Nasher

In that case, why do clubs not just appoint rookie coaches for 6 months? After all, you'll know whether they can coach or not by round 11.

While I agree with the crux of your post, I'm not convinced by this argument. I don't see how a "few cheap wins" is going to help him as I doubt whoever is reviewing his position (presumably it will be Schwab and Connolly) are going to be sucked in by this. I hope they have a fixed set of criteria for Bailey's extension and I doubt it's tied all that closely to a number of wins at this stage of our list development. I'd be disappointed if it was.

Spot on. A major sponsorship of (say) $1,000,000 would deliver a lot more exposure to Mars than several secondary ones adding up to the same amount. Mars will have a budget for a major sponsorship and will want to spend it on a major sponsorship. It's as simple as that IMO.

Breakout year last year? Check. Set for another big year, training the house down etc? Check. Predictions of greatness for next season? Check. Based on the evidence, my prediction is a season ending knee injury. Round 3 at the latest.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I wonder how many people were laughing at the time.

In what way? Armstrong was definitely a case of "right place, right time".

Really going out on a limb there WYL! :D

Yes, that's very annoying.

I know this is an old post in the context of this thread, but What's hard to understand about it? Fast bowlers are sprinting, at full speed, and have to stop instantly, as close to the line as they possibly can to get maximum advantage. It's a very difficult thing to do at full pace. Bowling no balls for overstepping usually has nothing to do with knowing their run-up length, because it only takes one slightly long step through their entire run-up to cause a no ball.

...what? How can "Windows software" be obsolete? Are you talking about the Windows operating system, or the (very very large) suite of software developed on the Windows platform? Windows and Microsoft are a long, long way from disappearing. Gates may be concerned, but his concerns won't be borne out for decades yet. Home users are presented with a much better choice than yesteryear, but many businesses that have invested heavily in custom built software are utterly (and happily) bound to Microsoft and can't, and probably don't want to change that. The organisation I work for (as a custom software developer) is one of millions of examples of this.

Name names. I'm not trying to be petty, but I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. The general vibe on Bruce around these parts is negative, and I doubt there's a single poster who doesn't recognise he commits too many clangers. I think he cops far more crap than is warranted.

Overrated by whom exactly? He gets bagged from arsehole to breakfast on here and Demonology. More than anyone else on the list I'd say. I'd say the problem is that he was overrated early in his career and that has skewed many peoples' perceptions of him completely.

Don't eat the yellow snow?

Your maths is a bit off.

Summed up the situation well I think. I always feel a little uncomfortable when people use results like this to credit the current administration and slam the previous one: I can't help but feel some people are convinced by the romance of who is in charge and not the hard facts. These results are okay, but they're actually not greatly different to the results seen in the previous administration, and I don't think they have yet delivered on their promises. The club's administration still has a lot of work to do; I think calls that the "ship has turned" are extremely premature.

I'd be stunned if the bean counters were making footy decisions. Profit would not have made one iota of difference as to whether or not we took certain players. If it did, we may as well close the doors now.

Funny. Judd, Ball, Martin et al score off the chart, and suddenly some expect all our footballers to also be geniuses. He's an elite(!) athlete with the world at his feet, and unless he planned on studying medicine, his VCE score is going to count for next to nothing, because I doubt he'll have that much trouble getting admitted in to University if he chooses to do that. Let's try and be a little bit reasonable.

Didn't think you'd be far away when this thread turned up.

It's probably more about giving young blokes an adequate opportunity to prove themselves.

All bias aside, I feel Hilfenhaus will come in ahead of Siddle if they're both fit. Hughes ahead of Bailey as he's been scoring runs for longer. Any merit to Hughes batting in the middle order, or at three? The McKay vs Geeves argument is completely moot since they're both going to be behind Hilfenhaus, Johnson, Siddle and Bollinger.

I'm trying my hardest not to be biassed, but in my head I'm saying Bailey should definitely be in, Hilfy ahead of Siddle without question and Brett Geeves should have been playing ahead of Clint McKay :D

Klinger?! George Bailey anyone? If Ponting's out then it has to be Phil Hughes in, but it poses a problem as to how to jig the batting line-up. I'd be reluctant to mess with the opening partnership as Katich and Watson are starting to get runs on the board now, but Hughes is clearly the next best batsman in the country. A dilemma.

Exactly. Relisting him after delisting was not the mistake, it was the only feasible choice. Contracting him in the first place was the mistake -- and even then I believe the logic behind it was sound, it just turned out to be a bad decision. I really worry about you sometimes.

Shane Valenti has apparently signed with Port Melbourne for 2010 along with Adam Bentick from Carlton. I reckon that's a fair boost to their midfield, these two are both proven good quality VFL players. Surprises me a bit, I thought Valenti would be a monty to go back to his roots (Sandy). Best of luck to him.

He's yesterday's player. I wouldn't have been hurt or sad or whatever to see him go around again, I'd just be embarrassed.