jnrmac

Merry Xmas Mods and Nerds Thanks for your tireless efforts throughout the year! It is very much appreciated.

I think you'll find they owed us a lot of money. We were preparing to go to court. Not sure whether/how it was resolved. CS has a fair bit to answer for IMO in relation to sponsorship. Yes we have recently been very successful but if he treats the new sponsors the same way he treated old sponsors we will be looking for new ones soon enough,,,, Anyway this is not a CS thread. Dean Bailey. Hmm fine man.

I liked the line about the way the investigation has been conducted. It has been a disgrace. Full stop. Wouldn't stand up in any court in the land. Maybe the AFL has done it that way on purpose, Who knows. But it is becoming more obvious that f charges are set against anyone it will be a dragged out affair. The AFL won't wont that. They will lose control of the matter. They presently control it which they like to do. Once its out of their control who knows where the witch hunt will lead. My guess it would be ugly.

Paul Roos laughed off exactly the same allegation when he told MVeigh not to go fwd and for the team not to kick a goal in the dying minutes of the NAB cup match. That was accepted by the AFL. Why wouldn't CCs poor humour?? Or Fevola's allegation in his book about the joke he had with Mal Michael walking off at half time with the Blues in front. Really if CCs comments are all they have then there is simply no case to answer.

Bottom line is we were a crap side in 2009 and couldn't win games IF we tried our hardest. IF we tanked in 2009 then you would have seen us win plenty of games in 2010 and 2011 which clearly we didn't. We were still a crap side last year. The PP was there for exactly that reason. If people are looking at the "other factors' they are so subjective it would be ridiculous. Interchange numbers?? c'mon. We have 3 injuries on the bench. Yeah but we faked those injuries. Really? As for the positional moves it would be impossible to prove if the players weren't told directly to lose which no-one is saying. If there was a smoking gun we would have heard about it. If there was an email discussing it the club would know about it (its their computers remember?). There is no 'evidence' that has been spoken of in any forum that would stack up to a direction to tank. So yeah its possible someone has talked about it but proving it is near on impossible in my view. Happy Christmas.

A Coll side that rested/didn't play 16 of its best 22... I'm not taking about 1 win. And we got trounced the following week. I'm talking about playing consistent competitive footy in the pre-season.

True. And if the players weren't told to deliberately lose ie the 22 on the field tried to win as evidenced by the Richmond game, then it is hard to see how we could be 'charged' with anything. The argument I have heard for Freo resting 10 players in rd 23 2010 is that it doesn't constitute tanking because the 22 selected went out to try and win. If that is true (and there are too many examples of similar exploits for it not to be true) then we don't have a case to answer.

OK so another 'no news' article in the small paper by that doyen of footy writers Jay Clark says that the rule we would be likely to have transgressed is the following: "A person, being a player, coach or assistant coach, must at all times perform on their merits and must not induce, or encourage, any player, coach or assistant coach not to perform on their merits in any match - or in relation to any aspect of the match, for any reason whatsoever.'' - AFL Regulations 19(A5) We have the Captain and the COach as well as Brock McLean on the public record saying "we were never told to lose". Players might have been moved to different positions but not 'hey Johnno , go back and play on Nathan Brown but for God's sake don't go near the ball" Unlike Mr Teflon Paul Roos who instructed McVeigh I think it was to "make sure we don't score a goal" in the final quarter of a NAB cup match. Oh yeah but he came out later and said he was joking. And CHris Connolly apparently made a joke but we are somehow different?? Case closed.

What would you know Mr 46 posts!!!

That is not a lottery. A lottery would mean we might win once in a while. It is more like a depressing soap opera. Knowing that we will have another shiite season. But seriously it has been a huge bugbear of mine under Bailey that we NEVER enter the season with any momentum. The Bummers have shown it is vital (even though they fall halfway through the season!) and stats say the top 8 rarely changes after about round 10. Our pre-season form has been atrocious. I for one am looking forward to some competitive pre-season footy under Neeld. The amount of match simulation we are doing as well as the increased levels of hardness and fitness SHOULD make this pre-season game watching much more enjoyable. And hopefully this leads to a better start to the year. Given the draw it is critical to start well. The players as well will grow in confidence if their hard work over summer looks like paying off.....

Since the new look skin for the website I have had a lot of trouble posting. Particularly with links, and edit options like bold, etc I assume that others haven't had this with a pc otherwise it would be all over the forums. Not even sure this is the right place to post this but wondering if I am doing something wrong or if it is likely to be an ongoing issue? Often when I post I will get all of the syntax letters and symbols coming up on screen (ie /QUOTE, img], etc) rather than than an image or a bold etc. Anyone lese had this problem??? Many thanks Junior Mac

Don't like seeing that in writing nor hearing about it being discussed in a club forum. These things can come back to bite you know....

List managed? Like rd 23 2010 when Freo rested 10 players on a trip to Tassie against Hawthorn because they were trying to manipulate the final 8 result? They effectively conceded the game against Hawthorn. That kind of list management? Or is there another kind? Or Carlton's when the booked their senior players in for surgery in 2007 and lost the last 11 games so they could get Kruezer AND Judd? Just want to be sure which list management ideas have been 'sanctioned' by the AFL and which haven't... Cos its all about the Vibe you know. Just ask Numbnuts McLean.

And not p*** off home like 2 of 'em

Toorak old boy. Are there any other suburbs??

Fevola: "You could tell in the rooms," Fevola said of the Round 22 loss to Melbourne. "I didn't play that last game either. I had my finger done. I left at quarter time. I didn't even stay. I was home at half-time and listened to the radio. "We didn't want to win. I always say to people that when you look at that game, were we tanking? "We would tag Travis Johnstone every time we played them, because Ratts (coach Brett Ratten) came from Melbourne (as an assistant coach) - and Johnstone had 42 touches. "We tagged him every single time we played him. (Heath Scotland) had a few touches as well. But they didn't play on each other. "If we were serious about it, we would have tagged him." FORMER AFL star Brendan Fevola has reignited the tanking furore, claiming Carlton took steps to make it "more difficult for us to win games" as the 2007 season drew to a close. In his new book, Fev, In My Own Words, Fevola said the Blues were put in a "crazy situation", where they benefited from losing by gaining a priority draft pick for ruckman Matthew Kreuzer. The two-time Coleman Medallist said the club took "initiatives" such as asking players to have surgeries and making unusual match-ups. "It did seem like the club did a lot of things that made it more difficult for us to win games," Fevola, who yesterday kicked 18 goals in an exhibition match in Tasmania, wrote. "Often there was banter on the field about tanking," Fevola has said in the book. "I remember one incident in our game against Essendon in round 20. We kicked four goals in the second quarter and were 21 points up when the half-time siren sounded. "As I started walking towards the rooms, my opponent, Mal Michael, turned to me and said, 'What are you blokes doing? You don't want to win this game.' I smiled and said to him, 'Yeah, I don't think we'll win, mate.' "Sure enough, we ended up losing by 10 points." Liberatore: FORMER Carlton assistant coach Tony Liberatore has accused the club of "tanking" matches at the end of last season. The Blues lost their final 11 matches in 2007, ensuring they won few enough matches to earn a priority national draft pick, which they used to pick up talented young ruckman Matthew Kreuzer. Liberatore, who was part of the Blues coaching staff at the time, told the Footy Show last night that winning "wasn't the be all and end all'' for the club during the final matches of the year. Asked if he felt that constituted tanking, he said: "I would have to say yes.'' The AFL will interview Tony Liberatore next week over tanking claims made against Carlton, but say the former Blues assistant will need to produce a specific allegation to prompt an investigation. That appears unlikely, as Liberatore has already admitted coaching staff never talked about tanking and there was never any directive to lose from Blues officials. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said that from what he had read of Liberatore's comments, made on the Nine Network's AFL Footy Show, there was nothing that would warrant an investigation. "If he put a specific allegation to us about the Carlton Football Club then we would go and speak to the Carlton Football Club and look into it," Demetriou said. Asked what sort of allegation would be required, Demetriou said: "If someone at the football club said to Tony Liberatore, directed him to do A, B, C, D to lose the game, that's a really serious matter." The Blues strongly defended themselves against Liberatore's claims and said they would consider legal action. Liberatore said the club made dubious team selections and positional moves in the final games of last season, in what he believed amounted to tanking. Amazing Carlton aren't being investigated with two insiders claiming the above. Would hope Melbourne raises this as well... Why is there an investigation even??? What 'evidence' prompted this investigation?? McLean's comments? Is that it?? Seems pretty tame compared to the Carlton comments yet we are under the gun?? DOesn't make sense to me...

This is normal procedure. AFL has finalised its investigation and gathered its evidence. It presents that to Melbourne that has 3 weeks to respond. IF, after that, they believe there is a case to answer they will charge the club with some rule infraction. We will then have several options available to us to fight any said charges. Its time to chill and enjoy Xmas...

If ever you wanted any evidence that Damian Barratt gets his stories from D'Land this is it. There is nothing new in the puff piece he wrote as usual.

She (sadly) has a good track record of scoops.... if of course it the same person...but she has posted it on 'Ology as well so I am getting worried...

Jones has stepped up. We have a bunch of mid-tier players that need to do the same. Bail, Dunn. Jordie etc I am hopeful that their new levels of fitness, crystal clear expectations and increased levels of hardness at the contest coupled with some leadership on field (finally) will mean we leave the bottom reaches of the ladder for a longtime.

PLease stick it up the media morons such as Barrat, Denham, Healey, Derwayne Russell as well as knuckleheads like Kennett. Revenge is a dish best served cold Go Neeldy. 'A core group of players that could take the club fwd' Implicit was 'a bunch of players that couldn't take the club fwd or were holding the club back' God its refreshing to hear that.

Jennifer Kyte?

According to Neeld in the second half of the season we broke even on I50s (I must admit I couldn't find that stat anywhere though) If correct and I assume it is then our increased fwd line firepower, fitness levels and hardness should translate into a significantly improved performance. Now, you have to improve to stay the same in this game but given we have a very easy draw we should be expecting 7-10 wins without any issue at all.

Shoes or belt?

Was a good deal for the Dees. And would have saved us from 16 yrs of mediocrity. Would have won about 6 flags I reckon.