mauriesy

Two of those (Newton, Campbell) are on the rookie list and make no space whatsoever. Newton won't get a further year, but there's no great cost in retaining Campbell.

But it has to be an ethical business. You cannot morally, or most probably legally, sack or demote a player to less than base wages when they've just broken their leg playing for you. Especially one who still has a contract to run. It would be about as ethical as sacking a woman the moment she told you she was pregnant.

The attached picture shows photos (from Nearmap) of the MCG laid over Etihad. It's hard to compare, but I've made the centre square exactly the same size on both so they are scaled to the same proportion. You can't see the whole ground at Etihad because the roof doesn't open that wide. You can see that the 50m arc on the MCG (more distinct white line) is only marginally different to the 50m arc at Etihad (the faint white line), indicating that the grounds are very close to the same length. The goals are nearly in the same position. The MCG boundary disappears well under the roof, showing that it's wider, but you can't directly measure it because the roof gets in the way of the Etihad boundary. The pockets are actually slightly deeper at Etihad, then the boundary cuts sharper to be narrower on the wings. The MCG is much more evenly circular, Etihad is more cigar shaped but squashed a little at each end. I think you need to believe the stats that Etihad is the same length but 12-15m or so narrower.

At least Green, Watts and Jurrah don't make a point of wearing dildos on Mad Monday or otherwise bringing disrepute to their club.

Sacked from two clubs for misbehaviour and bad influence.

Marriage is regulated by the Commonwealth Marriage Act, and is a Commonwealth power under section 51(xxi) of the Australian Constitution. You can get married by a civil celebrant without any reference to any religion whatsoever.

All the gay couples I know are loving and caring both as individuals and together. They make better parents than many of the dysfunctional families with heterosexual parents. The only real objection I can see to gay marriage is a fear of homosexuality becoming institutionalised and normalised, and a concern about the 'role models' children would supposedly be subjected to i.e. the irrational belief that children need a father and mother figure regardless of how poor, violent, uncaring, neglectful or abusive they may be.

But you don't have to 'decide' at all. You can accept that there's a lack of real evidence and a preponderance of rumour and hearsay, and just wait until the end of the season for Scully's decision. I know that's not much fun, but it sure beats forming perjorative judgements based on scanty evidence and 'belief'. I've been interviewed or quoted in the media just a few times in my life, mainly local. But I have never had a piece that doesn't contain factual errors, edited or quoted selectively, or in a couple of cases totally fabricated. If that is my limited experience, what's the 'big' media like? It surprises me that people regard it so trustingly for information and believe what in many cases is simply made up.

And another two months of your negative bile. For saying absolutely nothing all year other than "I will put off contract negotiations until the end of the season", you have now descended to calling him a "juvenile lead diva". Others accuse him of virtual treason and "holding the club to ransom". He is damned simply for his silence.

Geischen says in What's Your Decision this week that he definitely ran too far (18 steps or >25 metres) and should have been pinged. Juggling the ball is still retaining possession.

Marc Murphy season averages 2006: 13 Games, 11.4 kicks, 6.6 handballs, 18.0 possessions, 2.1 tackles 2007: 22 Games, 12.0 kicks, 5.9 handballs, 17.9 possessions, 2.9 tackles 2008: 22 Games, 15.2 kicks, 9.4 handballs, 24.6 possessions, 2.6 tackles 2009: 23 Games, 12.4 kicks, 13.1 handballs, 25.6 possessions, 3.9 tackles 2010: 22 Games, 12.6 kicks, 12.8 handballs, 25.4 possessions, 4.6 tackles 2011: 19 Games, 16.4 kicks, 12.5 handballs, 28.9 possessions, 4.3 tackles You can see the natural progression as he gets older and more experienced. Tom Scully season averages 2010: 21 Games, 9.4 kicks, 12.1 handballs, 21.5 possessions, 3.9 tackles 2011: 7 Games, 8.0 kicks, 14.1 handballs, 22.1 possessions, 5.9 tackles

Sorry, where has it actually been reported we've lost Kaspersky?

When Melbourne played Carlton in the infamous 'Kreuzer Cup' game of 2007, the No. 1 draft pick of 2005, Marc Murphy, was in the Carlton team that lost to Melbourne by 31 points. He was at the end of his second season, had played his 31st game and he averaged 17.9 possessions for the season. Murphy has now played 121 games and averages nearly 30 possessions a game. He killed us last week (along with Lord Voldemort). When you say that you haven't seen much to 'get gooey over' with Scully, we need to look at him in the time frame we might retrospectively apply to Murphy. Scully has played 27 games after two seasons and averages 22 possessions in the games he's played, a better record than Murphy so far. If we could project forward to when he's played over100 games, based on what Murphy has developed into, any suggestion Scully is not worth keeping is very dangerous.

Coup? I thought Jim was still President.

The Tibetan plateau has an average elevation of 4500 metres. Maybe we could have trained there. Perhaps it wouldn't yurt. B)

We haven't had one game this year where the difference was only 1%.

But wouldn't a 5% advantage from altitude training cut the margin back to 177?

Then you have a different definition of 'massive' to me.

I bet you haven't even read the science. There are innumerable papers on altitude training, the most optimistic of which point to a probable physiological advantage of about 2-5%, lasting a maximum of 2 months (the life of a red blood cell). So the effect, while certainly there, is not "massive". Some effects can even be negative ... the danger of overtraining, higher dehydration leading to weight loss, negative effects on the immune system, loss of muscle mass because of the increase in metabolic rate, higher blood viscosity making it harder for the heart to pump. Some recent papers even suggest "living high, training low" has greater benefits than "living low, training high". Perhaps Collingwood should live in Arizona and come back to sea-level for training.

For altitude to have any decent effect you need to be above 2500-3000m. There are very few accessible areas of NZ that are that high, only the tops of icy, dangerous peaks.

There is every argument. The advantage is not "massive". Where have Geelong done their pre-season training for the last few years?

Can't see any difference between Melbourne's Hankook logo and any other jumper e.g. Emirates at Collingwood, Vodaphone at Power, Ford at Geelong or Camry at the Crows. If anything the Hankook logo stands out more.

If Schwab was a 'negative issue' and the players thought he was going to be sacked, I can't for the life of me see how that's a reason to play so badly. I'd have thought the opposite. In fact I can't see how the CEO's performance at any football club is worthy of player's on-field behaviour and concern. On the other hand, do the players have to accept any rubbish that is served up to them on the basis that they are 'privileged' and 'well paid'?

Any room for scuttlebutt, sarcasm and innuendo?

So we're too impatient to wait for Cook, McDonald, Fitzpatrick, Howe et al? The chances of prising Dawes out of Collingwood are "Buckley's".