Return to Glory

Clearly you haven't read any of Enyaw's posts.

If they won't be allowed to play finals I'd almost like to see them win and give North a better chance than Carltank. Twisted, yes

Step 1- go to the liquor cabinet Step 2 - have a real crack at it Step 3 - repeat step 2

Only one team can win a Premiership. Think of it that way. Go Demons!

Jaded, this is not true. You love Melbourne.

Melbourne Football Club: The Home of Football

That's perfect. It may be closer to that which I remember

Melbourne FC - easiest bar access in Victoria

I'm reminded of one of the opening scenes in National Lampoons Vacation where the car salesman says to Clarke, (with 2 clear meanings), "if you think this is bad, wait to you drive it". I think we need, therefore a slogan that does not provide false hope and borrowing heavily, " if you think this year has been unbelievably horrible, wait until you see us next year"

What is clear is that, with a better midfield, this side would improve significantly and quickly. I know that's a bit of Captain Obvious but I don't think we are that far off the mark.

Adelaide scored a lot of goals in junk time. There were positives today. Obviously, Toumpas is starting to show class.

Ta Geddy. PL may be in for a shock.

Just peeked at BomberBlitz for my daily dose of I'd rather be us than them. And so they begin to splinter: Posted Today, 08:27 PM Peachy1976, on 22 Aug 2013 - 7:58 PM, said: People's Front, on 22 Aug 2013 - 6:50 PM, said: Peachy1976, on 22 Aug 2013 - 6:36 PM, said: Seemingly I am going to go against the majority of people on this forum with my take on this. Whatever. The Essendon Football Club means a lot more to me than James Hird. James Hird was a great player. A champion of the club. But even champions suffer from errors of judgment. Like the rest of us they are human. However the club remains bigger than he is. Right at the moment however, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Frankly, at this point I don’t really care that much about James Hird’s reputation. It’s his right to defend himself against a whole complex array of charges in a court of law. And good luck to him. I really hope he succeeds. What I don’t want him to do however is to drag the entire club along with him through every step of the process. It simply isn’t his right for him to do so for the club belongs to a whole lot more people than just James Hird. I'm sorry but you can't have one and not the other The indisputable fact is that James Hird assumed a senior and public role at the club 3 years ago. With that role came responsibility. That responsibility didn’t just involve playing a key role in ensuring players did not get injected with banned substances. It also extended towards playing a key role in ensuring that players did not get put in a position where their status on this matter was called into question. By admission of their own internal reporting, he – as well as a number of others some of whom have already resigned - failed to discharge this secondary responsibility. Whether he intended to do so is beside the point. In my opinion james hird was the coach and not the high performance manager or the supplement manager (whatever danks role was). It is NOT hirds responsibility to ensure they did not get banned substances it was THEIRS. He said time and time again that it must be within the rules and safe. Noting this, it is simply untenable that a senior coach of one of the biggest clubs in the league should be able to coach in the league whilst simultaneously taking the governing body of that league through the courts. Not only does such a scenario make it impossible for the coach to adequately discharge his core duties, more importantly it seriously calls into question the league’s role as a governing body, further jeopardises the reputation of the club and also acts as a massive demotivator for a playing group that has already had to put up with more than their fair share of burden in 2013. On this basis, I believe that the only logical course of action is for the people who pull the strings at the club to exercise some backbone, stand up for the club itself and temporarily stand their senior coach down from duty pending the outcome of this action. Hirds lawyers do most of the work here not him. He was at training and i'm sure he was at team meetings too. It's really interesting to read some of the hate that gets heaped on you here for expressing any view that remotely differs from that good old fashioned cliche about "United We Stand, United We Fall". All good. Personally, I think it's sad that people who supposedly support the club are more than prepared to sit back and watch it's collective reputation get dragged through the dirt for the sake of one individual's reputation. On one hand they say they want this all to be over, while on the other they say we will fight till the end. What a double standard. The whole issue of whether Essendon players took banned substances or not is totally and utterly irrelevant to me. Who knows whether they did. it will probably never be proven either way. The real issue is that they put themselves in a situation where they could be questioned on that point at all. And I'm sorry, that's just not good enough. If you accept that as the standard you aspire to in running any sort of organisation then God help the sort of culture you foster. Ziggy Switkowski pointed that out. Ian Robson agreed and quit because of it. David Evans was embarrassed. Mark Thompson has admitted processes weren't good enough. Paul Little acknowedges it. So who's missing from that list of people? Reply: Since when has Hird claimed he was infallible? Since when has he claimed the program couldn't have been better? Jesus man, you're playing the victim card but your whole opinion seems to be made up of [censored]. He has stated there were problems. He has never denied that he could have done better. Just because cancers like Wilson like to throw out the "golden boy" line doesn't mean he is. FFS.

I find it staggering that Taggert could not get a game in this team. Still, like Fitzpatrick, he needs to make it impossible to be ignored with a bog against Box Hill

Whilst I agree, one has chosen to tackle this challenge and the other is taking his ball and going home

Rupert feels the same way.

Don't be too quick to assume the evidence has been wiped out. Now that really would be the final nail, if indeed another one is even needed.

Ox drew comparisons with the Lance Armstrong saga and he may not be far off the mark. Certainly, the denials have a familiar ring.

Will there be a point where Essendon will need Hird to stand down. As it stands, it has the potential to cripple the club for a decade IMO

Great news. Whilst I am an average judge, he is certainly one I thought had the tools to progress. Apart from anything else, he has presence that we desperately need. For goodness sake, why talk of trading a bloke who is starting to look the goods.

Just had a peek at BomberBlitz for a chuckle. Deny, deny, deny. I think I'll watch Footy Classified tonight and simultaneously read the delusional comments on BomberBlitz. As Maxwell Smart would say," And loving it"

Can't we skip over the so so stuff Bitter?

Faint praise there Deeflog. Let's hope those who give you your retirement speech don't kick off with 'sometimes he was productive, other times he was plain hopeless'

So many wonderful memories of a young man who came in as a mature age player and quickly (as has been said) revolutionized the way small forward played the game. Scintillating on his day and there were quite a few of those. I hear that we are keen to transition him to a role within the club and that, more than so many other things, will go a way to establishing a culture of solidarity and encourage retired players to remain within the fold. Great career Flash. All the best.

Young Lib