Certified Legendary Thread 34 Essendon* Players suspended for doping violations - No opposition fans. Check OP for thread rules

[Heres Waite]

Because no matter how bad they go after all this, sometime within the next 30 years time they will be competitive again. Better dead. Its the only way. Imagine them after winning a flag, "you tried to kill this club but **** you everyone, we're better than you. And you never proved we did shit 30 years ago either, it was a conspiracy against up". I'll kill myself if I had to put up with that shit from those arrogant campaigners. Kill them all the way back to suburban football.

Exactly, the only way I want them to exist is in the VFA. That way we are reminded of the fact that there once was a club called Essendon but they were a shit stain on the competition.Their license should be torn up and a new license created for a deserving club (Norwood). Our competition will be much better for it!!

 

[BIGGUS 64]

Exactly, the only way I want them to exist is in the VFA. That way we are reminded of the fact that there once was a club called Essendon but they were a shit stain on the competition.Their license should be torn up and a new license created for a deserving club (Norwood). Our competition will be much better for it!!

All due respect to Norwood, but the Bombers* should make way for Tassie getting a team of their own.
Another sh!t stain on the competition is the fact that NSW (rugby heartland) got a second team before Tasmania (a pure, passionate footy state since the year dot) even got one.
******* AFL and their obsession with trying to muscle in on rugby territory.

 

[thylacine60]

Tassie can't get a club because the population can't support it? Cue GWS attendances please, Mr Music...

 

[BIGGUS 64]

Tassie can't get a club because the population can't support it? Cue GWS attendances please, Mr Music...

LOL watching highlights from GWS matches. All the empty rows of seats, you find yourself wondering if it's a practice match or something.

 

[BluStreak]

time to reduce the number of teams in Melbourne.

 

[BIGGUS 64]

time to reduce the number of teams in Melbourne.

Starting with the dead wood: Bombers*, then Saints and Bulldogs.

 

[Magruder]

I always thought Port Melbourne might make a viable Essendon replacement.

 

[thylacine60]

Port go off-site they're in the ****ing Bay......

 

[GoBlues!]

I'm waiting on BJ "Mr ethics" Goddard to release a statement to the media...

Or maybe they could call on the accurate one, Mark McVeigh - who could forget his version of events in February 2013:

Retired Essendon star Mark McVeigh has savaged former teammate Kyle Reimers over the AFL club's anti-doping crisis. McVeigh has given the strongest defence yet of the club, a day after the Bombers announced they were under a joint Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and AFL investigation because of supplements supplied to the players last year.
When the story broke on Tuesday, Reimers said in a television report that they were using supplements last season that were "right on the edge''.
McVeigh angrily denied there was anything untoward about last year's controversial fitness program at the club.
"Kyle Reimers has come out and said some things that are untrue,'' McVeigh told SEN radio.
"He's a disgruntled player who was delisted from the football club, who very rarely turned up to pre-season training in any sort of form that resembled a professional footballer. "Every player knew what we were taking ... if you didn't know, you must have been asleep in the meeting, which Kyle probably was.
"Everything that I took, and I can only speak on my behalf obviously, I knew 100 per cent that it was within the WADA and AFL doping regulations.''
McVeigh admitted to having off-site injections, but said these were to ensure a sterile environment. He added they were for vitamins B and C.
He also denied the club made players sign waivers before they took supplements, with McVeigh saying they were consent forms that the players wanted. We were going on a different program (where) we hadn't been before, we'd never really gone into some of the supplements that were being taken.''

20 months is a long time in football.

 

[ESKIE]

I'm sick of Essendon blaming everyone else, the investigation, ASADA the AFL and the media, sorry but who actually got you into this mess...

Idiots

 

[Magruder]

why would you want them the club to fold? Besides isnt it more enjoyable seeing the club get flogged every week for 5 years, then not be competitive at all for the following 5 years.

That's the way. Not dead just on the cusp of it for many many years

 

[BluesRule]

That's the way. Not dead just on the cusp of it for many many years

Essendon have been mediocre for a long time (even before this scandal broke) and they should be sanctioned again by the AFL now as they continue to bring the game into disrepute with idiotic comments and actions, that make the game unpalatable for anyone who sees sport as 'fair'.

Essendon got a free AFL Premiership in 1993 by cheating the salary cap, and when uncovered got a slap on the wrist. <The Melbourne Storm lost their premierships!>. The message from the AFL at that time to all other clubs was cheating is OK if you get away with it, and the AFL will look after Essendon as they are a powerful club. We will never have a great AFL competition whilst Collingwood and Essendon make up the rules! They are powerful clubs but the game must be bigger than them or it is a farce.

Then Essendon lead AFL (Evans) hammered us when we self reported the brown paper bags and tried to destroy our club. Elliot got tempted, but we F***ing self reported and got ZERO mercy. The AFL have subsequently (for other teams before and after) been more lenient.

Now Essendon are wriggling and whinging and pleading for relief as they again push the frontiers on how to cheat and get away with it in the AFL. If the AFL do not have the balls to seriously hammer them right now then the competition will remain a joke and all the rants about the powerful Victorian clubs running the AFL will continue to be true.

The AFL must show it has a spine or Essendon will do whatever it takes to find a new competitive advantage to push the boundaries beyond safe and reasonable conduct in future. I was hoping the club would be suspended for two years (which I understand is the ASADA requirement for wholesale cheating) as a warning of just how serious this is, and how AFL is a safe and healthy sport for all Australians. Will Essendon get away with a joke off season suspension because they were all duped by some (so far) unidentified person? I hope not.

The players are not innocent. They know the rules more than the 14-18 year old amateur athletes who routinely take ASADA bans. Jobe Watson stated on National TV he took a banned substance???

Just because Essendon has $$$ does not mean they should get different rules to every other athlete on the planet. If the AFL take Government $$$ they must comply with ASADA/WADA. Hope it happens soon so we can plan for a substitute AFL team for 2 years or watch Essendon reserves get smashed!

 

[Big Sim]

Reading between the lines:

Extravagantly lenient: not all the ban to be backdated

Lenient: Small part of the ban to be served; the rest backdated.

It seems to be an established fact in media reports that the worst case scenario for the players will be one month served in season. The word extravagant needs an adjective along the lines of "ridiculously" in front of it when describing such leniency in my book, but it seems that there is no limit to the farcical nature of this whole sorry affair.

What gets me about the notion of a backdated bans, which is effectively the players getting off scot free, is that they are doing so on the basis of susbtantial assistance to the investigation as a mitigating factor:

If deny, obfuscate, and go along with an attempt to have all the evidence against them buried in a Coober Pedy mine shaft for all eternity is assistance, I am the Easter Bunny.

 

[Magruder]

BluesRule, Big Sim

I think we've all come to assume that the penalty in the form of bans and any other snactions imposed will be grossly inadequate.

We just hope that something equating to a full 12-24 months will be imposed on the 34 together with significant further draft sanctions/even loss of premiership points.

My view would be something along the lines:

Commence 2015 on negative 176 premiership points. (2 full seasons of wins, 22 x 4).
These points are carried on from season to season and reduced by 4 points each week, 8 points for a win to make it interesting.
Appropriate bans for players and staff, (12 months).
Loss of first & 2nd round draft picks for 2 years.
Appropriate financial sanctions.

Or suspend the whole campaigner of a club for 2 years and invite Port Melbourne on a trial basis.

but we all know that they will get a month at the start of the season and be scheduled to play, Gold Coast, GWS, St Kilda and Melbourne.
then probably get an end of first round pick to ease the pain of dropping 3 of these games.

 

[Blue Doormat]

Page 22 of Herald Sun by Rita Panahi. Full of logic and perspective. Best article/comment piece on this topic I've seen for a long time.

 

[thylacine60]

Rita Panahi?

 

[Aphrodite]

Rita Panahi?

Come on T you know 'Ripper Rita' on GuesSEN on Friday's with Harf & the boys.

 

[Aphrodite]

Page 22 of Herald Sun by Rita Panahi. Full of logic and perspective. Best article/comment piece on this topic I've seen for a long time.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/op...h-penalties-loom/story-fni0fhh1-1227095341621

 

[thylacine60]

It was the logic and perspective comment I was askance at. That's right, askance....

 

[Aphrodite]

It was the logic and perspective comment I was askance at. That's right, askance....

Oh go and askance somewhere else.




askance
[uh-skans]

1. with suspicion, mistrust, or disapproval
2. with a side glance; sidewise; obliquely

 

[OldBlueFan]

Rita Panahi?

I guess he means this one: Bombers can’t expect special treatment from ASADA as harsh penalties loom

 

[Aphrodite]

I guess he means this one: Bombers can’t expect special treatment from ASADA as harsh penalties loom

It's the same link I posted above.

 

[Blue Doormat]

It's the same link I posted above.

Sorry. Just had the paper and couldn't be bothered looking up the online article (read not too tech savvy) thanks aph

 

[Aphrodite]

Sorry. Just had the paper and couldn't be bothered looking up the online article (read not too tech savvy) thanks aph

I read it this morning as well in the print version & I normally don't read Rita's articles.

 

[gab213]

You know it's not difficult to write for the Herald-Sun when people like Rita and Robbo can have their pieces published. Have never read anything they have written or heard anything that they have said that is of any value.