Macca

Here are the weekend's games ... Matchweek 12 Highlight being the the Arsenal / Tottenham clash at 11.45 tonight The current table can be found ... here Don Hutchison and Dean Sturridge give their match predictions and the following link also has some 'Simulated' highlights of the Gunners / Spurs game ... Tips and video

Yeah , Lillard has done very well . Memphis , Milwaukee and the Clippers have started the season well but how 'bout those Knicks!

One fron 'Beck' Macca 11.1

Here's that goal ...needless to say the commentator gets a tad excited ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az4mFb18DUE

Good post there 'Hipster' ... Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal's weekly podcast ... they try and guess the lines and do a quick wrap up of the previous week's games ... The BS Report This weeks TV games ... OneHD are covering the US F1GP on Monday morning but will replay their 'Usual' 2 games from 11pm Monday night - Philadelphia (3-6) at Washington (3-6) followed by San Diego (4-5) at Denver (6-3) at 2am (early hours of Tuesday morning) FRI, NOV 16 12.20 PM Miami (4-5) at Buffalo (3-6) OneHD & ESPN MON, NOV 19 5.00 AM Green Bay (6-3) at Detroit (4-5) Fox1 8.05 AM New Orleans (4-5) at Oakland (3-6) Fox1 12.20 PM Baltimore (7-2) at Pittsburgh (6-3) OneHD & ESPN (Big Ben almost certainly out) TUE, NOV 20 12.30 PM Chicago (7-2) at San Francisco (6-2-1) ESPN (Cutler will miss by the looks of it whilst Smith is still listed as uncertain) For all other games ... Week 11 schedule

Not a mixed metaphor but certainly a gaffe ... VSF'nL (the former 'Victorian State Football League') - Peter Daicos Rumour mongrels - Tony Shaw

Yeah , it's early doors still but it's nice to dream . What will help West Ham immeasurably is if we secure the Olympic stadium . The League is so often defined by the have's and have not's . Terribly difficult just to compete in some years . In all honesty there's a few 'League's' within the League . To finish top 10 or 12 for a non 'Money' Club is quite an achievement . I'm rapt with what big Sam has been able to do so far with West Ham . He's got a decent track record of course, with his years at Bolton. The early game on Saturday night (11.45 PM) should be a beauty . Arsenal vs Tottenham . Now there's a rivalry !!

Best team - there's not a standout for mine . Early on I thought the 49ers , then the Giants or Houston (until that poor effort vs the Packers) . Any number of teams can win the whole thing . Maybe Houston if I had to pick one . Denver are the one to watch and Atlanta could end up with the best record . It's very open . Worst team - Jacksonville then Cleveland Biggest surprise - probably Indi, especially if they make the playoffs . Denver and Seattle have done better than I thought as well . There's been a few surprise disappointments including the Eagles , Carolina and KC . N.B - For those of you with ESPN , an excellent '30 for 30' doco called 'Broke' is on Sunday evening at 9pm . Well worth a look even if you have to source it . 'Youtube' have still got it up .

Certainly a few upsets - what's happened to Eli and the Giants ? Is it a delayed hangover ? 9 wins could end up winning that division - maybe 8 ! Dallas will probably shoot themselves in the foot though - I can see a couple of 'Weird' losses happening to them . The Saints are back with a bit of a show and Seattle are looming large . Tampa and Indi keep winning and Denver could end up with a high seed the way they're travelling . As for the NFC North - it'll probably go down to the wire as many are predicting . Those two Packers / Vikings games will probably hold the key . Bit worried about 'AP' . Who's gonna stop him ? The man is on fire ! Bit odd seeing a tie . Suppose for the 49ers , the tie creates a degree of separation with other playoff contenders - unless there's another tie or 2 ! And how do you figure out the Titans ? A punters nightmare that team ...

Yeah , you're havin' a damn good run ! And how 'bout West Brom ? And my Hammers ? 4th , 5th and 6th respectively - who would have picked that at the start of the season ? Just goes to show the importance of a team playing as a team ...that attitude can take you a long way ...

Latin jazz with Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 ... Macca's jazz 5.0 ...

Syd Anderson

Needless to say , 'cfh' and myself will be hoping for a Texans win ! However , with the improved form of the Colts , Houston won't want to drop too many games . Here's Bill Simmons weekly column and I've bumped tomorrow's 'TV' games and schedule ... http://www.grantland...king-mike-brown MON, NOV 12 5.00 AM Atlanta (8-0) at New Orleans (3-5) Fox3 5.00 AM Oakland (3-5) at Baltimore (6-2) OneHD 8.25 AM St. Louis (3-5) at San Francisco (6-2) Fox3 8.25 AM Dallas(3-5) at Philadelphia (3-5) OneHD 12.20 PM Houston(7-1) at Chicago(7-1) OneHD & ESPN TUE, NOV 13 12.30 PM Kansas City (1-7) at Pittsburgh (5-3) ESPN For all other games ... http://espn.go.com/nfl/schedule#10

New from 'Muse' Macca 11.0

Now it starts to make more sense . Didn't Phil Jackson have some health issues ? ... http://espn.go.com/l...urn-sources-say

Big news out of LA ... Nash being out injured didn't seem to make any difference to this decision ... http://espn.go.com/l...oach-mike-brown http://espn.go.com/n...ke-brown-firing

Colts get 4 more wins and they make the playoffs you'd reckon . Here's their schedule ... Indianapolis . Interesting that they play the Texans in 2 of their last 3 games . Houston may well have gotten themselves into a position where they can rest players in Week 17 (when they're at Indi !) . Watched a bit of the Saints/Eagles game . Yeah Vick was under enormous pressure . Brees was fairly well protected and ended the night with a QB rating of 128.2 with 2 TD's . SNF should be a beauty this week with Houston at Chicago .

Games on the box this week ... FRI, NOV 9 12.20 PM Indianapolis 27, Jacksonville 10 OneHD & ESPN MON, NOV 12 5.00 AM Atlanta (8-0) at New Orleans (3-5) Fox3 5.00 AM Oakland (3-5) at Baltimore (6-2) OneHD 8.25 AM St. Louis (3-5) at San Francisco (6-2) Fox3 8.25 AM Dallas(3-5) at Philadelphia (3-5) OneHD 12.20 PM Houston(7-1) at Chicago(7-1) OneHD & ESPN TUE, NOV 13 12.30 PM Kansas City (1-7) at Pittsburgh (5-3) ESPN For all other games ... http://espn.go.com/nfl/schedule#10

Many of you would have read and heard lots of stories about the endemic drug culture in cycling (including the 4 Corners program a few weeks back) but this recently made BBC audio docomentary on the sport is a real opener . It focuses on many things including the systematic doping that was going on during the Lance Armstrong era . It's nearly 2 hours long but if you listen to the first minute or so it will get you in , as it is quite a compelling exposé . Some of the players involved are Lance Armstrong himself , Floyd Landis , Tyler Hamilton , David Millar , Matt De Canio , Christophe Basson and many others . There is a 2nd part to this documentary feature as well (see bottom of this post) but the first part is a must listen for cycling fans or for sporting fans in general . It's not all doom and gloom though , as towards the end of the first doco and certainly in parts of the 2nd doco it becomes apparent that the sport is doing a lot to clean up it's act and may be starting to win the battle against performance enhancing drugs . Here's a write up from 'The Guardian' which serves as a good introduction to the documentary http://www.guardian....ty-truth-review From Tyler Hamilton ... And here is the audio documentary ...posted on youtube ...'Peddlers: Cycling's Dirty Truth' ... [media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=290NJlfoDaY The 2nd part can be found on this site ... http://www.bbc.co.uk...ries/5lspecials

Well here's a new show for all true 'Demons' ! A supernatural drama set in a grand building in NYC . Terry O'Quinn from the show 'Lost' stars ... here's the IMDb link ... 666 Park Avenue

'Badfinger' with 'No Matter What' ... Macca's 70's 11.0

Bill Simmon's column this week focuses on Michael Vick ...scroll down (just over half way) on this link for his tips ... http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8583255/the-polarizing-michael-vick Tomorrow's TV games ... 5.00 AM Arizona (4-4) at Green Bay (5-3) Fox2 5.00 AM Chicago (6-1) at Tennessee (3-5) OneHD 8.15 AM Minnesota (5-3) at Seattle (4-4) Fox2 8.25 AM Pittsburgh (4-3) at NY Giants (6-2) OneHD 12.15 PM Dallas (3-4) at Atlanta (7-0) OneHD & ESPN TUE, NOV 6 12.30 PM Philadelphia (3-4) at New Orleans (2-5) ESPN For all other matches ... http://espn.go.com/nfl/schedule#9

Here's an interesting ESPN 'blog' about tanking in the NBA ... it focuses on 6 teams in 6 different seasons ... http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/40780/when-tankers-tell-the-truth

Ivor Warne-Smith - 2 Brownlows and a runners-up . Could play just about anywhere on the ground . Captain-coach . Represented Victoria on numerous occasions . Norm Smith's right hand man ... In more modern times ....Flower followed by Wells ... love to see these 2 running around in today's footy ... Barassi as well of course . If they retrospectively awarded 'Norm Smith Medals' he could have snagged at least 2 of them .

Effectively, if we do suffer penalties or sanctions , the AFL would need to prove that our club 'Fixed' matches - Won't happen . So we've rested veteran players , made various positional moves , put players in for early surgeries, given young players more game time, etc etc - ya know, the same stuff that's been going for forever and a day . What's the drama ? One particular 'Journo' has taken the whole thing too far and it's fairly clear this particular 'Person' doesn't mind creating enemies and/or is in 'Payback' mode . Some people thrive on that sort of stuff but in the end it comes back to haunt them . This article (below) was posted in another thread . It quite disgusted me and it gives you an idea of the mindset of this 'Person' http://www.vexnews.c...lly-like-sport/ The whole tanking issue is a juicy story but it probably won't amount to anything unless at least one person involved comes out and says - "We threw the game" . So far , in all the articles that have been published and all the debate on radio etc , we've yet to see those words appear . But if we do somehow receive sanctions, I fail to see how at least another 10 clubs wouldn't suffer similar penalties or worse . It would be open slather . The AFL would have to question the validity of the 2008 and 2010 flags 'Won' by the Hawks and the Pies . All it would take is to dig deep into those 2004 and 2005 'Questionable' seasons - the same sort of hearsay and innuendo would appear and hey presto - more penalties and sanctions . It's any wonder that Eddie is seemingly on our side and of course, Jeff may well of received a call from the Hawks to pipe down . A few months ago Eddie was calling for an amnesty - usually he'd be acting a lot differently . He was effectively calling for the AFL to get the clubs to 'Come clean secretly'. That did seem a little bit out of character ... What's also interesting is the attitude of those involved with clubs who previously received priority picks . They have been quite circumspect and rather 'Quiet' . Even clubs who didn't receive priority picks could be implicated - obviously the lower the position on the ladder - the better the draft pick number . Tigers 2007 ? Eagles 2008 ? This would be one huge can of worms the AFL would be opening - one the size of a 44 gallon drum . The practice of 'Preparing' for the next season goes back more than 100 years in our sport . In the end we can only be guilty of 'Preparing' for the next season - how is that a crime ?