Chris

I have not read the UN's agenda 2030 but understand the point behind what you have highlighted. Just for context, I sit somewhere in the middle on this, the climate is changing and is getting hotter, that is fact and claiming 18 years as a reference point is laughable. Humans are having some affect on the climate be it through emissions or clearing of forest, or a mixture of both, who really knows. I am unsure of how much of an affect we are having and really laugh at people who think we can control the climate and make it just right for us, all we can do is limit of affect on a natural process and go along for the ride. I am all for taking action purely because it will actually clean up our air and have lasting benefits for the health of the worlds population. On the wealth redistribution issues. The carbon tax as introduced by our Julia was a wealth redistribution tax, if you removed all the carbon talk around it and looked at who was paying it was basically a funnel for money to go from the top earners to the bottom earners on basically a means tested basis. That is what it did and that also meets the long held views around wealth redistribution of the then treasurer Swanny. Of that policy I was no fan. In terms of what is written above (at least the bits about the economic development model) it is a bit of a chicken and egg discussion. As it stand the economic development model is based on poor countries building capacity through providing cheap power and building industry and wealth form there. Currently cheap power is coal, coal is dirty and highly polluting (just look at the cancer rates in the Latrobe Valley to see the impact). Under the current economic development model there is no way for poor nations to provide power in any way without going down the dirty polluting route. What the above is talking about is changing this model to allow the poor countries to provide the power required to develop their nations while using clean power, which at the minute is more expensive but given another decade or two of development may well end up the cheap option. That is the changes the are talking about, allowing the poor countries to develop without being required to follow the same polluting route we have walked and to do this they will need the help of the rich nations, which is only fair considering we have had all the benefit of polluting everything and are now asking them not to make use of that same technology. One thing that has puzzled me in articles from the likes of McCrann and Bolt is there talk around Coal being this panacea that can never be bettered. Human kind have always strived for new and better ways of doing things, why is coal seen as some sort of end point when there are better cleaner options that can be developed that will have all sorts of impact on society, not just the weather. Do we really want to accept the status quo and just accept that this is as good and things can be?

I agree he should have been stopped in Chapel Street but that came down to a decision from above, a wrong one. You can not blame the cop on the beat for that. My comment around split second decisions was around when he was at Flinders street, he was there for a minute, two max. That requires quick thinking and quick decisions on teh next course of action, they could not have planned for that. As for 'blowing an MF off the earth' for a stabbing, assault, and car theft.....laughable in any sane society. The use of guns should only be for when an officer or civilians life is in danger, that was not the case until he went onto the footpath. To relax this is any way opens the door to cops dealing out their own justice at will, that isn't really part of society, nor should it be. As for your comment around you old man bashing people and taking them to the next station to be bashed some more, I for one am thankful that is no longer the case, although I will say that things have gone too far the other way where police cant man handle people and intimidate enough and the thugs know it. There is a middle ground that is where we should be. In summary to you, I agree the judiciary is stuffed, has been for quite a while, Rob Hulls always comes to mind when I think of the issues. The senior police are also too bound by political do gooder clap trap as well. As for the cops on the beat, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, not really able to do their job and when they do get it done the perps are let out again.

I keep reading this but fail to see when it really could have happened. no one knew he was going to do what he did so unless we start shooting people for going a bit nuts and doing burn outs or getting in a police chase then really the only time he could be shot is once he was in Bourke Street. Given the number of people in Bourke Street at the time it would have been very difficult to get a shot at a car doing a reasonable speed without a very high risk of shooting an innocent civilians or two, especially as you would have needed a police officer to be in front of the vehicle to do it. Add to this that police protocols state that they should not shoot at a vehicle full stop as you dont know who is inside or what the vehicle will do once shot and it is really very hard to see where it could have happened. In saying that I will also add that I think the police could have done better and will learn from this but I also think they did the best they could with the time they had.

Hird Snr clearly doesn't get the WADA code, what it is, how it works, and where precedent lies. pretty much straight from the handbook of the jibbering mule.

It is funny reading in the comments that even after Patrick points out the difference between the governance penalties and the banned substance penalties, there is still an individual called Ruth who is completely confused about the goings on what which hearing was for what. No surprise she is a Hird fan.

There still is online. Good old Bomber Thompson having a swipe at the AFL again saying how badly treated they all were.

Hi Wrecker. The bolded bit is of great importance. Hird was the head coach, the first responsibility of any head coach is to the welfare of his players. If Hird had any doubts he had to make sure everything was fine, he didn't, in fact when Ried raised concerns about the program Hird went over his head to Robson to complain that the program was being held up. Not the move of a smart manager concerned for the welfare of his players. As head coach Hird is also responsibly for the conduct of all coaches, any failure by them is a failure for him too, that is why the managers earn the big bucks and get the bigger penalties. He failed here to. The other area he failed was his rhetoric about doing all the court appeals for the players, [censored], the players would not really have benefitted in any way from any of the court action taken by the club, it was all backside saving shenanigans by all involved. He could not have handled that worse. I wont go into his intent to cheat as it isn't clear enough either way. Although I do hold a view, it isn't strong enough to put on public record. All in all his experience as head coach is irrelevant, he was the head coach and from day one takes on certain responsibilities, he failed at those and failed miserably and should have taken the slap when it was offered.

I believe it was a brick not a block

I'll bite, Salem if fit is starting 22. His skill is sorely missed when he isn't in the team. Give him a year or two of no illness or injury to build a tank and he could be great (without wanting to put the Sylvia curse on him)

From memory we kind of tried to do that a few years back. It wasn't as official as them being part of our club but more our 'sister' club. I think we should go all out and have a netball and basketball team playing under the name Melbourne and in Red and Blue. Take over the whole 'Melbourne' brand. Hell even through in a soccer and cricket team as well!

As much as I can't stand this man, his club, and what has happened I wish him all the best and hope he finds a way out of the mire he appears to be in.

my understanding is that the game was played on all sorts of grounds including rectangular grounds and the point 'posts' were in the corners so any time the ball went over the 'base line' but not through the goals then it was a point and a free to the opposition, kind of like in Rugby. the point posts were then brought in closer and the rest is history. can't remeber when or where I read that so could be crap but that is my memory of it.

to a place where clubs stand on their own two feet, not one where they are deemed to be a welfare case and will forever be so due to the inequalities of the system, a place where absolute socialism is expressed in the internal management of the league when dealing with club but cutthroat capitalism is displayed when competing with the other codes (which is actually where the AFL as an organisation are in competition. I would love to see a CEO stand up to the TV networks and enforce the wishes of the commission, not the wishes of the TV station board. I would love to see a commission that wasnt made up of ex footballers, they are there to run a business and being a footballer isn't great training for business. I would also love to see real leadership on many issues, not the insincere PC crap the current lot come out with, which is probably because they are too bloody stupid understand the issue in the first place. Most of all I would love to see some fresh faces and not a continuation of the stupid boys club that protects each other above anything, including the long term health of the game. That's a start on my thoughts and I haven't even covered any topic in detail or some topics at all. Have a read on the ASADA thread and you will see my views on that one.

I never in the past took too much notice of the AFL boys club and the effect it was having on the game, probably because we had or very own boys club to get furious about and I only had time for one such frustration. It seems the good work of PJ ridding our club of past demons, pardon the pun, has me far less worried on the home front and now I realise how inept teh AFL management actually are. I must say that Gill and Dill has got a few things through that are good. These are - Helping us our by assisting in paying out contracts and getting PJ on board. Kudos must got the AFL for that, we would not be where we are without them - Setting up the womens league, although the dogs and us did most of that but won't get any reward or recognition for it! - Lowered the price of chips at Etihad - Bought Etihad, although anyone could see that was the right thing to do - ummmmmmmm, thinking, ummmmmmmmm. Nope, that's about it. Now onto the stuff he has stuffed (along with his best mate Andy D) - The entire EFC affair form start to finish - The treatment of the EFC players since banned - The fixture (has the chance to fix it in TV rights deal but didn't even try) - GWS and GC getting everything under the sun so they win a flag. Over compensation due to it taking Freo so bloody long. - Screwed the small club with fixture and expansion teams - Has put nothing real in place to stop the influence of gambling on the game to the point now where kids are discussing odds not the game! - The entire Lachie Whitfield saga, it should have been handed to ASADA at the bloody start! - The Goodes Booing affair. I think there was a fair racial element to it but he handled it really poorly, along with Eddies constant gaffs. - etc etc etc etc etc etc.

Agree entirely and it is why I hold especially Dill and Andy G in complete contempt. They continually kowtowed to the TV stations and made changes to the game and the 'game day experience' which actually took away from the game for many of the stalwarts. Bring in a CEO who will stand up to the TV people and tell them who will play who when, and how the game will be played and things will start to look positive. There will certainly be an initial hit in the amount paid but in time we will be ahead because those with the long term health of the league in mind will be in charge, not those with short term ratings in mind. The TV execs could not care less if it is Soccer, AFL, NRL, Netball, or Quidich which brings the ratings, what matters to them is what will bring the ratings, if it isn't one of them it will be a different one, and they will just go off and spend their money there. They are killing the sport and many can't see it, especially in the boys club running the sport, which isn't surprising as the TV execs are part of that same bloody boys club! ....END RANT......

What makes you think that?

I have no issue with 1.7 being the wage for the CEO of a multi billion dollar organisation, in fact I am a little surprised it is that low. I do have a massive issue with that media loving, polo playing, sycophantic, drug taker excusing, boys club favourite of a low life waste of oxygen that earns that wage being paid more than the bag of peanuts he is worth. Don't even ask me about their so called exhaustive international search for a new CEO they ran where That idiot came out as the best option! Nepotism at it's finest! It makes me sad to think where this league could be heading under the guidance of someone good, especially someone who would stand up to the boys club and some idea of what long term planning actually is!

Jesse 65 Jack 45 Weid 30 Garlett 40. Kent 25 Pedo 25 Will be fun!

Problem is that the G isn't available due to the Cricket. We don't have another option unless we can convince the AFL, MCC, and state government to cough up the cash for a new ground and stand over the rail line next to the G (which is where our home should be).

We can blame the AFL for the fact it has to be white while others are allowed red!

With the findings to be released on the 31st of December at 11:59pm as well?

He has Indigenous roots so isn't he automatically from the NT? Isn't that where all Indigenous people are from?

There is a good reason the stats come up as they do, and perfectly demonstrates the limitations of such analysis. Firstly the analysis looks at the last two years. In 2015 we had Brayshaw in his first year and an injured Tyson running around, in 2016 we had no Brayshaw, a better Tyson, Oliver in his first year along with Trac. In short you could hardly say we have had a consistent midfield or one where most of the players are showing what they can do with any consistency. This will lower the ratings. Secondly the ratings take into account the effectiveness of disposals, we arent great at this as we were learning a new game, with many new players, that is based on contested possessions, this isn't conducive to effectiveness and will favour the good outside teams over good inside teams. All in all the way the stats are done seems flawed, but that is always the case with every stat you take.

So the AFL have confirmed again to me they are a bunch of sycophantic Eddie worshiping dicks! Round 1 of the AFLW you would think you would put the two clubs who made this happen and already have a womens team following up in lights on the big stage. Nope, Pies v Blues on a Friday night. The dogs get Freo at Whitten oval and we get Brisbane at Casey, talk about being buried! Our thanks comes when we play the dogs as part of a double header. the men play a Saturday twilight game then the women play afterwards. Not too bad and should be good night but still think the AFL are a bunch of dicks. No more info at this point except for the Grand Final will be played during round 1 of the mens comp. EDIT: From the MFC website Melbourne’s AFLW fixture Round 1 – Sunday, February 5 Melbourne v Brisbane Lions, Casey Fields, Home, 5.05pm, Foxtel Round 2 – Saturday, February 11 Collingwood v Melbourne Olympic Park Oval, Home, 7.35pm, Seven Round 3 – Saturday, February 18 Western Bulldogs v Melbourne VU Whitten Oval, Away, 7.35pm, Seven Round 4 – Saturday, February 25 Melbourne v Carlton Casey Fields, Home, 11.35am, Foxtel Round 5 – Friday, March 3 GWS Giants v Melbourne Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney, Away, 5.05pm, Foxtel Round 6 – Saturday, March 11 Melbourne v Adelaide Crows TIO Stadium, Away, 5.40pm, Seven Round 7 – Saturday, March 18 Melbourne v Fremantle Casey Fields, Home, 4.35pm, Foxtel Not too bad but still [censored] round 1 we get an interstate side on a Sunday twilight at Casey and our only Friday game is played interstate! Good way to try and bury the club that built the f'n game AFL!!!! Dicks!

Deleted my original post as I saw it had been raised on page 2. I never said when the match would occur, maybe a Christmas eve extravaganza leading into Carols by Candlelight. We should all be over our hangovers by then, especially as turning up to Christmas lunch hungover or drunk is usually frowned upon, leaving Christmas lunch in that state is another question.