Jara

I thought the rule said you had to get the pick immediately after your regular pick? (This is crucial. Adequate Compensation is the only thing that stops FA from being a completely outrageous rape of the weak clubs by the strong)

Nothing very mysterious about Mathew Reilly novels (excepts why grown-ups read them) My favourite bit of the saga was when McKenzie or Baker were interviewing Dank and he mentions he gave the players TB4. Journo looks it up and finds its illegal. Dank: oh is it? Well, we didn't give them that then. Almost as good, Little's persistent "we've no idea what we gave them, but whatever it was, it was legal." Geniuses in charge down there at Windy Hill.

Watched the game for a while. Gave up. Too one-sided, boring. Gone to bed. That's the AFL these days: so one-sided, top-heavy, artificial. My only hope is that the Swans can do the Hawks. Especially if I have to look at that smarmy little rodent, Rioli. Good book beckons.

Paul Kelly? (The singer, not the football player of the journo)

Kennett......uuughh! That man's interior is even uglier than his exterior, something I would have hardly thought possible. Jimma: the antithesis.

Yep, that's how it works. Welcome to the brave new world. Top teams pick up champs from the bottom teams (with a few exceptions, such as Buddy) because they "want to play finals". Bottom teams get the delisted riff-raff (again, with a few exceptions, such as Cross)

I'm a bit unclear about this, as I suppose we all are. In the first case, I'd hate to do anything that would cause complications for a person struggling to recover from a mental illness. I suppose that's the first priority. But......I didn't like hearing John Ralph (I think) saying on KBs show this morning that Clark wants to go to a big, successful Melbourne club to help with his recovery. I'd like to go to a big successful melbourne club to help with my own recovery (from the pain inflicted by being a Demons supporter) but that's not likely to happen. Ralphs interpretation of Clarks motives has a hint of selfishness about it - a selfishness which could well be a contributor to depression (just been looking at Anne Mannes new book on our society's growing narcissism - one thing about narcissists - they aren't very happy. It would help if I knew how well he's been treated to date. The article in The Age this morning implied that he had been generous in letting us off a contract which could have netted him a massive amount for a fourth year. Does anybody know if this is the case? Did we do the right thing by Him? Would we have had to pay another $750000 or whatever? Would there have been a non-performance clause? I must admit, my initial response was - jeez, this guy's already taken a fortune from a struggling club and given nothing in return. Now? Well, I just don't know, but I'd like to. My real fear is that this business of everybody wanting to go to the big, successful clubs - even if it is to help with your "recovery" - is another nail in our coffin.

Good get, but doesn't confirm that we actually paid for her course, or how much we paid. If anybody has any more details, I'd be grateful if you shared em. It's our money - shouldn't be top secret.

Just clarifying the situation: did I hear Ox say, tonight, that MC received $2 million for a total of 15 games?Cheeses. My wife is a nurse in charge of a major emergency department. Saves lives every day. It would take her about 30 years to earn that amount. Heard his manager on SEN. What a scumbag. Do these people have any morality at all? Does the fact that a struggling club has given you that much money not suggest to them that you might feel morally obliged to give them something back?

Hawthorn? Jeez, I wish, but I fear it won't happen. Yet another hawks premiership looming. Yuk oh yuk.

Hey Ethan - sorry for late post - been busy all day. Good point, though. You're right - there are lifters and leaners out there, and we've been leaners for eight years now. No, by god, fifty! Pathetic. And it's all our fault! Hand outs galore - why, we even got Scully and Blease. And have had the nerve to ask for more. We deserve to be punished. Let's go the Full Hockey - let's give massive subsidies to Gina - er, sorry, Hawthorn, or Eddie or Geelong. They worked hard to get where they are. Give them our best players. They can have the blockbusters, the Friday nights. Let's slash our health and education - I mean player development - programs - riff-raff like us don't deserve such things. As you imply, we'll be better for it in the long run. The very, very long run. I feel better already.

This is what I admire so much about our boy - he has to do it all on his own. No back-up, protection, etc..

So true. Great post. It's not just free agency, though, it's everything about the creeping corporatization of the game ( ie rigged fixture, expansion clubs) It all supports the clubs who were big when it came in (I suppose if it had happened fifty years ago, we would have been gloating) I'm in complete despair about this. Just see no hope of us ever winning a flag. We'll be like the Bulldogs. Smirking bas&$!s from the big clubs love to see us down there, and have got absolutely no incentive to do anything about it. "Equalisation" is a myth, a bone tossed to the dog so that it doesn't roll over and die. All we provide is cannon fodder. If by chance we do ever get a decent player, he'll be off to Hawthorn etc by the time he's at his peak. Every one of our free agents have left us (think I'm right there) The players are mostly morons who don't understand the passion of those of us who are supporters. Sorry for such a bitter post. Maybe out of bed on the wrong side this morning. Footy's like the wider society; an accelerating division between the haves and the have-nots (as exemplified by the current morons in charge in Canberra - if you're rich, you're laughing, if you aren't, you're stuffed)

I'm sure the next time one of the Big Boys find themselves down in the cellar they'll be demanding (and getting) a PP. It's just the riff raff who don't deserve it (my god, as I write this, it seems like something out of Evelyn Waugh - I suppose there's not much point in being a member of the elite if you haven't got a peasant or two bowing and scraping before you)

Others have already commented, but just wanted to say thanks drdrake for a very clear (albeit depressing) summary of the situation. Wish somebody could get that message home to the morons in the media. Trouble is most of them - not to mention other clubs CEOs - are quite happy to let us stew down in the pits. They justify their position by saying its all our own fault.

Hear hear! Drives me nuts. So many supporter of other teams I know keep saying "you don't deserve it." Deserve! WTF has deserve got to do with it? All I want is a little logic and a little equality.

Makes me despair, all of this. I just see no way out of it. The odds are so heavily stacked against us. I've waited 50 years to see a premiership. Barring our stumbling across a freak like Ablett, I can't see us ever winning one. I'm not greedy. Just one, so I could know what it felt like.

Scheizenhaus article from Quayle. Is she related to Dan? Does nobody teach these people logic? Her premise? You don't "deserve" a PP because you are hopeless. Well, wow, that makes a lot of sense. Let's give one to Hawthorn, then, or the Swans. They're very good. They certainly deserve one. There's no "deserve"; there are simply rules. The AFL is so secretive I can't work out what those rules are, but if a team doesn't get a PP after 6 wins in 2 years, they might as well throw the rule out, admit that the AFL is nothing more than a business designed to serve the interests of the elites and their pet teams, and that riff-raff like us, Dogs, Saints, etc, are only allowed in as cannon-fodder.

Great post, Redleg. There is already so much inequality in the AFL, and you've highlighted most of the main points. The draw is the one that gets on my goat. These days, a good draw equals money in the bank, and money in the bank equals success on the field. To all of you doubters, do you think Hawk or Filth fans have any qualms about the premierships they won using priority-picked players? cheers

My take, for what it's worth, on Roos The good: always been impressed by the fact that the Swans players gave the impression that they'd follow him to hell and back, and there were some pretty inspirational types in there. I presume that means he's got strong leadership qualities The bad: he's too defensive (all that sideways stuff, slowing down, etc) . I know our forward line's been crueled this year, and I gather the mantra is that great sides are built upon strong, rebounding defences. But why can't you develop an attacking capability at the same time? I don't get it. Aren't they of equal importance? I went along yesterday. Had quite a nice day actually. On my own - kids no longer interested, cant drag em along. After twenty minutes I gave up on the game. Decided not to surrender to despair. Had a little book of Japanese Buddhist poetry in my bag. Sat there and read that, glancing up from time to time, just to make sure that the train wreck was continuing. Yep, it was. Back to Miyazawa. Don't feel great today though. Worried that the team will disappear, and I'll be bereft. Big picture: I feel we've been screwed. Trouble is, I can't work out who by. Maybe by the AFL, maybe by big business, maybe by the expansion teams, maybe by ourselves. Maybe it's a class thing; must be what it's like being a Bulldogs supporter. You know the toffs will toss you a bone from time to time, but you also know you're never going to win a flag.

Er - I thought that, collectively, they could deny us the PP.

Yay Beelzebub! Out on their asses!

Little's strategy seems to be to keep on appealing until most of the players implicated have retired, thus minimizing the damage. Fourteen have already left the club; others will leave or be delisted this year. I'm with Why You Little on this one. Screw em. They're stuffing up the League and damaging us all with their arrogance. Not likely to happen, of course - unless Middleton decides against them.

Just back in from a long day's work, haven't heard the news all day. First thing I turn to is Demonland. Sorry I've got nothing new to add to the discussion, but I had to say something to someone. Lemme get this straight. The Bombers have used every delaying trick and barrister in the book - even brought in Neil Young - to avoid having to face the consequences of having pumped their players full of pig effluent...and now Little is trying to get a political crony to call the whole thing off on the grounds that....huh? It's all gone on so long? Words almost fail me. The effrontery of that man - not to mention the arrogance of the rich. Mind you, given how much the Libs are piddling in the pockets of people like him, I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled it off. Has nobody ever said the word WADA to him? Does he propose to blacken the game our kids play - indeed, all of Australian sport - just so that The Annointed One can avoid taking responsibility for his actions? Scum, the lot of them. Pure, unadulterated, stomach-churning, blood-bubbling scum.

Didn't I read somewhere that - hmmm - maybe just over twenty of the players involved are still at the club? Maybe their plan is to keep appealing for so long that they'll be well into the rebuilding process by the time they get hammered. That Little looks like a cunning little ba$&tard. He's also, is he not, notoriously litigious? (Apologies to M9 - looks like we crossed over in the ether)