Macca

And some excellent racing at Rosehill today with any number of the favoured horses heavily supported. The Golden Pendant (Race 5) sees the WA star sprinter in 'Enticing Star' having her first run in the Eastern States. Chris Waller has the horse as his best for the day. And the Golden Rose (Race 7) has only 8 runners but it's a very good field. My best bet happens to be in the same race ... 'Bivouac' carrying the Godolphin colours trained by James Cummings. www.racenet.com Oh, and there's a Grand Final going on as well! Tigers to win but it could be a thriller. GWS are new to this sort of thing but they are an ultra-talented outfit. I reckon Tigers 1-39 is the safer option ($2.00)

And I want to be spoilt for choice Gonzo ha ha Imagine having a super great list? We've all seen super lists on numerous occasions going all the way back the great Demon teams of the 50's & 60's All things are possible and having an excess of talent and trying to fit them all into the salary cap is a fantastic problem to have. We should be so lucky And players who achieve success stick around and take pay cuts as well. Some go but then you can then win with the trades That's my template.

The stats tend to back up what we see as well ZZ. But not always. So you combine the numbers with the unmeasurables. I could be an optimist and foresee finsls next year but I'd rather be pleasantly surprised. One stat that was alarming and was a big 'tell' was our conversion rates from inside 50 entries as opposed to 2018. My quick appraisal was that our forward line became dysfuntional but the added eye test was how our midfielders were pressed and pressured when kicking into the forward line. 'Rjay' went real early when he stated that we'd been found out but by half way through the season the trend was there. Nothing that can't be addressed and fixed though. We do need to add a bunch of talented footballers if we're to be a true contender. Wouldn't hurt to have a few absolute difference makers too.

'Nature Strip' hangs on to win the Moir Stakes Miss Leonidas was mentioned strongly by one of pundits and very nearly pinched the race at 50-1. All the exotics thus paid well even though Sunlight got up for 3rd. F4 with Faatinah running 4th paid 12k. Chris Waller has set Nature Strip for the Everest but might have to gain entry via the Schillaci Stakes (unless one of the remaining slot holders nominates the horse) Not sure about the 1200m though, all the same. Still, the horse beat a crack field and now has 2 x Group 1's on the board.

Stats can be more than handy but how do measure a collective will to win, a never say die attitude, heart, general attitude, energy, ruthlessness, application & motivation. All key areas of footy or sport in general. The eyes have it FTP. I trust my own eyes as I'm sure you do as well. And decision making is almost impossible to measure correctly. Again, the eyes have it. Gut running & fitness levels? There's a lot to it.

Excellent night of racing ahead of us at the Valley. Of most interest will be the Moir Stakes (Race 7) which will be a mad scramble over the 1000m. Nature Strip is favourite but there are any number of speedsters that have drawn well The other races of note are the Scarborough Stakes (Race 5) & the JRA Stakes (Race 6) Both are good betting races. Go to Racenet.com for more details.

Hope you're right but I don't rate Weideman, T-Mac is overrated, VDB is constantly injured as is Smith, Hannan is an average footballer and KK has done nothing. May can play but has had injury concerns as well and needs to do a proper pre-season. I'd revamp the list as I believe our list is overrated anyway. Couldn't care less what Champion data says. My own eyes tells me we're not much chop. 5 & 17 is almost self-explanatory. As previously stated, 2018 is now not a template for me at all. Aberration year, we got found out and we need a change in personnel both with the playing list and in the coaching area (apart from Goodwin) The sport moves along at a rapid rate and we're now playing catch-up The latter (coaching area) is already happening whilst the former (list adjustments) is about to happen. Areas of our football such as pace, decision making and disposal skills are not AFL standard. Despite all that we can still win 9-11 games next season but we'll need to get a whole lot better in a number of areas. Which is quite possible. It's called critical analysis. The measurement I much prefer. But rather than single out any one individual, I'd rather look at everything all at once. You don't have to agree. In fact, it's much easier to just agree to disagree. It's not like any of our opinions matter anyway. The club will do what it sees fit. We are mere onlookers.

Packers have shown me enough to say that we can contend. Eagles too The NFC is up for grabs Meanwhile over in the AFC the Pats can stay there. Stay away from our conference!

There should be another name for that ... I see a 'Pick' as a throw to an opposition player But luck plays a part in sport. Eagles were the better team on the night though. It's a game of inches and we've had our fair share of luck over the years If the Packers had a decent running game we'd have probably won ... more so at Lambeau though. At Philadelphia it's tougher. Oh and congrats on 300 pages for the thread.

He's got another 4 goes at it from close range. Can the Eagles double-up? If so, you deserve to win

Your secondary might be banged up but the Eagles have still done a great job back there. Against other teams we'd have racked up the score by now. That was a nasty hit ... hope the bloke is alright. Friendly fire this time

Gotta get the TD first ... not easy against this Eagles defence & secondary Big play coming up ... 3rd and 8 on the Eagles 41 yard line. With 01:59 left.

The coach probably thought that Rodgers could find 1 receiver with 4 goes at it As you said, great D by the Eagles. If you score on this drive I reckon you've got the win.

It was a nasty blow ... they really do play this sport for keeps. Worth the risk going for it then as the Packers need TD's to win the game. The Eagles keep scoring so you've got to match them in advance. Now looking for some Rodgers magic.

Whoever has the ball last scores and therefore wins Dappa? Eagles have been the slightly better team based on smashing the Packers re running the ball On the other hand the Packers passing game has been immense. Rodgers is being Rodgers. Or should I say 'Godgers'!

We have never had a list good enough to be a true contender ... but we've periodically been quite good or very good. Unless one is lucky enough to have seen the Smith years. And greatness is directly linked to talent. Real talent. Jordie McKenzie and hundreds of others probably all had great attitude but could they "Play"? The answer is no. Not to A grade or B+ levels anyway. And Jordie did his absolute best then some. Kudos to the bloke I say. Where as GWS have got an abundance of talent ... add in great Admin & great coaching and they should be able to win big We on the other hand are miles off.

I'm not clinging on to much out of the 2018 season (apart from the 2 enjoyable finals wins) We've got to start afresh. We need a much better game plan with better coaching and we're way short on the talent required to be a true contender. And we need to fast-track that improvement. Free agency needs to be embraced and we need to trade for ready-to-go talent. We can still go to the draft of course but it doesn't have to necessarily be the first port of call.

Hell of a game at Lambeau!

See my post above for my explanation By the way, a starting 22 player can be C+ only. In fact, we were playing up to 8 C grade quality players (or worse) for the greater part of this season. In more simplistic terms you replace 6 very average players with 6 others that are better players. Ranging from A grade down to B- (or C+) Adding an A grader is probably the big ask but we live in hope. If you're thinking I'm meaning adding 6 A grade players you are jumping to the wrong conclusion. If we recruit as we've so often done in the past then I wouldn't be expecting a great return. But Goodwin is now coaching for his own survival so I expect him to swing the changes (with the help of the recruiting team) We'll find out soon enough.

Well not really with regards to free agency now being a huge factor. It's possible to add 3 - 4 free agents if you've got salary cap space. And we look like we're pursuing at least 3 free agents. We should have embraced free agency from 2012 onwards by the way but the antiquated thinking held us back. And there was a 2 or 3 year warning that free agency was coming too so no excuses. So it's not a mammoth task at all unless you're thinking like a dinosaur (not you obviously) Pardon the pun. And then there's the draft and trading for talent. At least 2-4 good players can be added along with the free agents from our trading position. Adding 6 starting 22 players is quite feasible especially when you consider that we've only got 8 - 10 good players. Half our list is either not good enough or not ready. Anyway, we'll find out soon enough but I'm reckoning that we will be very aggressive in the off-season. And I expect the club to be quite creative with the pick 3 that we have at our disposal.

Fair enough We're not far away from each other anyway re the predicted finish. But we'll probably get some injuries again to some of our better players and our depth of good players (right now) isn't strong enough to cover for those injuries My mind could be changed though if we can add 6 starting 22 players including 2 or 3 of those 6 to be added to the best 12. It's a decent ask but we're in quite a reasonable trading position. As always, the off-season recruiting is all important. X amount of good players = X amount of wins.

I'll take 9-11 wins as we're now back to a point where we've got quite a bit to do in order for the club being able to build a top list (as least in the foreseeable future) Not sure the list is being coached well either. But of course the Coaching dept. can improve much like the list can improve. My ambition for the club far outstrips the club's ambition. It's one thing wanting to be great but it's another thing having a great plan to become great. We've got too many issues to address all at once. I suppose we're a knockout hope but the substance isn't substantial. 9 -11 wins at least brings back a bit of respectability and we can then (hopefully) build from there. 5 & 17 is close enough to basket-case so we've got it all ahead of us RL. We're playing catch-up.

Patriots Chargers Chiefs

I don't reckon it matters Wadda ... the racing at Rosehill on Saturday is fabulous. Always has been We can jusr roll it over a couple of days. Even the Valley on Friday evening if you like.