Sorry Saga - “It’s actually quite funny people thinking they know more than they actually do”

Ahem

So, anyone at Sandy?

I believe bomber5au & Stabby were going tonight.

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Stabby has some live tweets happening - #jobefletch

https://twitter.com/stabbytherabbit

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Thanks @LucasLefty

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good call by you ™

#jobefletch event

I think the format and content was pretty much the same as @sweatyman outlined in the first event.

The most interesting parts were the afterthought comments, being the comments that tail off after initial question was answered.

This is what I heard. Jobe was talking about the club and said “everyone (at the club) knew about the sports science program” but the “record keeping was a debacle” and “players were asked if they had their injections even though they had them 2 days before” (note: I was later pointed out by @bomber5au that injections every 2 days may have been part of the required program). Jobe considered the Essendon “club (the management or board?) to be negligent” in allowing a sports science program to operate this way.

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#jobefletch event

This is what I heard: When asked about if the truth will ever come out, Fletch said "the real truth is not about the players truth as they have been truthful (what you want to hear is) “the real truth is from others” …thereby indicating the AFL and ASADA need to provide the rest of the story so the truth can get out.

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#jobefletch event

The J34 contingent lodged a heap of questions in writing but as far as I know, only one was answered and it was one supplied by Blitzers.

Q.4. What was the purpose and what was discussed at the meeting with the AFL? IIRC Jobe, Goddard and others met with either Gill and Dillon late in the saga.

Jobe said this was before the decision had been handed down and club didn’t know if they could field a team. Goddard had said he wasn’t going to play if the majority of the team wasn’t playing (meaning it was pointless?). Jobe said they told Gil and Dillion the AFL had lost control of the process and that they had better sort something out quickly because it next season would become a disaster.

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And he was right about that, too.

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#jobefletch event

…and now the disappointing part.

A lot of the questions were dorothy dixers. What happened to the dog when you went overseas etc. How long can Fletch kick a footy. Worst opponents etc.

The event was marketed as raw and uncensored. This is misleading. Perhaps it should have been marketed as raw and uncensored as far as the AFL non disclosure agreements will allow.

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The Animal Justice Party demand answers!

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What happened to the dog when you went overseas

The Animal Justice Party demand answers! Image result for horse and hound

The event would never be raw and uncensored - Jobe and Fletch will answer questions in which they feel comfortable - Not all in the audience are interested in a session dominated by Saga related questions.

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As you say maybe not all but I would estimate 90% were very interested in hearing about the saga. At one point Fletch commented that he could spend hours talking about the what happened but we would be ordering our bacon and eggs for breakfast. A number of comments from the audience indicated that they were prepared to stay for it.

Other observations.

  • The audience that I spoke to were very angry about what had happened to the players and were thirsty for more knowledge of it.

  • As Stabby mentioned the players “discussion” with Gil and Andrew Dillon must have been fiery the way Jobe described it. BJ apparently was quite firm in his views.

  • Jobe mentioned that to this day he has never been shown any evidence that what they were given was illegal.

  • Jobe said the players retreated back into the tight group which he said helped a lot. Some of players were not happy to go out in public for fear of being harassed. They just didn’t know how to talk to outside people about it.

  • Fletch said that the boys just had to stick together.

  • Jobe said that he didn’t appreciate the hurt experienced by the fans until he came back in 2017.

  • Jobe stated that all the rumour about the 1000s of injections received by the players was rubbish that it was more like 100 - 150 across the whole team.

  • Both agreed that signing the approval form for the supplement program was ultimately their undoing.

  • There was no discussion about ASADA/WADA/CAS

  • Jobe stated that the players co-operated fully with the investigators and were assured that the interviews would be kept confidential. He said that the players were very angry that details of their interviews appeared in the next day’s newspapers. He said that the information didn’t come from the players and the only other people in the room were the AFL and ASADA.

  • Fletch intended to play a bit of local footy to put a bit back into the game but was stopped. Couldn’t coach junior footy or tennis. Angry about that.

  • As Stabby said we did submit a number of questions but all questions were vetted.

  • Both Jobe and Fletch presented well and had some funny stories.

The show was supposed to start at 8.00 but got under way about 8.40 and finished about 10.20 with about 20 minutes taken up with an auction.

Best part for me was talking to fellow fans. Maybe about 200 present but the passion was high. Mention of Evans, Robson, Robinson, Dank, McLachlan, Vlad produced boos and gnashing of teeth from the audience.
However I would add that their neither player dumped on anyone at the club, only Robinson and Dank to a degree.

Both Jobe and Fletch agreed that the current list is very good and possesses a lot of talent. All they need is some luck to do very well.

Had a long chat with the father of Tom Lamb who was drafted by the Eagles and then delisted 3 years later in 2017. Apparently he was homesick and couldn’t quite get his body right. Also him being taken away at 18 to the other side of the country caused his mother some significant mental health issues. He is back in Melbourne and will saddle up for Sandringham next season.

His dad told me that his son was given probably 30 injections in his 3 years at the Eagles and he had no idea what the injections were for. He just trusted the staff.

Great to catch up with a few Blitzers also.

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I didn’t take a straw poll at the Manhattan, but given the vibe of the evening, I’d be very surprised if there were many interested in assigning the Saga to the history books. The supporters there seemed audibly angry.

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Roberts annoyed me. Seemed to be trying to drive the narrative. Poor David Evans, as players do you think you could have done more etc. Gave me the sh!ts.

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What happens if a player breaks the afl non disclosure agreement.
Are they sued, sent to jail, firing squad or conveniently dissappear?

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The players seem convinced that signing the supplement disclosure form led to their suspension. So if Dank used the term thymomodulin on the form instead of the more generic term thymosin, even though WADA thought he did use TB4, CAS could not make the giant leap that the players were signing on to a team based PED/TB4 program.
Given their desire to convict I think CAS would have just concocted another strand to lead to their predetermined outcome.

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