There might not be a great deal of interest in US Politics....but it probably should concern us.....very concern us.

I've just finished watching the Republican party candidate debate.

Is it possible, no it couldn't be :...or could it be....that Donald Trump is actually the best possible candidate the Republicans can put forward for President. :o

If there is to be a serious challenger, and surely there must be down the track, it may come from Carly Fiorina who seems to be growing in considerations.

I thought the young Florida senator Marco Rubio performed well. He's a good speaker, but he may be a better chance in four years time.

Jeb Bush and Rand Paul,two others being spoken of as likely candidates, were very average.

Scary stuff. ???

We've made a number of list decisions over the last few years that have been described by some as essential in developing a positive culture.

At the moment you would be hard pressed to point to the 'positive' effects of some of these moves.

We seem to have developed a culture that some folk can't wait to get away from and others don't want to come too.

Is it something that takes time to develop or have we "thrown out the baby with the bathwater" in some cases.

Sounds like it's on
Turnbull to challenge
Turnbull speaking at 4.00pm

Julie Bishop will support Turnbull

Okay so the transfer window has officially shut (and we think our AFL transfer period is the silly season!!) and with having signed a new tv rights deal of around 10 billion AUD for 3 seasons (yeap you read that amount right) it wasn't a surprise to see the EPL splashing the most cash around with 870 million pounds spent in total (breaking last years 835 million pound record) and there were some big deals floated on the last day that could have taken the figure over 1 billion
Among them
Pogba - Juventus -> Chelsea (80 million pounds)
Muller - Bayern Munich -> Man United (60 million pounds)
Stones - Everton -> Chelsea (40 million pounds)
Berahino - West Brom -> Tottenham (25 million pounds).

The last day was mainly taken up with the two really big 'will they - won't they' stories.
With De Gea's transfer to Real Madrid and Berahino to Tottenham taking up most of the air space.
In the end West Brom send Tottenham packing (much to the chagrin of Berahino) and Man Utd and Real Madrid messed up their paper work, which has now seen De Gea re-sign for another 4 years.

What is amazing about this transfer window is that every club has had their hands in their pocket, they need to because the TV rights kick in next season and it will be a disaster for any club that goes down.

Some clubs (West Ham, Crystal Palace, Stoke and Swansea) seem to have done some incredible business with the likes of Payet, Cabaye,Shaqiri (I cannot believe he plays for stoke!!!) and Ayew are just some of the names going to these clubs (Ayew starts the season with a handful of goals, including against Man U and Chelsea to win EPL player of hte month after signing on a FREE).

The club that I think impressed me the most was Man City. some think it is easy with buckets of cash, but you still need the right players and when Man City, Utd or Chelsea come calling, the price goes up by 10-15 million pounds per player.

They already looked dangerous, but come with some frailties last year, this year in the space of 3 signings (they actually made 5 or 6 in total) they have transformed their team.
Raheem Sterling is a complete wanker, but he also plays some beautiful football, has pace to burn, good with the ball at his feet and knows how to strike it, he is a major upgrade on Navas.
De Bruyne was sold by Chelsea last year and it looks like a monumental mistake. De Bruyne could simply play wide and have taken the role that Cuadrado failed in, but really as good as Oscar is, De Bruyne would be a very big upgrade and with Willian on the right and Hazard on the left would make the most fearsome LW-CAM/SS-RW  combination the premier league has maybe ever seen, with Costa up front just having a feeding frenzy, or indeed Remy with his pace in front of these 3 could just blow teams apart... but... Man City have him now .

The only problem is that De Bruyne and Silva both play the same role (though play it differently) and one of the is going to be pushed wide> I think it might be Silva, though it is tough. He is the best passer I have ever seen in the prem (yeap better than Scholes) and his delivery usually has more impact from central position, but he has proven he is more than capable of playing our wide. De Bruyne (imo) drops off more when moves wider, so I would probably start with that.

Otamendi is an excellent signing and I expect him to be a regular as soon as he is settled. He is A grade and if Kompany can find his form of 18 months ago, that is a rock solid partnership that has the ability to take them deep (finally) in Champions League, as well as to the title in the EPL.


Chelsea started their window well with the signing of Pedro from Barcelona from under Man United's nose, but they can't escape that they saw some real gaps in the center back position and after missing their first choice signed some very underwhelming backups to Terry.

Also signed Falcao on loan, which might work, but seems to be a bit of a head scratcher.
Lost Peter Cech and replaced with the very capable Begovic who will now be first choice for the next 3 months with Courtois going down. Also traded Filipe Luis back to Spain after a pretty ordinary year, that does put a lot of pressure though on Azpilcueta, but he is a very handy footballer.

Man United. They have spent 250 million pounds in 2 seasons and they still don't have a playmaker to replace Carrick or a real striker to work in front of Rooney. They will walk away knowing their squad cannot chellenge this year, great signings, but a real scatter gun approach that still leaves them very exposed at CB (Blind already exposed by Swansea) and as above anyone to support Rooney and Carrick.

Tottenham - Thrown in here just to let my disgust out. God rid of some truly terrible players, but the way Levy does business is like the old Essendon and clubs hate dealing with him, he has a habit of getting into agents ears and trying to get players to put pressure on their club to sell on the cheap, he done it last season with Schneiderlin and this season with Wanyama and Berahino. Southampton have claimed they will not deal with Tottenham at all going forward and I doubt West Brom will either unless they are forced to by release clauses being met. In all of the above instances the players ended up handing in official transfer requests and got upset at not moving, it is a Tottenham habit that makes other clubs hate them.


As for my team West Brom..
A mixed bag, we released a long time performer in Mulumbu and also let Lescott who is real class cross to our rivals. We brought in another 2 ex-Man United players in Johnny Evans and Anders Lindergaard, we needed cover in both of those positions, but I do have some questions. We also brought in Chester from Hull who looks like a good buy as both McAuley and Olsson are getting a bit old and neither was every quick or had great ball playing skills, they were out and out old school center backs.

In the wider positions we brought in Gnabry from Arsenal (not sure how young loanees go, they really are hit and miss) and also brought in James McClean (strange transfer from Wigan, as can be divisive with supporters and players due to his stances against England) to put pressure on the likes of Brunt.
Up forward we brought in experience in Lambert and a real quality striker in Rondon, taking advantage of the new ratios imposed in the Russian league for non-european clubs. Rondon is a big strong and tall forward who plays a 'target man' type role, could form a good relationship with Berahino and Lambert and will be suited to the very unfortunate 'long ball' style of Tony Pulis.

It will be a long season for West Brom and they will be aiming for at 10-15 finish again, but it will be dangerous to continue playing this style of football as the overall class of the PL continues to improve. I do think that the  likes of Sunderland and Norwich are in real trouble though and should be favorites for the drop. With unfortunately probably Bournemouth struggling as well. If Bournemouth does stay up though, expect Howe to move onto a bigger club as he is probably the 'manager most likely' and could well go on to be one of the greats from what I have seen so far. (of course he might just fail at the top level also).

I won't tough on other leagues here other than to say the obvious will be in line for honors again, with probably only Dortmund and possibly Wolfsburg again giving Bayern any grief, the same 3 will be in the running in the La Liga also.

I Serie A Juventus has lost Teves (Boca) and Pirlo (MLS) and not started the campaign very well, but they will get their act together and again be very formidable. Dzeko moving to Roma will give them more attacking options and they are the team most likely to challenge there.

Anyway.. tonight.. West Brom v Southampton is the game to keep your eye on.... well for me 

Unlike Sheik to leave an opportunity to kick someone this long

The winds of change continue to blow through Princes Park

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/de...jgo3r.html

Northern Blues 2015

Introduction:
As I was tossing and turning in bed last night, wondering when sleep would remember that it is supposed to come during the night, I thought of a lot of interesting and amusing ways to start this. Now comes the light of day and my brain is mush. Naturally, the right words escape me as effectively as Victory escaped us this season. Can I come up with a witty and ironic way to describe the season? Doesn’t look like it. It looks as disturbed as my sleep was last night.  :o :o
I wonder what that says about me?  :o
I guess I could start by going over why I am doing this and not someone like RR or Baggers. My ego, I guess. Or maybe just to show that a Maths teacher can write a decent essay (although my teachers at school would be shocked: there were good reasons why I was a Maths/Science person).  > >
Am I just making this crap up? I don’t think so. I did see the Blues play a bit this season, although I really miss the game at QEO with Bendigo becoming extinct at VFL level.
Never mind. Time to start. After all, it wouldn’t be too hard to determine that this season didn’t go well. The Blues finished 2nd bottom to Frankston, who didn’t win a game.
So, why did we do so poorly?

Negatives:
[1] Lack of talent
[2] Lack of on field leadership
[3] Injuries to Carlton listed players
[4] Injuries and defections of VFL listed players
[5] Lack of time on TV

Actually, it is not difficult to determine why we failed. Look at the team that we field each week and any observer will note that few names stick out. Look at the list and as few as 6 Carlton listed players may appear, and none of those household names that reflect success. (Jones may have become a recognizable name, but not for the right reasons.) Look at the VFL contingent and the same thing happens. Which players had distinguished AFL careers? Who was close and still trying? What top level VFL names are there? The answers to those questions were all too often nobody. Which of these guys is playing like they have a serious AFL future? Again an empty silence as the appraisal brings forward no obvious answers.
Why?
The simplest answer is a lack of talent on the list. Why should there be such a lack of talent? Now that question becomes interesting.
Let’s start with our list. The Northern Blues, and the Bullants before them, struggled to attract and retain talent. Why? When Preston almost went to the wall a few years back, there were a number of significant former AFL players playing and demanding decent money. Preston struggled to get that money. Many of these former AFL players did not pull their weight and on field success became problematical. In their financial woes, the Preston administration decided that trying to grab big names was a poor strategy and one they could not afford to follow.
This was a good idea for a team with no money, large debts and few ways of making the income required.
Then comes the alignment with an equally cash strapped Carlton. The Preston board decided to try to attract young, cheap talent, especially from their own area. There was born the idea of ‘Northern’, a team to represent all of the Northern suburbs of Melbourne.
An interesting idea and not without merit. But players of quality want to be rewarded financially. So the better players stayed away.
A decade later and this policy still holds. Both Carlton and Preston have more money and are viable, but are a long way from financial powerhouses. As part of the alignment, Carlton has minimal input into list management at Northern and tries to keep things that way. It allows the Blues’ board to feel more independent, to be more than just an arm of the Carlton Football Club.
Carlton like it that way, as we don’t want to appear to be this hungry monster gobbling up VFL clubs for our own satisfaction.
However, the effects are that the list contains very few players who have elite football backgrounds.

In 2015 there were 2 players, Wilkinson and McGuinness, who had played AFL football. One of those, McGuinness, was an assistant coach. The other, Wilkinson, was trying to relight his AFL career. When that appeared unlikely, he left the club (he was Vice Captain) midseason to try out for Gridiron.
Experienced players: were there any? Yes. Including McGuinness there were 3 players who were 27 years old or older. One of those was Captain ‘Box’ Bransgrove, a guy little larger than Tyrion Lannister and more injury prone (although he, at least, did not have his nose cut off).
That is not sounding like the sort of list that is going to win premierships.

On the Carlton side of the equations things were not a lot better. Almost 2 decades of ordinary recruiting and poor player development (not to mention some questionable player management and the selection input from a coach who was sacked), Carlton’s list lacked depth and experience. Unlike the Glory Days of the late ‘80’s, there were few older, experienced heads (like Rod Ashman and Jim Buckley) or fired up young champions (like Stephen Silvagni) coming through in the ‘2nds’. There was some talent there, but our list was extremely inexperienced.
It is likely to remain that way in 2016, as the club rebuilds in almost every aspect.

So, the team that ran out onto the field contained few players who could provide leadership, experience or raw talent. Not the way for a team to win.

However, the team DID win, and beat some good opponents. Early in the season there were some heart breaking losses and a few brilliant results. The team appeared to be heading in the right direction. It had the spirit that it had lacked for some years.

What happened? Injuries. Carlton’s injury woes started in the 1st minute of the season when ‘Daisy’ Thomas was injured, got worse when Chris Judd was injured and had to retire and sunk from there. For the last round of the season there were just enough fit players to make up a team.
This left very little for the Northern Blues. In fact, of the senior list only Dillion Viojo – Rainbow and Cameron Giles did not play senior football: DVR because he was not playing well enough and Giles because he was injured. Of the rookies, only Category B rookie Frazer Russell was fit enough to play but wasn’t selected. All of the others either player senior football or were injured.

That sounds like a nightmare scenario. But it gets worse.

Looking at the VFL contingent, as the season progressed we lost Captain ‘Box’ Bransgrove to serious injury, after having him struggle to get on the park for basically the whole season. I don’t think he played injury free in any game in 2015. His form was not that good either, as he struggled with his body.
Assistant Coach Kieran McGuinness started brilliantly, but he too succumbed to season ending injury. To that point he has been one of our most effective players, even though this was his retirement gig. His leadership was sorely missed.
Joel Wilkinson, VC for 2015, ‘retired’ midseason after his best game for the Blues to play Gridiron and a number of the other, younger talented players were also stricken (like Tim Totevski and Cameron Conlon).

These injuries effectively removed most of the talent and almost the entire leadership of the Northern Blues. It is no wonder we lost.

For all that, the Blues were much better in 2015, showing much better spirit and work rate. We may have been beaten, but we were rarely embarrassed.

Another negative the Blues experienced, something that definitely doesn’t help us, was the fact that we were rarely on TV. None of our wins were televised, which really didn’t help us recruit fans, players or money. Other clubs appeared more often. Only Frankston was on TV less than we were (although we were equalled by Coburg).

In light of all of this crap, the Blues didn’t do that badly in 2015. However, we REALLY need to address some of these problems if we are to:
(a) Play finals
(b) Develop our players

Positives:
[1] Much better team spirit
[2] Good performances when everyone was on the park
[3] Curtain raisers
The season was not all doom and gloom. There were a number of positives to be got out of 2015.
The first was the considerable improvement in team spirit and the clear development of our coaching staff. The 2nd was the development of the VFL brigade when the burden fell upon their shoulders.

In the last few years there was a distinct difference between the VFL and Carlton contingents. Nor was there much faith or team work between the 2 groups. That was most noticeable when Robert Hyde was coach, but was still an identifiable problem in 2014. In 2015, however, that did not appear to be so much of an issue. There was a definite improvement in team moral, team spirit and the way the players interacted with each other. Everybody who went onto the ground did their best, they didn’t give up.
That doesn’t win games in itself, but early in the year, when there was a bit more talent on the park, it made victory possible. It was great to see this improvement, especially as it was a number of the Carlton listed players who were getting not much of the ball.

The other really good thing to come out of 2015 was the reintroduction of the Curtain Raiser. This allowed us to see the Blues more. I really hope we can continue this in the future.
One of these games saw the Blues make their best effort of the season, the obliteration of Frankston at Etihad. It broke all sorts of records and was completed by a team that was far from our best.

Future:
The first and most important thing is to introduce more talent into the ranks of the Northern Blues. Firstly, this can come about by adding depth and talent to the Carlton list. This is probable, as the 2015 draft is expected to yield a much better class of recruit than 2014 did.
But we also need to get more talent in the VFL contingent, and not just as from an assistant coach. We need to attract more fringe players who see the Blues as a way to get back into the AFL and we also need some experienced players to give on field leadership and experience. I was hoping someone like David Ellard might be recruited by Carlton to fill in that role, as his preparation was a great role model for those who would follow him into the big time.

We also need to develop our list more, to get more out of the talent that we have. This includes having them train more with the seniors and having them do many of the same more professional preparations that the AFL boys do.

We also need to retain our talent. At the beginning of 2014 the Blues lost a large group of players to Williamstown. We have also had our leaders move on, instead of remaining. There would be nobody at the Blues at the moment who has played 100 VFL games with us.

We need to pay the players so they want to stay and we need to make the place a real tight knit club, not just some place to play footy sometimes. We need to be seen as the springboard into the future.

Conclusions:
2015 was ruined by injury, but we never at any stage had the list to go all the way. We need to rectify these problems if we are to succeed. Carlton requires that the Northern Blues succeeds. Otherwise we cannot develop our players as we need to.
Look at the Bulldogs. Their 2014 VFL team the premiership. A large group of those young players has gone on to fuel their success at AFL level this year. Their experienced players largely remain to provide the correct milieu for future development.
There is no good reason why we could not emulate this model. Footscray never had a large amount of money. Preston is no longer insolvent. The Blues need to take some risks and become the leaders.

I have deliberately NOT addressed the issues of a stand-alone team and those things that follow from that. It appears clear that the Carlton hierarchy does not want to go down that path at this time. What the future may hold is another matter entirely, but we appear to want to make this alignment work. As such I have assumed that this model will remain.

So will he?  I've backed him for plenty. 

I feel very detached from this week's result. I didn't see a moment of it. I heard nothing. I didn't even see the stats come up on the computer screen. The only thing I can say is that it was 10 goals better than last time. Hope that trend continues next year when we actually have some fit players on the park.

Remember:
[1] At least 3 players need to get a mention.
[2] No more than 10 votes for any one player.
[3] Give a rating of team performance. It can be anywhere from A+ to F.
[4] Votes must add up to 15.

From the summary Carrots and Curnow did well. I wonder what you will think?

I am glad that Carrots ended up with a good performance. We will miss him next year. Disappointing that David Ellard could only manage 7 possessions.

Last time for the year, folks. Roll up!

The Spoon. Oh noes. Makes for a good story i guess. 2018 "Carlton won the spoon only 3 years ago, now look at them, Premiers!"