Macca

Rafael Nadal - 21 Today!! Next up is the French Open which Rafa has won 13 times already ... so he can get to at least 22 slams or more He's still got the legs and he's certainly still got the shots What an absolute champion!

You'd have to say that he got out on his own terms and at the top of his game I'm a tad surprised that he is retiring but he is 44 years old. Maybe the body said enough (or the mind) 7 x Super Bowl Champion! What a career!

And now for the Mens Final Hoping for a Rafa win so he can claim the record for most slams* won At the moment, Federer, Nadal & Djokovic have all won 20 grand slam tournaments each. 60 between them! *It can be argued that Rod Laver & Ken Rosewell would have won a stack more slams if the pro tournaments were counted in the 60's or if they were allowed to play in the traditional events (professional players weren't allowed to play at Wimbledon, the French & US opens for a decent period of time so they played on the (arguably) more competitive pro circuit)

So the Cats were in trouble as well It seemed that the Blues, Dons & Hawks were the only clubs keeping their heads above water back in those days All 3 of those teams were of course winning all the premierships in the 80's Best thing that ever happened was the formation of the Commission and then the intriduction of the draft & the salary cap (and therefore, the abolition of transfer fees) Although the merger talk (or takeover talk) continued on into the 90's

I highly doubt that is was signed, sealed and delivered but there were a few rumours about at the time Mind you, there were rumours flying about everywhere as a lot of the clubs were carrying a lot of debt ... Saints paid their players 7 cents in the dollar to remain viable and Richmond had their save our skins campaign which saved them Footscray & Fitzroy were broke (and nearly merged in '89) and South had to move North to survive. The Pies were in financial strife in the mid 80's as well after their transfer war with Richmond The VFL (AFL) Commission was formed in 1985 and not long after that, the draft started up as well as the salary cap. There was a fair bit going on

Ash Barty!! Superstar!!

Cinci 22 Chiefs 32 49ers 26 Rams 29

And the Leaderboard in the Tipping Comp

Re the tipping comp For each of the 2 games this weekend 3 points awarded for the win & 3 points for the correct margin (1-6, 7-12, 13+) So 12 points up for grabs Mon 7.00am Bengals @ Chiefs Mon 10.30am 49ers @ Rams

Ash Barty is into the final after a dominant display in the S/F! (defeating Madison Keys) And we haven't had a female champion in decades (Christine O'Neill 1978) And FYI, Mark 'Eddo' Edmondson) is the last Australian male to win the Aussie open ... against John Newcombe (Newk)

Yes, patience, grasshopper! (Although, I don't believe he was ever that out of form anyway) Jack missed 10 games through injury in 2021, but working on pro-rata and his average amount of votes in the B&F, he'd have finished around about top 5 if he'd played every game And in a premiership year where he's up against Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Salem, May, Lever & Langdon etc, that's a fine result

A must-win for the Socceroos tomorrow night (Thursday 7.30pm Ch10 Bold) Versus Vietnam at AAMI Stadium ... win and automatic qualification is still in play. Lose or draw and we're in trouble!

Agreed but again, as a 'general' rule, the best percentage play when we're talking about clean clearances out of the middle is for the kicker to kick the ball out in front of a leading forward. And that can be for any of the forwards. Even Spargo & Kozzie And I'm referencing clean clearances because that should be our forte given the talent we have in the midfield But I too can give other examples where not having the front position can be advantageous You've got to mix it up but if we were to attain 12+ scores in a basic, simple way, that's a coaches dream And doing things in a simple way ( with superior talent of course) can blow the other team out of the water We Demon supporters should know, we've seen it done to our team on numerous occasions So now it's our turn to dish it out As previously stated, the inside 50 count is just too vague a stat without much more analysis. So if I've got the time, I will attempt to break it all down in certain the games (inside 50 analysis) I've already worked out a way to do the exercise in shorthand!

Not sure ... he's had breaks from this place before if I recall correctly And if it wasn't for these other threads I would have had some time away myself!! But now that we've broken through with the premiership ..............

Ash Barty into the S/F's of the Aussie Open ... but not up against the 4 seed (Krejsikova) as she was beaten today by a non seeded Madison Keys So Ash has a got a real chance to win not just because she's a great player, but because the draw has left the seeded players 2 through to 6 out of the tournament Go Ash!!

Watching the Woodstock doco right now (SBS Viceland) Very good too Available SBS On Demand no doubt (unless it isn't!)

Well I haven't really watched many neutral games this season but Stafford played very well yesterday ... better than my expectations But whilst he's got a receiver like Kupp (who can create terrific separation) Stafford just needs to through the ball to him. And his accuracy is very good in that scenario Which means that the 49ers need to be able to deal with Kupp. Let him loose and Stafford will find him (in my view)

And if Stafford plays as well as he did against the Bucs, that will be a big concern for the 49ers A QB rating of 121 on the road at Tampa is a real achievement. But he definitely passed the eye-test anyway The last drive of 5 plays and 63 yards was crunch-time excellent Interesting that there were a number of pundits predicting that the Rams would win the SB after the acquisition of Stafford (who, lets face it, basically carried Detroit on his shoulders)

Born to play finals is Viney #BeastMode

I'm in the same boat next Monday ... gotta front up next Monday as it's either me that gets it done or it doesn't get done! Ugh But I'll get to watch the Chiefs/Bengals game in its entirety so there's some saving grace Got a strong feeling that the Rams/49ers game will be 'One for the Ages' I'll be tuning in via radio all the same ... trying to avoid scores is now just too much hard work!

Until we gazumped them with one of the best examples of trading up in the draft ever seen Reckon the Hawks trading up to get Lewis at 7 (alongside Roughie & Buddy at the top end) rivals what we did Josh Mahoney hey? Left a terrific legacy with just that one acquisition (C Oliver) But we could assume that the whole football dept. wanted Clarrie (especially Jason Taylor)

Don't sell yourself short, WCW You know your footy There are clear reasons why we won the flag last season ... clangers were irrelevant We took risks backed up by superior talent ... but with inferior talent those risks could have really cost us Biggest factor - fantastic overall recruitment over an 8 or 9 year period (in my view) Dating all the way back to when we recruited Viney & Hogan (who was virtually swapped for May)

So here's a question for you blokes If you watched the Chiefs/Bills game what is your explanation for all the free scoring (with the receivers in the clear in the last few minutes) Tired defences? Poor defence? X's & O's to finish with the advantage ( freed up receivers) Poor coaching re the defence Great coaching re the offense Any another reason or some or all of the above As exciting as it all was I was scratching my head with regards to the freed up receivers Where's the defence!!

And the thrust of my argument centres around clean clearances out of the middle (stoppage situations included - in the midfield) If we are the best in that area ( from an overall perspective) we definitely need our forwards presenting for an easy score to eventuate So we can't afford to lose that advantage e.g. From a centre bounce down Gawn taps to Viney who handballs to Oliver or Petracca who delivers the ball to a leading forward (in the corridor) A score results Rinse & repeat

As I said, I can't recall seeing the incident but again, one of our biggest issues from 2006 onwards (apart of 2018 & 2021) was our lforwards not presenting well enough Now, it does take skill to win the front position (and a lot of courage) so it is easier said than done. Playing in front is a talent