Macca

Yep, good point Pates. Remember thinking the same thing when she wrote those original articles. She 'set it up' with a lot of embellishment of the known facts. Added in a few 'red herrings' . In doing so she probably convinced a reasonable percentage of the general public to believe it all. She kept feeding the story until many were convinced that it's all absolutely true. She preyed on peoples gullibility and perceptions of our team in general. Closer to the date of the outcome, she goes hard again. It now allows her to have a 'big story' regardless of the outcome. The key for her is that she has to have an ongoing story that 'sells newspapers' after the decision is handed down. It's all about the story. Depending on how this all ends up she could go on referencing this whole saga for years. There has never been a semblance of balance in all her articles on this affair. The presumption of innocence is not there. We are guilty until proven innocent. Just look at her latest piece. If you weren't a Demon fan you might be highly likely to read over the article quite quickly. Maybe not bothering to differentiate between a 'Quote' and an opinion. You could be easily fooled into thinking that it's all factual. And of course, she being a veteran writer, knows how it all 'works'. If many of us weren't cynical of the media before, we certainly are now. Let's not forget that she had CS out the door. Now, by her own words, she can't even confirm that CS will be charged at all. Edit : Added last paragraph

Yep, it does seem quite odd that the whole investigation was launched on the back of what McLean said and then later on we learn that he backtracked and didn't provide any 'evidence.' The media should have been all over it but have conveniently let it slide. Her words ...

Nearly all this information was around at the time but neither Caro nor any of the rest of the media saw fit to say anything of any substance at the time. What's the new stuff? 1 - The vault - irrelevant 2 - The Zulus joke - Seriously ??? 3 - McLean - in her words - "Provided no evidence" (yet she also claims McLean 'knew it') 4 - 'Fumbling' and not enough game time for Jack - Total rubbish That's it Perhaps we can detect a little bit of sour grapes in this comment ...

Angelo is a reasonably good player but Watto seems to cop a bit amongst a number of Aussie fans. I don't share that thinking and when he is fit, he adds a lot to our team. (he just needs to stay fit !!!) Considering the dearth of decent all rounders in world cricket I was surprised he got through to pick 44. Watson averages 37 with the bat and 30 with the ball. He's very good in the slips and is the Australian Vice-Captain. I was thinking that 'Rogue' might have grabbed him as well as Kallis. (that might have left the rest of us with only 4 genuine front line bowlers each) Watto will be back at the bowling crease sooner or later though I agree that he should concentrate on his batting only (for the time being) I'll take Watto over Angelo any day of the week, 'TD' !

Zaheer Khan (India)

Yeah, been thinking about why he put some of the coaches in. Of course he was sacked by the club and it might be his way of getting back at them. He must have known that the media will now be all over it. Clubs have a lot of support coaches so any of them could be implicated. Of course, these coaches may not have done anything wrong. However, it's not a good look and a lot of assumptions could now be made. Thank goodness we knocked him back.

Yes. Someone posted something today that intimated that AA had us in his sights in order to 'get a result'. More than a few of us reckon his hasty departure is connected to having too much of a dogmatic approach to this whole affair. Good point. Maybe a few of you blokes and ladies can do the honours ... it can't hurt ... my email service has been a bit unreliable of late due to their updated system. Here is the clubs email address ... [email protected] and the link ... Melbourne Demons adamant they won't tank

Yep, that's the whole problem with the retrospective nature of the investigation. What did they miss? What did they 'conveniently' ignore? It could never have been as thorough as possible because of the time lapse. Did Haddad and Clothier 'stumble' upon this article like I did? Maybe they did and chose to ignore it ... Schwab sounded rather buoyant didn't he? For all we know, they may have found lots of stuff along the way that might have helped us, but because of their 'attitude', that stuff may have been conveniently ignored.

Here is an interesting article from July 14, 2009. Written by Robbo ... Melbourne Demons adamant they won't tank

Hogan won't be doing anything different to what he'd do in simulated match practice at our training sessions. The more opportunity he gets to play against good opposition, the better. He'll learn a fair bit. He's a big bloke already and he will probably relish the chance. Heard a good saying about these type of games ... "Pre-season games don't count ... but they do matter." This will all be good for his long term development.

That nose scratch was almost too obvious. No blinking either - what does that mean? He said that some of the coaches were using peptides (or suchlike) that were on WADA's banned list and it sounded like they knew about it (?). Not a good look to say the least. This could take quite some time before it's done with. Better them than us. I wouldn't trust one word he said. The interviewer's name sounded like the name of a character that Marg Downey would have used on 'Fast Forward' ...

The Luke Molan pick can't be a bad pick (in theory) because injuries intervened before he had a chance to establish himself. Luke might have only been rated as a pick in the 20's but what if he had gone at say pick no.26 and didn't have those awful injuries? He might have had a reasonably good career if injuries hadn't of intervened. We might all be quite happy with that outcome. We will never know. Adam Goodes went at pick 43. Simon Black at 31. Paul Chapman at 31. There are many examples like this. I've read the threads about Lucas Cook on this site and 'At the time' most people were reasonably happy with our choice. Much the same with Gysberts. Whitfield could do an ACL in his first game for GWS and then re-do it on his return and never have much impact at AFL level. If that happened would he end up being a poor choice? Incompetence can't always be used as a reason if there is a huge luck factor (re the Draft). It's a bit like the Lotto numbers. We all get it wrong but not because we're incompetent. (hope that comment doesn't attract the probability types ) I'm not sticking up for Cameron nor condemning him. The Luke Molan example is a poor one for a few reasons. Not the least reason being that the Draft is a glorified lucky dip and always will be (unless they raise the draft age quite substantially) In most cases, we have to wait until a player is in the system for at least 3-5 years before we can properly evaluate that player. If injuries stop a player from playing at all then how can a proper evaluation be made of that player or his Draft choice? The truth is it's impossible to make a proper evaluation in Luke's case. At the moment most of us are very happy with Hogan, Toumpas and Viney. I hope we are all ecstatically happy with these 3 choices down the track.

City lose more ground on United. Losing at Southampton 3-1 ... current table before tonight's games ... Mancini slams City performance ...

Those bowlers who can bowl over 150km always seem to have injury issues. Lee missed a fair whack of Test cricket over his career. Cummins is back playing grade cricket as a batsman I believe, so there are some positive signs. Lillee and Thomson had their fair share of injury issues. DK was very quick early in his career. I've known a number of blokes who have gone over for the Ashes before. There is always a lot going on sporting wise in the UK around late June, all of July and most of August. There's a group from my cricket club who are doing the cricket, Open golf, Wimbledon, Grand Prix and Le Tour. They are on the move every day for 5 or 6 weeks. Looking forward to your 'Ashes Reports' in early August! Our man in Manchester ! Bresnan is a good player but the bloke who has dropped off the radar is Tremlett. He's got a crook knee apparently and hasn't played for quite a while. Dangerous customer when firing. Finn has come on quite well though. In their conditions they'd have to be favoured right now, but you never know. I don't mind the rotation policy if they get it right. The chances are they're going to do it anyway so we have to accept it in a lot of ways. Also, Test series are played over a shorter time frame on a consistent basis, couple this with the demands of the other forms of the game means the fast bowlers need rest. A rotation policy can give any given quick bowler an added incentive and he doesn't have to 'save himself'. Competition for spots is a healthy thing and having an arsenal of quicks is not a bad option. For instance, they may decide to play all the 5 fast bowlers for 2 tests each in India. 3 in one Test and the other 2 in the next Test and so forth (2 spinners may play in at least 2 of the Tests) But the best of the quicks should play whenever possible. Winning is always the priority - we left ourselves short of quality fast bowlers for the vital 3rd test against South Africa in Perth this season. The preceding test in Adelaide is where Siddle and Pattinson could have been rested. If they are going to rest/rotate they have to bite the bullet.

Yep, Starc is another with X factor. Huge upside for this bloke. When he gets it right he's a real handful. They may take 6 quicks to England given that we're sending an extended squad of 17 players to India and the rotation policy has been enacted. There is usually a surprise or 2. Hilfenhaus, Cutting, Hazlewood, Coulter-Nile and McDermott would be in the mix as well. If Cummins was fit and firing we'd be a real show. Hopefully he'll be ready next summer (for the return bout) A bowling line up of Cummins, Pattinson, Starc and Lyon with backup from Watson and Maxwell would be a dangerous combination. That's a 'future's' line up. Siddle at the moment is one of the first picked. Just on the rotation policy - they've got to make sure they get their timing right. For instance, in a 5 Test series you would want close to your best combination for 3 of the Tests. (that's assuming the rotation policy stays) And they need to be flexible. They shouldn't just rest bowlers just because a of set plan. Starc was rested after the Hobart Test this season when he hadn't done a lot of work in that game. And they mucked up with Siddle - he should have been fresh for Perth. They need to put some real thought into it - identify pitch conditions, result wickets, vital rubbers etc etc.

One to keep an eye out for ... 'The Americans.' ... heard some good reports about this brand new drama from the States.

Much will depend on Pattinson, Starc, Bird, Johnson, Siddle and Lyon. It's a shame that Cummins will probably not be available. Think we can make enough runs to be competitive although we'll need a few of our batsmen to step it up on the tour of India. In England, Maxwell could be the batting all rounder unless the selectors want to play a 4th seamer. Hopefully Watson will have returned to the bowling crease by then and we'll have even greater bowling depth. Lots of if's and but's although England have their issues as well. They are not as good as when they 'peaked' in the series in Australia a couple of years ago. Gonna be tough though and first of all, we need to perform in India. It's arguably going to be tougher to win in India with the spinning decks that will probably be presented over there. Clarke is a very good leader and in career best form with the bat so we've got no problems there. I'm hopeful without being overly confident. (kinda like the way I feel about our footy club )

Yeah, it's almost a carbon copy of how we've reacted to the tanking claims except ....... I'm not sure some of their supporters realise how serious this whole thing is. There seems to be bit of a lack of understanding about the anti doping agencies and the ACC. If illegal substances were administered they are in a world of trouble. Whether the players or officials knew about it or not. There is a bit of wriggle room with the anti drug agencies but not much. Sentences have been reduced previously but only under extraordinary circumstances. It's not that easy to do a deal. If PED's are proven to be injected then their first 9 games last season comes under question. The clubs that they defeated (amongst them North, Carlton, Richmond and West Coast) may have been at an unfair advantage. Ladder positions could have been affected as well. Obviously not much can be done to change what has happened but it can illustrate as to what penalties could be handed out going forward.

The 7.30 Report tomorrow night will be interesting viewing to say the least. There may have been some interesting calls fielded in the last few days. It's been previously stated that that no illegal substances or PED's were injected into the players. It's also been previously stated that these 'supplements' were supplied from a well known 'source'. The trouble could be that the ACC might have some incriminating evidence. I suspect there will be a denial of any sort of wrong doing but it won't be the end of things. This whole new inquiry could go on for months and months before all those involved are satisfied.

On SEN now

People who want to 'hang' Connolly are in my eyes looking for an easy way out. You stand by your people. The club won't hang Connolly out to dry so it's a fruitless argument anyway. The next part of the saga is about to be played out and this is where the club needs to be at it's strongest. What the hell has Connolly done wrong? You can't hang the bloke because of a flippant comment involving 'Zulus'. This comment is somehow bringing the game into disrepute and relates to draft tampering? What a load of absolute rot. This whole investigation is a complete joke and has been right from the start. A complete waste of time and money. The breaking issue about drugs makes the investigation into our club look quite silly. Most people are heartily sick of this whole tanking saga and the AFL have dug a big hole for themselves. The bloke who kicked off the whole investigation is now gone (under unusual circumstances) How bad does that look? If we had a half decent media in this town they would have ridiculed the whole thing from the start. Wilson and her mates are there to sell newspapers - nothing else. Morals and ethics in the journalistic trade have been thrown out the window - long ago. This thing all started from a few ill chosen words from a 'questionable source' who may in fact be in a little bit of trouble with the law. You can bet 'London to a brick' that the media won't touch the credibility of the star witness. Forget T$, this bloke deserves our total wrath. I wonder if he gives some thought to the fans who used to cheer him on? Nup, he doesn't seem the type to have a conscience. Scapegoating can always come at a price. You have to look down the track if you take that path. If you want to attract good administrators to the club in the future then the big picture should always be taken into account. You can live and die by poor decisions. Offering up Connolly would create a whole raft of new issues. Especially if the only thing he's deemed to have done is make a joke about 'Zulus'. But in some ways this whole saga creates an opportunity. It should have the effect of galvanising our club and the supporters (it already has started to do that in my eyes) It also allows the club to stand up for itself. And the coaching staff should be using this as a chance to steel the playing group.

How 'bout this ...

Top stuff hardtack ... keep 'em comin' Ozzy released an album a year or 2 ago called 'Scream'. Worth a listen. He just keeps going ... Here's a classic Black Sabbath song from 43 years ago ... A 'young' Ozzy ... Macca 12.4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz_6jagv_D4

The Doors ... Macca 12.3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XWQrt00_NM

If the Authorities are 'told' that the injections contained illegal substances that might be enough. The anti doping agencies can be utterly ruthless. In many ways it's out of the AFL's hands. Think I'm right in saying that Warnie couldn't play any sort of organised cricket in the year he was banned. All for a slimming tablet (apparently) Not sure that CA would have given him a year off if it was purely their decision. The thing about the anti doping agencies is that they are nothing but consistent. And they will pursue until they get a result. As I've stated earlier, I'm hoping that Essendon are cleared. Part of me wants them to go through a fair bit of pain (and they probably will anyway) but that's purely based on my hatred of them and the fact that we've endured a fair bit in the last 7 months. Overriding all this is that our sport doesn't need Essendon to be guilty. The repercussions are enormous. The cynic in me reckons the media would love the Bombers to be guilty. But of course they do what they do based on the almighty dollar.