Diamond_Jim

Excellent point but the cynical might suggest as follows: Pokies benefit some clubs and the victims are the "Aussie Battlers" who the AFL pretend to support while lapping at the corporate trough.... betting benefits the AFL through endorsements and increased TV rights etc and while perceived as a problem is not as insidious as pokies. (Given time it may well become so.)

350 in front with 6 wickets in hand. Touch wood but I think we have this one ....... about two mins after I post this we lose a wicket so I will shut up !!

They have just finished a test series at home against India which was a very exciting series. If you think about it a Test series played at this time in Australia would not rate that well either. Not sure how you solve the problem that other than England most of the Test teams are in the Southern hemisphere and in India they like to play in their winter when it is a little cooler. Was in Kolkata last week ... 33 degrees every day at the end of winter !!

Is Winx still heading to Ascot later in the year? Good luck with your selections guys

Interesting vibe on the board these days. Starting to feel like 1987 where a lot of players that had been okay to that time started to have a real impact. The Febey brothers come to mind as a good example. Hopefully this is Salem's year. No doubt he has the talent.

Thought it might be time for a World Cup logistics update for those who are interested. I planned to drop into Moscow for three nights before heading onto my base in Kazan. Booked a hotel through Agoda in the normal way with attendance guaranteed by credit card and then started hearing all these horror stories about hotels in Moscow cancelling bookings for the WC. Emailed the hotel twice but no reply. Did a dummy booking at the hotel and was told 4 nights minimum stay (I had booked for 3 nights) and the rate had increased.I got in touch with Agoda and they had their Russian speaking consultant phone the hotel and supposedly my booking is good. Who knows... so if you guys know of a couch that I can share in Moscow it could be good back up. Now onto Kazan where I have booked an Air bnb. Have used airbnb all around the world for the last few years and they are great. The big plus is the payment system. Airbnb act as the broker and no probs with false sites etc and payment is so simple. Russia however has a twist for foreign visitors. Usually if you are in any city for more than 7 days you need to formally register your presence with the authorities. For the WC the requirement to register has been reduced to 24 hours if you are in a WC host city. Registration requires a personal visit by you and the host to the authorities. Nobody knows how this mass registration is going to work in practice. My Kazan airbnb host with whom I communicate by means of google translate has no idea either. Such joys ... but all part of the adventure.... PS Is Timmy ever going to get onto the park with Milwall??

Not one for conspiracy theories but I would like to know more about this medical report. Really is time for independent medico reports perhaps.

what can one say .... hope it gets some media attention because that was soft

Would like to see this list down to 2 or 3 players. Add Mckenna and Jetta and you have 10 players ... around 25% of the list. They are in the main minor but if we are to succeed this year the injury list is a KPI in itself. In theory it could be down to VdB, Smith, McKenna and Viney by JLT 2. That would be great.

Play him in JLT 2 and we'll see. At VFL level he is a wonderful player and today's performance obviously lost him no fans. Like others I think we may have a player on our hands (fingers crossed). If he can emulate say Gunston in his better years I will be over the moon. At VFL level he is an incredibly good pack mark.

Good points .. just wondering if some see Hogan possibly developing into a Dustin Martin type player ie a tall strong bodied mid fielder who is very difficult to tackle

Interesting and reasonably obvious that he was going to play at CHF at the very least. Playing in the midfield...what does that mean these days? Not sure myself. Riewoldts (both of them ) have played up the ground but have never been called midfielders . similar with Franklin. Last year we did not score heavily (other than the occasional blitz in one quarter) which made many games a lot closer than perhaps they should have been. Hopefully we can get on the board more often this year. It does seem however that Goodwin is firmly in the camp of the Bulldogs and Tigers when it comes to gameplans as compared to say those of Adelaide and GWS. Does not make for pretty football but if it works I will not complain.

Interesting I assume he got a raise for 2018 and then a good amount for 2019 and 2020. Must have meant that they had some salary cap movement left for this season which is no surprise given the renewals we are facing at end of season. Well executed by the club and would love to see one or two others signed in the next few months.

I agree Dr D...that is the point .. we should be on an upward trend at this time of the year. Have a look at Essendon for example with their push for 70,000 members. There is no doubt that the Collingwood game not to mention a few others put a spoke in the wheels of our sputtering bandwagon. Win the first three games and we might still be able to trend upwards but to stand still in this game is to go backwards.

some useless info for you guys as you watch the match... From the Guardian live report: It might surprise you to learn that going to the Superbowl is incredibly expensive. Tickets aside, once at the stadium a bottle of water costs $6 and a slice of pizza with a soda is $21. ESPN sent their writers into the bowels of the US Bank Stadium to check out the prices. Here are their findings results. Personal favorite: the Justin Timberlake inspired J-Tea cocktail. $35.

a $600 million valuation on a "revenue" flow of $500K... now that is what I call a seriously unbalanced P/E ratio. Ok guys I'm sure that between us we can come up with the next best version of sliced bread and we'll all be in clover

That is what Goodwin is paid for... no finals = new coach There is no question he has the cattle and this year there are no excuses.

What did you guys think of Halt and Catch Fire? I thought the first three seasons were great but perhaps the last season could have been a little tighter in its scripting and plot line. For those who liked the Good Wife, the cable version now just about to start of its spin off (second season), the "Good Fight" is a very watchable show. The new British dramas, the Girlfriends and MacMafia are okay also, without being up there with some of the more recent British shows. And of course there is a new season of Spiral (Engrenage).... one of my long time favourites. Glad you are enjoying Ozark Macca...wonder how many seasons it will run And I'll also vote for Maigret !

What did you guys think of Halt and Catch Fire? I thought the first three seasons were great but perhaps the last season could have been a little tighter in its scripting and plot line. For those who liked the Good Wife, the cable version now just about to start of its spin off (second season), the "Good Fight" is a very watchable show. The new British dramas, the Girlfriends and MacMafia are okay also, without being up there with some of the more recent British shows. And of course there is a new season of Spiral (Engrenage).... one of my long time favourites. Glad you are enjoying Ozark Macca...wonder how many seasons it will run And I'll also vote for Maigret !

When the market starts shorting your stock watch out. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Profits though are over rated it seems... just look at Facebook, Uber etc and the other darlings that lose money hand over fist. Facebook will probably come good simply because marketers cannot ignore the platform (unfortunately)but Uber will always be an easy target for competition. In Asia it is Grab for example. Good Luck Macca .. if someone's going to make the money it may as well be an ex Demon

too many funeral company ads on 3AW ... we are obviously not their target audience OD .... stick to JJJ Actually I have gravitated to Smooth FM... not too many ads

Looking at that list other than Petracca and Tom Mc Donald (UFA) you would think that most would sign on as the year progresses. Good players among the rest but no real stars. 2019 has Hogan and Oliver amongst others. Would like to see them both signed this year but who knows.

Don't blink... you may miss it https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/10/slow-train-coming-sbs-to-air-17-hour-ghan-train-on-sunday Following the success/controversy of airing a three-hour extract of a train trip through the Australian outback, SBS has decided to air a 17-hour version of the journey on Sunday. Could be interesting... trying to remember but didn't SBS have a test pattern or similar years ago that rated quite well?

you're probably right but if we could improve the accuracy he would make a useful addition. Definitely on trial for 2018 but I suspect the modern unstructured game might suit him in the sense that at least he can find the ball unlike JKH and others

Starting to get a little concerned about how long it is taking Timmy Cahill to find a new club. At his time of leaving Melbourne City, Muscat opined that Timmy had already lined somewhere up but it is now one month later and nothing. Hard to think of a club that will give him good service and also be prepared to take on a stop gap striker that wants guaranteed game time. A genuine conundrum which I hope is quickly settled. Of course he may take the view that as the A league is ending in around a month he really has little to lose by not playing in that league. Perhaps a third level European club might be an answer (assuming he can't get a second level club)