Diamond_Jim

Liverpool played in Madrid last night in what is arguably the biggest sporting event of the year. They had bugger all tickets for the fans and it cost a fortune to get there. One would have thought that there was a call to fill Anfield with supporters etc etc but no there were just a couple of relatively small gatherings. The social club is dead... they went the way of the drinking barns of the seventies. Sure to some extent they were replaced by pokies venues but you cannot run a business based on 13 odd Saturday night's in winter.

The round the boundary advertising in the China game makes for interesting reading... It could be called the Gas and Ore cup with the big natural gas boys (Woodside etc) and iron ore (Rio Tinto, etc) figuring frequently. Strangely enough I haven't noticed BHP... the big Australian. Not too many detailed crowd shots but it looks Anglo Saxon in the main and less than half full. With a population of around 27 million in the greater Shanghai area one would have thought that free ticketing would provide a decent crowd.

Could be the new Rutherglen Red.... never actually took the trip but apparently it was legend.

The Port CEO was asked on radio what were the KPI's for the Shanghai game and his reply did not reveal one hard measurable outcome. If he doesn't know who does and why is AFL and Government money being wasted on it. He proudly announced that the AFL were the only foreign competition to play in China for championship points... durrrh perhaps that was telling them something

we are talking here of the next ten to twenty years DD so in that sense having a training facility that is within the proverbial bulls roar of other clubs is an issue.

Lots in that Mr Biffen I have however become resigned to the Casey deal and increasingly see it as the club saviour if we play our cards right. The inner city training ground is pie in the sky. We need to build on the Casey attachment by targeting our marketing dollar towards that area. The shotgun approach is okay for the power clubs but we have to be smarter. No different than political parties targeting marginal seats. How about a few subsidised buses from Casey to the MCG for instance.

Lot of sense in that post but perhaps Garlett out instead of Spargo. Jeff G on present form is not part of 2020. I'd also rest Jones for a game before or after the bye. JKH and Stretch need to be played. Looking forward, one or both are essential depth players for 2020. Lever definitely needs another run at Casey. His first up game was very rusty and while his first half last week was better it wasn't a full game. Melksham is due back a week or two after the bye. (Sorry make that 3-4 weeks post bye.) And then there is Preuss. Hopefully has a decent a game for Casey next week against the Pies. I would have played him in Darwin due to the conditions but his form against Werribee does not command a QB spot.

65-70% with a temp of around 27. Has been worse but a major change from Melbourne conditions. The humidity unless you are acclimatised is a "killer". That being said I have big respect for the Socceroos players who mange even bigger temperature changes during the World Cup qualification series. We should have insisted on a bye as part of the deal. The Shanghai slingers get one every year. Fixturing Darwin the week before QB was madness all round. Alice okay but not Darwin.

don't laugh we did that to Brisbane in their glory days. The Melbourne power clubs complained that we were gifting pints to the Lions.

Get along to Casey where we play the Pies on Sunday. Good chance of a win and the bacon and egg rolls are wonderful.

Not sure how many Crows supporters travel but probably equal to the number of MFC supporters.NT has been the home of the SA teams for years. The Port support is even bigger. The airfares from Melbourne are similar to those charged to fly to Asia and beyond plus the accommodation costs are among the highest in Australia. If we have to play outside Melbourne I'd like to see us play in Mildura.. (lobby for State Government money and it's a marginal seat.)

Playing a Queensland side or GWS would reduce the natural crowd bias. Playing WCE in Alice is a classic example of an own goal if the game meant anything this season. Strange you know... AFL would be desperate to get games in Darwin so it really should not be an issue demanding we play team X. The problem is we did a deal with the NT Government without doing a concurrent deal with the AFL. We can be so dumb off the field as well as on sometimes.

I pretty well gave up on this season around 3-5 weeks ago so I am happy to agree that last night and the WCE game showed some improvement in the form of key players. The continual injuries means we cannot get a settled line up. Cannot understand why Preuss was not played last night allowing Max to be used as a shock trooper. Hoping for some consistency from Weideman and a return to some form by Tom Mac. The other is May and Lever returning... not because they will make that much difference in the short term but because the team has to get used to playing with them in the side. Probably give the QB game a miss... there is something about losing to Collingwood that particularly depresses me...

Surprised by the 'surprise" expressed in the post game thread about the crowd being Pro Adelaide. NT has been a major supporter of South Australian teams for decades. Similarly due to geographical location Adelaide has always been the "big smoke" for NT residents. If anybody thinks we are building support in the NT by this fiasco they believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden and that Port will have 200M Chinese followers after today. It's about money pure and simple. A few people have been potting Pert lately but I'm not sure he has had much time to do anything wrong. Last year IIRC Jackson re- signed us to another four years of ignominy in the North. If Pert can get rid of these games he'll have my backing for that alone. No one else does such a ridiculous transition... (Port in China is a joke)... Tasmania is reasonable and will change soon when North relocates (I hope.) Even the Bulldogs are now paid to play in Ballarat whereas in recent years they were sent to Cairns. Last year all the members had to pay $5 to go on the waiting list for GF tickets that never eventuated. We happily paid it. Would we each pay $5 to Ditch Darwin.

let's be positive... we may have thrown it away but I think it's our smallest loss for this irrelevant season.. perhaps we are improving

not soon enough

nah it's the same one

I think that the aim of this game is to kick goals but at least we are scoring

and here they come.......

Gawn with two crucial mistakes due to tiredness... where is his relief

25 degrees with 60% relative humidity... who knows who will last but fitness is not exactly our strong point

After having 23 disposals up to the 25 minute mark of the second quarter, with almost twenty minutes gone in the third quarter Oliver for the Demons has only registered one more additional disposal, an effective handball.

Oliver.....one possession this quarter

a few upsets this round... perhaps we could add to them for the wild optimists a top 4 finish became more likely over the last 24 hours.

Casey Radio expert commentator criticizing the Casey gameplan and saying the team is going backwards. Sounds dismally familiar