Macca

Your team payed way overs for Jennings for instance but I'm not sure he was ever that good anyway. Every team gets injuries but unless it's an out and out game breaker like AP or Rodgers, those teams just have to get on with it. To my way of thinking, it all evens itself out when it comes to injuries. Footy is the same - we're not the only team who gets a rash of injuries. Nelson going down gives more opportunities to the other WR's & TE's but a lot still rests with Rodgers anyway - same as the Pats with Brady etc etc. Cobb probably becomes the main man exclusively and he's very capable. Devante Adams shows a lot of promise also. .

Hammers lose at home to Bournemouth, Demons smashed and I'm greeted with the Nelson news first thing this morning. Ugh ugh ugh!

Signs of a fracture could equal actual fracture ... foot injuries are notoriously hard to define, diagnose and cure. Ask anyone who has ever had foot problems. A lot of the advice can be conflicting even though the people giving the advice are usually very well qualified. Given the nature of Trengove's injury, it's my bet that the pain would come and go but would have preyed on his mind - these type of injuries can and often will effect other parts of a sportspersons game - especially the ability to sprint freely. It largely explains why he lost his pace and awareness skills. The area might also have become inflamed periodically (or often) I'm by no means blaming Misson but perhaps the right specialists should have been consulted. Trengove is also perhaps to blame for not highlighting how bad things were (if things were bad) He was made captain and may have felt obligated. Nearly all players play with "niggles" and that's how Trengove and the staff might have viewed things.

Opening up contract talks doesn't necessarily mean what it might have meant 5 years ago. The club and Howe's management still have to agree to terms and his management might firmly believe that he can receive very good coin elsewhere, at another club. And that club could be GWS ... more as a marketing ploy rather than his actual football ability. Let's face it, the sport is also about "entertainment" so in some ways Howe to GWS is a no-brainer. Our club needs players to attract the fans too but we're an established club that needs wins more than anything else ... and we do have Hogan The AFL might also push for the move too after the Buddy deal that fell through - a win/win outcome beckons. Howe's best footy is quite good but the club always has to come first. The GCS is another possible destination. What we get for Howe might be far more valuable than Howe himself. The same applies for any player really (apart from the absolute untouchables such as Hogan, Brayshaw & Salem et al) Free agency was always going to open up player movement in general - the supporters and members may not like it but more and more people are warming to the idea of their team improving it's list through astute trading. Of course, Howe isn't a free agent so we can at least control our own destiny. Finally, in an ideal world, the club and the majority of our supporters may want to keep Howe but what happens if the right offer comes along? ... and that offer may already be on the table too. Also, there may well be more than one offer. If he stays, well and good - if he goes, the club is obligated to get the best deal for him.

We're losing a lot of experience in one hit (Rogers, Clarke, Watson & Haddin) so I reckon there's room for someone like Voges or perhaps Voges himself - he or Shaun Marsh might be retained but I doubt whether it would be both. The issue is that we need to find another opener, the no.3 or 4 spot is up for grabs whilst the all rounders spot needs to be consolidated - Mitch Marsh looks the most likely ... I reckon they'll continue with Nevill. Khawaja or Burns will possibly get another run at it whilst Bancroft is now being talked about as the possible opener to partner Warner. Interesting that Bancroft's fielding position is listed as a wicketkeeper so he's obviously got a bit of talent ... not sure he keeps for WA though - he may have filled in occasionally.

I've got Starc in - I reckon he'll have a big summer. On our hard, fast tracks, all our young fast bowlers will be a handful (especially against the Windies) Jackson Bird and Coulter-Nile are another couple who could play that 3rd seamers role. The batting remains the concern but we might consolidate and recover a lot more quickly than people think. The upcoming 11 tests (which includes the tours to Bangladesh in October and the tour of New Zealand in February next year) offer lots of opportunities for the would-be batsmen that will come into the side. As it happens, it's an ideal time to re-build the team.

I see you finally got Siddle into the side TD - Warne wasn't too happy about it though. Shane wanted him in for the 4th test but I'm not sure whether he said as much "at the time" ... I hope he does well all the same and Hazlewood did need a spell - Josh will be back though, he's got loads of potential. And you're right, that session was a bit of a throwback. A good, solid start.

The 2 point conversion and the probable extra use of it may well bring Tebow back into the sport ... as you said cfh, he should be able to get a gig when there's approximately 100 QB's in the sport (when including all the rostered back-ups) And he may well be suited to Kelly's fast pace offense at the Eagles - I'd like to see him make his way back. Hayne is doing everything right so far as well. As for Dunn as a punter JV7, I can't see why not but the punters all seem to have that 3 or 4 step walk up style - he'd need to learn it. Good coin too considering it's a 2nd sporting career that an Aussie rules player wouldn't ordinarily have. Both Sav and Ben Graham played a number of games. McBriar eked out 12 seasons and is now retired.

Tebow did ok in yesterday's game for the Eagles vs the Colts - ran in a TD and threw 6/12 for 69 yards. He's probably 4th in line behind Bradford, Barkley and Sanchez but you never know. The way Kelly uses his players, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tebow at least remain on Philadelphia's roster.

Anyone who might be interested in at least 600k a year (usually, that money is guaranteed for 3 years or more) ... and, it's not exactly a real job. The Bombers will have any number of applicants for the now vacant coaching position - nearly all ex coaches find their way back into assistant roles whether they're successful or not. So, an assistant goes from 150k-250k up to 600k+ and then back to 150k-250k. Nice work if you can get it. There's about 140 assistant coaches in the ranks and many of them have high ambitions. As for the "sacked one", he's a sociopath in the Armstrong mould. I'd say he'll go to ground now or take off overseas ... however, it's not over for him just yet - he'll possibly/probably be subpoenaed by WADA in the CAS case and after that, he can look forward to receiving his own infraction notice, which could lead to a lifetime ban (especially if it can be proven that he worked hand in hand with Dank) .

Speaking of which, here's the Super Bowl in 2 parts ... unlike the other highlights, the players and coaches are miked up in these 2 clips ... it would be great if we could hear this sort of stuff when watching "live" games ... 11 of 11 ... Super Bowl - Patriots/Seahawks .

Ha! ... very good Earl. It's actually Rami Malek who stars in a new drama called ... Mr Robot There's some iconic avatars attached to certain posters here aren't there? Name changes are hard to get used to as well - like anything else, we just don't like change sometimes

Would you believe it's him wearing a "hoodie?" (when he was in his early 20's) ... thought not! ... he'll be back, sometime soon.

There's a feast of top rugby coming up with the world cup around the corner too. Well done to the Wallabies and even though we've won the 'Rugby Championship", we still have to win next weekend in Auckland to wrest back the Bledisloe cup. All the same, any sort of win against the All Blacks should be celebrated. .

Clarke set to retire after Ashes Pup has had a wonderful career - a sad way to go out but he did captain a world cup winning side just a few months ago. An outstanding batsman and let's hope he makes some runs at the oval - he deserves a good send off.

9 of 11 ... NFC Championship - Packers @ Seattle (ugh) 10 of 11 ... AFC Championship - Colts @ Patriots

A couple from 'Max Sedgley' His music is described as Electronica/Funk but there are heavy shades of acid jazz and a bit of nu-jazz in there as well - to my ears anyway! Anyway, here's "Something Special" (with Tasita D'mour on lead vocals) followed by the more mellow "Slowly" (featuring Z-Star on lead vocals) .

You're perhaps expecting too much, too early. Hazlewood and Starc can only get better and we shouldn't be blaming the younger bowling members of the side when the obvious issue is the batsmen. It's hard for a bowling unit to protect scores such as "60" ... ordinarily, Harris might have been expected to play in most or all of the tests over there which could have meant that Starc & Hazlewood were rotated in and out of the team. Our bowling unit might be inexperienced but at least there's an upside. Re the batting, oddly enough, our best current batsman is Rogers - but he's retiring. Even if he did go on for another year we still need to try someone else in the openers spot eventually... another opener "type" may well be needed for the no.3 spot too - a good no.3 also needs to have the capacity to open the innings as well as set up a teams score. Smith looks more suited to no.4 but he may be persevered with at no.3. We'll also be needing a no.5 soon enough as well (unless Clarke can turn things around) The all-rounders spot isn't absolutely secure either - or the keepers spot. Re Maxwell - let's not confuse technique with playing risky shots/temperament. Watch Maxwell closely - he has a sound defence and has all the shots - he's an ideal no.6 but his issues are that he's in too much of a hurry when he gets to the crease. Maxwell needs to tone down the way he plays - again, his issues can be fixed but that's up to Maxwell. I'm certainly not predicting greatness for him but I won't rule a line through him the same as I don't like ruling a line through young players as a general rule. I have the same philosophy in footy. Warner has been "unorthodox" for most of his test career and we're going to see more and more batsmen take more risks as the game progresses - the shorter forms of the game will create the new breed of batsmen - get used to it. Even Rogers gets on with it these days. Re Burns - don't be looking for instant results. He was a spec pick and like footy, not all spec picks will give you instant results. Patience and proper development are the keys ... at least Burns now knows what to do to make it as a test batsman - well, at least he should know. Many young players such as Hayden, Martyn et al fought their way back after extended absences. As for the old boys ... first Hilditch and now Lehmann have fallen for the trap of filling gaps with older batsmen instead of building a team for the future. We kept picking older players and now we probably need a major re-build. I'm not against picking older players per se but we need to get the right mix. The squad over in England right now has far too many players who are at or near the end. And I disagree on the next "real test" ... for me it's probably New Zealand (twice), then India, then England here with South Africa twice before we go back to England again. These are all "big" to "biggish" series that we need to win. The aim should be to be a powerhouse again - a team capable of winning 16 tests in a row - which we did twice in the not too distant past. Anything less than that is not living up to the high standards that have been set. .

We picked an old & aging squad who have had their butts kicked - serves us right. The selectors have a lot to answer for. It's time to rebuild primarily with youth - this policy of picking older blokes or players well past their best needs to be addressed - picking players to "play a role" or having "stop-gap measures" is a philosophy that looks foolish if it doesn't work. I've never been an advocate of necessarily picking player who has made the "most runs" at the next level down. There's a lot more to unearthing a top test batsman than that. There's "longevity" to take into account as well. Rogers has been a relative success but just 2 years down the track, he's going. Out of the initial squad of 17 up to 9 players are either finished, aren't the future or aren't good enough. That's far too high a number but the selectors have only got themselves to blame for the dilemma we find ourselves in. They made the choices so they have to wear the consequences. Harris, Haddin, Watson, Rogers, Voges, S Marsh, Clarke, Nevill & Siddle are either finished or they have big question marks against their names - Nevill's keeping is "adequate" and his batting is average - I hope he can improve because he needs to - he turns 30 in a month. Siddle is medium/fast at best these days whilst Voges & S Marsh do not represent the future - the rest of the aforementioned 9 are either finished, are finishing up or close to finishing up. I really hope Clarke can turn things around and champion players often do - the short ball is a major weakness for him now and he needs to overcome that. His weakness against the short ball is affecting the other parts of his game. However, there's a number of young talented batsmen in shield ranks so it's not all doom and gloom - again, the issue is perception rather than reality - many of our previous top batsmen were virtual unknowns before they were initially picked for Australia. Some of the young batsmen to keep an eye on - Stoinis, Maddinson, Bancroft, Silk, Handscomb, Head, Patterson, Lynn, Burns & Khawaja ... all are worth consideration by the selectors - others like Maxwell & Henriques may get a recall but the all-rounders spot is Mitch Marsh's for the foreseeable future (he should have played in this test) Khawaja needs to learn to go on with it (and he can) whilst Maxwell is a rare talent who needs to work on his temperament. Burns showed a bit and may get another chance - the others all have "potential" but it's always been that way with young batsmen - there's not too many Don Bradman's about. If the selectors can get their act together I'm quite confident that we'll bounce back almost straight away - the bowling stocks look plentiful in comparison - Pattinson, Cummins & Coulter-Nile have big upsides and there's other bowlers on the horizon too. Starc & Hazlewood can only get better. The young batsmen picked should be based on a trial & error basis - as it's traditionally been. Give 'em 3 or 4 tests (initially) and see where we go from there - rotate another young batsmen in if needed. Like footy, people shouldn't be looking for instant results or the next "wunderkind" ... these things take time. The weird bit is how many footy followers seem to be obsessed with under 18 talent yet when it comes to cricket, these same people have almost no knowledge of the young talent coming through. Because it's not in their face, they presume bleakness. The other issue is the drop-in wickets or decks that don't offer much to seam or spin bowling in this country anymore - that effects both our batsmen and our bowlers. We're really good on flat decks or hard and fast surfaces but we continue to struggle when the ball has sideways movement (especially in England & India) Next up it's Bangladesh & the Windies who aren't very strong ... we play the Kiwis in-between those 2 nations but New Zealand are nearly always hard to beat - and they're a much better team these days as well.

We're getting a good run of luck ... dropped catches ... a no-ball when they do catch one. Then Rogers misses one by half a metre and they all go up - what, what!

7 of 11 ... Divisional Round - Cowboys @ Packers 8 of 11 ... Divisional Round - Colts @ Broncos

Well, it's only a small sample size but he looked like the Garland we know who can play on Saturday - it was his attack on the ball that stood out. Got some coaches votes too. He got a number of late fists on the ball that I noticed - possession count was good and 6 tackles. I get that he's not been great up until now but he's the type of player who can continue his form on once he has found that form - more so than a few others who can only put in a good game every now and again. He's a confidence player.

We probably should have beaten Collingwood by 8-10 goals. Of course, not many were predicting that before the game but we looked like winners all day ... it took us until the last quarter to put them away. A number of players are starting to emerge or improve from last year including quite a few players who have been on our list for quite some time ... specifically Gawn, Watts, Garland, Jetta, Dunn, Howe and also the relative newcomer in Viney. At various times, most of those 7 players have had big question marks against their names. So to see them all start to play well is quite heartening. When you add in the new players and draftees, a solid, cohesive team is perhaps starting to blossom. Add in Petracca and hopefully Trengove along with another fruitful off season of trading & drafting and we may push for finals next season. A decent free agent or 2 would help as well. To be a finals contender we're going to need 24 - 28 genuine AFL standard players. The team needs a genuine hunger for wins right now however - and self belief. If we can take that sort of attitude into all our remaining games, we should be able to snag 2 or 3 more wins. We have an absolute need to finish the season well. What is often true is that a 7-9 win season can be the most frustrating of all - lots of what if's and lost opportunities ... and a 7-9 win season doesn't necessarily lead to better seasons ahead - we still need to recruit well and our existing core group of players need to take another step.

So, if we assume that Collingwood gets to keep all it's revenue from their premium memberships then it stands to reason that they will be making a pretty penny from their away games at the MCG. They would also profit from merchandise sales and membership sales on these days as well - as well as other forms of revenue. Another interesting take on the small attendance on Saturday is that Eddie can't complain about a Sunday night timeslot like he did last year when the Collingwood/Carlton game only drew about 40k ... this time around, their club had the prime spot of Saturday afternoon with no other games being played in Melbourne and only about 37k turned up. We pulled over 66k for our home game. I don't expect people to necessarily click on the following link but 5 of their membership types supports the argument that Collingwood can indeed do quite well out of their away fixtures in Melbourne ... click here for more details

There's a large view that we are gifted the QB clash ... and it's my view that we aren't gifted the game. Eddie often will make a pointed reference but he isn't telling the football world that his club profits from the game as well.