According to the police OIC, all of those responsible for the fire bombings have been apprehended and charged. Apparently they get paid $20K for each job.
It seems that the organised crime gang behind the fire bombings is likely to be an offshore operation so particularly difficult for the police to crack.
Yes the government could introduce laws to make it harder for these crime gangs to operate but they’d never be passed by the upper house and would be a severe restriction on our civil liberties.
The government has already tightened bail laws but, again, they can only go so far before their laws are deemed to be unconstitutional.
The chances of winning with seven of our 23 having played less than a dozen games aren’t good, particularly when one of our outs is Weiters.
I’m sure our MC has put a hell of a lot more thought into matchups and Port’s strengths and weaknesses but I would have gone with the Sheriff ahead of Byrner.
I have more faith in Lewis Young than many supporters but I think that Derksen is a better option for this game.
Fraser's thoughts on Vossy and the win; "We’ve exchanged text messages. He was proud of the group, his fingerprints were all over last week’s result - I was really pleased for the players and hopefully ‘Vossy’ found some joy in seeing a victory as well."
Vossy's departure on his own terms, insofar as timing, probably gives him more scope to enjoy our wins than the six coaches we've sacked this century.
The policy is a wank, but you should blame the Hon Jeff Kennett, who introduced the policy in 1999, thinking he was a shoo-in for a 3rd term and an ugly statue.
I would be curious to know how many taxpayers there are in Victoria, and what the actual cost would be to each of them. Bugger all I suspect. If nothing else, Andrews certainly deserves credit for being able to live rent free in his enemies' heads.
Where was the outrage when Jeff Kennett intoduced the statue policy? Ironically, Kennett is now outraged over the Andrews statue, but that has to be down to sour grapes.
I used to walk past the statues quite regularly and they do provide an eye-catching artistic commentary of Victoria's political history. I think that each of the statues captures the essence of its subject, with the exception of Albert Dunstan, who I wouldn't know from a bar of soap. $134K is peanuts and Andrews is more worthy of a statue than the scandal-ridden Henry Bolte, with his disdain of social justice and penchant for manufacturing crises to achieve his political ends.
I prefer we build a winning culture still get Walker and maybe attract a decent FA - the list is not anywhere near as bad as our ladder position IMO.
Get games into the 6 kids that played yesterday and add Walker to that and our young talent is more than ok.
Just for our culture I dont want to lose Cripps and a bottom 2 finish regardless of a few extra low picks will make it hard for him to want to stay and no chance of attracting talent in via a trade.
Get 8-9 wins finish 11th-12th and we will be viewed very differently internally and externally if we win 2 more games and finish bottom 2-3. Our club needs wins to be spirit and the winning culture much more IMO then an extra early pick or 2.
Yes, the last thing we want to do is reinforce the notion that losing is in any way acceptable.
Put the best possible team on the park each week, reward effort and, who knows, we might even jag a wild card. Fraser's goal should be to get the players believing that winning is a realistic outcome, regardless of who we're playing.
We still did bone headed stuff with ball in hand and so did they, and we still kicked forward to no one in particular.
Only difference was the result.
Yes, the only real difference I noticed was that our effort was more consistent over the four quarters and perhaps we were just a little more willing to take the game on, as young Matt Carroll did!
We should have won by more, but our forward line inefficiency let us down again, particularly in the second quarter. However, our tackling and ability to lock the ball in our forward 50 largely compensated for that.
Involving Indigenous players in the pre-game ceremony was a nice touch and would have made the night even more memorable for Jack Ison. I think that his inclusion made quite a difference too. His marking and link up work was very good and he rarely wasted a possession. Third most metres gained for us was a good effort in his first game.
The Doggies were certainly helped by some inexplicable centre ball up and stoppage frees. It was noticeable that players from both sides had no idea who the free was going to
Bob Murphy suggested on the wireless this morning that, if we do win, we shouldn't sing the club song.
I can follow his reasoning but I suspect that it will be a case of "a win is a win" and Jack will get his Gatorade shower if we can get over the Doggies.
I don't have high expectations but it would be good if we carried on where we left off last week.
I'm looking forward to seeing how Jack Ison goes. He can take a mark against taller opponents, tackles hard and uses the ball well when kicking for goal and passing to teammates.
