Earl Hood

I didn’t get any stickers this year. Can’t understand why as these are advertising for the club and I have a new sticker less car as well.

Can’t say I am a beer man, craft or non craft. More partial to a vintage wine myself but I was just thinking there are about 6 pubs inside or very close to inside 1070 m from the Warehouse, the Rose, The Marquis of Lorne, the Robert Burns and the Gasometer, the Town Hall and the Rochester. Robby Burns used to be my public house of preference when they had the Spanish kitchen going.

Yes that was the artist who pocketed the money and then ate the banana! The world gets more looney by the day.

My hatred is for the dorks myself, Lethal, Dipper, Brereton....87 final loss, 88 GF and on and on.

Bruce was working out at my gym during the week on Tuesday, he did look sad now that I come to think of it. Maybe he knew then. Must say he goes at it much harder than me and is as lean as a whippet.

Yes it’s on the AFL site as well. A big surprise.

Maybe it Goes back much further to 1966 when he trained with Melbourne as he was in our zone. Now according to Tom Hafey who gave us a corporate pep talk some years ago about resilience and overcoming adversity, a young Sheedy who had been rejected by Melbourne for being too short and too slow for a centreman came across to Richmond and was a revelation. Hafey said he was invaluable as a leader and setting training standards and for, in Hafey’s words, dealing physically with any young smart arses and assorted shirkers from Hafey’s training regime. It seems that Norm Smith and Co at the time overlooked a born leader; our loss, the Tigers gain but according to Hafey, his rejection by MFC was a big deal for Sheedy at the time.

Yes a teacher at the old tech and when they merged with Richmond High School in about 1986, old Paddy went off on stress leave to his farm, never to return so he did well to last this long. May he Rest In Peace. My wife was a teacher at Richmond High in that period, for the record.

Was always going to struggle with our current game plan of congested forward lines and long bombs to the 20m area in front of goal, where there often wasn’t a tall marking option to at least bring the ball to ground, at least this season. Jeff was still very good if he could get a one on one in an open forward line, just didn’t happen much for us.

Uncle I used to use a textor to draw a circle on my golf ball as an aid when putting. Set the line on the ball vertical so you could check you were putting the ball cleanly and consistently toward the hole. Same idea with these footies I guess. Oh by the way I haven’t played golf for almost 10 years now. I gave up in the end, I couldn’t putt!

Shakespeare?? I thought that was pure Eric Cantona!

Well very quiet around here I must say despite all the hubbub around the national Draft. Not a peep from the usual suspects. Well I am very happy with our draft picks, Jackson and Pickett have that X Factor we all seek but I am most impressed by the young Rivers boy, Trent. They say he can play footy but most importantly he comes from the right genetic stock! I believe he is the great nephew of none other than Sir Murray Rivers QC, the former Supreme Court Judge of Victoria and staunch defender of the Royal Family and the importance of our place in the British Commonwealth. What is more important to the MFC, drafting players with talent or drafting the right type of lad, with the right values, eh? I think you all agree with me, it’s the latter.

They want to reduce half time breaks to 10 m and quarter time breaks to 6m so as to reduce the length of games for TV but they are also talking of introducing a set number of player challenges to umpiring decisions! Endless score reviews and now player challenges will blow out playing times. Oh and goodbye Auskick, so much for the importance of kids footy.

Yes split 97 and next years 43 for 86 and 99.

Wonder what Pruess makes of this pick? We have Gawn, we have Pruess and we have a 19 year old, 203 cm, ex elite basketballer in Bradke, still learning the game but we have spent pick 3 on a 199 cm ex basketballer, turned under 18 AFL ruckman who can go forward occasionally! This kid better have some serious talent as a key forward and show it early next season to vindicate this decision, because we don’t desperately need a Max replacement for another 3 or 4 years.

Is he back at the club in a coaching capacity? Obvious forward/goal kicking coach.

A very common criticism of small forwards by the way. Hope we are organising the support system for him now. What’s Byron doing these days? And we have Matty Whelan and Nev.

What happened to the old adage trade in for needs, draft best available talent? All the gossip has us burning 2 top ten picks on outliers, not sure why. Jackson is not a need, a ruckman, very agile who could play forward but reports say he doesn’t have great hands. Then we are looking at Pickett who is a perceived need, an X factor small forward with speed, goal sense but rated later first round or second round. I think Taylor’s future will be determined by these 2 picks, although it’s not just him of course. I still believe we should bid for Green, take him if GWS does not match, or else take Young and then the next best at 10, be that Kemp if available. Anyway let’s see what happens.

Well then they should have been delisted, yes? But no we still believe they can contribute in some way while we intend to burn first rounder picks on small forward potential.

What’s with the small forward obsession when we already have 4 plus blokes under 180 cm on the list who potentially should fill the role?

And what happened to extreme heat training in Darwin?

Well done, what league was the flag and b&f? I won a seniors flag in 73 as a junior, then in 76 and again in 79. What I remember now is how much of an improved player I was by 79, in my mid 20’s just by being more mature and having more confidence in what I did. So many young AFL recruits at 18 don’t get that chance to mature and improve. Today you show it all in your first 2 years or you are under the pump.

Regarding old school thinking on training, I played 200 plus mediocre games of suburban footy in the 70’s and 80’s but I don’t remember much physical contact at training. We ran laps, Indian file stuff, interval sprints, circle work one way, then reverse on your left side. We did a bit of one on one stuff competing for a ball, some evasive drills where you were first to the ball with 2 people chasing behind and tackling but no real intimidating physical stuff, that happened on game day, so not sure where the old school is coming from? So not sure of this train soft, play soft stuff, as we managed to win 3 flags in 10 years in our own small footy world.

Great to read that we are working seriously on our set shot goal kicking routines. Just 6 to 8 months too late though.

Can we split pick 96?