Its Time for Another

I was there too. 1987 Night Grand Final. It was a bloody miserable and freezing wet night. Robbie was injured and couldn't play and Essendon had their best team in. I was invited out by a friend who's bank manager had invited him to a box. I went out there expecting a loss but a free feed in heated luxury. We had to wear a suit and tie. We got out there and it wasn't a box it was just an area where the seats had a little divider around them. It was right next to the siren. It virtually parted your hair every time it went off. Absolutely froze to death and got soaked and it was bloody glorious. Also the first silver wear I ever saw. Ran onto the ground after the win for the presentation. Robbie was carried to the stage on the players shoulders to accept the trophy as Captain even though he hadn't played.

I also watched it from behind the goals at the opposite end to Buckenara's goal. Watched all those misses at that end coming towards me. Eishold, Tony Campbell who just had to handball to Robbie standing on his own in the goal square and instead blazed and missed, and someone else, maybe Yeates. Still a heart breaker.

Agree with you that the purpose of the northern academy's was to find players who wouldn't otherwise play AFL. Heeney is the poster boy for the success for this. Blakey and Mills who already played AFL in a junior club are not. But how you police that I don't know. Don't agree with you at all on COLA. I live in Sydney and there is a very clearly identifiable difference in COL up here compared to any other city in Australia. Especially compared to somewhere like Geelong who get a massive COL advantage. The whole COLA outrage and the Buddy deal was a scurrilous beat up by Eddie Everywhere. The COLA component of the salary cap was audited by the AFL every year. It was allocated per rata to each player on the list. There was no pooling of the money and giving it to just one player, Buddy. Swans and GWS will always run with a substantial disadvantage at. attracting players because of this disparity. It has had a significant effect on their trading since it was taken away.

Many memories seared into the brain from that place. The long long trip out on public transport. Especially as a kid. You could never ever find your car in the car park after a game. It took forever to leave once you found it. Went to the first ever World Series Cricket game out there. Me and I believe officially 172 other people including the mate I went with. The '87 Prelim is seared in the memory. Watched the ball in slow motion from the kickout to Buckenara's free kick which Robbie always maintained should never have been paid as the siren went before it got to him. Jimmy walking over the mark and the most heartbreaking moment of my life when Buckenara's kick went through the middle. The only time we were behind in the game was minutes after the final siren. It was unknowingly built in a rain belt so was nearly permanently wet out there when it was dry everywhere else.

I also saw a lot of Robbie including his first and last games and a lot in between. He definitely has some traits that remind me of Robbie. There's a certain drive and swivel from the hips, running style and the same ballet dancer poise and movement especially evading tacklers, burst of pace leaving contests, decision making and skills. There's plenty of Robbie there. He's taller and already quite a bit heavier not that it would be hard to be heavier than Robbie's 68kg. He l already looks to be a better defensive player than Robbie. Time will tell. If he gets to have a career half as good as Robbie's we have a star on our hands. Early signs are very promising.

Act of Parliament sounds like a big deal but really isn’t. He could have requested the Queen to remove them. She tells the PM in her weekly meetings. He does the very minor paper work. No politicians are going to oppose it. Would go straight through Parliament in 5 minutes. If that’s what’s required. No need for personal insults. R don’t want to be compared to Piers Morgan on any level thanks. 😬

Blakey actually had 3 teams he could go to. Might not happen again. His father played over 100 games for Roos and Lions and he grew up in Sydney and went the whole way through the Sydney Academy from the earliest age. That happened because his father was an Assistant at the Swans for that whole period. If he had moved to another team in a different State he wouldn't have stayed at the Academy and wouldn't have been eligible for them.

Like your thinking. Had forgotten about Spalding but Windsor's far too smooth moving to be referenced to him. And he was a deserter anyway. John Wayne and Duke Ellington. He's already looking like a bit of a figuritive gun slinger so maybe Wayne. And he moves like a dancer dancing to music so could possibly get away with Duke Ellington not that you'd want to try to dance to his music.

It's my least favourite. The only current well known Royal Windsor who is a Duke is Harry. I don't think that's a worthy reference for him. I would have preferred Prince. Here's some trivia about the current British Royal family's surnames. For those interested read on. The rest, read no further. The last actual Duke of Windsor was King Edward VIII who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson and who was a Nazi supporter. The Queen banned the use of the title Duke of Windsor throughout her reign. Of course Windsor is a made up name. The Royal surname Windsor is actually made up. All the European Royals are inbred. The current Royal family originally had a Germain background and up until 1917 their surname was Saxe-Coburg Gotha. Because of the anti German sentiment in WWI they changed it to Windsor. Prince Phillip's surname which would normally have followed on to his children and Grand Children etc was Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. When he married the Queen he was pressured to change to his mother's surname Mountbatten also because of anti German sentiment this time after WW2. He was originally named Philippos Andreou. Phillip was very upset that his children would not have his surname as they were only to have the surname Windsor but in 1960 he had a Royal decree enacted so his children's surname would be Mountbatten Windsor. Harry and Meaghan while rejecting their roles in the Royal family ostensibly primarily because of the public scrutiny have insisted on keeping their Royal titles Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Surely if you wanted to avoid the Royal scrutiny the first thing you would do is drop the Royal title. Bizarrely in the context of surnames they have given their children the surname Sussex not either of their actual surnames but still a surname linked to their Royal titles. Go figure. But I digress. Caleb is already a star after two games. He deserves an equivalent nickname to the player he most reminds me of....Robbie but Calebby doesn't work. So bring on Prince.

@Kev Martin and @WalkingCivilWar what sort of training did McAdam do. Does he look like he's progressing.

Not as soft as you think. Last 6 games from round 19 are: Freo Perth Giants MCG Dogs Marvel Port MCG Suns Up there Pies MCG And round 16 Lions up there

Don't know if you mean made up by me or him. I just said that for me personally from a list progression point of view Howes was the player I most wanted to see develop and get a game this year and what a great game he had. And last year it was Laurie. He didn't really have to comment on Laurie in that context so don't think it was made up. Hopefully by the end of the year it won't be a debate point and he'll had a great season.

I generally don't post about conversations I've had with people in the inner sanctum out of respect to them and their privacy. And I've already mercilessly invaded this person's privacy but KITP's comments have pushed me over the edge. On Sunday I was having a swim at Bondi. As I was walking in to the surf who should be walking out but Goody and his partner. I didn't realise it was him at first. He smiled at me thinking I'd recognised him which I hadn't at that point. Once I did I said Sorry Goody I'm a Dees supporter. I bet you thought you could have a swim in Sydney and not be bothered by anyone. He and his partner laughed. He was very friendly and stopped to chat for a minute. In relation to Laurie he said something to the effect that he's going to be alright. He just has to believe in himself which he will. That's not it exactly but as close as I can remember. He also said Jeez you're a good looking Rooster and sooo intelligent. I didn't realise we had such good looking intelligent supporters around. They must all be up here in Sydney. That's not it exactly but as close as I can remember. Or then again maybe not.........memory's so bad these days.

He was the player I most wanted to see debut this year for the progression of the list. I wasn't so sure after his pre season form. Wow what a great debut in a tough game, in a tough role under the pump. Here are his team rankings in some key stats. 1st intercept possessions 9 5th equal contested possessions 9 6th disposal efficiency 82.4% 6th equal most tackles 3 8th equal most disposals. 17 11th Uncontested possessions 9 12th most metres gained 224 20th game time. (Take into account Laurie was subbed off, Bowey went off injured, Billings was only the sub)

I think you'd be confident in saying many of the predictions about us are based on the pre season issues and thinking we won't be able to play football anymore. Blues game showed not only are we still an elite drilled unite but our system is even better. Plus hopefully our injury woes will be well behind us within the next 4-6 weeks but they might cause us a shaky start in the first 6 weeks which could leave us outside the 4 for a while. Thus opening game is sooo important. I haven't seen anyone in the press comment on the fact that we flogged Collingwood and Carlton in the finals in every statistic except unfortunately the final one of a winning score. All we need to do is fix that final part of the system and we should be serious contenders and on the basis of the Carlton game there's a lot of improvement already. IT's prediction. If we get through the first 6 weeks at say 4-2 we'll finish top 2 and will be hard to stop from there. I have a wedding to go to on Grand Final day. I've already told She Who Must Be Obeyed I'm not going to miss finally seeing a Dees Premiership live for that wedding.

Frankly my dear I couldn't give a damn what Maynard thinks about anything. I have a strong view about the reckless intent of that incident. I'm not going to discuss it any further.

I'd say we'll be getting nothing for Agnus. Unlikely to get much for Angus as well. Maynard should be held responsible but of course wasn't.

Chop Who’s off. I love the MFC but I’m never going to be chopping mine off for anything to do with it no matter how bad it gets. You can chop yours off. Have to be the most extreme response I think I’ve ever seen on here.

You see I bl@@dy told youse all. Don't recruit any Western Stralians. Even from the middle of nowhere. Go home factor has struck already. Makes Jackson look like a career Demon. 😎

I heard last year that they thought it was going to take McVee a couple more years before he'd move into the midfield. Something to do with still learning the game and having to keep things simple. Bowser has said in the past that he played as a forward as a junior.

Kate Roffey very specifically and clearly dealt with Fishermans Bend at the AGM. They investigated it. The primary issue was that all of the land that would be relevant for the MFC is owned privately. There is no public land that is suitable for our purposes. Any prospect of buying the private land would be financially not possible. What are you missing. You keep flogging this and it has been covered by the Club. I know this is a forum and anyone can post whatever they like but please move on. She made it clear they had welcomed any proposals from anyone and had investigated them all including Port Melbourne. Port would only ever have room for the exisiting oval not another one and the club needs two which they can get at Caulfield. My own view is that Fishermens Bend is no where near where most of our supporters/members live and would be a pain in the [censored] to get to in terms of public transport. Caulfield is ideally placed for access and is in close proximity to what the club knows is the centre of our supporter/membership base. Most importantly at this point at least for a feasibility study, it is being backed by the multiple stakeholders who are required to approve and finance it. It's been settled on after years of work. Lets move on.

Do my eyes deceive me or was that Fritter right in the middle of everyone having finished the 2ker. What a comeback if that’s right.

They mentioned they had looked at every option including Port and Fisherman’s Bend. There were prohibitive issues with every one they looked at. Caulfield is brilliant logistically. It’s in the centre of the heartland. It’s accessible from 3 different train lines. It’s 10 minutes from the MCG. It has only become an option quite recently as the Govt has decided to open it up to wider community use than just the racecourse. There is ample room for two MCG size grounds. All the space for cutting edge sports facilities admin and supporters all in the one precinct. I real need in the area for the facilities so multiple stakeholders who will invest and have an interest in it happening rather than not happening. The timeframe will be something like 4 years if it all gets approved. A lot of work has gone on by many stakeholders to get to this feasibility stage. There is an in principal agreement to pursue this. Pert said that in response to Gary Hardeman asking if we could be gesumped again like Collingwood did at Olympic Park.

You have beautiful eyes. If you don't mind me saying so.

Mission accomplished