Earl Hood

Do you wine experts know the closest winery to the CBD?

RL

It could be Kellybrook Winery in Wonga Park. Can't think of a closer one. They make wine from apples I think and cider. Can't vouch for the wines but the food is good and the restaurant is in a very pleasant setting.

I have a feeling the gap is about to get a lot bigger with Tony basically signing off on Barnett's policy to close down what some 150 indigenous communities on the bases that he has lost federal funding. And Tony basically signs off on the life style choice. Does this man actually have a soul, is he actually human? We dispossessed these people, moved them off their lands and shoved them onto reserves in the outback or outskirts of our society because we didn't want to have to look at the results of our actions. Now we say we can't afford to subsidise their reservations. But of course whatever small rights they have are linked to the land but Tony wants them to move back to where exactly? Regional towns, major cities? Where is the planning for that, the policies, the resources to facilitate this movement of people? Of course there is nothing in place because Tony is reacting to just another thought bubble he or someone else created yesterday.

With the sort of strategic thinking and planning displayed by this Government they would struggle to run a brothel operating just outside a US Military Base successfully.

Thanks for that Biff and BBO! This weekend I had the choice of doing the Hawthorn Open Houses tour with SWMBO or attending Ballarat for our NAB challenge. It all depended on being able to garrantee a good dinner after the game for SWMBO. I asked in good faith about the possibility of one getting a quinoa salad up that way possibly at Graigs Hotel but was advised that the best I could do would be a mixed grill! So I reluctantly trudge off to Hawthorn only to hear of your 8 course degustation!!! With expensive red wine.

Thanks for nothing and by the way can we clarify who really did pay for the dinner? So far we have conflicting accounts of what happened. A Royal Commission my be on the cards.

No Issues OD

Over in the West we still have Carnarvon

No Issues OD

Over in the West we still have Carnarvon

DFrog not anymore. Cyclone Olwyn has taken out all the banana trees in Carnarvon! What price for a banana now?

Id say Hawthorn is.

If the Dorks snaffle Dangerfield at years end it will be time for a Royal Commission into the AFL salary cap I believe. Are we expected to believe that half their list is playing for rookie dollars? Of course they will claim they have room because Sewell or some other veteran has moved on but they were already playing for peanuts anyway if we are to believe their claims that everyone takes a pay cut for the greater good. And to think we are paying 100% of the cap! It just doesn't add up!

Didn't see the game, didnt hear the game thankfully! But looking at the stats what was going on? 160 plus more disposals for a 7 point win! 403 disposals for 10 goals! We lost the clearances and we lost the inside 50 count? But we took 20 marks inside 50 for a 10 goal return! I know these are only stats but what the hell were we doing with the ball? Haven't we been training to be more direct, to move the ball quickly to players on the move?

What were we doing with the 160 or so disposals that on paper seem to have gone nowhere in particular. We had this problem at the start of last season when we had no forward line. Today we had targets but the stats imply we were pisseffing around again with the ball.

Can someone who was there please explain?

Vandenberg.....the minute I saw him play I knew....I thought By Jingos we've got one here!

By Jingos! Is that you KB?

and a b and c are still wrong, you need to look at the club website, there has been a video there since yesterday, he has a badly bruised heel

The same Freo bast*rd that trod on Hogan must have got Kent as well!

It is Ned Flanders FCS.... A mate of mine committed suicide because of deep depression last month..Hung himself in a bedroom cupboard so he wouldn't leave a mess.

That is the Black Dog depression...The dark one.

You do not come good from that darkness in 6 months....You manage it if you are lucky.

There is no way Clark was in that bad place...within days of retiring he was taking photos of beautiful girls and posting them all over social media.

He may have been feeling down, sure...BUT he also could have stuck around and helped his mates...The mates who invited him to their weddings etc

Clark wants quick success and or big $$$ and so far he has succeeded...Meanwhile we are still in 17th place 50 years on.....

I don't remember all the details but Clark was headed home to Fremantle before we diverted him to MFC on a long term big$ contract in 2012. He plays 12 great games then is injured and plays 3 more over 2 years battling foot injuries and later soft tissue problems. He trains endlessly running lap after laps but can't get on the park. Now did his depression and withdrawal from the club coincide with new contractual talks between his management and the new MFC regime who were reassessing his worth and wanted to negotiate a much reduced contract agreement? Mitch only came here for the money, if it was no longer on offer, why wouldn't he look elsewhere? So off he goes to the. cats but at what $ I don't know and unbelievably is suddenly fit to play. It will be interesting to see if he can stay on the park. If he does stay fit he will be very good for the Cats. It may be just NAB but A fit Mitch has everything you need to be a star, 200 cm tall, agile, great hands, great pack mark and can kick straight. Just about has it all but history says his body will let him down.

We've never had Dustin

I suppose he means Stefan?

“However, they will win more games than last season and I think they’re on the way back.”

Ok which one of you held a gun to his head to make him say that?

He said on SEN a few days ago that he was having lunch with Roosey that afternoon. Must have been a good one with Roosey picking up the bill!

Here is hoping the Prince plays well and for 20 games a year for the next 5 years in a league that counts!

I'm tempted. Never been sold on Brayshaw. Leadership, work ethic etc, any player can have that. Elite skills and pace though, that's rare. Geelong took a risk and it looks like coming off. Really not sure how GWS missed him with 3 picks later than us though.

Well yes the jury is still out on these picks, i.e. Petracca and Brayshaw. I am very hopeful but we need to see them playing seniors. And we have already lost Petracca for a year to a knee. So our review is delayed a year.

what KB and Denham have ever said about us has actually been true. If you don't like the "tough word" on some home truths then you are delusional.

We were rubbish, and still pretty much are. Better, yes, but still mostly rubbish.

Suck it up and be a realist.

This was Johnny Ralph not Denham. However I suspect Denham has a special spot for MFC just because he is so critical and knows so much detail about us. Today on SEN he said he was off to lunch with Roos and talked in detail about how we are finally on the right track. He may be so critical because he has some interest.

Any goss on how Blease went over the whole match? We know full well how good Mitch is when he is fit. Six goals is about right. You can't stop this guy when he is firing. My condolence is that the Prince will play 20 games vs Mitch's ten. Of course given our luck those career averages will reverse.

KB and Ralph in particular are talking heads - they make outrageous statements, focus on the negative, get some talk-back callers all riled up - then it's forgotten by the next day... when they do it all over again!

I agree with the above posters: North Melbourne were a 'destination club' for free agents last year, Brisbane and Port were 'bankrupt' 'irrelevant' and 'unsustainable' in the last one to three years. We go through peaks and troughs in football:

Interstate domination / Victorian desolation

Victorian domination / Interstate desolation

Expansion teams to dominate the comp / Expansion teams to bankrupt the comp

Media 'personalities' make these blanket statements and rightly assume that no one will remember that they had in fact stated the opposite the year before. I'm still waiting for the Inquiry into Victorian Football that was being called for in 2006... one year before Vic clubs went on to win seven of the next eight flags!

Melbourne would be a destination club for Free Agents if we'd drafted and developed our players well in the last six years.

Melbourne would also not have lost the Free Agents that we wanted to keep if we'd drafted and developed well in the last six years.

If we have our house in order, players will come, players will stay.

I caught the last half of the SEN conversation yesterday and thought they were talking some sense. The context of their conversation was that WB, St Kilda and MFC had not won a flag between them for 61,51and 49 years. Yes there are peaks and troughs in the competition but not for these minnows. Why is that the case? They then went through a number of reasons, the expansion clubs are stocked up to the gunnels with first round draft picks and will likely dominate in the next few years. The top clubs are not going to bottom out because they can top up with experienced players via FA or just poaching good kids out of contract eager to play finals.

The flow of FA transfers has generally been good players to higher teams, not the other way.

I largely agreed with JR that more needs to be done in equalisation, a wealth tax on the big clubs to a maximum of $500K is not going to have much impact on the big boys and the few extra $million thrown to us and doggies is not going to turn us into finalists. The draft is thrown up as a saviour but it is somewhat of a lottery and as we know not every first rounder works. I don't think they were saying it is impossible to climb up the ladder for some clubs the odds are heavily stacked against them. AS in shyte fixtures where you barely break even on gate receipts. Apparently the Saints only make any money on their NZ game.

KB wondered why the three clubs were so silent about the current equalisation set up and I agree we should be working together more to influence the agenda. KB was sure that if the Pies were down for an extended period Eddie would be yelling and screaming for change.

I believe there is a problem with so called AFL equalisation. The odds are against the minnows such a us climbing to the peak and snaffling a flag under the current rules.

Park out the back of the Gat.

I will keep an eye on it.

Otherwise.Safeway in Acland St has a magnificent car park right near the Said park of LUNACY,

off Shakespeare Gve.

Which you may know.

DC better pack the steering lock and wheel clamps if you park near the Gat. Hope you are not driving anything fancy?

Ok, He got a run in the NAB now please just rest him until the real season!!

Too risky then as well, wrap him up in Cotten wool till next year I say. Then give him a run in next years NAB and if he has another hot spot issue, rest him again for a year. Can't be too cautious on this guy. He could get to the end of his contract with just half a dozen NAB highlights. But at least we have managed him well.

2005 I believe

Strewth is this panic stations stuff? The kid has just started with us. I would wait to next year for these negotiations myself.

Oh I forgot to mention that while I was watching the preliminaries today, the Vince and Howe show, for an hour or more we did have Alex Neal Bullen, ABN for the first 30 minutes. He looks a likely type but just did some rapid handball exercises, some sprints and then headed off for the rooms. Obviously the dislocated knee is being handled very carefully.

Can you please explain this in Latin roots?

I think it is more Greek than Latin. As in sodium hypochlorite solution, a disinfectant. Sorry I have wandered into chemistry by mistake!

Apart from the Rigoni comparison, when Van the Man ran past me today was I mistaken in thinking I was looking at Peter Walsh reborn from the 90's?

Whoops think I meant Mitchell White!!

Apart from the Rigoni comparison, when Van the Man ran past me today was I mistaken in thinking I was looking at Peter Walsh reborn from the 90's?

The other smart desision was for the MFC to close The Demon Shop and not bother having a membership tent nor a merchandise tent. I wrote a post on another thread re the intra club where I had walked past The Filths intra club and observed merch, membership and entertainment booths at their training . We arnt doing it right. It's amateur stuff and I am guessing those in the roles arnt qualified enough.

Is it the double time on a public holiday stuff that is the problem here? Seems like very few office staff were on deck and only the Footy Department staff and players were working. Of course the only problem with that argument is that looking at GRRM's list of staff is they are all managers, not many doers there at all. As managers they are paid to do a job at any time of the day.