Diamond_Jim

By the way would anyone like to comment on the penalty given to England against Colombia. Not a soccer expert but it looked like the clumsiest act I have ever seen and so worth a penalty. My only question and I am not sure it is relevant to a penalty is that Kane did not seem to be in a realistic spot to score. The Colombians are still complaining backed by no one better than Diego "hand of God" Maradona. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/05/colombia-dirtiest-team-ive-ever-played-against-john-stones

Great first season... Has really cemented his spot. In the top 15 of the club at present if not near the top ten.

Well a big couple of days coming up with the quarter finals. No real stand out teams but France and Brazil probably the most skilful. Other than Russia who would surprise if they make the next round one would not be surprised with any result. Hopefully not 4 matches decided by penalties though.

Storm pulling away. 3 plays 1 on the ladder. Hell... the Storm are consistent....wish we were

Must say other than his brain fades I like Bugg. People lament his accuracy but kicking 1:4 shows he at least gets the ball. Frankly the ins do nothing for me in the sense we have had many weeks over recent years where the same merry go round of players go in and out. We should win this weekend but it says nothing about where we are going.

Quite interesting following the soccer with the Russian and now Georgian commentators. Cannot understand a word which shows how unnecessary they are. Just need them on to give a bit of crowd noise.

Macca, if Russia beat Croatia the lid will really come off. Only 37 in the beautiful city of Tbilisi today. Georgian wines are thought to be amongst the oldest in the world so I am doing my best to research as many as I can during my week here. They are rather good and not too expensive.

Wagner's extension shows that we are still waiting for someone to come through and take the Lewis/Vince roles. While there are a few at VFL level it is apparent that even fewer are as they would say bashing down the door. Hopefully someone surprises.

yep.. relative humidity is the term you should be looking at. In simple terms the hotter the temp the more water the air can hold and thus you feel a lot "wetter"at 30% humidity with a temp of 27 than with 30% at a temp of 17. Thus the term relative tries to standardise the comparison

Strange with his injury history that he did not return to cricket. I would assume that as captain of the U19 Australian team that he could get a game at State level or in one of the shorter forms of the game. That being said making it to the top in cricket makes the AFL system look like child's play.

yeah but you have to think tactically we have so many must wins coming up and a fit Gawn is essential. Not saying it's an easy match. In fact by playing it in the humidor we have turned a regulation win into a 60/40 game. Hell...I hate this Darwin match

don't yell, but on that basis play Pedersen instead of Gawn in Darwin. (Pity the other VFL ruckmen are so far from ready.) Gawn is essential for the remaining games. Let's face it if we can't beat Freo with some of our stars being rested we're not going anywhere anyway !!

That second half of the Belgium v Japan game was amazing. I had a long hot day (power outage included) in Tbilisi so after a boring first half I followed the second half on the Guardian blog before going back for what I thought was sure to be extra time. How wrong can one be.. five goals in a half and the winner with 8 seconds to go. On a different note the penalty taking is not subject to VAR so early movement by the keeper is not monitored. Wonder if this will change

There's no magic bullet at VFL level as we all know. The answer is the game plan and getting players to perform to their potential. We have a decent list and now is the time. Sure do a little trading and try some other players at the right time but make no mistake this is a coaching department issue.

Yep time to slowly head back ... (might have been a bit quicker if the Dees had been on a roll) Four weeks in Russia was enough... great experience.. saw 5 games. The tickets get much harder to obtain from the quarter final stage and quite expensive. Quarter final tickets are US$320 for example and the accomodation costs are very high during the WC period. Mind you the food and drink is very cheap and top quality. I am now in Tbilisi Georgia. The travel people call it the new Prague. Great old city with good food and wine plus it's very cheap. For example I'm in a two bedroom airbnb and out of the large number I have stayed in over the years this is up at the top. The price... $40 a night. If only it wasn't so hot ... may have to return outside the summer months. It's a big weekend getaway spot for all the expats in the Middle East.

A past player that I think we all admired in how he stuck with it... such bad luck

Well I can tell you the old Soviet apartment blocks in Kazan are rumbling with the cheers of the locals after that win !!! Off to Georgia tonight on the 4:30am flight

Yep they do like their food here ! Now we are off to Penalty Lotto Old Vlad must be upset that he didn't drop in for this one

one has to wonder what can be done to make VFL matches more useful other than exercise.

I'd have no problem playing four or five at Casey next week for the purpose of avoiding Darwin. As you say every game is a must win and we need to look towards the remainder of the season. If we cannot beat Freo with a few players out we are stuffed anyway which after today is probably right.

Lewis and Vince will go when someone from Casey forces them out. So far there really haven't been any standout players in that regard. Hunt injured and the perennial Wagner doesn't instil much confidence that a change will come soon. Playing Petty on the back of a few reasonable games smacked of desperation

ok. I see where you're coming from.. but a player needs to do more than be a relieving ruckman. By playing Pedersen in the backline at VFL level I think the coaching staff have officially removed him from consideration at least for the present.

maybe ....I'd go TSmith instead of Pedersen... Pedersen just doesn't gel with the other two forwards. Petty was too early and an unnecessary selection ... I would like to think we will be tactical about Darwin and think of the following week. Perhaps TomMac has a rest for example. Would be interested to hear more about Jetta... he did not look himself today.

I think we need to revisit the idea of playing the third tall in the forward line together with tallish players such as Melksham and Hannan. T Smith may not be the answer but we look so much better when he is the mix and the same goes for Spargo. Garlett has done nothing at VFL level but I'm desperate enough to try him but how his breakaway plays can work in a crowded forward line I cannot see. To state the obvious the key is Hogan returning to 20 plus possession games. Let's be honest we are now at that stage of the season where the coach needs to do some rethinking as we're not going anywhere with this gameplan.

no as someone posted earlier... we don't do comebacks