RalphiusMaximus

I don't even notice it. I guess that means they're getting value for money huh?

I think we'll have more of an idea in four weeks and a few days.

I really hope a few of the Pies turn up at the game to cheer him on. It would be a pretty classy thing to do.

To think they basically swapped Betts for Daisy. Which would you prefer to have in your side?

Jones is a massive tease. He'll give the odd glimpse and make their fans think he's about to break out and start winning them matches but it won't ever happen. O couple of good things a game is about his limit.

I'm backing Mick to be gone by season's end. The Carlton powers that be have consistently overrated their list for years. They sacked the Rat because they thought their side was better than the lower end of the eight only to discover that in reality he'd been getting them to play well above their level and now Mick can't repeat the success. The team is going to implode this year and the board will go looking for a new saviour. As for the game, I loved it. A lot of people on here really rated Griffiths and he's now showing why. Deledio probably suspended for the next week or two. It's probably bad to say bu t Daisy going down early. All good things. Also I'm pretty sure I have the margin at 20, so that's fairly close.

I don't think Lyon has any real contacts left at the MFC. He's pretty much cut ties with us. He's one of the few former players/officials in the media who doesn't use his position to advocate for his club. In all honestly I'd be shocked if anyone at the club was giving him inside info.

I would say it's more a matter of wanting to make big changes in a short time. Misson came to Melbourne and said that the players weren't fit enough and it would take him three years to get them into shape. Three years later and we have only three players not training on the eve of the season and all of those are long-term injuries not attributable to fitness. Hird took over the Bombers and noted that they needed to be fitter and faster and tried to do the job instantly with the help of supplements.

An odd thought. How will the AFL handle recreational drugs if they become legal? For instance, can they penalise an Adelaide player for taking weed when they are legally able to do so in South Australia? What if the push to legalise ecstasy succeeds? Do they still regard them as impacting the performance of their employees and as such attach penalties or do they loosen up and treat them much the same as most clubs are now treating alcohol?

I agree. It's very easy to feel a degree of vindictive satisfaction that another powerhouse of the league has been caught out with drug issues (and I do), but you need to remember that these are two promising young men who may have just seen their careers flushed down the toilet. It may be that they took the stuff deliberately to try to get an edge and if that's the case then they have nobody to blame but themselves, but there is also a chance that they just stuffed up somewhere along the line like Saad or Lees. I really hope that is not the case because history tells us that even if it is a more or less innocent mistake they will still be put out for at least a year. Sadly, I think it would be better for everyone except the boys themselves if they have been trying to cheat because it removes so much of the confusion in how to treat them. An outright drug cheat is much easier, they get banned, the club sacks them and everyone carries on.

Clenbuterol I think they might be in trouble.

Keefe is a 2m tall key defender. He played most of last season I think. Behind Read in the pecking order, but not as injury prone.

Pretty sure Goodwin was the one who instigated that move.

You don't accept the testimony of the pilot?

Sorry to use wikipedia, but it's easy to get the info in one place that way. Also a couple of other articles from NBC News and New York Times. Dextroamphetamine: Tarnak Farm: Modafinil:

I'll note that I don't believe that there re coaches giving their players ice. I suspect there would be plenty turning a blind eye to it's use though. Ice is a methamphetamine, along the same lines as speed but stronger. It's in the same family as the drugs American fighter pilots are given before missions. The advantage of taking something like this in a sporting (or combat) situation is that you experience a period of high energy and heightened awareness. Your reactions times drop markedly for this period and your heart rate climbs. It's basically like a big dose of adrenaline. Added to this with Ice is the noted point that it makes them fearless (at least physically, it can lead to paranoia), reduces the ability to feel pain and increases aggression. For an individual footballer, these are all good things. They are going to be more aggressive, less worried about hurting themselves and their reactions are faster. The downside is that it is also known to impair judgement (again, look at American fighter pilots and friendly fire incidents). Thus while the players are going to gain a physical advantage, it will come at the expense of a loss of tactical awareness and team play. I suspect that for bush league teens this is a pretty decent trade, although at professional levels where following the plan is more valued they would have problems.

That would have to be Kyle Reimers right? Isn't he the one who refused to sign and was sacked at the end of the year?

It looks like Roos wants to have just one specialist ruck given the move of playing Frost as second ruck yesterday. In that case I think we could mount a pretty good case for Fitz to be the second ruck/forward while Frost went to the backline. I suspect Pedo would get a call-up before him though.

OK, so I've now watched the whole thing. I agree the second half was not great, but I'm probably not as upset as many. I think having the buffer of already reading a lot about the match helped cushion the blow. First thing I'll note is that by my count the umpires directly influenced the score through questionable calls to the tune of roughly 36 points in Essendon's favour. I calculate this simply by noting the goals the bombers kicked as a direct result of a dubious free and adding the frees not paid to us withing 40m of goal in the area directly in front. I have not included frees paid to the Bombers where they have subsequently missed the shot or those not paid to us where the angle could reasonably be expected to influence the shot such as the HTB to Garlett in the forward pocket during Q1 (not paid). Further to this I'll note a great mark to Garlett in the last which was not paid forcing him to play on and miss his target and the pack mark to Gawn which not only was not paid but was then called HTB against and 2 disposals later was in the bombers 50 for the winning goal. Also only the Demons were called to play on for short passes all night. I have more, but really we don't need to pick apart ever bad call. Overall a shocking night for the umpires. Regarding Viney's turnover. I agree with Roos that he should have stayed out and let a teammate mark it. Better would have been if he'd looped behind for the handball and run off up the wing with it. Watching him the whole match, whenever he took a mark around that HB-Wing range, his first look was always inside. He was even standing with his back to the boundary for most of them. We need to get this out of his game and teach him to look forwards first then sideways as the second option. It's not really a surprise that they were ready for him to try to switch given how he played the rest of the match. I've said it a couple of times, but vandenBerg is a great pickup. This is the first time I've seen him play in a real match environment (I don't count last week) and I couldn't be more impressed. He's still got work to do, but he made his presence known throughout the match, not just with things that score stats, but bullocking through a pack to force an opponent to put the ball out rather than try to take possession. I think I' a convert. Frost, Garlett and Lamumba. All gems. All showed their worth. I'd prefer to see Frost in the backline, although I do get why they're playing him forward. They are all adding so much to the side. It was great to see. I was amazed at the case of team fumbles we suddenly got after that last goal. Hogan could have put us back in front had he taken a waste high bouncing ball. When it was cleared we had players missing and dropping the ball left right and centre. It was a return to the painful slapstick of a few years ago. Overall, I think there are positives to be taken from this game, even though we fell in a heap. The first half in particular we were all over them. You can clearly see that we are a better side than we were last year. The problem is still that we don't translate that to scores. We still have the problem of getting the ball to HF and then not knowing what comes next. I was watching Melbourne City vs Sydney in the A-League earlier today and had the same thought. They got the ball to the right spot but then had no plan to score with it. It's as though all of our planning amounts to "get the ball to HF then let our marking targets figure out the rest." The commentators were praising us for continually hitting the "hot spot" in front of goal, but modern defenders love a side that bombs it in there. They get to bring numbers to bear and run the spilled mark out again. What we need if to transition through HF quickly and get the ball in there to a 1-1 or better before the defence has a chance to set itself. If we can get past that little hump I think our scoring potency will increase drastically.

Have now seen Q2. Shocking effort by the umpires. 2 goals given to the bombers by poor calls. By my count we'd now be 24 points better off if the umps called the game properly. vandenBerg is gold. He's got a bit of pace, bulk and he's a marking threat. Forget the midfield, just let him play the HF role for the rest of his career. Frost isn't a ruck. I know it makes us more mobile, but we need two legitimate rucks out there. Too often when Frost does the job it results in an easy clearance to the opposition. Other points of note would be Viney's fight to get the ball away when he's tackled and Salem's awesome tackle on Chapman. Garlett nearly had two goals from steals. Great effort.

My Dad constantly complains about this also. As he says, back when he played if someone had done that they'd be benched (this is of course back when the interchange wasn't used 100 times a game and a benched player was generally gone for the whole match). No matter what spin you put on it, kicking across the face is a lower percentage play than down the line. Of course, it's not the only football basic our team tends to fail at. They also don't know how to kick to a lead, how to kick to the advantage side of a contest, how to create space for their forwards or how to put on a decent block. Most of this you would think is stuff they should have learned in juniors.

OK, I've now seen the first quarter and so far it's good viewing. The kicking to the forwards has improved somewhat. It was made to look worse than it was by the Bombers flooding back and taking away the space. There were a few times we probably should have had a free kick paid in front of goal, so realistically we should have been a couple of goals further up by quarter time. Of note so far: Frost is a monster. His physical pressure is great. All he needs is a little polish, but we definitely have a gem on our hands. I said many times last year that Watts would look better if his teammates would look to hit him on the long leads. This has happened a couple of times already this game, largely off the boots of the new recruits. He also appears to have improved his physical work in marking contests which is nice to see. Lamumba is leading on field. He may not be able to turn a match off his own boot like Clark, but he's providing some pretty damn good value. At this point we're still showing the tendency to panic under man on man pressure and handpass to poor options. We're also stalling between the centre and half forward, allowing the defence time to flood back on us and spoiling the chance for a 1-1 mark to our forwards. This is all strongly reminiscent of the bad Melbourne. However, there are good signs. Our team defence is much stronger, the field kicking in general is much improved and you can clearly see Goodwin's influence in our attacking play with the quick switch and run down the wing or the attack down the corridor, both things that Roos and Neeld before him didn't go for. So far we look the better side with the Bombers clinging on to us and keeping in touch. I wonder how it all goes wrong from here.

He's also still a pretty skinny kid. I'd hate to bring him into the senior side because of his Casey form and see him get smashed and put out for the year.

It was an early game against the Hawks several seasons ago I think. Massive kick-in to a ruck contest near the wing. Our ruck tapped it to the back of the pack where Bail swooped on it and ran into the 50 for a point.

I think that they will hold off on the second promotion until it's needed. None of them are really ready for it but if we have a sudden run of injuries in one area then we'll see one of them promoted to cover it.