It seems that the pressure on the AFL to move our opening game against Collingwood from Olympic Park to Princes Park has had the desired effect:

Quote:Having refused to move men's games to bigger venues to deal with capacity demands, the AFL has done just with that with its women's league, at the first opportunity.

The league announced on Monday that the historic AFLW opener between Collingwood and Carlton on Friday week would be moved from the Magpies' training ground - Olympic Park Oval - to be held under lights at the Blues' traditional home of Ikon Park - formerly Princes Park.

Fairfax Media revealed on Sunday that the league was considering a move due to concerns that too many fans would be turned away from the Olympic Boulevard venue, which has almost no seats and a standing capacity of around 5000.

Ikon Park's capacity since its latest redevelopment is around 22,000.

AFL general manager of game and market development, Simon Lethlean - who has overseen much of the planning for the women's league - explained that the decision was made to prevent fans being turned away at the gates.

"All footy fans who want to see the opening AFLW match will now have the opportunity to do so at Ikon Park," Lethlean said.

"The move ensures no one will miss out as Ikon Park offers greater capacity.

"It is fantastic the new AFLW competition has so much momentum and interest. The AFLW opening round is an historic occasion and I'm looking forward to seeing the players in action from February 3."

The match,which will be broadcast live on Channel Seven and Fox Footy, will now start at 7:45pm - and remains free of charge, as do all AFLW matches other than those that serve as curtain raisers to men's pre-season matches.

Carlton become the first named club on the fixture list given it is now a Blues' home game.

We won today's practice game against Melbourne at Princes Park 8.4 to. 1.3.

Hey all, what the hell is going on over there !!!  Far out, I hope that everyone here is OK . as well as friends & relatives.  Sadly, there are some people who are going to be heartbroken this afternoon.

appalling news.

regards

Mal.

I have missed the Sheik's Stosur spray this time round but the Aussies seem to be doing OK.

I'm not a great tennis watcher but I don't mind a close game ... or a one-sided game when one of the young Aussies is doing well and it was great to see Ash Barty win again after her brief flirtation with cricket.  She seems to have settled down to life as a tennis professional.

One thing that struck me about Bernard Tomic's game tonight was that his opponent, Victor Estrella Burgos, had run one kilometre more than Bernard before they got to the fourth set tiebreaker.  That's an incredible difference for a game played on a small court.  Tomic seems to be a master at conserving energy.

After Kruddler's convoluted polls, I thought it would be interesting to see how folk would pick their sides for Rounds 1 and 12.

My Round 1 side is based on known quantities and an expectation that Pick 6 knows how to play:

FB:  Plowman  Weitering  Marchbank
HB:  Simpson  Rowe  Docherty
C:  Boekhorst  Cripps  E Curnow
HF:  Gorringe  Casboult  Wright
FF:  J Silvagni  C Curnow  Petrevski-Seton
Foll: Kreuzer  Gibbs  Murphy
Int: Kerridge  Cuningham  Armfield  Palmer

Omitted because of injury: Byrne Phillips

My Round 12 side is based more on crystal ball gazing:

FB:  Plowman  Weitering  Marchbank
HB:  Byrne  Rowe  Docherty
C:  Simpson  Cripps  E Curnow
HF:  C Curnow  Casboult  Wright
FF:  J Silvagni  McKay  Petrevski-Seton
F:  Kreuzer Gibbs Murphy
Int: Pickett Cuningham Macreadie Phillips

Thoughts?

Andy McKay has all but confirmed that Marc Murphy will be the skipper again in 2017.

Quote:"There will still be a process and there will be every year," football boss Andrew McKay told Fairfax Media.

"But in staying that, the only way he [Marc Murphy] wouldn't be [captain] is if the players didn't vote for him and that wouldn't happen."

McKay has praised Murphy's growth as a leader since he was struck down with syndesmosis in his ankle midway through 2016.

While he was sorely missed on the field by his teammates, McKay says his performance as a leader off the field was first-class.

"One of the benefits of him not playing much last year is it gave Murph the ability to lead off the field and he stepped up to the plate, which was fantastic."

"He really got stuck into the leadership aspect last year which was great.

"Absolutely he has [become a better captain]. It's given him enormous opportunity to lead."

Those of you of a certain age will remember "Where do you go to my lovely?"  It certainly brings back memories of interesting times in my life.

Singer-songwriter Peter Sarsted passed away at the age of 75.

RIP

Phil Gibbs, who anchored Channel O's coverage of the VFA back in the golden era TV/radio footy coverage, has passed away just short of his 88th birthday.

RIP.

We've had them calling cricket for a few weeks now, so how do you rate them?

Lawry
Warne
Clarke
Taylor
Healy
Slater
Chappell
Nicholas

Bill......10/10 absolute legend, ageless
Shane....8/10 (be careful not to drink too much of his own bathwater)
Micheal C...8/10  surprise of the Summer
Mark T.....7/10 Going ok
Ian H.....5/10  Use by date almost up
Michael S....7/10  Going ok
Ian C....3/10 Use by date definitely up!!
Mark N.....5/10 Too much sick leave!

Wishing all my fellow Carlton Supporters Club members a healthy, safe and rewarding 2017.

I hope your footy team does really well next season