La Dee-vina Comedia

1. Howe's a good player and we should try to keep him. 2. He may not be a free agent, but as the Tom Boyd deal showed, not being a free agent doesn't necessarily mean a player will not engineer a move if he wants to go. 3. C & B is right. We might all be sick of his drumming the phrase 'golden ticket' but Demonland has perennially given any poor performer during the year a ready-made excuse if he didn't get to complete a full pre-season.

This may be a great thread idea, but I suspect all Picket really wanted to do was to find another way to criticise Toumpas. Mate, we know what you think. Time to give it a rest.

Don't forget, they haven't actually been charged with a crime. Nevertheless, I think the privacy claim is spurious.

"The biggest story in the history of sport in Australia." Big call. I think the creation of World Series Cricket in 1977 has it covered, though.

To go with the blazers.

Ignorance alert. Who's the bloke in the middle? I had assumed it was Jeremy Howe, but doesn't he now have a sleeve tattoo? Back on topic. I'm not going to die in a ditch about it, but there should be a consistent colour scheme used across all products and media.

I note the release says Steven was a key defender with the Melbourne Football Club. I though he played CHF. Can anyone confirm? And my apologies for mis-spelling his name (Steven v Stephen) in the Topic title. I'd fix it if I knew how.

Just announced: http://www.mcc.org.au/News/Media/Media%20Releases/2015/March/MCC%20elects%20new%20president.aspx Melbourne Cricket Club elects new president Mar 04, 2015 Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is delighted to announce that former Melbourne footballer and experienced lawyer Steven Smith has been elected as the 27th MCC president, succeeding Paul Sheahan when his term expires in April. An MCC member since 1981, Steven has been a member of the MCC Committee since 1998 and a vice-president for the past four years. He is presently chairman of the Club Sub-committee and is also a director of the MCC Foundation and National Sports Museum Ltd. Steven was a key defender with Melbourne Football Club, playing 203 games for the Demons between 1974 and 1985. He was the club’s best and fairest winner in 1981. He was also a director of the club from 1990 to 1992. He is a partner at law firm HWL Ebsworth, with more than 30 years’ experience acting for a wide range of property and commercial clients. Steven is also a board member of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. During his time on the MCC Committee, the club has rebuilt the Members Reserve, significantly grown its membership base, built and operated the National Sports Museum, taken on management of Yarra Park and, in 2015, will complete a major technology upgrade of the MCG to enhance the visitor experience. Steven also played an important role in the establishment of the Australia Post Avenue of Legends in Yarra Park, which presently displays statues in honour of Shane Warne, Norm Smith, John Coleman, Neil Harvey and Jim Stynes and he is heading up the sub-committee which is looking at how best to deal with the ever-growing waiting list for membership of the club. “I'm extremely proud and excited to be the next president of our great club,” said Steven. “On behalf of our members and the committee, I pay tribute to Paul Sheahan, not only for the outstanding contribution he has made as president over the past four years, but also during his 22 years of service as a committeeman of the club.”

Selfish. What about the rest of us?

Just to clarify. You mean suspend Essendon or the posters?

Not disputing that it's not a formal part of the judicial system. But you said that "It does not have the discipline of hundreds of years of precedent, nor the knowedge (sic) of learned and extremely intelligent judges". I was just pointing out that it does. Two of its members are retired County Court judges (David Jones and John Nixon) while its third member is barrister and ex-footballer, Wayne Henwood.

No love for Kevin Pietersen?

Doesn't it? Isn't it chaired by (retired) Judge David Jones?

And I would have thought if we don't persist with Spencer we are even more likely to persist with King.

In all this discussion, don't discount the politics. Essendon is not the only one with reputational damage. ASADA's reputation has also been harmed by their apparent inefficiency in pursuing this matter. I have no doubt that ASADA would have proceeded to force this matter to the AFL Tribunal whether they have sufficient evidence or not. I believe they would prefer to fail at this stage than be accused of going soft on Essendon by not proceeding. That's not to say that ASADA doesn't have sufficient evidence to cause the Bombers grief. But it wouldn't be the first Government agency to transfer the risk of making a final decision to another body, which is effectively what they are doing here.

As a matter of interest, are those percentages 'real'? That is, did you predict a score for every game or are they uncalculated predictions (in which case I admire your bravado in going to two decimal places.) PS: for those of you wondering what the difference is between 'precision' and 'accuracy', these percentages are a good example.

Or lined up alphabetically by height. (attributed to Jack Dyer and about 100 others)

Given all the work the Administrators put into keeping this site going, it's churlish for the rest of us to complain because the banner selections don't meet our personal preferences. I say well done. (And if there's a way to monetise the banner to allow people to put their own preferences up there, I'll donate any commission I would otherwise get from suggesting the idea to Demonland).

Thanks. I'll assume you mean "sanctioned" by the AFL. So if the AFL wanted for any reason to "allow" backdating to go back to Essendon's last game could they (AFL) decide that the International Rules game should not have been "sanctioned" because, for example, it was not actually a genuine game of AFL football?

I expect Richmond to drop significantly. They have little depth and have relied enormously on Ivan Maric for the last few years. With Maric aging, Deledio having to "manage" an injury (achilles, I think) and only a few genuinely good players (although those few are very good) I can see Richmond finishing in the bottom four. The other team I suspect will go backwards is Carlton. With Mick Malthouse there, I don't think the squad is particularly good and there is a sense of back of house disharmony. Edited to make clear that the team is called Carlton, not "Mick Malthouse"

Question. Can someone explain why any ban on Watson and Fletcher should be backdated to the International Rules game instead of the last game the EFC played. Not only were they not playing for Essendon, arguably they weren't even playing an AFL game. I just don't understand the argument.

Not sure about that. Dank appears to be so unhinged it's doubtful anything he says or writes can be taken seriously. For similar reasons, nothing he says could help them , either.

Sometimes I wish we didn't have to

I need to ask (and I'm being serious). How does blind pistol shooting work? Does the shooter aim at a sound?

Dawes may not be the best mark we've ever seen, but I suspect he'd take more if the ball was delivered better to him. How often have we seen it delivered to his feet or too far over his head? As the midfield improves and he gets more support from other capable marking forwards, I expect him to take more marks. I don't expect him to have the hands of Jeremy Howe or the goal scoring ability of Peter Hudson, but I do expect him to be able to contribute more as those around him also improve.