Spirit of the Demon

On cue Vanders kicks a couple.

Perhaps not Essendon in a night game.

North wouldn't have to look far on the due diligence side of things. They did pick up one of our discards by the name of Gysberts who was originally drafted by BP.

Accuracy in front of goal was a big factor compared with last week's start of four consecutive behinds before our one and only goal. The ability to string a few goals together cannot be underestimated in building confidence in a team. We had that last night but didn't have it last week.

Bummer!

Much appreciated. Now on to matters at hand ... I am really surprised that Cutler's played so many games for Brisbane. It shows how little that club comes under the radar in Melbourne. Perhaps they do need special assistance.

Ewe wouldn't have a clue.

Dylan goes all right too.

It's really an indictment on our poor recruiting and player development going back for a decade before that season. My big disappointment is for Jack Grimes who was a great servant for the club in difficult times. I know there's no sentiment in football these days but the club must have known that his days were numbered and yet they chose not to give him a farewell game in Round 23 when our young side had hit the wall. You can't tell me that we would have done any worse that day with Grimes, Dunn, Garland and Terlich in the 22 that day.

Twenty-two year old Canberra Demons player Jordan Harper has won his club's b & f by a mammoth 105 votes. Harper who was runner up in the NEAFL MVP award was moved from a wing to an inside midfield role this year. The club has a record with mature recruits from Canberra/NEAFL - worth a look. Jordan Harper shows his credentials for AFL draft before final game with Demons

Despite the contract extension, I'm not convinced about Jake Spencer even as a back up for Max Gawn. We should be looking for a couple of younger blokes who can also play forward.

Another idea might be for you to simply ignore this thread and not try to shut down discussion that obviously is of interest to others.

So snaring him with pick 44 is likely to be a battle.

Bigfooty's Knightmare actually now believes Curnow will slide out of the top 10 and is suggesting he will be taken at 11 by the Blues with us going for Clayton Olliver at 10 after Parish at 3. I like that.

So we could still make a play for him but on the understanding that he may not have many games next year? I would imagine that this would have an impact on what the Suns could ask for him.

That applies to anyone who hasn't signed a new contract and possibly a few contracted players. Whether we like it or not, that's the way the game of list management and team building works in the AFL these days and all clubs are involved.

It never ceases to amaze me how people lay the blame for all list management decisions during his coaching career on Mark Neeld. If he's to blame for those then what about the shockers that were made during Neale Daniher's time or Dean Bailey's? There were a lot more and they were far worse. You really need to get your facts straight.

Congratulation for your insight Oracle but by me it was never in doubt.

Damn. No Jetta and no Jack again this week.Has anyone at the club come back from injury earlier than expected this year? It seems like a one way street.

Even those Demon fans who don't want to accept the mental illness should still be happy that he's gone. Didn't his illness open up a spot for Neville Jetta's football rehabilitation and didn't we get The Prince to replace him? We're in front the way I see it.

Naturally, they will sweep us under the rug (or possibly throw us under another bus) using the same ridiculous logic they apply in all other cases when they do what they want without consideration of fairness. I expect them to come up with a response as ridiculous as Mark Evans' last decision about who would wear the alternative strip in the Port Adelaide v Richmond final when they gave preference to 8th place over 5th because of some nonsense about Richmond's away strip. They make things up on the run and they aren't very good at it.

You are not going to convince people who look at the situation from the perspective of the players involved and not the interests of the wider sporting community which needs laws put into place to help stamp out the drug cheats.

Essendon, Hird, Thompson and Corcoran (and Doc Reid) were dealt with by the AFL on governance issues and those alone. The case against the club and those persons and any other staff including players has not yet been heard, I don't think ASADA can avoid dealing with the matter in the near future and I believe Essendon's action in the Federal Court is doomed. The situation with the players is not dissimilar to that of Belarus shotputter Nadzeya Ostapchuk who had Olympic Gold taken off her in London two years ago when unbeknown to her, her coach spiked her drink and thought he would get away with it. She lost her gold medal and will not be able to compete until later this year even though she had no idea she had taken a banned substance. There are plenty of others who have been relieved of prizes in various sports including the famous case of Lance Armstrong and there are lots who got away with it at the expense of athletes who worked hard to get the top but were denied by cheats. We, in Australia, seem to have developed a mindset whereby East German and Chinese athletes should be branded as drug cheats when they record outstanding achievements but if they're Aussies, we should give them a free pass because they were "duped". This is going to make us a laughing stock in world sport and we will suffer in terms of lost prestige and become outcasts where we once were world leaders in sportsmanship.

Prepare yourself for all sorts of interested parties putting in their two bob's worth to save the 18 team competition so that the competition's financial resources can be shored up.Anything to avoid a hearing into whether anybody was given banned drugs. The AFL is in trouble.

So the clean athletes will suffer. I have a friend who supports the Blues (yes I know ). He remembers them giving Essendon hell on two occasions in 2011 only to find when they played them the following year the Bombers had all put on bulk and weight far beyond what would normally be expected by a clean programme involving weights only. That's 2012. The players didn't know the drugs on the waiver form were making them bigger than everyone else and they were all so very innocent?