Lucifers Hero

I can't get behind the paywall so am responding just to your comment. Does the article say anything about CAS rules on player payments? Or have they found some backdoor way around the CAS rules? As I understand those rules players cannot be paid by an entity connected to the AFL, while suspended. Hence why the AFLPA was trying to get compensation claims against EFC and AFL settled out of court - players would get money sooner rather than later. Those 3 organisations have gone very quiet of late...not sure what they are hatching. I don't trust any of them! Maybe CAS suspension and appeal rules are so watertight that players will have to take their medicine

I can't help but think the personal issues with McCarthy run deeper than 'homesick'. What budding elite player would sit out a year of football and do a dummy spit just to prove a point? What club would so readily give that player extended time out to move back to the other side of the country if the issues weren't serious? If he wasn't training well or unmotivated play him in the reserves instead. Maybe GWS underestimated his issues 3 months ago. Maybe there are things happening in WA that are very distressing for him. He may drop out of footy all together. I have no idea but this seems a very unusual situation. GWS deserve credit for now reccognising there is a real issue and looking after his overall health and wellbeing. I just don't see this as a Mccarthy ploy. I very much give him the benefit of the doubt, wish him well and hope he returns to football sooner rather than later.

Well said Dees2014.

But his son (from S&G), who is representing the bulldog players, is so to my mind there is still a conflict of interest between the Gordon family and the WB players. Others may have a different view.

An item on today's financial pages: Slater & Gordon shares plunge on concerns the firm missed deadline to update on cashflows. Shares have gone from $6 a year ago to 60c today. One ambulance chaser going after another: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/maurice-blackburn-launches-class-action-against-rival-law-firm-slater-and-gordon/news-story/6437bb1acd95f43c558ebfecd29843b3 One would be forgiven for thinking this may be driving Peter Gordon's eagerness to appeal for his two players. Under the circumstances the Gordon family and their legal firm should step way from the AFL case immediately and declare their conflict of interest. If they don't the AFL should step in as it seems extremely unfair to Crameri and Prismall: Peter Gordon is also their club President. Edit: I hope the directors of Slater and Gordon up to date with 'trading while insolvent' laws in this country.

EFC are rapidly becoming a protected species - Just reported that the fine from the Worksafe case is a paltry $200,000. It is wrong that the club is to get away very lightly from the whole saga: They will get their draft picks back by finishing at the bottom of the ladder. They will get the $2m fine back as the AFL will chip in coin to settle with the players. Their insurance and coterie will cover legal and other costs. Increased memberships have replenished the coffers. Overall, EFC get barely a scratch on the duco, blink and carry on whereas players are smashed, tarnished for life! The penalty imbalance is so wrong.

I had a look at his background and the legal firm he works for says on its website that it specialises in 'personal injury' cases. Maybe it is a preemptive application for a gig with any of the 34 players who are disenchanted with their current legal reps!!

nice circuit breaker there dc Feb 10 is the cutoff date. Edit: As WJ mentioned in his post: The Court will in the first instance hear whether the party lodging the appeal has valid grounds based on jurisdiction. So an appeal may not get off the ground if it fails at this stage which WJ suggests it will fail here.

Thanks WJ. Can they succeed in getting an injunction that will allow players to play while grounds for an appeal/appliction are being established?

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-34-banned-bombers-swiss-appeal-may-taint-afl-season-20160126-gme99r.html Well, a fine old mess this will be! The real reason behind an injunction and an appeal is now clear! Peter Jess: "The full hearing, if papers are lodged, could be two or three years away. It's not a bad idea, especially for the older blokes who may only have a couple of years left and could return to their clubs soon." Yep, lets appeal! By the time it is heard there will hardly be any players left playing for AFL clubs. But Jess ignores all the other players with football related careers who will lose their livelihood if the appeal fail. An issue: What if EFC win a premiership and in a few years the appeal fails? Jess: no problem, only the players lose the medal, EFC are still premiers. I thought he was a player manager! Don't know much about Jess but he isn't sounding to smart of late. From the article: The AFL Players Association is also considering an appeal, even through the NSW Supreme Court – as the CAS hearing was held in NSW – on behalf of the other 32 players. The article says: Both appeals would likely be funded fully or in part by the players' association. This really means the AFL as the AFLPA is funded by the AFL!! I thought EFC were funding players' legal action! Yes, it is very easy to appeal when using other people's money!! The players have a right to appeal but not to have it funded by the AFL. It will be a disgrace if the AFL uses money intended for the development of the game or other clubs for any of the 34 players. The AFL's silence atmo is deafening!

Charges were brought only against players who both: signed a consent form to receive Thymosin; and admitted receiving injections from Mr Dank. There were 34 players that met those conditions. So a player now says he stopped injections before TB4 was introduced. So one of 2 things happened: - He didn't say it in his ASADA interview so that evidence didn't go before CAS. I would say that is his bad luck. Too late now. - CAS rejected that evidence (eg CAS found plenty of evidence of player cover up so they didn't give much credence to what they said, or CAS found his injection dates did match up with TB4 dates). He gave consent to receive Thymosin, he had injections. And if no-one knew what was being injected how could the player be so sure he didn't get TB4. A very flimsy basis for an appeal, I reckon. The press will find lots of player anomalies in the coming weeks but I wouldn't put much cred on what they now say. They had their chance to tell their stories, the whole truth. That they didn't take that opportunity is unfortunate but that is how the law works, and should work.

I doubt it 'Oracle'. I reckon some, maybe a lot of players will take their medicine. Just get it over and done with. The Argentinian appeal case Gordon refers seems significantly different to this one. The odds of winning an appeal seem minute. I would hope Melksham sits it out even if there is an injunction. Then he will have 3 years clear run to fulfill his contract and repay the faith. I was wondering if mfc foresaw he might get suspended (for some months if not all season) and gave him a training program before the verdict just in case. We probably recruited accordingly - maybe it was easier giving Jones a rookie spot - experienced on baller for experienced on baller. I wouldn't be surprised by such proactiveness as we aren't asking for a top-up player. And we have been ahead of the game in other list management areas in recent years.

Interesting to read that Dr Reid gave evidence via video link to CAS - first time I've heard that. He has been completely exonerated by CAS. It is a bit shameful that the AFL went after him they way they did. Overall, it certainly reads like it was an open and shut case!

Now Fahey goes whack, whack, whack to the AFL! http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-would-become-laughing-stock-of-world-sports-if-it-separated-from-wada-20160124-gmd9tb.html Fahey: "I would think they [the AFL] would become the laughing stock of sport around the world if they [separated themselves]..."Why are they different to 679 other associations who believe you shouldn't cheat in sport?"...Fahey warned the AFL against following the example of major US sports..."They are privately owned, and as a result of being privately owned, they make their own rules," he said. So many politicians supporting players or AFL withdrawl or saying nothing has been nauseating. Its about time someone with some authority spoke up. Well done, Mr Fahey.

I liked this part: "The 34 players knew what they were doing," he said. "They actually signed a statutory declaration – they took an oath which carries a criminal penalty for failure. "And surely they didn't think they were doing that to whiten their teeth – getting all those injections." Fahey very strong in his condemnation. That should quieten all the player sympathisers and the rubbish about being duped.

Like you I disagree with the view as the vast majority of players in the AFL would not 'cheat' and they would be affected if other players/teams en masse break the anti-doping code be it AFL's or WADA's. And we know the AFL Tribunal is a joke when it comes to penalising well known players for on-field misdemeanors so it is reasonable to assume its inconsistency would continue if the AFL separated from WADA. Breaking away from WADA (which won't happen) would be a free-for-all as the AFL and its Tribunal are too weak/inconsistent to enforce its own rules and values.

Does anyone else think our talented young men players have overstepped the mark with their outspokenness? Hewitt was brash, at times obnoxious but he always showed great respect for the game and usually for other players, especially the greats of the game. Kyrios and Tomic have potential galore but Kyrios' on court behaviour and the media comments of both, make me cringe. Their latest antics: Kyrios answers mobile on court: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/australian-open-2016-nick-kyrgios-in-hot-water-after-answering-his-phone-on-court-20160123-gmcphj.html Tomic puts down Federer (rightly or wrongly I don't know but not very smart): http://www.theage.com.au/sport/tennis/australian-open-2016-bernard-tomic-takes-aim-at-roger-federer-20160123-gmcptn.html Maybe they should let their racquets do the talking until they actually achieve something!

I think Hardie, the author of the Crikey article, is the guy who likened the Fed Court case to cricket scores eg ASADA all out for 55, EFC 0/300. He is a sports lawyer but didn't read the score board at the Fed Court case very well: ASADA thrashed EFC! However, you would think he is sufficiently aware of the laws of libel to not write something that is incorrect about Evans...I won't quote Hardie here, just in case. To me Hardie is drawing a long bow on Evans. Hardie was hired by EFC to help them in the days of the Fed court case so one wonders why he would now drop Evans in the you know what. An interesting part of the article is: I’ve never really bought the lack of governance line -- from what I had already learnt and what I have learnt since, the program, which appeared to me to be legal, was pretty well documented for a performance-enhancement program in sport. To be clear, performance enhancement is not banned in sport, only some forms, methods and substances. To talk about the use of performance-enhancing substances misses the point; it’s better to talk about prohibited substances and others that are not. What Essendon had done was better documented than what I had seen in cycling, I had seen the records of a few doping programs in Europe and used some in my PhD thesis. The Essendon program had much better-informed and consenting athletes compared to what I had seen in cycling and to things I had learnt recently about programs run within swimming in Australia." Unfortunately, he doesn't question nor explain where the records have gone and why EFC continually say there weren't any. If the substances were not prohibited why would the records go missing, Mr Hardie?? It seems CAS found the answer. Hardie has not done the EFC nor the players any favours here...in fact the opposite. At the end of the day, CAS got it right. Everything else is grandstanding! Or sour grapes.

By all accounts Jones and Brayshaw adore each other in a big bro, little bro way. So its fascinating to see them wrestling as if their lives depended on it! No quarter given! The serious, snarly expression on their faces in pic 7 is priceless!

Jones - C Dunn - need the experienced hand but not sure about VC - that honour may go to Bernie Lumumba - had a tough year but deserves another go to show the way Vince - wants it, has earned it. McD - ready to step up Gawn - my smokey I don't have Viney. It seems, last year he really listened to coaches and improved various aspects of his game. I would give him a bit more time to further this. Some clubs have a 'Leaders In Waiting' group. I don't know that we need to formerly create/announce one but I can see that within the club, Viney leads a group with the likes of Brayshaw, Hogan, ANB being his L.I.W. team. Set them up for when they take over from the first 4 in my list above!

Look for Bernie to be in the Leadership Team: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-01-22/vince-wants-to-step-up-further-after-taking-ownership-of-the-footy-club-in-2015?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=RSS+feed%3A+AFL+Latest+News I really like the frank interviews we are getting from the players this year - very few, if any platitudes. I particularly liked this comment from him for both the confidence and the intent: "With less rotations this year we'll (midfielders) have to spend a bit more time forward and back so we'll kick more goals now because of that"

That may be true but it won't help us if he can't be a regular 22 just as it won't help Grimes or other players who may be on the fringe. It isn't personal to think he won't be missed on game day - just the way it is at a professional club when there is competition for those 22 spots each week.

I don't think we will ask for a top-up but it would a chance to give Jake Lovett a run with the squad for a year.

Gordon is just another who has a conflict of interest in this saga! The few who don't seem to have a conflict are the players! BTW, Bulldogs and Saints are going to join Port to ask AFL for the option of a top-up player. I can see their point - they have lost KPP and a rookie isn't going to help in the ruck or FF.

If he is it will be described as a little 'hiccup' - the new preseason malaise! Frost is coming along fine so he can step in. We now have depth! Anyway, round 1 is still 9 weeks away and Tommy has a lot of preseasons under his belt so he can come into the side when cleared to play.