Robert Walls has had a rather large go at Chris on the back of the West Australian.
So what.
Robert’s claim to fame as a coach was getting his players to stand in a ring and punch each other senseless.
He is a dreadful commentator, boring, and the master of the obvious statement.
Chris Connolly had this to say at his press conference today,
“His comments are irrelevant. Once you have a bad loss, it’s a bad loss. There is no point in me reading comments by people who don’t know our environment. What does that do?” he said.

Chris’ statement is correct. As a leader, involved in the organisation, he knows far more than Walls. Walls cant even get facts right.
Farmer stages for frees : Farmer never gets free
Mc Manus needs to retire : Mc Manus is having his best year ever, and has been BOG for about 3-5 games this year.
McPharlin got injured in a marking collision with Brad Ottens – McPharlin was actually injured in a contest with Nathan Ablett

You have to admire Chris, he fronted up to the circling sharks, and even managed to point out the absurdity of the situation, saying, “The Prime Minister would not get this much press to his conference”.
That is probably true and shows where sport lies in an Australian’s priorities.
He went on and faced up to the facts as well.

“It was a disgraceful performance by Fremantle football club to whom I coach. Our aim is to make the finals and to win a final. I wouldn’t right off Fremantle just yet. We go into the second half of the season with confidence,” Connolly said.
Story

This is it! I did not think I would be so pumped about a Soccer Game. But this is it, Australia’s chance of making history, our first ever foray into the knock out round.
If we win, its off the Fast Eddy’s Morley for Breakfast and a strong coffee.
If we lose, we’ll the less said the better.

TIME 2.30Am
(NOT 3.30 AS BROCHURE SAYS)

Is there any more trendy item than the Ipod?
Is there anything that is more indicative of our egocentric ‘self’ society’ than the I Pod?

Is there nowhere that we can get away from it?
The answer is no. There is nowhere you can get away from your I Pod.

Now, introducing the IPod toilet roll holder.
There are so many lines here.
Would you listen to ‘poop’ music on it?
Or maybe some ‘rock’ or ‘roll’.
Think about it…..

Article

In an interview style book, Bono has some pretty frank statements to make about his faith, life and relationship with Jesus Christ. (Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas)

I have been reading this book on and off for sometime.
Here is one really interesting and challenging quote.

Assayas: That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?
Bono: No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched …

Bono later says it all comes down to how we regard Jesus:

Bono: … [I]f only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed. …When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my s— and everybody else’s. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that’s the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it.

LINK

In Australia one of the greatest killers of young Australian males is suicide.
Why?
We have beautiful natural wonders to enjoy, surfing, swimming, climbing.
A young Aussie male can grab a cheap car, drive around our nation and survive and thrive. We truly are a nation of opportunity.
Unemployment is at an all time low, prosperity is everywhere you look. Yet still, you hear stories, new stories, of behaviour birthed in hopelessness leading to despair.
And it does not matter if you are a Christian, and in a great Christian family either. This story about James Dungy is sobering.
From a succesful wealthy, sporting strong Christian home. Yet he took his own life. As a father I look at this story and wonder what went wrong, if anything. Or if indeed there are any answers.
Coach Dungy said this, “God has placed me in this position not for him and his family to suffer but so they can be an example to others, a testimony.”.
“The Lord has a plan. We always think the plans are A, B, C and D, and everything is going to be perfect for us and it may not be that way, but it’s still his plan.” (Tony Dungy)
He’s learned that it’s all too common among young men who seem to “have it all.” Dungy says he has had correspondence with at least a dozen families who are dealing with losing a child to suicide who was not considered “at risk.”
“It’s not the kids who are struggling or that had issues that we would think were issues,” Dungy says. Perhaps Dungy’s only real regret as a father is that he hasn’t been there for his children as much as his late parents were for theirs.
Story

Someone asked me about MUD during the week. For those who came in late….

M Men
U Under
D Duress

There are times when men need to hang around with other men. Something happens when you get married, and then when you have kids the problem is even more exsaperated. You stop having that important ‘mate’ time. In church environments it can be even worse.
Men need time with other men to do men things, like watch sport, drink, eat, make fart jokes and talk about the intricacies of the offside rule, and argue about Holdens and Fords.

MUD is for that purpose. Sorry ladies! I think its important for there to be times for women to mixwith women, men and women to mix and for men to mix with men. In our busy culture there are not many times when men, especially family men can do that. So MUD is to help in that regard.
MUD MUD MUD oi! oi! oi!

Geelong came to play, Freo did not.

There were not many Freo players playing with much intensity in this important game.
Hedland, Josh Carr and even the perennial misser, Medhurst, played with some vigour.

It could have been far different if those easy misses were converted in the third quarter, but they were not. Something to do with football being played in the mind I think.
Someone asked me what I thought of Connolly as a coach the other day. I have continued to defend him. Problem is, that it is his job to get the team ready and willing to play, and play for each other. Some serious man management work needs to be done in the next couple of weeks if we are to even make the finals, let alone have a significant impact in them.