Lucifers Hero

Non-playing highlights: - players listened to coaches - the belief (in our systems) before the game from Stretch, Neal-Bullen, Gawn and Viney interviews - the not over-the-top celebrations on the final siren - Roos' wry grin a few seconds after the siren...a penny for his thoughts - all the pics of individual players at different times hugging Jones...they clearly adore the captain. - Roos setting the example and ran on the field and first went to Enright! Non-playing lowlights: - Scott, a poor loser saying: "we had no rucks, we let them get easy goals, they kicked straight" - Scott, a poor loser - not to give us credit as the better team on the day, nor acknowledge the respect of our guard of honour for Enright.

I wonder how many DL will fess up? Delighted Gawn and Spencer had excellent games yesterday. Firmly believe teams can't win finals without an excellent ruckman. Worth noting the games we have done well in/won have been vs teams without recognised ruckman playing: GCS, Richmond (don't rate Maric), Bulldogs, Pies, StK and Cats. Our biggest losses have been where we have been killed in the ruck: GWS (Mummy), Sydney (Pike), (Hawks, Mc Evoy), Port (Lobe), Freo (Sandilands). No coincidence these are grand final/prelim final ruckmen/teams. Recently, I was one suggesting we need a ruckman to grow into the role along side our growing young mid-field. Yesterday, showed Gawn could be that guy!

"Drug importer Shane Charter has described as “definitely wrong'' his previous claim to anti-doping investigators that he sourced only the banned substance ... taking Thymosin Beta-4, Charter calls into question the veracity of testimony he previously provided to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority". From the Australian. Looks like he is setting the scene as being an 'unreliable witness' to help the players and to undermine the evidence WADA presents to the CAS hearing. I wonder how much money/how threatening the EFC 'coterie' member with shady connections has given Charter this time!

Yep, its true! From the HS: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/essendon-leaves-james-hird-out-of-furore/story-fni5f6kv-1227408683276 Giant thumb up from Hird to players, club and supporters! Quite despicable really. The sooner they dump him the better. On second thoughts best they keep him - there is a (perverse?) pleasure in watching this quiet wrecking ball create havoc and will leave a rabble and a rubble in his wake.

So, James Hird loves and cares about his players, eh? So much so that he went to Europe for his business studies during the bye round. Missed training last Friday - at a time his team is in the pits. Yep, shows he really, really cares - only about himself! He should write a case study for his business school: How to single handedly bring down a once mighty football club!

Loved seeing Geelong supporters leave their Temple of Worship aka Kardinia Park 5 min before the siren!

Take your pick: Yze, Bruce, Neitz One or all would love a Dees premiership to go with those from the Hawks!!

Really loved at the end when Roos ran out on the ground, rounded up the players and led them to form a guard of honour for Enright. Fabulous moment! He made sure we showed our respected to a great of the game. Great leadership from Roos. We showed humility in victory...it was an incredibly proud moment. Well done Roos and our 22 fabulous players on the victory and on the respect shown. At last the 186 voodoo is dead! Hooray!

Looks like it is not only our players that do not listen to coaches and 'play selfish': "...suggested Dangerfield was guilty of chasing the ball and ignoring his role at the two bounces, which both led directly to Hawthorn goals that effectively ended the contest midway through the last quarter. Dangerfield spent six minutes and 20 seconds on the bench after the bounces — two minutes longer than his interchange stints in any other quarter." Setting an example of Danger ie no one gets away with ignoring coaches! Nonetheless, a Gutsy call by coaches to bench him for 6min & 20 sec when they were still in the game.

On a side note, did anyone notice this story about swimmer Kylie Palmer yesterday: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/swimming/kylie-palmer-denies-doping-as-swim-bosses-lose-hope-of-quick-hearing-20150618-ghreul.html? The interesting part is that it happened in 2013 and FINA (swimming's global body) decided for a variety of reasons to let it go but: "But in February this year WADA requested files regarding Palmer's testing before compelling FINA to issue an anti-doping violation to the Australian." It highlights, again that sporting bodies adjudicating their own athletes will err on the lenient side. WADA action in February could be coincidence but: - In the aftermath of the EFC saga is WADA reviewing 'lenient anti-doping decisions' for other Australian athletes? Unlikely. - Does WADA have new testing techniques? Whatever the reason for WADA's delayed action the outcome isn't good for Australia's clean sport standing in the world.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/neil-clelland-to-defend-essendon-34-in-wada-appeal-at-court-of-arbitration-for-sport/story-e6frf3e3-1227404666386 The player rep is Neil Clelland who represented the Bulldog players at the AFL Tribunal. They have opted for 'local' knowledge rather than someone with international/sporting experience altho I am sure he will be well supported. Nonetheless, it seems a bit of 'David and Goliath' given that WADA have Richard Young who brought down Armstrong and a few other high profile stars. If I was to take a bet it would be on Richard Young and WADA!

On the brighter side, only a handful of players on Sunday were there for 186: Jones - much improved Dunn - improved Watts - much improved Howe - improved a little Gawn - improved a little Spencer - maybe improved Bail - maybe improved So if all the additions since perform their roles we should avoid a massacre. Geelong will be looking for %age to get into and stay in the 8 so they will come at us hard. The key will be the team 'holding it together' when they get a run on. If heads drop = massacre 10+ goals. If absorb pressure and keep going, a loss by 6 - 8 goals.

No surprises! Pretty much as DL's expected. Forced changes really.

Simple: send the runner to the captain. If the runner is busy send a trainer to give the captain some water (and a message from the bench ). Or make a rotation with the coaches message. Time of message varies in the last 5 minutes depending on state of play. It isn't just minutes left to be communicated but also any coaching directions/tactics. Telling them # minutes left isn't enough ie Cross knew on Sunday there were 41 sec left.

Best guess: $500+ Jones, Dawes, Hogan (from 2016) $300- $500 Grimes (ex capt salary), Trengove (ex capt salary), Watts, Lumumba, Vince, Dunn, Jamar, Garland, McDonald Not much change their in 2016 (excluding list changes) except include Howe on the list. In a few years I would Viney, Salem, Petracca, Tyson, Hogan, Brayshaw etc to be up there. In terms of the salary cap Mahoney said early this season that we at the max.

The problem is if he signs up for say 3 years he can then just walk away as UFA. (Yes, we can match a UFA offer). So it may be better to trade him now while and get a good pick/player? This doesn't mean I want him to go.

Gone to where? Why is he going? How do you know? What do we get back in return?

I'll pretend to be 'old dee' and say: "maybe, if we don't lose them to other clubs after a few more years being a cellar team".

A quote from Howe that made me sit bolt upright~ “It’s not something you look into, but the last effort that led up to that Montagna goal wasn’t good enough. Even if we had numbers behind the ball, like we should’ve in the first place, there was every chance they still would’ve kicked it. Honest but what an indictment on the team! Then I realised he was right! The terrible effort, lack of support to Toumpas and lack of desperation by Viney, Cross, Lumumba, McD, Dunn and others which let StK stroll the ball forward into an unguarded goal square and yes they would have still kicked it. And if 'its not something you look into' how on earth are they going to learn from it. That line scares me a little. Yes, it may be for public consumption but I would prefer he didn't say it at all. Even if they didn't know the clock you don't just let a team walk their way to an unguarded goal at any stage of the match! The players got what they deserved. Sadly its us supporters that keep suffering.

An update on Howe's contract talks. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-06-16/howe-focused-on-footy-not-new-deal Doesn't add to what we already know. I'm no more optimistic of him staying now than early this year. He talks of playing 'consistent' football. I just wish it was consistently better and more energised than what he has been this year. Even if he is going, he still owes us good service for his money. Love Howe but I don't think he is giving us that.

Gee, Pedersen being out for the season is bad luck for him and us. His contract runs out this year so he won't have another chance to cement his spot. I was really hoping he would be re-sgined soon as he played well and has good chemistry with Hogan. Hope we still sign him. Gutsy effort by Grimes (like Garland last week) to play out the game with a broken thumb.

I wonder how much is from our poor development and we haven't taught players 'game sense' - not sure how to define that but it is different to skills, positioning, ball movement, game plan etc etc. More to do with strategies and awareness of ebbs & flows within a game and how counter-strategies. Maybe this is what Roos meant when he said Watts: "has some of the best 'footy IQ' he has seen". Rodney Eade put it well when he said he was shocked to see the very poor understanding the GCS players had of 'how footy is played' and he had to start from scratch. So, it can be taught. The last 2 games certainly show our players don't understand this either. I don't think it is just poor/inexperienced leadership. It is lack of 'footy IQ'/'game sense' As scary as it may sound, maybe our development has been worse than we thought.

And that is why WADA are appealing!

Not sure if this has been mentioned - Tommy Mc has been nominated for 'Goal of the Year'! A bit of a surprise but it was an exciting goal. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-06-16/mcdonald-nominated-for-goal-of-the-year If you want to vote, vote here: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2015-06-16/mcdonald-nominated-for-goal-of-the-year Jack Watts can share the credit for the beautiful way he got the ball to Tommy. Well done to TMc!

Not sure this was the worst Iva. Toumpas was running with Montagna but he had to leave him to tackle Lonie (who Cross was supposed to be on). Steven ran fast to the flank but his opponent, Viney didn't go with him, he just jogged forward but went to neither Lonie or Montagna to help Toumpas. As I said in post above that there were 5/6 players who 'misstepped', without any sign of desperation...Toumpas tried but he received no back up. A lot of players at fault but Toumpas was low on that list.