Mazer Rackham

That was too close for comfort. Would have preferred them to go out like Brisbane. I can't get over the hide of this Collingwood club, trying to win an important final. Oughtn't be allowed.

GET [censored] COLLINGWOOD COLLINGWOOD GET [censored]

There's bugger-all we, a city-based football club, could have done. Unfortunately Liam was born under a troubled star. A long term AFL career was not his fate.

Has he requested a trade back to America?

To kill your joke (sorry), I believe it will be just CR, not CIIIR.

Many years ago, I stayed in a B&B in Edinburgh. The patriarch of the host family liked to have breakfast with the guests. Somehow the conversation came around to Liz. (Quite possibly a frequent occurrence in that house.) "Ayyyyye. The second of *England*. But the fust of Sco'land!!" The sheer contempt in his voice. This goes all the way back to James I. (I know the general enmity goes back further than that.) Diff. with Ireland is that the conflict is still in the living memory. Echoes of ill-feeling toward the retreating empire linger all over the world, even in its own backyard. It's only to be expected that this moment has roused them to new life. On a related note. Respect for "the monarchy" is constantly conflated with respect for the persona of Elizabeth II. For many people they are one and the same. We see this in the pro-monarchy movement here in Oz: "but the Queen is such a stalwart lady who commands the highest respect. You want to get rid of HER?" It's a different ball game now, and people are going to see that there is the institution of monarchy, and then there's the sitting monarch, whom you may not like. Two different things and the latter may lead to a re-appraisal of the former. That's why we have seen the pro-republic movement more or less sit on its hands for the last 20-odd years. It's an unwinnable debate as long as the Queen reigned.

I get that he's young, and inconsistency goes hand-in-hand with that. Unfortunately, a trend that has emerged is his seeming inability to take one-grab marks. That's a trait players either have by the time they get to AFL level, or never acquire. It's one thing for a midfielder, but definitely not great for a ruckman/forward.

Hird should have been run out of town on a rail, but there he is, still in the AFL coaching system. Given that that's not going to change, the best use of his talents is back at his spiritual home, running them into the ground and setting them back even more years. Heard on the radio a theory that "someone" at Ess might be sabotaging their bright and shiny coach selection process to ensure that all the other viable candidates are discouraged, leaving only one man standing ....

What's more concerning was the complete lack of movement when we had a kick to inside 50 after mark or free. Everyone was standing around watching like teenage boys at a dance. Cool tactic, but we had it in our power to neutralise it with scoreboard pressure. Instead we went retro with "mark, stop and kick" to guys who spend so much time practicing goal kicking from the boundary, they think that's where you have to do it from.

The miracle goal kick I want to see is the one that goes straight.

I was on at 9:03 and level 2 was sold out (or "unavailable"). Got back of level 1. Something is fishy in the state of Denmark.

They should go off court room sketch artists' drawings of the scoring attempt. Would be more accurate and possibly faster.

This is indeed a blow. Who else do the Dogs have who can dive on the ball while simultaneously scooping it with two hands to a nearby teammate? I hope they have been training this "skill of the game".

This actually a pretty decent normal distribution. It's weird in that it has occurred in such a small population. Calculations: mean 0, standard deviation 35.8. Dogs are getting out to near 3 standard deviations from the mean. Chance of "scoring" 91: 0.04% (this is about the same chance that someone is 6'4" in a human population) Chance of "scoring" -81: 1.1% It looks extreme but it's not unreasonable, from a purely statistical sense. The problem with the "Bulldogs favouritism" theory is that it also has to explain why Richmond gets such a rough trot. I think the latter is because the Tiges try to play "unsociable football" and either get it wrong (too far over the line), or are playing "unsociable football" according to a bygone era (ten years ago) and umpiring standards have changed. Players like Riewoldt continually moaning and groaning may also get the umps offside; they are only human after all. Now for the Dogs. Pure favouritism (in the sense of Margetts/WCE) doesn't seem to be what's going on. I think it is that Dogs have found a chink in the armour. They are coached to play in a way that the current umpiring fashion is prepared to overlook. Throwing, dropping ... the blatancy with which they do this is inexplicable, unless the explanation is that the umps are directed to overlook it. We now see players from other teams (even our own) trying it on. Cripps in round 23 tried it in the last few minutes of the game ... "oh, I'm in trouble .. I'll just let go of the ball and cause a stoppage". He'd done it all game, but the umps chose that moment to pay holding the ball for the first time! And C'wood scored a goal. There seems to be a direct line through a "champion of the game" (Selwood) getting away with it, the Dogs' industrialisation of that exploit, and the current blight of players from all teams trying it on. All in the name of making more entertaining a game that through dint of its crowd sizes manifestly does not need that.

Greene for mine. No hands, one grab, landed on feet. Georgiades: did he hold it? Himmelberg's in R23 was a corker.

Come, on guy's, get it together

There's still one good one left, about the Pope, the President, a Scotsman, and a blonde. Everyone does it, but no-one likes to admit it.

It's a great curtain raiser, fills in the week of no footy beautifully. Hopefully there'll be a sequel to keep us amused over the summer.

Can they sub him in mid-game if one of their guys gets injured??

We have to find our feet after being in the wilderness for so long. Then we can concentrate on the long term.

On the other hand, he's mad as a cut snake, so who knows what he'd do if they put an offer in front of him.

There is a bit of a wait "in the queue" but if you sit tight you will get through. A bit more detail: well before 9AM I pre-logged in to ticketek with "keep me signed in" (although to do payment I found I had to log in again anyway). "Joined the queue" at 8:55 and at about 9:05 was able to do the ticket selection. I also pre-entered/saved my credit card, in case something went wrong in the entering of them and I got timed out and had to join the queue again. But nothing went wrong! On ticketek!!

Ticketek site currently says ticket on sale at these dates/times: MCC members: Tue 23 Aug 2022 9:00AM (AEST) AFL members: Wed 31 Aug 2022 9:00AM (AEST) Club members & general public: Wed 31 Aug 2022 9:00AM (AEST) It seems a bit odd but don't shoot the messenger.

It's hard to go back to back in the one year

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