mollydee

Worried the excitement might be a bit too much for you ?

Bring it on !!

He spent a season "embedded " with the club [ don't remember which , but not too long ago ] and produced a number of articles about us over that time . Apart from that , though , he is a top journalist with a very balanced and generous outlook , and it wouldn't matter what club he was discussing because , after all , this is not about football and clubs .

Remember how bad Hawthorn was in its first 2 seasons under its current coach ? How good they are now ! It will take time .

Barassi's 5 years did set us up for 1987, though . Went to his 1st game as coach , made a point to go to his last day as well [ 1985 was not good either ]. It was a cold , wet , windy day at the 'G . Went in to afternoon tea at half time , and stayed there for the duration . It was much warmer and drier , and the Devonshire Tea was very nice.

Like many other Demons , I went to the first game of this year 1981 . We had a blistering first half , and Barassi received a standing ovation from the crowd , while I sat in my seat saying " No! No! No! The game isn't over yet ! Standing ovation after the FINAL siren ." Of course , we were totally overrun in the 2nd half ....

Yes . If memory serves me correctly , we won one game by one point at the Western Oval [perhaps after a Flower mark at the end of the game ? ]. I'm quite prepared to be wrong .

I think any attempt at joking on this thread is totally inappropriate . Liam is an honourable and dignified man , and we need to respect his presumed innocence until further is known . I don't think any of us can truly appreciate his cultural and tribal and family responsibilities .

OMG - I've just seen Dolly's fall on TVN . How he got out of it with no damage is astounding . To rock up the next day to [ I think ] 7 rides is extraordinarily brave .

Just so . Gerard Whateley said on Offsiders this morning " You need astounding courage and coconuts to be a jockey like that"

No need to apologise . Actually , that makes the way they handled the ball for the majority of the game look really good !

It's been one of my frustrations for years that we've been very poor at marking the mark when opposition marks and free kicks are awarded . Often the player would stand and take his kick from the mark with no pressure , even running on and gaining much ground. At the Queen's Birthday game 4 years ago , an absolutely standout feature to me was Collingwood's defensive pressure in every way. In particular, if we were awarded a mark or free kick , a Collingwood player would run at full pace from wherever to stand the mark and force our guy back. I was really upset that our guys were having it done to them, but were not reciprocating. I believe that was the year Neeld started at Collingwood . It was SO GOOD seeing our boys applying that sort of pressure last night.

No, not worried , just commenting . The fumbles of which I speak , both in the air and on the ground ,were in uncontested situations , but I take your point about the pressure . Just frustrating to watch . I think sometimes they just got ahead of themselves , and took their eye off the ball they assumed they would control.

Beautiful! Having said that , I hope the players' mindset is more positive about the venue . I know it's difficult after last year , but hopefully we can really do them there this year ! If we can keep up with last night's effort and do well in the first few games, gaining confidence , it's not beyond possible .

Apparently he was discharged from hospital about 1am. After a few hours sleep he did some usual fitness stuff, felt ok and thought he saw no reason why he couldn't ride . Lucky guy .

At one stage, I was beginning to wonder whether the ball had been smeared with vaseline, there were so many fumbles and dropped marks ,although now I think of it, when would the roof have been closed and how dry would the grass have been ? But in the midst of it all , Jones was like a magician , plucking the ball one-handed and on the run off packs and delivering it well with total ease. Loved the unrelenting fierceness on tackling and making the opposition accountable . Impressed with Fitzpatrick's physique .

Had at least one win at Flemington today

Showing some resistance here!

Any fracture may fail to unite whatever is done to it initially . Further surgery , including a bone graft , usually needed .

Have to say , my media philosophy is " Where Eddie is , I ain't " [ Apologies to one J Dyer , though I feel he would be sympathetic ]

Close. Grinter is from Katandra , a town not too far from Katamatite in the Goulburn Valley

Also used in humans as an anaesthetic agent , and for pain management

Couldn't agree more . He was pushed very hard out of the barrier to be in the front mix . Can't expect a young horse carrying 58 kg to turn it on at both ends of the race

Biff, refer you to your own posts on " Black Caviar " thread on "Other Sports " #14 : Black Caviar is dodging decent opposition " #17 : " Sepoy and her [sic] are dodging each other " #19 : " Moody places her in fields where Sepoy isn't " #24 : " Just a point of fact mate . They are avoiding each other for now " BTW , Sepoy [ who is a fine, fine horse ] really carved them up in the Oakleigh Plate yesterday.

There has been some Watts criticism here . There were several occasions when Watts was setting himself at half forward for a tussle [ at least one of them was a one-on-one as I recall ] when Clark came charging through from full forward with his man , came over the top and achieved little but disruption . I liked Clark's strength and presence , but its very very early days as these guys are working out how they work together. I usually take little interest in the preseason cup ,as I think it has little to no bearing on 22 rounds of 100 minutes of football involving the best available players , and worth 4 premiership points per round . I watched both games last night and took a lot of heart out of the positives I saw . I think there will occasionally be some reverting to poor play behaviours especially under pressure [ and in atrocious weather ] , but they started well in the 1st game , and finished well in the 2nd after backing up . Grimes' run off his player and out of the backline showed poise , agility and turn of speed , and was spinetinglingly exciting .