This game is a Sunday afternoon game on the Gold Coast, starting at 1610. We will NOT be on free to air TV. Again.

The question will arise: which of the coaches has made the most improvement to his team?

I'll be at this one, hoping for the best. Enjoy!

The Defence Department's acknowledgement that the AUKUS submarine deal is going to cost us $5B in payments to France before we even put a down payment on our new submarines got me thinking about how much of our defence budget is wasted on poor contract management and inappropriate purchases.

The Defence Minister recently announced that the MRH-90 Taipan multi-role helicopters were to be replaced by Sikorsky Black Hawks and Sea Hawks after the Taipans were found to be unable to perform the roles they were purchased for.  In fact, the Taipans were purchased to replace our Black Hawks and Sea Hawks.  In other words, we are replacing the Taipans with the helicopters they were intended to replace!

It was previously announced that our Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters were not fit for purpose and will be replaced with Boeing Apache Guardians, a helicopter that was in service before we chose the Tiger.

A significant part of our defence budget is going to the acquisition of F-35 Lightning multi-role, supersonic, stealth fighters.  They may well be the real deal but we forked out a lot of money to help with development.  On top of that, the F-35B version has vertical take off and landing ability and would be be a significant force advantage if deployed on our Landing Helicopter Dock ships.

Back on land, the Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicle has been purchased even if it can only meet one of the Army's requirements for offensive firepower and anti-missile capability.  Then there's the Hawkei tactical vehicle that's currently withdrawn from service because the brakes don't work.

Of course, there have been some excellent military equipment purchases in the recent past but shouldn't we expect that all of our defence expenditure produces material that's fit for purpose and is state of the art?

This game is at Box Hill at 1505 on Sunday, so it overlaps the senior game at the MCG.
In theory the side should be stronger this week.

1705 at Ikon Park. The game is on Kayo. No idea who will line up as yet.

Voting is as usual: you have 15 votes to award pretty much as you will, with the following provisos:
[1] 15 votes in total, no more, no less.
[2] No more than 10 votes for any one player (even Sam Walsh or Patrick Cripps)
[3] Three players at least must get a mention.
[4] A grade for the game, A+ (what I want to see) to F-.

Someone has to play well.

Whoops. Changed the title. Getting ahead of myself.

At 1310 at the MCG on April 3rd. Happens to be my daughter's birthday< but I'll see what she intends doing before saying yay or nay.

Interesting to see how we go with out Covid headaches.

I'll be there tomorrow night. Not happy wit our covid issues, but glad it isn't worse.