Macca

Yeah, now that I've seen that fabulous catch by Deoin Jones, I'm not sure that it's all on Brees at all (the loss) You should beat Tampa (although nothing is ever certain) and then it's the Panthers & Saints to finish. If you can get to 10 wins that should be enough ... a win against the Panthers would ensure you'd hold the tie-break against most or all of your wild-card rivals. But if you win out I believe you will win the division.

'Dunkirk' was just superb ... often bleak with many of the characters being shell-shocked, demorilised & traumatised, the movie was as realistic as a film can get. It was like watching a documentary or a docudrama ... character development was kept to a minimum but the film had to be depicted that way. My only criticism was that the movie could have been longer (i.e. 40 - 60 minutes longer than the 1hr 46min) Christopher Nolan has written & directed a great film. 4.5/5 The 'Mad about Movies' crew produced a podcast about the movie which is more than decent - listen here from 16.15 (the podcast is not spoiler-free)

The Kingston Town Classic G1 WFA (1,800m) Ascot Saturday 9th December 7.50pm (AEDT) Prizemoney $1,000,000 A number of the horses that ran in the Railway Stakes are running in this Group 1 classic - including the winner of that event, 'Great Shot' Any number of horses can win it but I'm happy to have a trifecta & first 4 and include a few roughies for some value. Great Shot is excellent value again whilst Black Heart Bart, Tom Melbourne, Perfect Jewel & It's Somewhat could all feature. I'll be giving Pounamu another chance as well (it's also at very good odds) It's a wide-open affair though ... Money Maher & Royal Star both have claims. So it's the exotics for me with fingers crossed for the right combo! Here's the field

That's a vital win by the Falcons ... Saints walked away with a number of injury concerns as well. I listened to the 2nd half and it was no surprise to see the outcome of the match decided by an interception. The Atlanta win makes it doubly hard for Dallas, Detroit & Green Bay now (in terms of wild-card spots) The Falcons have beaten all 3 teams so hold the head-to-head advantage. There's still a bit to play out though ... we might see a few teams end up on 10 wins in the NFC. Playoff Standings

Saints Patriots Vikings

1 Point only on offer this week but it's a vital point for the top 3 in the tipping comp ... the rest of us are playing for pride and a possible podium finish. Leaderboard in the comp 12 - Clintosaurus 9 - Go the Biff 8 - Dappa Dan 5 - Macca 4 - JV7, Gorgoroth 6 big game match-ups this week ... with a lot riding on a number of other games as well. Dallas, Detroit & Green Bay can all re-enter the playoff picture if all 3 win and a few other potential wild-card teams all lose. Those 3 teams (Carolina, Atlanta & Seattle) all face tough opposition. It's probably the week of the season so far with so much at stake. Avatar's are on the line in the biggie ... Rams vs Eagles, Goff vs Wentz, Gorgo vs Dappa. Cowboys logo vs Sherman or Fisher's noggin. Philadelphia have been installed as 2.5 point favourites but I reckon it's a 'pick-em' game. Friday's game (Saints & Falcons) could be a barnburner. Atlanta are going to have to be at their free scoring best to match New Orleans. Meanwhile, Rodgers is getting ready for week 15. Surely the Packers couldn't possibly lose to Cleveland. Surely not. Lose to a team that is tanking? Anyway, all will be revealed by late Monday arvo (oz time) Guess the Lines Week 14 With Bill Simmons & Cousin Sal (podcast)

It's gotta annoy and hurt a bit Dappa ... no soft landings on 'land Here's a couple of likely candidates ...

1 wicket changes everything DJ ... especially in these 4th innings run chases. Smith drops one! That's a rare occurrence. Lyon just keeps getting better & better every time I see him bowl.

At this time of the season the evening games can be bumped to accommodate better match-ups. But I think it might be too late to reschedule the Eagles @ Rams game to SNF or MNF. The game might be on 7mate though ... they haven't listed the match-ups yet. Check tomorrow. Redzone is great but sometimes you want to watch a whole game when it's of this magnitude. Even in standard definition. You and Gorgo should have a sportsman's bet on the game. I had one a ways back and had to have Trump's head as my avatar for a month. It was torture And you're right, I've been spoilt as a Packers fan. What I'd like is to have another hall-of-famer to follow Rodgers. Is that being a tad greedy?

It's being reported that Shazier is able to feel all his extremities ... might be a career-threatening injury to his back though. The sport can be absolutely frightening at times. The NFL really needs to clamp down on players leading with a lowered helmet to an unsuspecting players. Hefty suspensions would help. Shazier contributed to his own injury but a re-education process needs to be enacted. As previously stated, the sport is brutal enough as it is.

That's what I like to see - true colours! There is nothing quite like the rivalries within the divisions in the NFL ... your Eagles need every win they can get in order to attain the 1 or 2 seed and you play both the Giants & Dallas in the run in. That's on top of a visit to the Rams next Sunday. No match is easy when bragging rights are at stake.

Couple of very nasty helmet-to-helmet hits in today's game ... the sport is brutal enough without the need for these types of illegal hits to unsuspecting players. Brutality of Steelers-Bengals shouldn't be dismissed as 'AFC North football'

My beef was always about disrespecting a player who brought about the ultimate success ... Eli was that person but it's not like I'm enamoured with the bloke (even though it might look that way) I would argue just as fiercely for any number of people caught up in identical situations Anyway Dappa ... the Giants have one hell of a mess to clean up.

McAdoo & Reese both sacked - effective immediately

Yeah the race is on for the 1 & 2 seed in the NFC ... 2 teams have almost certainly won their divisions in the NFC (Eagles & Vikings) and then it's down to the Rams & Seahawks for the West whilst 3 teams can still win the South. The good news for the neutrals is that a lot of the top teams are playing each other in the run in to the playoffs ... and it starts on Friday (Saints @ Atlanta) Your game vs the Eagles next week should be a cracker - and there's a lot on the line too. The AFC is less interesting but teams in that conference can also get hot at the right time ... so the Chargers & Ravens could get on a run. I was most impressed with Seattle, New Orleans, Minnesota, the Rams, Jacksonville (with Bortles), New England & the Ravens today. The Eagles did it tough but that game in Seattle will help them in the long run. The jury is out on Carolina & Atlanta.

Just got through all of redzone - a few observations (haven't watched SNF) ... Vikings are a very good team & Detroit are just about finished. Saints superb, Panthers largely outplayed & Atlanta couldn't score. The Raiders are not very good and the Chargers were also unimpressive - KC are really struggling on defence. The AFC West could end up in anyone's hands. Pats roll on and who is going to stop them? Baltimore are the dark horse and could get hot at the right time again The Rams are an excellent team - I'd be surprised if they don't win the NFC West. The Jags beat a poor Colts team but credit must go to Bortles - he played a very good game. The trouble for Jacksonville is that Tennessee won't go away.

If you've seen the hit comedy 'The Big Sick' here's an excellent podcast which includes interviews with a number of the stars of the movie (Holly Hunter, Kumail Nanjiani, Ray Romano & Emily V Gordon) The Big Sick (podcast)

Yes, it happens a lot more than it should GtB. Clubs/Teams should always conduct themselves with class, respect, dignity, integrity and the like when dealing with their own champions (players or coaches) You could probably explain it better than myself about what went wrong after the Steve Young era but in more recent times I thought the 49ers had something special going with the Harbaugh/Kaepernick combination. 3 x NFC Championship games in a row and then ...... The move to get Garoppolo is a good one though ... hope he works out for you. He looked to have some real potential when filling in at New England.

I've often said here that I now prefer Rodgers as a pocket-passer with the occasional sojourn outside of the tackle box. He might look agile & elusive outside of the pocket but I watch our games carefully and he's often caught out in very vulnerable position's. And opposition players are going to go after him even more so now ... drive his shoulder into the turf and break some more bones. 2 of the best QB's in recent times have been predominant pocket-passers (Brady & Peyton) so why not the same with Rodgers? We need to invest in a couple of decent tight-ends too if he is to spend more time in the pocket ... and the offensive line needs a lot of maintenance. I don't care about the aesthetics of the whole thing either ... sure, it's great watching Rodgers weaving & ducking and throwing hail-mary's but it's also impractical in terms of risk of injury. We can't win games with Rodgers on the sidelines. We also need to look at having a decent back-up QB. That might be Hundley but he'll need to play a number of decent games in order to convince me that he's any good. The jury is out on that one. Brady's ability to play dead and make his body go limp when tackled is something that Aaron needs to look at too. The Pats just cross every T and dot every I don't they? They're the team to beat - again. Aaron is in his mid 30's now and he needs to be protected more than ever - he also needs more help as I've indicated above. A feared running game could be handy too!

If that happened it would be great but to be honest, I haven't entertained any thoughts of playoffs. We're too far back, the Vikings are a lot better than I thought they'd be, Atlanta can keep winning, same for Seattle, Detroit's schedule isn't tough and then there's the Panthers, Saints, Rams & Eagles. 3 of those 8 teams would have to fall away quite dramatically and in my opinion, that isn't going to happen. Even Dallas are a game ahead of Green Bay. So that's 9 teams ahead with 6 spots available. It was different in 2013 as the other 3 teams in the NFC North were incapable of taking advantage of Rodger's first broken collarbone.

Not sure ... I see him as a selfish person and the decision to bench Eli as strategic one to buy more time ... follow the money trail. He won't be expected to win games with Geno (and the rookie) and if the management & ownership have backed him on the Eli move, they might be compelled to support him (McAdoo) One thing is for sure Dappa .. there's a lot that we don't know and it's a huge ongoing talking point. McAdoo will fall on his feet - he might be a poor coach but he's not necessarily unintelligent.

He's a competitor so he'll want to play (if fit) ... the coaching staff may not want him to play though so who knows? Our season is virtually shot anyway as I don't expect the teams above GB to start losing lots of games (outside or within the NFC North) As a consequence I'm not exactly excited about Rodgers playing again this season. I follow the league as well as the Packers so I've switched over to league mode. I'm the opposite with AFL - it's the MFC only and my interest in the league is a minor one.

I would have stayed with Favre at the time - it's what I actually said at the time too. Rodgers was an unknown. He could have just as easily been a dud. Hindsight tells us otherwise but I'm not a hindsight person. I stand by what I said because I own my own words. If I said otherwise I'd be telling lies. Eli is being replaced by Geno Smith and another rookie QB who Jon Gruden is saying is nowhere near NFL ready. It's a bad decision and the decision could easily hurt their organisation - time will tell. They may also recover really quickly and become a force in a few years - but how can that happen if the decision makers keep making poor decisions? A good example is the Demons from 2007 onwards - we turfed out most of our experienced players and replaced them with draft pick numbers ... result - absolute disaster. Why? Because the people making the decisions were incompetent. Which brings us back to MxAdoo, Reese & the Giants ownership .. I don't believe that they know what they are doing and right now, they are still there and Eli is out.

McNabb never won a SB, nor did he win 2 x SB's so it is not the same. And winning SB's is what the whole thing is about. It's why the sport is played. If Eli had never won a SB I would possibly/probably be agreeing with the decision to move him on. But he did win (twice) so it does matter. And I am completely unbiased - in fact, when I post I make sure to remove all bias ... you've just admitted that you hate the Giants Dappa so it could be assumed that you don't care about them making a f'ed up decision. With me, I just see the f/ed up decision. All clubs should be aiming at winning now and they should always be building towards having a great list. It's where the MFC got it horribly horribly wrong - we got fed bs with regards the future with the imbecilic faith in drafting. Plus, we didn't value winning and we didn't develop players - and it's all related to winning. We lost our 12 of our first 13 games in 2009 yet many Melbourne supporters here weren't even concerned. All belief systems should be challenged. And it's not just sport - religion, politics & business practices the same. Or, we can just go along with the crowd and never question anything. My attitude is that if a team is always absolutely desperate to win games and has sensible people in positions of responsibility then the future takes care of itself - the horse before the cart. The other way around often doesn't work. I'm no dreamer ... my favourite saying in sport - 'It's ok to dream but it's not ok to be a dreamer' Otherwise, prepare yourself to be bitterly disappointed - and that often eventuates in anger & hate.

Eli's numbers in his 2 SB winning seasons ... 2008 ... TD 21 INT 10 2012 ... TD 26 INT 15 Eli's last 3 completed season's ... 2014 ... TD 30 INT 14 2015 ... TD 35 INT 15 2015 ... TD 26 INT 16 What's the problem? One could argue that he's getting better. And those numbers do tell a story, always have, always will. Other stats are often quite meaningless. He's an easy target ... their problems run a lot deeper and he is being scapegoated.