La Dee-vina Comedia

Actually, I wouldn't mind a regulatory authority investigating whether Luke Hodge actually uses that food preparation service (is it called Light and Easy?) They may be a perfectly sound option for the average human being but I find it hard to believe a professional AFL footballer could survive on those products alone.

Sports people do things and take things that improve (or, if you prefer, enhance) their performance all the time. That's why they take protein supplements, eat massive amounts of food and train with weights. I'm not defending the EFC - they had a responsibility to ensure that their players only took legally approved performance enhancing products. And the players, too, had a personal responsibility to ensure what they took was legal. Did what they take do anything to improve their performance? Who knows (although I've said before I doubt it - I think Dank is a charlatan and should be behind bars). But that's not the point. If a product or practice is banned - so be it. The user wears the consequences.

So, of all the embarrassing records we did break this year, which is your favourite? I think mine is not having lost three games (or more) in a row. Spreads the pleasure better through the pain.

To put some perspective on how far we've come, in 2013 we won two games and had a percentage about 4% points lower than Essendon right now. And that was with two expansion teams in the competition (which is why we were 17th and not 18th). That's a massive improvement in three years.

You're not the ghost of our former President Billy Snedden, are you?

Good point.

Didn't we beat Port in Darwin at night in 2010?

When was the last time we went through a season with out losing a game by 60+ points?

The family tree approach to judging coaching is well respected. Whether it's the Tom Hafey family (Kevin Sheedy and Mick Malthouse followed by John Worsfold, for example) or the Norm Smith family (Ron Barassi followed by Malcolm Blight) or the John Kennedy family (David Parkin and Leigh Matthews subsequently followed by the Scott twins), etc, there is logic in the idea. Successful coaches teach future successful coaches. Of course, not every descendant in the family can be a success (Hardwick, Hird, Voss...and many more) but the opening post makes sense overall.

I appreciate your point. But I would argue something has changed - the problems you refer to now occur far less frequently overall. It just so happens that they happened a lot yesterday.

A challenge for the rest of the season: When did we last go through a season without losing three games in a row?

And he's also not "cheating". He's playing the game as allowed by the rules. If he was "cheating" he would be penalised. I would prefer the rules to be changed so the tactic he has successfully employed (along with other players) is not rewarded with a free kick. It should just be play on and if the player tackled disposes of the ball incorrectly, or not at all, a free kick should be paid against him.

Don't forget even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Pity you weren't quite correct. It would have been post of the year for mine. (I initially read it the same way as you, too.) If the umpires are continually paying a free kick it's more likely a problem with the rules, not the umpiring. And that can be easily fixed. Frees against don't need to be paid automatically. It should be considered a legitimate tackle. If the player disposes of the ball correctly, play on. If he disposes incorrectly or not at all, a free should be paid against him. Yes, but does your wife know?

OK - thanks for the clarification.

What "record" are we talking about here? Do you mean youngest Melbourne side ever? Youngest AFL/VFL side ever? Youngest Paul Roos coached side ever? I'm not damning your post, just seeking clarification.

Not that I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm looking forward to having a record of "two losses in a row" as something not broken for many years.

Nice to see a second Melbourne supporter with a healthy ego. (BBO being the other).

I've just found this thread (sorry about the unintended pun) and for some reason, I think it's one of the funniest threads on Demonland.

Obviously I'm in a minority of about one. So I'll let it go with one final comment...you can be found guilty of something and not be convicted.

Yes, I do. But I understand others do not. Perhaps I'm overly sensitive or even cautious, but to my way of thinking they've been caught cheating and they've been found on the balance of probabilities to have been injected with TB4, but it wasn't a criminal trial about the taking of illegal drugs and therefore I'm sticking with my view that "convicted drug taker" isn't the right language to use. However, I'm not disagreeing with the CAS finding or the penalty imposed.

No problem with that...or calling them "penalised substance abusers" (thanks, ProDee). I just think we should call it what it is. Language matters.

I know its semantics, but Melksham and the rest of the 34 are not "convicted drug takers" and we shouldn't say that they were. Firstly, no-one was "convicted" of anything. CAS was comfortably satisfied. Secondly, it wasn't drugs, it was peptide supplements. (And I'm not even sure that CAS was comfortably satisfied that those peptides were definitely taken but that there was enough evidence in the strands of the cable to infer that they probably did. However, if I'm wrong with that, so be it). I'm not arguing that what Melksham and the other players were found to have done was not wrong. But let's also not make it into something that it wasn't.

dc, I'm making no assumptions at all. The point I was making is that IF there is no other context to make it clear, I'm not sure that I would automatically realise that an "injection" is a "supplement". But I don't know the context.

Depending on the way the question is phrased, I'm not sure if I was player being asked the question that I would have automatically assumed that an "injection" is the same thing as a "supplement". I would have thought supplements come in other forms taken orally, such as powders, tablets and muesli bars. Having said that, I haven't heard any player say that was the case for them.