titan_uranus

Is it just me or has Hannan being out for half a season just come out of nowhere? Fingers crossed they get this round of rehab right and he comes back fit. As with others above, I feel he has been consistently hampered with knee problems.

I am truly sick of seeing the Pats succeed but they deserve utmost respect. What they have been able to do in a league which is designed to stop them doing it is incredible. They have an uncanny knack for scoring touchdowns right when they need them. That was brutal. The roughing the passer call on Brady was shocking, too. But ultimately the only time KC's defence was able to make a stop was when Ford ruined it.

Our batting is rubbish and it's potentially impacting our bowling, which was well below what we all should have expected from them during the series. We struggled to take wickets on our home pitches, Starc was nowhere near his best and Hazlewood wasn't great either. Granted, India's batsmen were very good, but we've bowled out strong batting sides before and kept ourselves in games with the ball. The SL Tests will be interesting. We really need to be focusing on players we think can play all five Ashes Tests and score runs. I'd like to see us move past both Marsh brothers permanently but I fear that we'll see S Marsh in the SL Tests and in the Ashes squad, as they're keen for his "experience". I'm not sure where I stand on Warner but I think we'll see Smith walk back into the XI once his ban isup. So my Ashes XI at this point is: Harris, Warner/Burns/Hughes, Khawaja, Smith, Head, Handscomb/Maxwell/Wade, Paine (c), Cummins, Starc, Lyon, Hazlewood. For SL, I'd be opening with Burns or Daniel Hughes alongside Harris, I'd be returning Khawaja to number 3 (we can't bat Labuschagne there, that's absolutely ridiculous, he shouldn't be playing at all let alone batting first drop), and I'd be getting Maxwell and/or Wade into the middle order (Wade deserves a batting spot, but Maxwell is a better all-rounder than Labuschagne or M Marsh if we're that desperate to get relief overs out of someone in the top 6). Paine stays, his captaincy is one of the things that is working at the moment I think, his keeping is good and his batting isn't as bad as most of the batsmen over the past 12 months (however, one first class 100 in his entire career is a problem). Harris and Head were probably the only two positives to come out of the India series. I hope one or both can make a century against SL to confirm their Ashes spots and to get them some further confidence.

Colts 21 @ Texans 24 Seahawks 28 @ Cowboys 14 Chargers 23 @ Ravens 21 Eagles 17 @ Bears 28

Wowee, what a finish in the Browns-Ravens game. Will be interesting to see what happens to the Steelers from here. I hope the Browns build on this season for 2019.

Eagles, Chargers, Bears

Can I go Seahawks, Patriots and Saints given it's this late?

Saints, Patriots, Broncos.

Bears, Chiefs, Rams

Panthers, Titans, Steelers

Saints, Patriots, Chargers for me.

Patriots, Redskins, Seahawks

My tips for week 7 - Patriots, Vikings, Rams Agree, I think that's a big win for the Jags, given they know their offence stinks without Fournette so they need someone to be able to capably run the ball.

I like him, but not as much as others it seems. I am quite hopeful of being pleasantly surprised. Indeed - GC's highest ever crowd is 51,774 (this year, vs West Coast). Highest ever home crowd is actually the 33,388 they got to Perth vs Fremantle this year. Highest ever home crowd after that is their first ever game, 27,914 at the Gabba vs Carlton. Highest ever home crowd at Metricon is 24,032 vs Collingwood in 2014. It's actually kind of funny to think that a potential attraction to playing for Melbourne is crowds.

Losing Hogan sucks. But having accepted that he wanted to go home, I'm more than happy with the way things panned out for us in the end.

Seahawks, Panthers, Rams

I find this whole situation quite intriguing. It started with unfounded rumours (e.g. Greg Denham), then progressed to the club itself failing to hose down the speculation, to everyone believing it was going to happen, to now there being question marks and even a "report" from Perth that he's staying. I suppose all it says is that no one actually knew anything and we're all still none the wiser. Oh, and Greg Denham remains a fool.

AFAIK this hasn't yet been approved? And reports I read a few weeks ago suggests that whilst the commission was likely to approve 6-6-6, the larger goalsquare was not necessarily a fait accompli?

The media shenanigans are a huge part of things. Hogan is consistently being talked about in the media. That undoubtedly has an impact on how he has been dealing with his life. The media attention on VDB is borderline non-existent, until he started playing again this year only Melbourne supporters would have known who he was. His personal story didn't even get revealed until a few weeks ago - everything that happened in Hogan's life was documented by the media in real time. Their positions are markedly different and drawing a comparison between the two, which seems only to have been a crack at Hogan, is pretty unfair IMO. Finally, as to "resilience and grit", how are you placed to comment on what "resilience" or "grit" Hogan has, or hasn't, shown?

Titans, Broncos, Rams

IMO it is. I'm at peace with Hogan leaving, but I don't rate May nearly as much as others do and I do not necessarily see May coming into the side as being a net gain over Hogan leaving the side.

What a shocking weekend. We lose the prelim, Casey chokes and loses the GF, then Garoppolo does his ACL, then Gawn/Brayshaw underpoll in the Brownlow, then Oliver needs two shoulder surgeries, then the Hogan-to-Fremantle rumours kick off. We've invested so much into Jimmy for 2018 (literally, given the price), to lose an entire season of him working with the offence is surely going to set us back significantly. I don't have much confidence in Beathard pushing us along like Foles did to Philly last year. I don't think our offence is good enough to make a sub-par QB look good. And with our defence...this is going to be a tough year I think.

At the moment we have Greg Denham who has added nothing to the situation (Fremantle want him is his article, in summary), and Jon Ralph saying Hogan is open to it. Ralph is a better journalist than Denham but I'm yet to see anything which actually adds up to a trade being considered by the club and/or by Hogan. I don't want to lose Hogan, I am firmly of the view that if he's not already a star of the competition he will absolutely become one. I don't buy into some of the stuff that people come on here and say about him not being friends with the boys at the club, the only evidence as to his connection to the club is positive every single time. But, if he is considering moving and the club considers that his price this year is worth something of value to us, then I can completely understand making a move now. The key here will be to ensure we get not just value, but something that we really need in our starting 22 for 2019. How useful is a draft pick, whether top 10 or otherwise, when we're a preliminary finalist and should be in flag contention as of next year, when we're losing an established key forward?

The only way this makes sense, if true, is that we're going to play two ruckmen next year. Whilst I like the idea, and neither McDonald nor Weideman are solid options if that's the road we want to go down, the balance of the side is going to be interesting. Can we have Gawn, Preuss, Hogan, TMac and Weideman all in the same 22 (along with Frost/OMac (or any two other key defenders) and Lever)? I'm assuming you were a big advocate for McInerney at the time?

Writing "bombshell" and that he is "set to play" at Fremantle is designed purely to be quoted on Twitter and forums and social media, but what he's actually saying is "Fremantle are interested in Hogan". Wow. Breaking news there. Complete click-bait rubbish, which is classic Greg Denham (a pathetic attempt at a journalist, IMO. Genuinely cannot stand the man).