IWAP

Cause its very easy to be influenced if you are sitting in an area dominated by opposition supporters. I think the fact that our last 3 games in Melbourne were home games had an effect. People were more likely to take this game off, given that it makes no difference to our bottom line if they didn't attend - plus the crap time

where did you sit?

Don't know where you were sitting today Rusty, but i was sitting top level Olympic stand, and saw a decent amount of red and blue, considering it was an away game. Certainly a lot more [censored] and poo colours, but i'd like to think it was about 1:3

I guess i'm lucky - my wife comes from a family of passionate Dees supporters. Marriage made in heaven! To top that off, my new wife's brother and father are also keen Demonland lurkers Cheers to B and R if your reading this!

The Herald Sun is definitely looking very silly for jumping the gun on the story. Yet where is Wallace? Surely the best solution when there are strong rumours that you've sacked the coach, is for the coach to lead training as normal. Something still ain't right.

Richmond are such a rabble. If as they claim, that he never was sacked and that everything is hunky dory, why didn't Wallace turn up to training today? Little bit odd for the senior coach to miss training, and instead watch "game tapes" at home. Surely that can be done some other time, especially during a media crisis

BRFE and BBub, Pride in each of us is very different. If not wanting to see us labelled the worst team in the competition 2 years running over the matter of one draft place for our second pick, then I'm happy for you to label me crazy.

We'll see if this emerges beyond a conversation on a talkback radio station - but the only thing that would sway my opinion at this stage, would be if they are offering us a better deal financially than we are getting at the Bubbledome project. The facilties look very impressive, and no, the walk from facilities to training oval is not that far

If we are going to finish near the bottom (which is pretty damn likely at this stage), my personal preference is to finish second last (with 4 wins or less). Might just be me, but i'd prefer 1st pick and 3rd pick, rather than 1st pick, 2nd pick and the spoon.

Bbub - remember at Olympic Park we'd be using Gosch's paddock, not the new stadium itself to train. We'd have the best of both worlds. Great training facilities, great training oval, very close to our spiritual home the G, where our admin is. Its the perfect solution. The only thing that is stalling the project is the costs

Adam - perhaps it wasn't made clear in the original post, but this project is nothing to do with the current docklands 'Etihad' stadium. It would be a seperate site - with a ground that will not host AFL nor A-League games, ever.

It does sound intriguing We have never planned to move to Casey full time in the long term - it was just until the Bubbledome facilities at Olympic Park are built This would be an alternative to that project. If both projects were equivalent in terms of facilities provided and cost to the club, i'd choose Bubbledome due to its proximity to the G

I wouldn't think Bennell would be dropped, probably has been rested

Its not a fair comparison When we were playing finals in 2005 and 2006, Essendon were at the bottom of the ladder building their team through draft picks. A more valid comparison would be to compare our side in 2011 versus their current team

Sitting in the MCC seats yesterday, we heard a loud high pitch voice coming from behind us. Turning around it originated from the 3AW box. It was Rex doing his fat lady singing, 10 seconds into the game! Perhaps a tad premature, but nonetheless accurate.

I'm not really sure why everyone is getting upset about this. We boo our ex-players when they leave We boo opposition players when they whack one of our own players Is booing an (albeit allegedly) girlfriend beater really much worse?

Booked with Tiger last time they had this sale Coming up Sat morning, heading home Sun night Manuka is a really nice ground to watch footy at

I think given the direction the club is trying to take, this is quite good news

People criticise test match cricket for being too boring, and lets face it, 80% of the time there is not much happening. But when you get a performance like we saw from Johnson tonight, it makes the waiting worth it. What a star! Almost nothing beats test cricket at its best, and thats what we saw tonight.

Dees offer lifeline to Geelong Falcon Jordie McKenzie

Past 13,000 when i rung the club this morning

For anyone thats interested, here's Colin Wisbey's draft profile of the player --------------------------- Adam Thomson (Sturt) 183/82 mid-age right foot (has other foot if nec). *STYLE LIKE: Fairly pacy version of Simon Black *TRADEMARK: - Clean hands get under great pressure inside traffic then lightning, often look-away, feed straight to team mate in the clear. *SUMMARY ASSESSMENT, RECOMMENDATION: - Is defined by his ability inside traffic. Brilliant. Great hands - getting & delivering, typically inside traffic under great pressure, often look-away. Extremely clean, reliable & creative. Very rarely gets impeded from delivering an accurate feed. A Simon Black type with similar efficiency, more pace. The best hands, vision, decision-making and efficiency in-close that I have seen in the past few years. - I rate him very highly. In fact I have him at 8. He won't go that early but I expect him to go around early 2nd round. Definite AFL. If I had any pick after #7 I would take him with it ... in a heartbeat. *HURT FACTOR (Offensive/Defensive/Negative): - All excellent. *DISPOSAL: - Very high Hurt Factor, especially by hand. - Predominantly feeds. - Brilliant by hand - extremely quick, accurate and displays incredible vision. Dynamite. Also master of the accurate look-away feed. - Kicking is also quite reliable although not in the same league as his feeds - Good power and depth in his kicks. - Kicking style is reasonable, although he tends to fall back a fair way when he kicks. Fairly economical action. - Not a noted goalkicker but is reasonably reliable at goal without being a sure thing. *DECISION-MAKING, SMARTS: - Terrific inside traffic, especially centre bounce, even under the greatest of pressure. Clean to get, quick, clean, reliable and creative to feed off. Exceptional "6th sense" vision and quick decision-making response to same. In short, extremely efficiently creative. - Excellent poise. "Always" looks for an option. - Reads both play and ball very well. Roves the ruck contest and the spill well. - Officially only credited with only 3 HBGs for the entire U18 Champs but, by my definition of HBG being a possession gained under great pressure, a very high percentage of his possessions are HBG. - Very unselfish Occasionally too much so, looking for a team mate when he might be better advised to carry the ball or shoot for goal himself. - Never seems to lose his cool. Is controlled, no-fuss professional. *HANDS: - Very clean, all levels. Shines under great pressure and inside congestion. *OVERHEAD MARKING: - Not a feature of his game but he is reliable and has good judgement. U18 Champs stats have him at no contested marks out of 11 but that stat is not representative. He can be relied upon to take at least a 50/50 contested mark. *ATHLETICISM: - Good pace, although he seldom uses it and is not super quick. Not a noted ball carrier. - Very agile. - Covers plenty of ground yet doesn't look peak fit, just looking at his body. I suspect he has a fair bit of scope to harden his body and lift his fitness even further, perhaps even improving his already fairly good speed a bit in the process. Nevertheless he runs a game right out. - Good recovery agility. - Good reflexes. - Very good balance. When tackled, keeps his arms free and keeps his feet. Rides a bump well. - Evasion is good although he feeds off so quickly and doesn't often try to carry the ball, so it isn't on show very often. - Displays a huge unaided leap on occasions. *INTENSITY, ETHIC: - Covers a lot of ground and at good energy. - Attacks both man and ball well. - Fierce and effective tackler. Does often tend to throw himself to the ground with the tackle though. Does quite a few smothers. - Although first and foremost a play-creator, he is also very good defensively within traffic, especially centre bounce, often stifling an opponent's attempted clearance. I don't have a handle on his accountability in a flank role but he is certainly accountable to the nearest opponent. - Does the 1%ers eg will run in from 15m away to lay a very physical block. - Courageous. *CONSISTENCY: - Very consistent, both game to game and within a game. *AFL VERSATILITY: - Is a natural inside onballer, with better pace than those types usually have, so you would want to make the most of his attributes in that role. I think he can even play that role in his first year. He is gifted in that role. Other than that, could play anywhere down the flanks. Could potentially be a good AFL BP but you would lose the benefit of his superior prime attributes if you didn't play him onball. *SCI (SCOPE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT): - Normal. *QUERY: - Nothing of significance. *SOME STATS: - Stats summary '04 U18 Champs: Averaged 16 disposals and 3.7 marks in his 3 games. (Best TD 19). Kicks to feeds: 18-29 (1:1.6). Kicks long vs short: 9-4 (2.3:1). Kicking accuracy: 5/18 ineffective incl 3 clangers. Handball accuracy: 2/29 ineffective incl 0 clangers. Total accuracy: 7/47 ineffective incl 3 clangers. Gets own ball?: 20/47TD were HR. 3 HBG. S.P. clearances: 8 incl 7 BU incl 6 CBC. Tackles: 6 Marking: 0 of 11 were contested. *OTHER STUFF: - Reserves '04. - Had been listed as 180/78 but '04 DC measured 183/82

i missed the first part of the show - but from my understanding, they only did teams 9-12. I guess 13-16 was either done last week, or will be done next week

Never shown a glimpse of making it at AFL level. The big surprise is that he didn't get delisted years ago

I would have thought under normal circumstances, West Coast would be starting slight favourites. We were pathetic and got beaten by a very good side last week, but our form in the preceding weeks was good enough surely to be competitive against the 2nd worst side in the comp who are playing interstate But surely West Coast are well aware, its not in their best interests to win this one. Easy money to be made in my opinion