Spirit of the Demon

Agreed, I wonder how much a 5 and a half month interrogation at any AFL club would dig up. You can't blame the officials of the club if disgruntled formed employees and/or former board members have loose tongues or do mischievous things. The worst example in all this were Paul Garner's comments when this first blew up.

Well, according to a poster on the Saintsational site at http://www.saintsational.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=78787&start=50 (at Saturday 24 November 2012 @ 1:28pm), in her younger days Ms. Wilson played with Seve Ballesteros. However, if the poster has it right, it wasn't a game of golf.

You don't even need the 10 minute pep talk. All you need to know is that your mark is fairly dumb, that he talks and thinks that way and has made the comment before. The right question will get the result you want.

I look at the club today and see an AFL club with a hefty surplus of assets over liabilities, making healthy strides in many directions with half of the list from the disastrous 2011 list turned over. I see us as being on the cusp of a new era - no guarantees of premierships but far better placed than we were 18 months ago and definitely so compared with the day when Jim Stynes walked in to the club in 2008 and started making the changes that have ultimately made us a different organization than the one that all and sundry defined us as irrelevant. Schwab might not have done things to win a popularity poll with everybody but that's not what it's all about. To the extent that he's been fundamental to the process of change that we're now witnessing, I regard him as something of a hero. Malcontents like Hazy can lather away with his Caro-like accusations against Schwab and the Board but we're not listening any more.

The Dees are rolling in the big guns to take on the Age and the AFL in the never ending battle for truth, justice and the Australian way. First, the Fink (Ray Finkelstein QC) and now King Fiddy. Be very scared CW, Fairfax & co.

Why not take this all a step further and ask who are the people feeding her and others in the media with the information for these stories and why?

I think one or two curtain raisers at the MCG would be fine especially if they were curtain raisers to the twilight games. Perfect for filling in such days.

Journalists don't usually reveal their sources but if there was a defamation action taken against the Age and Wilson I suggest the process of discovery might flush out the identity of her informants. The subplot to this saga could be revealed and might embarrass a few people whose obsessive hatred of Schwab, Stynes and Lyon caused them to go overboard and do damage to the club. It might also uncover the fact that some of the information supplied to journos has been embellished and twisted to suit their agenda. Some interesting revelations will soon be forthcoming about these people.

You wish

Not yet.

That may well be the case but there are other rats involved in this sorry saga. They are the ones behind a long and concerted campaign to destabilise the club's current administration because they have an axe to grind with members of the board and with club employees. That story will be bigger than this tanking inquiry when the facts come out.

Don't know the answer to that but Port Adelaide's highly credentialled fitness coach seems to agree - Power shun altitude for heat.

The assessment of the players is something which the FD is not going to take lightly. I understand that this time last year there were some surprises about the results which showed up the players who hadn't placed a great amount of emphasis on their basic training programmes during the end of season break. MN has said recently that he doesn't expect any surprises this time which suggests that the club has weeded out those who aren't particularly fond of hard work.

Contract details anyone?

Precious indeed and a defeatist attitude when you consider that the mods have deleted the offending posts and canned the thread in question.

Seems that Collingwood's high trade expectations might put paid to us getting Dawes and we appear to have turned our attention to Pedersen. Stef Martin to Saints as part of a deal for Ray?

Judging by the source it's probably the first he's heard of this.

I remember reading a post on Demonland about the first training run for the 2010 draftees and it was said that Cook was in some distress during the session and failed to see it out. Now that I think of it, we were already in deep trouble way back then with our first round draft pick. Needless to say, Prendergast didn't last here much longer and nor did Bailey for that matter. These blokes were in charge during the club's most tragic period of recruiting and we're paying for that in spades now.

In my estimation, the best thing that happened to Sam Blease was Tom Scully leaving Melbourne. He's now his own man and developing a niche as a Melbourne footballer. He doesn't need to go to the wilderness of a GWS that lacks a heart and soul and is an artificial implant on the western Sydney landscape where they couldn't even drag a decent crowd to their game against Collingwood.

My gripe is how the commentators are putting it all down to the injury toll at Carlton. Earlier in the year when they were bagging us, our injuries which included just about anyone whose ever kicked a goal for us were ignored.

I don't quite understand why it's necessary to fly all three emergencies up to Brisbane for the game if Rohan Bail has been passed fit. Surely one or two of those would be better served by getting a run with Casey today?

Valentine's Day, a very enjoyable movie with a football theme is screening on ABC 1 at 11pm tomorrow - 29th January. Worth a watch.

Don't tell me the AFL's expanding to Broken Hill?

Does anyone have next week's training venues and times?

Thanks for providing Cameron's stats. If he came from NSW he would be learning the words to some calypso songs in preparation for his forthcoming tour. I think it's an indictment that although we're in the middle of the cricket season his last first class game of Shield cricket was almost two months ago. In these circumstances, it makes it harder than ever to break into the test side.