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Get a grip. It's footy. And since the year dot if you can get hold of a player who can win you a flag you go after him. That 's all there is to it. I'll tell you what's "vomitous". And that is the we didn't signed him. It is no right of ours to know what goes on in his personal life. Role models? Leave me alone. They're spoiled kids who can run and kick a ball. Political correctness is killing this game.
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It's all very well to say "Cousins can win us a flag", but can he? Do you honestly think, with a guy who is yet to debut as our second ruckman, a midfield composed of either guys approaching 22 or guys approaching 32 (discounting McVeigh), a forwardline that relies on Hall and O'Loughlin who are both slow and injury prone in their old age (far, FAR from useless, but hardly rocks up forward like they have been over the years), and an incredibly undersized defensive unit that is suffering more and more each year as the rules change to make it almost impossible to defend one on one against a guy more than 3 cm taller than you, that we have a realistic shot at the flag next year, with or without Cousins?
We're in a rebuilding phase. That doesn't mean we have to slide down to the bottom of the ladder, but right now, we've got a massive lack of 23-27 year olds. Our old guys are being phased out, our new guys are being brought in. To win a Premiership, you need stability, you need a core group to lead you there. Right now, our core is missing, and we're relying on the outer shells, the young guys and the old guys, to win us games. That's great, but it's not going to win us a premiership, and adding another 30 year old star isn't going to change that.Officially on the Reid and Sumner bandwagon!Comment
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True, it's unlikely, even highly unlikely, but after last year's boilover I wouldn't say impossible. Then I think of a very dark horse from Canada who is bigger than Buddy and probably faster, who can mark a ball and who might work out where to run; who knows where we might end up? Mind you, I prefer not to have BC and to keep going in the current direction.He reminds him of the guys, close-set, slow, and never rattled, who were play-makers on the team. (John Updike, seeing Josh Kennedy in a crystal ball)Comment
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He didn't fail a drug test during his playing days because the testing regime was absurdly inadequate. Justin Charles took steriods and cheated against players who didn't. The club failed to detect his cheating and played him apparently oblivious to his steriod use. That constitutes an abysmal record because they were either grossly negligent or . . . . They are a good fit for Cuz. They deserve each other.Bevo bandwagon driverComment
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See above. Its not the numbers that are important its the act. This isn't about the right of individuals to stupify themselves or grow chemically induced big muscles. Its about the integrity of the game. Particularly with EPO and human growth hormone all sports are in jeopardy. The AFL's attitude to drugs in sport would be a joke if it wasn't so serious.Bevo bandwagon driverComment
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fair enough Xie Shan, but imo they only have one quality player (Perhaps 2 if Cousdog ends up there) in Richo. A lot of decent players, but nothing special and I just don't rate them. I think they will improve on last year, but not by a lot really and will maybe sneak into the eight but disappear rather quickly. Who knows?"You get the feeling that like Monty Python's Black Knight, the Swans would regard amputation as merely a flesh wound."Comment
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integrity of the game......wanker....who cares....when Plugger kicked the goals who cared that he smashed Caven....you and every other SWans fan yell for Plugger just as we booed him every time he touched the ball after Caven as he kicked 10 goals and won the game for St Kilda.Comment
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Lets look at all the facts:
1. The cheat tested positive to Boldenone (1,4-androstadiene-3-one-17?-ol) a common drug used in equestrian sports. A lot of sports drugs in Australia come through the horse racing industry into human competition. Don't ask for the data, its anecdotal but persuasive.
2. Charles had a mediocre career at Footscray, took a season off and competed in the US baseball comp, where Boldenone is a not uncommon performance enhancing drug.
3. Boldenone is typically used in an off-season to build size and strehgth. Both things needed by Charles who came back bigger, stronger and better from the US.
4. He was "surprisingly" recruited by Richmond. Here was a player with an ordinary record from a mediocre club who gets picked up after a 12 month lay -off.
5. And guess what fairy stories do come true. The ordinary player astomishingly polls 17 votes in the Brownlow in his comback year to FINISH FIFTH IN THE COUNT (1996). He was beaten by Voss and Hird. He had become an elite level footballer after a season off playing in the US lower baseball leagues where steriod abuse was rife.
7. A team mate of Charles was Benny Gale the mouthpiece of the AFPLA which has campaigned long and hard against a strong AFL drug testing regime.
8. So get this. The Richmond conditioners , coaches, a law student team mate in the ruck who played alongside him and medical staff were completely taken unawares by the extraordinary increase in the performance of Charles and thought apparently that he had just got bigger and better as an AFL footballer by playing baseball in Miami.
9. And if you or anyone believes that Charles positive was the result of theraputic treatment then please apply for a position as a racing steward. Some of us need that kind of belief.
Richmond deserve the little grub. He should feel right at home.Last edited by connolly; 14 December 2008, 04:22 PM.Bevo bandwagon driverComment
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If that means that Charles claim the in-season theraputic use caused the positive. Just listen to Victor Conte. Just out of jail after running the biggest and most successful drug sports lab and network that put Marion Jones across the line.
"It's that off-season training, this strength base, that serves them months later during the competitive season,'' Conte said.
"So, it tells me athletes aren't going to be using now, around the Olympics. They were using when there was no testing.''
In Charles time the off season drug testing in AFL was weaker than it is now. Boldenone stays in the system for up to 18 months. He was just unlucky.Bevo bandwagon driverComment
I only support one team: The 
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