36 minutes ago, Go Ds said:

only a few weeks earlier we had casually been discussing the less painful ways to die , including whether someone could die of a heart attack in their sleep and never know what hit them.

Firstly, thanks for your gentle and understanding/empathetic take on my loss and how it related to Louiza’s and my discussions in her final days - and yes, I attended her funeral at the Greek Orthodox Church in Newton here in Sydney, and it was absolutely heartbreaking as those closest to her mourned openly and with incredibly raw emotion; I don’t know if this is the right descriptor, but the whole experience was cathartic in the extreme… the minister taking the ‘ceremony’ had similar thoughts to us and expressed them unapologetically to the gathered mourners who took his words in the way he intended, approvingly.

Not wanting to turn this into a political debate, but In these Trumpian times, empathy seems to be something that has taken a back seat, so it’s always refreshing to encounter the likes of your good self and others on this site!

Now, onto the above quoted sentence from your response. Firstly, I am so sorry for your loss, so please accept my sincerest condolences; the loss of a parent is always devastating as we tend to consider them to be somewhat immortal, and I suppose they are, so please take heart in the fact that she will always live on in your heart and soul… a parent never really leaves.

In yet another odd coincidence, I was just talking to a friend of mine on Friday (the drummer from my band), whose mother-in-law had been suffering for a relatively short time, with a very serious and ultimately extremely painful form of cancer (pancreatic). They were concerned that she might suffer terribly and were trying to come to terms with that possibility, but then just last week and out of nowhere, as she was getting up from the sofa, she suffered a heart attack and, according to the doctor, was gone before she hit the ground… no time to suffer at all. Even the worst things in life can have the oddest of upsides.

Take care please.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by hardtack

4 hours ago, JTR said:

Is this not just a myth created by Kane Cornes and repeated ad nauseum until it became accepted fact?

I've yet to see or hear anything about this supposed trade offer that doesn't eventually tie back to the original Cornes 'scoop'

Unsure - however it doesn’t change that I’d still take a packet of smiths chips over Petty.

Next two training sessions are the 4th Feb and 11th Feb respectively. Why are we only training once a week ?

11 minutes ago, Coolx2 said:

Next two training sessions are the 4th Feb and 11th Feb respectively. Why are we only training once a week ?

Cmon… not that hard to work out 😂 We train and Gosh’s once a week and the rest of the sessions are closed at Casey

12 minutes ago, Coolx2 said:

Next two training sessions are the 4th Feb and 11th Feb respectively. Why are we only training once a week ?

We are training on Monday and Friday at Casey.

unrelated to training but just saw this car at airport west.. awesome

49 minutes ago, Coolx2 said:

Next two training sessions are the 4th Feb and 11th Feb respectively. Why are we only training once a week ?

Big assumptions there! At some stage some club will 'crack the code' and find some new tactic that gets them a flag or two they otherwise wouldn't. No reason why this will be King's Melbourne. But I'd rather they try something new and it's away from other teams' spies. It might even mean they end up storming home and come 11th ..... better than 3 open sessions a week and 15th.

32 minutes ago, Go Ds said:

Big assumptions there! At some stage some club will 'crack the code' and find some new tactic that gets them a flag or two they otherwise wouldn't. No reason why this will be King's Melbourne. But I'd rather they try something new and it's away from other teams' spies. It might even mean they end up storming home and come 11th ..... better than 3 open sessions a week and 15th.

Duuude raise the bar a little! 11th? At least have us as finishing 10th so we make ‘finals’

16 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I sat in level 3 of the Ponsford Stand for our game against Richmond, round 20 2023 and marvelled at Petty’s performance, 6 goals straight! I walked away convinced we had found the solution to our forward problems that day. He was taking marks at will, leading to the right spots, often surprising Tiger backs who didn’t see him coming. And the Tigers were still very competitive. A week later against North he had 2 early before that gorilla McKay tackled and dropped all of his 100 plus kilograms on Petty’s ankles and that was it for our Premiership hopes I thought. Melk going down in the last round put the nail in our coffin. In the following 2 finals we totally dominated the I50’s but could not convert to loose the unloosable twice! But it’s OK I will get over it eventually with professional help.

I still believe Petty has potential up forward when the ball is delivered quickly to his advantage.

I’m stuck in that same period. Still believe those 2 followed by Brayshaw cost us a flag.

On 31/01/2026 at 22:04, dazzledavey36 said:

I dont get to training at all, but based on reports and if you go off his numbers from draft camp with the 2km run, he was rated elite with a time of 6:17.

The reason he looked heavily underdone last year was because people forget he missed a chunk of the pre season with a hip injury and was rushed straight back into the senior team off tje back of zero match fitness by our so called brain thrust of a coaching committee.

His first two years in the AFL system are very similar to ANB first two years before he had a break out year in his 3rd.

Lets hope its the same for KT.

Absolutely. But I wasn't talking about his draft numbers - I was talking about his training/match performances in 2024 and 2025.

Fingers crossed he does get a good run at it (pardon the pun) and can lift to AFL level. I know he was told something similar in his exit interview as my mother in law sponsors him.

10 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

Duuude raise the bar a little! 11th? At least have us as finishing 10th so we make ‘finals’

Very true. But if someone is getting 20% on their maths tests and then a tutor helps them get a 48% it's still a fail but nonetheless it's encouraging.

Even better analogy ... Melbourne may never have been as bad as they were in 2013. While we were below average in 2014-5 I was happy with the progress that Roos helped bring.

I still don't know what a pass mark is for this year. But 11th might be tolerable - especially in hindsight if next year or the year after that shows that amazing change was happening right now.

11 hours ago, harveylangfordisthegoat said:

unrelated to training but just saw this car at airport west.. awesome

Was the numberplate Theo X? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 (The story was some Melbourne staffer didnt realise Schwarz's plate said The Ox.)

17 hours ago, hardtack said:

JFirstly, thanks for your gentle and understanding/empathetic take on my loss and how it related to Louiza’s and my discussions in her final days - and yes, I attended her funeral at the Greek Orthodox Church in Newton here in Sydney, and it was absolutely heartbreaking as those closest to her mourned openly and with incredibly raw emotion; I don’t know if this is the right descriptor, but the whole experience was cathartic in the extreme… the minister taking the ‘ceremony’ had similar thoughts to us and expressed them unapologetically to the gathered mourners who took his words in the way he intended, approvingly.

Not wanting to turn this into a political debate, but In these Trumpian times, empathy seems to be something that has taken a back seat, so it’s always refreshing to encounter the likes of your good self and others on this site!

Now, onto the above quoted sentence from your response. Firstly, I am so sorry for your loss, so please accept my sincerest condolences; the loss of a parent is always devastating as we tend to consider them to be somewhat immortal, and I suppose they are, so please take heart in the fact that she will always live on in your heart and soul… a parent never really leaves.

In yet another odd coincidence, I was just talking to a friend of mine on Friday (the drummer from my band), whose mother-in-law had been suffering for a relatively short time, with a very serious and ultimately extremely painful form of cancer (pancreatic). They were concerned that she might suffer terribly and were trying to come to terms with that possibility, but then just last week and out of nowhere, as she was getting up from the sofa, she suffered a heart attack and, according to the doctor, was gone before she hit the ground… no time to suffer at all. Even the worst things in life can have the oddest of upsides.

Take care please.

Honestly I think there are still billions of good people out there. Admittedly some have been blinded by ambition, fear or frustration. And sometimes people lose perspective say by down playing the loss of a colleague or a pet. But overall people are good.

I must admit I am reminded of the same era too. My second cousin inexplicably ran into traffic on Nepean highway on Grand final day 2001. Despite the church being full of 14-year-old classmates and the rest of us who were also as shocked with someone so young so suddenly dying the pastor went off on a tangent about the recent 9 11 attacks. It was really inappropriate.

I can't do anything about my mother. She had a challenging but good life while I'm still upset I know she'd want me to be happy and move on from my grief. I reckon a lot of people born in Australia in the 1930s and 40s had incredibly good , lucky lives.

Any way back to the footy.....