NibblyPig

Will Australian Rules Football catch?

Huh, it's called a mark isn't it?

FWIW, I think it's a great game... but I have serious doubts about whether it will grow around the world... it barely has a foot in in Sydney and Brisbane, let alone St. Petersberg and Barcelona

Bah, Red Sox with an indifferent start to the season.

7-2 down, bottom of the ninth, against the 0-7 Tigers.

Down to 0.444 unless we can pull off a miracle tonight.

Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.

I had a dream last night that the Bull Ring Markets had shrunk...

I thought: "That's a little bazaar!"

Net figure == 2

Gross figure == 144

I've gone for Barry.

When Barry plays well, we play well.

When he's off his game, it really shows.

Laursen is a beast; and Young and Gabby are two of the most exciting players going around... 'twould be devastating to see any of them leave, but losing Barry would be even more deleterious to the team's development at this juncture in time.

Hello Terry, Beth, and Hanifa...

I am new to this thread. It's interesting stuff.

I have a few questions (and my humble apologies if you have answered these questions previously... this is a rather long thread and I have not read each response word for word. If you have answered these questions, pls direct me to the answer rather than taking the effort to re-type... thanks!)

I was dining this evening with a doctor who works for one of the world's foremost psychiatric hospitals.

He told me that I would be

astounded by the number of patients who believe that they are a Messiah [unquote]. He said that at least one quarter of the long term patients in the hospital believe themselves to be the son/daughter of God or believe themselves to be a prophet (of one of the world's major religions).

My questions are as follows:

Why should we believe that Michael is indeed the Messiah?

If there are so many people proclaiming to be the Messiah, what particular features distinguish Michael from the patients of this hospital?

Obviously you cannot speak for these psychiatric patients that you do not know, but to the "unbeliever" it is very difficult to distinguish... what proof would you require (or did you require) in order to believe that any person proclaiming to be a Messiah was indeed who they said they were?

Do you think that society today generates a propensity for the afore-mentioned mentally ill people to proclaim themselves to be a Messiah? Or do you believe that society is at fault for declaring such people as mentally ill when they are not?

Ooh... yep, love the Cloudy Bay whites Nick! Nice choice... they're, er, choice!

This evening's tipple comes from California... I recommend

This morning, my friend told me how she saw someone stealing her front gate last night.

I said: "Did you try and stop him?"

She said: "No"

I asked: "Why not?!"

She said: "I thought he might take a fence!"

Watch until the end... when the anchor thanks him, his reaction is hilarious

Cat makes reporter cry on live TV

Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942...

... exactly 300 years after Galileo died (8 Jan 1642)

Well, depending on your measuring technique, we had up to 6 additions in the final analysis:

NRC, Harewood, Carson, Knight, Davies, Salifou

I still believe...

... because I'm not a 15 year old impatient little sod who thinks the end of the world is imminent because we didn't spend 10 million quid on a new keeper.

Earlier in the thread I posted a photo of myself from January 2002...

Here's a more recent photo (from last Friday)

Buggered it up initially...

Yep... just to reiterate what TheSufferingVilla said: it was an amazing weekend in Columbus!

Please pass on our thanks to MON and the players for being so accessible and chatty at the reception. One of the greatest nights of my life.

It would be great if something similar could be organised for next year.

Cheers General!

"One General Krulak... there's only one General Krulak!"

Good evenin' General,

Just two quick (and easy) questions for you:

1. Will you be in Columbus, Ohio this weekend with the team?

2. If so, will you be attending the players' reception on the Friday evening?

cheers! (and thanks for all the updates/correspondence)

anthony

Is there something that MON could say which wouldn't give away detail that would be unhelpful in future dealings, which would reassure people, which wouldn't make false promises or raise expectations or else depress people? Probably not, actually. There's a pent-up sense of frustration that has built up over many years, and people are looking to the new board to relieve that immediately. It's unrealistic, and maybe the lesson for the board is to expect some of this, try to counter it where they can, not to be upset by it, and trust that in the end people will judge on track record, which so far has been good.

Either that, or sign Sneijder and Huntelaar damn quick.

Well said blandy and peterms... v good posts

When the barrage of abuse and criticism came cascading down, I was embarrassed! Embarrassed to be a Villa fan and embarrassed for the General et al.

... but I think some fans just needed to vent... and if there's any good that's come out of the activities of the last week, it's that the unrealistically high expectations have been dampened.

At the start of last season, we went a few games unbeaten, and expectations all of a sudden started to go haywire: "We'll be in Europe by the end of the year!", some people said... Disappointment and anger are the corollary of unrealistically high expectations.

And, at the end of this season, some fans expected some superstar signings to be coming in thick and fast.

There will be the inevitable retorts: "... but FitzGerald said we should expect top class signings!! That's why we expected better!"... Yet those same people conveniently forget to factor a number of quotes from *the manager* (!!!) into their expectations about taking time, bringing on the kids, etc

On a slightly different note: It's not clear to me that bringing in a fans'-eye "top class signing" will improve our situation. Signings that satisfy the fans aren't necessarily what Aston Villa needs...

Look at what happened when West Ham bought in Tevez and Mascharano last year. They joined a squad which the previous year had finished seventh... I remember reading quotes from West Ham messageboards saying things like: "This is perhaps the greatest team the Premiership has ever seen!"...

The fans were initially sated by the signings... but what happened? The signings served to unsettle the dressing room and the team nearly got relegated!

Evidence suggests that wage inequality within a team has a negative effect on performance (a disruptive dressing room being one such cause). I sincerely doubt that MON wants a highly inequitable wage schedule at the Villa.

Will the 5 year plan be successful? I don't know... I'm not Mystic Meg or Russell Grant (thank God). What I do know is that we should not be rushing to sign players that merely whet the fans' appetites and do not fit into the manager's plans...

... and we won't! So, we shouldn't expect it!

I've put 6. What do we get if we're right BOF?

A happy forum.

Oh, I sincerely doubt that will ever happen

I've put 6. What do we get if we're right BOF?

T-shirts can walk in Australia?! :shock:

I'm the one in the glasses

Comparing us to Newcastle isnt really fair.

If we were a Premier League club only one other club within an hours drive in any direction then we would get 52k a week.

...

Is this sarcasm Rev? :? Our nearest Premier League club is Sheffield Utd...