Lucifers Hero

Of all the people Ess could have chosen as the 'hero' for the night they chose Hird. Tim Watson, Wanganeen and Bomber have had more success. And Bombers' misdemeanours were in his personnel life not the club. Hird brought the club to its knees and now he is their 'hero' A big Ess effort afoot to PR Hird back into favour. As if that will heal all that is sick at that club. They need a complete clean out of players, staff and board members who were there for the drug saga, just as we did (with a few exceptions) to purge the memory of '186' and what followed. Instead they revert back to their painful history. That they chose Hird shows how misguided they still are. Long may they wallow in the purgatory of their own making.

And on it goes... "AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said on Friday the league had intervened on Thursday because of new information. “I think they [the integrity unit] are always looking at stuff and when more information comes to hand, then I think there’s always an open book and that’s what’s happened here, that there more information has come to hand than earlier in the week and that’s why they’re having a look at it,” McLachlan said on 3AW. McLachlan did not rule out the possibility that May and Melksham could face more sanctions." Asked if the AFL had CCTV footage of the incident, McLachlan replied: “The integrity unit will be working through that process and so whatever information is available, and there’ll, obviously, be interviews, and if there’s other information, they’ll be working through it.” broken-some-trusts-goodwin-says-may-melksham-fight-was-embarrassing New information doesn't mean players or the club withheld it but I sure hope they didn't. New info could come from anywhere or anyone.

Not sure they care. iirc Gil's salary/bonuses are primarily based on Revenue. Broadcasting and related sponsor revenue dwarf that of attendance. Its a simplistic KPI. I'm sure there are others but not sure game attendance is one or if it is, is a significant KPI.

@dingwill have a few words about this!!

"Turner, who grew up in Albury, made the move to Melbourne last year, and now lives with Angus Brayshaw’s parents, alongside teammates Judd McVee and Taj Woewodin". I guess that means Jackson has been allowed to leave the nest. The Brayshaws' are wonderful a demon family (shame we can't get Andrew to join). They have helped set so many young demon lads on their AFL path. Mr and Mrs Brayshaw deserve a medal.

Any questions about the QB game or talk of MND? Very disappointing if not as that is what the pc was for.

The so called 'drip feed' isn't coming from the club. Any info after Max's media conf is from ambulance chasing commentators digging into what happened and nearly everyone comes up with a slightly different version which leads to frenzied headlines about 'twists' and 'new information'. If the players or the club have deliberately withheld critical information the AFL will find out and we take what comes our way. But, I don't think naming the players at the dinner, who said what to who, who stood up to May, where the players were before or after dinner etc as critical information nor is it relevant. Digging for that sort of stuff is just mud raking and the guesswork they make around that is what is being 'drip fed'. Btw, according to Sam McClure the dinner was in a private dining room.

When your train stop is the second last station to the end of the line it isn't very comfortable being in a near empty carriage at 11 pm on your own or worse when the others in the carriage are some unsavoury looking characters. Sometimes it is downright scary. My football going friends live on other train lines so not many options for safe travel home. Before anyone suggests driving to a station closer to Richmond note there aren't many station car parks that anyone would want to be alone in late at night. People could be a bit more thoughtful as to why some of us don't get to every night game. I have been to three night games so far and will go to more but it isn't easy.

Tomorrow night Ess are celebrating their 150th anniversary. I think the May saga has pinched all their media space and air time!

Did he say why? And did he say what sort of intervention the AFL should make?

"AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan has indicated Tasmania's bid for a 19th licence is contingent on the island state building a new stadium. McLachlan confirmed the League would only consider issuing a new licence, rather than relocating an existing club to Tasmania. The state government in March announced plans to develop a multi-purpose stadium at Hobart's waterfront, costing an estimated $750 million. new-stadium-needed-for-tasmania-licence If the licence is contingent on a new stadium they won't see a team in Tassie for a long time, if ever. On OTC recently Nick Riewoldt was asked about the stadium funding and he said something like: "..well it will happen. The AFL, Federal and State governments will have to put in. AFL will need to make it happen like they do other initiatives". In other words there isn't a plan for where the $750m will come from. Can't see the AFL putting in too much of its coin for an "all purpose stadium" when it might be used once a fortnight for AFL games. Update on the costings: "The bid team has admitted that original costings of a proposed new stadium on the Hobart waterfront were loose... the ABC revealed last week that figure was a “ballpark” figure provided by a consultant, rather than a firm cost". stadium-ultimatum-on-tasmanian-afl-team From what I can tell the $150 promised by the Tas Gov't is for a training facility and contribution to running expenses over 10 years.

McStay is Staying

I was waiting for someone to spot that - should have guessed it would be your good self!!

I bought one of these. Great cause. Very happy with the T. Credit to the Demon shop - it arrived within 3 days of order. Sadly, I can't wear it to the MND game as I'm attending a luncheon for my Collingwood supporting sister's birthday but I look forward to proudly wearing it there and keep fingers crossed we win.❤️💙

In many cases you are right. This has gone so far to the distortion of circumstances to create headlines that refusal to answer would trigger a new round of 'what are dees hiding' It would be a hiding to nowhere.

Whately barracks for Geelong. He would have bitter memories of nd 23 and PF in 2021. He would be very happy to see us drop from top 2 or even from top 4. And if we lose to Collingwood the whole sh-t storm continues until we win again which could be weeks away. And I just can't wait (Not) until the media start talking about our 'privileged', silver tail club whose players go to posh french restaurants. That should set off a feeding frenzy to his talk back audience for a few days.

The club has liaised with the AFL. They have agreed to mfc actions and penalties imposed. Last night he tried to compare it to the Shane Bolton nightclub incident where the AFL stepped in and imposed a $20k fine. The AFL stepped in because Richmond didn't tell the whole story, said 'nothing to see' and took no action. The Bolton story is worse than May as he belted a member of the public and Richmond failed to act. Not sure that Bolton ever apologised. Whately knows all that but it suits his agenda to not tell the complete Bolton story. It will be a very bad precedent if the AFL, having been involved, steps in at this stage as it will be in response to the bloodlust of the media. I don't often give the AFL credit but I very much doubt they will want to be seen to be led by media pressure.

Not sure what Goodwin can add. Unless more stuff comes out before his scheduled pre-game press conf I hope he just plays questions with a straight bat and subtly steer the press snake pit to Daniher and MND. Hopefully, footy tonight takes over as the main topic. It is really sad that the May saga has completely overshadowed Daniher and MND. Hopefully, the club gets that back in the limelight where it deserves to be.

The Freo loss I put down to having 3-4 key players missing and May, Petty and Petracca going 'missing' during the game. And in the second half they won in the middle because Petracca wasn't there and they tagged Oliver. Then kicked to our shortened backline and game over. We ended up with a lot of ins that weren't as used to playing our system with each other and quite a few played out of position. So imv it is an outlier. True, Sydney isn't the first team to do the things I mentioned. But they did a heap of other stuff that others haven't and made it a complete 'package' and unfortunately for us they all worked. I doubt it will go there way again. We learn each week and adjust.

Sydney closed the exits from d50. If that failed they corralled our players against the boundary b/w d50 and the middle. Then we reverted to 'hot potato' handballing in circles until it was turned over straight back into their f50.. Our handball chain didn't get going. Our players played as if the hand ball chain would just happen. There were several times a defender handballed to a player and stepped forward ahead of the ball to receive, instead of laying a shepherd. The receiving player was tackled, ball spills free. Turnover. The defender was to far forward of the ball to defend the turnover. I get the theory being discussed in prior posts about defence and offence etc but lets also look at what happens in actual games.

All this chat about OUR offence, defence and contest sounds like we play in a vacuum. Nowhere near enough credit is being given to the impact of opposition game and tactics. Sydney's tactics were brilliant. imv those tactics rather than fatigue, loading, injury, missing personnel etc. were why we lost. Their tactics may have contributed to fatigue or skill errors but they outworked us and outsmarted us. Goodwin didn't identify Longmire as one of the hardest coaches to coach again for no reason.

A summary would be appreciated. A choice for whom?

Well, that isn't very exciting🙄. I thought you had a new name to give us.

Clues please 🙃

Thanks Andy. Excellent leadership by Max. I wish the AFL would put mics in the audience for press conf so we can hear the questions. So frustrating to try and guess from Max's answers.