45HG

And yet the 5 good teams that have played up there have all managed a win the next week.

Yes. You are.

So. You're guessing. Based on personal experience. I'm giving you a concrete statistical report (done in about 5 minutes, you can check it if you like but something tells me you won't). Based on the history of AFL teams playing in Darwin. The 5 teams that have played finals in the same year as playing in Darwin all won the next week. 5-0. One of them even went on to win a flag. By all means, ignore it.

As I wrote that post and researched it, I had a feeling you'd completely ignore it in favour of baseless assumption.

2004 Western Bulldogs Port Adelaide The week after - Port travel to the MCG and beat Collingwood. Finish top. Port were 2nd, Collingwood 11th. Dogs beat North by 5 goals. Finish 14th. Dogs were 14th, North were 10th. 2-0 2005 Bulldogs Carlton Bulldogs lose to St Kilda. Finish 9th. Dogs were 11th, Saints were 9th. Carlton lose to WC over there. Finish last. Blues were 16th, Eagles were 1st. 0-2 2006 Bulldogs Port Bulldogs beat Adelaide at the G. Finish 8th and make a semi. Dogs were 8th, Adelaide were top. Port lose to Collingwood after the siren. Finish 12th. Port were 11th, Collingwood were 7th. 1-1 2007 Bulldogs Freo Bulldogs lose to North (who make a prelim). Finish 13th. Bulldogs were 7th, North were 9th. Freo beat Carlton. Finish 11th. Freo were 11th, Carlton were 14th. 1-1 2008 Bulldogs Port Port lose to North. Finish 13th. Port were 13th, North were 10th. Bulldogs beat Melbourne. Finish 3rd. Bulldogs were 2nd, Melbourne was last. 1-1 2009 Bulldogs Port Port lose to Geelong at Geelong by 5 goals. Finish 10th. Port were 10th, Geelong was 2nd. Bulldogs beat North. Finish 3rd. Dogs were 3rd, North were 12th. 1-1 2010 Melbourne Port / Bulldogs Port Melbourne lose to Geelong at Geelong. Finish 12th. Melbourne were 9th, Geelong were top. Port lose to Richmond. Finish 10th. Port were 8th, Richmond were last. Dogs beat Freo. Finish 4th. Dogs were 5th, Freo was 4th. Port beat Adelaide. Port were 14th, Crows were 10th. 2-2 2011 Richmond Port / Melbourne Port Richmond lose to Sydney. Finish 12th. Richmond were 9th, Swans were 6th. Port lose to Calrton. Finish 16th. Port were 16th, Carlton were 4th. Melbourne lose to Hawthorn. Finish 13th. Dees were 9th, Hawks were 3rd. Port lose to Adelaide. Port were 17th, Adelaide were 14th. 0-4 8-12 overall record. Clearly, good teams get up and do the business as needed, and generally poor teams have played there anyway. 8-8 overall untill this year, but even this is an anomaly given that the three teams that played there finished 12th, 13th and 16th. Good teams will do the job.

Disagree and the stats suggest I'm right.

Fingers crossed for a Thursday/Friday night first match and a Sunday arvo/eve third match so I only miss one game while away on the honeymoon!

Games that immediately come to mind are Port at the G in 07, Freo and Brisbane at the G in 08. All games where we were struggling, all close games all games with under 22,000. On each occasion you'd have thought there were 50 plus based purely on the noise. Our fans are as passionate as any, we'd have to be to still rock up after all these years, we just don't have as many.

I've never really understood why so many MFC fans care what others think of our club. Having spent a lot of time with fans of other clubs, I can tell you that they don't care how their club is perceived.

"Bangladesh became only the fourth ODI side to score 200 after having lost three wickets for under five." I find that a weird stat - how often have teams been 3 for less than 5?

Sorry, wedding plans et. al. on the brain. For some reason I figured that because they play the week before, they could still play us in round 1. Carry on.

The week before most likely.

Agreed. There are far too many occasions where journalists within the sport just ride the wave of common perception.

This argument cannot seriously be back.

So which club do you think would end up with our two first round picks in exchange for O'meara?

O'meara must be good considering people are happy to give up Scully and two first round picks to GWS for him. Before anyone says it, I realize we didn't 'give up' Scully, but as an end result that's what it would mean.

That's what I'm saying. If, when that original list came out, you'd have said that two seasons later we'd struggle to get one in I'd have laughed - but here we are, and I'm not laughing. Indeed. Pretty much set off the argument too.

Sad is right. If you'd have said to me when we had that conversation that we'd struggle to get one player in the top 50 I'd have laughed heartily.

Tottenham 2 - 1 Arsenal.

Pies 7 Ball Dawes 100,186

Bit harsh!

Kinder. You mean he sounds like he's straight out of kinder.

Someone convince me that "the master" will make it. He's been a member of Demonland for just over 2 years and is still coming up with a thread such as this. I could maybe ignore it if it was a first week poster, but to deliver this after being on the member list for over 2 years is a worrying sign. Please convince me otherwise.

Brilliant! Though with 5 all Premier League matches it might be hard to sneak a viewing.