Salems Lot

Good to see Jack Hannath getting a game

very true BRFE - is it an oversight or is it a case of sticking fingers in their ears and going la la la lalala?

Nine back for the intra club...they are true to their word. Only three on the injury list.

my understanding is that the ump offers the player the chance to kick from 50m for a 9 pointer or from the full 50m if they don't think they will make the distance. Spencil made the correct choice. I guess if the 50m penalty was just inside the arc you might take the risk. Trengove had the same option earlier in the match and passed too.

Interesting to look on the AFL website. It looks at every club's injuries and we are way on the low side compared to most other clubs. From memory Carlton only have a couple of players out whilst GCS has 10 or so. Maybe this is the Mission factor.

conductor red and bluebeard. We had one on the 75 line when I was a lad who would serenade attractive girls and tease school boys with sleight of hand tricks to do with tickets. A by gone era.

good choices and a top result.

Hey Cards, where do you get your grumpy pills from?

Just back from training; left early because the young feller had had enough and the dog was starting to whine a bit! I will leave training notes to others but a few random observations: Good turn out - about 200 by my count. I walked half a lap with Shannon Byrnes. He seems like a really affable and outgoing guy. We talked about the changes he has seen over the last 14 months; the new faces and challenges that he has had to meet. He said that he felt like he had seen footy from both ends now. Agreed that bad drafting in the early 2000s had caused a lot of the problems that we have found ourselves in. His most interesting comment was that the team were great runners but now they just need to learn how to play footy! I suggested that we could not be worse than last year to which he replied ruefully as he wandered off ... "we couldn't be worse ..." Later on we watched Tappy, Blease and Bail practice their goal kicking. The difference between the 3 was interesting to see. Sammy and Tappy rarely missed on either foot. They practised set shots and snaps and were pretty impressive; Bail not so much. I presume these guys are being assessed for small forward role; at the moment I reckon the choices were pretty obvious. Any questions please feel free to ask away; I will be on and off for a while.

oooh it will be hot at Casey today; I hope they are doing what my guys are doing and starting an hour earlier.

Very true UD but then again........

He did look quite sweaty.

Nice to see Toump at the tennis supporting Kokkinakis; I presume that both being from Adelaide and being about the same age they must have crossed paths at some stage. Just sayin ...

Went down for my first session for the pre season. Wasn't there for long but noticed a few things: My first vision as I arrived was of Max Gawn humping Mitch Clark!!! not a pretty sight and mercifully short. I have never heard so much chirp from the training group; really rowdy I was pleased to see Dawes running with the rehab group but to me he looked a bit tight. he was certainly motoring though. Riley was with the rehab group. I noticed during one of the circular exercises Nicho kick a swirling helicopter punt that missed all targets by 30metres while with the next kick Watts did the same sort of rank pass which landed on the intended chest. I was sure that Hogan was with the main group while I was there but they were in the centre of the ground and my eyes aren't what they used to be.

I developed an intense hatred for the Dawks supporters that day; in my stricken state after the game leaving the ground we were followed by 3 jeering gloating scumbags. I ignored them but could not believe how they behaved having fallen over the line as they did. Hate them more than the filth!!! Re the following week, several players were injured not the least of which was Robbie who from memory did his knee in the last quarter and would have almost definitely missed the following week.

Jack Grimes an uninterrupted season

Jeremy Howe needs an oxygen mask

Fair enough -

fantastic shots; Jack W is looking well filled out. He will never be a gorilla but he looks a great size.

Nathaniel's Nutmeg - a great story about the spice trade For the term of his natural life - a rollicking historical Australian novel Cairo - a bit of fun; a novel about the theft of the Weeping Woman back in the 80's in Melbourne The Rosie Project - an hilarious novel about Asperger's That will keep you going for a while!

my point is that the AFL ...(in my opinion) seems to produce writers with a more poetic sense than many other sports. I find that compared to the blokesy nature of NRL or the analytical nature of Soccer, reflective AFL writers bring a different angle to the sport that other codes never reach. No....true; AD ; not all of them achieve this and true; maybe great is a strong word but its quicker to write than "really quite good". I hope this explains and if it doesn't I am sure you can work it out.

Love Tim Boyle's writing. We are so lucky as a sport to have such great sports writers.

Vis a vis our recruiting; what gets barely any air time from the press is our new No.1 J. Hogan. Last year the criticism was that we had given away a top pick for a player who would not play in 2013. This year our draft selections have been assessed on our "3" draft picks. In fact we have picked up what could easily be classed as a top 2 pick in Hogan as well as Salem et al. This makes for a pretty solid draft period in anyone's terms (if you ask me) None of this is a major problem mind you; I am happy to be floating under the radar.

Thanks guys

I am always curious at this time of year our obsession with packaging up players as if 2 ordinary players is better than 1 ordinary player. Yet at trade time I have no memory of multiple players(good or bad) ever having been traded amongst clubs. Is this a misguided game that we play or is there some history to this actually happeneing. The only one I can remember is Hawthorn trading Thompson and someone else to North back in about 2003 or 4. Can anyone help?