rumpole

You won't have too many arguments from most supporters that his decision to take the money and run was not the right thing to do from his perspective. It was in his interests to do so and nobody in their right mind would have suggested otherwise to him. Rather, it was the way the entire thing was handled by the Scully camp and the GWS (read the AFL at the time). Melbourne had no chance of matching the offer made even if that could be done and the AFL blocked off all avenues available (such as a Judd type deal). There is evidence that the lure had gone out to Scully very early in the piece and it was the lies and deception around the situation that made many of us Scully bashers.

Mr Leg please. You are, are you not, a member of the honourable profession of barristers-at-law. Surely, you know when your leg is being pulled, Leg?

A possible reason that it won't get done today is that there could be a three way trade which might help Hawks get O'Meara which might take more time to put together.

Read my lips. Rockliff to Melbourne is not happening.

A tribute to hard work and ultimately believing in himself.

Bingo.

Can anyone verify whether John Murphy has a position with the Brisbane Lions?

Those issues might well be Brisbane related but the way he has handled them are suggestive of his character. What makes it worse is the fact that he is the elected leader of the team and, as such had a responsibility towards the club to conduct himself with the proper discretion if he was frustrated with what was going on at the club. Melbourne is a club that is distancing itself from what has been a poor culture. If you like, - a losing culture, where divisive characters abound. We don't need a Rockliff now of all times. If we need someone else (after Lewis and Hibberd who seems committed), then Barlow from the Dockers would fit the bill much better.

If that was the case then the AFL would have said so. Instead, it came out with a cockamamie story about our list not being that bad, yadda, yadda, yadda which was of course a load of BS. So was the business that some suggested about punishing the club because of the tanking brouhaha because the applications for special assistance were made in 2013 and 2014, long after the alleged tanking took place in 2009. The whole thing has a bad look about it for the AFL. It looks even worse when you consider that Chris Fagan as the newly announced coach of Brisbane gains a nice kickstart to his career from the AFL's Mark Evans who worked with him previously at two other clubs. I'm not suggesting any impropriety here in any way, shape or form, only that it simply doesn't look good and compounds an already problematic issue for the AFL.

No ... balaclavas.

Very sad for the people of Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula region not to have a senior footy club representing them. Poor for the VFL to stick the knife in - but I don't think the powers that be give a fig about local footy.

Total eclipse of the moon around Spotless Stadium when the the unmentionable's old man stood up at the end of the Preliminary Final on Saturday night.

It could happen yet.

i don't believe McCartin will provide much for a Melbourne which already has Dawes and Hogan. Lever's a much better proposition.

Yes, it was truly disgusting that Melbourne followed the same formula adopted by half the clubs in the AFL and endorsed by the AFL CEO of sending players for early surgery when the season was shot, experimenting with players in different positions, bringing in youth even when they might not be quite ready and officials joking around but when a club put thousands of syringes of an unknown substance into its players' veins it's only damaging the game. No shock and awe there at all. Also off topic, I found this gem in the Footy Almanac article A legacy into which Paul Roos is tapping mentioned on a different thread:- Not sure if Dinny made any comments about Zulus when he added the adder into the committee meeting but he was obviously starting a tradition of levity at the MFC that stretched for half a century until a po faced journalist and a rogue puritanical regime of AFL hypocrites put an end to the fun. No such restrictions at the EFC ATM where they can still wave around syringes filled with Mexican jumping juice and do it with impunity. I'm with Dinny. Bring back the snake!

Word out that Caro is going to deliver Essendon an almighty whack in tomorrow's Age.

I dislike it intensely when legal counsel try to fight their clients' cases in the media. Smells of desperation to me .

When the club was knocked back last year the indication was that if we had another poor year, we might qualify. If we win only six games this year we borderline qualify on the basis of our cumulative poor record. This is especially so in the case where all we would be getting is an end of round 1 draft pick as WJ suggests.

The names are in the public domain thanks to Ralph but here's the passage with names redacted:- If he can name the non-Essendon players, why not the Essendon ones OR is it Herald Sun policy only to protect the anonymity of the Bomber players?

Apparently a few clubs have put feelers out for Griffiths from Richmond who has had injury problems in the past and now is struggling to get a game over there. Could be handy as a cover to provide key position forward depth.

DemonAndrew, don't lose sight of the fact that the use by individuals of recreational drugs is in a different category to programmes involving the use of performance enhancing drugs. Both are a problem and their use problematic but one issue should not be used to muddy the waters or be used in a PR campaign involving the other.

It's not been said anywhere that Zaharakis has been exonerated. There was a suggestion that he wasn't injected because he doesn't like needles but I understand that peptides can be ingested without injecting which is used because its quicker acting. So really, they all remain under suspicion of being drug cheats and won't be exonerated in the minds of the majority of the public until the case has been heard.

WADA CODE: 11.2 Consequences for Team Sports If more than two members of a team in a Team Sport are found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation during an Event Period, the ruling body of the Event shall impose an appropriate sanction on the team (e.g., loss of points, Disqualification from a Competition or Event, or other sanction) in addition to any Consequences imposed upon the individual Athletes committing the anti-doping rule violation.

Anyone see AFL 360. Robinson was absolutely repulsive complaining about anti Essendon "propaganda" in a segment that was complete pro-Essendon propaganda. Basically said the Essendon players had everything ticked off by their doctor but where does that leave Doc Reid?

What I am finding difficult to understand is the constant whining from the Essendon camp about ASADA leaking information to the media when independent enquiries reveal that ASADA hasn't been leaking at all. That leaves the AFL and EFC as possible leakers and judging from some of the material leaking out, you don't have to be Einstein ...