dieter

6: Petracca 5: Gawn 4: Oliver 3: Fritsch 2: Salem 1: Jackson

I've loved and admired the way Gawn has reacted when, for example, Port Adelaide tried to blitz him with the rough stuff, how he just stayed focused, didn't complain, just got on with it. I hope our boys do the same tomorrow. Go Dees, eat the Do Gees. ( Thank you, Mister Spooner.)

Where can one watch the Robbo interviews? I think he's great.

Pun was intended, same with Archbishop Bell...

You may be right, I may be wrong, it just might be a lunatic you're looking for, as the song goes. I recall a few Richmond incidents recently, Crotchin, comes to mind... My concern about the 'donging' - a term used by Father Briffa, who simple said, Dong that child, and pointed to the dongee. The kid who sat behind the dongee was supposed to clench his fist and rap it over the back of said dongee's skull. I always sat at the very back during this pig's class - is that Lloyd, Johnathon Brown, Jordan Lewis, Roughhead and Riewoldt on programs aired the week either urged that certain players be targeted, or reminisced about how, for example, it was okay to belt the crap out of their mate Franklin during the Swans Hawks Grand Final, because, well, it was a Grand Final.

Tell him, Hi from me. Long time no see. The last time I saw him was when Melbourne played Richmond on a Friday night game. He was with my other hero, Aaron Davey They were exiting the Gaming room of the Ross Town Hotel presumably on their way to the game: it was about 5PM. I was about to conduct a Wine Tasting at the fabled Ross Hotel Bottle shop.

And great cricketers: you weren't paying attention. The pervious Pope was even a German. Don't you worry, even Germans can be sucked in by Catholic propaganda. And, always keep in mind, that the great Martin Luther was once a Catholic Priest. So there!

We arrived in Australia in July 1956. My father was athletically gifted. He played 'football' and the highlight of his 'fussball' career was when, in front of King Farouk, the German POW inmates at Port Said challenged their English Prison Guards and beat them comprehensively. By 1959, partly because we lived opposite Selwyn Park, then the home of the Sunshine VFA team, and the Sunshine Sub Cricket team, the winter football/summer cricket tradition crept into our bloodstream and my father used to join us when we played our Test Matches, and the long hours doodling away time with kick to kick. I recall he developed into a good one grab marker and I also recall that after the age of 40, his coordination slowly drifted north, south, east, and west, in much the same way that my once strong throwing arm turned into a noodle in my forties, a huge embarrassment for the once legendary boundary guard of the Sunshine Cricket Club, returns over the stumps guaranteed. My father followed Essendon because his father came from Essen, and we went to many VFL games together. On a train journey home from Windy Hill one time, he said it always puzzled him that a played was pinged for a push in the back, for example, but to dig a knee into an opponent's back while marking was a okay. He said in soccer, to an opponent's body was sacred, that you didn't push, shove or jump into him. Which brings me to an issue I have been brewing on since the 2000 Grand Final. Melbourne supporters will recall the sheer brutality to which Melbourne players were subjected. I'm sure I don't have to enumerate the atrocities committed by the likes of Hardwick, Wallis and Long. That Melbourne caved in without a whimper is now history. I have also noted that not only is there a set of Rules by which players and umpires must abide by during a season, but also that once finals come around, the idea of rules succumbs to the notion of 'letting play go on'. That also applies to any violence, in other words, a player will get a week or two for donging a player during the season, but you can dong away and get away with it because, after all, it's a Final. ( It reminds me of how the Catholic Church once had its 'Universal' 10 Commandments, plus what they called The Commandments of the Church. One of those sins against the Church Commandments was to do with eating meat on Friday. Now, say, I ate a meat pie on a Friday and choked on the gristle, if I couldn't see a priest to confess my sin before I died, I'd go straight to hell. The Commandment was rescinded in about 1964 or 1965, and I recall my mirth when it occurred to me that if I choked on a pie last week, it meant hell - not a pleasant proposition in my eyes because I presumed that the bastards called nuns and priests were heading to the same place - but if I choked from here on in, hey, no problem, it's off to heaven with Sister Patrick and Archbishop Bell, or whoever.) During the past week I've heard ex-players like Mat Lloyd declaring that in tomorrow's Grand Final, both sides need to target certain players with extra physical attention, implying, to my understanding, that because it's a Grand Final, not only does anything go, but its to be condoned and expected. In other words, because 'it's a Grand Final' all is fair because it's war. I know this was once simply accepted and acceptable - witness the brutality of most 20th Century Grand Finals, indeed, the Grand Finals Matthews and Hardwick have coached in the 20th Century, and Clarkson, and Scott, for that matter. All I can say, is I don't get it, and my way of understanding it is to do with 'Cultural' proclivities, in other words, it's connected to that Colonial mindset where anything that comes between you and your goals is game for pure and simple obliteration. What I'd like to see tomorrow is a game where both sides test each other's skills, where sportsmanship and respect rules. I'd like to see it as a sport, not as a war where blood needs to be spilled.

Romsey is a foreign country. How do I know? I went to school at Rupertswood.

Box Hill North...

You obviously read too much Herald-Sun.😍😄

Mine was very rattled. My wife and our dog were on a walk nearby and didn't feel a thing...Though she heard a roar which she assumed was a nearby train...

It was the stampede of Demon supporters heading home in their 4 wheel BMW's that caused it. ( By the way, apparently the epicenter was at Licola, a small town which is at the gateway of a gradual ascent to Lake Tarli Karn, Mount Tamborith, Mount Wellington, and Wonongatta. AS the crow flies, it might be 35 k, but to drive to Mount Buller from there makes it a 4 hour, 179 to 205 K journey.)

Just watched this after being tipped out of bed by rattling donner und blitzens - a friggin earthquake, of all things - and came away even more impressed by Max Gawn than ever. He's humble, insightful and loyal to his team mates and his values. Kudos to him.

Bit hard on Watts and Tyson...

I'm ok with the Bont. Our own S W. won in 2000 and we got slaughtered. Yes, I believe in omens...Then again, I also understand this is now considered sexist language, as on o MENS

Either Mahler's 3rd Symphony, or Bruckner's 8th.

Why not buy a cow, brown cow?

I played cricket at the Yarraville Ground once. I played for Sunshine. I had a strong arm in those days - it is now, alas, a noodle - and I recall before a game after we had warmed up, I threw a ball towards the grandstand/dressing room and the ball flew over the fence and nearly killed a spectator.

I wonder if M.Christian has reviewed the weekend games yet?

Budgie Paradise is the wide blue sky and freedom from that smelly little cage.

I grew up in Sunshine/Albion: couldn't wait to get the ....out of there. Teddy Whitten once delivered a caged budgie to my house because I won some dumb competition - the winner had to foretell the exact time the 8.30AM from Sydney would land at Essendon. I phoned the airport and asked what time the 8.30 would land, I was told, 8.30 so that's what I wrote. Lucky I wasn't home when Whitten delivered he thought he was Mister Football. I would have argued with him, I would have told him who Mister Football was. The budgie caused nothing but trouble. Budgies are like ducks and possums, all they do is poo. Eventually, while cleaning out the bird cage in the back yard, I turned it upside down, the cage door lifted and the budgie flew to Budgie Paradise. I spoke to two blokes on the weekend who are Bulldog supporters. I went to school with them. One of them was Bugs Dewire, a poet and songwriter for the Coodabeens. I live in Box Hill now: my local chemist was brought up in Footscray, he's an Australian-born Vietnamese Doggie man. I know that when I get my prescription later in the week, he'll lace them with tranquillizers in case Melbourne win. He is a true gentleman. And the dude who started Barrique Wine store in Healesville is a Doggie supporter. And, last but not least, I played footy in a Lighting Premiership there in 1960 when I was 10 years old and in Grade seven at Our Ladys. I didn't get a kick.

Will this be a repeat of 1954???Smith had resurrected the Demons, the doggies won their first flag. Oi weh, here's hoping history does not repeat. 'The season opened with a loss, and Melbourne barely scraped into the finals with a last round win against South Melbourne despite having a percentage below a hundred. They then pulled off a shock victory against North Melbourne in the Semi Final before pulling off an even bigger upset in the Preliminary Final to send minor premiers Geelong out of the finals in straight sets.' That was 1954...

Um, so did Adelaide, GWS and the E Coli Wobblers...

6: Gawn 5: Petracca 4: Viney 3: Salem 2: Oliver 1: Langdon