diesel

Noticed in the pics the adidas and westpac signage around the boundary. Were they training on Collingwoods ground? Is that something that has happened in previous years?

That should be the "ground Collingwood uses". It's not theirs. In fact, last time I checked they were based in the wrong suburb.

Again and again, issues about the management of the MFC come up. Something is stinky and at some point things need to be cleaned up. How that should happen I don't kniow; nor do I know who shold do it. That said, I find it impossible to believe that saying "everything will be right if we don't criticise" inflates a sense of our real power and fails to recognise the responsibility of members to/for the welfare of the club.

There is no issue with having a well run orginisation with the best people in charge but it is not the issue at hand. The issue at hand is the investigation and the flimsy evidence being put forward to publicly humiliate the club, its officials and its supporters, which is being led in particular Caroline Wilson.

There will be clarity in a debate over the admin and people working at the club when the investigation is over.

For all your outrage she's not really hurting us is she.

If you really think accusations presented as fact, calling our club pathetic & disgusting don't hurt it then you are kidding yourself.

Hopefully the thread will stay on topic and not derail into BS discussions about administrators and histrionics which you seem to enjoy. Fact is that from an external view looking in most things are pointing in the right direction.

I said I hadn't read the whole thread.

Then read it, including linked articles which do often contain ERRORS! If you haven't got the time then don't come on here with your well thought out position of 'I really like Caro therefore I think she's right on this'.

http://www.theage.co...1114-29czr.html

Another kick, hidden away this time:

More subjective opinion and conjecture. A couple of weeks ago anyone else who lay down for draft picks were OK in light of Melbourne doing the same basically because Melbourne is different according to this goose. Now she is wanting to revise punishments from a decade ago in light of the Crows (as yet unknown) punishment . These are classic cases of choosing a position to suit your agenda, just pathetic, agenda driven BS. Did she study Journalism or Creative Writing?

Wasn't CamS CEO when KB was sacked??

General Manager or whatever they were called back then but yes. Still carries a grudge against Scwhab, can't even bring himself to even say his name.

KB wants MFC to go down for tanking.... Regardless of if we are guilty or not..... He hates MFC.....

He created venom denham.... So he can have ago at us without showing his hatered for us.....

I use to like his show.... But now I can't bear to listen to his shock jock antics.... Someone needs to put this dick in his place.....

KB has history with Cam Schwab from their days at Richmond, so take anything KB says as coloured by that.

People with biased opinions here. One minute everything CW writes is crap twisted and exagerrated. The next they are buying into her comments about investigator tactics.

If this is an accurate reflection of how 'evidence ' was gathered against the MFC, evidence which Caro Wilson then INTERPRETED to convict and punish the club and its officials then that is a refection of her bias and/or ineptitude which a lot of us have been trying to point out.

No one is cheering on her writing, it's just that the article contains the first beginnings of some balance in her reporting of the allegations.

Never looked like the investigation would be finalised this side of the draft (turns out it was media hyperbole...are we surprised?) and this without acknowledging that the MFC will want to test the weight of any AFL evidence through the courts. A given since the AFL appear to have lots of innuendo but no evidence?

Adelaide on the other hand have a paper trail and contracts to be hung with!

Interesting to see a decidedly jaded CW on the ABC's Offsiders program yesterday. Both Roy Masters and Francis Leach virtually told CW how wrong she was and that the AFL was to blame for putting in place a system which promoted less than 100% efforts. Masters - understanding he is a NRL hack - was particularly caustic in his criticism of the AFL.

Once again, in her meek defence of herself, CW said, but the difference here is that a "player" has provided evidence. A player or ex-player Caroline? Who is that player Caroline? Sorry, I forgot, you have to protect your source. Ever heard of disgruntled former employees?

If this goes to Court, your protected source will no longer be protected and may well wilt under close examination of that "Player's" testimony. As you said yesterday Caroline, the only ones likely to win here will be the Lawyers. So why the sensationalist diatribe?

I think her "player" is McLean. If he is going to be the Prosecutions star witness? Wilson's effort to give this legs has been nothing short of shambolic. BTW, did she actually make reference to that player providing "evidence". Hearsay is not evidence, but it would be the catalyst for the fictitious interpretations of the blinkered and ignorant. I think her effort to nail Melbourne to the cross while dismissing the mischief of Carlton, Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn, West coast, etc says it all.

The Sunday Herald Sun keeps the tanking controversy bubbling over with some words of wisdom -

Tanking probe must go beyond Demons, says Ron Barassi

Whenever the AFL's ready I'm willing to talk about how a former Carlton board member predicted three weeks in advance of the Kreuzer Cup that his club would end up getting the priority pick it so desperately needed to snare, not only Kreuzer but a big fish from another AFL club that was already committed to the Blues.

WJ, I remember reading a story which detailed how Judd got to Carlton dating back to his introduction to Richard Pratt during the Melbourne Cup carnival. The stakes for Carlton in '08 were infinitely higher than they were for us in '09. The sham interview process conducted by Judd with other clubs! I can't believe no reporters have ever dug deeper on it. Perhaps the fear of Pratts well contentedness discouraged it and Melbourne slips into the frame as an easier target?

If an investigation occurred I do wonder how hard the AFL would really go? They were cuckolded by Judd's 3rd party deal with Visy so I wouldn't be surprised if they knew more but were staying mute. The whole business of Carlton '07 had a stench 10 times worse than Melbourne in '09.

Aussie 2 goals, 4 minutes in. He's just a bit too good at this level, footy smarts.

Darker reaches of the Internet as opposed to the darker reaches of the mainstream media like the Age where being feral is de rigeur if you happen to be the chief football writer and you have the Melbourne Football Club in your sights.

Feral indeed!!

Whoever thinks DL is the darker reaches of the internet is reading too much into the name of it. Perhaps Google sent them to the wrong Demonland B)

Looking seriously at this thread there are several useful links which go to the core of the issue at hand being the reliability and therefore the credibility of the Journalist as well as her honing in on the club and one individual within it in particular.

The individual at Crikey would do better to examine these issues. The Stephen Mayne Crikey would have smelt the Rat. Sounds like it's turned into a social notebook....paywall Pfffft!

On first look this might seem ridiculous and we have been conditioned in this regard because of all the BS hat has gone on in the last 12 months. Looking at our list changes and with some rapid development in players fitness, skills and execution of a game plan and it probably isn't as far fetched as some might think. We also have a soft football draw to help along the way.

As pointed out by biggestred we would need everything to go right which again, just doesn't seem to fit in with what has been happening.

"Tanks for Nothing"

http://www.theage.co...0209-1an5y.html

Cheers Jose. She pretty much did the equivalent of bombing the wrong country with that effort. At least she was able to slip in one "in my opinion" unlike the bile she coughed up last week!

It sets a tone though. She has always had a bee in her bonnet about Melbourne's list management (not sure why just us? ) and would have been quivering with excitement last when the AFL slipped her the info from their water-boarding.

It's now clear Wilson truly doesn't care about any variation to presentation of MFC's '09 season. She is bent on a course to bring down the CEO and she's not going to let pleas for 'natural justice' get in her way, hence her brain snap column Friday evening which went further than targeted the CEO but took aim at everyone at the club or those who support it.

I've never warmed to Cameron Schwab myself but his job is (was) to do what is in the best interests of the football club. If he doesn't (hasn't) then history will judge, not a reporter with a vendetta.

Why do people keep saying he said this as a joke ? None of us know if it was a throw away line trying to be humerous. I have a bad feeling more is yet to come.

Why does Wilson believe this is rock solid evidence of trying to loose games? Of course the answer is it suits her agenda. But you could not possibly hang or excuse him either way without context. It is true that Connolly injects a fair amount of humour into a lot of what he says.I actually laughed about the reference to the Cavalry coming to get them if they won more than 4 games because we were in the gun from half way through the season from all quarters that we would be viewed as having failed if we DIDN'T get the priority pick.

I have long wondered about america de cali's posts. So unrelentingly bitter, often toxic views of the club he/she claims to support.

More recently a couple of posts have hinted at some falling out with the club or figures within the administration.

Can anyone - including you, too, adc - advise what lies behind this so that I and others can judge adc's contributions with some balance?

Who knows. Some people get their 'knickers in a knot' over the stupidest little things. Some people who have a right to feel aggrieved will walk away and get on with it. Some people are just attention seekers. This last one can be especially true on internet forums and is usually the retreat of the immature or unstable.

In any case the rantings of one anonymous forum poster don't amount to much if they can't articulate what it is they're unhappy about?

"All of us are lying in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars"

Wilde wrote this when he was a footy journo.

I've just been reading "yellow and black forum"

A lot of them have decided that we should give them a priority pick to make up for their winning that match.

They also talk about how crap we are in terms of success and finals etc.

They make us look professional .

Then we'll have one off Carlton for the year before. Richmond can hand back one for their ill gained pick that yielded Cotchin. That's where all this would head.

Daniel Nicholson is so underrated.

Not as a runner.

To those of you who are rightfully cancelling your paid subscriptions to The Age, i am hooping you are letting them know the reason why

If you didn't tell then go do it now so they know exactly whats going on and that we wont accept the defamatory tripe they are allowing that old hag to publish

There was a box to check when I exited asking why. I ticked "Poor content"

I agree with the overall sentiments on this thread about that article. Very ordinary journalism in my opinion.

It seems to me we need a number of Demonland contributors to write to the letters section of The Age. Surely at least 1 letter would be published.

The letters should be well written with clear arguments and no vitriol. As someone said earlier, we aren't Collingwood supporters.

Who volunteers to write one?

Sorry mate, don't have the time to bother. Just voted with my feet in cancelling my Age on-line subscription. Hopefully they put the pay wall soon an like the Herald Sun I won't have to even stumble upon it. Unfortunately the ABC now looks like the only news resource in Australia to provide news reporting without a toxic mix of fiction and opinion.

I hope 'The Ace' got this reportage right or it could get ugly (uglier?). I'm inclined to think large parts of it are made up or have been misrepresented though....oh well! No wonder people are fleeing to blogs in their search for facts and avoidance of opinion pieces in NEWSpapers.

i am actually shocked at how ridiculous and personal this article is.

Someone at the club really did something wrong to Caro somewhere along the way as I have never seen her write something with such vengeance before. It is written from the heart, with no facts to support it.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

It actually makes me wonder if someone associated with the club has actually rung her and told her to pull her head in.

Absolute bile spitting dribble. Looks like she is another Demonland reader as well? GAFY Caroline! Like you say...wait until allegations are formally put instead of through this self anointed, judge, juror and executioner and deal with them in due course. I think the column reads as a sourpuss response to the MFC's media release this arvo. She has nil idea of the concept put forward in the MFC media release of natural justice.