Macca

Couple from Donald Fagen ...

NFL for me has become one of my favourite sports to watch (as a whole) ... it's right up there with Test Cricket but It's probably the only sport (NFL) where I have a really keen interest from week 1 to the Super Bowl. Most other sports I tune in and out of or the interest is primarily the finals/playoffs or major events like the Olympics/Tour de France or Golf & Tennis majors. The big impact with the NFL is how things can change dramatically from week-to-week. The division/conference/playoff set-up is second to none with regards to maintaining interest and there are just a stack of storylines (and that's week to week as well) It's a sport where it's so much more than just about your own team (well, that's how I view the sport anyway) I'm not sure @JV7 can bear to click on the following link ... Super Bowl LI: Patriots vs. Falcons Mic'd Up | NFL Films

It should be noted that Collingwood already make a stack of $$$$'s as the away team for the QB clash (the same argument often stands for any of their away games at the MCG) That's based on their club selling upwards of 14-18 thousand* of their premium 18 game memberships (their premium memberships sell for about $900 a pop) They also have a virtual mortgage on the Western stand for all their matches (both home & away) at the MCG to boot. Another money-spinner. So, as the home team for the QB clash they get to win-out financially twice (the extra would be the hefty cheque written out to them by the MCC if they were the home team for the QB clash. Like others, I have no real problem with the game having alternate home & away status. When we play them twice in a season we'd get a well attended home game against them anyway (maybe we could push for that?) *The figure of 14-18 thousand premium members is based on the figures available in their annual reports.

It's cable for me JV (since the mid 90's) but more specifically, ESPN. Redzone, Sportscenter, NFL Primetime and all the associated shows fulfill my needs. SNF & MNF are also on the must watch list ... I'm hangin' out for the season to start. Redzone especially is great. I pay about $60 per month (HD & IQ) but I get a stack of other sports and other stuff so I see cable as fantastic value. I'm not sure I could cope without it. What do you get for the game pass? Every game? What's the picture like when fed through to the telly?

That's a gutsy win ... the team should be rightfully proud of themselves. We just refused to lose. Hunt & Frost continue to impress ... the run & carry from both lads is invaluable. T-Mac going forward has been a revelation whilst ANB & Oscar were good today. Hannan, Harmes & Wagner was good at times. Petracca stepped it up and played a decisive role at the stoppages. Oliver is just a freak and Hibberd continues to stand out. Gawn is working his way back to his best form. 7 games to go and if 4 of those games are wins we are virtually assured of a finals berth. Perhaps even 3 of 7 will suffice. We need to find a way to win at least 1 of the next 2 but even with the guts of our midfield out along with Watts, this team has a thirst for wins and is playing with real confidence. We've played a relentless style all season regardless of the make up of the team.

Here are the stages that involve various category 1 climbs in the 'Tour de France' ... click on the highlighted areas for details. Cadel Evans gives a summary of each stage as well (provided by the links) Wed 5th ....... Stage 5 Sat 8th ......... Stage 8 Sun 9th ........ Stage 9 Thurs 13th ... Stage 12 Fri 14th ........ Stage 13 Sun 16th ...... Stage 15 Wed 19th ..... Stage 17 Thurs 20th ... Stage 18

'Luminous' with "Make it Happen" along with 'Floris' with "You and I"

Sydney played like we have for most of the season ... roles reversed. We'll live to fight another day - starting as of next week. Our performance tonight was reminiscence of a few games last year. Credit to the other mob though, they showed us what that extra notch looks like. We never gave up but lacked surety, poise and we couldn't manage to get that released player released (skills) We're not out of it by any means. Maybe someone else here has said it but it might have been the loss we needed to have.

Apparently Hulett did ok for Casey on Saturday night and took a couple of nice contested marks ... kicked 2 goals. Others who actually watched the game will know better. I'd be more looking at whether he can provide a real contest and get to the front position consistently. If so, he could be worth a burl.

I don't have those same expectations with the players that we have currently available ... in fact, I could mount an argument that we're doing reasonably well, all things considered. We are where we should be. I'll take this season's results and standard of play over any of the previous 10 seasons. You've got to have quality tall's in order to be able to compete properly on a consistent basis. We've battled against the odds with mixed results. I reckon we'll win our next 2 games and if Gawn & Hogan make it back without incident, we can still play finals. But we're going to need both of them fit and firing for the 2nd half of the season in order for that to happen.

And as someone else remarked, the MCG is a ground for big men. But many are sick to death of losing games and they are tired of the excuses. I don't mind the angst, the hue & cry and the venting. That comes with the passion. But we now have genuine reasons for dropping games but those reasons are coming at the wrong time for many. I do believe that we left ourselves short a ruckman though and I can never understand why we need so many 'in between' players on our list. We could have rookied a mature-age ruckman and paid him a bit above award. There are ways. And perhaps the MC had a bit too much faith in Weideman although we did draft Hulett as well. Neither of them have come on though. We may well have gone overboard on the same type of midfielder and left ourselves short in the tall stakes (no pun intended) We've got an abundance of half-back flankers as well. I suppose we're just strong in some areas of the list and not-so-strong in other areas.

Anyone watching for the first time could assume that there are no rules at all. If seasoned watchers are clueless then first-timers have no hope. I blame the government.

A day later and the obvious problem - height. In the ruck, the forward line and to a lesser degree, the backline. The backline height deficiency seems the obvious one but that deficiency is the end product of our lack of height in the ruck & in the forward line. The backline issues are diminished if we do well in the ruck, our midfield then gets on top and if we've got good competitive height in the forward line, the midfielders have targets to kick it to. The ball is then less likely to come flying into our backline at good speed from their midfield or their defence (which, in turn, places undue pressure on our key position defenders) Cause & effect. As others have said, our plan should always be to be superior to the opposition so as the umpires have little effect. Where as we never had the cattle in previous years, we're now short on cattle in key areas. Mainly through injury although we need to recruit a KPF and a Forward/Ruck. And probably another ruckman. These recruits can replace some of those who are heading for delistment.

We should/must recruit another KPD but it's our forward line where our bigger issues are ... we need a ready-to-go KPF (trade) as well as a fit Hogan. We also need to recruit a decent forward/ruck (trade) to replace or ultimately replace Pedersen. Depending on the development of King & Filipovic, we'll probably need another ruckman as well. Back on topic ... the League are going to bring in 2 more finalists. We may or may not agree with that decision but it's going to happen.

Yeah I agree ... and we'll sometimes come up short because we don't have viable rucks (right now) We can still win any game without a ruckman (the Adelaide win for instance) but with Gawn, our chances of winning any of these games increases quite a lot. Even though I wasn't expecting a win I'm still filthy that we lost. And we might have won the game if our forwards had played much better. Too much angst is directed at our backmen and the blame is disproportionate as to what it should be. Our forwards had plenty of opportunities too ... our inside 50 count was reasonable enough. Again, our forwards play from behind too much. Hogan makes a difference of course but I can see the club trading for another tall forward as well as another forward/ruck.

Yep ... good points again Wyl. The age demographics and their choices would vary quite a bit. The only thing that we can control is our own destiny ... 'losing' seasons are just fatal when we're trying to grow the numbers. Previously we've made terrible errors but I'm very confident we're now a well run club. To achieve 40.000 members after 10 years of crud is quite remarkable - so the potential for growth is definitely there. I know you hate excuses but I don't know how we can consistently win games with an undersized back-up ruckman. The lesson to be learnt is to have 1 or 2 more back-up ruckmen on the list. I wasn't exactly calling for that to happen previously so I'm not apportioning blame. Gawn & Spencer are a bit injury prone, all the same.

I was never blaming the forwards alone ... I also am looking at the fact that we didn't have an advantage in the ruck (no Gawn) Last year against North Gawn got 25 taps to advantage in that narrow loss. And we've replaced Gawn with Pedersen. Therefore, Goldstein became a weapon yesterday. I'd be surprised if he doesn't attract votes from the coaches. When the game was up for grabs in the 3rd quarter yesterday, we couldn't get our hands on it. Again, the influence of Goldstein. And when we did win enough of the ball in the first half but we often wasted it or our forwards let us down. We're going to sometimes win games without a ruckman but to expect to always win with Pedersen as our ruckman is totally unrealistic. I was not surprised at all by yesterday's loss. Our weaknesses are our weaknesses. As previously stated, we badly miss Gawn & Hogan. And we've only got about 13-14 'starting 22' players. The rest are interchangeable.

It's a good point you make re Carlton Wyl and I suppose old habits die hard. The bigger Victorian clubs are usually not so unsuccessful so the template used previously can't necessarily be used going forward. But channel 7 would probably still be banking on at least 3 or 4 of bigger Victorian clubs being more than competitive - so those clubs may well still get preferential treatment. The issue for channel 7 is that (right now) 6 of the top 8-10 teams are interstate teams (if we include Sydney) My main point is that we're just not one of the bigger supported clubs (yet) so in order to even get a look in, we need to be a finals type team. Our popularity would no doubt grow if we were consistently decent. All that happens and we'll get our fair share of free-to-air prime time games (but we'd still need to lobby hard - nothing is automatic)

Our forwards as a collective are letting us down bub. Sometimes we do ok but from a consistency point of view, we don't do the basics well enough. Forwards must play in front and relish the front position. Too many of our forwards are looking for the 'cheapie' out the back. It's been an issue since the Neitz days. Our set shots when kicking for goal are often poor as well. We're not the only team with the same deficiencies but we need to fix our own house. Against the Hawks, their backmen were leading our forwards to the ball and yesterday, the same thing happened. When we did win clean clearances in the first half, we couldn't win the ball across the 50 metre arc (or keep control of the ball) All the same, we really need Gawn & Hogan back if we're wanting to consistently win games. If they're not our 2 most important players, they'd go close.

I'm not sure everyone does understand how it all works though dc ... I've had numerous 'discussions' with people here who can't understand why we're not on free-to-air a lot more. My argument has always been to win games, maximise our home game dollars and then lobby as hard as we can for as many free-to-air games as possible. We have no divine right and we have to scrap for everything that we can get. Other clubs, because of their 'popularity', have a much easier ride. It's just how sport in general works.

Forget those clearances numbers that you see Trav ... we got smashed out of the middle when the game was up for grabs in the 3rd quarter. And I'm talking about clean clearances that our eyes can see. I was keeping tabs and it was 6 to 1 for that 3rd quarter (clean clearances) And many of our 1st half clean clearances were stifled across our half forward line due to our forwards not presenting or playing from behind. North on the other hand used the ball to far greater effect with their clearances. Goldstein was clearly the difference where as last week, Pyke couldn't turn a huge advantage in the ruck to his own advantage. Can you imagine how we'd be reacting if Gawn got 74 tapouts and we got trounced? This place would melt down.

Qualification for prime-time, free-to-air games goes as follows (in order) ... 1) Popularity 2) Success on the field And that will never change ... the ratio can vary as one particular team (Collingwood) can be unsuccessful on the field and still get preferential treatment over teams who are slightly less popular but successful. I'm fairly sure that Collingwood received at least 9 prime-time and 7 or 8 other free-to-air games in 2006 after going 5/17 the previous year (they tanked that year as well) So popularity wins out most of the time. And that makes sense too as the TV advertising dollars are all that really matters to the free-to-air networks.

Hard to win games when we have 3 rotating ruckmen (Pedersen, Watts & T-Mac) who clearly aren't up to the task and it's also hard to win games when most of our forwards can't do the basics properly (Kent, Weideman, Watts, Garlett, Bugg) When that happens in conjunction, a loss is almost certainly forthcoming. And we'll probably go in with the same sort of ruck & forward set-up next week. It's a season where games are decided 'On the day' ... we're not the only team with consistency issues. About the only team who is consistent is Brisbane. Every other team is dropping games they should win and winning games against the odds. How we fare next week is dependent on which Gold Coast team turns up ... ditto for the QB clash against Collingwood. The sooner we get a ruckman back, the better. The same can be said for Hogan.

Clean Clearances Melbourne .... 20 (7 centre) North Melb ... 14 (8 centre) Better ball movement in that quarter ... we're getting our game going. It's that downfield possession from our clearances that has improved - much better that quarter.

Yep ... we've advanced the ball from our clean clearances but most of the time that movement is stifled after about 30 metres or so.