Earl Hood

Interesting in retrospect that Billy would call his religious get togethers Crusades! It makes some sense on a superficial level referring back to the original crusades to recover control of the Holy Land from the Islamic hoardes; however if you ever take the time to read the history of the Crusaders you find you are dealing with a bunch of blood thirsty opportunists interested in killing the locals and acquiring their land. Nothing religious in any of their actions and then there was the 4th Crusade that raped and pillaged Constantinople a Christian city before they even got to see a Muslim! Great blue print Billy.

Holy Shyte! https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/arctic-temperatures-soar-25-degrees-above-normal-in-the-dead-of-winter-20180222-p4z1bh.html

In one of the contested forward drills where the ball was lobbed in high to T Smith and Weid vs Keilty, Hibberd and OMac with smalls running in for the crumbs and snap on goal, Tim took a blinder, chest mark on top of the pack, contender for mark of the season, except it hasn’t started yet! Both Tim and Keilty took a couple of clean marks in packs under pressure. I watched Weid closely and he doesn’t seem to be able to work his way into position in that type of situation, didn’t take a mark, got one defensive fist in from behind and kneeing Hibberd in the head in the process. They did a number of tackling drills, very entertaining where a player has to pick up a rolling ball and get past the tackler who was instructed on how to wrap the ball carrier up. Very physical stuff. A later drill focused on how not to get wrapped up and we saw a lot of Dusty don’t argues being dished out to ward off the tackler. I think it was Bugg who putJones flat on his back with a straight arm to the chest much to everyone’s amusement. If we tackle with the intent like I saw today in these drills we will break open a lot games. Re injuries - Harley Balic who is looking much fitter than when I first saw him train seemed to strain something at one stage, got some treatment on upper thigh and retired from the drills to do laps. Nothing serious. Nev running laps, everyone else present was involved in the drills.

Yes I saw Stevo’s report on 7 tonight and certainly didn’t see him at the ground so I assume he was at training very early before heading up to the Lexus centre! If Viney was running laps in the first hour before I got there then he has put in a very solid 2 hour session, that is all I can say. He had boots on as far as I could tell for the 45 minutes he was running and kicking the ball with the 4 assistant coaches. As Saty has reported he gives every appearance of being on track for round 1.

Is there a church nearby and a mass scheduled? Go in the main doors and sneak out through the side alter, through the presbytery and help yourself to the sacrificial wine on the way through. My guess is BBO, if he enters the church, will be struck down before he gets to the Presbytery!

Hunt was there today and took part in all the action and was quite energetic and vocal in a couple of the routines. Didn’t standout that much but I do remember he nailed the last routine, the kick on goal from an angle with a torp from 50 m. That went through the middle. Now that I think of it, though unrelated, was noting how vocal Spargo was in one of the routines, yelling at players to get on queue! As a newbie I liked it and it caught my attention. Spargo is one to watch I think.

Not sure how the rural voters will judge him Jara. I mean they recently voted him in with a 65% primary vote in New England despite his efforts as Water Minister presiding over the wholesale theft of taxpayer funded environmental water from the Barwon River uncovered by Four Corners. This was water theft on an industrial scale by primary industry corporations often foreign owned! All this at the expense of hard working farmers downstream and towns that nearly ran out of water last year. Barnaby’s response off record was to joke about whinging greenies! National party voters never cease to amaze me, the ordinary struggling rural voter is of limited interest to the Nats who look after the big miners, irrigators and frackers.

The Weid was in the main group today, first time I have seen him not running laps or doing forward work with coaches away from the main group. It was a low intensity session but he was moving well enough.

Rode my bike past training this morning about 10.30 and they finished at 11.20 so I guess I missed the first hour. Saw Lewis and melch walking off as I arrived and Hogan, Keilty and the Weid arriving late. Did not see Brayshaw, Tracca, Tyson, Stretch, AVB, ANB, Neville, Maynard, Wagner, Or Fritsch, thought I saw TMac early on. Didn’t notice McKenna. they were changing gear when I arrived so maybe the first hour was running drills. The hour I saw was fairly light on, two groups, each split into 4 groups practicing picking up a rolling ball, baulking a coach and short passing 25 meters to the next group one of which would mark the ball, handball to a running player who kicked to a target and so on. They swung it around to kick left foot, then right foot. They then played some game to lighten things up with groups facing each other inside an area with cones. A player would handball to a team mate, another handball then one would do a dribble kick straight at the one of the opposing team. He then had to take the ball cleanly or it was deemed a point to the opposition. No juggling allowed. Oscar Baker showed some very clean hands and quick reflexes. Indeed the few times I have seen him he has ticked the boxes with sure ball handling. i spent a lot of time watching Viney who was working away from the main group with 4 assistant coaches who were kicking balls to on the lead out of the goal square, mark, swing onto his left and snap at goal. Later the coaches were playing keeping off with Viney trying to intercept rapid handballs forcing him to weave from side to side, intercept, then snap on goal. All this went on continuously with little time to recover. Viney looked unimpeded to me and was working at a much higher intensity than the main group. Later he was running laps and repeat sprints. Maybe he is cherry ripe but they need to [censored] him harder so he makes round 1. Finished with everyone lining up in the pocket needing to slot a goal through on the angle with a stiff breeze bending to ball toward the Near point post so you had to aim at the far goal post to have any chance. Most got it through first time but Frost, King and J Smith I think took a couple of goes under a lot of pressure from their peers. And that was it. No standouts that I noticed apart from Viney. I then rode over the park to watch a bit of Storm training, Billy S and Cam Smith looked in good nick.

World champions!

Huh? Gun control is a Democrate issue then? You never cease to amaze Wrecker!

Not sure what your point is Wrecker? Are you equating the Age with Breitbart in credibility? Are you going to back the deputy PM our new Bazza McKenzie, with his silly hat, against Malcolm the PM? Happy to watch the coalition implode over this [censored].

Petracca Zooper!!!

Yes it was interesting that our form fell off a cliff from round 15 onwards, after Bugg was rubbed out for 6. On the surface it seems he was an important cog in the wheel and if had kicked straight, well....

More info required DC.

Don’t tell me Lethal got him as well? I remember Steve Smith and Peter Giles. Amazing how thugs with some football talent can be feted in later life. I am thinking Dipper as well.

So we can’t make any judgement on Barneby’s behaviour because others from Labour have been found wanting in the past? What is your fricking point Jnr! I mean why have you left out Ben Chifley? Surely you have something on him as well.

At Pioneers, juniors and seniors?

My brother played against him at golf in the club championships at the Heritage later in his short life and yes Sean was a hard man to beat, off single figures so you can add golf to the list of sports he mastered, not that anyone ever masters golf.

Hi Nut thanks for the Richard Broome reference. I will follow that up. May I also recommend Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu. You may have read it? It looks at aboriginal society pre 1788 based on archeological studies but mainly on the observations of those who had first contact, the writings of the explorers, surveyors and first squattors. It paints a fascinating picture of pre European life here, a varied society that farmed, hunted, built stone houses and had permanent settlements. What was going on here for nearly 60,000 years was unique and needs to be further explored, studied and celebrated. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen when the 40,000 year old bones of Mungo Man could not get government funding for a dedicated rested place in Lake Mungo recently.

But what game are they playing, tableless tennis shuttlecock?

Ahh 1993 the year we changed coaches, over to Neil Balme, new game plan, lost the first 4 games often by less than a kick, then got our game plan together to beat a lot of top sides but miss the finals by a whisker and watch the Baby Bombers win a gap year flag that was up for grabs for any side who got there with some momentum, as there were no standout sides. Just like 1990, 1991 and maybe 2006 and we could not take the advantage? Sorry hope you find the tape.

How would you get to it though? It is surrounded by tunnels, off ramps and a river. Parking?

If runners are about communications why can’t we deploy modern technology, wire up comms between the coaches and their leaders in the middle, forward and back? My preference is no communication on the ground and only at each break

There is Norway and there is Qatar who make $60 billion a year in royalties from their gas reserves. We are about to surpass their output in gas exports but our income is measured in the millions because we have sold out industry to overseas multinational companies who specialise in tax minimisation and enjoy tax holidays because they have invested money in extraction infrastructure. We are handing over natural resources for next to nothing to overseas multinational mining, oil and gas companies who exploit our resources and pay minimal tax and royalties. Rex Connor might have been on to something all those years ago!