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How are we the odd man out? Unless my ageing brain has seized up, given you think Adelaide was hit too hard compared with us, logically you must be saying Essendon have been hit too hard too to make us the odd man out. Unless I'm confused we'll have to agree to disagree on that. Essendon 's sins are far worse than either ours or the Crow but the penalties so far have been modest.

Go figure? It is quite easy to figure unless you believe in the eye for an eye style of justice. Penalties don't have to be a mirror image of the offence. It has to be appropriate and in the interests of society, in this case the AFL's comp. Taking draft picks from us would not make sense with regard to the latter. It could be argued that us not getting a PP when we clearly had performed badly enough to justify one, was in fact a removal of a draft pick anyway. I think we are mostly agreed that the drug programme is far far more serious from so many angles than the tanking, no matter what one's views of our 'tanking' or tanking.

Someone asked about importing our fixture into calendar programs. Apologies if this has been posted before, but an ics file can be downloaded using: www.google.com/calendar/ical/2tdt9651cf7cp1eer0qne2a5so%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics this and others are at https://plus.google.com/113468027540365938523/posts

Robbie13: Almost everything has some placebo effect. That doesn't justify defending rip-off cures like homeopathy. Given the nature of Mrs Roos alleged 'degree', it is not so far off topic for Ding and others to introduce homeopathy into the discussion. Nothing compared to the sort of hijacking we see in other threads regularly. As for meditation, I've often thought that a large part of the MFC's players poor performance was between their ears, so anything that can help address that (and which has been shown to have some validity) can only be good to try. I'd love to see some meditation at 3/4 time. It might scare the pants off the opposition.

Salem looks a lot older in the pic from today's training session than he does in the ones in the draft publicity.

Either you are joking or are blessed with a mysterious ability to know the future.

It is frequently claimed that Dank has not yet been interviewed by ASADA. What is the evidence for that? Is it merely based on the assumption that if he had been, it would be public?

Yes, but AHG doesn't have an image problem which it needs to 'correct' unlike some companies.

Have I missed it or has the AFL website ignored the new sponsorship deal while picking up other parts of the press conference?

True, but companies like that aren't trying to sell something to the public. They are trying to get onside with the public, ie. 'please don't object to our next mine digging a big hole in your backyard'.

The motivation is fine - a draftee would be anaemic if every club took their own sample for a blood test. As long as the results of any extra test have to be distributed to all clubs, there is no problem. So what if the point of the AFL reminding clubs of the rules just now? Has some club been hoarding a test result?

But are large companies influenced by mass marketing? I'm always bemused when Lockheed and other arms manufacturers take out enormous full-page ads in the papers extolling their fighter jets. Good luck to AHG regardless of my own marketing ignorance.

Great news. But I'm a bit confused about who AHG is targeting. Does anyone buy a car by looking for a dealer who happens to be a member of their group? Don't most people look at a few models and go to the nearest appropriate dealers and see who gives the best deal? Also, customers will see the finance business through the dealers. Would they go to a dealer because they specifically want AHG finance? So what exactly is AHG mass-marketing? Are they planning to push the centralised service-booking service perhaps? I'm sure they know or they wouldn't be throwing money our way. Any marketing-gurus like to explain?

I wouldn't say he had several really good games. Stuck in the midst of NSW, I see all the GWS games on TV. From that perspective I would only say he had several reasonable games and a lot of substandard ones. But I think we are all agreed his salary is totally out of proportion to his value to the team.

True, but I read most of it anyway and appreciate the reports. But sadly the only real news is bad news, like when someone is injured.

That is interesting. Can anyone point to the relevant document on this?

It indicts the club very seriously, but may help the players. If ASADA ends up reporting it can't charge any players because all the records are 'lost', then the AFL should have another go at Essendon with further charges (not that they will). It is also creates a precedent for cheats - eat your records as well as the pills. So ASADA would pressure the AFL to do more random testing of players.

Just thought this may be of interest to those interested in knee injuries: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24826323

"New Age" seems fitting for the club more generally. Here's hoping.

More likely Watters knew things were in flux and thought going on the radio might boost his chances. But he didn't realize how close to his neck the axe already was. Also, that seems more likely than him going on the radio with 'permission'.

I'm reminded of the old saw that in order to stab someone in the back it is first necessary to get behind them.

He said Philanthropic, not philharmonic. We are in more need of the former.

If your experience is correct, I'm staggered. I haven't been at training since the Daniher days and the video seemed in step with those days. What happened under Neeld?

I watched those Roos Academy videos and I'm here to help those like Maldonboy38 who felt an improper surge of optimism after watching them. I'm usually too optimistic, but personally I didn't see anything special in those videos. Surely what he was saying was pretty bog-standard and spoken as you'd expect many a coach to speak. I didn't see any obvious connection with the players either. Not saying that wasn't there, just that it wasn't apparent in the videos. Feel worse now I hope?

There must be a thread somewhere where you haven't taken the opportunity to post something as negative as you can imagine. But I haven't found it yet. Keep up the good work.