Akum

I guess what it boils down to in this circumstance, which is becoming more common in the AFL, is that the club has no option but to take the player at their word.

Yeah you're right. Playing Ammo's & watching it for 39 years isn't nearly enough to understand the "nuances" of the game.

In Cameroon at least they're disarmingly cheerful about it. When I showed my meticulously-filled-out yellow fever certificate to the Customs woman at Douala airport, she suddenly beamed widely, jumped to her feet, waved it over her head and announced triumphantly to the whole airport (as well as to the four nearest suburbs) "Here's a tourist who DOESN'T have to make the "payment" because HE HAS A YELLOW FEVER CERTIFICATE!" By the glares of many of the Chinese tourists there, it was obvious that many "payments" had been extracted that day, most likely from people who didn't believe the "yellow fever certificate" story. Cameroon, by the way, has a small remote part where there was a handful of yellow fever cases about 7 years before. If there is any risk of spreading yellow fever, it's going back FROM Cameroon to Australia, not coming INTO Cameroon from Australia. "A nice little earner!" as Arthur Daly would say. Still, they probably get paid very little, and the "payment" was the equivalent of about $12.

How about a "Gawn Yawn" award for the best balls-up that had spectacularly good consequences? It'd be worth it just for the design of the trophy.

Roy of the Rovers??

Nah, back in 426

I'm looking forward to finding out more about the circumstances under which the consent forms were signed. In particular, the extent to which the players were put under duress, and by whom. Of course, there's the question of whether EFC - not to mention a certain ex-coach - are comfortable about this being discussed in minute detail in court.

Only if they're playing on gravel, using a cricket ball, batting bare-footed sans box, and Gawnie is coming off a long run bowling fast inswinging yorkers.

Looking forward to next year when he'll be attending the training camp.

The hardest thing for ultra-fast players to do is to kick accurately when they're at top speed. It's just about impossible, especially when they've taken off on a run and are full to the eyeballs with adrenalin. They need to back off full pace and steady just for a fraction of a second before kicking, or they'll almost always spray it. For some reason the guy who sticks in my memory as being really good at this was Billy Goggin. He'd use his pace to break into space, then steady & pick a target, which was usually Doug Wade.

Is there anything that Roos can't do???

Yeah, agree with that. But if he can just raise enough doubt to get someone from "outside the tent" to start asking questions ...

I don't care how nauseating it gets, if she asks these questions: When were the AFL informed about your supplements program? Did they instruct you to stop it as soon as they found out? Oh, why not? How did you get advance knowledge that EFC were going to be targeted by ASADA? I wonder whether the extent of involvement of the AFL leadership is the ticking time bomb in all this, the one that nobody wants to touch. If the players have been punished for not immediately saying "no" despite all the pressure put on them, then what if the AFL hierarchy didn't immediately say "no" Immediately? What if they, like the players, said, "We've got our suspicions, but we'll go along with it"? Hird seems more than ready to blame anybody he possibly can. If he says that they informed the AFL early, and that the AFL were prepared to let it run, and only told them to stop when they knew that ASADA was on the trail ... that would be enough for me.

193 pages at last count.

Nah, just needs to back off on the testosterone a smidg.

I'm assuming that the suggestion is that one of the rookies - probably Michie - is upgraded to take Melksham's place, and Cross then takes Michie's place if he's needed?

Guaranteed to get a bite tho' Some just can't let it go by.

That North game is the important yardstick in all of that. I thought that last year for the first time we had North's measure. They jumped us in the first, we clawed our way back in the next two and outscored and outplayed them, then we ran out of legs in the last. We got our selection wrong (didn't Ben Brown get a few - five straight or something? - and we didn't have a match-up for him), and we got our structures wrong until we tightened up in the second and third quarters. In 2016, we have to beat North (do we get a second crack at them, or is Round 3 the only time?). I don't think we're ready to beat the top 3 or 4, but we really need to beat more of the "pretender" teams like North & Richmond & maybe even Port & WCE if we're going to really move forward in 2016.

Good to see you back Saty. Illegitimi non carborundum.

Nudge nudge wink wink, say no more squire!

Have to leave it long enough so that no one notices the huge bump when they try to sweep it under the carpet.

If we get a flag in 2016, there won't be a better place!

Politicians do it every day. Several times. Their success depends on it.

See, this is what bothers me. EFC could raise $610K from its members in a matter of days. Meanwhile, the players could be banned for 2 years or more (they probably won't get banned for that long, but it's possible) and have their careers wrecked. It's the mismatch between who's responsible for this farce, and who will get punished for it, that gets me. I'm not saying that the players are blameless, not at all. Just that I can see them being hung out to dry and made to carry a disproportionate share of the penalty, while those who should bear the brunt of the responsibility will get Old Dee's wet tram ticket. WADA and/or CAS seems to have plenty of power to sanction individual athletes - do they have the same power to sanction clubs or organisations to an equivalent level of damage? It seems that, yet again, those who gave the orders won't get held to account, while those who carried them out will get squashed flat. Just for once, let it happen the other way around.

Up to his eyebrows in fertilizer.