2014 AFL Season - Spoilers Inside

The Essendon thing goes far beyond club allegiances - there has been a brutal, ill-informed "You're all drug cheats" vs "No we're not" debate amongst supporters and a very obious and extremely misleading "Innocent" (News Limited) vs "Guilty" (Fairfax) agenda that has clouded the judgement of the football public.

Until catergorically proven otherwise, I do not and will not believe that the captain of the Essendon Football Club would knowingly put either himself or his teammates at risk of suspension/bans due to doping infractions. This fault lies absolutely at the feet of those who implemented and oversaw the supplements program at Essendon.

I know the argument exists that "you should know what you are taking", however we should not discount the possibility of players being deliberately misled by those involved in the program.

Surely hird can't coach this club again problem is this will drag out another 2 years

Be interesting to know if Crameri and Monfries got notices as well.

Lazlow said:

Be interesting to know if Crameri and Monfries got notices as well.

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that's a point. I don't see why not.

The word is monfries will not receive one.

Two massive underdog wins today.

I tipped the dees

What a game that was with the Dees, seems Roosey really does perform wonders lol

After 256 games, 594 goals, 3 Premierships, 1 x Coleman Medal, 2 x All Australians and 3 x Best and Fairests, Jonathan Brown has announced his retirement, effective immediately. If you haven't seen his spectacular mark against Hawthorn in 2002, do yourself a favour. It epitomises what he and the game is about.

A real sad day for footy, true hardman of the game and a gentlemen off it! We won't be seeing players like him anytime soon.

after a another bag, Schulz leads the coleman.....
Will be a tight run race, my money is still on Jack

Re: Mooney's uppercut @ 39:00

This is what s---s me about Vic centric football media full of too many club men.

Was the guy being a bit of a knob? Sure. But Mooney conveniently ignores that the fan was giving a spray to Josh Caddy, who tried for two years to get out of the Gold Coast, eventually quitting.

Is he the first fan to give a player a spray? Hell no. Hawkins copped plenty tonight when he hugged the solitary Cats fan in the Bombers section.

But to single him out on TV and call him a wanker is the disgrace.

I didn't like seeing it to be honest.....people are pretty volcanic these days and imagine if a Geelong player had planted one on the bloke's chin like David Parkin did years ago (which he has said that he regrets). The self-entitled concept of "I pay my money so I'll say what I like" is as gutless as any attitude that exists in modern sport and one day some big mouth will find themselves in hospital.

If what Cam Mooney said makes at least one Dad think to himself "F**k, that's not the way to behave in front of my child at the footy any more" then fair enough in my opinion.

I don't condone it, but why single out this guy and not the multitude of others from any other round.

There's more disdain and disgust shown here than there ever was for the guy the Carlton fan that tried to elbow Birchall in the head when Armfield pushed him into the fence.

Its because it's Mooney, it's Geelong and they lost to an expansion side. It highlights exactly the problem that's endemic within AFL media.

When Eagles fans booed Jobe last year, we heard all about it throughout the whole game and the next day in reams of columns and articles. How its "not on" and "disrespectful" and "disappointing". Yet when Bombers fans spent a whole game against Sydney, booing Goodes, booing Hannbery, and then booing the ump that was knocked out, cut to a commercial, barely a peep.

It's something that has become very apparent to me over the course of the last few weeks; the ghosts of the VFL will always haunt this league, while club men dominate the media.

You've got Eddie McGuire - president of one of the richest and most well supported clubs - trying to do to Sydney what he did to the Lions, targeting their concessions and making baseless accusations about their academy. You've got David King writing about the struggling Victorian clubs and how we should change the draft to help them. You've got Luke Darcy, who's never been shy at expressing his disdain for West Coast, blaming the expansions sides and their draft concessions for the Bulldogs woes. You've got Tim Watson constantly trying Essendon's case in the court of public appeal - why he's even allowed to work Bombers games is beyond me!

I watched as West Coast slipped down the ladder for a few years culminating in their first wooden spoon. Oh well life goes on. But the Saints struggle and "there's a problem" despite them playing for Premierships only a few years ago, just as West Coast were.

Its the reason why Schulz is "underrated", why no one seems to recognise Jamie Bennell's tremendous turn around, and why they can never get the Gold Coast players names right, confusing Harbrow for Broughton or Matera for O'Meara.

At the end of the day, despite all their blame shifting, you can always point to Port Adelaide and say - if they can turn it around in 18 months, any club can.

(I could go on about how the AFL media is never satisfied unless its complaining about something, but christ, this rant is long enough.)

You know what, I might be in the minority here but I don't see a problem with it to be honest. It's a passionate fan giving it to the opposition after a major upset, it's nothing new. It's just that the Geelong players reacted which is why it's been reported on a lot. Also just want to add that Geelong tend to be arrogant, which is what I think this supporter was pointing out, and the Geelong players reacted, which is just what the Suns supporter wanted. Nothing to report on I don't think, the players just needed to move on without even acknowledging him.

As much as I love a good F bomb I think it's time they switched the umpires microphones off. Twice today it been clearly heard, Hodge and just now Hanley for the Lions. I don't have a problem with hearing the players but a lot of kids watch the footy, so not a good look. And another reason, I just hate listening to the umpire talk, it's a massive pet hate of mine.

BLOWN8 said:

As much as I love a good F bomb I think it's time they switched the umpires microphones off. Twice today it been clearly heard, Hodge and just now Hanley for the Lions. I don't have a problem with hearing the players but a lot of kids watch the footy, so not a good look. And another reason, I just hate listening to the umpire talk, it's a massive pet hate of mine.

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Yeah they didn't even turn them off when that KO'd ump was retching on the field during the Sydney/Essendon game

Just be glad they haven't stuck cameras on them yet, like FOX have in the NRL

Do yourselves a favour folks and watch the following....with a little under four minutes to go and the game on the line, young Marcus Bontempelli kicked one of the best goals I have ever seen!

http://www.afl.com.au/video/2014-06-29/bontempellis-goal-of-the-year

some great news for all you Freo fans out there
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-07-03/after-1394-days-morabito-returns

2014 U18 All Australian side announced today (which, if history repeats, will become the insert set for Future Force)

2014 UNDER-18 ALL AUSTRALIAN TEAM

DEFENDERS: Harrison Wigg (South Australia), Ed Vickers-Willis (Vic Metro), Josh McGuinness (Tasmania), Darcy Tucker (Vic Country), Caleb Marchbank (Vic Country), Angus Brayshaw (Vic Metro)

MIDFIELDERS: Paul Ahern (Vic Metro), Christian Petracca (Vic Metro), Billy Stretch (South Australia), Peter Wright (Vic Metro), Isaac Heeney (NSW/ACT), Jake Johansen (South Australia)

FORWARDS: Callum Mills (NSW/ACT), Darcy Moore (Vic Metro), Rhys Mathieson (Vic Country), Jayden Laverde (Vic Metro), Patrick McCartin (Vic Country), Caleb Daniel (South Australia)

INTERCHANGE: Jack Steele (NSW/ACT), Darcy Parish (Vic Country), Ben Keays (Queensland), Connor Blakely (Western Australia)

COACH: Jason Saddington (NSW/ACT)

ASSISTANT COACH: Brenton Phillips (South Australia)

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Pretty incredible that SA can win a second championship but only get 4 kids into the AA side.

And only 1 from Western Australia, what's going on with WA footy?

(yet there's 3 from NSW/ACT )

Of the above, Darcy Tucker, Rhys Mathieson, Darcy Parish, Ben Keays and Callum Mills are ineligible for the draft this year.