hardtack

And I for one, would prefer that this topic wasn't discussed at this stage... particularly when no-one knows if he is even tempted to go.

I think we should name this award the "George" in honour of the histrionics of one George Costanza (first thing that popped into my head on reading that C&B post).

Sometimes on this site it's very difficult to discern what is and what is not sarcasm... my apologies.

That's absolutely wrong... if you read the article, you would have seen that the "rumblings" Crawford mentioned were in relation to indiscretions by other players in the group... nothing to do with anyone being offered the VC position or the coaching position.

AFL Teams on Foxtel reported that Ablett didn't train with the Suns today due to a calf injury... they (Suns) are saying he will play, but it has to make you wonder just how effective he will be. Not looking good for them at all if they have to go without Brown AND Ablett (or a half fit Ablett).

As usual we see the doomsayers fretting over what may or may not happen. If he doesn't sign after the C'wood players do, he is gone. If he has a long term knee injury, he's being withheld from playing until he signs. And on it goes. Screw MFCSS, I'm going to offer up a new diagnosis and suggest that due to a lack of spine amongst the supporter group, Sculliosis is rife!

Yes, and I still recall many calling for the club to take Sheedy, when he was available

So how many years was he coaching Collingwood prior to the Premiership? You have to realise he will be coming into a far less experienced and much younger playing group than he currently has, then you have to allow time for him to gain the players' trust and for the players to adapt to his style of coaching and then to his game plan (whatever that may be)... that completely moves our premiership window and the fact remains that we are not guaranteed any more success than we might enjoy under Bailey... I'm perfectly happy to let Bailey continue with the development of the list he has built.

Even the "best of the best" have to start somewhere.

Gysberts played a great game, no denying that, but to infer he was more influential on the result than Jones is fanciful at best. Jones had assists in three of our last four goals. He had 27 possessions and 81% efficiency. His disposal was, for the most part, spot on. Take off the blinkers, please!

And all of us agonising about it and going over and over this ad infinitum will not change a thing either.

I get the feeling that Jurrah may be moving a little further up the list in the chase for the Coleman Medal, if this match-up goes ahead: (from The Australian via the MFC website) GOLD Coast coach Guy McKenna said yesterday developing defender Karmichael Hunt was an option to oppose Melbourne match-winner Liam Jurrah

No... we in Sydney are getting the delayed coverage as well. The reason it's starting at 3pm is because there's live coverage of touring car racing that's timed to finish at 3pm. This isn't the first time that this has happened - I recall a similar situation a few years ago - the difference then was that they went live to the AFL and so we missed almost a full half of the game.

Take that smug look off your emoticon As I stated in my initial response "Beamer got busted and has admitted that although he does not drink often, when he does drink it is to excess. Ponting was drunk and made no admissions about his drinking habits" - yes, it is speculation on my part, but just because he made no admission that does not necessarily mean he did not indulge in binge drinking episodes - I get the feeling Moloney may have said nothing about other episodes if he hadn't been prompted. We are both indulging in speculation - you extrapolated on this to make the assumption that he had no "history", and I did the opposite. No difference. Anyway, in the wash-up, we both seem to agree on the important aspects, so we move on.

Agreed, but no more and no less so than your Ponting assertion to which I was responding

I would argue that that probably was not the case. Beamer got busted and has admitted that although he does not drink often, when he does drink it is to excess. Ponting was drunk and made no admissions about his drinking habits... chances are that he was in a similar place as Beamer as far as his drinking habits were concerned; only difference is that he got into a fight and Beamer didn't. Having said that, as with Ponting (and, I suppose, Sylvia), this could be the best thing to have happened to Moloney as it may be just the wake-up call he has needed to reassess and focus himself - hopefully we will now see him start to play his best football on a far more consistent basis. I'm predicting that by the end of this season he will be a far better player (and person) for it and will be back in the leadership group in 2012.

I was actually positive taht he siad underrated by the Dees... but then again, as I said, I was distracted.

I wasn't listening too closely as I was being distracted by kids, but he did say that he respected him enough to play Kirk (and one other he mentioned, but didn't catch the name) on him. I think the discussion may have been around underrated midfielders. Sorry, can't be any more helpful.

Alcoholism and binge drinking are two very different things... this is more of a self-discipline issue and hopefully by rehab, they mean some sort of workshop in self control.

Yes, that is exactly what he suggested and what I meant.

Paul Roos just mentioned on On the Couch that he considers Jones to be a very good midfielder and that he is very underrated at the Dees. I consider Roos to be one of the more astute judges and would have to agree with his assessment.

I hadn't realised you were in such a position of power

Are you suggesting that maybe he should play the next couple of rounds with the Casey reserves? Just kidding (obviously)

OK... I actually edited my post to say that I hoped it was sarcasm at the same time as you posted that response

Yeah, terrific... not! I hope you were being sarcastic, but if not, and hammering the [censored] meets your definition of "legend" status, then I'm afraid that might say more about you than him. Beamer is a professional athlete and as such should be looking after himself a bit better - great on-field decision maker, very poor off-field decision maker. He should get a fine AND a week's suspension if proven guilty - the real worry though is, who else was with him, and if other players were there, why were they out on the turps (or not) at that hour after a game? After winning a GF, yes, maybe acceptable... but after a scrappy victory in a game against a cellar dweller, definitely not!