bing181

Some fitting tributes and memories here - I was lucky enough to see him play through the 80's. With Robbie on the field, always worth going to the footy, whatever else happened. Amongst it all, played some incredible games for the Big V as well, they must have been almost like finals for Robbie. This isn't even a Flower highlights reel, but look at how often his name is called:

... with appropriate compensation, which would be first round. Not as if they'll lose him for nothing.

Fixed: The firsts had a player called Clark Got into the photography lark. From daffodils to nudes (though nothing too crude) Ended up at Kardinia Park.

The club has given us a reason (depression, new environment blah blah blah). That's it. Move on. We're not owed anything more, and don't have a right to anything more. And for those of you suggesting the players are somehow "soft" for not participating in the witch hunt ... Buddy Franklin attended Guerra's wedding not long after leaving the Hawks, and will be at Jordan Lewis's upcoming wedding, and you would similarly expect Melbourne players who are mates with Mitch to continue to keep in contact with him and wish him well - off the field at least.

Doesn't give you the right to know what's going on in people's private lives.

Big difference between "voicing your opinion" and resorting to offensive abuse. Dunn wasn't commenting on what was expressed - which he even went so far as to support - but the way it was expressed.

I think those of us who like to spread ourselves around tend to have different personas over on BF.

Ben is HH?

Compared to what? His 2014 Disposal Efficiency was just over 78%. Not too shabby, and would put him in our top handful. FWIW, Nathan Jones' average was 73.4%, Jack watts 80%, Bernie Vince 64.6% ... Speaking of stats, for this season from the Collingwood site (washed my hands afterwards): "He was a consistent performer ... winning 20 or more disposals in eight games, ranking fifth at the club for total disposals (420), first for rebound 50s (63), fifth for inside 50s (62) and second for bounces (25). Lumumba has been remarkably consistent when it comes to winning the footy in recent years. He won 420 disposals in 2014. In 2013, he won 424, while in 2011 he won 420. In fact, he has won between 402 and 424 disposals in five of his past six seasons." You'd have to wonder how many others on our back line would get a game at Collingwood, yet alone have stats like that. Speaking of stats, hidden away amongst his achievements, in 2009 he won Collingwood's Best Clubman award. Welcome to the Dees HL. Just don't believe what you read in the papers.

I suspect conversations have already taken place with St Kilda in regards to how they envisage using their second round pick. (This on the premise that I can't imagine anyone bidding a first round on Billy.)

About the only piece of information we can be sure of in the above is that the club wants him out - and if that's the case, given the kind of player he is/was, we'd have to presume that whatever's behind it is fairly serious.

Don't think we'll get Dangerfield, don't think we particularly even want Dangerfield (but wouldn't say no). But putting picks 2 and 3 out there sends a pretty clear message to all clubs: we're ready to deal.

One of Geogiou or Terlich on the way out?

After we put so much into helping through his "difficulties"?

And their low draft picks. (e.g. Langford)

Swans - but why do I feel that perhaps it's not to be?

Could have been phrased differently perhaps.

With Ryder gone ...

Wonder if there could be anything in this for us by way of a 3-way trade. Clark to Collingwood, Beams to Qld, Qld club player (or a pick) to Mel.

Yes, was going to add something along those lines! Which would tend to support the "trade your picks" argument, given that the chances of actually ending up with a top 10 player are so low. Bird in the hand and all that.

And because we want as much in return as we can get, and driving down his value isn't going to help that.

I believe the discussion was about plea-bargaining, not about responding to the SC notices: "I can understand the players' reticence at "plea bargaining" with ASADA ... Why would anyone plead guilty when they possibly are not?" You replied that "it is not a matter of pleading guilty". But in this case, if the players accept bans, they accept the charges that those bans are based on. i.e., that they doped.

Yes, but say that list goes back over 10 years or so. So, out of the 100 top 10 picks from the last 10 years, 7 of them are now top 10 players in the comp. 7 out of 100. IOW, yes, the top players are often top 10 picks - but it doesn't go the other way. Top 10 picks have a less than 10% chance of becoming top 10 players. Or, from the top 10 picks each year, around one of them will go on to become a top 10 player. (willing to have my maths dissected!)

You only have to go back to the Dank/Doctor Bates/AOD cream saga to verify that it probably was. It's also why he missed the (famous) Darwin training camp. One way or another, it's been an ongoing issue, certainly since the end of the 2012 season.

It is actually. If you accept the bans, even reduced ones, you accept the charges. This re the Cronulla players: "Cronulla captain Paul Gallen and 11 of his current and former Sharks team-mates on Friday accepted the bans backdated to November 21, 2013. They reluctantly agreed to admit doping rather than face the prospect of an even lengthier suspension over the club’s 2011 supplements programme."