bing181

Agree, but look where it got us last time ... (Scully/Trengove). Not saying it would happen again, but I don't know ... wonder whether they mightn't do a Draft Day (watch the film if you haven't already) and pull someone out of left field and take Lever.

I live in Europe.

Yes and no. The AFL know here that they're signed up to the WADA charter, and if they don't toe the line, WADA will just come in over the top with appeals to the CAS. If cases are proved, of course.

OT: I am indeed. Just heading out for a nice 40 k spin now ... Pinarello (though an entry level one ...) Mick Rogers. Great to see him achieving some results - as he said, lots of soul-searching during his enforced layoff, and he's come back a more gutsy rider. /OT

To add to that: when Contador failed the doping test, he was (immediately) provisionally suspended by his team - which was in September 2010. His doping case was heard by the Spanish doping authorities in January 2011, and he was cleared, and resumed racing. WADA and the UCI (cycling's governing body) appealed in March, and the hearing was eventually held in November, but only announced in February 2012. IOW, he raced one season while the appeal process was ongoing. Also, he served more than 6 months: the provisional suspension was for 5 months, and then he was banned from February till August 2012, so served a total of around 12 months. This covered the end of the 2010 season, but then more tellingly, basically the entire 2012 season. Sorry ... slightly long-winded (!!), but the point is that he did serve a hefty ban, albeit not a full 2 year one. On the other hand, if the Essendon players are to be provisionally banned once they go on the register, regardless of matches they might miss, my understanding is that they would be banned from any official AFL- related activity, including training. So, no pre-season. Interesting little aside to that this weekend, USADA have stepped in to stop Lance Armstrong participating even in a charity ride, as he's banned for life.

"ASADA's statement revealed it had written to the players' association's legal team to "remind" them the ADRVP was a "separate and independent body to ASADA and the CEO has no legal power to direct the function of the ADRVP or to dictate the timing of its consideration of cases".

Happy to see Blease go. He had his chances, but not a smart footballer.

So, as it stands, only first 2 picks in ND possible without further delistings: 7 out, 5 in. ??? (sorry, hard to keep track of ...)

Presumably because we didn't believe Hunt would last through to the Rookie list. Apparently a few clubs had spoken to him and if he was being considered by us, he would have been considered by others.

Agreed. But I don't believe it had much to do with misinformation or confusion, simply that: - there have been very few S0 prosecutions. On the other hand, Thymosin Beta 4 is clearly banned under S2. - ASADA must feel that they have a stronger (= easier to prove) case and evidence in regards to the use of TB4 at Essendon. Without the full facts behind ASADA's decisions, Essendon fans are simply deluding themselves if they think the non-prosecution of the AOD case shows some kind of incompetence or confusion on ASADA's behalf. It would be an unwise path to take, just as it was in regards to the court case re the legality of the whole investigation.

Statements like that do nothing to reinforce your argument, or even help establish one. Quite the reverse.

Perhaps including Simon Goodwin. Could be a worry ...

Not what's reported by people who know him.

For example?

It's not whether or not WE had alternatives, it's whether or not any other club had alternatives. We can hardly turn around to Richmond and say "Looks like the Trenners deal isn't going to work out. Tell you what, you can have Sam Blease instead, we'll send over the paperwork." Even the "we should have shipped Watts out" ignores the fact that many clubs might not have been interested, and the ones that were might not have had the picks/salary cap to make a trade work. For example, if Watts was worth in the 10 - 15 range - only Richmond, WCE, Crows, Geelong and Freemantle had picks in that range. Hard to see any of them wanting/taking him, even if they could. You only have to read the comments from Richmond (re Armitage) and Port (re Gorringe) to see how a lot of these trades are really like getting a camel through the eye of a needle.

Or he simply agreed to postpone his retirement by a year to help Roos get started.

Fairly muted reaction to all this from Essendon fans it would appear. Suspect that having the ASADA case go against them was something of a brutal reality.

That'd be about right. On the other hand, regardless of what the club might have liked to say, the most important ingredient in all this is Howe himself. He had to agree to be traded, find an agreement with GWS on a contract, and agree to move to Western Sydney. Not the kind of thing you put together in a second - or even a couple of phone calls and an email.

Certainly probably ran out of time to be able to package that pick up with pick 3 to really on trade and do something to get "insert name player here". I don't know that pick 10 as a live draft pick would have been all that interesting given that we already had 2 and 3.

Read the thread?

Rules out BB then.

Surprised no-one has picked up on this. Basically confirms that the Trengove to Richmond deal wasn't just speculative, it was all but finalised. "After the Armitage approach was rejected Richmond set its sights on Trengove but that deal fell through when scans revealed he had more damage to his foot. “We were all set to go in a lot of ways but the last scan just showed that it wasn’t looking quite as good as first thought,” Richardson said. “We were disappointed about that because we did put a bit of work into that and Jack was, I think, pretty keen to come to the Tiges.”

We're not getting screwed. Our coaching and recruiting staff identified a player we (really) wanted. We paid what we needed to ensure that we got him. It's what happens on an open market.

We did in the draft period what Roos said we would, i.e. bring in some experience, so by that measure alone, a success. HL will be in our top 5, Garlett will be close to our leading goal kicker, and the FD obviously see something in Frost. So some useful pickups, with a very strong hand to play in the draft and PSD. Hard to complain, and no good lamenting what might have been. We live in the real world, not Demonland's fantasy construct.