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1
Blah-Blah Bar / RIP Fred Beard
Last post by DJC -
ZZTop’s drummer Fred Beard passed away on 17 August aged 77.

To be honest, it’s probably surprising that he hung on for so long.

Anyway, he, together with Billy Gibbons and the late Dusty Hill, gave me a lot of musical pleasure over many years.

RIP
2
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 23 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Western Bulldogs at Marvel
Last post by Blue Moon -
I think the Bulldogs' list is very good, I am sure not it is managed as well as it should be or their game plan maximises their potential. Having a few players out helped focus their minds as did the poor performance last week against North. I thought they played very free while we played with expectations but in the end we got the job done. At some stage in the future the umpires will stop missing obvious frees and we will get a fair run with the decisions. The Bulldogs were very physical and aggressive, especially in that second quarter,  but I was happy how we stood our ground. Carlton needs to improve some of the decision making going forward and trust the process. They seem to have a game plan they are committed to and have the players to implement it. A victory over Freo next week would be nice.
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by northernblue -
Quote from: bratblue – on
Quote from: northernblue – on
As much as the batting failed the bowling group abjectly failed to build pressure.
Barely a maiden, with a few dotballs scattered throughout.
The Bangers cruised along at 3.5 an over.
They applied themselves on the opening day and 1st session in particular against a bunch of blokes who looked like they hadn’t played for 6 months, in conditions that suited the bangers, not us.
The pitch then turned into a road, game over.

I missed the weekends play as I went bush and was shattered to see that Jake missed out, he’ll play in Qld next up he’s going to need some luck…
The selectors want Head to drop down the order, they want 2 openers… but who wants the job, who can do the job, who’s in form ?

As an aside 3 fellas spent all day marooned on a sandbar yesterday after missing the tide… 🤣

 Some guys went fishing out from shady camp a few years ago now, there boat hit a log and sunk.They managed to get to the bank and climb a little tree. A croc thought this looks a nice dinner and waited at the bottom of the tree for the tide. As the water got higher the croc got closer and closer, then along came another boat and saved the day.

Not quite a regular occurrence but certainly not unheard of.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 23 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Western Bulldogs at Marvel
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: LP – on
Quote from: DJC – on
I thought that we dominated the game but some wayward kicking from quarter time onwards kept the Bulldogs in the contest.
100% agree, the stats are most likely good because we had 2, 3 or 4 good disposals in the row then burnt the last one, at least that is what I saw but I wasn't there live!

It's probably another good example of how stats can retrospectively paint the wrong picture, or cause people to draw the wrong conclusions.

Yes, we had a bazillion more disposals than the Doggies and most hit the target, as our bazillion more uncontested marks shows.

More often than not, that ill-directed or overly aggressive kick came at the start of what should have been a possession chain.  That often gave the Dishlickers the pill forward of their defensive 50 and their rebound caught our mids and defenders out of position.

It seems to me that, if we nail the first couple of disposals, we’ll usually put together a chain of possessions that results in an inside 50. 
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The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by bratblue -
Quote from: northernblue – on
As much as the batting failed the bowling group abjectly failed to build pressure.
Barely a maiden, with a few dotballs scattered throughout.
The Bangers cruised along at 3.5 an over.
They applied themselves on the opening day and 1st session in particular against a bunch of blokes who looked like they hadn’t played for 6 months, in conditions that suited the bangers, not us.
The pitch then turned into a road, game over.

I missed the weekends play as I went bush and was shattered to see that Jake missed out, he’ll play in Qld next up he’s going to need some luck…
The selectors want Head to drop down the order, they want 2 openers… but who wants the job, who can do the job, who’s in form ?

As an aside 3 fellas spent all day marooned on a sandbar yesterday after missing the tide… 🤣

 Some guys went fishing out from shady camp a few years ago now, there boat hit a log and sunk.They managed to get to the bank and climb a little tree. A croc thought this looks a nice dinner and waited at the bottom of the tree for the tide. As the water got higher the croc got closer and closer, then along came another boat and saved the day.
8
The Sports Desk / Re: God help me - the Cricket thread
Last post by LP -
Quote from: Professer E – on
Greens bowling, both volume and quality has unbalanced the side.  Webster's slot should be a specialist's bat or a bowling all-rounder.
Green's a bowler, not just used to change ends? :o

For all the potential this kid offers, he's massively under delivered, in fact most of the squad fall in that category.

Don't accept the stats, if the greats of the past had as much opportunity to play cricket under the modern idealistic conditions they would have records twice the magnitude! None of these "moderns" compare in my opinion. The modern players find things to complain about in conditions that would have seen Viv Richards or Bob Simpson batting for 5 days!

Can you imagine facing Warne or Lillee around Tea time with a pink ball in a Day / Night test, most batsmen would come off looking like Mr Bean? Think of all those times Warne turned the last moments of light into a symphony of cricket!
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL Rd 23 2026 Post Game Prognostications Carlton vs Western Bulldogs at Marvel
Last post by LP -
Quote from: DJC – on
I thought that we dominated the game but some wayward kicking from quarter time onwards kept the Bulldogs in the contest.
100% agree, the stats are most likely good because we had 2, 3 or 4 good disposals in the row then burnt the last one, at least that is what I saw but I wasn't there live!

It's probably another good example of how stats can retrospectively paint the wrong picture, or cause people to draw the wrong conclusions.

I particularly noted in the 2nd half on event, we ran the footy out of D50 through CHB to the Wing then towards the HFF. We had setup with CHF vacant, and both Kemp and McGovern started deep with space to lead into. Yet we baulked at that centering kick and forced McGovern to double back and lead into the pocket. Fortunately, McGovern clunked the mark, and fortunately the Dogs had run up towards the ball carrier leaving space behind. I saw Fraser's eyes rolling in the coach's box and he made an arc with his hand like he'd also expected us to the centre the pill and not head to the pocket. Fans will celebrate that play, but the reality is it's easy to kill the footy in the pocket, and if McGovern had not marked the Dogs had the numbers to run the footy back for a full field length turnover, our Mids were pushing towards CHF 20m away from where we kicked the pill leaving nobody to crumb. That makes our lot look slow because we are caught out of position.