ecguymer

...all of the official posts seem to say that the FTA component was only bit left to do, and heavily implied that the foxtel deal includes digital/online......

So....my housemate (who had no interest in sport at all 6 months ago) has just said "all I want for Christmas is for JVS to pull his finger out".......that counts as a positive, right?

...that was mostly because Howard proposed a model where parliament picked the president, the president had less powers than the governor-general currently has, and can be dismissed by the PM apparently at will.....He didn't want the republic so he came up with a model that even die-hard republicans would thing twice about voting for it

I like the monarchy; they're almost certainly cheaper than the alternatives, they don't fuck shit up, and they don't come with the incessant political campaigning that would come with most republic models......ok, maybe like is a bit strong a word......

is that just for this season, or over a longer period?

Also, this is a double header with the women kicking off at 5PM (also against Perth)

....well, Canberra are probs favourites to win now...... Edit: I wonder if having to be an assistant under JVS is getting to Montemurro......

.......tonight's final score.......

We hear the most about the South Melbourne bid because they are making the most noise; most of the others considering a bid are mostly keeping quite, presumably waiting on the criteria to be released. And I'm pretty sure the South Melbourne bid happened before the FFA had even confirmed they were actively looking at expanding the league. We're also getting noise and speculation about bids that don't actually exist yet (no one has actually organised a bid for South Sydney or Canberra yet, and I don't think Northern/Queensland Furry have confirmed there intent either way yet; and as for Canberra, Capital Football has outright said that they will not be making a bid themselves as they have other priorities). As we are still waiting on the criteria, we have no idea who has any chance of getting in at this stage; for all we know, there could be a "not from Melbourne or Sydney" clause or a "no currently existing clubs" condition in the criteria (though I doubt it); at this point all we know for certain is that the FFA want 2 new clubs to start from the season after next and they they are currently getting input from some major stakeholders while drawing up the details for how it's all going to work.

TTIM: the amount of noise that keeps being made about South Melbourne's A-League bid....

Well, it's not like Canberra was a bad team to loose to

Ultimately, if the FFA does do a crackdown on simulation, they'll need to be careful not to deviate too far from internationally accepted interpretations of the rules in an effort to appease the "it's not the Australian way" crowd (many of whom don't seem to like the sport to begin with); as doing so would be detrimental for player recruitment (both international players coming in, and good young players wanting some seasoning before going overseas), the apparently growing international audience the league currently has, and for international opportunities for our refs (one of the ways that we can currently improve the refs, both individually and as a group); and then potential flow-on effects to sponsorship and international investment

....I think I missed you making that point earlier, and it does help explain what you're saying better; I'm still not fully understanding your stance and interpretation, but I suspect that mostly comes from my own lack of experience, and I'm happy to just leave the issue alone

....so...you're saying that making sure that the ref knows that an incident happened is trying to deceive him/her?

Just out of interest, when a genuine offence occurs and the player fouled over-reacts; how is that attempting to deceive the referee? Yes they are feigning injury, but it is to draw the attention to a situation that happened that is in violation of the rules.