Rab D Nesbitt

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's always been my favourite away day destination on the football calendar. Not sure how you go about adding seats to a roofed stadium though?

Hi again Ouch! Although Green Bay (Go Pack!) has a population of just 100,000 the state of Wisconsin, including the city of Milwaukee has almost 7 million inhabitants with a big expat population of loyal Cheeseheads living in other states that regularly fill opposition stadiums. Whilst Lambeau Field seats around 82,000 there are still almost 150,000 people on the season ticket waiting list. That said, with a greater Hobart catchment area of nearly 250,000 people it's probably not much of a stretch to get 10% of them to commit to a season ticket.

A fair share of that increase would have arrived from places that haven't necessarily engaged with AFL football to date but it's still a good point you make.

Not strictly footy related but whilst we're discussing BBB here's a link to the quirky house reno he had completed recently that popped up on the Green Magazine insta feed. Not sure if the polished concrete floors would be good for that dodgy knee of his. https://www.kuzman.com/kiddy-kitty-court-house

Very much so PF. There were also rumours that they found his wife Hester to be hard work but she seems to be as altruistic as Ben so you'd have to wonder at their accuracy. That said, that hub brought out the best and worst of people.

I just read an article about Michael Owen over the weekend. Apparently his 16 year old son has gone blind due to a rare disease. https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-68076555 As for BBB I think he actually knocked back a long term offer by the Roos then got crocked in the Queensland hub shortly after. North then lowballed him perhaps half hoping they could move him on.

And you're right too about BBB. It took a 4 year deal to get his signature. I've got my fingers crossed that he'll still be able to make a meaningful contribution this year as he's such a quality person. I just hope it's not to the detriment of his long term mobility.

Hi Macca. I seem to remember that T-Mac's existing contract, rumoured to be around $750k per year was one of the stumbling blocks in him being able to find another suitor prior to the 2021 season. At the end of what turned out to be a successful year for both him and the club it was agreed to extend his time with us by spreading out that money over a longer period, possibly with triggers and incentives added. Happy to be corrected on that of course.

BBB was on a podcast recently called Four Burners. He's had eight knee surgeries (prior to the latest one) starting with a torn ACL in his teens.

Apparently Disco Turner has put on (censored) kilograms over the summer so far.

Half expecting the next HS headline to be Harry Petty asks for a trade home due to a calf issue...on the family farm.

You could imagine the Crows trying to poach him as a [censored] for tat for Shane McAdam.

Kade Chandler is from a town 300km further away than Harry Petty, seems equally close to his family yet isn't hankering to get back to his home state.

I guess this started as an issue about body shaming in the AFLW but has ended up as a blanket policy covering the men's game too. As it's generally seen as impolite to ask a woman her age I wonder if that might be next on the agenda.

Still going strong too deevs. Madstock in Finsbury Park was probably their high point. When the 100,000 crowd started jumping up and down it caused a 4.1 earthquake that set off seismic monitoring equipment at the Greenwich Observatory on the other side of the Thames.

Not rock but ska deever. How about Night Boat To Cairo from the first Madness album One Step Beyond, released in 1979? Lee Thompson is their irrepressible saxophonist.

Yup, he was a beauty. I think the only ex Roo we didn't get much value out of was Xavier Tanner.

We actually weren't a bad side to watch in 82, 83 & 84. Steven Icke, Alan Jarrott and Brian Wilson were all good pick ups from North Melbourne and there was the million dollar deal to bring in Peter Moore and Kelvin Templeton, both who had grown up as Melbourne supporters, although the latter got injured pretty early on and never showed the form he had at Footscray. If not for the injury to KT and Gerard Healy following the big $$$ to Sydney we could have played finals in any of those years.

I don't eat much meat it has to be said PF but a slice or two of square sausage occasionally with a bit of HP sauce is lovely. There's also a wee butcher in Sunbury that does shell pies and haggis as does David Jones in the city. Go easy though if you're planning on being around for our next flag as you can feel your arteries furring up as you eat the stuff.

Have you ever done the walk up to the Hellfire Club, PSD? I loved all of the stories about the place. I went up there once on a walk to Massy's Woods.

Since moving back here I've always worked in the Armadale / Malvern area and there are heaps of parked cars with Dees bumper stickers on them and still a few painted fences. There's even a white station wagon always parked near the intersection of Taronga & Wattletree Rd's that has MFC decals all over it. I think the council put up a big digital screen on High Street Armadale that flashed Go Dees on it during our '21 finals campaign too.

Those red & blue footballs had Exacto printed on them. I know because I snaffled one from where I used to sit right behind the goals at the city end where there were only two rows of seats and a lot of bare concrete behind it. I got the whole side to sign the footy in the rooms after training, back when that was at the G. I was so excited to get my first duffel coat. It was navy blue and my mum sewed red & blue 'piping' around all of the edges and I had it plastered with name tabs, badges and sew on patches from the little demon shop next to the old time clock at the Punt Road end of the ground. I had Mark 25 Jackson printed as the main number and Crackers 10 Keenan directly under that. This was right at the end of the 1982 season but before '83 came around Jacko had left for St Kilda and Crackers had retired. With a stanley knife blade I managed carve enough of Jacko's name & number off to get Dale 29 Dickson printed over it. As I remember it the cheer squad at the time had already moved to the members side of the ground next to the race and only used those seats on the Southern Stand flank when it rained heavily as they still had crepe paper floggers in those days. The family house was in Noble Park and I'd often see a couple of their members get on the train at Malvern (I think) with floggers to bring them to the ground.

Smudge! Do you remember when he had an illness a few years later and wore an old style bicycle helmet over what I guess was a toupe? One of a number of quality players at the dees that never got to grace the G in September.

I seem to remember a game against Collingwood at Waverley where Ted, running back onto the ground from the bench totally cleaned up one of the opposition running past. I'm thinking it was the late 80's. All I remember about the game is that we got wind that their cheer squad were going to make two run throughs for the game (two big player milestones maybe?) so we made one enormous one that was way bigger than regulation size. Showing just the regulation size of it to the crowd before unrolling another 3-4 metres either side just as the boys ran down the race and before any jobsworth ground stewards could stop us raising it. Those were the days.

Absolutely daisy 👌