Lucifers Hero

But the AFL 'official' word is that no bets were successful...??? They must realise that someone would research his games and match them to his bets. AFL never cease to amaze on how gullible they assume people to be.

Everyone knows Viney has no 'right side'. Opposition exploit it mercilessly. I just don't get why he and the coaches have not after 6 years developed his right side at all. He could be a much better player with a few right sided tricks by hand and or by foot.

Does anyone think he actually self reported? One bet could be a brain fade. Multiple bets on 3 games over a 6 week period? Self-reporting is probably window dressing to 'justify' the discount from 22 weeks to 10.

More info: AFL Statement Quite a rap sheet: The multi-bets included legs on: Collingwood to win, Collingwood winning margin, Stephenson to kick a goal, Stephenson to kick three or more goals, Collingwood teammates to kick a goal, Collingwood teammates to kick two or more goals, and Collingwood teammates to have in excess of a number of disposals. For the grand total of $36 across 3 games! Unbelievable that he bet on himself!! That alone warrants the book thrown at him. Those bets are very open to match-fixing. Yet the 22 week ban was reduced to 10. Eddie has been busy to get Stephenson back for finals as @ArtificialWisdompredicted. Also gets a $20,000 fine. Along with losing match payments $36 will cost him $100,000+. Very silly lad.

10 matches. Will miss first final. Tough lesson for a kid.

Is this based on knowledge or an intuitive view of what should happen? Not asking you to divulge info. I've said many times on here I expect(ed) a review to put someone in place to mentor and hold Goodwin accountable. And I have said that isn't Mahoney as he has endorsed Goodwin's decisions of the last 3-4 years. I have little doubt Goodwin publicly backed Mahoney as CEO to maintain the status quo and his own power base. I will be very concerned if we don't have changes in football structure and assistant coaches. I share your views if intuitive and I certainly hope that any info you have is correct.

Here is a novel way of simulating game conditions at training lyon-disappointed-by-eagles-brayshaw-jibe-to-gaff: Eagles players sledge Gaff for the Brayshaw hit as Gaff lines up for a set shot. Gaff misses each time. Its bound to happen in games when Gaff lines up for goal so wise to condition/desentisise him to the sledging. I'm with others here - to do 'free-style' training without a game environment will help in some ways but has limited value in overcoming the 'mental yips'.

I wrote somewhere that players seem confused on when/how to defend and when/how to attack and mused whether there were mixed messages from coaches eg Macca an old school, 'defensive first' coach and Jennings' all out ballistic style of attack game. One thing the first 12 rounds have shown is that defence and 'slow to play on' is a dominant feature of the top 4-6 sides. 'Fast to play on' and attacking football is a dominant feature of lower sides... With Macca no longer a defensive coach I wonder if we will see an even more attacking game style to try and regain 'the way we play'. Will keenly watch how we play, and keep an eye on the bench to see if Macca is sitting there on Saturday. Edit: Article on mfc webste says Macca will be in an overall mentoring position of the AFL and VFL assistant coaches. So not development as per The Age article. Lends more intrigue into Macca's match day role and involvement with players.

All for young assistants. My issue is their lack of AFL coaching experience. Having 2 with 5 years between them, without particularly successful playing careers put straight into line coaching positions is high risk. Rhetorical question: Do they have the experience to create, evaluate and challenge the coach, the game plan, training etc or are they likely to just do the coach's bidding? I was hoping for fresh faces with some 'battle scars' with maybe 6-10+ years experience and some runs on the board. If it was only Goodwin and/or Mahoney making the changes it is not a review. In my experience it isn't possible to objectively review and critique what one has created (Goodwin) or signed off on (Mahoney). My questions are: Who reviews their work? Who takes a holistic review of what has gone wrong eg game plan? How does our structure/experience compare to successful/dynasty clubs? As I said earlier, underwhelming. If this is 'IT' imv we have made a mistake not having an external person involved in the review. I cling to some small hope that someone is taking the holistic view and that at the end of the year we will have fresh faces with more experience in the line coaching positions.

Or maybe Goodwin is a control freak who wants 'yes men' around him. He wouldn't be the first nor the last control freak AFL coach. I will now don my flak jacket as the heavens will surely descend upon me for the audacity of that comment?

Stratton received 2 one week suspensions to be served sequentially so is out for two weeks. Strong and damning words from AFL QC Jeff Gleeson: Stratton’s pinching was “deliberate, calculated, considered and sly”...[and] he intended to hurt. Appropriate result.

When asked about Carlton on OTC last week Roos said he would work with any sporting or corporate organisation on 'leadership' as that is what his advisory/training business does. He was quite adamant he wouldn't go into a coaching role. I certainly got the impression 'leadership' work wouldn't be a 'staff' or operational role. He didn't add to it on OTC last night. I can't get behind the HS pay wall to read what update John Ralph may have but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a spin on Roos' words last week.

Underwhelming! The only real positional change is Rawlings replaces Rooke as Forward Line Coach and we have two more 'development coaches. Chaplin is now the 'standalone' backline coach. I assume 'standalone' means he no longer shares the role with Macca who I think was the 'Defensive' Coach. Macca appears to now have a Development role as does Rooke, alongside Egan. Is 'development' the 'graveyard' for the coaches we don't know what to do with? Time will tell if this is just musical chairs or a moving aside of people who aren't 'fitting' in, for whatever reason. TBH, I didn't expect to see Chaplin and Plapp survive a review of the coaching department. Both are in their first AFL coaching gigs. All of 5 years AFL coaching experience between them. Goodwin imv needs and deserves better especially as his more experience coaches have been moved aside. Well, I guess he has moved them aside. Must think he doesn't need experience. The Age article says: Several assistants are understood to be out of contract at the end of the season. Perhaps this is when the club will move on Plapp and or Chaplin. Delighted Rawlings is back.

Betting on your captain is far more serious than betting on some other random game. Both break the rules but the first falls into the 'insider knowledge' category and should be dealt with more harshly.

As well as social pressure, simulate game condition during practice: eg Run around the oval, do a few tackles and sprints to be fatigued. Have massive crowd noise blaring thru loud speakers. Put half a dozen players on the mark. A few more players in the goal square (especially for Max who can't get it thru within 30m). Pretend it is after the final siren to win the game.

No to trading Gus. We will need him when Jones retires. Anyway, Gus plus Pick #2 to #4 for Whitfield is a terrible trade. It effectively makes Gus not much more than 'steak knives'. Whitfield is an FA next year who can walk to us for nothing in 2020. We just paid pick #6 for May when at the end of this year he could have walked to us for nothing. We thought we were contending for a premiership and couldn't wait the year. We should stop paying high for pre-FA's, keep our top picks and wait the year. So again, No to trading Gus. And No to trading for a player who is an FA next year. Look elsewhere.

Gil Apologises “I’m sorry they are feeling intimidated," he said. "If people are feeling threatened we obviously will listen ... I’m appalled." “It hurts me to hear our administration is not looking after the fans.’’ Love it how Gil deflects this on to the administration! Of course he is squeaky clean on this! It hurts him? Is that the sympathy card he is playing? Please. Gils 'hurt'=crocodile tears.

Goodwin has been saying similar: the goals will come. Macca seems to be saying set shot kicking accuracy will come when players stop thinking about it. Rather than wait till things sort themselves out I wonder what are we doing to make them happen? I'm keeping the faith but those comments do not fill me with confidence. The yips for goal has little to do with our fitness or injury problems. We've had all year to solve the goal kicking yips be they physical, technique or head related. I see little progress after 12 games. At the end of the day actions speak louder than words.

Excellent report! Yes this was interesting: they are spooked on setshots but no we have done all that technique stuff, it will only turn around when they stop thinking about it. By which I think he means to stop thinking about the mechanics of it all because that is self defeating. I'm with DeeSpencer. Not thinking about it comes from confidence and confidence comes from something being second nature and instinctive. The only way to do that is practice. This is true in any sport. Did Macca say how he intends to get the players to 'stop thinking about it'? As an aside, does anyone know if we have sports psychologists on staff. I know it sounds a bit corny but mindfulness and visualisation are very good techniques to still the mind and follow a set routine. Richmond and Dusty in particular had great success with it. I recall Tammy Roos did a bit of this with the team and players found it beneficial. I doubt we now have anyone on the coaching panel that goes in for the 'soft stuff'. Edit: Just checked club website - no sports psychologists listed.

Draw to round 23: Freo, Lions, Blues, Bulldogs, Eagles, Saints, Tigers, Pies, Swans, Roos. (Bold=In top 8). Ironically, this was supposed to be the 'easy' part of our draw with Freo, Lions, Blues, Bulldogs, Saints the bottom 5 on the ladder last year... We may improve tremendously with injured players back but so will other clubs. And each team has ladder position/coaching reasons to win/thrash opponents. Even the Blues will be desperate to win - they want to get as close as possible to the Crows to max the value of their 1st draft pick swaps. How many definite wins can folks count? Can't see us beating any of the top 8 teams. Swans are back to their best. Saints will have some of their best players back from injury as will we. Roos are playing ferocious football and the game is at Bludstone.. Obviously, we will win some games but I can't find a single definite win. Best chances are Blues, Bulldogs, Saints. Very outside chance of beating Lions and Roos. We might beat one of the better teams in an upset. So no chance of making the 8. I don't think we need to worry about putting the cue in the rack - it will be done for us. We will be lucky to end up better than 7W, 15L and most likely in the bottom 3.?

The quotes I made are from the Fox website article which I linked. I didn't hear the interview nor aware of other transcripts. So I haven't been selective if that is what you are implying. I would have thought my closing sentence made it clear that I'm not happy with Kennett's comments.

Kennett has poured petrol on the fire: jeff-kennett-says-new-arrivals-cant-police-afl-crowds “I’m not being racist when I say this, but when I saw some of the footage, the people who are making judgments while they wear these authoritative coats are not people who appear to have a great knowledge of our game,” “I don’t accept that the Marvel Stadium did it on their own. It is an asset owned by the AFL.” “All I’m saying is the sporting arena is where people relax, where they support their tribe and what is happening now is unacceptable.” Sometimes, Kennett should let things be rather than inflame what is already a very emotion filled topic.

By standing by and laughing when Stratton harassed Charlie Cameron, the umpires gave him the ok to pinch. The MRO furthered that license by not acting on that incident. Knowing he is a serial offender, Channel 7 must have had a camera following Stratton (a good thing) and his dirty work was there for all to see. As was his smugness thinking he was getting away with it. Apparently, his pinching of a player's side and abdomen are worse than Fantasia's arm. But umpires/MRO should have stopped it a few weeks ago. Hope he gets suspended.

Gil said this week AFL policy is unchanged but fans will decide what is acceptable ie if someone complains about bad behaviour, security will react. From that video and other emerging stories that is clearly not so eg. Channel 7 and AFL Media reporter and broadcaster Nat Edwards: "I was on level 3 and it was very awkward. Security was staring down anyone who became animated and several fans were warned for just barracking. It was like we were being spied on". Barracking, or not, at the Footy. As usual AFL speak with 'forked tongue: Unchanged policy doesn't mean unchanged enforcement and control in the implementation of said policy. Crickey, they would have to evict everyone at 'Boo' Stadium when WCE play! Or is this just a Victorian crackdown! The AFL will be, if it already isn't, a laughing stock!

Freo were merciless today. Reminded me of how we played the finals. Can't see us winning next week. But I hope we bring some of the ferocity of our finals series. If we don't Freo will smash us and not just on the scoreboard. ?