Yes that’s true Brett, Casey have the right to do as they wish, but my issue with them is they ignored the concerns from their affiliate who would have told them explicitly about the risks involved and they proceeded to move ahead.

If a 15 minute game of poker is enough to throw them into hiding and reconsider their position I don’t feel they were serious about rehabilitation and only wanted Fev as a side show who could pull a crowd. The guy has issues and the constant media circus and flip flopping on signing him does not help him. He basically admitted last night he self harmed and that should be ringing alarm bells with people.

If he’s not worth the risk, that’s fine, football clubs don’t have to be a patron saint for these issues but if they take him on knowing his baggage he becomes part of their family and they take a responsibility for helping him.

Largely agree but;

Bombers are stronger than 14th. They have GCS, WCE, BL, PA and possibly Melbourne covered. I know you can’t read too much into NAB Cup but I fear for the Dees as they showed a game plan of an over-reliance on run and attack and not much in the way of a pressing defence. Mark my words if they don’t address this they may have some ‘growing pains’ in 2011.

Carlton are a top 6 side. Their defence isn’t so leaky anymore either. They conceded an average 90 points per game in 2010 in a stat that has trended downward every year. FOr the record that put their defence 9th. Their defence will be top 8 in 2011 and their on-ballers and diversity up forward mean they’ll win enough games to make the 8.

West Coast are a far better side than the Gold Coast- Gold Coast have an average age of 21 and average games played of 20 odd. They’re boys on a mans errand, West Coast proved that in the NAB Quarter Finals.

Well said, although Costello could have worded his column a little better.

Hook up with the Fanatics in London mate, provided the Whites stay in the top flight they offer tickets behind the goals at the Hammersmith end. When I went to see Fulham and Everton last season I sat with Dave, the guy that runs the fanatics operation in the UK and sat directly behind the goals front row. Dave also snuck me into the Pub round the corner reserved for Fulham members post game where I met a few old school Fulham fans with some great stories about their hooligan days in the 70s! It’s an experience you’ll never regret mate.

PS- From memory the actual cottage is Heratige listed so it can’t be redeveloped.

I’ve been to watch Premier League Football at both Old Trafford and Craven Cottage and whilst Old Trafford is a great venue it’s just another big stadium.

Craven Cottage is an amazing venue and incredibly unique in the EPL. The ground is located smack bang on the River Thames among terrace housing and the entrance to the ground is stuck in a time warp and would not look out of place 50 years ago. The place full holds around 24,000. The brick entrance with tiny little doorways through to the turnstiles, the terraced stands give a different cozy atmosphere to what you get at a sterile 50,000 plus stadium.

A game at Craven Cottage I imagine is what it was like to watch a game of VFL out at the Junction Oval or Windy Hill or Lakeside Oval back in the day. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had as a spectator of sport and the Premier League is richer for having it there.

Come on you whites.

When I say ‘each code’ I’m referring to the administrators of each code.

Fozzie was also calling for ex-captains and players of the Australian team to barnstorm the Australian dressingroom after the Germany loss and wrest control of the team Bastille style. Love his passion and will not question his commitment to the Australian game but glad he isn’t in a decision making role in Australian football.

Well said.

What will kill the game in Australia is not qualifying for World Cup finals. Results are key. Drawing power is gained by playing meaningful games against big name players and fielding big name players on the park.

By calling other codes more ‘spectator friendly’ you’re basically saying football is an inferior product to other national codes and Australia are better off playing in attractive 4-3 losses than gritty 1-0 wins. Australians will get behind the Socceroos if they keep winning, kids will dream of playing football for Australia when they see the national team playing Germany and Brazil at World Cups.

I do agree that style is important but why do we think the best way is to go hell for leather and try to ‘put on a show’ to win over the sporting public? Australians want to see their teams play to their potential, not play in flashy losses.

When we put results on the pitch we’re front and centre of the media reporting, this in turn creates a whole generation of 5 year olds who see Tim Cahill as an idol to aspire to play like and it deepens the talent pool of junior players available.

The day we have an aussie equal to Wayne Rooney, Jermaine Defoe, Aaron Lennon, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand in the Socceroos at any one stage then we can take the next step.

Is it any coincidence that the World Cup has not been won by anyone outside South America or Europe?

PS- What do John O’Neill, Frank Lowy, Richard Pratt, Frank Costa, Greg Swann, all have in common? They’re pragmatists that deliver results and success in sporting organisations. Thanks for the compliment.

With you all the way on this Fussball, all I want to see are results first.

I thought the defence in the Korea game was quite good. Sure they got opened up and went 1-0 down but Neill was solid and intercepted and squashed a lot of Korean advances and we didn’t give anywhere near as many free kicks away in the danger areas. On top of that we have a world class GK and with that we’ll hold teams. Australia are pretty hard to score against, Germany aside you don’t see too many 2 goal plus losses for the Socceroos.

Reasonable point and it has merit but I don’t necessarily agree with this entirely. We are a country of 20 million and growing. The Netherlands (granted football is their number 1 game) draws from a pool of around 4-5 million. On top of this competition is healthy. Monopolies aren’t, they promote laziness. It’s good to see the AFL, League, Union and Football try and out-do one another, it keeps everyone on their toes, it forces each code to evolve, it forces each code to put effort and money into grass roots sport to find the next Kewell, Judd, Johns and Gregan, it makes us a healthier, less fat and sporty nation. Codes will grumble and worry about participation of their code but at least competition will force them to keep evolving.

PS the game also appeals to me because I love the skill involved and the game itself.

Thanks guys, it’s not often I get praised for saying smart things! 😉

AFL is probably my number 1 passion Vin. I play it at a surburban level, I’ve coached it, I am a Carlton supporter and I try to source a Herald Sun to catch up on my AFL news everyday.

Football or soccer gives me an outlet to support Australia on a national stage. I record Fulham games on Austar each week, I try to watch the Victory as often as I can, I watch the socceroos no matter what time they play and when I lived in Melbourne I went to half-a-dozen games a season with a mate as he was also a Victory fan. I never went to AFL with him unless Carlton played Hawthorn. Hell I’ve even been to two Premier league games and went to a League 1 match between Leeds and Gillingham at Elland Road

I’m not a part-time Socceroos supporter either, sure my knowledge of football is inferior to aussie rules because I’ve played aussie rules, have an AFL coaching accreditation and watched it since I can ever remember, unfortunately I didn’t get that grounding in football hence why whilst my knowledge of football, whilst still good, is nowhere near as deep as aussie rules. The Herald Sun just don’t give football the same scrutiny and breakdowns that aussie rules get.

Both can be supported properly, all codes can co-exist successfully if they all realise their place and understand their appeal to the general public and respect this.

The appeal to the round ball game for me is the fact it gives me an opportunity to support Australia, aussie rules can’t give me that. (Don’t anyone dare mention Australia vs Ireland) The round ball game gives me and my mates a mutual team in the A-League so on a Sunday arvo (when I lived in Melb) we have an excuse to go to the pub, have a beer and both watch a team we support. The A-League should pounce on this.

I love football and I now even call it this much to the disgust of my round ball hating mates. FOotball has come a long way and we’ll come further down the track as techniques and strategy are given more air-time in the media to educate fans, soccer balls are now given to school kids in public schools and the FFA have given football in this country a grass roots prescence that didn’t exist when I was 5. The only kid that played football in my primary school when I was a kid was my mate Dimitri, now football has the attention of all kids.

There’s no doubt English supporters are highly patriotic in affairs that relate to their national teams and in a former article I alluded to a Man U vs Arsenal match I attended being one of the most amazing sporting experiences I’ve witnessed. To say they’re more dedicated is a little misleading. Day 2 of the Boxing Day test attracted over 60,000 people- after the Aussies had been rolled for 98. The British Pound is one of the strongest currencies in the world too. When your pound buys $1.50 to $2.10 it’s much more affordable to come here than to go there. Not disputing you’re a passionate lot, you love your sports, you even worship darts and snooker as spectator and that takes a special love of sport to do but more passionate? I don’t think so you have to look at the overall picture.

Last? I think the rule changes will throw a spanner in the works and it will become apparent later in the year as sides wear out due to increased workloads brought about by interchange restrictions. The bottom side will be between Brisbane, Essendon and West Coast. I’m leaning toward Brisbane should Jonothan Brown struggle with fitness.

Mate I think you’ve missed my point. Richmond aren’t the focus of the article, their pre-season update happened to be reported on yesterday, I was using them as an illustration. I could be talking about any club.

It wasn’t Hardwick’s fault either, he alluded that Riewoldt will play further up the ground. This is where any journo worth their salt ask questions about what exactly does it mean. Roaming Full-Forward? CHF? On the wing? If he’s on the wing who else plays up forward? Why do we constantly report about inconsequential players tearing up a running track. Why don’t we talk about which player can squat the most instead? Who is going to turn the ball over the least?

Grigg? Yeah I rated him a bit actually, but he’s a dime-a-dozen player, every list has at least 10 Grigg’s. Good player, honest, can win the ball, turns it over a bit will never tag Chris Judd out of a game nor will he beat elite midfielders head to head.

25 number 1 draft picks? I can only count 3.

English supporters have always fascinated me mate and sport over there is very different to sport here. I’ll always cherish this game, the 2009 Ashes Test at the Oval (even though we lost), the Fulham experience, Leeds experience and even the time I watched the Poms demolish Croatia to secure WC qualification in an English pub. The experiences were made better by the people I watched them with. It’s so different to Australia. Not necessarily better, but different.

Have a crack, tell your mate to try his luck at the Crown Plaza and hopefully Clive is still working there. He is a mad Man U fan and a very affable chap- I don’t know him or anything and my experiences with were only through this story but I’ll never forget the effort he went to for us. We ended up with his ticket, he still got in on a mates ticket elsewhere in the stadium and one of his other mates collected the passes of us at Half Time of the game. If Clive can’t deliever try the hospitality packages through the Crown Plaza, back in 09 they were around 100GBP. A night at the Plaza also cost around 140GBP

Haha, maybe I should’ve. Whenever I relay the story people tell me how lucky I was to get in. I guess rocking up to Manchester 3 days out from the game wouldn’t be advised if you had your heart set on a ticket. I also went to Craven Cottage to see Fulham and Everton through the Fanatics and saw Leeds vs Gillingham at Elland Road and managed a ticket into the players lounge post game- that was a little different though, a mate of mine worked as a groundkeeper at the Leeds United Training Facility. I guess I took the experiences for granted a little as access to all the tickets came so easily!

LOL, just read your article and 12 months on it would still be relevant. The similarities are a little eerie but it’s good to see there’s a few out there preaching the same.

Bringing Katich back would be a huge mistake. The problem with Australia is we have been hanging onto these older blokes hoping they are ready made to replace what we’ve lost. Hanging onto Katich, Hussey and Ponting all to retire at the same time will further keep us the number 4 or 5 test nation in the world.

Is Katich better than Hughes now? Yes he is, but Katich is not going to be part of the next team to win the Ashes so lets rebuild around youth and take the hits with a young side as we build a team ready to be competitive in 2013. Short-term pain will mean a longer term gain.

I’m keeping a close eye on QPR, especially if my beloved Fulham stay in the relegation zone. As a side note I’m pretty sure Betfair TV televise many of the games through the web.