Macca

I have some sympathy for the younger players ... especially the 1st and 2nd year draftees at the time. Of course, those young players will be in their early 20's now but I'm not sure that any of the players age's will be taken into account though if and when the penalties are handed down. The older players had to know better and they'll have to live with the choices that they made. I've long held the belief that nearly all of them are at fault in some capacity - you're allowed to say no. I agree with you re Worksafe but again, they may be ready to strike later on - at least you'd hope they would. It still astounds me about the amount of injections that were to be implemented with the program that they had cooked up. Not only did they overstep the mark, they went right past the mark to extreme levels. There was talk that the entire program was to involve anywhere from 15,000 to 40,000 injections although that figure may have been exaggerated Essendon players were last year urged to have one injection a week

Neither Patrick Smith nor Caroline Wilson were ever sticking their necks out. Both were just reporting on events in a normal fashion. If it had have been Cronulla only, most of the Melbourne media and the footy public would have had a field day. Most others in the media and indeed most in the general footy public had their collective heads in a bucket of sand because ... at the guts of the whole thing was that the game had to be protected so therefore Essendon had to be protected. Now that we're slowly getting overwhelming evidence that implicates Essendon, a large majority of people are simply taking up the view that they could have taken up from the start (or should have) I still come across a lot of people who don't want the players to cop bans because they feel it will hurt the game (excluding most Bomber fans who are hopelessly compromised) Of course if it were Chinese swimmers, professional cyclists, American track & field sprinters, Bulgarian weightlifters or Russian middle distance runners we were talking about ... different story. The finger gets pointed almost automatically when it's not close to home.

You got that right. Rather habit forming in all reality!

Very sad news Robbie was a true great of the game - poetry in motion. He loved a goal but was a great team player. His creative handpassing skills set him apart from any other player and his dashing runs on the wing were breathtaking. What a player he was. Will be sadly missed. RIP Robbie

Week 5 tips ... Seattle Steelers Baltimore

Does anyone honestly now believe that he never took PED's during his career? Like Armstrong, this bloke is a fraud. Remembering that during his career the testing for PED's was at the lower end of the scale - it would have been possible for any footballer to take whatever they liked (within reason) Many of the PED's that were available back then could only be tested for with blood tests and even then they had to know what they were looking for. There's also a very good chance that he wasn't tested for drugs very often ... the following article is from 2007 ... Athletics runs rings around AFL

TV games ... not a bad line-up of games but we get the worst of the Sunday late arvo games (unless the Jets can make a game of it) Friday 10.30am Minnesota at Green Bay (ESPN) Monday 4.00am - 10.30am RedZone (ESPN ... "Every Touchdown From Every Game") 4.00am Houston at Dallas (7mate) 7.30am NY Jets at San Diego (7mate) 11.30am Cincinnati at New England (7mate & ESPN) Tuesday 11.30am Seattle at Washington (ESPN) All the week 5 games Found this web page on ESPN.com (might help with your tips - 2 pts on offer this week ) ... NFL Week 5 Elo Ratings And Playoff Odds

TV games ... not a bad line-up of games but we get the worst of the Sunday late arvo games (unless the Jets can make a game of it) Friday 10.30am Minnesota at Green Bay (ESPN) Monday 4.00am - 10.30am RedZone (ESPN ... "Every Touchdown From Every Game") 4.00am Houston at Dallas (7mate) 7.30am NY Jets at San Diego (7mate) 11.30am Cincinnati at New England (7mate & ESPN) Tuesday 11.30am Seattle at Washington (ESPN) All the week 5 games

The Cats want him and they will want him for a specific purpose - and, they won't be able to hide their intentions very easily. The fact that they do want him points to them being fully prepared to take a risk. Besides which, they may not see him as a risk at all. Our selling point should be that he's fit and ready to play, 26 years old and before he was injured in 2012, he was in the running to have won the Coleman medal (Jack Reiwoldt won it with 65 goals in 2012) We might also throw in that we gave up pick 12 for him and he was our highest paid player.

The Cats would be hoping that Clark fits straight into their starting 22. In fact, you'd reckon that they'd be looking at playing him as a KPF for all of their games (ongoing) He wouldn't be going there as a depth player (not in their eyes anyway) So, they should pay a fair price and the hierarchy at Melbourne should know what that price is. We need to drive a hard bargain and not with a view of offloading someone that we may not necessarily want. It's a tricky one given his history but their 2nd round draft pick doesn't seem to be enough whereas their 1st round draft pick might be off limits. Their 1st round draft pick should be what we're aiming at as a sort of watered down ambit claim. Varcoe might be worth a punt if he's offered.

With my Red Sox out of things, I'll be hoping for a Cardinals triumph ... Wild-card playoff games Wednesday 10am Oakland at Kansas City Thursday 10am San Francisco at Pittsburgh American League match-ups (begins Friday our time) LA Angels vs Kansas City/Oakland Baltimore vs Detroit National League match-ups (begins Saturday our time) Washington vs San Francisco/Pittsburgh LA Dodgers vs St Louis Most of the playoff games will be covered by ESPN radio (hopefully that link will work - if not, try tunein)

Plenty of teams have won Super Bowls without 'AAA' QB's. The key is to be good to excellent in all areas but not be deficient in any one area. Teams can also get "hot" when it matters. We've seen so many teams come from nowhere to win the whole thing ... Baltimore, Packers, Giants, Steelers and even New Orleans were a bit of a surprise (before the start of their SB winning season) With regards to injuries (or such like) every team gets them but you don't want to lose a franchise player like the Vikings have. Losing AP means losses. Bridgewater possibly stepping up counters that but imagine if both of them were firing? Detroit still need to win big games on the road and the Panthers loss in week 2 was telling. The Lions have to get it done and if they do, I'll give them credit - not before. They've still got 6 tough road games to come and a few at home that will be tough. Like Dallas, I wouldn't be going all in on the Lions. The teams I've got my eye on are Arizona, the Chargers, Ravens & Colts. Again, the Cardinals need to get it done on the road so the jury is also out on them. Same with the Chargers. The other 2 (Ravens & Colts) are dangerous. The Bengals need to win when it matters - in the playoffs.

Too right ... KC played a great all round game Alex Smith was terrific all night and played the best game I've seen him play (although I haven't seen him play a lot of complete games) ... Brady was un-Brady like. The Patriots defense was awful whilst KC's was very good. Davis, Charles, Kelce & Bowe were all first rate and there was a lot to like about the Chiefs. New England have their issues but we've said that before. They were terrible today ... according to Belichick they "Need to do everything better" I started watching his press conference but found myself dozing off 1 minute in The crowd broke the all time decibel level as well.

I agree but I guess if we're going to start critiquing all the weaknesses of all the teams then where do we start and finish? No team is strong in all areas for any sort of length of time. QB's get more focus because of the nature of things ... defenses less so except in the case of 1 or 2 teams. Bad defenses are just not a juicy enough story. There are numerous examples of that and Geno & the Jets is another one. On an overall basis the Jets are not a good team but Geno will be the one copping the heat. In my eyes we haven't seen a big enough sample size with Geno but if he gets replaced soon then that might be the end of him. If Dallas self destruct the focus will be on Romo. Flacco copped it for a long time until the Ravens won that Super Bowl. The scrutiny will remain on a few other QB's unless they can somehow get their teams over the line against the good teams on a consistent basis.

No change at the top of the leaderboard in the tipping comp ... 1 - Dappa Dan 0 - The rest of us poor souls I almost feel like I had a win by getting 2/3 but unlike what the 'Meatloaf' song indicates, getting 2 out of 3 in this comp is a fail. Next week is the 2nd of the bonus weeks with 2 points up for grabs ... week 5 games ... remembering that anyone can join in the "fun and frivolities" at any time - there is no cut off point for anyone wanting to enter the comp. 3 picks but they must be all road teams and they must all win in order for you to pick up a point (or points) Hoping for a KC win tomorrow and I'll tip them in a close one ... 28-26

Big win for Dallas and credit must be given to Romo (today) He was well protected and he therefore took full advantage. As much as I'm critical of Romo that doesn't mean I wouldn't like him to do well (sorry Dappa) Murray their key RB had a huge game for them which helps but again, we've been burnt by the Cowboys previously so I'm not sure that they can be trusted yet. Apart from going to Seattle in a fortnight they've got some winnable games coming up ... vs Houston, @ Seattle, vs Giants & then vs Washington. Win 3 of them and they'd be 6&2 and well placed. No guarantees with any of those match-ups though. The other big story is the Saints ... they're now 1&3 but luckily for them, the Panthers & Falcons both lost and they're only one game back in the NFC South. They'll need to start getting on the winning list pronto all the same ... next 4 ... vs Tampa, @ Detroit, vs Green Bay & then @ Carolina. They'll probably beat the bucs but after that ....

Cutler just can't get it done against the Packers - that last interception was pure amateur hour. There's more than a touch of "Romo" about Jay. The Packers pass defense was quite good today ... the Bears only scoring 17 points at home against a team that can score as well as Green Bay just isn't going to cut it. By the way, every team gets injuries, not just Chicago The Lions are odds on to choke when the heat gets turned up. Same as Houston haven't proven anything yet and the Steelers shouldn't be written off, Detroit need to win some big games away from home and ... they can't be dropping games at home that they shouldn't. The jury is still out. They've got a chance to gets some wins up with their next 5 though ... vs Buffalo, @ Minnesota, vs New Orleans, @ Atlanta & vs Miami ... they'll need to win at least 3 of those games and more likely 4 of them because after that, it gets very tough for them. The truth is that no game is a guaranteed win for the Lions. Rodgers was immense today and there was one play he pulled off that was incredible - trouble was that we committed a penalty in the process so the TD that we might have scored was disallowed. Our pass defense was quite good but our run defense wasn't good. Lacy played ok but we only achieved 56 yards of run out of our running backs. Chicago's defense had no answer to the precision of Rodgers but I'd prefer it if he had a couple more quality targets. As much as I want the team to improve in other areas our strong point can definitely get better. Can't ever complain about winning @ Chicago though ... as you indicated, your blokes visit Lambeau in a few days - Bridgewater will hopefully come up for the game for your fans. Could be a close one.

Too funny 'cfh' You've got to be happy with Bridgewater ... great effort considering it was his first game starting off. I thought Atlanta were beaten fair and square and just beaten by a better side on the day. Our division just got a whole lot more interesting after today's results. To say I'm relieved with the Packers winning is an understatement. The bonus is the road win within the division - vital. I can R.E.L ...... A.X (for now) I'll leave the SNF result aside for later on but in other results ... The Steelers blew a game they should have won. Houston are now 3&1 but I'm not convinced - their next 3 are @ Dallas, vs Indi & @ Pittsburgh. Baltimore look dangerous again and Indi are back on track The Chargers might be a real challenger for Denver in the AFC West The Eagles went close but their offense cost them - 22 yards rushing vs 218 yards rushing was a telling statistic. Like Green Bay, the niners would be breathing a huge sigh of relief Any win is worth celebrating in this league.

We need a strong midfield and a strong forward line - It's entirely possible to build all areas of a list. When Frawley played back this year our forward line was close to useless (and it looks like he is leaving) Dawes is a 3rd forward only and Hogan is a rookie recovering from stress fractures to his back (or such like) We need to start winning games and our improved midfield will need decent targets in order for that to happen. I say improved midfield because I expect our midfield to be bolstered with ready made talent. I also expect us to bolster our forward line. That extra key forward may or may not be brought in at the expense of one of our top end draft picks (if we end up with picks 2 & 3) Some creative thinking might have to be involved but given Roos' track record, that creative thinking can happen.

Someone here will know for sure but I've a feeling that that rule might have been ditched - stand corrected of course. I can see a situation in the future where players will sign longer contracts and the clubs will want them to sign longer contracts ... so as to increase that players value in a future trade. We're not talking about C & D grade players but players who have currency. It happens a lot in soccer where it's a "virtual" free market despite contracts being in place. Over time, a conclusion has been reached that a players value decreases if his contract is running out - the reverse applies if a player is tied up for 4 or 5 years. Of course, our currency is draft picks and other tradeable players rather than transfer fees but in some ways, it amounts to the same thing. In a nutshell, in the future, a player signing a long(ish) term deal may not necessarily mean that that player is tied to a club like he might have been in the past.

It may well just be a rumour but Parker does gets a chance to get rich very quickly if he moves. Money talks ... everyone has a price. Parker's manager might have been contacted a year or so ago for all we know. More and more players are going to be targeted who have only been in the system for 2-5 years. We did it ourselves with Tyson and we were almost certainly offering Dom a fair bit more money than GWS. Maybe not a colossal amount but enough to get him more than interested. Dangerfield aside, I'm expecting us to do at least one Tyson/Salem type deal again. Free agency has had the effect of opening up other ways for clubs to bring in established talent. We're no longer all that surprised when a young talented player is out of contract and might want a move.

... and there's a push to make it 6 years in the system for a player to qualify for free agency status - couple that with the other push for zero compensation for a lost free agent. We can moan all we like but the above is more likely to happen rather than not happen. It's my belief that a number of clubs haven't prepared themselves very well for free agency - head in the bucket of sand stuff. Clubs are just going to have to bite the bullet and make sure that their better players are secured on long term deals. Jones has 1 year left on his contract and he qualifies for free agency after next season. Now, he'll probably re-sign shortly but we probably should have secured him on a long term deal at the end of last season (or earlier) With Frawley, we should have tried to re-sign him on a long term deal at the end of 2012 (when he had 2 years left on his contract) That's of course if we wanted to keep him - maybe we didn't? We might have indeed tried to get him to extend his contract at the end of 2012 but if that was the case, I'm not sure it was public knowledge. Garland is another one who we should have secured earlier but again, it would be hoped that he'll be re-signed in the not too distant future (Garland becomes a free agent after next season when his existing contract runs out) We need to be ahead of the game.

An A grade player and later on was Northey's right hand man (Chairman of selectors) He was the equal of Flower in my opinion - never played a bad game. Nathan Jones is a reasonable comparison except Wells was strong overhead, a better kick and got more of it. Like Jones, he never got due credit because he played in such a poorly performed team. Consistently in the state team however and was of the best players in the league for a long time.

Wasn't it 200k for Wells? ... a lot of money in those days Wells played his last game for us in round 13 of 1980 and he had 48 possessions! (not a bad note to leave on) He played his first game for Carlton in round 15 of 1980 against .... Melbourne and picked up 31 possessions

Roos rubber stamped a 2 year extension for Dom Barry back in July of this year The best judges of 1st and 2nd year draftees are the coaching staff. Us supporters are in no real position to judge because we often just don't see enough of these draftees to be able to make a decent judgement. I'm happy to go with the Roos judgement on Barry