Macca

It's a bad system we have and all clubs will continue to pick players who become busts ... no amount of development can turn a D grade player into an A or B grader ... Too much is blamed on the development side of things as well - it's as if people here have finally come to terms with the draft being largely flawed (and therefore a bit of a lottery) but need something else to blame. A bad system will produce poor results on a constant basis ... McLean - B grader at times Sylvia - Lazy Morton - just not any good Watts - won't commit his body Scully - is an average footballer (at best) Trengove - cruelled by injuries Hogan - hasn't played yet because of his back Toumpas - too early to tell and has had an appendix issue Tyson - so far, an excellent acquisition (I've put Tyson in because we partly gave up pick 2 for him) Let's just hope we have a bit more luck this time around. You put the above players into perfect systems and not much changes - in the end, it's up to the footballer himself to drive himself to be the best ... we've drafted a lot of players who don't possess that inner drive (and we didn't know that when we drafted them) All being an excellent under 18 player means is that player is an excellent under 18 player - the next big step is largely up to the player concerned.

Wishing Phillip a full and speedy recovery ... my thoughts and prayers are for him and his family. Just like you Smithy, I felt quite ill when hearing the news.

Picking top end draft picks comes down to an intelligent guess (at best) Drafting players at such a young age is in many ways a glorified lucky dip ... fingers crossed we pick 2 players that turn out to very good or better. If not, we should be blaming the flawed system rather than the recruiters. Blaming the player as some here are prone to do is quite ridiculous. It's not like these players pick a number for themselves in the draft - the clubs put that onus on those top end draft picks ... and the recruiters and clubs do not know anything of a definite nature. This time around, maybe it's our turn to get lucky

Just a heads up ... 7mate are covering all 3 games on Friday (Thanksgiving) ... 5.00am Bears @ Lions, 8.30am Eagles @ Cowboys, 12.30pm Seahawks @ 49ers ... ESPN are only covering the early game by the looks of it (Bears @ Lions) Also, next Monday the early game on 7mate is San Diego & Baltimore and the late game on 7mate is New England @ Green Bay. SNF featuring Denver @ KC is on both 7mate & ESPN. A feast of a line-up Week 13 games

Yeah, that was a hell of a catch - wow! Agree with you cfh - Baltimore to win tomorrow to keep both the NFC South and the AFC North up for grabs for any team to win (with the 'possible' exception of TB!) A couple of hard earned points picked up in the comp by Dappa Dan & pantaloons ... the rest of us all bombed on KC. We now have a new outright leader ... Leaderboard 4 - Dappa Dan 3 - JV7, Go the Biff, Georgiou R. R. Martin 2 - pantaloons, Macca 1 - cowboy_from_hell, Gorgoroth Week 13 games

The conclusion I've come to is that either there are a number of players in the running or they need someone to put their hand up big time ... wouldn't hurt for any of the batsmen to make a big hundred in any of the 3 shield matches (starting tomorrow) At least they all know where they stand ... get the job done and you might just get picked for your country. I've warmed to the idea on this occasion.

Test squad Michael Clarke* © Brad Haddin (vc) Ryan Harris Josh Hazlewood Mitchell Johnson Nathan Lyon Mitchell Marsh Chris Rogers Peter Siddle Steve Smith David Warner Shane Watson *A replacement batsman hasn't been named as yet (if Clarke is unavailable) Apparently the selectors want to look at the next round of Shield games (starting tomorrow) Two days until Clarke fitness decision

Actually he hasn't One can't really be wrong on a positive so therefore there are no consequences to binman being wrong. binman wants what is best for our club so there's not much likelihood of anyone rubbing his nose in it if he's wrong. The opposite is often true - being wrong on a negative has it's consequences ... if Toumpas turns out to be a very good player his knockers will almost certainly cop a good deal of grief. Reminds me of the Nathan Jones knockers here (after his 3rd season) What has happened to people's patience? Generally, any given player doesn't really hit his straps until he's been in the system for 3-5 years (aged 21-23) so therefore, any draftee needs to be given time to establish himself. Some often don't last that long but that decision to curtail a players career is made by the match committee with the large majority of the supporters left scratching their heads ... Lucas Cook is a good example of that ... not many here were wanting to de-list him after 2 years. Those here who were wanting to cut him were part of a small minority.

Like this fella, I'm not so confident

Monday 5.00am - 11.30am RedZone (ESPN) 5.00am Cleveland (6/4) at Atlanta (4/6) (7mate) 8.30am Miami (6/4) at Denver (7/3) (7mate) 12.30pm Dallas (7/3) at NY Giants (3/7) (7mate & ESPN) Tuesday 12.30pm Baltimore (6/4) at New Orleans (4/6) (ESPN) All the week 12 games & The BS Report Week 12 Elo Ratings, Playoff Chances & Match-up Scenarios & Bill Simmons' latest column

I usually get 2 out of 3 in the comp so KC losing probably means that my other 2 tips will get up - Green Bay is one of those tips (I'm still not optimistic though - how can you be in this League?)

You were neither wrong nor right. Our recruiters back then made decisions based on a limited amount of information. By 'limited' I mean that we along with every other club were making assumptions when judging 17/18 year old's. Those assumptions were never meant to be accurate nor can they be. Many are doing it all again this year - I maintain that we haven't made mistakes previously with our top end* draft picks - we simply made decisions that didn't turn out that well. That doesn't mean we can't all get excited about our picks this year ... on the contrary, it's great to have that hope. It's the lashing out in the aftermath that is problematical (in many cases - not just our club) *A top end draft pick doesn't necessarily include all 1st round draft picks in my opinion - more so picks 1 through 5 (to be specific)

Yep, there's nearly always room for a McKenzie/Terlich/Riley type for a club that's on it's way up. All 3 can come in and play a role to help the team. I put Bail, Pedersen and a few others in that sort of category - can't have too many though. Not first choice but better depth ... Barassi & Northey recruited those type of players as well. A coach knows he's going to get an honest effort from those type of back-up players when injuries hit.

We seem to be developing a more harder edge with our back-up players and/or depth players ... rather than having far too many under performing outside types on our list. What that can effectively mean is that those playing seniors can be pressured by more solid types at Casey - I reckon the re-signing of Terlich, Riley & Bail back in late August was quite pointed.

the 'talkies' era came a bit later BBO!

Like your thinking there TD If Clarke is out I'd find room for Watson as we'll need his experience ... anyway, Lehmann has indicated that Watson and Mitch Marsh could both play and the selectors might decide to persevere with Doolan or give Hughes another shot at it. I tend to think they'll bring in a new player ... Handscomb, Burns, Maddinson and Ferguson all have claims but it might even be someone else. Khawaja & S Marsh could be in the mix as you indicated. Smith could bat at no.4 and I believe he could even bat at no.3 in the future - he's improving as each year goes by. Watson would be better suited down the order so he could take Smith's spot at no.5. Which leads us back to the no.3 spot - it's Doolan or Hughes or a new player in my opinion. Burns made 183 at the Gabba last weekend so he'd be my 'smoky' As for the bowling, only Johnson & Harris (if fit) are assured of spots although I reckon Lyon will probably play ... the 3rd seamer could come from Siddle, Starc or Hazlewood. Apparently the team is going to be announced on Monday.

Whether McCartin turns out to be good, very good, a star or an ordinary player remains to be seen. What is true is that in the years we played finals more recently ('87 - '06) we nearly always had good forwards who were firing ... when we weren't playing finals either our good forwards were injured a lot or we didn't have enough of them (or any) A good forward line can improve an average midfield - more decisiveness can be shown even by the lesser lights in the midfield and often the delivery doesn't always have to be first class because of the class of the more talented forwards.

Excellent post Dr G The players would have been happy for all sorts of reasons not the least being that we secured the double chance with that win and therefore received a week's break before the 2nd semi (we then received another week's break after winning the 2nd semi final) In fact, in 5 of those 6 flag winning years ('55, '56, '59, '60 & '64) we had 2 full weekends off during the finals in all of those years. Smith would have known the value of rest and recuperation 'back in the day' even though it's more seen as a modern advantage. Even in that short 5 minutes you could see how well drilled we were.

Kansas City Green Bay Cincinnati

Would have liked to have seen the Lions @ Pats and Arizona @ Seattle games on 7mate ... however, all the TV games have playoff implications. And there's always 'RedZone' if you can access it. I can't get enough of it - it's frantic but brilliant. Friday 12.30pm Kansas City (7/3) at Oakland (0/10) (ESPN) Monday 5.00am - 11.30am RedZone (ESPN) 5.00am Cleveland (6/4) at Atlanta (4/6) (7mate) 8.30am Miami (6/4) at Denver (7/3) (7mate) 12.30pm Dallas (7/3) at NY Giants (3/7) (7mate & ESPN) Tuesday 12.30pm Baltimore (6/4) at New Orleans (4/6) (ESPN) All the week 12 games & The BS Report Week 12 Elo Ratings, Playoff Chances & Match-up Scenarios

Yeah, it's just opinions though, pantaloons - if Detroit can somehow upset them this week then everything changes again. Who knows in this league ... By the way, Reid has done fantastically well at KC - is that 7 wins from your last 8? He uses Smith very intelligently.

Well I'm reasonably pleased but our run defense has been an issue for a lot of our games (we're currently ranked 29th) We're getting better but a good running team does present it's problems. I honestly believe the whole NFC is up for grabs and it might come down to on the day - nearly all the contenders have a decent home field advantage so we'd have to at least win the division and get a 1 or 2 seed before I'd be thinking we can win the whole thing. Even the Saints could win at least 1 playoff game if they win the NFC South and Atlanta might be tough at home as well if they win the division. At the moment I don't see a firm favourite in the NFC - Detroit should win at least 4 of their 6 remaining games and they also visit Lambeau in week 17. At the moment the Lions hold the tie-break over Green Bay in 3 areas. It's a bit more clear cut in the AFC in my opinion - if New England get the 1 seed they'll be hard to stop - maybe Pittsburgh or Baltimore could go to New England and win but I have doubts about any other AFC team being able to win there.

Martin Short on 'Real Time with Bill Maher' last week ...

When a team loses a franchise player from their offense (and it's best player) it's got to effect a team's season ... contrarily, even a good to average QB can be covered for quite easily sometimes and often a team may be better off if their QB gets injured. When a team is weak on defense it's often as a collective I read somewhere yesterday that Stafford is 0/15 when facing teams on the road with a better than 500 record. A way to differentiate teams sometimes is to look for the teams that win games on the road against the good teams (or at least play well against the good teams on the road) Both the Eagles and the 49ers have the best road records against good teams this year (so far) Both teams have only had 1 bad loss and both teams have had 4 tough road games (GB have had 3 bad losses on the road against quality opposition) By contrast, New England have only had 2 tough road games and got smashed in one of them (KC) and in the other one they smashed the Colts - in their case it may not matter because they could end up as the no.1 seed in the AFC.

RG3 needs to let his talents do the talking ... he's got ability but he tends to explain things too much in the media. Just do the business and win games is the best solution. Over thinking it maybe? The Vikes need to just get these games into Bridgewater ... no player is guaranteed 30+ games but a rookie QB probably needs that amount of games before he's comfortable in the role.