binman

Good get. The commentary was appalling and that was just one example but it stood out to me. In addition to your point Blease was running across the ground and to get the ball to Cross would have had to kick with his left foot or tried a check kick - and as you say into the wind. It was the percentage play to give and go with Watts but still the commentators bagged (despite the obvious fact it resulted in a goal). Another dumb call was one of them saying that with the Roos game players who kick accurately and made good decisions would get in the team. Duh - and geez we have a surfeit of such players who just crack it for a game.

Yep - and the docs just say whether a player is uninjured and therefore ok to be selected, should that be the call. It is the role of the conditioning team to determine if he is actually fit enough to play. Viney has had an interrupted pre season and if he doesn't play most of the game against the Hawks and back it up with a couple of weeks of solid training i doubt he'll play round 1. If he is not fully match fit he's likely to play limited minutes for Casey - to which many would say that if he's fit to play for Casey then he's good to go for the AFL. That might be true of say a big fella like Dawes but not for a mid, particularly a young, developing one.

Good post WJ. I'd also add that Essendon and its media allies have also looked to manipulate the narrative in such a way that the focus is on the legality or otherwise of the drugs used. Indeed Whateley has been adamant on this point since the beginning and i heard him on Offsiders repeat the assertion that this is really the only issue. The narrative is if ASADA do not charge any players then EFC are vindicated. This infuriates me. It is the very definition of a furphy. For a start it is possible that EFC did in fact used banned drugs but ASADA don't have sufficient proof (or desire?) to lay charges. This scenario is no vindication in my eyes. Bu in any case, for me to an extent the charges are secondary. The real issue is the failure of the club to protect their players from harm. For god's sake they can not even equivocally say what drugs the players received and what is completely missed by Yobbo and the EFC apologists in discussion about AOD and the potential wrong advice from ASADA is that it is a drug that has not been properly tested and was not being used for its intended purpose. And this is just a couple of examples of how they let down their players. Hundreds of off site injections, a lack of proper proper medical oversight, ignoring their own doctors warning and in in the words of their own expert brought in to review what happened - 'a pharmacological experimental environment'. Finnis made this very point ie the issue of the legality of the drugs is secondary to the health and welfare of the players. EFC and journos like Yobbo and Whateley refuse to address this. And like you WJ i have lost a lot of respect for Whateley.

Even if she chose to not take the free kick her editor would not have allowed her to miss the opportunity to have a shot at their only real competitor (particularly given the criticism she and the Age have copped from the sanctimonious double act of Warner and Yobbo).

Either way its hard to believe he could have the front to actually write such an obviously hypocritical, contradictory piece. The players will be devastated? Well, obviously only now that their names have been blared out to he public.

The SMART replay on the AFL site is good for looking at golas, frees, points etc however it terrible otherwise. The worst part is that when on full screen it still is cropped in a red box. Super annoying. Replays of each quarter can be found here: http://bigpondvideo.com/Horse_Racing. Go to AFL strip. Full screen and proper functionality. Also all the other clips, including preesers and some specific highlights. One video is funny - its basically a blooper vid of a bunch of our turnovers. Strange but jeez there are some doozys. Last year Big Pond only had the NAB games up, not he home and away. Meaning you could only watch full replays on the SMARt replay player. I'm hoping that's not the case this year.

Spot on. Funny though isn't it - with the Hun now turning on the bombers. You want a real example of pathetic hypocritical journalism try Yobbos 'editorial' in today's Hun. Yobbo writes: ' It is desperately unfair. The players will be devastated. They spoke to ASADA/ AFL on the promise of confidentiality. They were then named in an interim report a confidential document that the AFL demanded from ASADA ahead of the 2013 AFL finals.' This is an column right next a two page spread of photos of all 12 players named and an article listing all of the drugs and supplements ASADA have alleged the EFC used in the supplement and drug program. Unbelievable. Link is here

Good points, well made. I have seen hardly any of his games for the scorps and i guess he's played a few. Having watched him a bit at that level you are in a better position than i to make an assessment, particularly regarding his preparedness to put his body on the line. As i've said i wonder if he is carrying a bit of baggage and i am hopeful he will respond to Roos positive, encouraging approach. Roos loves players who play a role and his game plan is dependent on players hitting targets with their kicks. I can see Strauss ticking both boxes. But yes, well see and l suspect that this year is a make or break one for him.

Please Mandee don't worry - he's just trolling and very poorly at that. if he had a bit a trolling skill he'd post something like: I don't want to scare anyone sat but my girlfriends uncle is a leading foot surgeon and Clark has been seeing him regularly of late (starting around the time he did his 'hammy'). The suggestion is he will struggle to get back on the park at all. I wonder if his increased interest in photography is about planning for life after football. Fingers crossed though. By the by the above is not true in any way.

Gold. Pure Comedy Gold. ' Please PJ, i know that i'm on 450k a year but it would be swell if you could pay me say 3k to to the club cub reporter. It'd be outside the salary cap coz its not footy. I'm over footy actually, playing that its is - i'm super keen to take photos of other blokes playing footy. No PJ i'm not joking, i'm dead set serious'

Fence, perhaps we were at a different game. To quote you: ' HE HAS AVEARAGE (sic) KICKING SKILLS For a player recruited for his so called "Elite" delivery he lets you down time and again. As you suggest There may well have been worse culprits BUT, BUT For his strength to be letting him down so regularly this then is a catasphrophic (sic) situation.' Catastrophic? Seriously? I couldn't find his disposal efficiency stats however as i said i watched him very closely at the ground and when i watched the replay. I reckon he only made one kicking error and no handball errors. Pretty elite sort of stats i would have thought. To top that off there were at least 2 beautiful kicks where he hit a target 40-50 meters away. One led directly to a goal and was a great example of turning defense into attack. Oh and the player he played on for most of the night - their key forward (a bigger, stronger player) did not kick a goal. And before you say oh but he missed 3 shots as another poster noted 2 of those he was not on Edwards at the time and one was a bullet pass that no one would have stopped. As an example of how blinkered some can be, in the game thread a poster bagged him for losing Edwards when Edwards doubled back and then led hard into the pocket. This was used, IIRC as an example of his lack of awareness. All well and good except for the fact it wasn't Strauss who was on Edwards in that play!

. Please stop

Third time? Do you mean the Lisfranc? He's only had that happen once has he not? (3 question marks?)

I'm with you Don. I don't get how negative people are about Strauss. I went to last weeks game and some whacker was from the get go yelling insults at Strauss - the biggest one when he turned the ball over (which incidentally did not result in a goal). What's worse (and a complete pet hate of mine) was he was a MFC supporter. So i really watched Strauss closely and yelled my support when he went near the ball. Strauss played really well in the tigers game. He linked up well, was solid with his handball (often getting the ball to free players behind him in space) and after the turnover in the first q barely missed a kick. His only real misstep was the fumble on the wing that allowed the tiges to regain possession and stopped a potentially promising move. Whilst the tigers then scored a goal its a bit of a stretch to blame him for it given it was on the wing. Even if you do blame him for that goal he got one back with a beautiful kick from half back to half forward to, i think Bail who then gave it to Howe for a goal. I got home and was surprised when i jumped on DL how many people were bagging him. So when i watched the replay i again watched Strauss closely. And again all i saw was a good, solid game from a player who had a role and carried it out. I've read people say he lacks awareness and that he is too easily beaten one on one. I saw nothing that supports either assertion, particularly the former criticism. And as for the kicking turnover? You have to be kidding. There were far worse culprits, Frawley (whose turnover actually cost a goal, at what was a critical time in the match) Trenners, Grimes, Michie, Vince and Jones just to name a few. Jones was also guilty of trying to do much (and perhaps lacking awareness?) and giving away a goal when he got caught near their goals. He was, in my view, in our top ten players on the night and i suspect if injury free will be in our round 1 side (which if the case indicates Roos is also a fan). I'm not saying Strauss is a star or that he doesn't have limitations. But I really believe he is the sort of player Roos is referring to when he talks about players carrying mental scars as that hesitancy people have noted, is, i think, in part a product of poor coaching and development. I reckon he has, like many of his team mates, been playing with fear - fear to make a mistake, fear of not following the rules, fear of failure etc - which causes them to freeze and not back themselves. Once he gets more confident, and has a coach who encourages him to back himself and play with some freedom (from being criticised as much as anything else) i think he will become a regular best 22 player and be exactly the sort of role player Roos loves.

If this is a beginning what was last years NAB cup (as opposed to NAB practice matches) debut for Melbourne - a false dawn?

Not hard to imagine what they'll say about Dawes - 'look if it was a home and away game he'd play but he had a bit of tightness in his calf after the intra game, no real issue but we figured no point putting him in a plane and sending him to Central Australia for practice match. He'll do full training on (insert day the non Geelong game players do training) and his normal running, the camp in Leongatha and be right to go for the praccy match against the Hawks down at Casey. So yeah perhaps a little frustrating for Dawsey as he was keen to have a game and perhaps we are being a bit conservative but look there are no probs and he'll play next week'

Is it just me or do those dees caps Roos is wearing make it look like they have two caps on? I loved the clip. Looking forward to the sequel.

Could not agree more. Players are often the worst culprits - he just reinforced sticking to our structure, we lost our structures, structure was key blah blah. But much worse when commentators (especially ex footy players who just love to highlight their tactical nouse and that the fact they once were warriors - dermie being the proze example o this tiresome phenomenon ) say it because it is usually not clear what they mean by it . The job of the commentator is to MAKE THINGS CLEAR! not use made up footy babble words.

And to have a chat

Yep, but i was thinking of the early motivational use of the quoted dialogue. I had forgotten (until i just looked at a yo tube clip) that it was also used at the very (tragic) end. As Chook says blam! Lets hope Mitch has a better outcome!

His job is to yell: 2nd conditioning guy: 'what are your legs?' Mitch Clark: 'Springs, steel springs' 2nd conditioning guy: 'What are they gonna do?' Mitch Clark:'They're going to hurl me down the track.' 2nd conditioning guy: 'How fast can you run?' Mitch Clark: 'As fast as a leopard'

I don't get the angst but each to their own. What i would say is that whilst we're forced to sell 2 games a year to the NT we are going to have to keep finding ways to raise revenue. As someone said (Nasher?) its just a glorified tin ratlle and no more or less tacky than the raffle at the ground, the competitions they ask you to pay to enter or the scratchies they [censored].

I missed bobby too

No not really.

I was going to say, ET's dreams are quite humble - mine are a lot more grandiose; i kick twice as many as Tony Lockett