binman

As I have said before on DL. Neil young is the perfect person to be involved. He's seen the needle and the damage done

That's a really good point. In fact so is the other point (they didn't do whatever they were doing well). The funny thing about records is the focus has been on the fact that they may have played a role in a guilty finding. But if they did indeed show the players were injected with legal drugs the EFC would probably have never been charged (unless they were clearly bogus).

Des2014 and BB, in all sincerity well done. You held the line and didn't waver. You were right. My doubts of a toothless big bad wada wolf were proven completely foundless, wrong even. Kudos also for ressiting the urge to say i told you so. I'm not sure i would have been big enough to do so in you place. Insert gif of a b grade celeb eating humble pie. Insert gif of chickens coming home to roost. Normal transmission can now resume with my area of interst continuing to be the media response.

Terrific stuff rusty, thanks. Some interesting numbers. Surprised jetta not ranked higher. Not surprised watts ranked so high though I imagine others might be (or if not surprised perhaps might not rate the ranking)

Comedy gold

Good call Ash. One assumes they will make a statement either way (hopefully a presser) but they are under no obligation to make any comment in the event they decide not to appeal. But you hope they would and yes i would be very interested in their rationale.

Fair call. So lets hope for 11 am presser in Montreal tomorrow, which means 1am our time. It would be a nice touch if the presser was in French. James would get some value then from his paid vacation.

I am in strong agreement with the bolded bit. As to the other part i'd ask you to consider, if ASDAs case was indeed a strong one, why would WADA not proceed with an appeal?

That makes no sense. A conspiracy? ASADA thought they had sufficient evidence to get a guilty finding. It would appear they didn't. But of course some believe the fact they didn't win was evidence of an AFL conspiracy or at the very least evidence of a contrived result (eg by stacking the tribunal with compliant lackeys). I thought BBs and Dees2104 whole point was that WADA werre immune to such influence and the mighty CAS, which can hear the whole case again, is an incorruptible paragon of independence. Surely if ASADA did indeed have sufficient evidence (as they believed they did) the CAS would find in their favor.

So it would seem the big bad WADA wolf are not going to appeal after all. Or perhaps they enjoy the theatre and are going for suspense and will announce it at the death knell. Lets hope so. If they don't i'll be fascinated to see how BB and in particular Dees2014 spin the decision in fact to be an element of a grand Machiavellian plan that will culminate in the EFC players being found guilty and the club humiliated. But on a serious note if WADA choose not to appeal surely this would be a sign that ASADA simply did not have sufficiently compelling evidence to get a guilty finding, which calls into question their decision to run the case at all. And no i'm not an EFC/Hird apologist.

The opposition, who played in last years GF and were coming off 2 stinging losses, were far too good for a team that last year finished near the bootm of the ladder. The opposition were too fierce, too strong and too fast. We had our lowest half time score against the Swans since 1914 but on a positive note kept fighting in the second half and prevented a massive loss, which as a rather positive Roos said in his presser was a real positive (he noted that in the past such a scenario would have resulted in a 100 point belting).

Nothing fro wada yet. Dramatic effect? When does window shut?

No two ways about it watts very lucky to be in team. 3 average games and in the last of them only 7 possessions. I thought his intesity was pretty good though, both in the air and tackling. I suspect that's what saved him. Huge week for him. If he doesn't perform could have an extended run at casey

Love it Red. That's actually a really funny coincidence because just a couple of days back i was talking a fella who was talking about who he played with as junior. He mentioned Laurie Fowler (one of my favorites) i was trying to remember the other stocky little tough bugger we had in that same team. For the life of me i couldn't recall his name, which is so annoying. It was Henry Coles i was trying to remember. Thanks. Good player. Was his number 9? Edit; no of course Fowler was 9, Coles was 13 - thanks Demon Wiki (what an amazing site that is, i just love it). According to Wikipeadia:'Coles career deteriorated from 1978 onwards, playing only four games in 1979 and seven games in his final season of 1980. His VFL career ended in disgrace when he was fined $600 and suspended for a week after getting into a fight with his captain-coach, Carl Ditterich. He played his last game for Melbourne in round 18 against North Melbourne.' Getting into afight with yout captain coach is never a good career move. Brave man though. Big Carl was one scary dude when angry

Which Doctor?

Wow. And PJ cut staff!

Spot on.

Not sure about Dixon. We're OK for big forwards but still 4-5 good mids short. Yes to prestia. No to benell

Well that remains to be seen. I will say one thing - if wada do appeal you and dee2014 will have every justification to crow about it. I hope you both get the chance

All bluster aside the clock is ticking on the WADA appeal.

Sorry. I'll try harder next time to post something truly unique and new. I'm guessing there would be considerably less posts in most threads if the rule was you had to say something new with each post.

I was making a point in isolation - ie there is every chance other clubs operated within the grey area and a chance some have used PEDs. And the AFL would prefer people to think this is not the case. Not making any comment about EFC. The bolded bit is actually interesting. Whilst there is no evidence the AFL condoned PED use there is evidence they knew EFC (and other?) were sailing pretty close to the wind and did not act. AD has acknowledged this and said one of his biggest regrets is not acting sooner to reign in the rise and rise of the influence of sports scientists prepared to go to the edge of what is legal. Indeed ASADA tabled evidence in the Midleton case that the AFL warned Hird about the risks. Despite this awareness of what was happening at EFC they chose not to put in place the sort of controls they subsequently did after EFC self reported (ie after the horse had bolted). And by the by, like it or hate it the EFC have not been found guilty of taking PEDs. And despite what people may believe it is is possible that they are indeed innocent of the charges.

Yep, he most definitely was not alone. Really only Garlett and TMac could hold their head high, with some other working reasonably hard (Jamar being one, Pedo another). I suspect though that Roos had Newton (and maybe one or two others) in mind with his rather pointed comments about players trying to pad their stats and not giving the ball off to their 'mates' to score. Twice he burnt team mates badly, in particular the one in the last quarter where he took a very low percentage snap at goal (40 metres out, in the pocket, on the wrong side for a lefty) when he had Hogan streaming to the goals square 15 metres in the clear. The rather considered Freo fan directly in front of me was sport on with his cry of hungry. A bad look.

An excellent point. It is not just EFC who have been desperately trying to control the narrative (we were duped by a rogue operator, its all about the players welfare, we are innocent, it is all an AFL/ASADA conspiracy, heck even close to we are the victims!) The AFL have sought all along to control the narrative and one of the most important parts of their narrative is that it was the EFC alone who undertook an illegal supplement program. Look at their recent response to suggestions that they ignored suspicion about Gold Coast - where they have largely been cool and quiet they quickly put out comments about heir thorough examination of them. Whilst it might be true only EFC had a program that if not illegal was dangerously close to it (the grey zone as Dank has cutely called it) it is also a distinct possibility, if history of drugs in sport is anything to go by, they were not the only club to do so.

Hulk Hogan better be careful. He's too old to be playing with such fire