Earl Hood

Finally found a bat to put outside in tribute to Phillip Hughes. Oddly in 16 seasons of mediocre play I never owned my own bat but I have this one. It is a 1926 bat signed by the 1926 tour side. Great stuff but I can't seem to get a photo up here to prove my case. But it is on twitter under Meredith if you are interested.

opening up the RIP was a big mistake. it protects us, what we have built around the waters edges, & with climate change & rising Sea Levels expected many areas are under threat.

the Bay at present only ever half fills or half empties, its really not a BAY; but an estuary lake.

what happened to the EasternTP ?

Only joking! What trade were you in? We're you working for a contractor or for The Board?

yes true, I started my apprenticeship building the Sth-Eastern treatment plant. I know & understand the value of infrastructure & also inspiring projects to excite the people. like the patterson river estuary lakes project back in the day.

today maybe docklands. & Yarra river living.

DL some things in my working life are now making some sense. You worked on the original South East Purification Plant (SEPP) now known as ETP. My team at work has to keep that beast running 24/7/365, no room for failure at all. We have had problems of late, maybe we need to talk to you about some of our construction defect issues? And as for the Patterson River development you might want to come back down there and look at the new tidal gates we have installed. I reckon they are great but they did cost a bomb for a few boaties and to protect a relatively few houses.

Oleg Markov is worth a punt? Comes from talented stock and seems determined to be the best he can be.

How did we get that group of interstate players in 1986 that got us to the 87 finals? I'm talking Stretch, Spalding, Warren Dean and Todd Viney. I don't see them in the draft

DL just a point of order. We don't live in a sewer, yes but without a functioning sewer system we would not be living here for too long.

St Kilda are making a mistake overlooking Petracca.

Ssshhh! Keep it to yourself, their recruiters might hear you.

On the footage I've seen, Peter Wright is a gentle giant. Like others above, I can't believe that we would pass up on a quality mid for another "nice" young man.

If available it must be Brayshaw and Petracca.

I am assuming both Brayshaw and Petracca are nice upstanding Grammar School boys!

Are you positing that his eyes close at the same time?

Or

To, Too, Two

Whats the difference between to, too, and two? Its not too difficult to use them, once you take the time to learn what they mean and do some practicing, too.

To

To has two functions. First, as a preposition, in which case it always precedes a noun.

Secondly, to indicates an infinitive when it precedes a verb.

Im going to the store

He went to Italy

This belongs to David

I need to study

We want to help

Hes going to eat

Too

Too also has two uses. First, as a synonym for "also":

Secondly, too means excessively when it precedes an adjective or adverb.

Can I go too?

He went to France too

I think thats Pauls book too

Im too tired

Hes walking too quickly

I ate too much

Two

Two is a number.

One, two, three

I have two cars

She ate two pieces of pie

Edit:- I had to fix the errors in the eLearn English paste !!!

Sorry Sir, it shan't happen again!

Saints supporters reckon Petracca will leave for Collingwood in 2 years. I tend to agree, he doesn't seem the loyal type.

Eyes to close together?

I wanted Trenners at One... unsure of the others but had an eye for Gary Rohan's speed.

I didn't really believe in scully's mania (he played manic) but bowed to the masses. My gut feel was right IMO.

DL at the time I didn't think you could go past Scully as the dedicated, professional accumulating midfielder. But I did think Trengove was more of the same and thought Martin worth a punt because he reportedly had some mongrel and speed. Oh well as we know that didn't happen and Martin is high maintenance!

Its a big call deeluded. Personally I wouldn't be THAT upset. Its just so rare these days that the players ranked top 3 end up being that in the reality of future seasons. Who would have picked Martin over Scully or Trengove? Can you at least say if they're thinking a tall and a mid or 2 mids?

Who would have picked Martin over Scully or Trengove? I think there are a few of us here on Demonland.

We arnt stupid enough to pass on Brayshaw or Petracca.

Really?

Give him a break! He's only 18!

You do realise that Sylvia was 18 once too?

Chances are that some of these kids will turn into Sylvias...

It's all crystal ball gazing, but I'm not sure it's a good sign when he says he's hyper and drives his teammates to annoyance with his intense personality (paraphrasing).

I.e. he won't be a leader of your club in my opinion, at least, not in the way that you want.

Other players may follow him, but not necessarily anywhere you want them to go.

I think these kids will lead by example on the field. The finer points of man management and leadership will come later hopefully. That is my memory of footy, on field deeds first, then show me leadership and I will follow.

I was a bit suspicious of Petracca when I saw the footage of him getting injured in the 3km time trial

it actually looked like he was faking the injury

maybe he was tanking to make the Saints skip him and get to the MFC

Would have thought he would be double/triple tanking to get to a real,team, not MFC.

My people are telling me that Nathan Carroll may be about to be announced as the Hawks backline key position coach but I am still waiting for a confirmation on this one.

Brisbane Roar sack coach after 5 losses in 6 games this year on the back of two premiership A league cups in 12 and 13 plus coach of the year award. It's Norm Smith all over again! Maybe the curse will be transferred?

If we're talking old (and first) cars, especially English ones, let me chime in to say that I've still got my first car in the garage - a '73 HQ ute with a 308 - and I also still have my mum's first car, a '63 Austin Healey Sprite. It's got very little power, AWFUL brakes, and bumpsteer you wouldn't believe, but I love it.

Gee your Mum must have been pretty cool when she was driving that! Not exactly you stock standard Holden FE sedan of the times.

Darling was an 800m runner who was capable of playing as a big midfielder as a junior; McCartin has shown no such capability, and is significantly larger and more lumbering.

If we were examining an 18 year old D Breterton I wonder what we would be saying. Undersized for a key position, not quick, can't play mid field, can't play back. Let's move on. But hold on he is a natural forward, he has heeps of mongrel and can take a contested mark and kick a goal. What do we do now?

Is there some way of testing for that mental capacity to compete that the likes of Brereton, Hodge, Selwood and others have/had to get to every contest? If there is I wish we knew it because if you get one or two of those characters on your list and you are off and running.

...or how good NikNat is when he only had 2 possessions in 3 Q's...

Plus 3 taps at the start of each Q against an undersized Irishman, I'm thinking he would have got the one at the start of the 4th Q as well giving him 4 for the game. What a star...

Agree Rjay and I also wasn't sure about Hodge for the Jimmy medal. He did a lot of uncontested mopping up down the back and knocked up possessions but I thought Stevie J and even The Fletch put in some crucial plays that made the difference.

But perhaps I am sick of the Hodge love train that goes on year after year! But that said he is bloody too good to be real.

I was listening on the way home to SEN and they had Brett Anderson on from Inside Football.

He was asked to compare this year's draft to last year and he said that the top end talent is not as strong as last year but it goes much deeper which suggests we should be able to get a good player at #40.

He was asked who he thought would go to St. Kilda at #1 and whether anything's changed - no, it's still down to three players Petracca, McCartin or (less likely) Brayshaw in that order. He also believes that they've made the decision but aren't saying - thinks the AFL has directed not to let this out to keep up the suspense.

He also mentioned that Pat McKenna, the Australian Under 19 cricket captain who has nominated for the draft has a few clubs interested including Melbourne.

Toby McLean, a small forward, who was best on ground in the TAC Cup U18 Grand Final for premiers Oakleigh Chargers after he was rejected earlier in the season, has firmed and is now expected to be picked in the 30s.

Yes I heard the same interview and I have heard similar comments elsewhere that this draft is not so clear for talent at the pointy end, that real talent could go very deep. Isn't that just freeking typical for any draft where we have multiple early picks? Still let us try to be positive and hope we get this one right for once!

Great shots as usual

Just one query who is the guy with the big ball bags?

What photos are you looking at Felix?

That 5 looks vaguely familiar

Mark Cuban, the Owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA Franchise, decided years ago that 'the Mavs don't do development' and that all they target are proven NBA pros that can do what their, admittedly fantastic, coach Rick Carlisle wants them to do.

They get Free Agents and Trade and rarely do they go to the draft with a meaningful pick, or with many of them.

As The Dorks are now doing. It is easier when you are sitting up on top. But their success is still built on early pick draft success in 2001, 2004, 05 and 07. The rest they have traded in or developed from late picks and rookies to play roles and produced the almost perfect list. The future is they will keep plucking known talent from the likes of us until they implode at some stage down the track we all hope!

PuP

I wondered this long ago before the Fed election, when I heard that Palmer was running a ticket for the senate, & he started head hunting luminary's such as Doug Hawkins & the Brick with eyes, etc.

not designed to pinch votes off the Liberals at all,,, but certainly aimed at the Labour party working class demographic voters.. trying to take senate votes from both disaffected Labor & Greens voters, at a time when Everyone thought the Libs would need all the senate votes they could muster to carry out they're nasty financial agenda.

My question is, Were the voters sold a PuP, & is the PuP a Trojan horse invading the working class voters domain & huffing & puffing making lots of bad smells but in the end allowing Abbott to get his nasty agendas thru the Big smoke screen in Canberra.

IF, they ever have to go to a Double Dissolution Election, the PuP's could inadvertently, make the Senate Stink so much, that many voters could well get sucked into falling under Rabbots spell.

DL not sure about the Trojan horse analogy, with Jaquie Lambie in the Palmer U Party I would use the loose canon on a rudderless ship analogy myself.

That said am taking a shine to our Jaquie, she is ruffling a few feathers on behalf of her Taswedgen voters and good luck to her. And she has today voted against Tony's financial planning legislation which is a win for the battlers versus the big banks. Good on her I say. While Tony has Royal Commissions chasing Julia Gillard as to if she took the odd ten grand for her house reno's or if the CFMEU is ripping off the likes of Grocon and yes that should be followed up.

However he is happy to look the other way when the CBA or ANZ use financial planners in assorted investment vehicles to bankrupt thousands of ordinary mum and dad investors and hound them though the courts even though they knew how those people were entrapped. The Big banks, too big to fail and too big to prosecute it seems. That's our Tony!