xarronn

I'm pretty sure this is not uncommon. If I recollect correctly, other players have returned in quick time from this sort of injury once a plate is inserted.

The AFL website is reporting that Melbourne have no unsigned players left and "rookie-listed Declan Keilty the last to sign on". Doesn't say whether Smith and Keilty re-signed as Rookies or on the main list.

I can never understand why statements like this are made. A player can only walk away if he doesn't plan on playing or earning an income for the duration of the rest of the contract. He can certainly request a trade at any stage, as can the club, but without a three way agreement the only alternative for the player is to stand out from playing. Having a contract doesn't mean you can't request a change, but it does mean you can't make a unilateral decision to change. If Hogan or anybody else didn't have a contract the club would have less leverage with that player and in this case Freo.

We should have won at east 1 game against Geelong and we should have beaten St. Kilda. Result - 16 wins and second position. The draw didn't affect us. We had better success away than on our home ground, the draw didn't affect that. Lastly, whatever the draw's failings, I like football and I don't want the season reduced to 17 games.

My comment is not about Watts. It's about bundling the period since the guys I mentioned joined us with the issues of the previous 7 years. I was drawing attention to that dividing line rather than being critical of you. By the way, do you feel like a bigger man after that gratuitous smart arxe "champ" comment?

It's become a standard comment to say "the last 12 years", (even Jones said it in his interview with Burgs), because we didn't make finals for that period. But this cub has not been the same since PJ, Bartlett , Taylor and Roos came on board. Whilst improvement has taken time, it's been steady, sustained and sustainable. Referring to the last 12 years as though nothing changed until this year is wrong and disrespectful to the efforts of many people, but especially those mentioned above and we should remember that.

Doesn't it actually make no difference to us? Whether it's Prior to round 1 or post round 1 we are in the same position with our round 2 pick.

Good get. What is also highly possible, is that we could beat Swans and still not have beaten anyone in the 8 as of the end of this round.

So you're saying that the bowling speed of a male bowler is a function of a bowlers height relative to the average height of males in that era? As Nasher said - 160 kph is 160 kph whenever the ball is bowled and by whoever bowls it.

Yeah, Steyn is from the stone age. I picked a selection from various era's. You said 184 was to short to be much of a fast bowler. Do you reckon any of those mentioned wouldn't be as effective now?

Full name Brett Lee Born 8 November 1976 (age 41) Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia Nickname Binga Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Batting Right-handed Bowling Right-arm fast Think you're wrong.

Are you serious? 1.80 Marshall 1.83 Lillee 1.83 Brett Lee 1.79 Steyn 1.78 Trueman To name a few!

One away game was 80 k's away in Geelong. It will be 31 days since Darwin this Sunday. Do you really, think that game has any significance on us at all now?

Well of course it's the comment "considering a gale was blowing to the Crows end", that i'm wondering about. The point I'm making is, if it was a gale, it's deserving of much greater mention in adding merit to our performance.

I've read this whole thread and only seen Jibroni post about the wind. I watched on tv and did not notice an effect on the kicking in that last quarter. The commentators did not mention it. Is there any truth in this statement? I'm concluding that there isn't.

You're saying what commentators were saying about both the new teams 5 years ago. Things haven't worked out that way. Instead the 'dogs and Richmond have come out of the blue. This is GWS's 7th Yr in the AFL. In their 7th Yr West Coast won their second flag. Adelaide had won two flags in their first 6 Yrs. Port played in two Grand finals and won a flag in their 8th Year. Hawthorn won 4 flags in 8 Yrs, 2008 - 2015. They haven't done anything extraordinary and If it's not us it may as well be GWS as far as I'm concerned.

Probably makes no difference in this case, but it needs to be borne in mind that as far as 'soccer' is concerned it is the only code of football. So FIFA and FA would still call it the first 'football' club, even if it was formed in 1859. Secondly, when did Sheffield play their first game? Was it before Melbourne did? That should be a consideration

I agree with this. I must say I have been waiting for the turning of the tide with the anti Lewis posts after this game. It is so predictable that the negative comments begin and then the bandwagon uses every possible negative interpretation of incidents. Most fair minded posters accept that there is room for differences in views, but after a while the criticism goes beyond a fair variance of opinion.

T_U, your definition of lose-lose seems to be what people / commentators might say. As far as I am concerned losing or winning is purely about the result of the game and its consequences for our season. The commentary is hot air, just as it was when we were winning.

I don''t know which John Snow you are talking about, but surely it isn't this John Snow: "The highlight of Snow's Test career was the tour of Australia in 1970–71 where he was easily the best bowler of either side, taking 31 wickets (22.83) to help England regain The Ashes. He was repeatedly warned over his short-pitched bowling, but the Australians had no real answer to Snow's pace and fire. In the First Test at Brisbane, Bill Lawry won the toss and decided to bat on a good wicket, but became Snow's 100th Test victim, caught by Alan Knott for 4. Australia reached 418–3, but Snow took four late wickets to dismiss them for 433, ending with 6/114. He took 4/143 in the Second Test at Perth, having Australia 17/3 before they rebuilt their innings. Both these Tests were draws, and the Third was abandoned, Snow playing in the first One Day International as a result. The decisive Test was the Fourth at Sydney where Snow took his best Test bowling of 7/40. He soon dismissed Ian Chappell, Ian Redpath and Greg Chappell, but Australia recovered overnight to 66/4 when he had Keith Stackpole caught out, followed by Rod Marsh for a duck. After Garth McKenzie retired hurt—hit in the face by a Snow bouncer—he bowled John Gleeson and Alan Connolly for ducks and Australia were all out for 116, Bill Lawry carrying his bat throughout the debacle. It was a superb piece of fast bowling from Snow, aggressive, hostile and decisive and England won by a huge margin of 299 runs, their biggest victory in Australia since 1936–37 to go 1–0 up in the series." "At Sydney, Terry Jenner retired hurt when he ducked into a short delivery from Snow[60] in the first innings. Umpire Lou Rowan warned the fast bowler for intimidatory bowling yet again, but Snow and Illingworth objected strongly, the captain saying "That's the only bouncer he's bowled" Snow took a wicket in his first over, but smashed his finger on the wooden boundary fence trying to catch a six off Keith Stackpole. He was taken to hospital for an operation under general anaesthetic to reconstruct his shattered finger bones.[69] England's spinners did the job, dismissing Australia for 160 to win by 62 runs and regain The Ashes while Snow was on the operating table. He recovered in time to join in "the champagne-filled, beer-laden, hangover-inducing rejoicings of Sydney".[70] Snow's 31 wickets (22.83) was the most by an England bowler in Australia since Harold Larwood's 33 wickets (19.51) in 1932–33. No England bowler after Snow has taken 25 wickets in a Test series in Australia.[71]" That's from Wikipedia and apologies for the length of the quote. If you are talking about 6 ball overs in those days, you must be referring to the first One Day International which was played after the Melbourne test was abandoned.

You shouldn't criticize Jackson unless you can get your arithmetic right. Dogs playing Friday evening, we play Sunday afternoon, my arithmetic makes that 2 days. How do you calculate a three day difference?

I think we can probably let go of this issue now. It hasn't affected Richmond, it hasn't affected Collingwood and it surely hasn't been responsible for Essendon's form. In any case its 4 games in 18 days, or 5 games in 27 days since the Hawthorn game!

Gee you really got that wrong LDC. Unfair to Jack and a very inaccurate interpretation of what PJ meant. First of all, how is Jack a mercenary? He didn't leave for more money. You know why he left so why disparage the guy with a comment like that? Secondly, PJ was simply saying that Jack was a great guy, who was loved at Melbourne and who loved Melbourne. After his time at Port was up he believed that Jack would consider himself a Melbourne man and get involved with the club. PJ also said that he was going to catch up with Jack when he was back in Melb soon.

I totally agree Biff. I've never understood the mythology which has developed around that tackle. I saw it on the day and a number of times since on replay, (as recently as about 6 weeks ago). As well as posters on here, the same story about the effect on him keeps getting thrown up by commentators in the media when reflecting on why Watts hasn't met expectations. Even if it had been a brutal, bone jarring tackle, it's pretty cleat that Jack Watts has the character to have easily got over it.

Huh? Whats the relevance?