Macca

Doggies were fantastic in that quarter ... their whole team just seems to switch up a few gears.

Johan Brunkvist with 'Downtown Lounge' followed by Hiromi with 'Seeker' (the full version)

Like others I see it as a bit of a money-making exercise but the supporters of those teams who finish 9th & 10th will embrace it ... including our members & supporters if we ever finish in those places on the ladder. I'd felt that the ladder has become too cumbersome with 18 teams and would have preferred dc's idea of 3 conferences groups instead. Just the 8 teams playing finals with that system though (1st & 2nd qualify from each of the 3 groups together with the 2 next best performed teams) Finishing in the top 6 now becomes a goal as well as the top 4 and the top 2. The new system also alleviates the issue of the 'footy-bye' before the finals. In the 2nd week of the finals (which used to be the first week of finals) the Thursday night game would probably be one of the qualifying finals (1st vs 4th or 2nd vs 3rd)

Quintana takes the lead in the Giro d'Italia after a gruelling climb to the finish in stage 9 Unfortunately the Giro isn't being shown on SBS due to rights restrictions but the event can be seen on Eurosports if you've got cable. Here's a stage by stage preview ... stages to look out for with regards to difficult clubs are stages 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 (mainly the last week) Edit: And now Dumoulin takes over the lead after a superb time-trial in stage 10. Dumoulin holds a 2:23 minute lead over Quintana after Nairo had a poor time trial. There's plenty more to play out though.

Hindsight tells me that we were in disarray back then ... with no one particular person to blame. We had issues at board level, with our administration, the FD & coaching and our playing list was well below par. What we've seen from early 2013 is a process of a rebuilding of a club from the ground up ... and we've still got a lot of work to do. The best performed sporting teams (worldwide) never rest up.

I've seen enough DX ... we get a good run with injuries and we'll get to 13 wins. Winning the way we did on Sat night is worth more than 1 win. The whole squad should be brimming with confidence now. Collectively our midfield can perform at A class. We might hit a wall for a short time but every team will experience that with the type of footy that is being played this season.

Fearless football on show and who needs a ruckman? All things being equal we're back on track for some September action. Whilst we're in the midst of footy's version of that Seinfeld episode where we do the opposite, we could leave T-Mac forward when it suits and possibly play Hogan at CHB (in bursts) when he returns. Vince should be used as a tagger whenever applicable and when Gawn returns, we'll be even better. Our combined midfield is now quite capable of dominating games (as we saw last night) Petracca in there adds another dimension. Exciting times ahead.

Gotta go with Pittsburgh this time GTG ... and would it be Nashville's first appearance in the final if they get through over Anaheim? It might be their first conference final appearance. Anyway, I'll be tuning in. Anaheim v Nashville Ottawa v Pittsburgh

Couple from 'Fall Out Boy' ...

The investigation is not necessarily a media driven thing ... it's actually an FBI investigation or at least it was. We may see an independent investigation now anyway or perhaps a bi-partisan involvement from both sides. As stated previously, they'll need to find a real link to the Russians and then proving that link is going to be awfully tough. And then what penalties could they bring? I do believe it will drag on for quite some time though. Maybe at least a year. Nixon was going to sack J Edgar but baulked at it once he realised how much dirt Hoover had on numerous individuals (Nixon included) ... Flynn and now Comey could have a bit to say now that both have been removed from office. From the New York Times ... In Firing Comey, Did Trump Unleash the Next Deep Throat?

Well I don't care about Hillary or the democrats ... you'll need to direct those sorts of comments to the left wingers here. I understand that your preferred candidate won but that stuff doesn't interest me at all once the dust settles. It's about the here and now so the winner (Trump) now gets scrutinised much like a footy coach does. Whoever talks about the also-rans in that sense? This is all about Trump and his team and the investigation ... and that investigation is a very real thing. It isn't going away despite Comey now being out of the picture. Unless of course the right-wing news outlets have decided to ignore the story. Oh hang on ... The left wing news outlets are often just as bad so for once you really are conversing with someone who is actually impartial. You're a free thinker Biff, you should join me. I can't see someone like you being all-in with Trump ... that makes no sense.

For what it's worth I reckon Trump would have won anyway ... albeit by a narrower margin. I'm not sure many flocked away from Hillary at the last moment ... they'd for the most part already made up their minds. I also reckon that it's going to be difficult to prove whether there was a link or collusion between the Trump team and the Russians ... maybe a 20 - 30% chance.

That's not what this is about Biff - you know that. It is obviously about whether there was any collusion between the Trump team & the Russians re the election process and whether there was any cover up. Time will tell (or maybe time won't tell )

Yep ... everything is connected on the footy field and there are always flow-on effects. I hate losing as much as anyone else but against the current trend of thinking, I rate rucking more than ever. That thinking was brought about by having a ruckman/follower like Gawn When Spencer returns we'll at least be able to 'somewhat' break even in the ruck.

We are on track ... we just need a ruckman. We're not a 4 quarter team yet and nor should we be expected to be a 4 quarter team yet either. If we were we'd be premiership material (and we're not - not yet anyway) We've gone from having the best 'taps-to-advantage' ruckman in the league to having the worst 'taps to advantage' ruckman. Consquently, the teams we are playing against have ruckman who are dominating us like Gawn does against others. A double-whammy effect. And that is no slight on Pedersen either ... he is battling against extreme odds and is obviously doing his best. I'm happy for Cam to remain in the team once we do get Spencer/Gawn back. Without a ruckman of note, we are/were always going to find it difficult to win games. And that is a reason, not an excuse. Jacobs this week will be more than a handful. Those who don't rate ruckman won't agree .... perhaps they'd be open to trading out Gawn once he gets fit. And before anyone wants to point to the clearance numbers against Hawthorn ... those numbers aren't real and are a misnomer. In terms of clean clearances, our numbers were woeful. Again, the Gawn/Spencer factor at play.

Normally the announcement of a President sacking an FBI Director would be absolutely stunning news but because it's Trump pulling the strings, I don't think anyone is actually surprised. At first glance it looks to be a straight-out brazen move to get rid of someone who may be a real threat to his presidency (re the FBI investigation led by Comey into the possible Russian connection to the Trump campaign & the election etc etc) Or, at the very least, the sacking of Comey comes at an odd time ... it was only a few short months ago that Trump was singing his praises (Comey) Politically it's a clever move in terms of buying time if the motive is to disrupt the investigation but those who might have thought that there was nothing in the Russia investigation might now be having 2nd thoughts. Trump could have inadvertently upped-the-ante against himself. Nixon managed to delay proceedings with regards to the Watergate investigation for close on 2 years and this new saga is following a similar path (if indeed, the allegations turn out to be true) From the Washington Post ... Tuesday night firing of Comey: ‘Nixonian’ or uniquely Trumpian?

Good find Wyl ... It's interesting that Goodwin played in premierships under Blight who played in Premierships under Barassi who played in premierships under Smith.

Most I speak to share your thoughts ... in soccer they talk about dynamic disposals but I reckon that might apply more to Aussie rules. Top players rarely waste a kick or a handpass - of course, the best players possess great vision so it stands to reason that they won't waste a disposal. Our forwards are still often caught out playing from behind - how do you measure that? In the first half the Hawk defenders were leading our forwards to the ball ... unacceptable. Roughhead plays in front constantly and therefore receives his fair share of free kicks. That's footy.

The clearance numbers we are given are often a nonsense. Neutral outcomes from a tap-out are awarded to one team or the other so as to match up to the total hit-outs. Clean clearances should be the measure. And often more than half the hit-outs result in neutral outcomes. The actual hit-out numbers are also often a nonsense - many of the so-called tap-outs are totally ineffectual. We're now getting the taps-to-advantage stat and about time too. Gawn was giving the team numerous taps to advantage and often, those taps to advantage resulted in clean clearances. That's his value (apart from his around the ground marking and link-up play)

Spencer will be back a lot earlier than Max and Jake can be a key component until Gawn does return. In fact, if Spencer had have played yesterday, we win the game. He would have won enough tap-outs to advantage to make a difference. Even if it was just 5 or 6 more clean clearances from his taps. We only lost the game by a kick. We also were quite inept in the first quarter and a half with numerous turnovers and fumbles. No excuses for that happening but the rucking issue remains problematical until Spencer returns. They might give King a go but he seems a fair way off right now.

And also realistic, bub. Most clubs are in the same boat ... except the best clubs might have 12 - 15 players who play well most weeks. Even the gun teams over the years had 5 or 6 players who were expendable. In 2012 & 2013 we had 1 player who was able to play well most weeks ... and that largely explains why we were so poor. X amount of 'good' players generally converts to X amount of wins (give or take a couple) And that's also providing that a club has a good culture and a decent coach & coaching staff. And good admin. The bottom line is that we all have to deal with playing players who either aren't up to it or are inexperienced. It's just a fact that the pool of good players in the AFL is not that large. There might only be 120 in total. If we get to a point where we have more than our fair share of the real talent pool, we'll play finals. You've got to have a ruckman though, all the same. And that's not an excuse, it's a reason.

Allowing for injuries, we haven't got 28 first choice, 'starting 22' AFL players ... so we have to play 2nd raters, kids, inexperienced or unproven players and the like. How many first choice, starting 22 players have we got? I'd say about 13 - 15 and of those 13 - 15, only about 6 - 8 can be relied upon to play well most weeks (right now) So players like Hunt, Brayshaw, Oliver, Oscar, Weideman, Hannan, JKH, Frost, Harmes, Wagner and the like have to learn on the job ... and they either sink or swim.

McEvoy wasn't generally palming or tapping the ball too far from the centre ruck circle either ... that was almost certainly a deliberate ploy by Clarkson to curtail our midfield strength. It worked too as we just couldn't clear the ball away from the stoppages with any sort of purpose or designed plays. Against Essendon we had 29 clean clearances but how many did we have yesterday? I wasn't keeping count but it would have been nowhere near that number. Maybe a dozen but that seems a high figure. Clarkson had the game played on his terms (in a lot of ways) but our turnovers & fumbling was a major contributing factor to the loss. And of course, our lack of a quality ruckman.

The clearance numbers are often a misnomer. In terms of clean clearances we were shockingly awful. Without Gawn and to a lesser extent, Spencer, we're probably only going to get our clean clearance numbers up when the other mob aren't very good (Essendon) In all our other losses this year we've been down a lot on the clean clearance count (in terms of what those clean clearances could be if we had a proper ruckman) When Gawn taps the ball to our advantage we're often able to bring the ball into our forward line crisply and with purpose. Spencer is obviously not as good but Jake is still a big step up from what we've got going for us now. We might have sharked more taps yesterday but we wasted the ball when we did get it. And we were often under extreme pressure when we did shark the taps. A tap to advantage is exactly that. The other area where we were atrocious was in our around the ground turnovers and our general fumbling. In both areas we were deplorable. The clean clearances will remain problematic until at least Spencer returns but the turnovers & fumbling needs to be eradicated as soon as possible. If we don't improve those 2 latter areas against the Crows we'll get smashed. As it stands, their rucks will probably have a field day anyway - and that will probably be enough for them to win the game.

Here's a more than decent podcast made recently by the BBC about Kerry Packer and the World Series Cricket days ... 5 Live Sport Specials - Kerry Packer: The revolution that changed cricket