Grapeviney

Herald Sun reporting that show cause notices have been issued this afternoon. No mention of which players or how many. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-football-club-players-issued-with-showcause-notices-by-asada-on-doping/story-fni5f22o-1226952296676

35,379 Must be getting close to the cut-off date for the year.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-06-11/hogan-making-progress-misson

I reckon blame the journo in this instant. Probably dreamt up the story, went through the entire contact book looking for someone to support the claim, and couldn't find anyone more relevant or credible than Keka.

The end result of the delay is that leads end up getting honoured / hit up at 20 metres rather than at 40-30 metres when they start.

Has played several v good games this year but today was his best I thought, maybe in all the time he's been at the club. Great defensively, and plenty of run and attack from the backline.

Actually thought our field kicking was quite good today, we hit plenty of targets with 25m and 30m kicks. In contrast, the delivery inside 50 was terrible, lost count the number of times we kicked it straight to them.

Was one of those games where the ball just didn't bounce our way. A number of occasions we were able to pressure them into fumbles / turnovers but the spill seemed to favour them rather than us. The Vince non-goal, Watts' easy miss (and others), the umpiring all seemed to conspire against us at critical times. As Nasher said, many of our youngsters had a down day, which was bound to happen sooner or later. In the end, we were outclassed by a better opponent with more poise and purpose going forward. Onwards and upwards!

BT would have been going feral. "Putting the dukes out" is one of his favourite topics.

68,000 + was a pretty good result considering where we are on the ladder. I'm sure AFL HQ would be happy. More importantly, the red and blue contingent was strong, seemed like we had the entire northern side of the ground. We'll be drawing 80k to this game in the coming years.

In: Kent Out: Salem Not sure if JHK is due for a rest too, or who might replace him. Doesn't seem like Blease is bashing down the door, maybe Riley or McKenzie?

A different kind of mark basic is putting your hands out or up and not waiting for it to hit you on the chest. We were spoiled so many times waiting for the ball today.

6. Jetta 5. N Jones 4. Dunn 3. Pedersen 2. Vince 1. Frawley

Good to hear he's over the worst of it. Pretty brave for opening up and being so honest, was a very candid interview.

It was a strange one - I checked a few times on the MFC website and Twitter feed and there was no mention of it. I only found out about it because I read it on Demonland. (sounds like an ad..)

Judging by Garry's intro / ad just now, I doubt he's going to say this at all. "Mitch Clark opens up about the illness that ended his career"...

Forget about changing policy, he understands the reality of the fixture dynamics, as evidenced by the bolded sentence in my post above. Is he going to flip flop and make himself look like a fool by directly contradicting himself? No. But he'll be pushing other barrows in a few years time.

Of course he's sincere - equalisation is still in our interests given our current standing. But I reckon you're being naive if you think his position on this is principled rather than pragmatic. I'd expect he'll continue to act in the MFC's interests as our circumstances change, rather than advocate on behalf of other struggling clubs when we're no longer one of them.

The article doesn't really touch on the draw at all, except to say that Jackson has no problem with the AFL's objective to maximise attendances, TV ratings and revenues through the fixture. I'd be surprised if he remains keen to sacrifice MFC gate receipts and match day revenue once we start generating and receiving our share of the spoils. And sorry but 'eloquently stated'? "The way free agency is, whether [it's that] you can't attract a player in or you can't keep a player, that is not a level playing field," Jackson said.

Teams that win games pull crowds and attract TV audiences, it's that simple. St Kilda had plenty of prime time fixtures a few years age when they were in contention, as will we when / if we rise up the ladder. You can fight for a fair fixture all you want, the commercial reality is that the league will always schedule successful teams in the best slots - that's what the fans want, and that's what advertisers demand. And you haven't answered my question: Do you think PJ will still be fighting for a fair draw once we start getting our share of the money-making fixtures? I doubt it.

I bet you PJ's plan to get a good draw is more about regaining status as a big and successful club than it is about fighting a doomed equalisation argument. In three years time when we're entrenched in the four, do you really think he's going to want to give away prime time MFC matches so 18th can play 17th or whatever it is you think should be scheduled on a Friday night?

What difference to a crap club do you think a good draw makes? As I asked earlier in the thread, what would have changed last year if we'd had 22 Friday night games? Fans didn't go to our matches, and no-one watched on TV. You talk about brands but overlook the main brand in question - the AFL's. It hurts their brand to 'showcase' poor teams in the best time slots.

Well it wasn't Port, but North played Freo on a Friday night a few weeks ago, so I'm not sure what we're arguing about. And in one way or another, Carl / Ess / Rich all made the finals last year so it makes sense they would get 'good' fixtures this year. Unfortunately for the AFL, all 3 have failed to fire this year. Wait 2 or 3 years until the MFC is back in town and playing a swag of prime time blockbuster games and see whether you want to give up those slots in the interests of a fairer draw then. My guess is you won't.

I just don't think the draw is an effective tool in equalisation. It actually has the potential to work the other way. If we'd played Collingwood, Essendon et al twice last year, rather than the bottom clubs, the end result would have been more dire than what it was. The bottom line is poorly-performing clubs make for bad viewing. Who wants to watch Bulldogs v Saints on a Friday night? No-one given their current standing. But if they were sitting 1-2 on the ladder we would be salivating at match-of-the-round.

I'm sorely tempted to close this thread and all other Barrett threads so we don't have to repeat ourselves every time he farts. We'll keep one thread open and if you really need to vent you can use the search and risk the ire of the rest of the board for digging him up from the bowels of Demonland.