2010 Melbourne Cup Tips Are In!

The fellas over at Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup have just released their tips.

They have their top four selections listed as well as the entire field ranked.

Needless to say So You Think has been listed as a red hot favourite, by the length of the Flemington straight.

So if you want to win big on the Melbourne Cup head on over to Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup now!

What A Shitty Week For The Geelong Football Club!

It starts out the same as any week for Geelong in 2010. Rumours of the defection of the Brownlow medal winning superstar Gary Ablett. Ho-hum. Whatever shall we do.

Secondly, James Hird gets appointed as coach of Essendon. Normally this wouldn't raise an eyebrow at the Cattery, but the fact he has zero experience in coaching means that he'll need someone to hold his hand. Now the rumours start up that it's going to be either Bomber, Choco Williams, or Dean Laidley.

Whatever, as if that'll happen.

Third, Bomber comes to the club and tells them that he's not sure he wants to continue coaching next year. Great! But he assures the club that it's not because he's heading to Essendon to become Director of Coaching or some shit, it's purely because he's burnt out. And if that's true I say fair enough.

But the footy world is a strange beast. Undying support can turn into knives in the back in the space of 2 days.

So now we've got a coach who doesn't want to coach us anymore, but is being wooed by his old club. The club he captained to a premiership, and that has just signed it's golden boy to a coaching stint.

So the club superstar comes back from his holiday in - surprise, surprise - Queensland and call a press conference for 12.30. OK, finally, the rumours will be put to bed. And put to bed they were.

He's gone.

The final bearer of the Ablett name. The name that sits alongside Farmer, Wade, Davis and Ford as being synonymous with Geelong.

And 20 years of history is cast to the wind.

Goodbye Gary. It was good while it lasted, but now you've moved on. And soon, so shall we.

Gary Ablett to announce his decision to leave Geelong for Gold Coa$t $un$

Gary Ablett is expected to be announcing his decision to leave Geelong at 12.30 today. Farewell Gary!

Fallout from the Bomber Thompson decision.

The decision by Mark Bomber Thompson has left the Geelong Football Club in a sticky situation.
The club really needs for this decision to become final by the end of the week so that preparations can be made for trade week which begins next Tuesday.
With Gary Ablett still not signed and Thompson undecided, it makes it hard to make any plans.
Should Thompson leave I would like to see either Ken Hinkley or Brenton Sanderson get the job. Both have had vast experience as assistant coaches and would do the club proud.

Mark Bomber Thompson meets Geelong Cats to discuss future plans.

Mark Thompson today met with the Geelong Football club to decide his future with the club.
The club released a statement today to say that Mark has not decided to leave to coach Essendon, but is still wanting to reconsider his future with the Cats.
The statement revealed that Bomber was feeling fatigued and was reconsidering his options before the start of the 2010 AFL season.

James Hird to coach Essendon in 2011

Good news for Bombers fans and Great news for Cats fans.

With James Hird being announced as the new coach for the Essendon Bombers the chances of Mark Thompson being poached has grown nigh on imperceptible.

Now once Gary Ablett announces that he is staying at Geelong in 2011 we will be ready to challenge for the 2011 premiership.

Go Cats!

Melbourne Cup 2010 Betting System Trial 1 Results Are In!!!

The system being developed at http://whowillwinthemelbournecup.com has had it's first full race meet trial on the 25/09 2010 at the Randwick Races.

I must say that it has performed very well for a first up trial, with a ROI of 120.25%! That's a tidy profit.

So get on over to Who Will Win the Melbourne Cup and check out the system. In teh coming weeks it will be your best tool for working out which horse will win the Melbourne Cup.

Geelong Cats are premiers for another week!

Oh Yeah! With the 2010 AFL Grand Final being a draw, the 2009 AFL Premiers are still reigning premiers! Go Cats!

When will Gary Ablett announce his decision now that the Grand Final was a tie?

Gary Ablett was rumoured to be announcing if he is staying at Geelong or going to the Gold Coast in the week after the 2010 AFL Grand Final. Now that it is a draw, when will he make his announcement? This week or next?

AFL says CHA-CHING!!!

After the 2010 AFL Grand Final draw, the game will be replayed next week, with supporters expected to have to pay again for tickets.

Many people bought $1300 tickets through AFL affiliated scalpers. Now they will have to fork out again or miss the 2010 decider.

The AFL is laughing all the way to the bank.

It's a draw!!!

The 2010 AFL Grand Final Between Collingwood and St Kilda is a draw!!!

Probably the best result I could imagine considering I hate both teams!

Which Horse Will Win The Melbourne Cup?

If you want to know which horse will win the Melbourne Cup or have an idea which horse will win the Melbourne Cup, head on over to http://whowillwinthemelbournecup.com/ and check out the forums.

There's always plenty to learn at Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup

Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup?

Now that the Footy season's over for us Geelong Cats fans it's time to turn to the spring racing carnival. In particular the Melbourne Cup. Many people come to the first Tuesday in November and find themselves asking "Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup?"


Well, now there's an easy way to fing out. Simply visit whowillwinthemelbournecup.com.

The guys at Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup are developing a system to help pick the winner of the Melbourne Cup as well as other Group 1 races such as the Caulfield Guineas, Caulfield Cup, Turnbull Stakes, and the Victoria Derby

So head on over to Who Will Win The Melbourne Cup and try your luck.

Post of the day...or should I say Poll of the day at blueandwhitehoops.com

Old man schfagnum has posted an interesting poll over at Blue And White Hoops - The Geelong Cats Supporters Forum

Ablett To Stay With Geelong 
Hey all. What are the chance he will go to the Goald Coast?

I want your opinions and I want them now! 


So head on over and let us all know what you think on the issue.

Post of the day! Cats team unchanged.

As I've just announced over at Blue And White Hoops the GFC.COM website has posted that the team for Friday's Preliminary Final Vs Collingwood is unchanged from the team that whupped Fremantle.

Head on over and have your say.

Thread of the day.

I'm gonna start linking to posts/threads on forums that I think are particularly interesting.

This thread from "biggazza" really caught my eye.

Memories of Collingwood preliminary final defeats past...

http://www.blueandwhitehoops.com/bawhforum/showthread.php?tid=34

What really caught my eye was this paragraph: "the way that Collingwood scored the first two goals and the fans were going Troppo! We didn't even look like scoring. Pies fans were all in our faces telling us we may as well head for the car park. Then we piled on something like the next 8 goals."

Good times had by all. Head on over to Blue And White Hoops and check out the great stories, or even write one yourself.

New Geelong Cats Supporters Forum

Just stumbled upon this forum...

http://www.blueandwhitehoops.com/

Looks like it's pretty new.

I've just signed up, so maybe I'll see you there.


Oh and you can get directly to the forum by going to

http://www.blueandwhitehoops.com/bawhforum/

Might see you there. I'll be "cats4flag"

AFL 2010 - Round 1 - Geelong Vs Essendon Review.

Firstly, it's good to have footy back.

While I could watch the Grand Final about 100 times in a year, I think I reached that number in 6 weeks.

Also having something tangible to write about will slow the barrage of Ablett to Gold Coast articles.

So a good win to start the year.

I was there, collected my members cap and settled into my seat with a couple of frothies.

Have to admit there were times that I was a little worried about the outcome, but nothing too bad. We seem to have a knack for finding that next gear.

Looks like Gary Ablett has his head in a good place. Got a lot of the ball and used it well in most instances. Taking on Davey was perhaps a little foolish, but taking people on is what he does. Seems to struggle with kicking for goal at full tilt running at the goal. But if that's my major gripe all is good.

Cameron Ling's first game as full-time captain was a cracker. Shut down Watson and got plenty of the pill himself. Kicked a great snap from 15m out when the ball was in dispute. Got caught trying to take off from a standing start while in traffic, which shouldn't be attempted by someone of his pace.

Joel Selwood had a great game. Quiet in the 3rd term, but really put his head down and got on with playing footy. I wish all our players could be like that sometimes. Grabbed a few goals which is a good sign for the team when midfielders apply scoreboard pressure. Copped a bit of a knock when going for a mark in the centre which I felt shold have been awarded a free kick. Seemed a little slow to get up, but I was never worried for him. He's as tough as old boot leather.

Shannon Byrnes started the game of ok. Got some of the footy but wasted it a bit kicking a series of behinds before registering his first major. Ended up being in our best without a doubt. Looks like this year we won't be saying "BOO!", we'll be saying "BOO-YRNES!"

James Kelly and Andrew Mackie's disposal was a let-down at times throughout the night. It seems as if they take it a little too easy when they are not under pressure and fluff their delivery. A couple of easy passes to guys 20m in the clear went nowhere near the intended target. Again, it's a minor gripe.

I was a bit disapointed to miss out on seeing James Podsiadly, but we did get to see Mitch Duncan. While he was ineffective in a number of early contests he did get a number of possessions in the following 3 quarters and laid a few nice tackles.

A big surprise for me was Tom Lonergan. Last I heard Lonners wasn't in the team, so to see him on the field was a worry. He played pretty well, taking a number of good marks and seemed to be hitting targets. I believe he kept Gumbleton to 2 disposals, which is pretty good, but nothing to get excited about. This guy has 2 year breaks between games. The real test will be next week against the Hawks.

Cameron Mooney looked to have overcome the yips and started hitting the scoreboard. Good to see him get fired up too. That free kick against him for an early bump was one of the biggest loads of tripe I've seen. Not within 5m my butt.

Jimmy Bartel looked the goods. Got cleaned up by Hille when the game was well and truly lost. A dog act that will recieve weeks as the AFL likes to crack down on that sort of thing early in the season.

Joel Corey seemed to not get amongst it so much, but I guess that happens when you come back from injury. I would've liked for him to have a more memorable 200th game, but a win will do for him I'm sure. Smithy's a great clubman.

Some things that peeved me throughout the game were the number of holding the ball decisions not paid (both ways). Guys were dropping the ball when tackled and not being penalised. They had prior opportunity and made no attempt to dispose of it. I honestly don't believe that it was knocked free in the tackle either. Sometimes you gotta wonder about these calls.

Similarly guys were getting punched in the head in marking contests and not recieving frees, while a number of soft hands in the back frees were plucked out. It's getting to the stage where a whistle blows and everyone shrugs their shoulders and waits to be told what happened.

I also noticed a number of times the bullshit "pass it around the backline for 5min" ploy creeping back into our game. Thankfully it was punished twice, which I'm hoping with be a reminder not to mess around with it close to goal.

But enough whinging...we won. Four points on the board and some good signs that we will be able to successfully defend the flag in 2010.

UP MOGGIES!!!

2010 Supercoah Bargains

Here are the Geelong players that are going to be good value for money in Supercoach for 2010.


James Podsiadly- Should play a number of games with his elevation to the senior list. Will be played deep inside the forward 50 and will be a target. Expect to average 80 points a game.

Shannon Byrnes - Had a breakthrough year in 2009. Looks set to continue where he left off. If he can get his kicks to go between the two big posts he will be averaging over 100pts a game. The ban imposed on Mathew Stokes doesn't hurt either.

Brad Ottens - Had an extremely short season in 2009 due to injury, but is back fit & firing after a mishap with a propller. Will amass a number of points through hit-outs, marks and goals. I'd imagine 80+ average.

Josh Hunt - Kicks out from full-back. Is a link man when exiting the defensive 50 and an "out" when under pressure. Looks to have recovered fully from a knee injury in 2009. 70+ points per game from Josh.

2010 Ladder Predictions.

O.K.

So we're most of the way through round 1, but I'm sure you won't hold that against me.


Premiers: Who else? The mighty fighting felines!

Wooden spoon: Gotta go with Richmond.

Grand Finalists: Obviously Geelong...and...Hawthorn.

Brownlow: Selwood. Non Geelong: Reiwoldt.

Final 8: Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Collingwood, Western Bulldogs, Adelaide, Carlton, Brisbane.

Coleman: Franklin

Geelong Best & Farest (Carji): Selwood

Gazza GFC or GCFC?: Gary Ablett to stay at Geelong.

Headline of 2010: Gary Ablett signs new 5 year deal with Geelong.

We Are Back!!!

Lol.

Once again, my on-again/off-again love afair with blogging has blossomed.

After winning the 2009 AFL Premiership over St Kilda it all became too much or me.

Days of partying stretched into weeks, which stretched into Months.

And now we are back.

So strap yourselves in for another season of semi-regular installments filled with what's fallen out of my mind.