Earl Hood

I thought the player waiting for the ball to arrive and holding his ground had a right to be protected from someone coming at them running with the flight of the ball and sticking their knee up to spoil. It was up to Hodge to spoil without making any contact. The rules must have changed since I played the game

Free kick for hands in back, shoulder and didn't hold it on the way down, other than that could have been a great non grab!

Another free in front of goal for the Dorks. Unbelievable. The umpires have lost it completely, they are overturning decisions all over the place.

Hodge knee in guts going against the flight of the ball to a port player waiting for the ball. Play on. WTF.

Only problem with your argument is that 50% of ex Johnny Howard battlers aren't union members these days so any greasing of palms is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars here and there, as the $50M Abbott Union Royal Commission found. It affects a few thousand people not 5 or 6 million voters. What was the lie? That Medicare is being dismantled bit by bit until we have an equivalent of the U.S. health system? It is inevitable and both LNP and Labour are going to watch it happen. It will probably happen earlier under the LNP that is all. Both parties are too timid to take on the medical profession and the multinational medical companies to control over servicing and their rates for services. The country is allowing too many GPs to have licenses to operate and specialists to charge what they like.

Two sets of rules going on here. How many gifted goals to the Dorks off 50/50 frees? When you play away at a cauldron like Adelaide usually the local side gets the run of the decisions, not tonight.

By universally you mean LNP ministers, assorted LNP spokespeople and the cheer squad down at News Corp? The fact is the numerous opinion polls taken from 8 weeks out to the day before the election hardly moved from 50/50 or 51/49 to labour one poll then LNP the next. If you look at the polls voters had formed their opinions from very early on. Forget scare campaigns, Turnbull did little to convince people he had a vision although that said convincing 50% of voters, most of whom are battlers, that a cut to the company tax rate is in your interests is no mean feat.

The outcome of this election is a minor issue for me now. I am reeling from the news that Lois Lane passed away just last Sunday and this a mere 9 months after the passing of Jimmy Olsen! And we lost Lady Penelope and Wilbur Post earlier this year! These are tragic times indeed. Why would I care who will rule this place now?

Moons I think Julia should be setting up a consultancy available to both sides to guide them through the art of negotiation first to form a minority government, then how to work legislation through that circus, called the senate. For all that she was vilified by the conservative press and a clod like Abbott who could not negotiate his way out of a wet paper bag, she was masterful in negotiating legislation through a near hung lower house and a potentially hostile Senate. Although negotiating sensibly with Pauline might be a bridge too far, even for Julia.

ABC 2 TV had the same story in their 7 p.m. News tonight, Lumumba has concussion again after head knock in VFL. What is it with so many head hits this year? Brayshaw, Lumumba, have hardly played, I suppose all we can assume is the AFL and the clubs are more attuned to the issue and its repercussions so we now take it more seriously.

Didn't see the game either but heard Roosey at his post match pressed call his 14 possession game one of the best he has seen for contested possession, running, bringing others into the game, his defensive efforts and his running goal. So I guess his game wasn't too bad.

BJ I looked at importing bananas from Cuba last year to overcome the darstardly Panama disease but all Cuban bananas bend to the left as you look at them. So they are not straight but both Castro bothers assured me there is no such thing as LGBTI anything in Cuba, it is just Western capitalist propaganda so if it is bent, at least to the left it can also be straight!

Not me. I am currently in FNQ and eating bananas every day and haven't noticed any men looking at me, women yes, men no.

Gee as of 8.20 p.m. Tonight, the election has finally got interesting!

I have been somewhat insensitive as I just realised that today marks the 55 anniversary of Ernest's uhm, err, shall we say untimely death; no wonder he was in no mood for an ale at his own brewery last evening.

Ernie where are you? I am having an ale at Hemingway's Brewery at the Marina in Port Douglas as I write this but you are no where to be seen! The place only opened two weeks ago so don't tell me you got bored with the humid weather and headed south. You gave me the slip in Havana last year, now Port Douglas.

So NB do you have one, two or more alternatives? When you need 50.1% of the vote but about 20% of voters are swingers and many of them are the least knowledgable of politics, public affairs and dare I say about anything much to do about society outside their personal worlds, well it is all going to get pretty banal, with zero risk policies. And it gets worse because it is largely about the least sophisticated voters in a handful of marginals. We may be talking about a few hundred thousand people in a close election. And most elections are close because both major parties are tracking each other, policy for policy. It is all about not making a big mistake, and alienating somevoters in a marginal seat. A lot about positive spending promises and no tough saving decisions. That said I don't believe we need too many harsh saving decisions, we just need to get companies and people paying their fair share of tax, get rid of some the tax shelters and give aways to industries (e.g. the diesel rebate to miners) and the budget will come back into balance. And we won't all be rooned!

Choke as a member of an industry fund I am interested in "the issues". I know there are plenty of issues with Retail funds!

And that is it for UK and Eurovision as well. Did voters think this one through?

Yes they did vote for it. but what are the consequences? And it has jack shyte to do with the left, this Brexit poll came from the conservative right of Cameron, he, called it and I suspect England will wear the negative consequences. The United Kingdom is about to become very un United as I see it. Scotland will be off some time soon as they voted 62% for EU. And so did the young vote stay versus the older voters who said Go. This is a recepie for state failure, accentuating the divisions between generations, income, regions and ethnic origins.

Uncle, as they say every cloud has a silver lining, here I am holed up in my Wet Tropics rainforest hideaway with Conchita, North of The Daintree basking in 28 degree temperatures and humidity. Certainly better here than freezing my you know what's in Melbourne. My Fitzroy and Surf Coast bastions have been overrun by Asian looking ruffians demanding money for what do you know why? So I have retreated North and as you can see I have gone undercover in disguise. For the record there has been no word from Hudson since he went to confront the ruffians in Fitzroy, seems like he has taken one for Team Hood! Good man Hudson but he was close to retirement so better him than me as you would understand.

RL has Mr Biccardi still got old Fidel Castro in his sights for retribution? It's been 60 years since the revolution and I think Bicardi, Hershy and the United Fruit Company still want their assets back. The Biccardi building in Havana is a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture.

Sylvia, Blease come to mind. I think we have had our fair share of dumb footballers but not so many skilled, dumb footballers.

Just to let DLanders know that I may be off the air for some time. There have been some problems at my Fitzroy Warehouse and I have had to beat a retreat to my Surf Coast enclave. For some reason my Warehouse was invaded by some asian looking types looking for trouble and yelling about some unpaid invoices. I haven't seen Hudson since I sent him to evict them from the premises. I myself being a master of disguise was of course able to slip straight past the thugs and get to the Bentley unscathed. I am not sure what this is all about, they must be Chinese agents seeking the secret essence of Guava formula. I fear Uncle may be involved in this somewhere!

DC we tried to recall him last week but he has "Gone Rogue" on us. Yesterday's audit report has found excessive travel costs, zero evidence of Uncle contacting our prospective franchisees in China and worse still kilos of guava essence are unaccounted for. If he is ODing on G essence that would explain his erratic behavior.