rjay

Nothing 'bb', just an educated guess based on previous form but Caro seems to be pretty hot on Thompson.

Interesting...I would have thought him the least likely. My bet would be...someone a bit sneakier.

No EFC didn't leak the audio, they have nothing to gain from it now...it was one of the 4 involved. Have a guess but I know who my money wouldn't be on and that leaves 2.

Here we go again...good old Robbo's mob at the Sun. Wow, I wonder were this came from???? The Herald Sun are reporting "Bombshell Rocks the AFL" secret tape emerges. Some people should give up and let the club get back on it's feet, couldn't care less about EFC myself but ones that profess to have a funny way of showing it...

Of course they have the power to do it. Don't underestimate what they can do when they have a mind to. Forget due process and such terms, the AFL march to the beat of their own drum. They can make things very uncomfortable for clubs that don't follow the company line. This is one area they chose to put in the too hard basket. Also, the AFLPA and player manager roles don't sit comfortably. It's hard to believe they knew nothing of what was going on at EFC.

I think the AFL were at fault for not putting a stop to the EFC program when they first found out about it. All they did was suggest it should be stopped but didn't follow up. They seemed to bury their heads in the sand and go all Sgt Schultz, I'm not excusing what happened thereafter and think EFC got off lightly, all considered but the AFL, AFLPA & player manager negligence has never been fully explored and if EFC got of lightly I would suggest these guys all but got away "scot free".

Agree with your post 'Vogan', and this part in particular rings true from what I've been told by people outside the club who know him very well.

He (Cripps) certainly doesn't have the explosiveness of Judd or Ablett and despite height differences his game is more the Williams type than the other 2, I guess that's the point. Always a problem with comparing players but particularly of different generations.

Cripps is a terrific young player but I wouldn't make a comparison with Judd or Ablett who were both explosive players. Agree with 'dazzle' that he is more a Williams type.

The kid could play but he wasn't overly confident...apparently Neeld's approach took whatever he had. Not saying he would have made it with better development, we will never really know that, but he was shot by the time he got to North.

Neeld...

Have a closer look this year 'steve', I know you like to look at the finer points of the game.

Tyson is able to extract the ball when it's locked in tight, he has more strength than the others to do this. Viney is a bull at a gate as is Jones but they are both smaller mids and when it gets really congested they can't clear it like Tyson can. He mightn't look it but he's the strong man in the engine room, I've seen him wrestling for possession with Mumford and break even. I think he is our version of Joey Kennedy in that regard.

We don't have one the same as Tyson though 'steve'... He brings what Jones & Viney don't and is a very important part of the mix.

He's the key to our winning contested ball...and missed badly when he's not there. Viney and Jones in particular rely a lot on Dom's strength around the ball to get things moving.

Have met Sheeds a number of times too 'Ron' and he is good for a chat and good for the game...a likeable larrikin. ...but I don't think he would know much about the relative merits of either player given as I posted recently he was going to sign an autograph for Phil Davis not knowing who he was, the co captain. Also McCartney was quoted recently as saying Tyson will be an absolute gun... Hey, we could end up with the 3 of them. Kelly certainly fills a gap in our list.

Kelly would be a better fit...

Salem, Hunt....put the band back together with Kelly. Why not?

It's only a matter of time... One man running clean & winning against the rest...call me cynical but I've heard this story before.

I agree with you 'willmoy'...I love that he's back fit & well but surely he doesn't need the weight of the captaincy at this time of his life. It's going to be enough to survive the battle for a start and to play is a bonus. The captaincy, whilst it carries an emotional edge for him and his teammates may be asking a bit too much.

Great to hear Roughie is up and running, good choice of Captain by the Hawks....a real good news story and boy does the AFL need one. Who are the others you are talking about?????

Agree, it seems he has been very poorly advised... ...then again it could be that he would only listen to what he wanted to hear and wouldn't pay any regard to anyone with a differing view. Maybe he surrounded himself with sycophants.

One of Hird's many mistakes...

Scapegoat is probably the wrong word, and don't get me wrong he should have been held accountable. ...but in this case the AFL were aware of the problem very early on and should have stopped it. To cover their own ineptness they wanted to make Hird the fall guy then move on. Unfortunately for all parties including himself he wouldn't take the fall. As you say the AFL is like other sporting bodies and can't be trusted to run a clean sport. I'm as sure as I can be that flags have been won by drug cheats... As for the Hitler analogy, nice story but not quite so sure it applies here.

He did wrong no doubt about it. He was the man in charge who either implemented the program or was ignorant of it, he had to fall on his sword. He wouldn't accept being the scapegoat although I have no doubt the AFL where setting him up to be it. They had a couple of things on their agenda here. One too them being there own culpability in the whole affair. They knew it was going on and did nothing to stop it apart from a quiet word. If Hird had have gone along with it the whole saga would have ended years ago and he would probably still be coaching EFC. So yes he was at fault as was the AFL, they wanted him to lie down and he wouldn't. I also think the AFLPA have gotten away lightly here.