There will never be a better time than now to bet a carton on freo finishing above west coast. I have already made the bet with three eagles fans who couldn't shake my hand quick enough when I made the suggestion. I am extremely confident my fridge will be well stocked in September....

i distinctly remember before a derby last year, the unbiased state newspaper was saying how the dockers were no chance, as cox and kerr were sure to run riot in the midfield. needless to say the dockers had it in the bag before quarter time and you could have told me neither cox were kerr were actually playing and i would have believed you.

it is just like last year, when woosha was asked how the team could go from premiers to wooden spoon contenders in a few years. "well, give us judd back and we're at the top".
but of course the eagles never rely on individuals.

and i'm sure local media were aware the dockers played some excellent games with key injuries including sandi and pav last year.

If you really want to waste 5 minutes of your life, or maybe you've just watched a interview with David Wirrapunda and thought "maybe they aren't all that bad", then you should read some of the Slime supporters on Perth Now. I followed a link to an article titled "In no hurry", which for the first half of the article talks about how Pav is out of contract and doom and gloom blah Gold Coast blah blah. Then finally well into this literary piece, quotes Pav as saying "I've been here 10 years and I don't plan on moving" or something along those lines. AAARRGGHH But my biggest mistake was reading the carp underneath it from Slime supporters.

It was painful to read, but did get me thinking...should the blame fall solely on schools or are parents to blame on the large and ever growing line of idiots on our streets.

I blame the government.

some kids just need to be smacked.
If we pass all these "child abuse" laws then how are we supposed to beat the stupid out of these kids?

addicted. That's the first time I've seen... "play the season without dropping a stitch" used with reference to footy. And as that thought came to you while you were doing the ironing I reckon you've got a book of home-spun footy yarns in you. Send a proposal to Allen & Unwin.

Or, alternatively I could offer to write for the Footy Almanac and use some of my other great lines like "Roger Hayden cleans up in the backline like a hoover through a dirty living room."

Or "Beau Waters went down faster than a cold beer after a bush fire"

I see Judgey has been residing in the aforementioned parallel universe too.

I believe West Coast have bla bla bla bla than Fremantle to again take the bragging rights over the port side this year.

Umm... he needs... ahh... umm... a good spray with preen to straighten him out.

Mind if I expand on that a little, Shane. It's a classic example of not letting the facts get in the way of the party line. But unfortunately for Ken he had two columns to fill on Tuesday, and made the fatal mistake of trying to justify his view in detail.

Leaving aside the bragging rights thing which, it seems, are not about home-town derby wins as the world and his wife had foolishly come to believe, but are more like land rights – an immutable and inalienable privilege belonging to the Eagles that cannot be taken from them no matter what.

First Judgey claimed that the Eagles’ “young talent base” has more maturity than Freo’s – and singled out Brown (23 games), Masten (28), Ebert (32) and Scott Selwood (23) to demonstrate that strength. If he’d bothered to run his eye over the other side of the ledger, he’d have found (for starters) Mayne (22), Palmer (25), Hill (22) and Suban (22) with similar experience and, I’d suggest, much more upside to them.

He then opined that the Eagles have other young guys with potential to “build strongly on their debut year”. Why there’s Natanui, and Swift, and even Shuey (even though, oddly, he’s yet to play a game). Fair enough. But in the same breath Judge dismisses OUR young guys – Broughton, Ballantyne, de Boer, Clarke, Morabito on top of Hill, Suban and Mayne as “only in their first or second year” and not yet ready to be a factor in 2010. Huh???

And then there’s Daniel Kerr. Seems the return of “one of the elite midfielders” will provide the spark to leave Freo far behind as the Eagles climb towards finals action. Oddly, though, Kerr did manage 11 (albeit sooky) games last year, while a galaxy of important Freo players – Ballantyne, Crowley, Hayden, Headland, Johnson, Mayne and Palmer – were restricted to less. How the return of one leading player is critical while the return of seven is not is, well, bewildering.

And finally, according to Judge, the Cox and Naitanui combination (though he is at least honest enough to describe the latter as a “work in progress”) gives the Eagles the “big-man presence to worry any side”. And the presence in the Purple of two of the top ten big men in the AFL, including the dominant ruckman in the game, doesn’t? Not according to Kenny.

The irony is that Judge has delivered a pretty compelling case for one WA team doing a whole lot better than the other this year. He just managed to find a way to back the wrong horse.

Bravo Zorro, bravo.

It indeed seems a little odd to claim the toast will do well due to the influence of two "star" players whilst Freo will struggle as we rely on two star players.

Kerr will indeed be lucky to play half the games. I hear he has a dodgy fetlock.

Forget the fetlock, it's his brain box that lets him down.