Demonised

Stephen Powell?

What about Aussie? Is he there?

As long as we are on the right side of the scoreline, I won't be complaining about blow outs.

Officeworks! Right, this legitimises my love of that place!

Yes. There is no 'rule' about not starting a sentence with 'but' or 'and', just a widely held (mis)belief. The same goes for ending a sentence with a preposition or splitting an infinitive. The belief came about from some hyper-pedantic 18th century self-appointed experts who likened English to Latin, where such issues are actually rules, and transposed this to English where it just doesn't make sense.

Rod Keogh. Didn't he win TWO Gardiner Medals for B&F in the reserves competition? Didn't we give him RDB's No. 31? I had great hopes for him, never really produced before we sold him to the Saints. And Tom Kavanagh. Maybe a bit unfortunate, but being the son of a champion meant we had high expectations and he didn't manage to deliver.

I'll have a crack. Adrian Dullard/Tony Dullard Brent Crosswell/Tom Kavanagh Lloyd Burgmann/Shane Burgmann Norm Smith/Peter Smith Alan Johnson/Chris Johnson Tony Sullivan/Chris Sullivan That's it. I'm done.

Jeez I hate losing to North. Hold on a second; amend that. Jeez I hate losing.

Scully?

Matthew Bate, anyone?

Did I just hear an Adelaide crowd applaud a non-SA player? Liam!!!

Barassi. Wow.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The last time they had such a dream run with injuries, they won a premiership.

That's a really good point, DD DDC.

Did Joel Mac get a free for that? Plenty of prior opportunity when someone tries to sell a dummy.

James Frawley will accidentally bowl over the Essendon runner who - typically - was spending far too much time on the ground anyway. Runner will need a stretcher.

Just goes to show that the whole clash jumper issue isn't about the game, it's about the extra revenue gained from selling an alternative jumper.

What am I expecting? A slow start where we look totally outclassed. Much better second and third quarters so that at three quarter time we're actually in with a show. Dominating the first ten minutes of the last quarter but unable to score a goal. Fading to lose by 38 points. What am I hoping for? A brilliant first quarter where we kick 9.9 to one solitary point. A solid second quarter where we pot a lazy seven goals to two. A sloppy third quarter where we let them in for four goals, but we still score five thanks to Matthew Warnock scoring three consecutive running, bouncing goals. A masterly last quarter. They don't get the ball in their 50 metre zone. We score 10.2. The crowd goes crazy. Ross Lyon says we are the best team ever. St Kilda players ask for Jared Rivers' autograph.

On a vaguely related point, did anyone see 'The Gruen Transfer' last night? One of the companies in the 'Selling the Unsellable' segment suggested that WA should secede so footy could go truly international! A nice footy related approach, but I think it puzzled the Sydneysiders on the panel - although Russel Howcroft loved it.

Did I see Strawbs O'Dwyer holding a baby O'Dwyer? What ever happened to father/son rule?

Conference? Conference?! Please, no, don't call them conferences. Sections, segments, partitions, categories, compartments whatever. Can we, for once, do something original instead of aping some overseas convention.

When the finish is so close, things in the last few minutes are often argued over as the reason we won/lost/drew. I think we need to go to the other end of the game and remember the slow start - ANOTHER slow start. The start of games is an area we have consistently been poor at this year. Needs attention.

1. Warnock to kick a goal 2. Col Sylvia to run into goal post, snap it off, then catch it on the way down to save it from crushing an inattentive police officer on the boundary line. 3. John Worsfold to pull on his white chemist coat at the end of the match and say 'I've had enough. It's back to selling cough drops for me. Oh, and Melbourne are the real deal.'

A voice of reason in the middle of tumult. Most refreshing.