Mazer Rackham

All I want to see tomorrow is the right attitude. In years past this is exactly the kind of game we'd drop. Come out not switched on, not on the ball, soft, call it what you will. In the twinkling of an eye we're 5 goals down and game over. I just want to see us show determination and resolve from the first bounce, attacking the ball all day, win or lose. Good skills, bad skills, 90 or 160 rotations, doesn't matter. Just want to see the right attitude.

There's no logic. The odds don't represent percentage likelihood of winning/losing. Probably Saints fans are keener punters and more of them have put more money on, leading the bookies to drop the payout to protect themselves.

"Well, son, first thing is, keep yer car in good nick. Don't give the coppers no excuse to pull yer over. if yer do get pulled over, don't say nuffink. Second thing, don't carry a knife or a gun on yer. Yer don't need 'em. We've got people to do that for yer. An' if they take yer down the station, try to get word to one of "our" coppers. An' get rid o' them chopsticks. They'll get yer inta trouble one day."

How many horses heads in the bed would it take to get Jesse to sign for 10 years? If they need backup they can get that chap who shot at Terry Bailey's house.

The coaches think the game revolves around them and their desires. Once upon a time they hated 4 interchange, as an injury meant they had 3 to the oppo's 4. Not fair! And god forbid if they got 2 injuries. They wanted a sub! To mitigate that situation. Now they've decided they hate that rule and need 4 interchange again. They don't like ruckmen having to cope with a bounce that doesn't go perfectly vertical and exactly 8.33m in the air. Lots of things they don't like. Mostly the AFL rolls over for them. Big tick to the AFL for standing up to a coach for once.

Thing is, some legal drugs are harmful. This meldonium may have long term harmful effects, like steroids. Some drugs are banned to save people from themselves as much as preventive performance enhancement. Like AOD-9604. Jury is out on whether it aids performance (suspicion is that it doesn't) but no-one knows what happens to people who take it in such and such a dose over time.

So you can't there til half time? We'll save you a couple of seats behind the goals.

She may get off but the horse has bolted for Maria. She will now always be considered a drug cheat. The only ones who won't believe it are the Bruce Francises of the world.

They're on the money too.

It's an athlete's dream. Here's some stuff that's performance enhancing, and it's not banned! You can hear them thinking, "I'd be crazy NOT to take it!" But the dream turned to a nightmare and it's her own fault. She's now giving a master class in how to deal with getting caught.

I heard yesterday that it stays in the system for a small number of days ... 3 or 5 or something like that ... so not residual. What gets me is the "family doctor" prescribed this. Maria has lived in the US since she was 7, is surrounded by a team of managers, coaches, trainers, lawyers, advisors, nutritionists ... everything tightly controlled ... doesn't even scratch herself without a team meeting ... but she still supposedly uses the "family doctor" who prescribed this gear from Latvia which is not even authorised for human use in the US. She's so ill she's needed this gear for ten years straight ... but the brave kid can still struggle on to court time and again to give her all. #heartpumping #heartwarming Pull the other one, Maria. (I said in my dreams last night.)

Whenever I see Maria that guy's name comes to mind.

That Eddie. What a card. Heard a brief bit of him on SEN going on about how we need infrastructure projects in this state, and we'll be able to sell the land above the new underground station which gets freed up, and we'll be able to teach the superannuation investment companies how to invest in local projects, and and and ... it's all so easy, and Eddie clearly has the state's interests at heart more than anything else. So glib, and so machine gun rapid fire that the announcers weren't able to pull him up on any of it. It won't happen because it will be so damn expensive. Putting Richmond station underground and selling off the land above won't even pay for the putting underground. Not to mention the rebuilding of Hisense not to mention the new stadium itself, or the underground road which will emerge where exactly? There's already a tunnel under there. After Dan's adventures with the East-west link, skyrail to Frankston, trying to sell the management of the ports, there is no way known political capital will be spent to find money for this venture. But the outcome would be an MCG-class stadium right next to ... oh, Collingwood's offices! How about that. Victoria Stadium. We could call the area around it Victoria Park, if we do it often enough the ground will be called Victoria Park as well. I wonder how often Eddie will make a completely accidental slip of the tongue and call it Victoria Park. It's so close to the Collingwood training oval, hell, they might as well train on the good one. Vic Park that is. Eddie is so effin' transparent. Basically we'd be pulling down a high standard stadium so we could build another high standard stadium not far away. Put a train station underground so we could sell off the land above to (not quite) pay for putting the station underground. And knock down a perfectly good tennis stadium to build another tennis stadium right next door. Finally, a quick bit of traffic infrastructure and engineering to just pop Swan St underground and whip up some entry and exit ramps some convenient place nearby. Good one. Forcibly acquiring the bits of Punt Rd that they are entitled to is causing the govt enough anguish as it is. Good thing Brumby is not still premier otherwise it would all be legislated already.

I'm trying to find out but all the records have gone missing. Any truth in the rumour that Andy Demetriou phoned Maria last night?

It's been a loooooooong time since the footy world viewed us as anything other than a curiosity or an irrelevance. Get used to more of these articles as we climb the ladder. Scrutiny. It happens to good clubs. Embrace it. "The only thing worse than being talked about, is being stabbed in the nads with a sharpened walking cane" --Oscar Wilde

It's so hard to believe these claims about Sharapova. For a start... The family doctor went rogue. She was duped. It was the good meldrumium. It's not performance enhancing anyway. She wouldn't take banned drugs ... she's a good Aussie sheila. She's been set up by the WTA. They need a scalp and she's it. She is so brave. #standbymaria

Well put. Agree. I think he's played his last AFL match.

The game we talked about above was the "comeback" game from the first knee. Nine weeks or something, fastest ever recovery from a knee ligament. First game back, splat, knee blows out again.

I was there in the Northern stand and felt nothing. No horror, no sickness ... just numbness. A refusal to accept what I was seeing. I kept telling myself it was his ankle, or his other knee ... or that he'd sit on the bench and come back on for the last quarter ... Apart from the fact that it was against the Swans, I can't remember anything else about the game. My wife was there ... her first and last game of live AFL and all she remembers is that it was cold.

Yes, he was that good. God, it was a joy to watch the mighty Demons with Schwarta up one end and Neita down the other. Neitz was rated by Carey as the best CHB back he'd played on, by the way, in spite of the myth that grew up around G. Jakovic and Carey. (Jakovic a damn fine player it must be said.)

Cue Slobbo and one or two others slamming Dennis and trotting out the usual arguments about how it's against Man and God and the Easter bunny to have anything other than EFC and CFC on Anzac Day. I hope it's an embarrassment this year. Over by 1/4 time and the ground mostly empty by 3/4 time, EFC fans having left at half time and CFC supporters shortly afterwards out of boredom.

Thanks OD. Dunno what's happened to you this year but Santa must have stuck a better brand of port in your stocking than you're accustomed too. Go Santa!

Hey relax. Just wait. When the truth comes out he'll be in a very, very good position and so will that football club.

Is Sir James admitting that there was an injection programme and he knew about it?

Very encouraging performance yesterday. First up, it was a win. Imagine the howls if we'd gone down to "a VFL side". But, it was a win. Wins feel good. In previous years, we would have lost that. Oppo gets 4/5 goals up and heads go down. But we won. The boys are not going to be "on" every week. Not even Hawthorn are "on" every week. But they find a way to get it done in the bad weeks. We didn't need every player to be contributing to get the win. Quite the opposite from the sounds of it. Things weren't going our way. Wind. Some players skill levels down. But didn't drop the bundle. Now there is competition for spots. Matt Jones a lock for round 1? For some to be unimpressed by this is fine. It's a free country. If I'd seen it in person instead of listening to 2 quarters on the radio, I might have been unimpressed too. But to win, and be unimpressed with it, is a luxury that we haven't had for a very very long time. That is one of the things that makes me feel sure the wheel is turning, in our favour. Go Demons!