MadAsHell

As for Stretch I'm a realist, I'd love to say 5th round, but I'm pretty certain that Port will bid their 1st round pick on him. And I think you've got your numbers wrong. We've already lost three senior players: (Nicho, Clisby, Byrnes) We then trade out Toumpas, Clark, Blease, Fitzpatrick & Evans. Loose Frawley as a FA and then delist both Tapscott & Strauss along with Georgiou off the rookie list. That leaves 12 spots (11 senior & 1 rookie). Upgrading Jetta makes it 10 senior & 2 rookie. Trade in Dangerfield, Lyons, Shiel, Jones, Frost, Tutt & Lowden (3 & 2). At the ND we select Stretch, Gore & McLaren (leaves 2 rookie spots) and then grab Eddy & Gwilt in the rookie draft. This leaves us with more then reasonable key position players at both ends IMO. Hogan, Dawes, Eddy*, Pedersen (throw in Lowden/Gawn/King who could play as a 3rd tall/forward if required. And backs McDonald, Dunn, Garland, Frost, the young McLaren (197cm) & Gwilt*. i hear you say that he's worse then Georgiou, but as someone that watches a lot of St Kilda games due to a Saints supporting wife I'd have to disagree. Gwilt like Georgiou is often an undersized KPD, yet uses his body well and actually provides some run from defence, something Georgiou doesn't do. As for the other trades mentioned, i think the Tyson trade last year shows that Pick 2 on it's own probably would be enough for Shiel. We gave them Pick 2 for Tyson and thenswapped Pick 20 for 9, shows Tyson on his own wasn't enough for Pick 2, so we got something more with a later pick upgraded. Pick 2 for Shiel would go close, might not quite be enough, but something GWS (who are desperate for Petracca) may consider. Swans may feel getting Lumumba for Z. Jones isn't enough, one of the reasons why I mentioned a swap of 3rd round picks. Takes a pick for them in the mid 50's to a pick in the early 40's. Lumumba is they type of player Swans love also (eg Mattner, Shaw, Malceski, Kennelly). Disagree on Giants being bent over on the Frost trade also. Getting a hard bodied midfielder, who despite being a [censored], is a good player in his mid 20's and the later pick (in the 60's perhaps) for a young defender off their rookie list probably 5th in line behind Davis, Mohr, Plowman & Corr and a 3rd round pick they likely won't use is about fair for me. Agree Evans has minimal trade value, however I'm pretty sure he's contracted, so we need to trade him out. WA boy, Eagles may be interested and all players involved in that deal have close to zero value. And finally as for Lowden, I can't see how he could demand more then a early 4th round pick. Played 1 game in 5 years. Michie cost us a pick in the 50's I think last year after 1 game in 3 years. So Hawthorn would be hard pressed to expect anything more for Lowden.

Ideal trade/offseason for me. Get Pick 3 for Frawley. Secure Stretch F/S with our 2nd round pick. Delist: Georgiou, Strauss, Tapscott Trade Pick 2 to GWS for Shiel. Trade Pick 3 & Toumpas to Adelaide for Dangerfield & Lyons. Trade Clark to Collingwood Pies trade HL to Sydney Swans trade Zac Jones to Melbourne. We'd likely have to swap 3rd round picks also with Swans. Trade Blease & Fitzpatrick to Calrton Blues trade Robinson & late pick to GWS Giants trade Frost & 3rd round pick to us. Trade Evans to West Coast Eagles trade Ash Smith to Bulldogs Doggies trade Tutt to us. Trade 4th round pick to Hawthorn for Lowden. Go to the draft with Picks (approx): 21 (Stretch), 42 (Dean Gore from Sturt), 56 (Sean McLaren Sandy Dragons), 77 (Jetta upgrade) Rookie Draft Picks: 2 (Brett Eddy South Adelaide), 20 (James Gwilt St Kilda)

I don't think the two week break would be as big an issue now as it was back in 1990. Teams now would do things like go away for a mini pre-season etc to make sure they were cherry ripe to go after the two weeks. Also unlike in 1990, this two week break would lead into a semi final where they'd still have a double chance. The thing I don't like about the current system is that the Grand Finalists is pretty much decided after the first week of the finals as others have suggested.

Top sides should get an advantage, but not this great. Reduce home & away season to 18 rounds and extend finals to 6 weeks. WEEK 1 - QUARTER FINALS (Winners in bold) 3v4 2v5 1v6 7v8 Highest place winner gets two weeks off and hosts the 1st semi final, 2nd & 3rd highest placed winners get a week off and play eachother in a double chance qualifying final. Highest place looser hosts the winner of 7v8 the following week in an elimination final, 2nd & 3rd highest placed looser play eachother in the other elimination final. Looser of 7v8 eliminated. WEEK 2 - ELIMINATION FINALS 4v7 5v6 Winners play eachother in 2nd qualifying final (knockout) WEEK 3 - QUALIFYING FINAL 2v3 4v5 Winner of 2v3 to play 1st in double chance 1st semi final, looser to host winner of 4v5 in the 2nd semi. Looser of 4v5 eliminated. WEEK 4 - SEMI FINAL 1v2 3v4 Winner of 1v2 goes into Grand Final, with looser to host winner of 3v4 in Prelim Final. Looser of 3v4 eliminated. WEEK 5 - PRELIMINARY FINAL 2v3 Winner into Grand Final, looser eliminated. WEEK 6 - GRAND FINAL 1v2 Based on the old top 5 system with the first two weeks dedicated to eliminating three teams. Top 6 get a double chance and are all a good chance of making the GF, especially if you get a win first up. 7 & 8 don't have a great chance of going deep, but this is based on the fact that since the top 8 came into existence in 1994, not one team from 7th has gone further then a Prelim, and not one team from 8th further then the semi's.

Only towards the end of the year. Was also huge in our loss earlier in the year against the Bulldogs.

Been really enjoying this finals series so far, and over the last month of the home & away season I was totally over footy. Just more evidence I reckon that they should reduce the home & away season to 18 rounds and extend the finals series to 6 weeks.

Pretty even in the end. Women 4 more Gold & 4 more Bronze to the men 4 more Silver. Detailed medal tally here: http://results.glasgow2014.com/medals.html

So you weren't far off the money in the end Macca, 49 Gold, only 1 short of the 50 and only 9 short of England when it lookd liek they were going to run away with it at one point. Day 7 & 8 are where we cam unstuck, but our last three days were very impressive and both our hockey teams and the Diamonds were well deserved winners, even if the Hockeyroos did get out of jail with a goal with 14 seconds remaining to level the match. To close out the games if we're trying to get a look on where we stood compared to team GB form London (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Isla of Man, Guernsey etc) it was Australia 49 Gold, 42 Silver, 46 Bronze & 137 Total Team GB 84 Gold, 89 Silver, 103 Bronze & 276 Total. So that means for every gold GB won we were at .58%, silver .47%, Bronze .45% & .50% (all rounded) for every medal won to .24% for Gold, .94% for Silver, .63% for Bronze & .54% for every medal won at London. Bearing in mind at London there were only 2-3 members in each sport for team GB, while at Glasgow it was anywhere from 12-18 given all the countries GB is made up of. So all in all you'd have to say a very succesful Comm Games for Australia. We should hopefully see them close the gap somewhat at Rio on the other countires who finished top 10 in medals and by Gold Coasy 2018 hopefully order will be restored.

The Kookuburras knocked England out in the semi's earlier tonight which helps and England's netball team also lost their semi final to New Zealand earlier by a goal. At about 5:15am The Hockeyroos take on England in the Gold medal match in womens hockey, so if we pick up 3 Gold there, it's at least some late revenge for them overtaking us. Canada's also had a significant improvement these games up to 30 Gold. If they can snare two more before the end of the games it'll be their best performance since their last home games in 94, also a great year for the mighty Dees!

Great research there Macca, makes for some interesting reading. Great Britain's version of our Montreal 76' came at Atlanta 96' I remember where they went 1 Gold, 8 Silver & 6 Bronze I think it was, which for a country their size is pretty horrible. They've been on the upward trend ever since! With the Comm Games coming to Gold Coast in 2018 and both Melbourne and Brisbane making noises about bidding for the Olympics in either 2024 or 2028 (2028 would be the sensible one I would have thought, surely it's due to go back to the USA by 2024) then you'd hope our funding is sure to improve on what is already decent funding (to our medal prospect sports as I understand it) and we can once again climb the ladder. In further Commonwealth Games news though (it is old news mind you), it's sad to see T20 cricket won't be making an appearance at Gold Coast 2018. http://www.cricket.com.au/news-list/2014/7/23/no-commonwealth-games-cricket-gold-for-gold-coast Sad really, I think Commonwealth Games is the perfect platform in which to stage cricket for countries like Canada and Singapore to take a bit more interest.

Only 2 Gold in the last 2 days since Swimming & Shooting finished up. Now trailing England in both Gold and overall, down 8 in Gold and 10 overall. Also even Canada's closing in. Although 48 in total behind us, they're only 9 Gold down. Three days remaining so I guess the aim should be to at least equal what we managed to get at the 86' Comm Games, last time we failed to top the medal table. On that occasion we finished with 40 Gold, 46 Silver & 35 Bronze, we're currently at 36, 36 & 41. So we're 4 down in Gold, 10 in Silver & 6 ahead in bronze already. So if we can manage 4 Gold & 10 Silver over the next three days we've at least improved on 86. Sally Pearson fastest qualifier for the 100m hurdles final, Jenneke also qualified as did the third Australian runner, so good news there. Fingers crossed we can run out these last three days better then we've done the last 2.

Spot on gsmith. I expect England to now stay ahead of us for these games and GB will probably towel us up in Rio given they fundings high from London 2012 will still be paying off. Commonwealth Games 2018 on the Gold Coast and onwards in when we should be aiming to take over from them again and once more be aiming for top 4 medal tally at Olympics like we managed at Sydney and Athens and pushed at Bejing, For Rio we should be aiming for top 10 with an improvement on our 7 Gold from London (35 total). We won 7 at Barcelona 92' (27 total) and then backed that up with 9 at Atlanta 96' (41), so maybe 9 should be the minimum Gold set for Rio with 40+ medals in total. As for the remainder of these games. As mentioned, mens and women's hockey, netball, Melissa Wu, Matthew Mitcham in the 10m platform, Sally Peason and a cameo from Michelle Jeneke! So look forward to see if we can get to say 50 Gold and make sure we keep the English honest.

5 days remaining: Australia 34 Gold, 31 Silver, 36 Bronze England 33 Gold, 33 Silver, 27 Bronze So we're 8 in total up, but given England have more Silver and are only 1 behind in Gold, if they get the next they'll leap frog us. Total for whole UK is: 50 Gold, 55 Silver & 54 Bronze which means for every gold UK win we're at .68%, silver .56%, Bronze .67% & .64% for every medal won If you compare to London where we were .24% for Gold, .94% for Silver, .63% for Bronze & .54% for every medal won. So although there's still 5 days of competition remaining, it appears that we've already made up ground on the debacle that was our last Olympic campaign compared to what the UK produced.

I don't think PF understands what it means to win bronze for Australia.

Well she ran a personal best, so surely even PF can appreciate that. Is the comm games the equal to the olympics or world champs? No, but it's still a major meet that has world class runners in it and is a celebration of sport and achievment. Something that is sadly lost on PF.

Sure wont. And it's our last night in the pool which is concerning given we get our majority of medals there. Should win gold in our womens medly relay team and strong chances in the womens 400 free, 50 back, mens 50 free, 200IM and medly relay.Mens and womens hockey teams are well placed as is the netball team, but this could be a close run thing.

Yep, brilliant effort by Jess Trenners last night, bronze medal at the Comm Games when she didn't run her first marathon until the start of 2012! Good to see we've pulled 3 gold and 16 in total medals clear of England, although if you compare us to the whole Great Brittan (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) like in the Olympics they're 10 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze in the clear, however if yo compare it to London where they finished 22 Gold ahead it's fair to say we've at least bridged the gap in the short term. It's fair to say Countries normally do well at a home Olympics and the following Olympics due to a funding overflow, it's whether it can be maintained or not. We had great results in Sydney and even better at Athens but have fallen back since. It will be interesting to see how GB go from 2017 onwards (after Rio). Meanwhile our Men's and Women's hockey teams remain unbeaten (women have scored 22 goals in 3 games without conceeding 1) and the Netball team are also at 3-0. All looking promising for team event Gold medals.

Was a brilliant effort by them, they did it wasy, nearly a full second off the World record! We've got amazing depth in women's freestyle it must be said, given Coutts missed out on a birth in that realy team. Was also great to see the Scottish girl's (Hannah Miley I think it was) reaction when she won gold in the 400IM during the medal ceremony. The Comm games certainly don't mean nothing to her. I am concerned that aftrer Day 1 we're behind England on the medal tally, they're still on the financial funding high that they got heading ino London 2012, so they could provide us with real competition for the medal tally leader at this games. Ideally I'd like to see us get more medals then England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland combined, but I'd take just topping the table given the disaster we had at the Olympics only 2 years ago.

Only caught part of the openning ceremony this morning before work and it was pretty laughable. Rod Stewart really needs to give it away. He was reminding me of his own character on South Park when it was the end of the world!

Agree that Broad could be an option, although making bowlers captain doesn't seem to be the done thing. Think Vettori or Pollock were the last ones?Think they need to get Morgan into the XI now, given he's a good chance to eventually get the gig. Buttler coming in for Prior's a given, especiallg given Craig Keiswetter broke his eye socket recently who would have been the best replacement IMO. Daniel Briggs the left arm spinner should come in for Ali who's not quite a bowler, not quite a batsman. And the angry irish fast bowler Boyd Rankin should also come in for Plunkett to give them a bit of x factor with his pace and bounce. XI for the 3rd Test should be: A. Cook* S. Robson I. Bell G. Ballance J. Root E. Morgan +J. Buttler S. Broad D. Briggs J. Anderson B. Rankin Stokes to be 12th man.

Josh Mahoney said this morning that they rate billy inside the top 50 in the coming draft. Said they know where within that they rate him and will have to see how the bidding system plays out. Having said that, also said billy's a very hard trainer and will get the most out of himself as a player. Reading between the lines I'd say if we're forced to use a 2nd round pick on him, I think we will.

Poor old england can't take a trick at the moment. Cook copping it from all angles, Prior pulling out of the squad for surgery. Stokes, their shinning light from the ashes currently averaging 0.00 with the bat after three innings, Anderson facing suspension, still no specialist spinner. Oh and even better, the man most likely to be their next captain can't get a gig in the long form of the game! Wouldn't know where to start with england myself, they're a few cans short of a 6 pack. Think they should stick with Cook as captain for now while the series is still alive, given they backed him into it.

So will anyone be watching it or even care to much about it? I do enjoy the commonwealth games, although I do wish that they had a T20 comp in it as an under 23's sport like they do with soccer in the olympics. With it not on offer I guess I'll mainly follow swimming, rugby and netball. Others?

Agree. We should offer him 4, so he drops to 6 and then we can meet at 5 that I'd think is fair. 7 years is ridiculous, although if someone does give him 7 we're a shoe in for band 1 compo.

A couple of things. As for the Dogs, they have their own groudn to play VFL games out of, we don't. As for playing games out of Punt Road, as has been mentioned elsewhere, what gives you the idea Richmond would allow it? And even if they did, they'd likely charge us an arm & leg for it, as who's to say they might want to use their own facilities for recovery or any number of things on days our reserves side may be fixtured to play down there? If you want to play games around the city Vic Park's your more likely venue, given it's owned by city of Yarra and not anotehr AFL team. We've found our money to buy Roos and his assistants, don't think there's to much left at the moment to splurg on a stand alone team. I'm expecting us to be at Casey for at least a few more years yet.