Good Times Grimes

The Maple Leafs signed one of the Hansen brothers' sons a couple of seasons ago. He failed to have much of an impact and was released at the end of last season. I think he might be playing for Carolina now.

Yeah, I'd agree that many boxing movies would be near the top of my list...probably The Fighter taking the cake. Like you, I also haven't seen any of the Rocky movies haha. I loved watching St Louis's run towards the end of last season, finishing with that fantastic World Series. I also enjoy watching Philly when Halladay is pitching. He's one of my all-time favourite athletes and will go down as one of the greatest ever pitchers. I struggle to support any team other than Toronto, though, and it's nice watching a young team on the rise.

I just hope our club continues to produce one or two players every week who play well in winning sides.

To be honest I'm not much of an expert when it comes to the financial discrepancies that exist between different teams in the MLB. It amazes me that the Chicago Cubs can still be so profitable after so many years of futility. I'm happy to see Tampa Bay doing well, given that they are in the hardest division in the MLB and have such a low payroll. It's evidence that you can be successful in rebuilding through the draft and that a good team that work well together can beat teams made up of stars who are perhaps not team players. I thought Moneyball was so good that I went to see it twice. I particularly liked Jonah Hill's character and his performance. I thought Brad Pitt was quite good, but didn't really know much about Billy Beane before seeing the movie. I'd say it's in the top 5 sports movies that I've seen.

I'm hoping to see the series go 7 games, even though I want LA to win. It's always exciting having a sudden death match for both teams.

Toronto's is about $75.5m this season, with $14m of that going to Bautista. It benefits from having many young stars who are not being paid too highly (Lawrie and Arencibia are both on less than $500k). It amazes me that the Yankees pay almost 200% more than the Blue Jays, yet they are still relatively even in the standings. If you've seen the movie Moneyball, it's a great insight in to how the poorer teams need to manage their rosters in order to compete with the big markets of New York, LA, Philadelphia and Boston. Here's my source, which is pretty interesting if you want to compare team salaries: http://content.usatoday.com/sportsdata/baseball/mlb/salaries/team

Happy to report that that was a [censored] post.

I'd love to see us target Sidebottom, then. He is an absolute gun.

It was only a matter of time before they came good, Macca. It was nice (if only for a brief period) seeing the AL East with Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto occupying the top 3 spots and the Yankees and Red Sox on the bottom. The AL's wildcard spots will be very interesting this season, with several teams looking like they'll be making a serious push. I can't remember ever seeing the Dees with grey, but I agree that it does look better than the white. What do you think of the Baltimore logo? I think it's just about the worst logo going around in pro-sports.

Do they have any gun mids that are coming out of contract? Pendles just re-signed, Swan and Thomas both signed last year, and I think Sidebottom is also contracted for a few more years. Nothing wrong with driving up Cloke's price though to make them pay overs, though B)

LA win 4-0 and now lead 3-0 in the final. It would be a big ask for NJ to come back from here. The Kings now sit with a 15-2 record in the postseason, and are a chance to equal 1988 Edmonton Oilers as having the most dominant playoff record in NHL history (16-2). Quick looks like a lock for the Conn Smythe.

The thought of him in our jumper actually makes me feel great. The thought of him in any other jumper is what makes me feel sick. I just hope that if we get him we don't pay him any more than he is worth.

I'm sure he'd be a great player for us and we'd all love him straight away, but I worry that paying that sort of money could cost us in the long run when we're trying to get some gun midfielders (which is what we desperately need). That being said, I'm sure that Neeld, Harrington, etc know what's best for the club and know how much money we have available to spend on certain types of players, so I will support whatever decisions they make. I walked past him today when he was leaving the Westpac Centre (or whatever the Collingwood HQ is called), and he is a MASSIVE unit. I knew he was big, but when he was right up next to me I felt like a dwarf. Haha I'll remember that come the trade period. You'll get full credit if you're right!

I thought Green did some good things on the weekend and continually went in hard at the ball. He didn't have many possessions, but he was on the bottom of a lot of packs, and was working very hard in that last quarter. I think if Bartram and Frawley are fit and Blease pulls up okay it will probably be Macdonald and Morton making way for them. Selection will be very interesting this week, no doubt.

It couldn't happen to a more deserving team. I can't help but get the feeling that it's Cloke Sr that is the greedy one, and Travis is just going with his father's wishes. As highly as I rate Cloke, I wouldn't want to see him at the Dees if it meant paying $800k+ for 5 years. That money could be much better invested elsewhere.

Poor Eddie must be having trouble sleeping with all this Cloke business going on. To quote the man himself, "The tom-toms are beating". Or, in this case, is it the "Travis-travises"?

With Bartram and Frawley shoo-ins if fit, you'd have to feel for whoever is dropped to make way for them after such a great team effort on the weekend.

I miss nothing, OD Go Dees!

So the optimistic OD is sticking around for another week?

I've heard my Dad reminisce about Ray Gabelich's run down the wing to kick a goal and then Crompton's timely response countless times. I would give just about anything to see something like that. It's nice to have had the win on the weekend to re-store some belief in the list and the coach, but I still think we are a few years away from experiencing anything close to the ultimate glory again.

Oh, that's too bad...

Trengove (no r) was better last night than he had been through the first 9 rounds, but still not playing up to his standards. He is much better than his performances this season indicate, and if he's not playing to the best of his abilities then people are not in the wrong to criticize him. I'm a big fan of JT but have been very disappointed with him all year, and I would say he was in our bottom few players on Saturday. Let's hope he can find some good form and have a good second half of the season.

I've seen stranger things than teams coming back from 2-0 down. If the Kings win the next one though, it's all but over. Go Kings!

2 Games, 2 Overtimes, 2 LA Wins. New Jersey would be cursing themselves...they came so close twice, and matched the Kings both games, but now they're heading on the road in what could be their final trip of the season.

I think it would feel similar to how it felt last night. I can't imagine a better feeling, that's for sure. You're optimism paid off, OD. Well done, the win is down to your new found belief in the team! B)