Diamond_Jim

At the stadium now. Small crowd.. 2k...maybe. 1.8k Syrians. No sign of rain and quite warm with high humidity.

No rain overnight and the usual warm day here in malacca. Kick off is quite late... 8.30pm local time. I assume this is for broadcast reasons back to Syria. I'll post again from the ground if possible.

Apparently Syria have been getting some of their stars back and they are now a relatively strong team. The socceroos must have just about had a record number of shots on goal in that last game against Thailand. It was that draw in Bangkok that caused them all this trouble.

Here's a picture of the goal set up. Look closely at the back posts. Sorry... Just cannot seem to get the picture to upload

Safely in melaka. A lot of rain between here and kl but melaka itself seems dry. Just went to the stadium looking for tickets. Like many things here not quite organised like we are used to. Anyway wandered in and had a good look at the pitch. Sand with flat weed type grass. My kids school has better goal posts. Actually looked a little dangerous. Found a guy who said I could get a ticket tomorrow and that they are training at 6pm tonight. It is only a few minutes from the hotel so I will go down and have a look. I wonder when these guys last played in front of what is likely to be a very small crowd.

You are probably right but it is a smart play by Collingwood as it re-enforces the 2 first round pick argument. Draft period is like chess but think three dimensional chess .... you have to look at several angles and ask what is Collingwood's end game.

Late second round or early third is my thinking. A stand out young VFL player ... he will be looked at by all clubs. Hard to see him slipping beyond the third round at the latest. The only question mark is whether he is too slight for AFL but from what I saw he has the goods. Also of course the Richmond win means that players like Fritsch may not be considered the model AFL footballer.

another middle level at best game... not sure why we are so excited Last week the standard defence was that they won by so much the ball did not come his way often. This week is that the Tigers forward line was too small. Hope he finds Goldilock's bowl etc if he comes to the Dees and everything is .... just right !!

Just preparing for the big trip to Melaka next week. Well it is not really that far ... about 500k but in the Malaysian context that is big ........ Car is serviced .. went for shave and haircut while that was being done. Boy when you get the old second scrape you don't need a shave for days. Tickets still a conundrum. The Australian Supporters group are offering a match day package for A$250. Hell one could live for a month on that. Present plan is to rock up to the stadium the day before and with my impeccable Bahasa Malay vocab (usually used only at the nasi kandar stall) make inquiries of anyone I might find. In keeping with Malaysian tradition my most important decision will be where to stop for lunch. Bean sprouts and chicken in Ipoh perhaps or roti cenai at Kuala Kangsar. The roads are very good with big clean roadside stops replete with food halls about every 100kms. Local coffee is fantastic. The local greeting by the way is often not hello .. but rather is sudah makan kah which loosely translates to "have you eaten yet". Looking forward to trying the Portuguese styled Nonya food around Jonkers Walk in the evening. Last week we had the tail end of the typhoon that hit Vietnam. Did it ever rain. The west coast of Malaysia is actually very benign when it comes to weather events due to the massive island of Sumatra being a mere 100 or so kilometres across the Starits of Malacca. So fingers crossed for no rain. Local coverage of this match in the media is about nil ... well from what I have found it is nil. So until the next exciting instalment...

On the AFL site 15 Crows players were ranked in front of Lever for last night's game. Their comment was: Jake Lever – 5 Has set a high standard for himself this season and was not quite up to that level. Did his best to float across and impact contests when he could. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-09-22/every-crow-rated-from-the-first-preliminary-final-

were you guys watching a different game.... not even in their top 15 in tonight's game I am sure he is better but not tonight Would you call him in the top 3 or 4 Crows players because that is what we are going to pay this guy... $800k per year ??

I'm driving down to Malacca (or Melaka as it is called here) to watch the game on 5 October. Not sure how to buy a ticket but it should not be too much of a problem ... the Syria v Uzbekistan game had 350 people. The stadium holds 40,000. Weather will be hot (around 29) and high humidity. It is the inter monsoon phase at present so a decent thunderstorm is quite on the cards. If you guys are interested I can give you a match report concentrating mainly on the colour and the food. Doubt that there will be a beer at the stadium.

what a sheltered life I have been leading.....

Trying to recall the last "big fish" we traded for. I suppose it was Mitch Clark. Dees don't have a good record when it comes to ending up on top in the big trades. Starting with my name sake and moving on... Peter Moore, Kelvin Templeton and the list goes on and on. Hope this deal proves me wrong ... different times... different players. Overall I prefer the slightly lower profile trades like Hibberd for a second rounder or whatever it was.

Not sure if this made the Australian media but it certainly makes one stop and think ... what the hell was he doing: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2017/09/17/german-man-penis-gets-stuck-in-gym-weight-plate-rescue-effort-takes-3-hours/ "A man in the German city of Worms had his penis stuck in the hole of a 2.5kg gym weight plate on Friday, forcing fire-fighters to use power tools to free it."

ah,,, a mere detail but the point remains the same

Understand but the only diff between the two is that Port can say no and insist the player honour his contract . What club would do that after the Gary Ablett fiasco

While we talk Lever it is interesting to recall what Dangerfield was traded for. Considering he is the best player in recent times to be traded he is a good benchmark. "GEELONG has sealed the Patrick Dangerfield trade with Adelaide. The Cats have given up young midfielder Dean Gore as well as picks No.9 and No.28 to snare the superstar midfielder. The Cats gain Dangerfield and Adelaide's third-round draft pick, currently No.50. Gore was pick No.55 at the NAB AFL Draft but was on the verge of senior selection early in 2015 before he suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to miss seven weeks. He then returned strongly to be part of the selection mix late in the season averaging more than 20 touches a game at VFL level on at least three occasions. " http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-10-12/young-cat-set-to-move-home-as-part-of-dangerfield-deal So for one of the best players in the league Geelong gave up pick 9 and 28 plus a VFL player. It seems to me that offering our first and second round for Lever is by comparison way overs.

Sounds believable AF....... if GWS don't win next year I do see some of their players leaving. There is just so long that you can ignore the money that will be thrown at some of them

First saw Fritsch play in the opening round this year at Williamstown. Early in the first quarter someone took a strong pack mark. From the pack emerged this young beanpole. When he did it again shortly thereafter I looked up my trusty guernsey numbers as provided by KC to find out that the guy was called Fritsch. Watched him at four or five other games and while mainly hoping for a break out game by the Weed I could not help but notice that this guy was always a chance for a mark and good goal. Would be interesting to hear from others how he does tackle wise and when the ball is on the ground. There seems to be little doubt that he is the top pick from the VFL for the coming draft. The only question is which club will blink first in fear that he may not get to their pick in the next round. My guess is a late second rounder and if not he will be gone by the time our third round comes around.

he won't be there 3rd round is what most think

has the potential ability to be a Gunston type player ........ definitely worth considering

Harry had a job telling lottery winners that they had won the big one. IIRC it was for the Oz version of the UK soccer pools. Big money for the winners. Because H was a trusted figure many would ask H what they should do with their money. It was alleged that H received an undisclosed commission from some of these investments in return for his recommendation. With the general economic collapse in '89 these schemes went bad and Harry's role came to light. Rex H was not a fan of Harry as I recall. Anyway he did his time and should now be remembered for the larger than life character that he was. Footy was a very different game in the days of radio and 3AW was king in the late70's and '80's. His sidekick Tommy Lahif was a mad Port supporter and was a real genuine character.

Excuse me for not reading all of the 23 pages but I have dipped in and out of this thread a few times. A couple of questions. 1.Will we have to trade picks and/or players to get him? 2. 600K sounds light in current terms and if it is more what does it do for retaining the large number of key players we need to sign next year?

Of course we could add in the opening of the stadium entry doors (thus creating a wind) to help the home team. This apparently worked wonderfully well for the Russian javelin throwers at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.