The ‘updates’ from the AFL’s Anti-Doping Tribunal are more like Chinese water torture than waterboarding.

Today’s hectic proceedings are summarised:

The Australian Football League Anti-Doping Tribunal continued the hearing today relating to the cases of past and present Essendon Football Club players and a former employee of the Essendon Football Club who have been issued with Infraction Notices.

 The tribunal today heard opening submissions by Mr Neil Clelland QC on behalf of two former Essendon players, followed by opening submissions by Mr David Grace QC on behalf of the remaining 32 current and former Essendon players.

Following the opening submissions of the players, the Tribunal heard submissions from the parties on the admissibility of certain evidence to be considered by the Tribunal.

The hearing will continue tomorrow.

Chief Executive Simon Garlick is the latest to announce a move from Whitten Oval.

Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights?

There are salutory lessons for the Saints, if they’re open to looking.

The Demons have rarely played ‘home’ games away from the famous MCG, but it hasn't been their spiritual home for many years — perhaps since the mid-sixties ground-sharing agreement with the Tigers. Aside from a couple of brief flowerings under John Northey and Neale Daniher, the Demons have been in the wilderness since the 60s. Various training centres and adminsitrative centres have seemed like more band-aids plastered onto a festering wound.

The original Lions, Fitzroy, gave up their traditional home in Brunswick Street for various ground-sharing deals and a shooting star-like rennaissance at the Junction Oval in the 80s. Each move seemed like a step down and back, giving up far more than they gained. By the mid-90s it was all over.

The Hawks spent years playing at Princes Park, turning it into a gold and brown cauldron, but retained their spriritual home at Glenferrie Oval. When they moved to Waverley, it was for the right reasons and for a far superior facility. They've gone from strength to strength and become a powerhouse on and off the field.

More recently, the Barcodes and the Bombers have made strategic moves to new facilities, cutting and loosening, respectively, their ties with their traditional homes. Like the Hawks, it’s hard to see them on the wrong side of the ledger as a result.

But the Saints. From a traditionally-lowly base at Junction Oval, their move to Moorabbin in the mid-60s was one of the first moves away from traditional venues in the VFL. And the Saints prospered on-field with three Grand Final appearances over seven years. Despite indifferent form through the 70s and 80s, bayside was Saints territory.

The Linton Street facility was tired, so a move was needed. It doesn’t seem that Seaford has been everyone’s cup of tea, but it was a bold strategic move for a far superior facility. Talk of a return to Junction Oval or Moorabbin suggests they haven’t embraced the change in the way that the Hawks embraced theirs.

The Kangaroos haven't broken many records on membership, but the Shinboner spirit remains strong and Arden Street keeps that spirit strong. Similarly, despite few on-field successes, the Bulldogs and Whitten Oval are synonymous (despite the players shooting themselves in the foot over their coach at the end of the 2014 season).

Forget about Moorabbin or the Junction Oval, Saints. Embrace Seaford and move heaven and earth to make it the embodiment of everything you aspire the club to be. Location isn't a deal-buster. The Hawks have shown that outer suburbs can work, and it’s firhgtening how many Geelong fans live on the opposite side of the Bay from Sleepy Hollow.

Don't pine for something else. Make Seaford a fortress for the Saints brand. Own it.

Reports today of the appointment of Taylor Walker as Captain for the Crows include the rider that the return of Patrick Dangerfield to Victoria is now almost a sure bet.

Implicit in this nonsense that masquerades as ‘sports journalism’ is the notion that Dangerfield, as the Crows’ best player, should be Captain.

It’s fair to say there’d be some debate over who is the Crows’ best if both players are at their best. Dangerfield is an exquisitely talented midfield bulldozer and Walker an exquisitely talented marking and leading forward. Which is best? Who cares!

The bigger point that this speculation chooses to ignore is the inner sanctum’s assessment, behind closed doors, of which is the more appropriate leader on and off the field. The Captaincy isn’t a talent quest. Captaincy is about the best leader, not the best player.

Perhaps the best example of this in recent times was Nick Maxwell, Premiership Captain of Collingwood. Another was Tom Harley, Premiership Captain of Geelong.

The coaching staff in Adelaide have made an assessment. If Dangerfield packs up his little red wagon and rushes back to Victoria at the first opportunity, perhaps they’ve made the right call.

The issuing of infraction notices against 34 current and former Essendon players relating to the alleged administration of a banned supplement indicates that this saga, for the players at least, has entered its final formal stages. Essendon members and fans should be relieved that events have proceeded to this point. There is a light at the end of the tunnel— and it's not a speeding train!

It's likely that, in the event that the infraction is proven to the "comfortable satisfaction" of the AFL Tribunal, any penalties will be relatively slight, as they were for the NRL Cronulla Sharks players. This will be based on a no-fault finding — that is, the players were not aware they were being administered a banned substance and in fact had good reason to be convinced they were not.

AussieRulesBlog fears that a significant number of people in the football world will see such a result as a failure of the system.

For some, fans with a hatred of the Bombers (for whatever reason, logical or not), only a decimation of the club will satisfy. Most assuredly, were the shoe on their foot, they'd sing a different tune. Jobe Watson will be booed for the remainder of his career for the simple crime of having been adjudged the best player in the competition in a year in which his club was administering these supplements, regardless of them being non–performance-enhancing. It was, and will be, ever thus. Most football fans aren't fielding recruiting calls from Mensa.

Some, media pundits who've conducted a vitriolic campaign against coach James Hird and the club's administration, we suspect won't be satisfied while Hird remains officially associated with the club and the current Board remain substantially in place. Irrespective of evidence, or of logical reasoning, they'll continue to howl. May their throats become raw with the strain of maintaining their prejudiced and irrational rage.

For the rest, a further layer of the already microscopically-thin layer of gloss on our game has been worn away.

Don't rush to pillory James Hird, or the club. They didn't intend for any (allegedly) banned substances to be (allegedly) administered and wouldn't have condoned that action had they known of it, and they almost certainly weren't the only club engaged in a potentially-compromised supplements program. It's the nature of a competitive professional sport with substantial investment, and even more substantial rewards to the successful, that envelopes will be stretched and boundaries tested.

Why does the AFL persist with entering a camel in the Melbourne Cup? Sure, the camel has four legs, and it can carry a rider, but that doesn't make it a champion stayer.

The “International Rules” series commencing later this month pits Australian Rules against Gaelic football, with both hobbled. No amount of fiddling will produce an even contest. If the Aussies can't exploit their advantage in physical agression, the Irish will use their superior skills with the round ball to win — and vice versa.

The notion that the Australian players are representing their country in this confected curiosity is fanciful and playing out of training simply increases the risk of injury. None of it makes sense. There aren't huge crowds, so there's no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.

At least among the sources AussieRulesBlog listened to, there seemed to be a certain unanimity that Brendan McCartney was doing a terrific job at Whitten Oval and the future looked quite bright.

Despite Chairman Peter Gordon's protestations, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the tail was wagging the dog when the Western Bulldogs did nothing, at least in public, to dissuade their coach from submitting his resignation.

It's hardly a surprise that in mid-November, the club still has not appointed a replacement. Who would put their hand up for the job?

It's three-quarter time and the Bulldogs are ten points down. How does the coach appeal to the players to put in an extra effort? It seems the senior players didn't take kindly to being told they needed to lift, so who could you appeal to? Ask the Chairman to give the address and kindly ask the players if they wouldn't mind trying just a smidgin harder?

For years, AussieRulesBlog has had a soft spot for the team of the mighty west, but we fear for its future in the wake of this post-season schemozzle.

The Crows may have been caught with their pants down after sacking Brenton Sanderson only to find favourite son Simon Goodwin was signing up with Roosy, but they quickly got on with things. Perhaps the Bulldogs don't have any applicants?

This post is dedicated to Nikki.

At a semi-private function recently, the MC referred to AussieRulesBlog as a “tragic Essendon supporter” — a bit much coming from a committed Melbourne supporter, but we’ll let that alone for the moment.

As a lifelong Bombers fan, the past couple of years have been quite difficult. Not nearly as difficult, we hasten to add, as the Essendon players, Danny Corcoran, Mark Thompson, Dr Bruce Reid and James Hird have had to endure. Nevertheless, the constant speculation reporting on the supplements scandal program have encouraged humorous kindergarten-style barbs directed at us — the bigger “us” that includes players, coaches, staff, board, employees, members and fans — wear one down and diminish our affection for and enjoyment of the game.

Notwithstanding those issues, we attended as many games as normal in the past two years, watched as many games as usual on TV and consumed more than our fair share of footy media while avoiding the ambulance-chasers peddling the most strident anti-Essendon agendas.

All this has had its effect on AussieRulesBlog — this blog, not our online persona. Our practice had degenerated into, largely, commenting on media stories. There's only so many times we can write that the head football writer of The Age (an appointment that continues to baffle us) is pursuing an irrational agenda. So, we stopped writing altogether.

It's time for AussieRulesBlog to be reborn. The supplements saga still has some way to run and, no doubt, we'll be writing about it again, but our intention is to comment on issues without reference to the speculative media.

It's footy’s quiet time, but we're sure we can find something to write about. Now, how many years is it since Melbourne’s last Premiership?