Earl Hood

Get rid of the interchanges, just have 4 substitutes like soccer and the game will open up as fatigue sets in late in each quarter and more so in the second half . The coaches are taking advantage of the rules so we have 18 midfielders and a fullback and a maybe two key forwards and rolling mauls, ball ups, the forward presses etc. Without the continuous rotations off the bench we would see players actually playing in their position for much of the time.

I read today in tha Hun that Kent's heal injury was caused by a car hitting him on his bicycle over the summer. I thought it was from NAB game. Did anyone else know this? Why do we find all manner of off season ways to interrupt our player's development? from natural catastrophes to family deaths at the wrong time in indigenous homelands!

I love your pre season confidence Bitter. The old stiff upper lip in the face of overwhelming adversity stuff! Love it.

In the words of Lawrence Oates of Captain Scott's Antartic expedition " I am just going outside and I may be away for some time"

A stunning.......?

Do you need to kick more than 40 metres as long as you know that and can kick to a target within a 40 meter radius accurately. I reckon if you can do that you will be in good AFL company. Not everyone can put in a 50 meter precise spearing kick to a running outsiderwhile in a contest. Yes the best players can do that but we are not competing with best for some time yet.

If only we could make it a national priority to battle all these feral pests. I would happily pay an environmental levy on my tax if I knew the millions were going to fight pests and rehabilitate natural environments.

I work with Hal's mother and she is a force to be reckoned with. It didn't surprise me when I heard he was the mystery player. She hasn't told anyone, it was supposed to be kept confidential. But she is after justice and she will get it one way or another in my opinion. She was appalled by the way the club communicated with the parents and how her son was off loaded after his rookie contract was up. He had worked through numerous injuries only to be unloaded when it suited the club. She was less than impressed by James H. But that is to be expected I think as a mum. But she is no fool and has not been impressed by the way the Club has handled their players and the issue. In her view her son has been injected with an unknown cocktail of supplements or whatever they were and then unloaded by the club with no support system in place. You are on your own son. Any wonder Mum might be mad?

A modern day senate of cross benches would block the new legislation and therefore the expenditure. They would not block supply and with it the right of a democratically elected Government to govern. Just a small legal difference there. Let's not downplay that event. Put it in the context of the day. After 23 years of conservative rule, aided by the bitter split of the DLP from the ALP , Gough wins but is after a short time harassed by the establishment, the conservative state governments and later the Murdoch Press. For the true believers it was a classic coup. The economy was on the up and the Hayden budget if passed by the Senate would have turned things around. How do I know that you may ask? Well it is because once Fraser forced the election and won, they passed the senate bills and the Hayden budget initiatives were implemented for the next year to help drag the economy out of stagflation.

Well we have Ben running all over the place, Flatline Fletcher who nearly died on a hospital table in the USA and Daniel Kerr with retraining orders and suspicions of starting fires etc. Really the 2006 flag is tainted. In how many games were WCE players hyped to the eyeballs? I remember that year they made some remarkable second half or actually last quarter comebacks to win matches that got them to top 2. Funny thing is the Chemist never saw a thing! Strange really.

Sorry to be a spoiler but I donate quite a bit of my income to organisations like Bush Heritage and our number one enemy is the tabby cat gone feral! The carnage they do to our wildlife is extraordinary. So I know cats are cute but I for one am not giving money to save a local moggy. Sorry but if we could unleash a calisy type virus for cats I would be up for it. They say we would never do it because it could take out family pets but I say release it into the feral population, if a pet is effected it is because they are associating with ferals and is not under control at night. So be it.

I think lovely Leigh got about three of our guys over the years with king hits behind the play, and no official ever saw anything as usual. And we never laid a glove on him as I remember things.

Quote : "Jackson said the culture of the club was also making “some real ground”. “I think it’s fair to say that it took most of 2014 for players and staff alike to realise that it will be them that have the greatest impact on the success of this club. Those of you here last year heard Paul Roos say this directly to the players,” he said. “My own view though was that most people in the club, players included, thought Paul was a messiah or saviour and like Moses would somehow perform a miracle like parting the waters. “This is no longer the case – I think we have achieved more on this front since the new football year started in November. Both players and staff alike do fully understand they are the people who will drive success. I see this in the actions and attitudes on a daily basis of everyone around the club.” Did PJ have a straight face when he was saying this? I am starting to think the whole organisation was delusional everyone waiting for someone else to conjure up some miracle solution. Gee it is up to the players, who would have thought!!

Umm it was a 1990 to 2015 review that means Stynes played 8 seasons till 1998? Including his Brownlow year 1991 when he was unbelieveably good. Travesty he was not included as others have said, he revolutionised the rucking role and would be a star in today's high endurance footy.

Rjay it may be good for Fitzy but we are building up a glut of KP backmen. I am adding Frost and Oscar to this list because neither is a natural forward at this stage, Pedo can go back or forward as well. I am now thinking it might have been good if McCartin had fallen to number 2 this year as having lost Clark we are looking light on for key forwards. I think Hoges is going to take some time and shouldn't be attracting the best or second best defender this early. WCE Darling comes to mind in his first year, played half forward with oppositions more concerned with the likes of Nic Nat up forward, Kennedy and the smaller gun forward whose name escapes me.

Good hockey player though!

Referring to my question about training under pressure, I heard Rowan Conelly talking on SEN this morning and he talked about his time embedded with the Pies at their camp this year and said that they had people monitoring training and when they were doing game simulation they would measure the % effective disposals of mids to forwards in a drill and if it got over a certain level, the coaches would up the number of defenders in the drill to ensure the simulation reduced the time and space for players to work in. So as to more reflect game day conditions. Has anyone noticed this at our training? I suppose TDI would be best placed to comment on this as to if he has noticed any high pressure physical training drills this year. The few times I have attended I have seen us playing against witches hats or a few players in yellow vests with padding protection.

On the evidence of the past few years, I would be looking at recruiting big numbers for yet another year, targeting experienced players to play a role. Turn over the list yet again. Development? Yes a great concept but we seem incapable of doing it. We need to target existing talent into the team. Damned if we can develop any young kid at this stage.

I believe Big Mal never changed his values or politics or views on life from when he was PM. He was always small l liberal in the Menzies tradition. His beliefs, instincts from when he was in power 1975 to 1982 predate Reagonomics and Thatcherism. The modern LNP reflects Neo conservative economic values, Reagonomics and the interests of multinationals. We have all moved to the right in our thinking, even if we don't realise it. Thank the media for that especially the Murdoch international Press Big Mal valued people and worked hard to deal with the Vietnamese diaspora, to an extent that puts all of us now to shame. Most of those Vietnamese boat people are now outstanding citizens contributing to our economy. We owed them a place in our country, I thought because we had been part of the Vietnam War. We have played our part in wars against Iraq and Afganistan, yet if refugees from these conflicts show up by boat we vilify them? How times have changed, no thanks to John Howard who led us down tjis slippery slope. And yes matched by Rudd, Gillard and co because politically they thought they had no choice. I hated Malcolm in 1975 but came to realise he had values that I could at least respect. A bit different from our current lot. Pyne, Hockey, Hunt, Morrison, give me a break. Both sides have to lift their game. But I don't see it happening any time soon.

Roos and Jonesy have now talked about the big gap between our good footy and our worst. Fair enough but sometimes that is just a reflection of your level. It is in the middle. Good players reduce that gap that is what makes them good. They consistently perform and even if they are being beaten they find a way to limit the damage or sneak a win. If you are not quite up to it you get highly variable efforts, one day you are a winner, the next you are getting thrashed big time. And that seems to be us yet again. .

On that analysis I think we have one foot in the grave Chook!

You can thank John Howard for this one. My recollection is that back in 2006 or so he visited the Lockheed Martin HQ and despite the fact that Defence was half way through an extensive review of our next generation of fighter aircraft, he just signed us up for a few billion dollars worth of what was just a concept at the time. Probably while being wined and dined by Lockheed heavy weights. There were many sceptical experts at the time who thought the plane design was trying to be able to do a bit of everything but nothing well. Maybe we should dub them the Howards!

Yes it must be frustrating for some of our players, training and being paid as full time professionals with elite facilities, sports medicine at call, a proven AFL coach, experienced assistant coaches for advice, video analysis of your every move but they don't get better, they make the same skill errors season after season! I don't get it. But I do wonder why we train so much with little or no pressure applied. This lack of composure when pressure is applied just kills us. Why don't we have regular sessions of game simulation in a confined space where you have little time and space and have to take the first option. This doesn't have to involve heavy tackling that could cause injury although it should involve body contact so players get used to this. I do wonder about some of our guys at times and their lack of appetite for the physical stuff.

We are now nearly 8 years into a rebuild, how long should it take to build a competitive midfield? I remember back in the late 90's we managed to do it in one or two seasons, selecting the McDonalds, TJ, Leoncelli, Rigoni, Powell and were back up and running. That seems impossible these days. We have spent a lot of top 10 picks on midfielder types since 2007 and so far it seems we have failed to find one elite so far. Tyson may get there but we need 3 or 4 more A graders.

HH we keep trading and turning over the list year in year out but we seem to be forever stuck with a dysfunctional playing group. I listened to about 30 minutes of the game tonight and it just all sounded pitiful, poor decisions, fumbling, dropped marks, mis kicks. This was our rehearsal for round 1 with players competing for selection. I just don't know where to from here?