rumpole

What I like about this is your positivity. Time to take off the rose coloured glasses.

You mean David Cockatoo-Collins, don't you? Occasionally, Donald would get a kick.

You must support North Melbourne then!

I think it was the great Hawthorn Coach, Kanga Kennedy who, in a moment of sheer exaspertion, inspired his troops on to better things by calling on them to ... DO SOMETHING!!! That's what I'm asking of the Melbourne team today. My apologies for screaming!

Do you know who isn't playing from the squad of 29?

But where are our starts of the future and our big improvers for 2008?

I'm relieved - The Melbourne Age.

Thank the Lord!

This is the same newspaper that's been publishing lots of dirt about Wayne Carey, some of it true and a lot of it rumour and inuendo. I think Carey's a bit of a grub but FFS he still awaits trial for what he's been accused of and is entitled to a defence. The Age thought that was fair enough in the case of another grub in David Hicks and has been publishing articles supporting this confessed former terrorist and racist turning him into a people's hero and claiming he was just "misguided" when he went off to fight for Al Quaeda. I reckon there are double standards in operation at the Age and while I don't for a second endorse Carey, Hicks or Harris for that matter, it shows what happens when you have friends in the media and when you don't!

I don't think Geelong should have done anything. This shouldn't be a matter covered by "team rules". It a matter between the law and Johnson. I don't think if Johnson was employed for example by the Westernport Sewerage Authority that he would have an additional suspension above and beyond whatever sanction the law applies.

TAC has received its pound of flesh for its advertising dollar. I'm all for getting sponsorships but the TAC thing doesn't excite me in the way it leaves a sword over the heads of your players. Besides they only have to look at how some of our players have handled themselves over the off season and I doubt they would be interested. Let them sponsor Hawthorn or West Coast.

It was his knee that was injured early last year and his recovery was set back by some complications which sound like a possible infection. [censored] like this does happen sometime and he has to be managed through it properly. Sometimes this means patience and Clint is an important member of the team and so be it. He's young and the wait will be worth it.

Agreed. However, the fact that clubs are getting special distributions or handouts or whatever we want to call them should not mean that we don't work harder than ever to ensure we don't get into the mess that North Melbourne is in ATM.

I consider it a smartarse move and not a smart move at all. It's typical of the arrogance of Collingwood and McChins. It's bad enough that they have the easiest draw in the competition already (and then idiots like Old Xaverian whinge that it's not an easy draw when you play only 4 interstate games a season) but now he effectively wants 16 home games in Victoria and 6 away games in Queensland/or Sydney for which they would be handsomely compensated and never have the away disadvantage ever. That way they would never play in SA, WA or at Skilled Stadium. They might as well get two steak knives as well as the title to Sydney Harbour Bridge!

The same newspaper keeps referring to one of the draft chances as Trent Kotchin .

Debatable but only if you consider that Collingwood's 2 premierships in the 1950's were worth > Melbourne's 4 premierships in the 1950's which I doubt very much. I would take four flags ahead of two any day but your comment on this point says a lot about the standard of your debating which is becoming as insufferable as some of your fellow supporters at games. Could one of the moderators please put an end to this stupidity?

Rumour has it that the mfc has apparently told a host family to prepare for a kid from Perth.

How do you compare two players who play in different competitions? Masten has been playing senior football this year against men but Cotchin has played half a dozen TAC Cup games and most of the season with his school. The only times they played at the same level was in the U18s where Masten was AA and Cotchin disappointed. A player can be as brilliant as you like when playing with boys but if he can't adapt to playing with men that all means jack squat. Stevo's assessment is probably based in part on the fact that he knows Masten can cut it with the big boys.

Interesting because the judge will take 2 - 3 months sifting through the evidence before making up his mind and then passing on his report to the AFL for action. This conveniently avoids imposing any sanctions before this year's drafts and while that is fair enough, where does it leave those players and parents who have concerns about being drafted by a club that might be the most suitable of workplace environments for a young 17/18 year old.

And apparently he's with a big girl - Ben Cousins mystery blonde "A neighbour, who said that Ms Ela worked in the computer industry, said: "There are always men coming and going from her place." Is that computer dating by any chance?

Yeah, poor guy - "and was picked up at the airport by two mystery blonde women in a Mercedes-Benz sports car."

It's not as if all rejects turn out to be bad. Look at a few who couldn't make the gradeat one of the AFL's least successful clubs Fremantle. There's Peter Bell, James Clement, Brodie Holland, Nathan Carroll...even Trent Croad. Sooner or later we'll find one out there somewhere.

OH, AND A QUESTION ON NOTICE ABOUT DICKY BARRIE CASSIDY: Just one final question. Dick Pratt, guilty of price fixing on a massive scale. Is he a fit and proper person to remain President of the Carlton Football Club. PETER COSTELLO: Look, that's a matter for the Carlton Football Club. BARRIE CASSIDY: Hang on, why is it? When you say that it's a matter for ... the government has an interest in what players, whether they ought to be suspended for smoking marijuana, but for a president it's a matter are for the club? PETER COSTELLO: Well, the club elects its president, they can elect who they like. BARRIE CASSIDY: Clubs choose their players. PETER COSTELLO: But if you want my view on this episode, fixing prices is against the law. Nobody should do it. Our ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) has successfully investigated it. It's been the most successful investigation of a cartel ever. It's a serious contravention of the Act. It will go to the court. The ACCC has recommended an extremely large fine, which could well be the largest fine in Australian history and the court ought to decide what the fine should be.

Apparently the Wizard was his mentor this year. Does that help?

So the wrath of the football world is being felt by the West Coast Eagles over their handling of Ben Cousins and rightly so - the Eagles have failed to curb their rock star and the chickens are coming home to roost. But if the Eagles have been a party to bad behaviour by allowing Benny to put the game into disrepute, what about the Blues who have a history of leaders involved with rorting the system? Drug taking by individual players is certainly bad news for football but doesn't it also bring the game into disrepute if a club's leader is involved in large scale rorting of the system in the business world? This is especially so since good corporate governance is so vital to the orderly conduct of our football competition. Should the AFL look at taking away Carlton's draft picks?