AlphaDee

A work colleague of mine who is an avid Bulldogs supporter reckons that Brad Johnson's match winning goal from about 45m out was touched by TJ as it left his boot. I didn't notice it at the time but I have just looked at it in slow-motion on my recording of the game but due to the poor quality of my DVD recorder I can't tell if it was touched. Until about one second before the ball left Johnson's boot the camera was in close and it was easy to see the ball in his hands and TJ approaching in an effort to block the kick. Unfortunately the director cut to a long-range view just as he kicked it so you would need a high quality recording with a good slow-mo to tell if it was touched. Still, it was a good attempt by TJ to block the kick and if it wasn't touched there must have been only a couple of centimetres in it. Has anyone else had a look at this?

It seems to me that when we look back we tend to remember the good things, not the bad. My first memories from the late 1960s were of piles of stinking beer cans in the old MCG southern stand, being verbally abused at Vic park as a 10 year old, loads of drunks at every game, the disgusting toilets at all grounds except the G, and guys urinating in the outer at Windy Hill. I also saw several fights in the crowd and heard a lot of very foul language. There was also a lot of on-field violence in those days with many punches and elbows thrown around and an all-in-brawl at every second game. Fewer women ventured to the footy in those days. I for one am glad we've moved on! Still, I also remember some of the old suburban atmosphere such as old ladies knitting while sitting by the fence at Glenferrie and Arden Street (sometimes while abusing the umpires). One thing I hated was all the long goals the saints seemed to kick at Moorabbin followed by thenderous noise as their fans banged away in delight on the advertising boards around the boundary fence - I hated it but it was good atmosphere. But some things, of course, never change such as fans calling for players to be dropped or for the coach to be sacked. Most notably, however, we've always complained about woefull umpiring that always seems to cost us victory. It was always fun calling them blind white maggots.

Good point DemonDoug and I wish we had that attitude too. After 3 losses, however, I have become pessimistic about our ability to play that way because our several talented but not so hard players have been around for some years and are unlikely to ever become real hard nuts. Sydney have hardness throughout their team. Like last year, I hope the boys can once again prove my pessimism wrong!!!!!

The problem with our injuries is that they include 6 of the hardest players we have - all with talent as well. Neita, Brock, Robbo, Byron, Bartram and Sylvia. Add Rivers to that list and we are really missing 50% of our team. We are left with one hard and talented player (Wheels), several telented but not so hard types (Bruce, Green, Junior, Trapper, Flash, Yze), one hard nut with limited talent (Carrol), a few triers with limited ability (Ward, Holland, Godders and Brown) and several others that are only fringe players with no influence on any game (wheatley, bell, Miller etc). This makes it tough and we will struggle to win any games until we get back some of the 6 listed above. Young guns like Dunn and Bate back and in-form will also help. Just noticed that Byron and Rivers are back this week - should help but our forward line still lacks goal scoring options without Neita and Robbo.

We could say that we won the last quarter, but no team should put in a less than 100% effort in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and expect to come back from a long way behind. We've tried it 2 weeks in a row and it doesn't work. Our players simply have not been committed enough to give 100% for the full game. A kick up the backside from ND and a good psychologist are needed (as they have been for the last few years).

The 5-8 consensus is no surprise. Most supporters of other clubs see us as just making up the numbers in the top 8. This is hardly surprising given our last 3 seasons. Hopefully in 2007 we will earn their respect.

It won't change my viewing habits except that I will be able to watch ALL MFC games. I will still enjoy watching neutral Friday and Saturday night games plus the occasional Sunday afternoon game as I have the past few years. I don't care who wins most neutral games as long as it is a good contest with good skills. The exception to this is Collingwood (of course) - just love to see them lose!

Wasn't Ron Barassi the first coach to ban his players from drop-kicking?

I started watching footy in the mid 60s. From what I remember, players didn't drop kick much in June/July except for full-backs because the grounds were generally soft and muddy. As soon as it started to warm up, however, many players brought out their drop-kicks. Some used it extremely well in general play like Terry Waters of the pies. I don't remeber many drop kickers at the MFC although I particularly remember Max Walker drop kicking out from full-back after a point, probably when resting in the back pocket. I think Biffen used to drop kick in as well. Biff would also run the ball out after a point, bouncing it several times and sometimes almost to the centre before launching a long punt to half-forward. One intersting point to note is that the last great exponent of the stab pass, Barry Price, used it to deliver fast and pin-point passes to Peter McKenna who I think was the first great exponent of the drop-punt.