The Reverend

They had 22 players on the field. Same as us. We were better than them. A win is a win. End of story. Enjoy the win FFS! We've been fielding undermanned sides for a decade.

From last week's game day thread it seemed there might be a few of us in Beijing. It would be great to catch up and watch the swans game together over a couple of friendly ales. I know a great bar that will put just about anything on one of their many screens. Let me know. Cheers, GO DEES!

No idea really but there is a faint bell ringing somewhere in the depths of my pre-Alzheimer's consciousness.

An amateur GP? Thank God she never got pregnant!

Yeah, fair enough. noun 1. the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable. "his research had moved into the realm of fantasy" synonyms: imagination, fancy, invention, make-believe;

He was my first wife's GP. So I must be getting on too.

Let's just leave the "F" word out of the equation and adopt the most famous of all football cliches. "We're just taking it one week at a time." GO DEES!

That means we are just like most teams then! Be happy with the win. It was one we should have won and we did. You are doomed to a life of misery if you can't find some joy in beating the Pies on QB.

It's a grand old flag. I need to apologise to my students for my total lack of interest in anything they have been doing. I just don't understand why the Queen's birthday is not a holiday in China. GO DEES!

Seems like there might be a few of us over here. It would be really good to catch up to watch a game or two together. Paddy O'Shea's in Dongzhimen is pretty good at finding the coverage. If you're interested let me know and we can get together maybe next weekend for the Swans game on Sunday. It would mean an 11am start but they have some good food to soak up the beers.

At work in Beijing. Might be a good time to introduce Chinese students to the beauty of Australian Rules football. Could be an opportunity for cultural learning as well as some intensive study of the Australian vernacular. Mmmm, maybe not.

From experience? My credit cards would not get him or me drunk...

I say this with some trepidation, but how long are you in Beijing for? If you're here next weekend it would be interesting to catch up at Paddy O'Shea's and watch the game against the Swans. Anybody else in Beijing?

Stop it You're confusing me. I'm now 83.1777289% more confused than I was before I tried to be funny. I wish I hadn't ventured into numbers. I'm an English teacher; mathematics gives me a headache.

Not always. According to the stats on effective rebuttal, 73.8% of statistics offered as proof in support of a particular point of view may or may not be effective. This means that only 26.2% are either totally effective or totally ineffective. I'm not sure what this means in terms of effective disposal but it does bring into question the veracity of your assertion.

The "better Jetta". Has a nice ring to it!

Brisbane.

Exactly what I'm saying. He's not perfect. Like all of us, he can improve and if he's any sort of professional, that's what he'll be working on. If he thinks he's worth more than we are willing to pay then he should seek greener pastures. The club will do what is best for the club. My point is that he is far from the worst in the team and he does not deserve some of the bagging he has received on here. I'm all about objectivity. Let's take the emotion out of it and stick to the observable facts. Maybe some of his mistakes may occasionally lead to an opposition goal but this is no worse than mistakes in other parts of the ground. They just appear more costly. I would argue that mistakes like not seeing Jack Watts on his own 20 meters from goal and putting it on top of Hogan's head in a two on one contest is even more costly. Sometimes, it depends on which end of the ground the mistakes happen.

This is not what Dante and others have been claiming. I'm still not sure there is any real evidence to support the assertion that he costs us a lot of goals. His average for clangers is 2 per game which seems to be consistent with other key defenders. I'd just like to see the hard stats to support the hysteria of some on here that he is a liability and that he costs us a lot of goals. he currently sits in second place on AFL Overall Standings behind Alex Rance and his stats compare pretty favourably. I think it's important to speak with some accuracy instead of making claims that aren't supported by evidence. There are 9 other clubs ahead of us for points conceded from defensive half turnovers. It's not as if we are bleeding goals from turnovers in the back half. Maybe this is all a case of "frequency illusion", that phenomenon where we are told something and then start noticing it everywhere. I'm happy to trust the club to have a pretty clear understanding of his value to the team and to make the right decision about how much he is worth in dollar terms.

I've been in Beijing since Feb. so haven't seen a live game this year. I've watched every game live via the AFL Global feed. The stats say he gives up half a free kick per game. he's given up 5 this year so far. This doesn't tie in with your view of his game. Even if every free kick he's given up came from a holding the ball decision and resulted in an opposition goal he would have conceded 5 goals for the season so far. Not a bad average I'd suggest given that umpires tend to look after forwards. Am I missing something?

Do you mean he gets caught holding the ball or just getting tackled and disposing of it? His stats show him averaging 0.54 frees against per game so it can't be that he's getting caught all that much. I know stats don't always tell the story but I think in this case, it's pretty clear that your assertion is a bit shaky.

You made me move from a very comfortable reclining position on the couch. I was moved to respond. Are you for real?!!!! I really hope you're being sarcastic.

By 23!

I watched in a bar in Hong Kong with my son. we drank more beer than I could afford to pay for and ended up in a whisky and cigar bar which cost me even more. I've forgotten most of what happened last week. I do remember Hogan taking a couple of nice grabs, beers X many and Glenmorangie and cigars and a taxi and............. Dees by 23. GO DEES!