45HG

I already have.

I'm a little surprised by Rivers, but not so much the rest. Seems a good mix of on field and off field leaders

That's the way I'm leaning also. He, and the FFA, probably know that they need to have the majority of AFL/NRL supporters (and the support of the codes) to put in a meaningful bid. Demetriou is trying to push the FFA to figure out its plan ASAP to either set out a map or deal with FIFA to uncover a compromise. Stephen Gough was saying how it would be very difficult to the MCC to agree to a bid in a short period of time and that they would need to know soon.

My contention is that this type of thinking didn't come into place until Melbourne did it, therefore we've tried to weazel our way out of it.

I did ask myself the same thing and I couldn't give you a decent answer. Back on topic; 16 weeks sounds extreme but I'm still not convinced this is the official position and certainly no where near convinced that it is the final one. If 16 weeks were to be the final declaration from FIFA - that'd be a very different kettle of fish. Though it's not like we haven't had a season without the G before. Scrap the pre season, shorten the season to one game against each team, that saves 9 weeks. I don't think we've heard the end of this, not by a long shot

I am not an academic, nor am I a professor - I see from your claim that Cranbourne is a "poor slum area with questionable people and big crime rate" [sic] that you must be. For starters, my post was not merely in reference to you but many elements of this thread that have frustrated me for some time - if you'd thought for more than a few seconds you'd have realised that as I did not quote your post and have previously posted on this topic already. But now that you bring it up, I'll point you in the right direction. From the list you quoted (a list containing items that can be exclusive of each other and may relate to separate parts of a post) you attacked me from using two but did not, and still have not, responded to the more serious of them - meaning you must be at least content, if not happy, with the claim. Your post, quoted above, in particular re-wrote the history of why the FFA (I assume you mean) tried to "take over" the term football. This is simply not true. It was a push from the newly formed Football Federation of Australia (formerly the Australian Soccer Association) to bring Australia into line with the vast majority of countries that call the sport football. It was a corporate move that attempted to reposition the game within Australia to mor closely mirror its standing in the world. This brings me to the second point you enjoyed - ignoring history. You claimed that Australia had its own brand of football for 100's of years whilst completely ignoring the fact that the Australian nation has only been in existance for 108 years. To take a less literal tact, you have ignored the fact that the first reference of football stem from England in the 1400's as does the etymology of the word itself. We would not call "Aussie Rules" "football" if the English, who named their sport "football," had not done so. One could even claim, quite rightly, that Aussie Rules is the one who has "attempted to take over the term."

Sure...

Yep, now that the Dees did it we can't call it tanking.

How many of these unacceptable 12+ goal losses did we have this year ScullytoWatts?

By that logic, we should give Scully the nickname of 'jordy'. Why are people such smart arses? Especially when they're wrong

One NOT to be missed - set the recorder. Monday 3.40 am. Melbourne versus Sydney 1994 round 24!!! We kicked 27 goals and Schwarz kicked 9!!

In 79 overs, Pakistan have scored 229. In 79 overs, Sehwag has scored 284

262 off 215. 1-406 off 70 overs. Why are Sri Lanka struggling to bat on these pitches, intimidated? I chose to believe that his first names are each one letter long. Sehwag has 54 balls to break his own record for the fastest triple ton stumps - 1-443 after 79 overs. Sehwag 284 off 239, has 39 balls to break his record

Indian series heats up....1/312 off 56 overs. Sewhag 184 not out off 162 balls. Wow. Since I wrote that, they have moved onto 1/330 from 57 overs, Sehwag 202 off 168 - yes, 18 off that over. Fastest double ton ever? (No, but still)

Nothing new, but Round One seems an odd game to implement it.

This is an event that transcends footy. It is was a terrible thing to happen, especially for Brad and his family, but this is an issue that should be left to the courts to deal with. We as football fans should obviously be against any violent action against supporters. We should not try to rile up opposition fans over violence against one of our own - using one horrible event to have a dig at an opposition. I don't understand you last sentence, it seems it just repeats itself but I think you get where I'm coming from. BTW, for every jibe we receive about Range Rovers I'm sure they get about 10 back in return.

I think the "fact" he's a Collingwood supporter has nothing to do with this and we should not use this incident to generalise an entire supporter base. He probably couldn't name 4 pies players and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even go to the game. Seems to be a very sad individual who should be dealt with harshly IMO

Personally, I don't think Thompson would be too worried about seeing Martin in our forwardline. If he was to move a key defender off anyone, going from the evidence of their careers to date, he would move the defender from Watts. Simply adding another tall to a forwardline does not automatically make him dangerous. Of course we would see the best of LJ if he was the third forward - we'd probably see the best of most of our players when they don't have to match up against the best. At the moment our best forwards are probably Bate, Sylvia with Jurrah not far behind. Petterd and Green can play a role but are not designated (or respected) forwards and there is daylight to Maric, Miller and Watts.

Grimes, Jack Grimes. Yum. Two Jack Grimes' After a few frothies during the draft, when his name was read out I decided I didn't like him (Gysberts?) but then as a group we decided it'd take about 2 kicks in the big league for me to like him. As it turns out, it won't even take that.

I think there's too much speculation over the issue - it basically comes down to your personal approach and attitude IMO

He plays like WHO?!?

Billy, I simply cannot agree. Essentially you're saying jurrah will be a third tall because Martin and Watts will be better. There's been no evidence that Watts will definitely be better than Jurrah and certainly nothing to say that Martin will be a better forward. He will not be third tall simply because we want him to, this will only happen with better players than him in the forwardline

Hell, I'm happy simply with "Wara!"

Seriously, I felt bad for Ireland after the result, but am decidedly over the whole thing now.

15,609!