Macca

I like the way the Americans reward everybody who contributes to a successful season (however small) . By the way , I don't always agree with how they go about things but on that one , definately . Their attitude to drugs in sport ended up being a bit embarrassing . Now , they're getting much tougher on drugs . And rightly so . Got a tip this early out for the Championship ? I'm gonna be boring and tip Miami ! Cheers JJ

Who knows whether going to 2&2 will create more positional footy but ...................it will take a brave coach to ask his defenders to run up and down the ground for 75 - 90% of the game with very little rest . If it was left at 4 interchange eventually all the clubs might flood and press all game . I think it's worth a try for 2&2 . If , in the near future , the press and the flood were in decline and there was more positional play , then that could , in theory , bring the "burst" player back into the game . Stay at home forwards and backmen would get lots more rest (on the ground) . Maybe these comments attributed to some of the recruiters , with regards to endurance , would have been irrelevant anyway . The other thing is , any change to our sport often brings another unknown factor to the table . Cheers

The Dog's Diary vs The Cat's Diary The Dog's Diary.......... 8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing! 12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favourite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favourite thing! 3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing! 5:00 pm - Dinner! My favourite thing! 7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favourite thing! 8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing! 11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing! The Cat's Diary Day 983 of my captivity......... My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects . They dine lavishly on fresh meat , while the other inmates and I are fed some sort of dry nuggets . Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear , I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength . The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape . In an attempt to disgust them , I once again vomit on the carpet . Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet . I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts , since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities . However , they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am . Jerks! There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight . I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event . However , I could hear the noises and smell the food . I overheard that my confinement was due to "allergies." I must learn what this means , and how to use it to my advantage . Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking . I must try this again tomorrow , but at the top of the stairs . I am convinced that the other prisoners here are dobbers and snitches . The dog receives special privileges . He is regularly released , and seems to more than willing to return . He is obviously not the full quid . The bird must be an informant . I observe him communicate with the guards regularly . I am certain that he reports my every move . My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell , so he is safe . For now .

Ha ha ha , and I know if we do well you'll be pleased . Cheers

Stand corrected but there a number (4?) of clubs that can activate their compo picks this season . Tanking could raise it's ugly head again . For instance , (and I'm not saying we tanked) if we'd beaten Port Adelaide in the last round , last season , we would have ended up with pick 16 instead of pick 12 . 1 or 2 "convenient" losses near the end of this season could place a club with compo picks in a much better position . 2 of these such "losses" could mean that club could get picks 6 and 7 instead of picks 11 and 12 . Not forgetting of course , that "There's no such thing as tanking" according to 1 or 2 in high places . Cheers

Or perhaps even this one .................. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o Cheers

Well done to Patty Mills . Right place , right time ? Andrew Gaze got a championship ring with the Spurs back in the late 90's . I vaguely remember seeing him in those open top cars , being showered with adulation etc . Didn't matter that he didn't get that many minutes . It doesn't get brought up much and some don't believe it but one things for sure - they can't take it off him ! Cheers

Yeah , I see your point . You might think you've reached you're zenith but I guess there's always something else to spend money on . I'm confilcted by my own "old school" mentality . I recognise and understand the new but...... It's the "let's just get on with it" or "there's no excuses" or even "is all this science gonna make us win more contested ball ? " , etc etc attitude that makes me question it all . Happy to proved incorrect by the way . Who's to say that practising in a less than perfect enviroment isn't more beneficial . It might make players are bit tougher mentally . Do we really need to lay everything on ? Comfort zones can be dangerous places . Can too much FD spend have the effect of "pampering" the players too much ? We , at Melbourne haven't been in this situation as we've only recently moved from the Junction oval so it doesn't really apply to us . I've also heard some "experts" question the amount of advantage the whole "Arizona" thing gives to Collingwood . I think it would be interesting if somebody who knows about big sports overseas could comment here on whether "too much spend" in the preparation of contests can have a detrimental effect . It's interesting that in the Olympics most pundits reckon extra millions spent equals extra gold medals . But often these sports are individual pursuits . In team sport there's still that attitude of "We're gonna do it hard and tough on the track so that when we get to real stuff we'll be ready" . I liked your post RN , you made some good points Cheers

This site is "G" rated dl .

We'll come home with a wet sail just like in '87 - 8th . Now where's that other bottle of Jack ? Cheers

Bewdy ! I get to go out with Stella again . Cheers

Wouldn't think so HG , but I and a few others only got involved ( and sidetracked ) when in defence of the rank and file members re the proposed merger . I certainly didn't start the debate and I knew It was totally off topic , but as you know , it's hard not to bite sometimes . Some of the people on this site have no doubt heard it all before , but often stuff gets repeated in forums . Cheers

Easy with the insults 'Dreamweaver' . The attempted merger is part of our history . Just because you don't find it interesting doesn't make you judge and jury .

All's well that ends well . At least we're not posting on "Hawkland" . Cheers

Nostalgia time "Alan Parsons Project" with "Eye in the Sky" . Not an actual clip and a little bit out of sync but still good . Macca 6.9

Classic Hale and Pace ..."Man who can't take anything seriously" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJZ8NEEw5Jo

I don't think it should be capped either . My opening remark on that post was to highlight the gap between the clubs . There's gotta be some sort of incentive for clubs to outdo other clubs . We are starting to get smarter with regards the FD . We've got a zillion coaches now - but can they teach 'em how to kick please ? I know where you're coming from 'Wyl' . As a club , you've always gotta be looking to get better but I reckon we're on the right track . Cheers

Unless the AFL put a cap on the amount of money that clubs can spend on their FD's we will continue to see discrepancies . And the gap is probably going to get wider . Collingwood have a gross income of about 70 mil . Ours is about 40 mil . ( up from 26 mil just a few years ago ) Because of our small supporter/member base we've got "Buckleys chance" of bridging the gap to a great extent . But , the thing in our favour is that their may be a ceiling on how much a FD "spend" is really effective . Say , after around about 20 mil , it may just be wasted money . I mean , how many sets of weights , exercise bikes , masseurs , diet plans , ovals to train on , sports scientists , coaches etc etc etc do you need ? Surely you get to a point where anything more would be unnecessary . One multi vitamin a day is sufficient , any more and you're peeing bright orange !! We don't hear about these sort FD type spends in other big sports around the world . I suspect it's because they've reached their zenith . Still reckon we've got a bit of catching up to do but it seems a lot of things are in place right now . Cheers

Agree with a fair bit of what you've said there Doc . I don't like excuses either . The one thing I disagree with you a bit is on coaching tenures . Carlton , Hawthorn and West Coast all seemed to do quite well last year even though their coaches weren't re-signed . Even though I don't really care what Richmond do with their coach , I think they should have waited until the end of the year or given him a 1 year extension . On principle , I'm not a great believer in long term contracts for coaches . 2 years is enough . If a coach wants job security , go do something else . I prefer to see a Coach working under a bit of pressure . They're big boys , they can handle it . Or at least the good one's can . As the late Keith Miller so famously said "Pressure is a Messerschmitt ................................." I don't like comfort zones . Many successful people are good under pressure . I like that "See what they're made of" motto . I know it can't really happen but I'd have a lot of our players on performance based contracts . Or at least for the non "self starters" . To my way of thinking , our players in the last few years haven't been hungry enough . Hopefully Neeld will fix that . Cheers

But here lies the problem Doc , we don't have that many fans . We're like a medium/small club in the EPL . With the draft and the Salary cap to even things up . It's estimated that we've got about 135,000 fans or thereabouts . Marginally above North Melbourne and in most cases way behind everybody else . I'm not including GWS or the GCS . Somebody posted a table on Demonland aways back . It was quite an eye-opener for me even though I long suspected the truth . Might have been 'Supermercado' that posted that "Table of fans" However , our conversion of fans to members is the best in the League . It will take many , many years to get lots more fans and therefore more members . Success on the field is paramount . Auskick numbers are appallingly low . If I had anything to do with things I'd "give away" a certain number of junior memberships . I wouldn't think that our club would make any "real" money out of junior memberships anyway . We could hit that whole Casey area for a start . Best time to do something like that would be in the months after we'd played a couple of finals . So we'd better hurry up and start winning ! I think the Club did have a policy of a free junior membership with every Adult membership purchased . Not sure on the exact details . Somebody here will know . Cheers

Thanks for posting that 'melbman' Bit more than circumstantial evidence hey . The whole thing stunk to high heaven . I've never met one person who voted for the merger . The other ridiculous thing about the vote was how on earth a "simple" majority of votes can end the life of a club . It should always be more like 3/4 of a vote to get something as major as that through . A lot of us knew about these "sus" proxy votes before the infamous meeting . Not losers blaming a possible rigged vote "after" the event . Before the event is more to the point . 'Wyl' has reminded me of the phone calls I was getting as well . It was dirty business IMO . Sometimes foresight is a wonderful thing . Cheers .

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break , it can only become stairs . There would never be a "Escalator temporarily out of order" sign , only an "Escalator temporarily stairs , sorry for the convenience".

And in the end we're all here today . The original club with all it's rich history , playing at the same ground as we did over 150 years ago . And we're now doing much better off the field . We need to get better on the field . That will happen . I really do believe we punch above our weight in some areas . We don't have hundreds of thousands of fans like a lot of other clubs , though we do have relatively good membership numbers . The ratio from "fans" to "members" is possibly the best . Cheers

In a lot of ways that 1996 R22 Demons/Hawks game took on great significance . I'm fairly sure our side of the vote re "The Merger" was already established but the Hawks had not yet decided theirs . They won that game by 1 point to scrape into the finals . Neitz 6 , Dunstall 10 from memory . Over 60.000 at the MCG that night . Stand corrected on that one . I was concerned that the Hawk members might vote for the merger but when they made the finals ................... We finished well down the ladder and were playing for pride only . The Tigers lost their round 22 game to slip out of the 8 to finish 9th ! Some things never change . Fitzroy played their last game (as Fitzroy) the following day . Tumultuous times . Cheers

I think we have to accept that we have to "Start again" to a certain extent . It's too early to tell how different our game plan will be but we do know it will be different . So , we've gotta be patient again ! Most of us probably feel we've been down that road too many times . Here's the reality - Our previous game plan was identified as (in part) "Bruise free" . So change has to happen . How long this will take is anybody's guess . Contested possessions last night was 127 to 121 yet we were well beaten . I'm not really sure what that stat means with our team because often those numbers would signify a reasonably competitive game . My guess is that Neeld won't play too many "outside" types and not too many with poor disposal skills . But he's probably gonna have to compromise . Originally I thought that it might take until 2/3rds of the season for Neeld to get his game plan up and running but it may take a fair bit longer . He may need a number of new players . I haven't given up on the season though and won't until it's mathematically impossible to make the finals ! Cheers