bing181

No-one's a winner or loser here until we get a year or two down the track. Seriously. There were plenty here howling down the Vince move, or Cross, or Garlett.

"If you don't change direction, you'll end up where you're headed." (old Chinese proverb. Apparently.)

The crux of it ... so far at least.

Mine never quite got over Jurrah leaving. (Me neither for that matter ...)

Pretty much reflects the size of the supporter base I would think.

No point sweating the small stuff. Decide who you want, do the deal, move on. The difference a few places in the draft make (outside of the first 10) is neither here nor there, and what happens on draft night is something of a lottery. No-one could have foreseen that we'd get ANB and then Oscar Mac at the picks we did, or that a lowly pick like Vandenberg would end up being a decent enough player to pick up Brownlow votes. Melksham for 25, Toumpas for Kennedy etc. - these aren't in themselves deals that are going to make or break the club. On the other hand, bringing in three young hard-at-the-ball players, regardless of their deficiencies, does start to shift the culture of the club and set a precedent, especially for players that will be competing for the same or similar roles.

When all this is over, if what's being rumoured comes to pass, we will have received Kennedy for a nervous wreck on the field, and Melksham and Bugg for Howe (or any permutation that you want). While keeping all our picks.

I'm definitely in the "don't know what the fuss is about" camp. When it comes to the trade table, the emotional investment we've all made in Toumpas and Howe has zero currency. The life of the lowly football supporter: you bleed for your club and players, even when in reality, they just aren't as good as what you keep believing they are.

It was a multi-way trade, you can't just pick one element out of it and pair that with a player. If you were though, it's basically Kennedy for Toumpas. Both first round draft picks, both played a similar number of games, seems a fair enough trade. But more importantly ... the same logic as above applies to Kennedy as well as to Toumpas: if we can back Jimmy in, we can back Kennedy in. Highly rated junior, first round draft pick by Derek Hine (supposedly Mr. Magic when it comes to the draft), has had a few decent games, knows how to find the footy at least at a lower level etc. etc.

FWIW: Brett Anderson ‏@BrettAndersonIF 48m 48 minutes ago Dees fans need to look at it this way. Essentially swapped Toumpas for Kennedy. Points value of 29+50 equals pick 20 for Howe.

Collingwood supporters disagreeing. Every supporter over-values their own players, even when they can't get a game.

Fifties.

All a press beat-up in any case: "Melbourne Football Club Doctor, Zeeshan Arain was able to set the record straight regarding the recent media attention speculating the entire playing group had adopted a Paleo diet. It seems players were presented with the option of transitioning to a Paleo diet, but the focus was to get players thinking about nutrition as a component of performance and to encourage the consumption of wholefoods. More accurately, the exclusion of processed foods would result in a shift towards a lower carbohydrate higher fat diet with players still consuming ample carbohydrate around game day."

I follow cycling. Lots of cases over the last 10 years or so. Which will become, to all intents and purposes, a season - the next one.

Not sure about all the d's there, but there certainly should have been some clarification of the situation. Though perhaps there has that we don't know about. With the various trades, "the Essendon problem" starts to seep out into the wider AFL.

There are no grounds in the rules for penalties to be negotiated. There are specific circumstances where they can be reduced. Just the way it is.

No it doesn't.

Neither the AFL or ASADA are involved in the current appeal. The penalty is fixed at 2 years. There are some grounds for reduction, the only one possible would seem to be "no fault or negligence". But that will be (very) hard to make stick here, because the players have to establish that they did everything they could have and should have to make sure that there was no infringement.

CAS hands down penalties. AFL as the appropriate administrative body only get to a) endorse and b) enforce said penalties. If there are penalties, they start from the date they're issued, i.e., last day of the hearing (unless there are mitigating factors, hard to see in this case). Which could easily be sometime in February or later. So even if any penalties get reduced to 6 months (hard to see how ...), he would still effectively miss next season.

My god. You have no idea.

Really? I'm really surprised by posters who can't tell the difference between a comment and a fawn. Is it ridiculous? Probably - but then no more/less ridiculous than many of the proposals and comments floating round here, and at least someone had put some real work/time into what they posted.

You're not the bearer of bad news. You're just overreacting.

It won't eventuate. There are no charges against Goodwin in place, even (nearly) 3 years after the event.

Don't do it Nudge, it only encourages them.

Send it to the club/Viney/Mahoney. Who knows ...