Earl Hood

Is it a reasonable assumption to guess that The Prince is in Rio? He is not at the club, we know that much and it seems Misson doesn't know much more either.

Scott Lucas on SEN went through some stats for this season for the best Ruck and midfielder combo 1 Max & N Jones 50 clearances 2 Max & Viney 49 3 Max & Tyson 47 next best Nic Nat & Priddis 42 seems to point to dominance in the primary function for a ruckman

They also need a better FIXture next year. They had a lot of 6 day turn arounds after they travelled if I heard it correctly. That would be a start. Then they need to get their development coaches right, no use sending kids up there with poor development programs. Their problem has been the kids keep leaving, why so many?

Steve Your quote from Misson doesn't sound like the club is in total control of his recovery plan.

Good idea bring it on! Would give us pick 19 and we don't have a first rounder. We might pick up a Brad Green type.

I still think the 1957 sci fi film The Giant Claw set the bar as low as it can go for worst film! B grade actors trying to keep straight faces while delivering static dialogue, talking about a rediculous special effect passing for a giant outer space bird! Great movie in retrospect but still in the running for worst!

Agree RL under Neeld we were as low as you can get on win/loss, percentage, record low Brownlow votes, you name it we were a joke but did not qualify for a PP . So that set the precedent, in my opinion, that the PP does not exist anymore, short of a Man U air crash tragedy scenario.

If the hit had been on a hard surface such as Etihad or MCG in early season I think Clarrie's medical report might have been worse. His head hit the deck pretty hard but the ground is soft. The duty of care is on the tackler these days, everything depends on the medical assessment. One of the camera angles certainly makes the hit look high, the other doesn't but as has been said earlier the two spear tackles were potentially much worse but not even picked up on the radar. Surely the Dawks would be talking to Cyril about the spear tackles before he gets rubbed out for over stepping the mark and missing finals.

Good summary, the club might want to keep one of Dunn and Garland as insurance, that would be 7 outs, given we have limited picks in the draft we may only want 6 or so changes, and one might be Mitch King as well.

Can't sign off on that. The Weed did a lot right on Saturday, two kicks, two goals and numerous handballs to set up others. When I think back he didn't fumble a ball, very composed kid, yes he could have done more but what he did do he did well. He should get another game.

No not at all. Cyril continually operates on the limits of what is acceptable. He is after all the master at tacking, a la Aaron Davey, except Aaron was fair. A few years ago it was chicken winging players, that is Cyril grabbing players by one arm in a tackle but lifting their arms up and backward as they moved into a contest and causing maximum damage. We saw very similar behaviour yesterday. Attempted spear tackles on two occasions as well as the shirtfront on Oliver that was high but not paid, no doubt Cyril will get off but don't ask me why.

I don't drink flat whites, so not sure what all this is about? I am more your macchiato man, no room for pretentious coffee art there! I think Moons drinks Earl Grey Tea these days. But yes there are issues re the Spratleys that Moons and I need to discuss now that you mention it.

ANB is a keep for me. He just needs some time.

Best since 2006 for sure!

Yes Emerald I have brought my Guava sales samples with me to take on South America myself after the Olympics, if I happen to pick up a bronze or silver, that would be a bonus. I have learnt my lesson after letting the likes of Uncle B do my bidding in Asia, a highly expensive debacle. Better I make my own contacts and sales in Brazil and then off further south.

Yes there have been some misunderstandings this week but I have emerged a better person I believe. And yes I have been off the air recently as I have been in transit to Rio following a distress call from Kitty to back up for the tennis squad! Kyrios has pulled the pin so I am there if needed for doubles action! Bring it on.

Choke I agree with your thoughts on Rudd and his climate change Squibb and his many other foibles but I always find the discussion of the problems of the stimulus package during the GFC interesting. Joe Hockey used to go on about the stimulus package waste with over priced school halls etc, the bonus cheques posted out to pensioners and of course the infamous pink batts insulation program. That completely missed the point in my mind. The problem with these "in hind sight" comments is that at the time you had no idea of what the economy was facing and was going to do. With such uncertainty you know businesses are going to reduce spending and investing, they are going to start unloading employees etc, sending our economy into free fall, like what happened in the U.S. and parts of Europe. Rudd responded by pumping money into construction, sending cheques to pensioners and others to ensure that money would be spent and pumped immediately into the economy to stimulate demand. This was a classic Keynsian economic response to a downturn, and it worked. You had to put money into poorer people's hands as you know they will spend it. And you had to sponsor ready to go construction programs such as school shelters that can be designed and built relatively quickly. Yes there were rip offs and inefficiencies but it was about getting cash into the hands of those who might spend it. It it seems to have worked well so far.

Fair enough Choke the Rudd for UN thing is all rhetorical really, who cares. But I am curious about your comment that he made a fool of you. In what way? Was it His retreat on climate change? The mining tax, the pump priming after the GFC? These are often thrown up to be a part of his problems but mostly tje problem was his people management ability. By the time he returned to be PM he didn't have time to do much damage.

The latest update from Fitzroy Street is the police have some guy in a light blue Hawaiin tee shirt cornered on the roof of the Gatwick Inn. I wonder what this is all about?

Our injury list hasn't looked this good since about 2000! And before then probably 1988. So best injury list for two years out of the last 28. Gee aren't we lucky. Our injury levels resemble the Hawks injury free list for the past 5 years. They have had a full list (best 30 players) to choose from for the GF every year since 2012. You need some luck to win finals but the Dawks have cornered the market when it comes to lack of injuries to key players and any players for that matter when it counts!

Biff what the hell is going on News reports are that the Gat is surrounded by police and they in a stand off with some desperate character! Haven't you been paying your bills?

I am not sure I always see what we are trying to do. Watching yesterday I could not understand our obsession with looking to move the ball into the corridor. Passing into the middle from the back pocket or flank is fraught with danger and we coughed it up numerous times. If it had come off we were still not in a great position as there are plenty of opposition players there to defend because we are so predictable. And we are not using the full width of the MCG because we are always looking for the Middle option, this played into the Suns game plan yesterday as they were determined to clutter up the play at all costs to cover their deficiencies. We aided them by reducing the area of play. A number of times on the southern wing I saw our players coming out of defence who did not see MFC players on their own on the HF boundary and chose instead to kick to a contest at CHF that set up the Suns defenders for a run back their way. My other related issue is our penchant for switching play in the back line, you do it to open up loose players on the opposite flank I thought but we just do it, then find there aren't targets up field so we go back or across to the other flank or kick inboard to a contest at CHB. The switch seems to be an incomplete set play, the backs are programmed to do it but the mids and forwards up the line are not Aware of the plan.

Choke you might be right but it should be the UN selection committee's job to determine Rudd's suitability for the job, not Malcolm. In terms of qualifications he ticks the boxes, former PM, foreign minister and now it turns out DFAT had advised the PM that Rudd was a suitable candidate. And I am not sure in party sniping discounts one, given Kurt Waldheim once had the job. His former employment as a Nazi commander in WW11 didn't go against him.

Or game plan? I assume the players are playing to instructions that are based on what they practice at training! Just a guess by me, it may be all quite different and maybe players make it up as they go.

Jesse slid into the point post with his knee in the second quarter to take a mark. Got up gingerly, took the kick, stuffed that up and hobbled off the ground. Came back on later but he was hobbling, kicked another set shot point I think but dare I say it he should not have come back on at all.