mauriesy

I like the somewhat less 'professional' nature of the interviews (is that damning with faint praise?). Their lack of 'slickness' gives an air of honesty and the feeling you are not being quite so 'PRed' (even though you are). If you want slick professional work, then shift money from the football department and pay thousands to a professional presenter/interviewer, and a camera person. I'd prefer the money to stay where it is. Both Matt and Ellie are doing their best given that they don't really have studio set-ups or the sort of resources that are common in most media outlets. You can do what they are doing with a $500 HD camera or two, a light, a backdrop and a PC. They do OK.

I don't think the fireworks will start. It's not worth exploding over.

Some kids fresh out of school would do well with a gap year. Clarifies their minds somewhat. Whether it should be taken over by fitness experts pushing their bodies into unknown territory is another issue.

It was a very innocuous interview. Apart from a few protocol issues, I think many are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Not to mention that we've spent a lot of time and money building goodwill and relationships with indigenous people in the Northern Territory through visits to Yuendemu, Melville Island and matches in Darwin. All that could be destroyed in five minutes by negative press with a niggardly display of penny-pinching over LJ when he needs support.

I like Rhino's posts. He is good at holding you and me to account for what we say. He is a good "crap" detector ... which was a term coined by Neil Postman way back in the late 1960s. Postman's main sources of "crap" were pomposity, fanaticism, superstition and inanity. In this internet age, where we tend to write instantaneously without thinking, a lot of us could do worse than using it. I noticed Neeld's response to Eddie McGuire: "I don’t know if it’s been blown out of proportion, because I don’t know about Eddie’s comments,” he said. “Eddie is very passionate about Collingwood, and he was great and fantastic to me while I worked at Collingwood. And our guys are passionate about Melbourne, and that’s the way it goes. “If there are positions that need to be filled at clubs and people want those positions, then that’s the way it goes. “Every industry is filled with people who are at certain levels in companies and then move companies to get to a higher level, and I don’t think that’s unique to the footy world.” No "crap" there, and a better response than getting all offended and wringing hands (in my opinion).

It's simple. If Dunn builds his fitness and endurance, starts attacking and getting tougher at the ball, and improves his defensive pressure, then he has a chance to remain on the list. Do none of those things and he's gone. His positives are at least good kicking and a solid body.

And I suspect "there was an accident on the freeway" would be treated differently to "I slept in".

Someone else missing the point. Suspend them from something they love doing, like football. Oh ... that's what Neeld did to Blease. Surprised people here are finding ways to excuse tolerating crap.

Who said anything about never talking? (However, there are some times when silence is necessary.) You're going off at a tangent to the issue.

If a teacher is trying desperately to maintain anything they've not set correct or good parameters or boundaries, nor are they handling the consequences of them being exceeded. Students actually like boundaries. They know they're essential for the common goal of group learning, cohesion and progress. Neeld would know that too.

Neeld is only doing what any good leader and teacher ought to do ... define acceptable behaviour, set consequences and follow through. The alternative is what we see in many schools ... kids mucking around endlessly and not taking learning seriously because the parameters and high expectations aren't set, and wishy-washy teachers losing control because kids realise consequences never follow from unacceptable behaviour. Maybe Blease is the sort of guy who's a bit disorganised and doesn't manage time effectively. If so, there's an element of unprofessionalism, and his suspension from the NAB game is a justified kick up the bum. You can bet he won't be late for the next one.

Sepoy should race BC, but only if they both carry 65kg.

Access to priority picks should be determined by the number of years since the club has won a premiership (alternatively if no premiership, the number of years since the club entered the competition). Get priority access until you win one, then go to the back of the queue! Western Bulldogs Melbourne St Kilda Richmond Fremantle Carlton Adelaide North Melbourne Essendon Brisbane Port Adelaide Sydney West Coast Hawthorn Collingwood Gold Coast Suns Geelong Greater Western Sydney

Frawley may not quite be captain material. But if he takes on the best forwards, leads and inspires the backline and the rest of the players, helps get us into the 8, then the 4 and to a premiership, I don't care how many times he "mates" and "s'poses" in a TV interview.

In the washup, if it worked out that we effectively traded Scully one-on-one for Gaff, I can't see how you couldn't be satisfied.

Sepoy is a wonderful horse and will only get better. BC is now one of the greats of the turf. I don't understand this chip on your shoulder you seem to have about her. Why does BC have to do anything? Asking her to 'go a mile' or 'carry 65kg' just because "you'd like to see it" and it suits your bias is just ridiculous.

So are we destined to lose in round 1 forever? Records are there to be broken. Previous results are just statistics.

From the Herald-Sun: Neeld said Davey was still managing a knee injury, which was bandaged again yesterday, but confirmed he had done enough to get a tick from fitness boss David Misson to play on Friday. He said perceptions that Davey had struggled through the pre-season were wrong. "What I'm learning is that people will come and watch a one-off training session and if they don't see someone train the perception is they're behind or they're off or they're injured," Neeld said. "The way all clubs do it, it is fair dinkum an individual program. It is all very scientific." Perhaps that needs to be taken into consideration with all training reports here, and assumptions not made too quickly.

98th percentile on a linear progression, or two standard deviations on a bell curve, the result is roughly the same.

Grimes should go in. But am I right in thinking we didn't have Green there for all of last year? After all, he was the captain.

It's really easy to just limit these descriptions to a few players to suit your argument, but this argument needs some parameters otherwise we just waffle on with personal judgements. I can't believe Ablett, Goodes, Judd and Swan are the only players in the AFL judged to be 'elite'. There are 800 or so footballers on AFL lists. So what's the elite by definition? The top 1, 2 or 3% (97th, 98th or 99th percentile)? By numbers alone, that would be 24, 16 or at a minumum 8 players. And what's A Grade by definition? Top 5%, 10%? Maybe it's something like Sheehan's Top 50 (I'm not arguing about his actual list). I find it hard to believe that the top 2% of players (at least ... 16 players) are not elite, or the top 10% (80 players) are not "A Grade". In any other evaluation system in any other field, that would be the case.

When you say "no membership growth, what's this then? 2005 24,220 2006 24,698 2007 28,077 2008 29,619 2009 31,506 2010 33,358 2011 36,937 Don't use absolutes like "none" when this is clearly not the case.

Then you also have to assume that his previous good leadership actions were also wiped clean.

You might be, but you've got to get over it. Life is full of disappointments. Every disappointment is also an opportunity for something different. If Brad Green gets the 'sulks', it would say more about him than the club. I doubt he will. I don't know why we think the club is going to somehow fall apart because a few guys get disappointed about being dropped from the leadership group, or don't make the leadership group when they've aspired to it. If every footballer who failed to make the leadership group at their club got disenchanted and pulled up stumps, half the players in the AFL would leave every year.