Outside fifty

Thought I saw trenners on the far side of the oval practising kicking with both feet, either that or a muscular possum. Very hard to tell. Bye the Bye does anybody know if there is any training scheduled for today, and if so where and when? Or am I safe in assuming that 01:45 am translates to 10:45 am at the paddock.

I was watching Dawes closely today and thought he was going well. He goes out of his way to educate the younger players such as Weiderman and King and when you consider that both these guys are his potential replacements/competitors for his position that shows a whole lot of class . He took a couple of good grabs and was running hard until the injury.He did the calf pretty close to where I was standing and he knew immediately that it was serious. Gotta feel for the guy.

Went today and took some happy snaps, http://imgur.com/a/7VAEs My favourite is this one.

Lets get this straight. This was not an interview. It was an advertorial. Hird was selling undiluted BS. Now James if I may be so bold as to offer you a tip, and yes I know you read Demonland. When you lie in a public forum make it an open ended lie , never a definitive lie. When you stated that the AFL tribunal found the 34 player innocent you told a definitive lie. That finding is on the public record and can easily be accessed. The Panel of course found, "That there was insufficient evidence to be comfortably satisfied". This is a long way from innocent. In fact I do believe that Mr Whateley has already pulled you up on this point before, so even you know it's a lie. Now unfortunately for you even the most dyed in the wool Hirdaphile can look up the finding of the tribunal and see that you are indeed a pathological liar.

Sadly for me the one overwhelming truth in this whole dirty sordid saga is the realisation that corruption and self interest is rampant in our sport, and at a level I could never have imagined. Sure I always knew about the biased draw, salary cap rorting and the dodgy tribunal results. Sure I knew about the favouritism toward the big clubs over the little clubs and the look the other way mentality of the commission when it deemed it necessary. But that seemed such small fry compared to what we face today. Integrity and morality have taken a back seat as the AFL has embraced a Cowboy Corporate culture where the ends justify the means. It doesn't need to be that way of course. Sadly I can't see this changing any time soon. The truly sad part is the very body charged with the games governance is in itself utterly corrupt. Maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic but when I saw that both the AFL and EFC were chasing court costs against Hal Hunter I couldn't help but feel that the last traces of any integrity and morality that either of these organisations once had, has was well and truly disappeared, much like the mythical EFC spread sheets that exonerate everybody.

To assume that Essendon didn't have contingency plans in regard to a possible WADA appeal beggars belief. The public and private persona of the EFC are two different things. Since early days they have embarked on public relations campaign of epic proportions. The feigned surprise at the WADA appeal was merely another PR posture. Despite what people may think of Paul Little the man is no fool. Essendon's media manipulation throughout this sordid episode has been impressive if not arguably misguided.

Went today and took some happy snaps. Hope this works I am generally hopeless at this interweb stuff. One thing worth noting is the size of the scar on Dean Kent's hammy, massive. http://imgur.com/a/okx1R

Bit harsh DC. At no time did I offer a personal opinion on the subject or the article, other than to state Flanagan's possible motivation for writing the piece. Nor did I pass judgement on either Kenny or Bolt's article's.

Surely Flanagan has the right to express his personal views just as much as you or I. Andrew Bolt has the same right. Having read the piece I suspect it has nothing to do with who writes for which paper but rather a defence of a viewpoint that he is sympathetic with. I haven't read Bolts piece and I won't. He also attacked Mark Kenny who writes for the Australian. I won't read that either.

Even the horse is on cobalt!

I'm happy enough with a win today ,after all beggars can't be to choosers. However games like this raise serious questions about the direction of the game. Games of this quality are becoming the norm these days rather than the exception. Classic games of footy are few and far between.

Actually Charters history makes very interesting reading Lance. At times he has claimed to be in fear for his life from various criminal groups. As you are well aware Charters and Hird have a history. I think a reasonable person would consider that inner sanctum.

At the end of the day for some people AFL isn't the be all and end all. For these guys family and culture obviously comes first. Gotta respect that. Patrick's depiction of racist comments as being like a knife to the heart and the obvious hurt that he endured puts racism in perspective, something that should never to be tolerated. Enjoy your Footy boys

As improbable as it sounds it may just be the case. Imagine being the Integrity Officer at the AFL, what a horribly conflicted position that would be. I can just see Gil now."Look the other way Brett while me and Mr little sort this one out"

I find the leaking of this information intriguing. The Leak has had to of come from the AFL, and perhaps the Tribunal it's self. What purpose would this serve? It taints the whole process more than we already suspected and makes the AFL's processess bereft of integrity. FIFA looks almost saintly in comparison. Maybe Seb can get a gig at the AFL? I can only theorise that some of the people involved in the process aren't very happy with the way this has gone down and are now tipping a bucket on the whole side show. I do love a good conspiracy theory.

Just watched the replay and was very impressed with Neale Bullen. His ability to get the ball to boot quickly while in heaven traffic was outstanding. I also thought that Michie was good as well. Tyson was clearly BOG.

Just quietly never underestimated the CWA. They ferocious in and under types who don't mind getting their hands dirty.

Obviously comprehension is not your strong point. I will simplify it for you. As I stated quite clearly M Jones was a bad choice for the Sub. As I stated we needed someone capable of taking the game on. Comprehend. Now repeat after me "I will read a post 5 times before I comment on it ensuring that I understand what the people are talking about".

One thing that I really enjoyed today was watching our midfield consistently hitting the score board. All in all I thought our Midfield won three out of the 4 quarters, Vandenbergs loss was huge.

They just scare me !

At the end of the day you can only judge him on the result he delivers and todays effort was a plus from me. In the three games he has played in that position he has comprehensively beaten two of his opponents. Given that I myself would never have considered him to be a backman I have had to re-evaluate my opinion of what he is capable of. I think people have allowed preconceptions to cloud their view of the player.

Picket any backman is essentially Judged by his direct opponents output. Now if you played on a key Forward and restricted him to NO GOALS, 5 kicks, 4 handballs and a FF score of 29 you would be pretty happy wouldn't you! IF you haven't figured it out i'm talking about Fitzpatrick's game. Ps He also scored a goal as wells giving one away.

One aspect of the game that I thought Roos did stuff up was the SUB selection. Matt Jones is at best a negative run with player. The Sub needs to be able to take the game on and create. The loss of Vandenberg cost us dearly and M Jones unfortunately added nothing.

Apart from the Brain fade on the goal line I thought Fitzy's game was Ok. I guess I must be blind and have missed all the possessions and goals his opponent had. Could all those calling for his head please supply the relevant stats. Oh here they are, NO GOALS, 5 kicks and 4 handballs.

GWS