Earl Hood

I watched a bit of the VFL Grand Final and a Patrick Lawler playing for the losing side Box Hill took my eye. He is 22, he didn't rate in their best but he seemed to have clean hands and be quite elusive in traffic. Does anyone know more about him and if he would be worth a late pick?

Yes except they didn't build this dual premiership side on the back of trades or FA. That has helped but their repeated success is built on great drafting in 2001 through to 2007 where they worked the priority system well and with the help of Freo giving the first pick in 2001. Hodge, Mitchell, Roughy, Franklin, Lewis, Stratten, Rioli form the nucleus of what makes the side great. The trades have played support roles, Burgoyne excepted.

Another Hawks win, no injuries, Gunston will be fit next week and a full list available for the Granny for the third year in a row! The Dawks were the better side, the umpires absorbed the early Freo pressure and then they took control. Freo has about 5 players who are a liability at this level.

That is 3 goals at the end of each quarter, must be giving Lyon the shytes.

That is the difference Freo have 4 or 5 not up to it and their super weapon Fyfe is hobbled.

Are the Dawks blessed? How did that last one hit the post? Still reckon the umpires cars are being trashed as I write this. What happened to the old home ground umpiring advantage?

Do you think the umpires have a death wish?

Umpires 2 Dockers 2 Hawks 2

One of our drafting issues from 2007 through to 2012 was that we were picking "nice school boys" in my opinion, when we should have been targeting some talented kids with a bit of mongrel. That means they will likely be tagged by their teachers as, over confident, maybe arrogant and overly aggressive, maybe even be called a bully. I think you will find that many successful leaders have these traits in spades and they would have been a handful at school but they were smart enough to learn to control their aggression and confidence as they matured.

Off to West Coast I hear!

Are there still salary caps in place at some of these clubs? Certainly the cap does not seem to be working as an equaliser anymore.

Not sure why he would bother. Run around the Gee and get booed by the usual brain dead sections who manage to get into every game somehow. you know the deadshytes who never played a game of real footy yet feel they can abuse a great as if they have something in common. I must say I hope the powers at North read the riot act to the cheer squad, not that it will help. Damage is done.

Angry after all that comes to fruition, in which year do we then win the flag?

I hope you are right Rjay. Unfortunately I think the top 3 might reverse with the Dawks knocking over Freo and then the Weagles.

Biff I did offer to use my obvious position in society to pull some strings for BBO but then I was asked to give a character reference, well you will understand my reticence, surely. We only need to wait for a few more days, hope he doesn't see my comments.

It is a bit like watching a good VfL match, let's face it they are both second tier compared to to the WA teams and the Dawks.

Hey you were right 'twas Dalziel what did the Vicar in after all.

My Dawks friends say he is headed to them!

Rjay, I don't know, the plot is too complex for me. Someone's just killed the vicar in the church!

Looks like a demolition coming up. I am switching over to Mid Summer Murders. All I can hope for is a few injuries, the Crows might as well go the bash from here, it used to work in the 70's.

Of those 10 king is a keeper surely and I hope Hunt gets another year. The kid has leg speed and has been injured for most of his 2 year stint so far. If we got a decent trade offer for Toumpas you would take it, otherwise we might as well try one more year and hope he gets fit and builds some confidence in his ability to compete at the top level.

My problem is I am usually standing too close to the ball, after I have hit it!

Hey they haven't contacted me yet, a long term member, what am I a second tier member? After all the anguish I have shed this season I am but an after thought!

Good riddance. Mister Negative who was against everything progressive. He set the bar so high for everyone else in positions of authority. There were no excuses for failure by others when he was purely a sniper in opposition. Once he found himself in a position of responsibility having to make decisions he was a complete and utter failure of the first order. Unable to work with people, unable to develop coherent policy, no grasp of economics, unable to communicate the basics without talking to you like you were an imbecile. The Infrastructure Prime Minister who I don't believe managed to build a Federally funded national toilet block in his tenure, That was Tony, the attack dog who dragged our politics to a new low level. His personal attacks on Gillard were beyond anything we had experienced in our politics to date. And his advocacy for the coal industry is beyond the pale in my view environmentally but just plain stupid economically as well. He will be damned in history in 50 years time I suspect. Other than that he was OK.

Yes now that you mention it DC our centre half forward many years ago on our end of season trip to Pambula did suffer a strange ankle injury after an encounter in his VW. Apparently if he hadn't opened the glove box the "encounter" would have been impossible for a 195 cm agile forward. Gee this brings back a lot of memories of Drive In movies I never really saw a lot of.m