Dees2014

I would not underestimate the level of angst against Essendon from most other clubs (except apparently, inexplicably the Dogs, in most other respects a very well respected and run club. Can I suggest peter gordon is trying to get into the legal gravy train which is Essendon and James Hird. His company, Slater & Gordon have totally missed out on this goldmine) almost universally of the view Essendon should take their medicine. At the end of the day the clubs control the AFL.

No it is not that hard, but virtually all the AFL community and the press refuse to acknowledge it is not ultimately UP to ASADA. WADA is the final arbiter and if they consider ASADA has squib bed it (including findings of Australian courts) then they will send it to the international Court of Arbitration in Sport. As I understand it,they are yet to lose a case anywhere in the world. It was set up like this to get around the so called Third World corruption problem. How ironic: first world Australia;internation sporting superpower, is now conducting the most internationally watched test case of drugs in Sport. We cannot be allowed to drop the ball.Hird and Little, for the sake of Australia's international reputation, will inevitably be squashed. What a waste, how I credibly stupid - it need not have been like this but for James and Tania Hird ' s hubris.

Yes there are a number. Try these to start with: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/essendon-saga-shows-we-need-to-change-protocol-20130831-2sxoy.html http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/play-it-straight-and-take-the-medicine/story-fni0fhh1-1226703731898 http://www.therunningreview.com/2013/06/19/athlete-qa-tamsyn-lewis-manou/

This still makes no difference. Even if Essendin wins its case against the Afl, if the sanctions are deemed inadequate byvWADA they can and will step in and take the case to the Court of Arbitration in Sport. I may be wrong in this, but I understand in spite of acting in this way in a number of international cases they are yet to lose such an appeal. International Sports lawyer friends of mine reckon the Essendon case is one of the clearer cases of abuse in international sport. She has no doubt such an appeal by WADA would be upheld. If this were the case, then the players would not get six months, they would get 4 years, and some club officials (probably including Hird) would get 10 years maybe life, because they would have been deemed to have not cooperated with the investigation. Essendon continues to put the egos of club officials above that of their players. The whole thing is an utter disgrace. Thankfully we have some powerful voices like nick mckenzie, Caroline Wilson andcPatrick Smith whonhavevthe courage to expose this for what it is. Left to the Murdoch press, the wholevthingvwould have been buried long ago.

He will. Give the guy a go. He was an absolute gun in his first two years, and has a debilitating injury for at least two seasons. Explains completely why he was down on pace and skill. Fully fit and up and running he is another Nathan Jones, except a better kick and overhead mark. Jack Trengove fully fit would be an important player in any AFL side. He was not number 2 draft pick for nothing. He will certainly have a much more distinguished career than his morose fellow draftee now at GWS, apart from being a much better bloke and leader. JT up and running again will be like getting a number one draft pick into the team except a hell of a lot more experienced.

And JKH. Watts can play mobile forward, as can hogan. Hogan is very mobile, and covers a huge amount of ground when fit. He has a huge engine. In that scenario, I think Dawes becomes the number one forward (in terms of size), pedo 2, hogan 3, chip 4 and Watts 5. That is a seriously formidable forward line. Both Watts and Hogan are also good on the ground as well as in the air. Not many defences could cover that. To be a contender though against a Swans or a Hawthorn I think we need a monster forward like a Tippett. I have hope big max might develop into that, but his marking and positioning does not seem to be improving much. We may have to trade.

It is Victorian Workcover. They are not covered

Not sure. Wasn't James Hird was it, bored in his Paris bunker?????

I think if this happens WADA will step in and take the whole matter to the Court of Arbitration in Sport. WADA is watching every move in this saga, as is the rest of the international sporting community. They (WADA) have a very clear role in this ie as the global body they oversee the fairness of penalties to do with doping in sport and can intervene (and have on a number of occasions internationally) if they believe corruption has occurred locally or penalties do not pass the "fairness" test. This is why all of Essendon's political posturing about ASADA is largely a waste of time. If ASADA are deemed to have squibbed it, the international intervention will correct it. It is significant that the people most appalled by this whole episode in AUSTRALIA are Australia's Olympic athletes. Many believe there is a double standard here. Seemingly wealthy sports (and athletes) can get off lightly whereas if they were caught abusing their bodies in such a way they would get 4 year bans at best, and life at worst. This is what the WADA's fairness assessment is largely about. It is also there to ensure local corruption does not pollute the process. Ironically I think it was largely brought in to avoid "third world corruption".. No-one would have suspected it would have applied to sporting super-power and governance clean-skin Australia, but this is where we appear to be heading to our national shame and huge cost to our sporting reputation.

Yes I don't know how many people picked up Essendon's chief cheer leader mark robinson's comment on AFL 360 last night when he said Essendon's problems are largely caused by some senior journalists (some award winning) in the Fairfax press having it in for them (Essendon). Presumably he means nick mckenzie and Caroline Wilson. Clearly he does not read his fellow News Limited hound Patrick Smith in "the Australian". What distinguishes Wilson, McKenzie and Smith from Robinson is that the former deals in facts gathered by the journalistic hard work of checking and rechecking information and drawing conclusion from that. At best, Robinson seems to rely on public relations handouts from the AFL and Essendon, and at worse has a much more sinister motive - he is himself looking after the political and personal interests of many on the EFC board. I must say it certainly appears to be the latter to me.

I think a more relevant question is who are the worst kicks??? I would say Matt Jones McDonald Mckenzie Jamar Viney I think someone like Viney will improve with age. At the moment, he is not a long kick. This will improve. I'd put JKH in the same category. Tyson though I think is an inaccurate short range kick, but he sure seems to be able to slott them in from 50 meters out at crucial times in games. Garland at times is an inaccurate short range kick also. Chip needs to work on his goal kicking

Thoroughly agree BB. Bennell was a missed opportunity and would not have been traded under Roos. Nev Jetta is a gun and will be our hard nut small back for a while I reckon. I think he is excellent at the shut down role. I suspect the next level development is to provide run out of the backline, although it was surprising how many times he provided strong contests in the middle of the ground and in the forward half on Sunday. Watching the replay yesterday, I was surprised what a crucial role Jordie played in several of our key moves which led to goals in the last quarter: eg passing to watts who passed to kent who ran forward and goaled; at the centre of the play down the members wing which led to Salem's goal. If he keeps that up he will become an additional critical member of our inside midfield. Consistency has always been his challenge. Maybe he will learn from Neville, Pederson and Dunn. Let's hope so.

Yes, looks another Whelan - and that is pretty high praise. Maybe not as good a kick, but both as hard as nails. Neville I think is a better defensive player which is what we need now.

Yes good to see him taking responsibility in asking for the ball after a mark by Cross just outside the 50 late in the second quarter and slotted it from 60 meters out. It was a critical goal and gave us some momentum going into the second half. I think he could take the game on like that much more than he has been. I think George Stone has been a tremendously positive influence on him in that regard. I still think over the next 5 years he will join the AFL elite and be a much more influential player than NicNac

Yes, and what has come out recently was that Roos was apparently unbelievably rope able after that game. Gave the players the biggest bake of their lives apparently. Clearly Roosy for all his public charm is an incredibly tough nut. It will do the players no harm for that to happen. Clearly also, he saw how a win over Port would have elevated us up to that "being taken seriously" level, much much earlier than anyone, including him could have expected. I think it is great when our great coach shows such passion, and love for the red and the blue. We are truly blessed to have such a leader....

As much as I find great joy as an avid demon supporter about the sort of accolades we are receiving from our recent wins over the Bombers and Adelaide, and the sterling effort against Port, we are not quite there yet in gaining the AFL community respect.. We are still at the point where of the total tipsters' views in the Age and HS for Sunday's game against EFC, I think there were 3 out of about 40 who tipped the Dees. Whilst this matters not at all in terms of the outcome, it does indicate the respect we have gain from those experts in the game. I think we can say we have gained back respect when we are criticized for winning ugly, and for losing narrowly. I know this will only come when we are genuine contenders for the 8, but it would be nice to transition from gallant triers to genuine threats. Having said that, the transition this year has been quite remarkable and I have no doubt whatsoever that respect will come in the next 12 months. Can't wait to observe it.

Strangely enough for the one and only time I think he is right. Robbo is a complete lightweight, and a [censored] when it comes to Essedon. As biased in his own way about the Dons as Barrett is about north MELBOURNE. Neither of them could hold a candle to Sheahan who had enough integrity as chief football writer of the HS to keep his passion for the MFC to himself while he was doing that job. He now, to our great pleasure, feels under no such constraints.

Caroline Wilson and Patrick Smith are the only two major journalists who really understand this issue. Caroline ' s piece in today's Age was again spot on. Basically, Hird and Essendon will try absolutely any avenue to get out of this no matter how tenuous. What surprises me though is that the EFC and Hird are taking joint action yet again. A friend of mine who claims to know Paul Little very well says he is scathing in private about the Hirds in general and particularly about Tania Hird. Apparently she is a serial offender not just on the Drug scandal but on her influence on Jame's general behavour. This I believe just points to what I have believed for a long time - Hird has something either on Essendon or on senior people at Essendon and has no hesitation to threaten disclosure of it if they don't support his narcissistic and delusional behavior. What other explanation could there be for an organization which has had long term success to behave so irrationally against their own best interests. If Hird had have accepted full responsibility and been forced to fall on his sword rather than fighting ASADA every inch of the way, the EFC would have been well out of this by now.

I think this says a lot. I would be surprised after this if Salem and DKH held their spots. My guess it will be Kent and Bleese (to expose the Don's lack of pace) in for DKH and Salem, with Matt Jones as sub.

Where did I use the term "outrage". Now THAT is laughable. Surely we are allowed to comment on a game without our loyalty to the cause being brought in to question?I just found after such an enterprising year that we showed ourselves to be a thoroughly one dimensional football team on Monday. At our best we are better than that. It was an opportunity to show some of it. If Roos thought that running a PURELY defensive gameplan demonstrated that I would be very surprised. My guess is there was an element of the team having "stage-fright". They are after all very in experienced. Let hope that is the case.

Yes Max can be frustrating. He is a young , huge guy who you feel is just about to play an absolute blinder (as I have seen him do at Casey on several occasions). When he hits his straps, I have not doubt he will be unstoppable. Let's hope it is soon. He will be one of the MFC's most important players as we move towards our next premiership I have no doubt. The transition though is frustrating to watch.

I have no problem with maintaining possession. My gripe is there have been a number of times in the last couple of weeks when we could have taken the game on by providing a quick hand pass or even kick forward with very little risk. We didn't. We usually kicked backwards. We got no run and put very little pressure on opposition backs. I think it was very revealing on Footy Classified interview with Buckley when they asked him about the "worrying" excess Melbourne had over the Pies in centre field possession, particularly marks. His reply? Well "when the opposition almost always kick it backwards or cross field it doesn't become a problem for us". He is right. The game was played at a snails pace: less contested possessions, less uncontested possessions, less marks, less frees, less goals, less of almost everything. In other words a thoroughly boring game. On here it has been argued "I don't mind how boring it is as long as we win, or it is a contest". Well after half time it was not a contest, and I might remind everyone we kicked 3 goals for the entire game. At least against Port we took the game on. There was none of that Monday in the most important game of the year when we had the opportunity to stamp our brand on how we wanted to play (something Roos has been very big on). I believe we have won over a large part of the footballing public with our fighting spirit and the genius of Paul Roos this year. it was an opportunity to gain a number of people who might like to choose a team. Monday was a huge lost opportunity IMHO.

I think these final predictions are 100% accurate. One final one: Where will Chip end up? My bet Hawthorn - needs a Lake replacement, plenty of money and salary cap room post Buddy, and are willing to "do what it takes". We have no hope of retaining Chip IMHO, and it could be argued that is a good thing. We are likely on current indications to finish well in the bottom four (particularly after the thoroughly unenterprising game against the Pies), so we will get two high first round draft picks in what looks like a very high quality draft. Let's hope we get some forwards, because we certainly had none on Monday.

Disagree entirely. I have no problem with an alternative strip when there is a clash, but there was no clash last Saturday yet we wore a strip none of us had ever seen before, and it was our home game. If there was a clash it was our prerogative to make the opposition change asit was our home game. We are just too weak in defending our traditions IMHO. I can't imagine a Collingwood or a Geelong doing such a thing.

And to get seriously fit. Max has never had a full pre-season with us and runs out of puff too easily. I am a huge fan and he will be incredibly important to our next premiership team, but he has to get fully fit. When he does, watch out.