Macca

Let's just say that we don't win a flag until at say ... 2016/2017. Given that most top clubs turn over between 4 - 8 players in any given year then our 'premiership list' will look a lot different to our current list. The other question is who will be on our list in 2016/2017 that are on our current list. These existing players still on our list in that 'Premiership window' should all be either good - excellent players. A Premiership team generally has 8 - 10 'very good' or 'A' grade players. Or at least some of that Premiership team's players have had very good or 'A' grade years. The truth is that nearly all our potential very good - 'A' graders will need to end up being so. We'll also need to import 4 - 6 others who have genuine ability. (Hogan could be counted as one of these) Free agency can help or hinder us. We need to be a far more attractive proposition to a would be 'free agent'. Money talks of course, but it would be foolish to put all our eggs in one basket. We talked about it last year, but we really need to pick up some quality midfielders out of all the free agents. One per year for the next 3 - 4 years might be needed if we're going to win a flag anytime soon. Otherwise, we may only improve to a point where we are a finals contender only. Normally don't like crying over spilt milk, but would have been rapt if we'd made a big play for Stevie J and managed to land him. Hell, he could have doubled up as our kicking and skills coach as well !!!

In the match of the round, Spurs take on Liverpool at Anfield in the early hours of tomorrow morning (3am). Vital game for both sides although playing in the Champions League next year for 'The Reds' is all but a bit of pipe dream (the Europa League is a possibility) ... Current Table For a matchday simulation ... Fifa 13 Predicts Liverpool v Tottenham Edit : Manchester United are at home to Chelsea in the F.A Cup 6th round (quarter finals) at 3.30am.

I agree but unfortunately flying in a couple of batsmen won't happen. Our top order look deficient against spin and it's hard to see anything changing in the next 2 Tests. India could play Ojha instead of their young opening bowler (Kumar) and it would make things even harder for us. Ravi Shastri described our top order as 'Sitting Ducks'. The obvious concern is our preparation for the Ashes. It will be a miracle if our top order is settled before the 1st Ashes Test. The conditions are vastly different but it would be nice to know that our top 4 had some solid runs behind them. Khawaja coming in and Clarke moving to number 4 (?) could alleviate a few of our issues. (although in an ideal world, I'd much rather Clarke bat at no.5, apart from when we're on spinning decks) Our top 7 in the next Test in India could read as follows Cowan Warner Khawaja Clarke Watson Henriques Wade/Haddin (depending on Wade's possible injury) (who knows what they'll do with the bowling) In England either Watson or Henriques should miss out and the one who stays could bat at no.6. (Watson has to bowl to stay in the side) Complicating all this, is that Watson is probably best suited as an opening batsman. Another batsman could come in and bat at no.4 or no.5 (depending on where Clarke bats). That other batsman could be Doolan, Burns or perhaps another young up and comer. Cowan and Warner aren't guarantees either but both those 2 are much better away from spinning decks. Khawaja has a nice technique but needs to learn how to convert his starts.

The biggest issue for our team right now is our general kicking skills and decision making. What often happens is that a poor disposer of the ball often makes poor decisions as well. We're nowhere near creative enough with our handballing and kicking. Our skills don't match it with the best teams. In fact, we're a long way behind. We can win all the KPI's in the world but if we don't retain possession of the ball we can't kick enough goals. Sounds quite simple but that is the brutal reality. Aussie rules is a lot like soccer in that sense. In the old days when the ball was kicked to a contest it was different. But there is a solution. We need to work quadruply hard on our skills under pressure at training. The players should have a decent base fitness by now and besides, there are drills that can help your skills enormously whilst at the same time help your general fitness. The coaching staff should have drills in place where a player needs to hit a small target by foot whilst under extreme pressure. These drills should involve using either foot and the distances should vary (20 metres, 30, 40 and 50 metres). Similar drills can be done using handballing. To me, these are the type of drills we should be doing most of the time. Incorporating improving a players 'vision' is vital as well. You cannot have too many blokes in your side who can't dispose of the ball consistently well. At one stage last season, I counted about 8 or 9 players in our team who had poor/average disposal skills. You cannot hope to win games of footy if that is the case. As in often the case, the players who are the 'goers' are the ones who often can't kick or handpass well.(under pressure) Hard at it types + good skills under pressure = a winning team. Obviously this involves having good coaching as well. Playing as a team should be a pre-requisite and this is a coach driven area.

Well, the Avalanche stopped the streak ! Game highlights ...

Confidence can take you a long way. There has been a greater emphasis on winning contested ball, hard ball gets and clearances under Neeld. If we can keep improving in that area - great. The next step is to start using the ball far more efficiently. We need to keep possession of the ball whilst attacking the goals - easier said than done of course. You can't have too many poor to average kicks in your team. Ditto for decision making. The best teams don't often have many of these type of players in their teams. When picking their best 22, the match committee could place a limit on the amount of players who aren't good disposers of the ball. Maximum of 2? 3? 4? It might mean you have to leave a couple of 'goers' out of team but that's the price you might have to pay. I've heard a number of times that the Hawks deliberately trade for or draft players who can kick the ball well and are good decision makers. Apparently their philosophy is that they can always teach these more skilful types to get better at winning their own ball. We need to start hitting a lot more targets on a far more regular basis if we're going to challenge the middle tier teams. Turnovers are killers and we need to eliminate as many of these as possible. Our disposal needs to improve dramatically if we're wanting to win a fair percentage of games. It's going to be interesting to see how good all our new players are with their disposal in the games.(especially under pressure)

Some more classic Aussie rock from the 70's Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons with "Shape I'm In" and "Hit and Run" Macca 12.6 ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipqiMn965_c

Yeah, Rodan's great. Always liked him as a player ... let's hope he burns it up. Good work lads

From 'The Times of London' ... Shoddy England given lesson by New Zealand Beautiful !

What's the name of that French city ..... ????????

Bobby Hebb with .... "Sunny". "Sunny" has an interesting and quite tragic story behind it ... Sunny (the song) Macca's jazz 5.9

Well they're still going strong, amazing run. I see your Maple Leafs are gettin' up there. The Canucks and the Sharks are travelling ok although Anaheim continue to do well. I hear that there was talk of another team out of Toronto - any truth in that? Is the League revamped next year? The only thing I know is that there will be 2 conferences - 16 teams in the East and 14 in the West with 2 divisions in each conference. Not sure where all the teams end up but apparently the Red Wings and the Blackhawks will be in different divisions. (they are bitter rivals, yeah?) Yeah, Colorado need to get a move on but they're not out of it. Next 2 games are against the Blackhawks. Can your blokes stop the streak?

The experts (Vegas??) have the Lakers making the playoffs at the expense of Utah (based on strength of scheduling) That's gotta bring a smile to pantaloons face. I hope they get there. Not sure the Spurs or OKC would relish facing L.A straight up but either series would be definitely worth looking at. C'mon Lakers Meanwhile, over in the East, the Heat are on a 15 game winning streak. They look in Championship form don't they? Wade had a big night against the Timberwolves the other night. LeBron is just sublime.

David Neitz (but I'd play him at CHB)

No worries Moonshadow. I've gone back and edited that post of mine. I could see how it might have been misread. The written word hey? Probably my bad

You two blokes may have misread what I meant there. I don't exactly feel comfortable about this type of income but at the same time, where would we make up the 4.7 million shortfall? That was what I was alluding to. I'd much prefer the club had other income streams. It was only a couple of weeks ago that many of us found out about the large amount of income we derive from these machines. I had no idea these figures were so high. Especially for the Blues and the Hawks. It's a bit sobering to be quite honest. I'm not a gambler as a general rule and I fully understand how gambling can ruin lives and families.

The worst bit is that if we are not a part of it, where else do we get our revenues from? It's about $13,200 per day from all of these machines. Just to be clear, I'm not condoning gambling in any way.

If you look at it closely, we've sent some great teams to India who couldn't get it done. The conditions are probably the harshest for our team in some ways. You need to able to play spin really well on spinning decks, and you need good spinners in your team to have any chance. England defeated India 2-1 in Nov/Dec but they have 2 world class spinners in Swann and Panesar. England in England will be a different story but our batsmen will need to fire. We're screaming out for a young gun batsmen. Greg Chappell, Border, S.Waugh, Ponting, Clarke - who's next?

20 interchanges per quarter equates to about 4 minutes rest per player per quarter. (on average) And each player may have to take his 4 minutes rest in one hit. I can't see how this won't slow the game down (especially towards the end of the 3rd quarter). Any coach who wants to employ the flood and the press on a continuous basis (under these circumstances) is going to be playing with fire. The coaches are not going to take undue risks. Why would they risk their players getting injured (by fatiguing them) during a match. It's a long season as well.

The coaches aren't always truthful. If you want to believe them, fine - I don't. The coaches will have to reign things back. Without adequate rest players will not be able to race up and down the ground for 2 hours. Teams will get run over in the last quarter if they are worked too hard in the 1st half. It stands to reason. Of course I don't want to get rid of coaches. It's about the aesthetics of the game isn't it? Or am I missing something? I'm simply saying that the reason the game is sometimes difficult to watch is because of the coaches. I'm specifically talking about the flood, press, stoppages, packs, rolling mauls and 36 players in one quarter of the ground. Now, if people enjoy watching that sort of stuff, fine. I don't find it particularly engaging. The coaches need to be reigned in and good on the AFL for doing so. In a lot of other ways I do not like the AFL.

Of course, the coaches are complaining. They've built their game plans around the flood, press, stoppages and packs.(which they, and they alone created) They've reduced the sport as a spectacle as far as I'm concerned. Roos, Wallace, Eade, Malthouse and Lyon are the main culprits (By the way, 4 of these 5 are excellent coaches, but that's not the point) The coaches in the main are the ones who have changed and manipulated the way the game is played - not the AFL. The coaches do not care about the game as a spectacle - they are simply there to win matches. They don't care how the game looks and never will. Why they are even involved in this debate is questionable. In some ways, I'm glad that the coaches are moaning. It says to me that the new restrictions will have an effect.

Is this thread still going TD? The fun was in the picking. More than half my team are either injured, out of form, have never played Test cricket, can't get a game or verging on retirement. (still a great team though )

The brutal truth is that we haven't got enough very good or great players. Clarke is our only great player. Pattinson, Cummins and Starc could be very good or better but that's it. The rest haven't shown enough. The selectors just need to keep giving new players a go until we start unearthing a few gems. It used to be that a new player was given a couple of Tests to show something and I still believe that tried and true method is the best way. We need an all rounder in the team so it's Watson, Henriques or Maxwell - but only one of them should play. I don't believe giving a player an extended run is necessarily the answer although I think in some cases it's warranted. (especially if that player has very good technique or has a bit of an X factor) As a general rule I reckon it's good to keep a player hungry and gifting players with games is fraught with danger. What's wrong with a player being under pressure to keep his spot? That pressure can bring the best out of people. We're not restricted with lists like we are in footy and other sports. They can pluck a player from anywhere and we've sometimes done that with some success. Warne, Walters, Ponting, Clarke and many other players were picked when they were very young. Often these young players had not had a huge amount of 1st class experience or were hugely successful at Shield level. A lot will point at Mr Cricket and the fact that he was 30 years old when he debuted. My counter argument is that he could have been played from the age of 22 or 23. We had a fairly good batting line-up that stopped this from happening but he could have had a 16-17 year career. If a young player is at or just below the level of a veteran then I'd pick the young player. There are a number of young players in Shield ranks that might be worth a punt. Doolan, Keath, Maddinson, Handscomb and Burns are possibilities. Khawaja will get his chance in India you'd reckon. Our fast bowling is not a major problem although we need to manage them well. Hopefully Ahmed can solve our spinning woes. Let's face it, only one spinner is usually needed. Wade is probably safe for now but Paine is an excellent gloveman (and he can bat)

Once upon a time the League used to be ahead of the game. The 'Diamond' preceded the 'Centre Square'. The square was introduced because of the ugly packs and too many players around the ball. We now have the same sort of issue so why not try and fix it. The modern game has a lot of the elements of past era's - toughness, athleticism, skills etc etc. But it is sometimes hard to watch because quite often, there are too many players around the ball. Fair enough, have a go at the AFL for all sorts of issues. But they are not solely responsible for the current spectacle that we witness. For that we need look at the coaches. The 4th interchange was originally brought in to cover the scenario of a team being disadvantaged by injury. It was never designed so that players wouldn't get tired.

The game we see today has almost been entirely designed by the coaches . The defensive flood - coaches The forward press - coaches 36 players in one quarter of the ground - coaches Extra numbers in and around the ball (ugly packs) - coaches 160 rotations - coaches Key position forwards in the last line of defence - coaches Fitness levels of players to be able to do all this (with the aid of rotations) - coaches 80 rotations may not entirely eliminate the ugly packs and flooding. It's a good first step though. The game was a much better spectacle before the advent of the large number of rotations that we now see. What's wrong with wanting the following? ......... Forwards in the forward line, backmen in the backline and the best players remaining on the ground (predominantly)