binman

I'm struggling to recall where and when the club made a public statement of thanks to Cook for the effort he put in before axing him without playing a game

Interesting. Spot on about our midfield. We have been woeful in that area for years now. I liked the line about Tompous and Viney needing to develop at light speed. If Trenners steps up it will help no end.

And another one bites the dust. Goodbye and good riddance.

My god, some people really need to have an attitude adjustment. There's more important things than footy and Liams's well being is one of them. How a positive article could become a touchstone for angst and down right stupidity beggars belief. But as they say in the hip hop world there's always haters. Waiting for a thankyou (like RR deserves a personal card!), screw him, stuff him, throw it back in his face? Pathetic. Instructive that such glaring lack of empathy is displayed on Australia day. Instructive in that half the problem about Australia is too many people who wouldn't know compassion and empathy if it bit them on the nose. Boss Hog and mjt you have joined my small but select group of posters who i have ignored as they are a complete waste of time and energy. Good bye and good riddance. By the by Ben i am taking you off ignore because you don't deserve to be included with such a moronic bunch (and you were right i often snuck a peak - which i can guarantee i wont be doing with the others)

Who is MJT?

They're flying!

Excellent post.

No he's not and yes he will be

Cue music from the Man of La Mancha

I could care less about other sides. But for the dees i'm going out on a limb here. Melbourne are currently $10 to make the 8. Great value i reckon and well worth a nibble. We play GWS, PA, GC and the bullies all twice. It possible we could get say 7 wins from those games. We also play 15 games at the G which is huge for us. 12 games might get us in. With our draw i believe $10 is overs and as such is value. The true odds in my opinion is about $8.

I hadn't read that either but of course it makes sense (that board members were interviewed that is). This quote is also interesting: 'Those interviewed have said the club was in a rebuilding phase but did not tank. They have also not implicated former football manager Chris Connolly in any alleged contentious behaviour.' Weird line. Why would they have implicated CC if they deny tanking, or even any contentious behaviour And i any case not implicating could just mean they didn't mention him at all (as opposed to defending him). No mention of CS or DB here, which i reckon is just more mischievous journalism. I'll bet London to a brick they didn't implicate them in any contentious behaviour either. The other finny bit is that the way it read to me is if some has had access to the report and or parts of it. Which to be honest is highly likely as if 4 copies (possibly more if multiple copies were given to the board) were distributed then some of it would inevitably be leaked. All part of the AFL plan. And i agree Fan it also suggests to me it is very unlikely there is any smoking gun and therefore this is all going to go away. But not before the AFL hogs some more media time and punishes the club by implication.

That's right but how often does a player have a great first year and struggle to back it up after opposition coaches give more time and focus on stopping them having an influence. Also coaches have more intel about strengths and weaknesses.

Thanks Jose. Funnily enough Hurley may also end up playing most of his footy down back. I suspect a few people would prefer Hurley Watts, particularly in regard to his ferocity. But i'm with you i reckon he is over rated, is a bit slow and one paced and does not have a huge amount of upside.

Choosing to barrack for the dees is not the most compelling way to prove that!

Perhaps, but lets see how he goes this season. I suspect he will find things a whole lot more difficult with other sides targeting him a bit more.

Besides which if we looking for a KPF in that particular draft who should/could we have selected rather than Watts?

I beg to differ on both these points. Watts disposal skills are so far in advance of anyone else at the club (and Scully for that matter) its not funny. He will make AA before Scully will. My AA tip? Watts starts to build a case this year, reinforces in next season and makes AA at the end of 2015. As a mid Scully will have tonnes of opposition for AA spots and may never make it. I hope i'm wtong though, i for one would happy to see him make it to the elite A grade level.

Good call. As i've noted before i get the feeling the penny has dropped and we will see Watts step up a level this season. If he doesn't my confidence in him becoming a star will be severely dented.

An excellent and well considered post. A few points in response. First i totally agree that we should learn from this whole mess and that the club leader should be held to account. I definitely don't think we should ignore the circumstances that lead us to being charged. What i meant was that someone like CW who just wants to see that back of CS is likely just to trot out the line that we've been really luck - which implies of course that we should have been found guilty of charges - and provide no other useful analysis. This will suit the AFL's agenda. The same goes for any demon fan who likewise bangs on about us being lucky in a way designed to further damage the standing of CS. To be clear Hazy i'm not putting you in that category - your position is clear and transparently argued. But less say there is someone who shares your view that CS and MClardy should be replaced and decides to drip feed CW more gossip highlighting a position that we have been in lucky and that they are incompetent. This would not be helpful to the club. So i'm not so sure we are different camps. To be honest i'm not in a pro CS or anti CS camp - just the dees one. What i do know is that no charges or a not guilty finding will strengthen the board and CS's position. As i understand it has bee re - contracted for 3 years so in the normal course of events he will remain at the dees - unless, perhaps there is a change at board level. So yes by all means lest question and hold board and CEO to account but they're in place for the foreseeable future so i don't think it is helpful for the club for anyone to be agitating for a dismissal. The other thing is that CC hasn't publicly claimed the existence of a conspiracy. The comments attributed to him were from a presumably private conversation he had with the investigators. And besides who knows if they are even accurate.

And by the way i thought it was a very creative and witty way to make it. Good work. I wondered though if perhaps a clip of Bradbury's Olympic gold medal might have more effectively illustrated your point (though perhaps not illustrating as well how the dees being cleared might divide opinion)?

Point taken. But to be honest if we come out of this with no charges to answer (or found not guilty of charges) any arguments by people who have an axe to grind with CS, such as CW, that suggest we were just lucky to escape charges (as opposed to acknowledging a successful strategy) would be very hard to take seriously. Interestingly my take on the AFL's approach is that they won't charge but want to punish by embarrassing Bailey et al and therefore provide some deterrent factor for any other club that wants to list manage to maximise draft position in the future. The AFL would consequently be more than happy for the 'dees were very lucky to escape any penalties' line to be pushed. Anyone pushing that line would therefore be assisting the AFL's in its attempt to run the dees down - a stooge for the AFL (and anti CS forces) if you will. Lets hope that if i'm correct and we are not charged or found not guilty (ie cleared of any wrongdoing) that there isn't then an ongoing debate in the media (perhaps fed by people with axes to grind) - or on DL for that matter - about whether we were lucky, should we have been charged etc etc. Unfortunately I think that is rather wishful thinking.

"Can you believe it - that was brilliant, he didn't panic in the slightest" - Richie Benaud, one of Australia's greatest captains and arguably the most respected cricket commentator the game has known (and not a bad fielder either). Perhaps he was talking about how the dees have handled the tanking allegations rather than Mark Taylor's terrific catch (by the by as a pretty average spin bowler my definition of a poor catch was one that was dropped).

Exactly. Who actually believes his decision to 'quit' was not related to the disaster that the investigation has been . IMO we will not be charged with anything, This will mean that despite whatever spin is put on it by the AFL, the media or anyone with an axe to grind against CS or DM (eg 'no charges can be laid but.....") it will amount to an exoneration. The same applies to the scenario of charges being laid and we are found not guilty by the commission (though i reckon if they decide to lay charges it is very unlikely we will found not guilty). And funnily enough it will strengthen the position of the board and by extension CS as not only will they have been exonerated their response to the investigation and threat of charges will have proven successful. I really hope that if no charges are laid or they are and we are found not guilty that credit is given where it is due and the anti DM and CS factions recognise that both the war and the battle is over.

I think Fan has an anti Rodan agenda

I tend to agree Fan. It would be folly to talk up the significance of these forums. However in social media terms 2001 is an eon ago and very hard to compare now and then. Can't imagine many back then would have foreseen how ubiquitous social media would become in terms of being a legitimate source of information dissemination