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11
Ladies Lounge / Re: AFLW Season 2026
Last post by Baggers -
Quote from: Lods – on
Is North's dominance in this competition becoming a real problem?
No doubt things will eventually turn, but the chances are they'll go through undefeated again next year.


I reckon it's fantastic, Principal LODS. Men's and women's comps should be studying and gulping in what they do to create such dominance. Sure, they have the players but their mental attitude is really superior. Crocker will be on many radars.
12
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Last post by Baggers -
Quote from: PaulP – on
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/australia-set-for-world-first-cervical-cancer-elim

There’s a few reports around that Australia is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035. Hopefully we can achieve this target. 2021 was a particularly good year, with zero cases diagnosed. It’s one of the most common cancers in women, so a super effort from all concerned.

The linked article is a bit of a plug for GP’s, but it does contain the important facts.

Such an important post, Pauly. Thank you. Yep, brilliant effort from Oz.

(I declare my bias in that my paternal grandmother died of this cancer at the age of 31... in the 1940s).
13
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Last post by PaulP -
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/australia-set-for-world-first-cervical-cancer-elim

There’s a few reports around that Australia is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035. Hopefully we can achieve this target. 2021 was a particularly good year, with zero cases diagnosed. It’s one of the most common cancers in women, so a super effort from all concerned.

The linked article is a bit of a plug for GP’s, but it does contain the important facts.
14
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Pick our team in parts - Part 3 - 6x Starting forwards- CHOOSE 6!
Last post by DJC -
My approach is to pick 7 midfielders, 8 defenders, and 8 forwards, then choose the 6-6-6 from that lot.  The remainder start on the bench.  It helps if there are versatile players like O Hollands, Kemp, L Young and Florent who can fill a couple of roles, and forwards who can take a turn in the midfield.

I'm still struggling to fit several players in who I thought would be best 23  :-\
15
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Last post by DJC -
I imagine that most folk were shocked at the report of the 11 year old boy stabbing the 8 year old at school.  What a terrible experience for the two children, their classmates, the teachers and the families.  But then, when you think about it, there over 380,000 children attending government primary schools in Victoria.  One out of 380,000 isn't too shabby, particularly when you consider that more than 4,300 children and teens are shot and killed in the USA every year and over 17,000 more are shot and wounded.  It is estimated that 3 million children in the US are exposed to shootings per year but successive governments there do nothing about it ... and that fruitcake Pauline Hanson tried to solicit donations from the NRA in return for watering down Australia's gun laws.

Who knows what motivated the 11 year old to do what he did?  We can speculate about domestic violence, abuse, the influence of violent video games or TV programs and mental health issues.  Has anyone else noticed how TV characters suffer punches, and knife and bullet wounds and carry on as if nothing is wrong?  Does that unrealistic ability to absorb punishment give children the impression that violence doesn't really do any harm?

So why hasn't the 11 year old been charged?  Quite simply, the age of criminal responsibility in Victoria is 12 (It was raised  which was raised from 10 earlier this year) and the law recognises that children are unlikely to understand the impact of their actions or to comprehend criminal proceedings.  Brain studies have conclusively shown that the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for risk assessment, decision making and impulse control – doesn’t fully develop until after adolescence (10–19 years) and into early adulthood (20–29 years). This developmental process means children and young people are unable to think about their actions and understand the potential consequences in the same way as adults.

I think that most of us can look back with horror at some of the things we got up to as pre-teens and teenagers.  Converting spud guns to fire .22 bullets and shooting at cars on Bell Street, Coburg was not one of my brightest ideas.

Obviously steps need to be taken to understand why the eleven year old did what he did and to ensure that it doesn't happen again.   I don't know how that can be done but I do know that charging him and dragging him before the courts is not the answer.
16
Robert Heatley Stand / Re: Pick our team in parts - Part 3 - 6x Starting forwards- CHOOSE 6!
Last post by Lods -
It's the bench that will get interesting because I don't think it will be that set.
I have Lewis Young in the back of my mind because he can play forward, back and ruck
But if O'Keefe misses out on a forward spot then he must come into the frame.

The same applies to Kemp.
It may work out fine, but it may also get a bit compacted at the tail end of the exercise.
17
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: General Discussions
Last post by LP -
I talked to some Australia Protest types today, it was clear to me many participants have been misled, either accidentally or deliberately the people marching aren't all marching under the same banner. That's a problem, because the neo-Nazi types are using the participation and attendance as a recruiting medium.

A had to ask them why they were marching, most said they were protesting against illegal immigrants. I had to question this, they qualified it with queue jumpers who arrive by boat or plane and stay in Australia illegally, that is either without a visa or beyond the visa term.  When I asked them how many arrived by boat last year they gave me a range of answers from a thousand to tens of thousand, when I pointed out the total head count for boat arrivals last year was about 150 people they refused to believe it. They have been told illegal immigrants number in the hundreds of thousands, I asked them are they against immigration, and they said no, they are only protesting illegal immigration. But that is not what the event organisers stated in the media, they were pushing an anti-immigration message. It demonstrates how devious the organisers really are, with disinformation, and deception used to recruit participants.

Hard reality is exposed in the numbers.
On average about 500,000 legal immigrants or visa holders arrive in Australia each year, that's 12,500,000 over the last 25 years and the average is remarkably stable despite what some political parties claim. In any one year there are only about 70,000 in total that remain illegally, the average illegal overstay is only 4 weeks, most leave once they are alerted that their vias has expired. So the longer term overstays are about 35,000 as a percentage of 500,000. But of course a small percentage of the overstays are multi-year overstays, so that 35,000 must really be a percentage of 1,000,000 or more. I've been told the real-world percentage for overstays hovers around 0.2%, 1 in 500.

Over the same period the population has grown about 7,000,000, the doubters looked puzzled when I told them this, because they don't seem to think anybody leaves or dies.

One of the protestors I talked to today was the daughter of a legal Mauritian boat arrival immigrant, 50 years ago, what do you think the Ex-Kiwi Neo-Nazi protest leader thinks of her, and would he reserve a spot for her child in his private home school program?
18
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Last post by kruddler -
Quote from: PaulP – on
Quote from: kruddler – on
@Paul, i think the issue is what Shawny is seeing locally and in the news and comparing that to the same area previously.
On that front he is right. The area is getting worse.
Whether that translates to victoria wide, not sure. Maybe all these crimes occuring there used to occur in a different area that has cleaned up its act, essentially handballing the problem further down the field in a game of hot potato

I'm not denying these incidents occurred - plainly they have. What I take issue with is the framing and reporting of such incidents, the lack of detail and context, the fact that outside of outlets like The Conversation and similar, expert opinion is rarely sought. Once the level of fear mongering reaches a fever pitch, which in the current climate does not take long, government policy and resources is forced to prioritize, and therefore needs to be seen to be taking action. In a space where resources are limited, this means other areas miss out. As I mentioned earlier, violent crime rates have been in decline for 20 or so years, except very significantly in the area of domestic violence, where the rates have been regrettably stable over the same period. Yet you won't read about that nearly as much because it doesn't grab the public's attention in the same way as black kids with machetes.

I'm safely assuming we can all agree that there has never been and never will be a zero crime rate, anywhere on earth, which means we must all accept some level of crime. The issue then becomes one of perceptions and personal boundaries : is there is difference between "feeling" safe and "being" safe ? What crime rate would constitute the government having crime "under control" and conversely at what point is crime "out of control" ? Etc.

What i was trying to get across, was that it could be a case of 'you are both right' from your own point of view.

What he is seeing, and i'm not far from their either, is definitely an increase in these types of crimes over previous.
Real world statistics may ultimately suggest otherwise, and i gave a reason for that in which Lods agrees is plausible if not probable.
19
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Last post by PaulP -
Quote from: kruddler – on
@Paul, i think the issue is what Shawny is seeing locally and in the news and comparing that to the same area previously.
On that front he is right. The area is getting worse.
Whether that translates to victoria wide, not sure. Maybe all these crimes occuring there used to occur in a different area that has cleaned up its act, essentially handballing the problem further down the field in a game of hot potato

I'm not denying these incidents occurred - plainly they have. What I take issue with is the framing and reporting of such incidents, the lack of detail and context, the fact that outside of outlets like The Conversation and similar, expert opinion is rarely sought. Once the level of fear mongering reaches a fever pitch, which in the current climate does not take long, government policy and resources is forced to prioritize, and therefore needs to be seen to be taking action. In a space where resources are limited, this means other areas miss out. As I mentioned earlier, violent crime rates have been in decline for 20 or so years, except very significantly in the area of domestic violence, where the rates have been regrettably stable over the same period. Yet you won't read about that nearly as much because it doesn't grab the public's attention in the same way as black kids with machetes.

I'm safely assuming we can all agree that there has never been and never will be a zero crime rate, anywhere on earth, which means we must all accept some level of crime. The issue then becomes one of perceptions and personal boundaries : is there is difference between "feeling" safe and "being" safe ? What crime rate would constitute the government having crime "under control" and conversely at what point is crime "out of control" ? Etc.
20
Blah-Blah Bar / Re: Shawny’s concerns about Victorian and Australian Governments
Last post by Lods -
Quote from: kruddler – on
Maybe all these crimes occuring there used to occur in a different area that has cleaned up its act, essentially handballing the problem further down the field in a game of hot potato

That's often the case in a big city.
With population movement the character of an area can change dramatically.
Areas that were once reasonably quiet suddenly become places of unrest, while others that seemed troubled settle and become more stable.
It certainly happened in Sydney over my lifetime.
Suburbs that were once considered places to avoid became trendy and up market as populations moved further from the original centre of the city.