Earl Hood

I am thinking of a thread that is more precise and records votes Without the comment and discussion and the opportunity to be backing 5 or 6 options. This thread is all over the place with plenty of wriggle room for posters to say they may have advocated Player X at one stage but later on they were for player Y etc. and actually I advocated players A,B,C,X,Y and Z but I always preferred player?? Just a thought

Not sure how it would be done but can someone set up a thread where we all have to nominate our picks 2 and 3 and it is recorded. Then we can't come back and bag the MFC recruiters if certain picks don't work. But then this might totally undermine Demondland and its reason for being? That is to retrospectively bag all and sundry for our continued misfortunes while we have always known the path to true enlightenment.

Gee it is tough this year. I am hoping for Brayshaw at 2 but just don't know for number 3 so it is better I hold off so if we get it wrong I can wade in boots and all about the one I would have chosen if I had time.

I am off to the union tomorrow bl**dy hell 10 weeks annual leave! I am getting screwed with just 4 weeks. And by the way my organisation/team actually delivers on its promises and levels of service for a fraction of the cost. Unlike MFC but different industries I know.

Our guys have been off since round 22, that is about 7 weeks leave. They will get another 2 over Christmas, how much do they need? I thought 6 weeks total was the Aflpa deal.

Big Jim Terry Wallace did a review of the top 10 draftees from 2000 to 2010 during the year and broke up the selections into inside mids, outsiders/Flankers and talls if I remember correctly. He found the success rate of the inside mids was around 75 to 80%, they went on to play 100 games plus. The outsiders and talls were around the 30 to 40% success rate. It makes some sense as highly rated inside mids are likely to be aggressive, physically ready and have probably captained their underage sides and developed leadership skills. There will always be X factor talent with the others, eg Rioli, but it is harder to get right.

Following on from my plea above I liked Ross Gittens' review of the Whitlam government's economic performance in the Age last week. He put the Australian economy and the major performers in the economic context of the time to show that no one knew how to deal with such a new set of problems but then he finished by stating that Gough's economic mistakes at the time held us back for nearly two decades as opposed to other counties who worked their way out of it in one decade. Gittens made that statement right at the end when he had run out of word space so couldn't clarify his statement. I can't detect anything Gough did that was still a millstone on our backs 20 years on myself. But I could make an argument for the negative impact of the deregulation of Hawk and Keating haunting us through the 90's and beyond. I would love for Gittens to clarify his opinion more one day. Bough had his faults but he was a victim of circumstances as well.

Guys is there any chance of restoring some decorum to this thread at least until Gough's memorial service later this week? You can do this [censored] for tat back on the Not the B and S thread.

Great if Bleasey is recruited. Good for him and it provides more data for our incessant discussion about poor drafting versus poor development. Look forward to seeing how he goes.

Don't forget 2007 when they went cold on Morton and grabbed Masten at 3 who has turned into a solid player and then in 2008 we take Maric and leave them Selwood. They love us alright! At the time I thought it interesting that they were tracking us in the 2007, 2008 drafts for early picks when they had won a flag in 2006! A mixture of pretty blatant tanking and the Judd deal.

It's those bl**dy screws again!! First Mitch now Jack and another problem with foot screws. Are we using the wrong thread?

But Misson has been in charge of fitness and conditioning and has been at MFC for some time now. He is supposedly very good at what he does? He has been at Sydney and St Kilda when they were contending. So why would our players be so far off the fitness levels of other teams?

Very sad to hear that news I always looked to LW for a balanced opinion. I know at times I thought he had over indulged in sacrificial wine but he usually gave us a balanced view of the world. Albeit a conservative one from the past.

Mine is definitely calf problems. The last 4 years I have found I can pull a soft tisue at any time. I keep pulling muscles, tendons or ligaments in either leg. It has stuffed my tennis career! As I have stated elsewhere Serena Williams and I have six US Opens between us but I am now sidelined. All I can do is ride a bike or swim, no adrenalin there!

Luna have I missed news of LordWeaver? I do miss his sober input.

Did I see you at Ethihad last week among the 70,000 Jehovah's Witnesses.? I certainly saw some strange dudes there. I happen to work across the road and had hordes of Gods Kingdom's badge wearers in my local cafe. Is there a Romsey branch?

Whoops fair enough got my Kurts mixed up.

General Kurts who is up river, in the highlands? "the horror" is that who we are talking of?

Yes you are right silly of me, the result of a couple of bottles of Mendoza Malbec, good wine but it can fog your mind at times. And at the time I seemed to be seeing Clint and BBO in every thread, thus my confused state. Maybe I need to find another vintage?

If Jamar went down early the answer is yes! Spencer I am not sure of, Gawn is injured, Fitzy isn't a ruckman. Pedo is a back up and King is raw. I would have chased Louden from the Hawks myself who you know can play a role and that allows you to make some delisting decisions with our big blokes, some of whom will have to go some time soon.

You are confirming even more my thoughts that the whole thing is a lottery. If as you say they were the attributes of Scully and Trengove, well what other criteria can you go on when you are picking at the pointy end of the draft. Has the whole industry just analysed itself into an ever decreasing circle so it is now making poor decisions in picking the best prospects? Jon Anderson's article in the Hun last Sunday on the draft compared the actual first three picks in drafts since 2001 with who he nominated as the best three actual outcomes. It was interesting to note that in the earlier years 2001 through to 2005 those selected 1,2,3 were close to the best 3 players produced in that draft. Then from around 2006 it all starts to deviate with the early picks. Kreuser, Scully, Watts, etc versus late picks like Beams, Fyfe, Shuey, Darling on and on we go and throw in Selwood and Rioli. The recruiters are supposed to know more now than ever before but our blokes, anyway are still struggling.

Hey weren't you two on the other "not the B&S thread? Or have I had one red too many tonight?

NB looking at Hardtrack's list of Whitlam Government achievements I don't think implementation was one of Gough's weaknesses but as I said earlier when make so many decisions you are going get your fair share wrong and make plenty of enemies along the way. Unlike some of the botched efforts of the recent Rudd administration, Gough and co had actually spent years developing detailed policy. They knew what they wanted to do and had a good idea how it could be done. He was the last leader to actually develop detailed policies for implementation. Unheard of today of course when you can knock up a $40 billion NBN plan on a whiteboard in the PM's office one night and announce it to the world a day later. Thanks for the warning not to skim read through today's Hun as I sometimes do if I can't find something better at the coffee shop.

What an extraordinary list of achievements in the space of 3 years, half of which was spent fighting elections and supply crises, not to mention the odd Cyclone. He was far from perfect but you cant bring about that sort of change without making mistakes and making plenty of enemies and he had them by the truckload in the end both inside and outside the party. Fraser recently said Gough tried to do too much too quickly. Yes he is probably correct that the people couldn't handle it but in reality after 23 years of conservative slumber Gough was the equivalent of many CEO's we now laud when they come into a moribund company and turn the whole place upside down just to wake everyone up that things need to change. Oz certainly needed a shakeup. What he wasn't ready for and didn't handle all that well was the economy but the economy of the Western World was in crisis, inflation from the US printing money to pay for the Vietnam War and then the OPEC oil crisis that tripled the cost of oil overnight. Add to that powerful unions and the centralised wage system so it was near impossible to control wage demands until jobs losses started to mount. Every government in the world struggled with the "stagflation" crisis as it was called, low growth but rising costs. At the time I was at Uni and I was only there because of Gough so I am biased but what a contrast he makes to today's regime. Gough the ultimate crash through or crash agent for change versus Tony the ultimate defender of the established order!

I just think he is a bit stiff. He played some good games this year if I remember correctly. Some good inside play, managing to get the ball out to the Blues runners and went forward a few times and kicked some goals. Have the Blues picked up a raft of young inside mids? They are unloading a few hard heads this off season.