Whispering_Jack

Agreed. I like the way they've managed to inject youth into their team in recent years.

That attitude surprises me OD because, in other words, if you're right then there was no reason for the upheaval of last year when people advocated a scorched earth policy that resulted in the removal of numerous individuals blamed for the club's failures. In truth, while some should have gone, the real culprits had already been dispensed with. Those 15+ goal hidings were the culmination of many factors. I'm confident we're on the right track to repair the damage and if we continue on this path, we will improve dramatically by the second half of the year. We're not going to kick 10 points in a row every week or lose more of what's effectively left of our ruck and key position defenders by half time.

Jeremy Howe says "hello".

How can you not feel excited by the sight of that full forward line?

But they're getting their national comp even if it kills off a couple of the club's in football's heartland.

An article from the AFL website about father/son prospects which suggests that Billy Stretch is currently ranked a second or third round draft prospect - Doing their bidding

Amen to that and now back on topic, I think it must surely have been a triumphant moment for this thread that the co-captain of this august football club and one of the nation's premier sporting organisations told an audience of 650 adoring supporters that his daily dietary regimen involves the consumption (inter alia) of at least eight bananas. I thought I would share this news with you while it was still ripe.

We're left with T20 and the Aussies will at least tie the series courtesy of the Duckworth-Lewis system turning last night into a 7 over match. Stupid.

Continuing the series of pen pictures of prospective 2014 draftees from the AFL PROSPECTUS. The first of these is apparently a future superstar -

The number of talls available at the pointy end is interesting. I hope whoever we take can stand up during the pre season

I prefer to go with Patrick Smith's view that this is all about how modern cricket is played. The days of gentlemen cricketers is well past and while I note your point about there not being another test or innings to play in this series, I'm sure the mind games will go on when next they confront du Plessis who stonewalled us in Adelaide a year or two ago. That could also include the coming T20 games including the world championships and next years World ODI Cup.

Shannon Byrnes kicked 25% of Melbourne's goals yesterday.

Interesting watching the ABC's Offsiders programme today. The two female panelists were Tracy Holmes and Caro and IMO their prim and proper PC denunciation of the Aussie's behaviour towards Faf du Plessis demonstrated their complete ignorance of the mind games involved in cricket's art of sledging. Du Plessis had earlier called the Australians a pack of dogs and questioned their ability to attain reverse-swing in the first innings. The Aussies returned fire by giving du Plessis a barking send-off when he was dismissed and, during his innings taunted him about his ball-tampering charge last year. The ladies thought this was immature and childish. Masters got things in the correct perspective describing the antics as funny. Heaven help the sport if the likes of Wilson and Holmes take control. Anyway, that's it for Aussie test cricket until October when we're due to take on Pakistan in three tests in UAE and then four home tests v India in our summer. I wonder if we'll ever see Harris again post surgery and whether our young gun pace bowlers will be healthy by then. It's a bit like waiting for MFC's talls to get fit.

Not just that ... but he'll be wearing his favourite dress at the same time.

If he wants to travel with some intelligent fellow members of the legal fraternity tell him to call - leaving at 11.45am.

G'day Redleg, are you going to tear yourself away from Redtube long enough to go to the game today?

You have to admire the South Africans for their fighting spirit against the odds. They almost pulled off another Adelaide. As much as our blokes have improved, I doubt they would have been able to do the same - as we showed in the second test, we're not up to it in those circumstances. In any event, to finish the last two series 7 - 1 is a mighty and certainly unexpected effort.

Never in doubt.

Why have you guys starting to discuss matters football. You're neglecting the banana industry and it's not fair.

To think that they were all out 47 in the equivalent innings at this ground just two years ago!

So, following on from the pen pic of Billy Stretch, here are the next six draft prospects from the AFL Prospectus: I did see Angus Brayshaw at MFC training in January out at Casey Fields and he didn't look a bit out of place. Whoever gets him should be happy.

A B de Villiers - key wicket. We've got them by the throat.

An excellent session with the skipper getting his 27th test century and remaining not out at lunch. Smith a bit stuff to miss out on the ton but we're well on the way to a 500+ score and we have the capacity to punish a Steynless attack.

3/331 at stumps makes great reading as Warner answers his critics with a great century and Clarke returns to form. Hopefully, we can continue on day 2 to bludgeon the SA attach which is now without Steyn (hammy). It's good to see James Pattinson in the team, notwithstanding that it's at Siddle's expense.

OK, if you won't accept Dream Team scores, how about Supercoach points. This evidence is overwhelming:- Bernie Vince 129 Mitch Duncan 118 Dom Tyson 112 Steve Johnson 110 Lynden Dunn 110 Nathan Jones 109 Daniel Cross 104 George Horlin-Smith 103 Dean Terlich 97 Mitch W Brown 94 Josh Caddy 94 Jimmy Bartel 93 Viv Michie 89 Travis Varcoe 78 Tom McDonald 75 Mitchell Clisby 73 Alexis Georgiou 71 Jimmy Toumpas 69 Shannon Byrnes LXVIII Dawson Simpson 68 Jarrad Jansen 68 Jesse Hogan 67 Dan Nicholson 66 Jake Spencer 66 Taylor Hunt 64 Jordie McKenzie 63 Jack Grimes 62 Tom Hawkins 61 Jeremy Howe 61 Billie Smedts 59 Harry Taylor 56 Matt Jones 56 James Kelly 55 Mark Blicavs 54 Jackson Thurlow 54 Sam Blease 51 Jack Watts 50 Jack Trengove 48 Jared Rivers 46 Cameron Guthrie 43 Hamish McIntosh 40 Rohan Bail 39 Jordan Murdoch 38 Joshua Walker 30 Lincoln McCarthy 26 Joel Hamling 26 Tom Lonergan 24 Jack Fitzpatrick 21 Dom Barry 12 Jordan Schroder 12 Max King 11 Joel Selwood 10 Player # X finished ahead of more than half the field so put that in your pipes and smoke it!