AFL 2013

[Troy]

The hearing has been pushed back to December so Crows will be able to participate in this years draft. In the past few days all these other stories are coming out about third party deals but it is so hard to figure out which are fine and which aren't.

Apparently if the player, or their manager, organises the deal it is fine but if the club tries to organise it it is wrong.

 

[Troy]

So the draft was yesterday and there weren't too many surprises. Collingwood had a great draft especially getting Brodie Grundy at pick 18, he is the perfect backup for Jolly as he can play senior footy this year and take a lot of pressure off Jolly. North pick up a few discarded players to fill gaps and I don't mind that, they are all still quite young and hopefully have long careers ahead of them.

 

[Troy]

Punishments were handed out to Tippett and the Crows. Biggest news is Tippett is out for 11 rounds next season and is fined $50k. Crows are fined $300k, are banned from the first two rounds of next years draft and two of their board members were suspended. Tippett continues to blame Crows saying they abused his trust, the guy has an agent and a lawyer he should blame them, if anyone, for signing an illegal contract.

 

[Troy]

So December was all about Adelaide and their illegal payments to Kurt Tippett.

January was all about Melbourne and the ongoing tanking investigation.

February is now about Essendon and their players being on some kind of doping regime throughout last season. Apparently they only found out about it 48 hours ago and are acting on it now. I highly doubt that all the key coaching staff wouldn't know about the fitness regimes of players. Press conference was nothing, they wouldn't go into any detail and didn't give any proper answers to any questions.

Ridiculous off season, can't wait for the football to start.

 

[Andrew]

Kind of stupid exploting Breaking News on the AFL Website only to barely say anything.

Either way shame and name the players involved.

 

[Troy]

It seems like the called the press conference just to be shown to be on the front foot. All it did was create more questions though because I am still unclear of what it is all to do with after watching it. WADA is getting involved so it is to do with performance enhancing drugs rather than recreational.

 

[Aniking]

Either way shame and name the players involved.

You're kidding, right? Know the story before you say something dumb like this.

The players were given supplements of some sort by the club's sport science department and informed to sign some agreement that the player's were well aware of what they were taking. Alot of them were reportedly quite hesitant in signing it but were persuaded to do so, and now it turns out that the supplements may have broken some sort of rule and are possibly illegal.

As a Bombers fan, I'm pretty disappointed to hear this, but frankly the players did what they were told. Nobody would have a deeper understanding of these supplements than the sports scientists, and if the club informed the players to take the supplements to assist with their training then it's unlikely they'd deny it if it's legal. Turns out it may not have been, but naming and shaming the players is a ridiculous notion. Personally I'd like to know who did take them, but that's just out of curiosity.

 

[Troy]

Yeah I don't see how the players can be blamed, they would have had faith in the coaching staff and medical staff to look after them and have their best interests at heart. It is really weird that they were made to sign documents to prove that they knew what they were taking, very strange way to go about it.

 

[Troy]

After all the crap in the media with Essendon and one other player finally there is football this week so we can focus on what is really important.

This week there is the first set of roundrobin games and they take place each night over the weekend.

Friday: Essendon, Western Bulldogs, Collingwood
Saturday: West Coast, Geelong, Fremantle
Sunday: Adelaide, Port Adelaide, St Kilda

Even if it is the ridiculous short format games I will still watch to get my footy fix.

 

[Andrew]

[h=5]BREAKING NEWS:

Melbourne has been found not guilty of tanking, but the investigation has led to Connolly, Bailey and the Melbourne Football club hit with fines and suspensions.

Connolly will not be allowed to "occupy any office or perform any function (including attending matches or training sessions) for or on behalf of any club" until February 1, 2014, the AFL announced on Tuesday.

Bailey, now an assistant coach at Adelaide, will be forced to sit out the first 16 rounds of this seaso

Melbourne is fined $500k.

- Source, AFL.com.au[/h]

 

[Troy]

AFL just announced their findings in the Melbourne tanking investigation.

Melbourne "not guilty" but fined $500k, Chris Connolley banned for 12 months and Dean Bailey banned for the first 16 rounds of this season.

Absolute joke of an outcome from the AFL and that was a horrible press conference to watch. Apparently you can tank during the week but not on match day. If the Football Manager and Head Coach are part of it how the hell can the team be found not guilty and if Melbourne are not guilty how can they be fined. Weak punishment from AFL as they have just let a team off for trying to lose games by playing guys out of position.

AFL must hate Adelaide, Adelaide get a bigger punishment for not even breaching the salary cap but for failing to declare a third party deal and now one of their assistants is banned even though Melbourne apparently didn't tank.

 

[Troy]

Another week another win for North, good for three quarters against Gold Coast but then faded away in the last. I want to hope that it was due to the hot weather so we didn't want to push the players too hard but last season we had a habit of fading away in games and I don't want that to continue in the main season. Couple of really close games so far this weekend as well with Bulldogs winning by a point against Hawthorn and Brisbane stealing the win against GWS with a late goal. Carlton dominated Fremantle and Adelaide looked poor against Geelong.

Can't read into it too much though as it is just the NAB cup. Still I want North to get into a winning attitude and continue to pick up wins wherever they can to be in top shape for Collingwood in round one.

 

[Andrew]

Bulldogs winning! I know it's NAB Cup but over Hawks is always good!

 

[Troy]

Definitely good to win no matter what time of the season it is. Will be good for the young dogs players to play in a win over a top team and it should give them a bit of confidence.

 

[Andrew]

Anyone up for Supercoach this year?