A'Villan

"You can't ask that" - ABC TV A show that asks groups of misunderstood, judged or marginalised Australians the awkward, inappropriate or uncomfortable questions you've always wanted to know the answers to, but always been too afraid to ask. Check it out if you can access it. "Q&A" - ABC TV A show that puts a panel of punters, politicians and pundits together in the studio to thrash out the hot issues of the week. Audience members get to ask the panel questions.

"Is she dead?" "I, I, I.." "Yes, or no, is she dead?" "Pretty much" True Romance was another one written by Tarantino I enjoyed.

Pretty sure Honda has signed for Melbourne Victory.

Would have to agree with those saying Rodgers would likely not come to us. Once we're in the PL, then we're talking. This is the same Rodgers that nearly won the league for Liverpool. He went to Celtic to add trophies to his name imo. I doubt he and Bielsa's idea of ambition are the same, unfortunately.

I would say he is demanding as a coach and an eternal student of the game, rather than a perfectionist. He seems quite personable, the resounding feedback that I'm aware of is positive. The worst case being that he takes some time to get used to but eventually wins you over, which sounds more like a culture-shock than a criticism. I would prefer it to be Aston Villa has built the best team in the league, Grealish plays a vital role in that.

We've got enough quality on the pitch to get promoted in my opinion. 3 points here and an improvement on our first three performances would be ideal but also necessary. Sometimes you have to win-ugly as they say, we certainly did that against Hull and Yeovil, so best not add another game where we ride our luck, or worse, drop points. Was there any aspect of his refereeing that makes him a bogey referee for us? Or was he simply just overseeing a few defeats? That's not overly condemning in my view, but maybe I lack insight.

Do you? I actually don't mind a bit of Holman. Always had an honest work rate. What are the crowd turnouts like in BrisVegas? I enjoy the crowd atmosphere more than the football itself down here in Melbourne, that said I've only ever been to one game, the local derby.

Whoever the Villa player was responsible for the back pass assist against Wigan. I'm presuming it was Taylor.

Was walking down the street with family a few years ago and a dog comes barreling down the hallway and through an open front door barking at us. Little did resident dog know, resident cat was napping on the front porch, and took offense to being awoken so rudely, so this cat has just gone straight up to the dog and bopped him one on the head. The dog shut up immediately. Good times.

Sure, will do.

I say a little prayer for you. R.I.P Aretha Franklin.

I enjoy reading the thread, in small doses. I think both sides of the debate have solid reasoning for their standpoint. It's a credit to Bruce that the discussion remains alive.

I don't know TRO, whilst I know where you're coming from, I think he has a point. Even based on what you say, we've been fortunate. We were very fortunate not concede against Yeovil, and Hull were by far the better side first half of that fixture. Wigan, we deservedly won, but being the standalone performance where we were on an even keel with the opposition, if not better than.

Free masons too? What is wrong with people? They've popped up all over Melbourne in a big way. An entire hospital was bought out and rebranded by them, but they've even got buildings in the suburbs.

Delivery seems to be killer.

Thinking of watching the film Hostiles today. Anyone recommend it?

Does your thinking create your environment or your environment create your thinking?

That is perhaps due to the time it would be due to arrive, the extra expense might be express post?

While I think you make some good points, I'm going to disagree with three. One being there's no measure of style. Style in this context is implicit of tactical approach. Measurable by the observed outcomes of a game and season. Two being that you could count on one hand teams with a developed style of play in England, I could count 3 from the Championship alone who were superior to Villa's approach under Bruce, and if I actually watched a team like Derby or Bristol it would not surprise me to find evidence of a greater tactical approach and therefore style, given their resources of course. A developed style of play is not about winning games, which is ephemeral, rather the process of preparation and application. Three, you mention players being hesitant to express themselves on the ball, I agree that's a potential problem because without confidence our game is nullified. However I saw Grealish, McGinn, Kodjia, Green and Hourihane all contribute a decent amount of effort in attack, each one has either forced a decent save, scored, hit the cross bar or assisted someone multiple times this season. I'd say five players showing a bit of ability in attack is perhaps enough. I would suggest our biggest cultural problem is in part congruent with your idea, but rather a lack of sequential passing ability rather than fear of making a mistake. I think we've been fortunate to come away with three victories so far, if we invite the sort of pressure and allow teams to find their stride like we did against Hull and Yeovil in particular we could easily find ourselves on the wrong side of the result,

"MUUUM, MUM, MUM! sidcow is saying Basketball isn't a proper sport again!" I was actually surprised to learn that England's top tier of basketball was the equivalent of Australia's 5th tier.

You will actually find TRO, that if there was a constant to be found in the examples I gave, it was actually the impact of good coaching. Yes Michael Jordan was talented, but perhaps I didn't illustrate this well enough, he played in the league for 7 years without winning a trophy. It wasn't until Phil Jackson came in with his emphasis on spirituality, community, empathy, equal opportunity and involvement of everyone in decision making processes. What ensued was sporting greatness. The Bulls didn't recruit anyone particularly talented above the level of their opponents. I'm not going to go on about it anymore because it's the Grealish thread. I personally think you might enjoy reading about Phil Jackson's coaching, if you're interested, here is an 8 page article titled, Phil Jackson: The Zen and Counterculture Coach. https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2299/1346/900740.pdf?sequence=1 He was labelled on odd-ball loner and a hippie, yet he was undisputed as the most successful coach when he walked away from the game. What Bielsa did with Bilbao was a ridiculous achievement, yet it is not advertised or written about because that would undermine the hype and superficiality consistent in most press. To give you a little insight, he had a 23 man squad, 17 of those players were free transfers, youth academy products or bought for a fee of under 300k. He took Bilbao to 10th in La Liga, the final of the Europa League and the Copa del Rey. Beating Manchester United in both legs, they were only stopped short of their trophies by Atletico and Barcelona. Like the Chicago Bulls, the emphasis was on demanding fitness regimes, in order to be able to implement the tactics employed by the coach. It's little surprise to me that it is Bielsa's Leeds who sit above us, after enjoying a 4-1 victory of promotion hopefuls Derby. As for Barca, they were actually undergoing a dry spell of trophies at the time Rijkaard was appointed and set the wheels in motion for Guardiola to continue. Okay, okay. I said this is the Grealish thread and I meant it. I just really want to convey that development should never cease in any walk of life, and a coach's role is vital in setting the ethos and standards for which a team will operate. They are responsible for the implementation of ideas and philosophy, and ideas are bulletproof!

The s*** some people conjure up. Walking to meet a friend last night and I'm approached by a distressed man who is crying, he starts begging me for $20 in order to get a room for the night at a hostel. I usually buy food and drink for people doing it rough and give them $5 once a fortnight when I'm paid, I wasn't impressed by the way he just confronted me but I assumed it was due to poor mental health, and so I decided I'd oblige him. He calms down but becomes very chatty and within seconds reveals that he's on his way to the same pub I was headed to, to meet my friend. This pub is just a center for pokie machine players and intuition tells me this chap has blown all his gold at the pokies and has worked himself into a hysteria about it and thinks he'll win it all back with my $20, anyway, we walk in and security is not happy to see him back. I tell security he's just hustled me for $20. 5 minutes later security comes and tells me they can't believe he's just asked me for money when the guy apparently drove off in some expensive car. I would not like to experience what that mans internal dialogue must be like.

Not necessarily. I think you're right about trusting intuition though. Joe Dispenza (scientist) says that most people spend 70% of their lives living in survival mode or stress, anticipating the worst case scenario based on a past experience, and emotionally embracing it with fear, conditioning their body in to a state of fear. It happens unconsciously and becomes habitual until you address it. Stefan has made multiple mentions of outcomes he fears, out of the infinite potentials in the quantum field his mind is embracing an unfavourable outcome and preparing him for it. Where the mind goes, energy flows.

Are we talking Free Masons or the Catholic Church here?