters feel about being fed spin. Put it the other way around - do you think that if by some miracle we won a lot of games, those supporters would give a tinker's curse about the spin? As for me mistakenly judging the supporters - that may well be. But then so are all the spin masters at the clubs.

I really don't think the average supporter follows all this so closely that they will feel lied to when things slip by a few weeks. How many really followed Hogan's, Mitch's etc injuries day by day over the pre-season? They are closer to the 'blind lemming' than you think. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, they just aren't interested in the details to the extent people here are. All the clubs spin, it just hurts us more because of our performance over recent years. Since all clubs do it, I'm assuming the 18+ marketing gurus at the clubs know more about this sort of crud than understandably disappointed and frustrated zealous supporters posting here do. Looks like we won't agree. Complain to the club.

Binman, while some of what you say in your post above about the how the world has changed with regard to instant information is true, you overlook some things. First the average paid-up supporter does not follow all that stuff as obsessively as people on this forum do. The thing that will get them to drop their membership is us losing, not some vague feeling they are being fed spin about injury return dates. I see no evidence that we spin more than other clubs (but sadly do lose more). We just feel it more because it is our club - a bit like bad umpiring decisions. I'm of the view that all those modern 21st century marketing gurus that the clubs employ have decided spin is good in attracting those more numerous and less obsessive supporters who don't read this forum every 10 minutes like us. We just need to grin and bear it.

The spin may do the opposite to the atypical MFC members who post here, but perhaps marketing gurus at all the clubs, not just us, are of the opinion that for the bulk of less obsessive supporters, the spin works. In which case we should grin and bear it.

Pretty sure they have tests, pretty sure different people pass or fail depending on what happened to them and their individual response. re Fitz playing, I've no idea whether they have a test such that if you fail it on Thursday, it means there is no way you will pass a test on Sunday. If they do, since he has been named in the squad, he's either got past that hurdle or MFC are trying to keep WCE guessing.

do a google search for the link. In the search results click on the article. usually works. Don't tell Rupert. ed: might be unclear, I mean enter the URL of the link in google search.

I wouldn't put a high probability on it. But there were 2 players mentioned in the doomsayers litany. Currently looks like out of the 50/50 we may get 50%. So I'll play the same game: Do you seriously think there is no chance that Fitz will play? Clearly we are going through a very rough injury patch at just the worst time for our club in our position. Maybe even worse in some ways than a team going into its first grand final which loses all its tall players the week before. But we have enough doom and gloom without some posters looking to squeeze out every possible negative. Surely this is the time to squeeze out positives if anything.

Because they haven't been cut already as most of the doomsayers around here have assumed.

Since you picked that up from the team announcement, you could have added a positive, namely it would seem McDonald and Fitz may be OK.

I can't find the post, but someone in one of these injury update threads made the point that it was no use to hide that someone might not play on Sunday because the teams have to be announced 4 day before so there was plenty of time for an opposition team to make their plans then. I din't see anyone pointing out the obvious flaw in that argument, so here goes: He neglected the fact that the both teams have to announce their team at the same time. The opposition will be in a better position to make their team selections if they know about the other team's injuries. So secrecy about the injury status of players is useful to every club. I'm not saying this in itself justifies the spin we hear.

Thanks for helping to prove my point about the relentless negativity of some of us.

Refreshing to see someone looking at the facts rather than accepting the usual 'we do everything wrong' cry.

Saty - several posters have frequently complained that the inury updates Misson delivers are works of fiction. Given you apparently have good contacts within the club, how about asking Misson to address that in one of his updates. Doubtless some will just dismiss it as more spin but he may say something which will make them feel that there is nothing special going on at MFC compared to other clubs.

I'd be more suspicious if they issued a quick report given the number of players in 2 codes they are investigating. It's not as if the cases within Essendon are independent of each other, so they all have to be done at once. I'd believe ASADA needs more staff before I'd believe they are corrupt or incompetent.

Precisely. Was rhetorical as you no doubt guessed. Has he ever proffered a justification, however weak?

What sort of low life would have all the evidence to prove that nothing untoward was done at EFC and not make it public as early as possible to exonerate the players and the club and the AFL. But no, Dank says he will wait till he is in court (assuming he ever is). As for ASADA, on the contrary, I wouldn't trust them if they conducted enquiries into multiple players in 2 codes etc quickly.

I thought it might be worth a thread which focuses on Roo's general approach and gameplan. Mods, please axe if it already exists or is more appropriate elsewhere or just plain stupid. I think this article from Roos explains why he didn't move Watts forward on Saturday. Looks like he'd rather get everyone playing their planned role than toss the team about to secure a win. Painful for us supporters and lets hope he knows how to lessen the pain for the players. Take down the scoreboards: Paul Roos

That's not my picture either. Glad you are happy

name or a verb.

You just keep on thinking up irrelevant examples. Presumably he is entitled to his pay under his a contract. Full stop. If you don't like such contracts agitate within the AFL to change them. But perhaps it would be better to reflect on how it is that people like some company directors, CEOs and their tame politicians can earn more than 50 times the average wage when such large discrepancies were unknown only 25 years ago.

No. And it is good to hear you being a bit positive.