I’m secretly stander.
no Crameri’s mum is very anti what happened to the guys in regards to their treatment by the afl, ASADA & the media in fact she posts in here or did post during the saga …no way is she Sarah in fact she would probably like to have a go at her for what she did!
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We all have dreams
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Bruce Francis again.
Please take the time to read this one.
"Guys
In sport, we use the word great far too often, but there are instances when it can truly be applied.
Greatness is a status that is earned by enduring success, that success obtained by rigidly adhering to a set of quality, world-class values agreed to by the many and carried out on their behalf by the few.
Once upon a time, and it seems like a fairy story these days written by Hans Christian Sheedy, if not Andersen, in comparison with the Grimm narrative that surrounds the Bombers now, Essendon was a great club.
Apply the above criteria now to the Essendon Football Club and you have to agree with Matthew Lloyd: Essendon is no longer a great club. Mind you, I am not sure that it is appropriate for Lloyd to be firing the bullets. He, and past greats lose some of their greatness by not bashing the board for its failure to expose the Court of Arbitration for Sport as inept, biased and/or corrupt.
The Bombers’ current ‘values’ – my first oxymoron for the day - are decided by the few - a craven set of administrators and lackeys - and abhorred by the many, the players and the people most entitled to be aggrieved at Essendon, the supporters.
Feedback indicates that the supporters are ashamed of their club for capitulating to the AFL, and I have been told that deep down the players are resentful that the AFL and Essendon board have made no attempt to expose the Court of Arbitration for Sport panel as biased, inept and/or corrupt.
Every time another propagandist for the lies surrounding the ASADA saga speaks out, Fitzpatrick the latest, you can hear the cries from the supporters: “Why doesn’t the club come out and tell the truth?” “Why doesn’t the club admit to the deals done with the AFL to sacrifice Hird and why doesn’t the club expose the CAS as biased, inept and/or corrupt?”
The answers lie at the very heart of Essendon’s tragic tumble from greatness - the club that has won more premierships than any other, a national brand, an ornament in sport - to the divided rabble it is now.
In February, 2013, the first craven set of Essendon administrators - led by David Evans and Ian Robson - sold the club’s soul and saved themselves by offering up James Hird in return for their pardon.
Not since his brothers stripped Joseph of his coat and sold him into slavery has there been a betrayal like this. In time Joseph turned the tables on his brothers, something that must keep McLachlan, Fitzpatrick, Demetriou, Evans and Robson awake at night, for they will know that Hird is again a rising hero at Essendon, while they are increasingly recognised as the scum they are.
Deep in what is left of his own soul, Evans knows that, but he can never bring himself to admit it publicly, so will go to his grave a broken man, no matter how often Caroline Wilson sticks up for him.
The current president, Lindsay Tanner, is also a man with a deeply tarnished soul.
For Bill Kelty’s puppet to come out, as he did this week, and say that he agrees with everything the AFL has done in recent times, is the most contemptuous betrayal of the Essendon players and the Essendon members.
No wonder the Essendon supporters are ashamed of their club when those who claim to represent them go against everything they want their leaders to do.
In the words of another Labor person, Paul Keating, Tanner is the unrepresentative swill.
Not only is he unrepresentative, he is unelected, rumoured to be a comfortable appointment at the AFL’s behest.
Evans, Paul Little and Tanner have behaved in a way that denies Essendon any right to call itself a great club.
Great clubs don’t destroy the reputations – and the lives – of their heroes as Essendon has done with the 34 players, James Hird, Mark Thompson and Danny Corcoran.
The US Marines risk their lives to bring home the bodies of their dead comrades. The Essendon offered Hird to save themselves.
The Essendon Football Club is no longer one of the greatest forces in the world of Australian football because its administrative leaders showed a complete lack of courage to fight for their comrades – Hird, Thompson et al – when the first shot rang out.
Evans put Demetriou and Fitzpatrick and his survival before Hird and Thompson.
Evans put Demetriou and Fitzpatrick and his and his board’s survival before the members and supporters.
Tanner puts McLachlan and Goyder before the players and Hird and Thompson’s right to be exonerated.
Tanner puts McLachlan and Goyder before the members and the supporters.
When they see this, players know they are no longer playing for a great club. Subconsciously, it must affect them.
The state of the club can be directly attributed to the deceits that began in February 2013, and everything that has happened since, including the appointment of Worsfold as coach. The players didn’t rate him at the end of year one. They thought less of him after year two and were extremely disappointed with his reappointment for another two years.
For those who need reminding, and it seems that’s most of the Essendon board, though certainly not the supporters, here are a few examples of the pusillanimous behaviour by the club’s leaders that now mean the Bombers are no longer a great club.
Evans and Robson agreed to the outcome of the investigation on 9 February 2013 – 4 days before the first witness was interviewed.
The Essendon board sanctioned/ endorsed Evans’s decision at the March 2013 board meeting.
Essendon employed Liz Lukin at the AFL’s behest before Evans acknowledge Essendon may even have a problem.
Essendon employed one of Gillon McLachlan’s good mates Tony Hargreaves as its solicitor.
Hargreaves never openly criticised the AFL’s constant inappropriate behaviour and it denying Hird and the club procedural fairness.
Essendon employed Ziggy Switkowski at the AFL’s behest to conduct an internal review into governance failures at Essendon. In a bewildering decision, which was arguably in breach of their fiduciary duties, the board gave the Switkowski Report to the AFL and ASADA to use against Hird, Thompson, Corcoran and the club. The Switkowski Report gave the AFL ammunition to fine the club $2 million; expel it from the finals series; and take away draft picks.
Essendon capitulated to AFL blackmail in August 2013.
The club has been given irrefutable proof that the CAS panel was inept, biased and/or corrupt, but has done nothing about it.
Lindsay Tanner’s constant cry of move on proves he is on a different wave length from the people he was not elected to represent. Every member, even those in the all too complicit coteries, would dislike or hate the AFL and yet in the most sycophantic gesture of the decade, he alienated the entire Essendon supporter base by saying he agrees with everything the AFL has done in recent times.
The silence of the coteries who have agreed to “move on” is another reason why Essendon can no longer be called a great club.
That status won’t return until the sycophants at the top, with Tanner leading them out the front door, are gone, replaced by people of virtue, people who think that a “move on” might be something to try at the next ruck contest, not the cowardly motto that has reduced this once great of clubs to a rabble. I bet Hawthorn supporters are happy Don Scott was at their club and not Lindsay Tanner.
To begin the long, arduous return to greatness Essendon needs many things. Inter alia, a captain to die for, a respected coach, and a chairman or woman of substance who will restore the club’s traditional values.
Dyson Heppell is inexperienced and severely constricted by the club’s insistence on adhering to the discredited “move on” motto and is weighed down by that burden. Thank goodness Geelong have allowed Stewart Crameri to tell the truth. No wonder Geelong is considered a great club these days.
As for the coach John Worsfold, who sounds like English is his second or third language, he’s gone already, it’s just that Tanner and Co can’t bring themselves to accept it, having renewed his contract until 2020. Talk about lack of 2020 vision.
As for the chairman, the sooner he is gone, replaced by someone who represents the will of the club, not the will of the AFL, the better.
Until John Worsfold is replaced by a coach that the players respect totally and are prepared to bleed for, Essendon will lack everything that is needed to make the club great again.
Until Lindsay Tanner is replaced, in a fair and open election, by someone who puts the interests of Essendon first and foremost, the club will lack everything that is needed to make Essendon great again.
Bruce Francis"
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Only question I have is,how does Bruce KNOW the above re:players/Woosha gone etc?
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I was surprised when they asked Crameri if he talked to his family first or just joined the supplement program because everyone else did. That was his opportunity to talk about going over it with his mother and doing some online research, but his answer was that he just did it like the others.
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Whats Bruce Francis going to do with his life when this isnt a thing anymore.
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when this is done Bruce can rest in peace ! He is 100 % correct above …
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Francis has got to the heart of my anger. I love the people (Hird, players, Doc Reid etc) but am furious with the club.
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Yup, and deep down I kinda think he’s right, this happened and continues to happen to our club.
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Also find it strange that Crameri can speak out but Essendon players apparently not. Is EFC bound by a non-disclosure agreement or is it just part of their capitulation to the AFL?
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Hurley did
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Club has been so beaten and battered from the AFL,its only answer now is subserviance.
Yet it lives under the delusion it did all it could for the players.
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Good question. Its pathetic that EFC players have said nothing. Not blaming the players in anyway though. There must be a reason
The parts of the Ziggy report that were released publicly do not bear a resemblance to his public/ published style. Terms such as pharmacologically experimental and alpha males are just sensationalist…
Perhaps Bruce could track down the real author and also establish the veracity of the secret report he claims was shared with ASADA and AFL…
Shame EFC shareholders could not also share.
Shame also that Zigggy has not spoken.
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Yeah a contract with the AFL
Bruce lives hundreds of miles away but is spot-on with all his assessments in that post.
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Absolutely.
(Matthew Lloyd was a very good footballer)
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I thought exactly the same thing. And it didn’t seem that anything had been edited out. Stewie definitely said he signed because everyone else did. No mention of discussing it or researching the supplements with his mum.
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Maybe in his latest piece he wanted to keep the focus on the bigger picture of the damage caused to the wider family by the likes of Fitzpatrick and the specious nature of evidence drawn upon to assert guilt.
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