Nasher

I resynchronised the server clock, it was out by 6 minutes.

Huzzah!

Time test at 4:26 PM

Comes as no surprise to me either.

Agree. It just means they're giving him until the last possible minute to prove his fitness. He won't play. Out: Warnock, Holland, McLean.

McLean wore his last ever Sandy guernsey a few years ago.

I just hope that if we do tank (which is what you're saying whether you mean to or not), you and everyone else who supports the idea of "kids at all costs" don't spend the next 10 years complaining that we have a losing culture at the club, and that we don't know how to win etc. That's all that is going to come out of Wallet and his "flying the white flag" as Rhino put it.

Why do we have to blame anyone at all? It's a team game and in the end, there's probably hundreds of little things we could and should have done differently that might have pushed us over the line. This fingerpointing game we seem to get in every week is just scapegoating, and it's a pointless, fruitless exercise. It's a team game and every single player should shoulder some responsibility for the loss, not just one or two.

My home clock could be out as well :D *grasps at straws*

Absolutely, completely agree. Davey played the all-round game today. Appeared in the forward line to crumb when needed, and took marks on the last line of defence when needed. To single him out for the loss is absolute madness.

Could it be your clock that is out? :D The timestamp on the posts go by the clock on the server. IE, At the time of posting this message, my clock says 10:55 but the server clock says (whatever the timestamp up there ^ ^ ^ says). Its clock gets synced with an NTP service so it should be pretty accurate.

Send Dennis a letter Maurie. He'll be talking about it on TV before you know it.

Indeed. If they'd had it, it would've gone Dogs, Blues, Dees, Dogs, Blues Dees... Carlton may well have taken Brock at pick 5 had they not had it confiscated. I guess we'll never know now. Bad luck Blues. :D

The AFL is a business, and a very successful one at that. If it had shareholders they'd be laughing all the way to the bank because the AFL makes a massive profit every year.

We're missing Wheels, Bartram and now Petterd, so Bell's our only accountable non-tall defender. The back line can't afford to release him at the moment.

First class thesis as always DD. Fair points on everything you said. Just on your point about Sandy, I wish I could go down and watch them play. If I lived in Melbourne I'd be at TBO every weekend. As it is I see Sandy play once a year, when they're in Hobart (which they won't be at all this year).

Adobe don't have anything to answer for. Flash is just one of their products, they don't force people to use it. The AFL and the crew they contracted to develop their site (Telstra) are the ones who have a lot to answer for. The current AFL website stinks.

I think I may have missed a pertinent point here DD but are you saying that of the plethora of young forwards we've got, not a single one of them are suitable to play the "stay at home" FF role in the future? Our options are Miller, Dunn, Newton, Garland, Bate, P.Johnson. Of those, we can rule out the following: - Miller. His biggest strength is his leading and running up the ground. It need not be as far up the ground as it currently is, but either way you'd be wasting his best asset if you plonked him in front of goal. He's also not "goal aware" enough, doesn't like taking set shots and (now I'm just guessing) probably wouldn't kick anywhere near as many goals as Neitz does in general play, just because he hasn't shown any propensity to doing it before. - P.Johnson. He's the only one of our "ruckman" who looks like he might actually be able to get the ball in general play. His attributes mean his best use would be in the ruck (if he can somehow learn how to tap), or as a stop-gap in the backline. Personally I don't believe he has all that much of a future at the club at all, let alone as our #1 forward. What are Neitz's attributes that makes him such a good forward? 1. He is built like a brick outhouse, and in general play knows how to use his body to his advantage by clearing the deck of all opposition midgets 2. When on song he can outmark any backman in the competition 3. When on song his set shots score a goal the majority of the time 4. His defensive side is sound in that he always chases and applies defensive pressure without exception 5. He can get the ball off the ground in general play and score Of our remaining options (Dunn, Newton, Garland, Bate), none meet criterion 3 at this point, but all appear to be good enough set shots at this point in their career that improving to Neitz' level should not be beyond them. Criterion 1 is the biggest worry I have about Dunn. He is as skinny and weedy as they come. He's still young and has plenty of time to fill out, but I doubt he'll be able to become rock solid like Neita. I've not seen enough of Garland or Newton to comment on their body shape (can someone fill in the gaps here?). Bate in this regard definitely has the right body shape. He's quite tall but already he's got that type of strong, heavy body that Neitz has. He's still under 21, as he reaches his peak he is only going to get stronger. In years to come he could well develop in to being the strongest bloke we have in the team. How many teams play their strongest player on the HFF? Criterion 2 is strongly related to Criterion 1 and I think last week Bate demonstrated that he's got hands like vices, which will only get better. At the moment he would have to be leading the stakes in this regard. Again I think Dunn is a worry here due to his build. Criterion 4 can be taught. In short I personally believe that Bate could well be the answer for FF in the future. I believe he's got all the attributes and as his body develops, he'll prove that he's got everything it takes. I also believe that you've labelled Garland as a tall flanker a tad early. He's still a kid, his body has a royal crapload of developing left to do. As I said earlier, I've not seen a great deal of him, but he didn't appear to me to be a weed like Dunn. Who's to say he won't fill out as necessary?

No he isn't! He's injured. Strike two for you, would you like a third crack at getting it right?? :D

FFS. There goes my favourite part of the season so far.

Err. Whelan fell on his leg, there's nothing hard or tough about that, it was just a sheer accident. Anyone from Rodney Grinter to Ryan Houlihan could've done that.

You're a dog? :D

Taller than I imagined.

Any chance of having some (screen) names to the faces?

http://demonland.nozzs.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=5553