Lucifers Hero

The article seems to say that there may be 34 tribunal hearings: '...this means each player can insist on separate hearings, determined by tribunals comprised of people who have not considered the same evidence in other cases. Each player may want to challenge evidence differently...' If that is the case it will take years for 34 matters to go thru hearings and potentially appeals! Hopefully common sense prevails, altho based on the saga so far, I for one am not confident! I wonder how long Essendon can fund 34 lots of legal cases before bankrupting themselves! Must say I enjoy watching them being 'thrown out of court!

Dare I say it...a Mark Neeld special!

Jack T did until he got 3 weeks for a legitimate tackle on Dangerfield...deemed to be a sling tackle. His aggro has not been the same since. Hopefully, he will get his mojo back next year.

Who are 'the rest of them'!! From recent experience players go to successful clubs for less/not much more money or poor clubs for more money. The only one that has come to us is Mitch Clark and that didn't work out too well.

That was exactly my point!! Therefore, a contract with No Trade Clause won't ever be written...

i think the horse has bolted on this one. It seems no club will trade a player to a club to which they don't want to go. Hasn't happened in years and unlikely to happen again. I don't mind that too much; its just that they all want 'success' and seem prepared to trade off some $ to get it. Its the 'strong-get-stronger' and 'weak-get-weaker' that is the natural outcome of this that I have a problem with. To be made worse with FA and players being traded out a year before FA...unless of course the AFL does away with comp picks for FA. This may only hurt low clubs further. Vicous circle. Pandora's box!

Very true. Players seem to be able to dictate where they go: -Tippett to Sydney -Buddy to Sydney -Caddy to Geelong -?Ryder to Port -?Frawley to Hawks/Geelong -?Dangerfield to Hawks/Geelong -?Clarke to Hawks/Ess/Pies Oh what a pandora's box was released when FA came in - strong get stronger; weak get weaker

Favourite players - just a decoy He only joined DL 2 weeks ago. Where has he been all these years with such juicy trade tid bits! If it is someone within the club he will surely be found out soon enough and then there will be all hell to pay!

Maybe NSC was right...you are Bernie Vince...our party boy!!!

I think he said we haven't 'officially offered him a contract' but we could still be trying to convince him (as per GNF) with an open cheque book (as per Partyboy). Not looking promising.

So the open cheque book Partyboy talks of isn't enough to convince young Patrick's as GNF talks about. Seems to me they are both right! Both have high believability in my book.

To reassure the posters above who expressed concern! Re your concern that if he doesn't sign he might get traded the article says: "Jones was due to become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2015 season, but AFL.com.au understands the parties are in talks to extend the 26-year-old's stay at the club" I would be worried if it said Jones has put talks on hold. ...back to young Patrick...

Relax folks! http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-09-11/dees-opening-negotiations-with-jones "MELBOURNE has moved to lock away co-captain Nathan Jones, opening negotiations to secure him to a long-term deal." I believe 5 years is being discussed which will take him to his early 30's.

You may be right, but if Ess are willing to give him 1.5m for 3 years he must have very good trade value. Can't see how there can be one without the other. Low contract = low trade value. High contract = high trade value.

Thanks...I detected a similarity in tone but Sweet Dee didn't seem to accumulate posts at the same rate as Sloonie! Glad to know she is still around! The banter between Sweet Dee and Bitter during a recent, late season game (I think North or WCE) was great entertainment! Much better than the thrashing we were getting on the field.

Anyone know what happened to SloonieMc...... A bit like a hurricane - blew in with a storm of posts then disappeared just as quickly after only a year or 2. always enjoyable to read and didn't hold back!

Does anyone get the feeling that Grimes is preparing himself (and us) to be traded or loose the co-cap. The latest stories are quite revealing: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-09-23/grimes-frustrated-by-his-2014-season where he talks about his poor year as a player and leader. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2014-09-24/id-love-frawley-to-stay-grimes where he talks about everyone (including himself) being tradeable. Can't help but think that the way he talks about Frawley's application and leadership is with a bit of a 'forked-tongue'! Here he again talks about some lapses in leadership (his included). (Maybe the leaders also got a spray from Roos for letting the Mad Monday fiasco happen!) Given his (coach voted) poor performance in the B&F and lack of on-field leadership I wouldn't be surprised if Grimes was traded or not co-cap next year. The top 5 B&F winners had great playing seasons. But no-one stood up and marshalled the troops on-field. I'm not talking about match winning performances. I mean being able to calm nerves, manage the tempo, keep players focused, keep players to team rules etc etc. While we may not get him, we need a Danger type to be our on-field General. Current players with the potential (Viney, Tyson, Salem) are a few years away from this and they need a seriously good leader to learn from. Note: I think Jones does a great job but he also needs someone to teach him game day leadership.

Another thought: If it is N-P-VI-C-F it could be 'No-Premeirship-6th-(a)Collingwood-Flag' That's my guessing done for the day...back to the cryptic crossword!

Maybe it is NPVICF. To write it differently N-P-VI-C-F. VI is the Roman numeral for 6 so VI could be a reference to the missing 6th premiership to which his note refers C could be for Collingwood as they were the premiers in the 'missing' year of 58. F could be a rude word! (unlikely). But it could also be for 'Flag' as that was a common word for premierships for decades. Can't combine it yet to make any sense! I'm sort of hoping we DL's solve the puzzle before the answer is discovered!

This is a bit like a cryptic crossword!! Do you know if the note was written recently? If not in which decade it was written? It would be after he retired as coach as the 17410 is his career premiership history as player or coach.

Well no assistance for us means we are going to play serious hard ball with Mitch trade and Eddie will have to pay big time for him! Can' t have cake and eat it Eddie!! Even if it means Mitch goes into PSD and St K get him for nicks - I would rather that than Eddie steal Mitch from us!! Time for MFC to show their mettle.

Not wishing to quote myself. Just want to thank the DL mods who convert an unintelligible URL to a meaningful newspaper title!

Great to see Priddis win...sometimes it has seemed that the umpires play 'catch-up' and overly notice a player who perhaps should have won the previous year. Great to see they resisted this temptation and to see a whole bunch of new names in the top 10!

Essendon players determined not to accept guilty verdict - The Australian Summary: Hird wants to appeal Players don't want an appeal if it delays resolution EFC Board will only appeal if the case is 'water tight'! In a way I would like to see them appeal just to enjoy watching them being thrown out of court again!! As an aside, Justice Middleton appeared to hardly be able to conceal his contempt. Could it be because he didn't appreciate Hird using his courtroom as the forum to attack AD/AFL and to absolve himself of responsibility, stuff not particularly relevant to the case. Maybe Hird has lived in his cocoon for so long that he has lost the ability to be 'streetwise'!!

This is Gold: "The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority will agree to present the players with parts of its case against them after repeated requests from the AFL Players’ Association. But no action from the anti-doping body will be taken until Essendon and James Hird make a call this week on whether to appeal..." Whether the evidence would help EFC and Hird decide on an appeal I don't know but it looks like a great move by ASADA!!!