Macca

I listened to the game on & off (tunein) and will watch a replay of the game after the footy. Was that interception from Cam the game changer JV7? ... I know that Denver needed 11 plays to get it in from 23 yards. Denver might be thereabouts again with that D and they're going to be hard to beat at home by the looks of it. Their overall schedule isn't all that tough unless the Raiders & Chargers get amongst it.

Seeing we're on a new page I'll post up the games again ... a reminder that 7mate are covering tomorrow's game (10.30am) and then 3 games on Monday (Cinci @ Jets, Giants @ Dallas and then SNF - Pats @ Arizona)

Panthers Green Bay Giants

^^^^^ (up to date table) SBS game this week - Sat 9pm with a 9.30pm start ... Man Utd vs Man City. It's a pity the game clashes with the footy but the big derby could still attract a huge TV audience regardless.

These lines might help with the tips ... then again, they may not. Keep hearing that there's a number of road upsets in week 1 but I'll probably play it safe again, and fail. Regardless, I'm looking forward to the games.

7mate are covering the games again this season but 7mate is no longer a HD channel in Melbourne ... however, the channel is broadcast in HD in Sydney, Brisbane & Perth. Anyway ... 7mate are covering Friday's Panthers @ Broncos game whilst on Monday, 3 games will be telecast ... Cinci @ Jets (early), Giants @ Dallas (late) and Patriots @ Arizona (SNF) It's doubtful that the MNF games will be covered as they weren't covered last year .. haven't seen the listings as yet. That will probably be the pattern for the season although the Friday games may not last for the entire season.

Here are the rest of last season's playoff games - the Super Bowl is in 2 parts and has various participants mic'd up ... Patriots @ Denver AFC Championship Highlights Arizona @ Carolina NFC Championship Highlights Super Bowl Panthers vs Broncos First Half Mic'd up Highlights Super Bowl Panthers vs Broncos Second Half Mic'd up Highlights

I'm left wondering where the NFL will sit for us next year when the Demons are making a run at it in September Re the college games ... every year I get a little more interested but usually reserve my interest for the big match-ups. Losing for any of the top seeded teams can be diabolical with the record required to qualify for the top 4. And there's been a few big upset wins already.

It's that time of year again ... NFL is back and with it, the 'time-honoured' tipping comp ... hopefully we get enough starters so as we can do it again but 5 or 6 or more participants should get the job done. Last year's notable tipsters, hall of fame and the rules of the comp ... Final Tally 10 - Gorgoroth 9 - cowboy_from_ hell, JV7, DeeSpencer 7 - Macca Regular Season Tipping Competition Year Winner Runners up 3rd place 2013 cowboy_from_hell/ pantaloons/ Gorgoroth Strafford Macca ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2014 Dappa Dan DeeSpencer Gorgoroth ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 Gorgoroth cowboy_from_hell, Macca JV7, DeeSpencer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post Season Tipping Competition Year Winner Runners up 3rd place 2013 titan_uranus DemonDave cowboy_from_hell/ Macca ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2014 JV7/ pantaloons Gorgoroth/ Go the Biff Macca ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2015 JV7/ cowboy_from_hell, Gorgoroth/ Macca DeeSpencer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rules of the 'Demonland' NFL tipping competition ... (the same as last year except a couple more bonus weeks have been added) * All participants are allowed 3 picks only in any given week but they must all be 'road' teams ... and anyone who correctly tips all 3 winners from their 3 picks receives 1 point (any number of people can win a point in any given week) * Bonus points are up for grabs in weeks 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 (2 points to all winners) whilst week 17 carries 3 points to any given winner. * No margins or correct scores are required - just the straight winners. * If you miss a week or come into the comp later on, there is no penalty. You just simply miss the chance to win points for that week or weeks. You can join in the comp at any time. * Your tips must be in before the start of Monday's games (AEST) ... or before the Friday game if you include that game. All 3 tips must be included in your post (editing your tips is strictly forbidden ) * The person (or persons) with the most points at the end of the regular season wins. For those out there who just read this thread, feel free to join in the comp. Putting your tips in usually takes a surprisingly small amount of time as there are normally a couple of obvious tips ... but those 'obvious' tips often have 'trap-game' attached to them So get your tips in Ladies & Gents ... the season kicks off next Friday (our time) with a rematch of last year's Super Bowl - Carolina @ Denver. All the week 1 games ...

Here are the 4 divisional playoff game highlights ... Chiefs @ New England AFC Divisional Playoff Highlights Packers @ Arizona NFC Divisional Playoff Highlights Steelers @ Denver AFC Divisional Playoff Highlights Seattle @ Carolina NFC Divisional Playoff Highlights

From memory these arrangements often start out this way but any change could happen quite quickly if the outcomes don't come up to expectations. Win early and Goff has to wait ... but if you lose games early then Goff may well get fast-tracked.

Rotten news mate ... I was expecting Teddy to take it to another level this season too.

I'd forgotten about the Bengals blowing that game against the Steelers ... post #3983 in case you missed it. Anyway, here's the other 2 wildcard games ... Packers @ Washington NFC Wildcard Highlights Seahawks @ Minnesota NFC Wildcard Highlights

Not long to go now ... final practice games on Thursday night and then we're into it. In the meantime I'll post up all the playoff game highlights from last season ... 2 games at a time for the next week and a half. The links will take you to youtube where you can full-screen the highlights. Chiefs @ Texans AFC Wildcard Steelers @ Bengals AFC Wildcard

Yeah, he's been quite impressive by all accounts ... regardless, that division (NFC East) is always a total mystery anyway. Any team can win it but Dallas will miss Romo ... I picked them to win the division but I'll stick with the tip because they've probably still got just as good a chance to win it as the other 3 teams. Be interesting to see how the Eagles go with their new QB (Wentz)

Well here goes ... NFC North - Vikings NFC East - Dallas NFC West - Arizona NFC South - Panthers AFC North - Steelers AFC East - Pats AFC West - Denver AFC South - Colts Wildcards - Seattle, Packers, Bengals, KC Super Bowl - Panthers MVP - Cam Newton Passing yards - Carson Palmer Receiving yards - Julio Jones Rushing yards - Adrian Peterson

I'll have a go at the division winners etc on the weekend ... the season kicks off in just over 2 weeks - that came around quickly this time probably because of the footy team still being thereabouts and getting all of our attention. Does anyone take any notice of the preseason games? I'm well and truly hooked on the real stuff but barely even look at the scores in the preseason games. The games are ultra important for formations, schemes, running routes and what not but the importance of the winning & losing is probably reserved for the real stuff. Anyway, we can do the tipping comp again if we have enough starters (5 or 6 or more) ... thought it best to leave it as it is (tip 3 road winners from 3 picks) but may throw an extra bonus point round in (or 2) Bonus weeks can be the odd numbered weeks starting with week one ... 2 points max except week 17 which traditionally carries 3 points.

The SBS game this week is the lunchtime match ... Tottenham vs Liverpool Saturday 9pm (AEST) Bit early to post up the standings but this table does update & reorganise itself as the results occur ... so I'll make sure to post it up as we move on to a new page on this thread.

On the theme of 'Classic albums' here's a band who's album was featured in series 3 of that excellent show. 'Cream' with "Disraeli Gears" ...

Just for you 'HT' ... (actually, I'm not a big wrap for this song either - oh so different to the stuff on the 2 albums that I posted up)

They involved a veritable who's who of session muso's for both albums from what I've gathered. The songs on both albums go up and down the pecking order as the years pass too ... for instance, I instantly liked 'The Fez', 'Josie' & 'Peg' but I now really like all 3 songs for different reasons. Their music (especially on these 2 albums) is everlasting.

Steely Dan ... 'The Royal Scam' (the album) ... Here is an album from nearly 40 years ago. All the songs on this album will grow on you if you like the style (jazz /funk/rock/fusion) Although none of the songs lifted from the album became hits, that outcome was almost certainly not the intention of Fagen & Becker anyway. 'Aja' was the follow-up album from this one and is arguably better, but this album (The Royal Scam) was originally marked a little harshly probably because the music was such a departure from their previous stuff ... later on it was recognised in a much much better light. Whilst here I may as well post up the follow-up album 'Aja' 'Aja' the album was featured in that excellent "Classic albums" series ...

I ended up getting Fetch TV very cheap 'GV' because I'm with Optus (internet & home phone) already. Basically restructured things for about the same price. Fetch TV have a number of dedicated HD channels covering the EPL. But unless you've got that prior arrangement, you'll have to pay extra to get the EPL. However, Optus may be able to offer a decent deal as I'm not sure they've had an abundance of start-ups. It's good to see SBS covering a game a week regardless ... hopefully the game will be the regular 'lunchtime' match (UK time) so as viewers here can watch at a fan-friendly time.

The best 5 drama's I've seen in the last few years are as follows ... True Detective Fargo Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul Mr Robot Orphan Black But you may or may not like any or all of them nutbean. It's all very subjective. I'm not a 'Game of Thrones' fan but I know people who are and they also like or love some or all of the shows that I listed. Homeland and House of Cards are first rate drama's too ... but again, it's just my opinion. Pick of the bunch is True Detective season 1 and all 5 seasons of Breaking Bad. The first season of 'Stranger Things' is great family entertainment as well. My rule of thumb is to watch at least the first 3 episodes of a new show. Or, seeing as you're going to be in Italy in your travels you could get into the swing of things with this quality Italian drama series ... Gomorrah ... the show is quite gritty and realistic and compares quite favourably with 'The Sopranos' .

We could take it back further and promote spin bowling in this country (and seam bowling for that matter) ... the Sydney & Adelaide tracks were often spin-friendly historically and even the Melbourne wicket used to take more turn. The Gabba was often a green-top and the Perth wicket used to be a lot more bouncy than it is now. The Sydney wicket would often favour seam bowling early in a test much like the Gabba used to favour seam bowling, often for 4 or 5 days. Now all our tracks are very similar (especially in comparison to yesteryear) ... so our batsmen and bowlers are not playing on enough variable wickets. I'm not surprised that we struggle on sub-continent wickets at all. The variance in our tracks was a reason why we've been the best performed tests teams ... we now struggle on spin-friendly tracks and when confronted with seaming conditions in England, we've also struggled of late. Curators creating flat decks that last 5 days is not necessarily the fault of the curators though ... the ground trusts, CA and TV all have a strong say in proceedings. I agree with you on the 'horses for courses' idea 'TD' but it shouldn't have necessarily gotten to the stage where we need to use that option. A good test batsmen should be able to bat in all conditions.