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If recent outings are anything to go by, Liam Picken will be in his element on AFL grand final day.The aerially gifted Western Bulldogs utility has already pressed his case for best player of the finals with game-changing displays against early-September scalps West Coast and Hawthorn.Picken was again influential in Saturdays scintillating six-point preliminary-final triumph over Greater Western Sydney, making a crucial smother with three minutes remaining to set up Jack Macraes match-winning goal.Its becoming standard fare for the 30-year-old former tagger, who has been reincarnated since Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge let him off the leash in a more attacking role.His endurance and sky-high marking this month has turned heads and drawn comparisons with the 1970s and 80s finals exploits of his father, Collingwood VFL legend Billy Picken.Beveridge, in turn, has been quick to praise his quietly spoken charge as a big-game performer, someone who thrives on high-stakes footy and will do practically anything to win.He is one of those players whose game really relates to big finals, Beveridge said last week.He doesnt shy away from anything.The question now is what impact will he have at the MCG in the hunt for the Dogs first premiership in 62 years?Pitted against a Sydney side boasting oodles more grand-final nous, the comparatively inexperienced Bulldogs players say they draw confidence from Pickens mix of fearlessness and reliability.Stand-in captain Easton Wood has even likened his game to that of North Melbourne great Wayne Carey.But less than a week before making his own grand-final debut, Picken himself is more concerned with lauding his teams even spread of contributors.He backed the close-knit squad to make it count on the biggest stage of all on Saturday.The team is really tight and sticks together - were a very unique group, Picken said.Its great momentum at the moment and the boys are playing really well. Were really gelling.To get the chance to play in a grand final is just amazing. Aaron Rodgers Super Bowl Jersey . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Billy Turner Super Bowl Jersey . - Goaltender Philippe Desrosiers of the Rimouski Oceanic has broken a shutout record that was only three months old in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. https://www.packersrookiestore.com/Customized/ . The move comes after the Canadiens were approached by the Buffalo Sabres for permission to speak to Dudley - a former Sabres player and head coach. "The Sabres called for permission and I appreciate that, Im flattered, Dudley told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun of ESPN. Geronimo Allison Super Bowl Jersey . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. Tony Brown Super Bowl Jersey . The Islanders dealt Thomas Vanek to the Montreal Canadiens after less than a year on Long Island. Meanwhile, the Oilers dealt long-time sniper Ales hemsky to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday for a fifth-round pick in 2014 and a third-rounder in 2015. LONDON -- In an instant, Paul Lakes mind goes back more than three decades to a soccer field in Manchester and Barry Bennells tricks with the ball.The youth team coach flicked the ball between his feet, knees, shoulder, and head, impressing the youngsters hoping to break into the game, and their parents.He was a person you would completely trust, recalls the 48-year-old Lake, who says he was 11 or 12 at the time. He would do keepy-up, ball skill sessions in front of all the parents and they would be clapping and cheering him.It was like, `Wow. This guy is a fantastic footballer. And he was great with the kids. He said the right things; he was encouraging; he looked the part; he was fit; he was powerful. All of our parents would see how good he was and see how he was with each individual boy.That was the public face of Bennell, the man entrusted by parents with turning their children into professionals. In private, Bennell was sexually abusing some aspiring players linked to Manchester City and later Crewe Alexandra in the 1970s and 80s.He was the pied piper, he knew how to manipulate the environment to suit his needs and his desires and his horrible behavior, Lake told The Associated Press. He could gain trust from parents unwittingly under the guise of being this caring coach who could get your son to be a professional footballer.Only now, after receiving three separate jail terms in the United States and England from 1995 to 2015, are the full horrors emerging of what Bennell subjected the children in his care to.Lake can now recall only one training session with Bennell because he was in a separate coaching group around Manchester City feeder teams. But David White and Paul Stewart, future teammates in the City first team, suffered in private for years before this week waiving their anonymity to tell their stories of abuse at the hands of Bennell and an unnamed coach.There were muted conversations around and suspicions around Barry Bennell even around that time, Lake said. It was dismissed because there is no way that person -- because hes a football man and kids love him -- would be an abuser of young men because hes wearing club badges. So hes got to be legitimate.Im not knocking City or Crewe because no one knew, or came forward. No one pointed the finger. Football wasnt ready with how to deal with it. So many young lives were traumatized, carrying burden.Bennell was first convicted in Florida in 1995 after being charged with raping a boy and repeatedly sexually assaulting a player from a youth team he had escorted to the United States. Baack in England, Bennells crimes were the subject of a television documentary in 1997, and a year later he was convicted again, receiving a six-year sentence for 23 offences.dddddddddddd.Then the story stopped, with no deeper scrutiny until now of the role of Bennells employers, and no demands for public inquiries to discover how entrenched pedophile coaches were in soccer.Looking back at that particular time, there was an overriding trust in individuals, Lake said. The likes of Barry Bennell sourced the most vulnerable and they understood how much it meant to that boy to be a professional footballer, to make it at the top.They sussed out the families. They showered the families with gifts, saying the right things.With it, Bennell gained their trust and the ability to convince parents to allow their children to stay in his home.Not for one instance was there a thought there was an ulterior motive, there was this underhand and vile individual that was preying on your child, said Lake, whose wife Jo is assisting David White on his autobiography featuring details of abuse by Bennell.In society you knew these people were around, but they were almost stereotyped as being as a person with greasy hair and wore a rain coat and were a real loner. Thats never the case. Barry Bennell proved he was the complete antithesis of that.Lake, whose City career was curtailed by injury, went on to be an ambassador for the team. Now working for the Premier League as club support manager, Lake wants officials to be proactive in the welfare of players.Chairman and CEOs need to be more responsible, said Lake, who attended a player care seminar on Friday organized by the Premier Sports Network. Its too easy to be dismissive and say `Thats somebody elses responsibility. The chairman at Crewe is now talking about how upset and how frustrated he is around Barry Bennell.They should have made more efforts to find out because that information was out there. Instead, there are lives that have been broken, disrupted, and shaken in a negative way.Crewe announced on Saturday that external lawyers will investigate how the club responded to child abuse allegations in the past. It came after Hamilton Smith, a Crewe director from 1986 to early 1990, said the club retained Bennell despite being aware of claims against the coach, only opting to prevent boys being alone with him.---Rob Harris is at www.twitter.com/RobHarris and www.facebook.com/RobHarrisReports ' ' '