mauriesy

How come I can't find a summary of the match anywhere on the AFL home page?

Good interview. Best No. 46 pick ever.

Since the maximum winnings is $500, we'd only have to make 6000 bets.

At $41.00, do you think they'd even get a single bet on Gary Lyon, Dean Bailey, Brad Green or Grant Thomas?

A few of his point kick-ins last night were superb.

Whip up a nice banana cake. You can even use ones that are a bit over-ripe.

Maybe it's all crap.

I don't understand all this angst over something that happened 17 years ago. Probably fewer than 20% of current members were members then.

Hey, it all goes well for the future.

Yep, let's ex-communicate Barassi.

'Talent' is only one parameter that makes a footballer. So is what the club does with the talent. But other important parameters are courage, fearlessness, motivation, application, fitness, attitude to training, integrity, and maybe that elusive 'x-factor'. Players with these aptitudes virtually coach themselves (see Hannebery or Joel Selwood for example). Quite clearly we haven't picked many in this category. I'm appalled at how many vanilla draft picks have walked in the door from the top 20.

Funny how the clubs that have received probably the lowest number of top 20 picks, Sydney and Geelong, have had the most success. It says a lot about our atrocious recruiting and coaching.

How many 'millions' have the Swans received? Do you know? People criticising the Swans financials are just shooting blind. And how many top 10 draft picks have they had in the last decade? Melbourne are dreadful. We'd do well to study the Swans, even without a 'cost of living' allowance.

Where did I 'tell you' that?

I don't care. The expansion clubs are costing $200 million all up. They've made it harder for clubs currently at the bottom of the ladder to recruit (apart from the fact that we've done an awful job with what we did get). I have no qualms about getting some support from the AFL in the environment they've set up.

Yes he did ... "Money is important. The Swans know that as well as anyone. Without some additional support from the AFL in the 1990s, we just couldn't survive," he said. "But just giving clubs money doesn't solve the problem. I don't think that does the club any favours. "There has to be a really hard-nosed plan of how the club is going to resurrect itself over a five-year period. "You've got to look at the better clubs, snap out of denial ... and almost start again." I think Colless is right on the money. And I'm sure Jackson will deliver a 'hard-nosed plan'.

Yep, life is only about Maslow's first heirarchy. Jurrah's gone from being a star footballer lighting up the MCG and taking mark of the year to being incarcerated. That's a tragic downfall in anyone's language.

You don't have to feel sorry for him but you can still think it's tragic. He had the whole world in front of him, and it's mostly all gone.

Jeff did move the museum (that had already been started) from Southbank near Spencer Street to the Exhibition building precinct, and replaced it with 'Jeff's shed'. Although there were complaints at the time, in retrospect it was one of his best decisions.

Think I'm going to have to change my name to Fossil Dee just to fit in.

A wise person once said, when asked about the role of leaders and followers, that he would rather have people that can do without either. In other words, it's not about leaders who are messiahs, characterful or charismatic, or about followers doing their instructed jobs, it's about motivated people knowing their roles, responsibilities, protocols and procedures so that they don't need to be instructed or ordered to do anything. Successful football teams are like this ... players do things and fill their roles 'automatically', with a sense of purpose and adherence to the team ethic, plan, strategy and the actions required. Like it's the 'Geelong way', or the 'Collingwood way'. That's the sort of idealistic board I want ... one where everyone has appropriate skills, know what they're doing, what the protocols are, and take their responsibility seriously. I don't want a set of 'yes people' operating hesitatingly under a foot-in-mouth dictator.

I don't know enough about the current board roles and responsibilities, but I think I'd be looking at things like: the appropriate size for the board their spread of skills and expertise (how many football jocks is enough, or how many insurance salesmen? </sarcasm>) the deficiencies in terms of background and experience the protocols for management, reporting and decision-making their linkages to the administration and the football department their communication channels with the members, media and public how to set up an assessment regime or KPIs the advice they get even on-going training etc. etc. For example, in regard to the ongoing coaching issues, I don't think they've been definitive or prompt enough. They've let media snipers and speculators set the agenda for too long. If they're not going to sack Neeld, they need a definitive statement about backing him and why, even if it's until the end of the year, or until the end of PJ's FD review. There's nothing worse than the old line of just 'the coach has our full support', or alternatively, nothing.

The problems: 1. The Board and its decisions e.g. on tanking, Schwab etc. 2. The Football Department generally, lack of structure and reporting 3. The playing list 4. Recruitment (one you didn't list) ... this is a major, major factor. I don't put much emphasis on the coaches themselves. They inherited a dysfunctional football department and playing list; a third-world midfield; some lazy, unprofessional players with a bad influence; and a leadership vacuum they've tried to do their best with. You could put Roos or Malthouse in and they'd still take years to get somewhere.

No more 200cm beanpoles. We need mids, mids and more mids. I'd happily move Sylvia, Jamar and Watts for quality, gutsy mids if the right trade came along. Otherwise, rid ourselves of NQRs, sloppy kickers and dumb footballers. In the draft and PSD, get mids, mids and more mids. Surely we've got to get a couple of successes if we blanket-bomb all the mids in the draft.

Not defending errors on the field or failure to "go" when it's his turn, but Pedersen has played 22 games and was a cheap pick-up. It's not as though we traded in Ben Reid or Matthew Scarlett for a first-round pick.