Macca

Well done to Serena , Agnieszka was brave and won the 2nd set and hopefully she'll be back to fight another day . That's 5 Wimbledon singles titles each to the Williams Sisters . A mighty effort .

And then there's that saying "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" . Or is that bs now ?

That was an enthralling finish . The winner , Chris Froome , from the Sky team won the stage but the real drama was watching Evans and Wiggins . Sky having 3 riders in the first 5 must be a little bit of a concern for Cadel and his BMC team . 'Spose we're used to seeing Evans battle on his own . Gee he's a little fighter .

Is a coach immune from discussion in his 1st year or until after his 2nd year ? I reckon some think that this is an actual rule . But who made up that rule ? So 'Maybe' here's the unofficial rule... "You can praise the Coach when we win , but you shouldn't criticize him if we lose." There seems very little balance IMO . Maybe it's a human trait that you don't say anything questionable about the 'Leader' . In certain Countries with certain types of 'Governments' this 'Questioning' would be a rather dangerous thing to do ! I wouldn't last long . It's always healthy to have 2 groups with opposing views on any subject matter (Of course , there's all the others who are somewhere in the middle) . And as long as these views don't resort to insults I don't see the problem . I'm constantly amazed how some think it's ok to insult or demean a player , yet won't hear of any sort of criticism of the Coach . Makes no sense to me and never has . As an aside , the call for Ratten's sacking is astonishing . To me , he's a very good coach who for some reason , has a head that many want to kick . And I had that view before Carlton's win on Friday night . He was coaching for his football life and he came through with a big win against the Pies . Sometimes pressure brings out the best in people . And sometimes you need to put pressure on someone to see what a person is made of . I said it on another thread , and I'll say it again . Losing has become acceptable because of the lure of the 'Prized' draft picks . Unfortunately , when it comes to winning games , not all Melbourne supporters are on the same page . That's not good . Maybe the people who detest losing , and who are also not all that interested in these 'Prized' draft picks , look a bit further than just the player personnel .

I was probably referring more to 'Hardnut' than me . I should have made that clearer . He's copped it a bit unfairly in the past (not necessarily tonight) . All for speaking his mind in a non insulting or demeaning way . I'm a big boy . Not much bothers me except the right to free speech .

Mate , I don't mind being taken to task at all . In fact , I wouldn't post if that were the case . I tend to only post to challenge conventional thinking . So , I nearly always will get challenged and that's fine with me . But .....it can be exhausting work so I bide my time between those challenging posts ! Most of the time , my posts tend to be 'Different' . And don't worry , I'm well aware of that and am usually well armed . I'm always prepared to be educated though and don't mind being wrong .

You know what happens 'Hardnut' ? People like you and I who 'Dare' to question the Coach in any shape or form end up being shouted down . The people who take us to task end up winning because we're way less prone to say anything in the future . Meanwhile , it's perfectly fine for our players to cop untold amounts of abuse , insults and demeaning comments on (in some cases) a daily basis . Don't you know a 'General' comment when you see one ? I believe that those who don't hold such extreme views , tend to get lost and those with the extreme views tend to be the ones 'Left over' that argue to the end . As an example , the ones who might take on 'tonatopia's views are more likely to be the ones with a lot of faith . But that's just my opinion , it's not a statement of fact .

Well , obviously there are more than 2 categories . And I'm assuming you're directing this post at me . I only talked about 2 categories because I didn't feel the need to write a 2 page essay about all the different levels . Maybe you shouldn't have looked at my comments in such a 'Simplistic' manner .

Nice of you to turn this debate into one where the personal abuse starts . Is there any need to resort to insulting my intelligence levels ? Go and bother somebody else .

Your comment of "Let his 3 year contract run at least" indicates to me you have a lot of faith . But that's just me (I'm part of the "Ye , who have little faith brigade!" ) For what it's worth , I desperately want Neeld to succeed , but I reserve the right to critique him . I haven't resorted to insulting Mark or demeaning him and I believe it's poor form to do so .

I never compared Bailey to Neeld . You've taken a big leap there . Don't be jumping to conclusions 'Forest Demon' . I used the previous FD's lack of knowledge with regards to fitness levels as an example of how we shouldn't have too much faith . I never watch a Coach's press conference's as an example - reckon it may cloud people's judgement . In the end , as always , this comes down to a debate between people with not enough faith vs people with too much faith . At least I'm prepared to admit that I'm part of the former .

Are you absolutely sure about the bit I've highlighted ? Nothing can be assumed . As an example , we only found out late last year (when Neeld, Misson and Craig arrived) , that our training levels to get fit for AFL footy were about half of what other clubs were doing . Can't ever remember hearing about this during DB's reign . It certainly wasn't common knowledge . Having faith , trust , hope and belief is terrific but some of us are far more sceptical . I don't enjoy being sceptical by the way , but you can only go on believing promises for so long .

Depending on how much emphasis is placed on skills at practice , you could make an argument that it is the Coach's fault . In the end , the buck stops with the Coach . Like it or lump it . However , it is quite clear that our list is simply not up to it and we have quite a few on our list who's disposal is not up to scratch . That isn't Neeld's fault but at the moment we've got too many on our list who's disposal should be a darn side better . That makes me wonder if we practice our kicking and handballing skills enough . And we have very few on our list with a decent 'Opposite' side . Even in your 20's , it's not too late to get better at your opposite side , especially when it comes to handballing . Structures , systems and processes are all 'Fine and Dandy' but if a team's disposal is as bad as ours , it makes those 'Buzz' words that people just love to sprout , largely irrelevant .

Here we go . The first of the mountain stages . Stage 7 ... THE VIEW OF JEAN-FRANCOIS PESCHEUX Using 'La Planche' as a launch pad "The first mountain stage of the Tour will be a complete contrast to the opening week and is was always going to be a different sort of rider who excels on the road to La Planche des Belles Filles. The peloton has been ravaged by crashes in recent days, especially the carnage that wiped out so many riders on the road to Metz. Still, some of the big pre-race favorites all survived the chaos and Wiggins, Evans, Menchov and Nibali are all still in contention for the podiumin Paris. Still many may have to accept that a win could now be out of reach. That might be the case for Fränk Schleck, Alejandro Valverde, Robert Gesink and Michele Scarponi – who were all casualties of the crash near the end of stage six. They now only have one solution to put themselves back in contention: attack! Fabian Cancellara recognizes that his time in the yellow jersey is due to come to an end but some of the potential winners of stage seven are loathe to inherit the leader's color too soon. Evans timed his race into yellow perfectly last year, taking the lead with only one day to race. And he'll be satisfied if he manages it that way again this year. This is the stage when we're going to see who is able to keep dreaming of the top step of the Parisian podium."

A few ? I'm assuming you didn't mean that literally because it's truckloads more than a few . In fact , the issue is that we've only got about 6-8 players who have done well this year . Overall , more than 60% of our list are below standard . On top of that , our style of play is ugly and boring and virtually unwatchable . We need to start all over again - with a big bunch of new players . That's the awful truth of it . The truth can often hurt but you're better off facing up to it . Moloney hasn't had a great year but he's got about 20 mates . It's a team game and blaming this player or that player is quite laughable when you consider we've only produced 1 legitimate win . The end of the season cannot come quick enough . Time for a major re-build .

This is 'Shinedown's latest hit called 'Bully' . This band , from Jacksonville , Florida formed in 2002 Macca 9.1

Federer wins in 4 after putting on a Master class in the last 2 sets . Roger completely over-powered Novak . No easy task . Wow ! Just Wow !

Pick 13 and a player for Boak . Like BH has suggested , it will need to be a player that Port will see fair value in . The Coach and crew should be in the best position to judge which player . Or to get Boak we give Port picks 4 and 13 in exchange for pick 7 - kudos to whoever suggested this idea (this option may be more appealing if . by then , Viney as slipped through to the 2nd round.) In the 2nd scenario we could end up with Boak , Viney , pick 3 and pick 7 . Not too shabby . And that's not counting who we might snare out of the 'Free Agents' that are available . In an ideal world we secure Cloke and Sewell as free agents and we could use picks 3 and 7 on midfielders in the National Draft . That would give us 5 new midfielders to get the ball down to Cloke and Clark . A lot can happen at seasons end and we need to be a major player .

This Federer / Djokovic match is a beauty . Hope we go to 5 !

Buck stops with the Coach 'rolly' . Dean closed the careers of many , including Junior . And he left us way short at the 'Experienced' end with his obsession with youth . And now we know that the list wasn't even being trained up to decent AFL fitness levels . What a waste of 4 years .

Couldn't you have just given him a simple congratulations on his 100th ? Or better still , said nothing . You're right though , not many play 100 and an extremely large percentage never play one . And to think that Tiger fans cop it for 'Eating their own' . If Bailey had of realized that Bate was never a forward , Matty would be a well established midfielder by now . Well done Matthew . Hope you do well tomorrow .

Another from Nils ... Macca 3.9

Last flat stage before we tackle some tough climbs over the weekend . Stage 6 ... THE VIEW OF JEAN-FRANCOIS PESCHEUX Sprint expected but not certain... "There is another day of flat racing and thus the consensus is that this will be another day for the sprinters but there are some lessons to take home from the early stanza of Le Tour 2012: accidents happen, riders can falter, and some lead-out trains are more organized than others. Peter Sagan missed out on adding points to his tally in stage five because of a crash. Matt Goss has been consistent and appears to be getting closer to his first Tour stage win. André Greipel’s crew has proven to be the most formidable this year. And, on top of everything, there is a week of racing with weary legs and damaged bodies to consider." "We've seen three bunch sprints this year but each has been affected by a crash leading to the finish. Surely what we all want to see in Metz is all the specialists going head-to-head before the Tour arrives in the mountains. A true, pure sprint. That's the likely conclusion for stage six but a glimpse at the finish of stage five reminds us that the escapees are getting closer to pulling off a coup. Perhaps today will be the day that the attackers are the big beneficiaries."

We do have a lot on our list who are not proficient on their opposite side . Craig's fault ? Barry's ? Jack Watts ?

'Louie' is back ! 1st episode of season 3 started last week .