Macca

I'm having an exotic bet in the race anyway ... exacta or F4 so Lightsaber is in! Will do our double as it has to come up sooner or later!! 20-1 or thereabouts gives out a handy collect What do you like in the Memsie, Gorg? Behemoth & Tofane pick themselves but Inspirational Girl won the Railway in good time in the Perth carnival. Fifty Stars my roughie

Best Bet Sat Caulfield R4 No.1 Artorius (W) $3.50

Agreed, and how many individual acts influence a game of footy? Kicks, handballs, marks, contested marks (forward line?) punching clear, spoils, spoils to create a boundary throw in, tap outs, tap outs to advantage, positioning of the onballers at stoppages & centre bounce downs, tagging, knock-ons, individuals running to flood, formation needs, bumps, running to create midfield stoppages, running to press forward, 2-way running, double teaming, blocking, pressure acts, 1%ers, shepherding, shots at goal etc etc etc However, actual talent levels are needed with all those examples. Fitness, selfless acts and teamwork are huge factors as well So the footy acts number in the thousands. That's where games of footy are won & lost And without a great degree of talent along with top level coaching, a team can't hope to win big anyway

More than a sneaky chance He's been consistently very good all season playing in the one position. Rarely wastes a possession and racks them up to boot He'll be taking Brownlow votes off Petracca & Oliver too. All 3 of their christian names begin with C so the forced delay will be in play on Brownlow night C ....................... Spargo

I especially liked Faulty's comment re the old codgers & tech devices! About 9 or 10 years ago here on this site we had a poster who talked about attending both GF's in 1948. 'Very Old Demon' was his name from memory He also shared a some great memories with us about Smithy & Barass A quick search and one can find his posts. He'd be in his late 80's now so I hope he's still kickin'

This is a true story I was 5 years old at the time and I reckon I knew way more about footy then than I do now. A pure fanatic at a young age. Obsessed with the game Anyway, when the final siren went in that '64 GF I was devastated. The premiership was wrenched away from me in the final moments. I couldn't believe it as I felt sure that my team was going to win! The following year I was given a complete Demons outfit for my 6th birthday and once again, I was devastated! How could my own family do this to me!* This team had just beaten my team in last years GF! A week after my 6th birthday the Demons won and I was a demon for life. Didn't take long to switch. 2 weeks later we beat the Pies and I was joyous A few weeks after that the club sacked Norm Smith but I was way too young to understand the impact of it all *There was no way that I was going to be allowed to be a Pies supporter in my family (big family, nearly all Fitzroy supporters and they hated Collingwood with a passion)

Should have stuck to my exacta plan!! Got a couple of collects late to save the day but will be following Mo'unga alright. Memsie this week which should be a beauty

Yeah it's obvious but not a given. Nothing is written in stone and that was my point In my view there's not a lot between most of the teams within the 8. Any team that brings their best can win But I don't like it that Port can get home field/home crowds during the finals where as (apart from Brisbane once) the other teams need to travel to neutral venues as the home team There are integrity issues but we're talking about the AFL here

For us to avoid a final @Port, we'll need the Cats to win next week But if we win next week against the Lions the above won't matter Of course, if the GF ends up being played in Adelaide, Port could have the home crowd/home field (if they make it that far) With Covid and with it, triggered lockdowns, I wouldn't be ruling out any venues for any of the finals

It's a good race and an ideal way to start the Group1 season, Gorg Looking ahead nearly all the Group1's have been upgraded to be worth at least $1Million now so the fields throughout the Spring will be strong And that's apart from the 4 or 5 other big races out of Sydney that are worth a mint but not recognised as Group races (Everest, Invitation, Golden Eagle, Bondi St etc)

Got a mate who is right into horse racing and he reckons Cascadian is the one 14 horse field with any number of chances on a fast track in a truly run race could suit the swoopers and a horse like Kolding

What do you like in the Winx Stakes Gorg? I reckon Verry Elleegant will definitely be in the first 3, Kolding for a smidgen of value & Brandenburg is my roughie for the exotics

Best Bet Saturday (Moonie Valley) R5 No.1 Smokin' Romans $4.50 (Win)

Only in America!

Full stadiums for all venues (at this stage) Another sport that needs crowds ... some other sports not so much I'll post up a brief preview on the tipping comp soon enough but I don't see any reason to change anything 3 road winners with 1 or 2 points up for grabs depending on the week (week 17 - 3 points)

Completely forgot that the EPL started today ... Arsenal lost to Brentford and Man Utd put 5 on the board against Leeds Spurs at home to Man City (1.30am Monday) is the standout match

Both bombed!! And Behemoth gets the money over Beau on protest!

PM on the way

I've already answered your question "Short answer - no" ... did you miss that bit? Abuse is abuse ... I'm against other forms of abuse but pertaining to this site the abuse extends to posters abusing other posters, player abuse and the biggie ... Umpire abuse What is obvious to me is that many don't have a problem with some areas of abuse but are red hot on some other areas of abuse And that's ok with me ... I knew all that upon entering this thread I see things differently ... what's the big deal?

All of it ... it's mostly unnecessary though (the abuse) I'm more interested in how games are really won ... real ralent, good game plan and top coaching Umpiring decisions make up about 5% - 10% of a game in my view so the abuse is so over the top. Some decisions are vital of course What do the umpires make ... 40 decisions? But both teams combined make up to a 1000 decisions by hand or foot. And that's without all the 2-way running and running to position

Out of all this I truly hope we can stamp out racism. A big ask but it can be done We can possibly shut down the public utterances although there's always going to be one who chances their arm But the racism won't go away, especially on the net. So I agree with others that social media platforms need much stronger regulation. Governments need to come down hard on these sites and the sites themselves need very strong checks & balances. Free speech ... with caveats. Traceable accounts with full details etc. The racists are there now and there is a way of shutting them down on those platforms For instance, I've given my full details to this site and was happy to do so. I'm not sure but name, address, phone number etc but I may wrong with some of that (10 years ago)

Depends on the actual words and the context but short answer ... no But right now, on this site, abusing an umpire using foul and obscene language seems to be allowed yet (and I'm only guessing) racially vilifying a person would cop a ban There's too big a gap and I've said that twice now.

Speaking of Trump ... I called him a racist on one of the threads in the general discussion area about a year ago The retort by one poster was to call me a racist for calling Trump a racist. I let it go as I thought I'd bring it up later in a similar thread ... which is now! So been there, done that You and many others have misrepresented me, catagorised me and misinterpreted me all in the name of your perceived side Little do you know that I'm actually with you in the fight against racism. You need to stop jumping at shadows as I'm just coming at the subject matter from a different angle

As stated previously, abusing umpires by calling them chxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxx says a lot to me about a persons character. They are unhinged and they are everywhere on this site That sort of behavior should carry with it a lengthy ban in my view. Right now, if someone came out with a racial slur, they'd probably cop a ban. And rightly so So right now, the attitude is that one stance is perfectly fine whilst the other carries with a ban of some description. So in my view, both stances are too far apart Do you believe anyone here should get banned for abusing an umpire in such a fashion?