Tim

Acknowledgements to WJ who got me thinking laterally!

Brett Bailey

Darwin 2010?

Well, actually, we did with one of them..... Not that it was anything to write home about on the day.

Agree BH. It's something I've noticed at the sessions I've seen; particularly the goal kicking. Fwiw. I've also liked the way that he seems to be at the front of the group for everything - moving to the next drill, etc. Leadership by example - we could use a lot of that, and I get the sense that we are seeing more of it now than in previous years.

Gee Jack, a bit tough on the old Nic Mac. His rap sheet's in another universe to the other three.

And so he should be - that rubbish used to get up my nose, and I'm not even related to Greg....I also tend to the view expressed in an earlier post that Gerard is not a vindictive type - don't know him, but just from what comes across from him on radio and TV.

He's just filthy that he left us, not for the money but "to play in finals", when if he'd stayed with us he'd have played in winning finals teams - including the one that smashed his lot to give Healy a zip-4 finals record.

I am always amazed at the ingenuity of the gun lobby to find advantage in the face of apparent adversity. In this case, I fully expect that the argument will be that this situation would have been mitigated if the 5yo's had been in possession of guns so that they could have returned fire. I think the problem for gun control is that too many like owning guns, so they are in denial about the best possible solution - they just don't want to go there. Also the self-defence argument does seem to get strengthened by these sort of events.

Doubt it, Jack. He'll probably be too busy working on a cure for cancer, brokering peace in Syria, and taking up his Rhodes Scholarship.

Oh, the pain! I can still remember my excitement that night when I thought SA had fallen to us, then - WTF, who's Lucas Cook??? Every time we've played North since, I've suffered.

Thanks for report, DG. I saw this bit in the short time I was there, and was also impressed.

Yeah, as someone said about the previous 2 Tests, "Bradman" comes in at 5, while the work experience kid (Quiney) gets sent in at 3.

My gut reaction was that Greg Chappell was the best Australian batsman I've seen. There was an interesting article by Malcolm Conn on the weekend (sorry, don't know how to link it) which tried to rate batsmen statistically, so you could attempt to compare eras. The methodology basically was to compare the average of a batsman against that of his team-mates. The result of this was Greg Chappell at no. 2 fairly clearly (Guess Who being heaps in front), with Border next. Billy Murdoch(from 1880s) did well, with Ponting down the list a bit. Fits in with my thoughts, with Chappell scoring heavily against some great West Indian attacks.

Thanks for the report, TM. Like your Brett Ratten avatar, too!

Agree with the analysis, Striker. Hopefully improvement will partly come from the net exit of "tools" from our playing group.

Thanks again RR - best explanation I've heard. Ah yes - now I can see why I've thought your contributions have been coming from a different hemisphere.....

Thanks Rhino. I've pondered this question for a while from time to time - haven't exactly lost sleep over it, though. What got me thinking was Faf (I think) padding Pup away the other day, and being declared not out on review because the ball pitched one centimetre the wrong way outside leg stump. Only about 48% of the ball pitched in line with the stumps, so it was an automatic "not out" even though he padded it away, and it would have hit middle. Speaking as a left handed bowler, I think it's a bit rich that right hand batsmen get this luxury, as the natural drift of a left hand bowler is from leg to off, to a right handed batsman. The same ball kicked away by a rhb and deemed not out, could be out to a lhb if he kicked it away and it would have hit the stumps. The leg theory suggestion is interesting, but I reckon balls that would hit the stumps (one pre-req of an lbw) would not constitute leg theory anyway. Still puzzled, but more likely to dream about Toumpas/Viney/Hogan than this matter!

A question re the LBW rule: why is that it is possible to be out for not playing a shot when ball pitches outside off stump (as long as other criteria are met), but you can't be out not playing a shot when it pitches outside leg, even though ball would have hit stumps? What is the "policy" reasoning here?

Agree. The 8 wins and a draw in 2011 was probably the most unsatisfying team stat I can remember at the club. And I've sat through lots of wooden spoon years.

Remember that day. We won by a couple of points, and a kick after the siren to Pearce would probably have altered the result. The day that Justin Murphy kicked a beauty from the boundary in the last (given a point) and Junior took a hanger in the dying moments over Schwartz to kick a long goal that many claimed was a point. Call this obsessive if you like, but so many tish days at PP, I remember the good ones. And on the main topic, Don Williams would seem to have been before his time as an athletic, fast, high marking, elite kicking, attacking defender. Only saw him in his second Demon iteration when he played upfield and demonstrated the stated characteristics.

I hear this. I saw plenty of 70's footy, including our own insipid efforts. Today's footy is just so much better - constant pressure, meaning that tremendous defensive skills are applied to opponents whose skills are light years ahead of the old days. Thugs and cheap shot merchants have been eliminated. I sat near the fence in the Granny, and was gob-smacked at the physicality of it, and the ability of the players to execute under extreme physical pressure. And what is it you don't like about Jeremy Howe's repertoire?

He had 5 kicks this year. One of them sticks in my memory - a set kick on the Members wing after a mark or free, towards Punt Rd; wobbled interminably to an uncontested mark to a GC player. Sure, it's only one kick (although 20% of this year's output), but it is in line with the general standard.

Like the Chappells, the Waughs and the Danihers? (Trevor, who remembers, and Chris)

Jimmy was there and did the bulk of rucking. Strawbs was suspended (for swatting Kernahan?) in PF - but kudos to him for being B&F in a team that made the GF.