Elusive Tunbridge

And another thing - more games at Alice Springs, please. Beautiful ground, great weather (mind the sunscreen), perfect surface, and didn't you love that red and blue mob behind the goals?

Grimes won't be demoted during the season, nor quietly urged to fall on his sword. Simply not the way Roos works, as mot will surly understand. If his best form doesn't come back he may well stand down. If that happens, I'd expect Dawes and Jones to be co-captains, flat-out committed leads of a flat-out committed team.

Just a few observations upon seeing the replay:

Melbourne were asleep for the first ten minutes? Didn't sound like that on radio, and seeing it, we were in there working hard, but Port are a good team and the chances went their way at critical moments.

Garlo is a solid, professional defender with a strong attacking side to his game. Great to have him back, and our defence are a very solid unit.

Wingard is an extraordinarily dangerous player who was completely blanketed until Schulz took him out of the game.

Chains of two or three handballs in a pack ending with a pass to a player by himself on the outside - I'm used to seeing that done to us, but yesterday we were doing it. This coming together as a team has happened unbelievably quickly.

Salem has a pure football brain. Perhaps I'm overexcited, but I think he'll be one of the champions of the game.

Wingard must have gone to Darwin by mistake.

Got a big head, too. Maybe it's the camera?

It's easier for Essendon to pay the legal costs than to defend a civil action by players to recover their costs. Though that might be entertaining.

I simply want to understand what the week is ACTUALLY about, because I struggle to identify with racial pride. I find it bizarre, and I think this week actually lacks identity: is it about culture or race? Because they are different things.

"Pride" movements arise from a history of oppression and shaming. Black pride in America, ga* pride in Oxford St, Indigenous pride here and in other countries all arise because people have been badly treated and told that it's too bad, they deserve it because of who they are - not because of what they do. Rather than hide your identity - pass for white, pass for straight (if either of those are even possible ), people who have been assigned a flawed identity decide to accept heir identity and actively assert that it is not flawed. Racist comments over the fence, or on the field, are attempts to shame people who have felt the sting of that contempt for years, all for the pathetic purpose of putting them off their game or provoking retaliation. Think of Nicky Winmar proudly pointing at his black skin - that action has resounded through Aboriginal communities throughout Australia.

The AFL has decided that racial insults will only harm the game, and have rightly taken steps to suppress them. The indigenous round is a way of encouraging supporters to recognise and value the part indigenous footballers play in our game - and the part football plays in bonding indigenous communities.

Edit - strange censorship rule in Oxford St.

Edit again - REALLY strange censorship rule

So be it!! Happy for our club if I am proved wrong and will wear it which is more than I can say for some on this site!

Cheers Sass!

Fence

Such an independent thinker you are! Calling it like you see it, and to hell with what other people think! And calling it and calling it...

Looks like Demonland has decided on Brett Kirk. Just remains for the club to announce it then....

I'd expect them to wait until the end of the season, in case we change our minds. They hate to flatfoot the fans.

Thompson and Roos obviously get along well, but I still believe that Thompson will be required to coach Essendon next year.

I'd prefer either Kirk or Bassett, if contractual issues can be ironed out.

At least Roos has dropped a Polly Waffle into the Bombers' pool. If nothing else, they'll have their minds concentrated on the Thompson-Hird decision.

^{I am staggered they are playing this game in the hottest part of the day. Why was it not scheduled for night time?}

Gets mighty cold at night in the Centre in winter.

I must be wrong then or my television set clearly doesn't show his intent.

Mine doesn't show intent either. But on what I saw, he raised his elbow and jabbed it back at a player he knew was right behind him. If he thought about it at all he must have known that he couldn't determine which bit of the man he'd hit - therefore reckless high contact, impact questionable. Good record, could get a week reduced to a reprimand, could get two weeks reduced to one.

I'm looking for a competitive effort and an honourable defeat, with not too much damage to the percentage. Glad we're not playing them in the Cauldron.

Geelong are reported to be interested in Ling, and if he can go to his old club I think he will. I can't understand the enthusiasm for Voss - to me he's a busted flush.

Kirk and Rawlings seem to be the most likely in that both have a good relationship with Roos. Either would do me.

One consideration that might be playing a part here is the possibility of players who suffer ASADA penalties taking civil action against the club. The ASADA rules about personal responsibility may be stringent, but a court may see it differently.

why wouldn't he stay long term?

Am I missing something?

I doubt PJ is going anywhere for a long time

What you're missing is the perspective of an older man who's been there and done that. He's picked this up as a job that's worth doing, not as a career move.

He's hosing down expectations, but if we're within reach of a premiership at the end of 2016 I think he'll find it hard to resist having a go.

I don't think they should show frank assessments of the AFL players, it may be an advantage to opposition sides if they knew too much inside info. VFL no such problem.

That's probably the core of it, mandee. In general, the more information that can be released to club members and other supporters, the better - we are key stakeholders. We should be given information unless there are good reasons for withholding it - mostly considerations of privacy and tactics. I expect the club management knew about Mitch's illness for some time before it became public, but it was rightly withheld.

Cnut was a smart bloke who ordered the tide to turn back in order to show his followers that he was just a good king, not a miracle worker. Not that there's a lesson there for Dee fans or anything.

Member numbers are extremely misleading. It includes all types of shifty categories like 3 game members, interstate/overseas members that pay heavily discounted subs, MCC members etc. A more accurate comparison would be to show total revenues received from all membership categories.

That depends on whether you're counting cash or people.

On the train home from the game Saturday, very crowded and I was standing in the aisle. SE Asian mum and two little boys sitting down. She motions to one kid to give his seat to a bloke standing there and as he does, the bloke calls him a little (illegitimate) and then asks his little brother "What jungle were you born in?". I said "Did I hear you right?" and was about to give him one of the remaining fragments of my mind, but he wouldn't meet my gaze and when I looked I saw that he was a hunched, miserable looking bloke with all the signs of a pretty hard life. I let it be.

Edit: illiteracy

I cant even begin to tell you how silly your comment sounded to me

I thought Carlos was just correcting an apparent misconception. "Silly" just seems insulting and (dare I say it?) silly.

I saw a couple of Dunny's VFL games a few years ago and he just didn't seem to be interested, but last year when things were at their worst he seemed to decided to commit himself fully and he was one of our best. I'm sure Roos is getting even more from him, but he was already on the bandwagon.

Roos remains technically non-committal about 2016, but the unspoken message seems very positive.