Macca

73-9? The Warriors can do it ... and 2 more wins to equal the best start by an NBA team. A great team to watch and their next 3 are vs Chicago (today) then @ Denver followed by a home game vs the Lakers. Curry is just playing gang-busters and seems unstoppable.

It's a long season and teams can suddenly come back into it with a streak of wins ... my Canucks are going the other way at the moment after having a reasonable start to the season. I always look at it in terms of wins back or wins in front ... the Maple Leafs are less than 2 wins back from a playoff spot whilst the Avs are in a similar position. String 3 or 4 wins together and the thinking changes. Having said all that the Rangers, Montreal, Dallas & St Louis are all playing really well ... the Sharks & Kings are stringing some wins together as well. It's too early to call but the half way mark does give us a much clearer picture. Washington & Pittsburgh are 2 more teams to watch out for.

The Jags have now won as many games as Indi & the Texans. It might be a case of whoever gets to 8 wins will win the AFC South ... the Colts still have to go Atlanta, Miami & Pittsburgh - even 7 & 9 might get it done.

Packers KC Colts

Week 11 games ... no fewer than 11 road teams won in week 10. Is that some sort of record or is it more utterly baffling that the usual suspects here couldn't seem to find 3 road winners amongst that lot? (apart from cfh) The good news is that there is still a total of 11 "possible" points available ... weeks 13, 15 & 17 are bonus weeks. Once again the leaderboard in the comp ... 5 - Gorgoroth, cowboy_from_ hell 4 - JV7 3 - Georgiou R.R. Martin 1 - titan_uranus Macca 0 - The rest .

They're not giving up on Marsh are they? I thought it was a perfect opportunity to blood Bancroft - he hasn't hit a lot of runs this summer but I thought he was more a chance because of his potential and greater upside. A few of the other younger batsmen around the country might have been considered but Shaun gets another chance to prove himself. I can understand O'Keefe getting a call up because he's been in the mix for a while and deserves a chance ... not sure we'll play 2 spinners but Lehmann has hinted that we might. The selectors might like to see how he would work in tandem with Lyon. Pattinson for his fire-power yeah ... Siddle would have to be a chance too. I wonder if they'll rest Hazlewood and play both Pattinson & Siddle? There are a series of 8-11 day breaks between the next 3 tests (including the current break) so the bowlers will be getting plenty of rest. Here's how I think we'll line up ... Burns Warner Smith Voges S Marsh M Marsh Nevill Starc Pattinson Siddle or O'Keefe depending on the look of the wicket. Lyon .

The Panthers will probably get the 1 seed in the NFC the way they are travelling ... if the Vikes can win at home next week then you might start planning for a busy January. That win by Arizona yesterday probably means they'll win the NFC West - they've now got a 3 game break which will be hard to peg back. Who knows in the East? I'm now looking at the wild-card standings for the Pack ... our game is the 8.30am game on 7mate next Monday. It's fair to say that I don't have a great deal of confidence but will Green Bay lose 4 in a row?

Packers are struggling ... we're no certainty for a playoff spot. Suddenly the rest of our schedule looks difficult. Once a team reveals it's weakness in this league, it can suddenly find itself on that losing train. The only consolation is that a number of NFC teams lost as well (Seattle, Eagles, Rams, Saints, Giants et al) Anyway, 10 road teams have won their games this week (so far) but only cfh managed to pick up the 2 points on offer - even when there's a truckload of road winners we still can't pick 'em! Tipping Comp Points Table 5 - Gorgoroth, cowboy_from_ hell 4 - JV7 3 - Georgiou R.R. Martin 1 - titan_uranus Macca 0 - The rest

Yes, you're right ... it's times like these that we sometimes look to find solutions when those solutions aren't easily obtainable anyway. Again, it's just deplorable and horrifying what has happened. .

It made me sick to my stomach upon hearing the news ... my thoughts and my deepest sympathy goes out to the victims, families and the French. This effects so many though. The grief must be overwhelming for France and it's people. It's just past 5am in Paris right now so many families would still not know the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones. .

The terrorist attacks in France makes sport (at least for me) to be quite insignificant for the time being. Will chat to you about the programming at a later date dl.

Tips ... 2 points on offer this week ... Carolina Saints New England

The Jets could have kicked a field goal to draw within 2 points (with 3.02 left in the game) and banked on their decent defense getting the ball back from Buffalo's average offense. Play to your strengths? It's interesting with these percentage plays or analytics ... damned if you do and damned if you don't sometimes. Kicking the field goal looks a little weak but that is quickly forgotten if the Jets had got the ball back (and then only needing a field goal for victory) Watching it "as live" ... I thought they would have taken the 3 but wasn't surprised when they went for it - anyway, it didn't work. Everyone loves to see teams go for it but sometimes a team just needs to do the most obvious thing. The Pats probably would have gone for it but they've got Belichick, Brady & Gronk. We saw an almost identical situation with the Falcons/49ers game except Atlanta took the 3 (with 3.30 left) and then didn't get the ball back ... again, damned if you do and damned if you don't. There's a school of thought that you go for it on the road and take the points on offer at home.

Warner has played test cricket for less than 4 years and has already hit 15 centuries (including 12 centuries in the last 24 months) The way players are extending their career's these days he could end up playing for another 8 years (at least) So how many centuries all up? 40? More? He could easily get another two or three 100's this summer alone ... then we go to New Zealand early next year for another 2 tests. As for this test ... another fizzer of a contest by the looks of it. It could get even more one-sided when we play the Windies (Gayle, Bravo, Sammy and 1 or 2 others are playing in the big bash instead) CA really needs to find a way for either England, South Africa or India to be here playing tests every summer. We know the South Africans won't come here over Xmas but 4 tests could easily be scheduled for mid/late Oct through to mid/late Nov. As it stands, South Africa and Pakistan are here next summer but this year's scheduling lacks real drawing power. We don't play South Africa nearly enough anyway ... and when we do it's for 3 tests only (generally) The Ashes home & away could be played over 3 years instead of 4 and having a strong team like India here every 3 years would create a lot of interest.

You get out & about a lot nutbean ... good on ya mate. Gotta take a bite out of life I say. The following song was featured on the latest opisode of Fargo (season 2) The show itself is stupendously good and I highly recommend it but the music that accompanies the show is first rate as well. A little different for this thread but what the hell ...

Bridgewater cleared to play? I heard he passed the first concussion test but it was a decent blow he received. I reckon he's being used well and the Vikings have a very even game because of it ... 6 & 2 is a very good start, all things considered. As I mentioned earlier, Rodgers has needed to thread the eye of the needle to find his WR's this season and that's a hard thing to sustain ... we really need a strong running game to be a threat and we're up and down in that area. Plus, our opposition are getting too much of the ball which is putting pressure on our average defense. We're the sort of team that needs to score a lot of points to win games against decent opposition - that's entirely possible of course. When we're on our game, we're always a threat ... but, there's any number of sides that we could say that about. Anyway, 2 points are up for grabs this week in the comp and here's the week 10 games (man, the season is going quickly - again!)

Yep, I reckon you're right ... so, we needed the whole thing to go pear-shaped (even though we really didn't want it to go pear-shaped ) I reckon it was round 1 or 2 of 2013 before there was a real shifting of the thinking - we went into that season still primarily backing Neeld (as shown up in that poll) and many were still hoping for the best. After round 2 following that colossal loss to Essendon (148 points) that change starting happening quite rapidly ... it was like another '186' except this time it wasn't just the coach who was moved on. (Chris Connolly had been moved on just 2 months earlier following the tanking investigation)

Sometimes really poor results are needed in order for really good decisions to happen as a consequence ... In other words, we probably/possibly may never have snared Roos if the past circumstances had have been different (or more favourable) Reading through a few old threads like the one I posted up a few pages back, there were many here and probably many at the club who thought we had zero chance of ever appointing Roos as our head coach. Same for PJ to a slightly lesser degree. I'm of the strong belief that many of us will look back in 5 years time and be quite thankful that we had Roos for the time that he will have spent here ... I always saw his main role as building a proper list and so far, he's well on track in doing just that ... of course, he needed and needs people to help him do that and we can see that happening as well. Sometimes the proverbial needs to hit the fan in order for real change to happen.

It's like deja vu all over again with the Packers & Vikings cfh (it was 3 years ago actually - how time flies) The game in 2 weeks has suddenly become an ultra important one. If your blokes can eke out a win at Oakland next week then our match-up will have a lot riding on it. Are Dallas completely out of it now? Even with Romo back they still have to go to Green Bay and they also host the Panthers in 3 weeks. All the same, they'd still need to win at least 7 of their last 8 games to make it you'd reckon. In my opinion it's now down to the Eagles or Giants.

No one pick up any points in the comp ... next week we play for 2 points again (I'll post up the week 10 schedule tomorrow) Tipping Comp Points Table 5 - Gorgoroth 4 - JV7 3 - cowboy_from_ hell Georgiou R.R. Martin 1 - titan_uranus Macca 0 - Everyone else

As new information has come to hand, I've changed my stance a number of times with regards to Jimmy, DB, CS and the people who stood on our various boards. We've all had to really. Hindsight tells me that Dean Bailey wasn't given a proper pathway with which he could forge his plan. Jimmy was a marvelous man who's heart was always in the right place - despite all those putrid on-field seasons he will forever be remembered by me for getting the club into the black ... to this day, our bottom line is still in the black. As for the boards and CS - the less said the better. In their own way they did their best but they fell way short. As for the present & future ... in comes PJ followed not long after by Roos ... from there, nearly all the decisions, acquisitions and forward planning looks to be the right ones. As always, time will tell.

Did Schwab treat his position as a real job? Many would say no ... has any other CEO of a footy club become involved in other such superfluous notions? Schwab was protected here too ... it was only near the end of his tenure when the pendulum really swung. For the most part, he had a large majority of support on this site ... oddly enough, many footy fans I spoke to couldn't stand him and thought he was damaging our club. It must be noted that Schwab was our CEO when we went from 5 million in the red to 8.9 million in the black (that also happened in a very short space of time) Most would attribute that turnaround to Jimmy Stynes and I lean that way as well. However, it does stand that he was our CEO during that turnaround.

On the road you'd reckon you'd have to go for it ... I take it that Atlanta didn't get the ball back? Haven't seen the highlights yet.

Neeld did get paid out for his full contract though and lets face it, things just weren't working. The bit I didn't like was the club hanging him out to dry for 2 weeks instead of making a quicker decision on his future. I get the scrutiny bit but it does come with the territory. The "not a real job bit" is in direct reference to how the large majority of people go about making a living ... in my opinion, there's a stark difference. Again, nice work if you can get it and good luck to them I suppose... I genuinely believe that they get to do what they love doing for very good coin and it wouldn't be a "real job" to them at all (if they were being honest) Also, I originally meant my comment of "and it's not even a real job" as a somewhat flippant one. It quickly turned into a serious discussion and probably wouldn't have done so if I'd added a to the end of the remark - that won't happen again. I still stand by what I said though whilst acknowledging your points. A large part of my indifference is that I'm entirely sick of all the corruption, drugs and the obscene amounts of money that ruins sport for me. I can no longer take any sport seriously and am slowly but surely weening myself off many or most sports. As an example ... the latest Russian drug saga absolutely disgusts me and if the Bomber players get off lightly (if found guilty) then that may well be another reason to turn away from sport. .

And you come across as naïve in my eyes ... for some people a person just being an authoritative figure is enough for a total buy-in. I'm willing to bet that you would thank your lucky stars if you were a head coach of a footy club - irregardless of what might happen later on. What is it now? ... a minimum of 2 million (guaranteed) over 3 years with lots of well paid opportunities even if it turns pear shaped. As I said earlier ...nice work if you can get it and good luck to them. I just get annoyed with the comments that go with being a head coach such as ... "Who'd be a head coach?" or "He's got the worst job in football" or even ... "Why would he coach that club?" ... those sort of comments make things sound like a person is actually putting themselves out to take up or continue in the position of head coach. .