Wow the Gronks look like they have been playing for the wooden spoon over the last month . How have they fallen so quick , 
Could not happen to a nicer team and coach . 

They also went well last year because of being able to play back at home. Covid kept them in Australia. No family life and other issues. I think them being back at home made a huge difference. 

My faith in the BDP is restored because of Zef and Marki in agreement over skepticism. You boys grew up. Well done. 

Maybe our reserve grade side should challenge the Broncos to a game...

I might be able to Mock them into life.

If is more about the judgement of the coach and the club. 

They do have Mitch Barnett. And they signed Capewell.

Most clubs could use a player like Curran in the top 30.

The Warriors side is a real mix of older players close to the end of their career and young players starting out.

They could do with some experienced players who will be around for a few years.

Very well said 

If we rely on the evidence and base our conclusions on them, we are doing the best we possibly can. That is science. Yes, there are complexities but that’s the basics. 

I stopped playing golf, because if I end up in hell, I'll be playing plenty.

Theres only 1 conspiracy in this world and that is the trees that go out of their way to intercept my golf balls as their own their way to the green.

I swear i reckon ive heard them whisper to each other as to which one will stop my ball and drop it behind the trunk of another....

Conspiracy i tell ya!

The Warriors drop from top 8 this season is alot less to do with Curran than you would think. He was scarcely used there even last year when they were going great guns.

A bigger influence for them was CNK and also SJ. When CNK is on fire, his teams make finals. He is a very influential fullback. Wish we had him actually.

So 2 conspiracies and 1 truth?

I vote for truth. Lol.

In all seriousness, i don't know much of the story.... Just that he was assasinated and by all reports, it was Oswald. Didnt even know it was a topic of conjecture. 

Well said my friend.

I keep trying to tell the conspiracy theorists that if people were so smart and so coniving to come up with elaborate ways to make lots of money or control mankind.... they'd fekking TELL you about it because they want to brag. 

There's no fun in making lots of money or controlling the population without making it clear that you're behind it all. 

Some people just dont think.
Or..... They conveniently choose not to.

There is one group that love a conspiracy, the media. 

A conspiracy theory doesn't even need to be true to be a great story.

Any conspiracy theory that includes the media keeping quiet is harder to believe, 

In earlier eras the media turned a blind-eye to the off field activities of players,  those days are long gone.

When I look at how the Dogs club was run in any era, our on field results good and bad are generally no surprise, especially when we consider that culture and standards occasionally hang on for a while. 

I agree on the numbers for a conspiracy theory.

If 2-3; people can devise and execute the conspiracy theory in secret with no written records and no need for official permission it is possible. 

One of them needs to be a senior manager or they need to be rogue and unsanctioned. 

If a large sum of money is needed that has to come from somewhere.

An assassination is possible because only one person is needed to pull the trigger and it doesn't need a pile of money. Anyone involved would know that they need to keep quiet. Someone might offer up a deathbed confession. 

In sport betting scandals happen because they is money to be made and often it only takes 1-2 players and players are sometimes in desperate need of money.

Refs fixing games or favouring teams is a whole other ball game, lots of people would need to be involved and it is hard to do it consistently without providing strong clues. 

If a individual call can decide a game and an individual ref has a bias, that isn't a conspiracy,  just a poor ref.

The key man for building any club in any sport is the GM football.

Gus is as good as anyone, possibly the best in the business. 

Curran was interviewed by Grub, Webster didn’t give him many minutes in 2023, he played more minutes out of position in the centres.

I was surprised,  it seemed like he was looking for a gig and the Warriors didn't want to keep him.

Their loss is our gain, easily top 10 for signings this season.

Webster had success in 2023, but the Warriors coming back to the pack in 2024 isn't a major surprise if letting Curran go is an indication of their recruitment and retention.

I am finding it hard to believe what Curran is saying, but I can't see why he would lie. It is clear that he doesn't like Webster. 

There’s only one conspiracy theory, that I can think of, that I have curiosity about, and that’s the Kennedy assassination. But not for the obvious reasons.

Firstly, there is no doubt the headshot DID come from behind. The stabilised Zupruder film proves that beyond any reasonable doubt. The “back and to the side” theory is wrong when viewed frame by frame. At frame… 312 I believe it is.. the impact of the headshot. You clearly see Kennedy’s head is violently pushed forward, so quick it’s easily missed in real time, it’s then as a result of that violent forward movement his head rebounds “back and to the side”. So it’s actually “forward and back and to the side”

So the shot definitely come from behind. I believe most likely from the School Book Depository and most likely fired by Oswald.

So none of that is the part I have questions about.

What I question is that there is no doubt that Oswald at one time was a CIA asset. Definitely before he went to Russia, and most likely after he returned and was working for The American for Cuba or similar thing in… I think New Orleans.

Further to that he definitely was under surveillance leading up to the assasination itself.

And this isn’t hearsay, this is all in declassified documents released by the Gov over the decades. And I suspect there’s even more in the still declassified stuff.

So what does it mean? I should add before getting to that it was no secret then or now that the CIA and Kennedy were openly at war for context to motive

So three possibilities all equally conceivable.

The CIA made it happen using most likely Oswald.

The CIA let it happen.

Or…

There simply was no conspiracy and an ex CIA asset went rogue without their knowledge or involvement of what he was planning and executed.

And I don’t know which one is true, but I’m almost certain one of them is.

The thing is with conspiracy theorists is they completely deliberately ignore human nature.

People lie and people can’t keep secrets - all of us all the time.

If you’ve got a secret and you tell one other person, no matter how much you trust them, your secret is compromised. The person who you tell that secret to, that you may trust with your life, may… probably… almost certainly… has another friend that they may trust with their life. How many times has someone said to you “Don’t tell anyone this, but….”?

The only person you could trust with a secret is someone who has just as much or more to lose with the guarding of that secret as you. And even then it’s only so long as they’ve got nothing to lose or it’s to their self interest to not guard it anymore.

Just as the NRL season is getting to the business end,  the NFL season is kicking off. 

My team the Bears have a stacked squad with what seems like talent in every position,  including elite talent in the key positions.

Expectations are high, higher than they have been at the start of a season for a long time. 

It is hard to imagine what can go wrong, but something can always go wrong. 

One problem is being one of the favourites, that motivates other teams to lift.

The Dog's results are great this season,  because we don't have that kind of squad.

We should be closer to that kind of squad in 2025, and we could have a premiership winning squad in 2026, I'll settle for that.

As for the Bears most of the elite talent is young enough to learn from the experience and be at the club another 7-10 years.

All of my football teams are trending in the right direction, I think I am headed for a great  next 5 years.

Just tell them that they are doomed to lead a totally miserable life, because they are.

My sister has a friend who comes from a family of theorists.... they are also quite religious.

My god they are hard work. 

I cant believe what the world has done to them for them to feel so disenfranchised. They question the motives of just about everything and use religion as a tool as to why its wrong.

I think you need ro speak to them Zef.....
I give up.

Well that’s not what I said, and you’re just confirming the Rush Limbaugh mantra of never trusting Government, academia, science or the media.

You can have all the scepticism you want and in fact it’s healthy, but all conspiracy nuts confuse scepticism with cynicism and then say everyone else is gullible.

When in fact the gullible and the cynics both come from the same tree of stupidity, just opposite branches, but both as stupid as each other. One believes everything they hear the other nothing they hear. At least the gullible ain’t stupid enough to think they’re smart. Cynics aren’t smart enough to know they’re stupid.

It’s healthy to be sceptical of one independent claim of anything no matter who the source. But when say Government tells you something, which maybe and often is supported by both sides of the aisle. And independently it’s backed by academia, different branches of academia with no connection to each other. Science confirms it, peer reviewed from within with nil interest in supporting competing claims unless they’ reach the same conclusion (and btw, science is NEVER settled, only progressed, scientists will tell you that). The press reports on it, competing press both trying to outdo and outscoop each other but they report the same…

If you’re going to be sceptical about it then are you sure you’re not being cynical?

Because when I’ll ask one of those nut jobs who it is then that actually does know the truth, the answer is usually Alex Jones or Foxnews or the intdernet.

With zero scepticism applied.

Because they’re stupid.

Storm in a glass of beer.

I don't expect perfection... but proactive rather than reactive would be a nice change...

They need to send a group of us Dogs fans over on an all you can drink tour with gambling money to Vegas to test the joint out. We don't want NRL players slipping in the bathrooms and getting an injury.

I'll tell the Casinos what Aussie beer they need on tap.

I like the last sentence...

NRLol putting their foot in it with this Latrell is not fit to serve his suspension this year... 'Walk back' coming quicker than a white house press statement after a Biden speech methinks...

In just glad the most pollies only tell lies to get elected...  Thankfully they revert to complete honesty when in power...

I'm also thankful the press have never been guilty of embellishment or fabrication...

Also glad some academics at my eldest's University have made it clear to her, men can menstruate...

Anyways.. I'll just a mask on and stay 1.5m away from everyone, and get a jab so I can't catch or transmit.... Oh....

Distrust in those institutions is as much if not more a result of people representing them being caught in the act of being dishonest, than it is driven by nut jobs on the web...

I reckon completely writing off all conspiracies is equally as ignorant as believing all conspiracies...

It's not like none of them have ever become conspiracy fact...

Back to the footy!!!...

Overall I think that the senior management of the NRL is the best that it has ever been. 

Fans that can remember back to the 1970s will know management of the game has been very bad at times.

Refs and the bunker are an area where the game needs to improve. I think that senior management already know that. 

The style of footy is good with a good mix between attack and defence,  only spoilt by refs intervening too often and too much time taken up with bunker reviews. 

Players are as fit, skilful and professional as they have ever been.  The comp is very even and that results in more fair contests where the winner is the team that wanted it more.

Still a few dud coaches and a few older players that are in the deadwood category. 

Post covid the pipeline of young talent is flowing again and more and more clubs will buy into development which will add to the pool of talent and help even up the competition.  Plus it is great seeing a really talented young guy debut in the NRL even when he doesn't play for the Dogs.

I think that the Dogs management and coaching is also right up with the best we have ever been.

We will get the results we deserve and there are only 1-2 refs that can screw that up.

As with players most of the deadwood in the refs is guys that have been around for over a decade. Some of the better refs seem to be younger guys. And the young guys that are not nailing it still have time to adapt and improve. 

Some of the older refs should be moved to the bunker on a permanent basis with a small group of specialists making all of the bunker decisions on a rotating schedule where they get some rest breaks. Bunker doesn't have the same physical requirements and we should be using it less.

Regardless what needs to be fixed isn't major, don't buy into the media controversy, most of that is manufactured. 

Rush Limbaugh and later Foxnews began the mantra embraced by the right and conspiracy nuts  the world over that you can’t trust government, can’t trust academia, can’t trust science and can’t trust the press.

Even when individually, they’ll all report on the same issue as fact. Because ofcourse then they’re all “conspiring” together.

Which is fine, but when you ask a conspiracy nut who it is they can believe, they say they get their own facts from some crackpot on the intdernet.

ODF in one case scientists checked the work of a famous scientist 100 years later and found lots of errors. He had the right answer but the experiment design was wrong and the execution was sloppy. When people criticise science that tells me they were thinking about footy when they should have been paying attention in science class, or perhaps thinking about footy was the right thing to do.

We are on a Dogs debate page here with a big a very important game coming up. 

I still think Hayward should start at 5/8, Clark and /or Sua should play and I am happy for Underhill to get a run.

If he plays Clark  might do the goal kicking.

If Cirro makes radical changes and we lose he will get criticised.  But I say ignore the critics and trust your instincts. If you have any doubts, ask Gus what he thinks.

Micko, before you start slinging the I-am-the-all-knowing-all-seeing bullshit and at the same time accusing me of being ignorant, you have no idea who I am, what I do for a living, or what I am aware of. Secondly I don't trust the science as it has been proven to be faulty time and time again, so it's not perfect and shouldn't be taken on face value. You have your opinion, that's great but don't ever label me because of my opinion.
I will say it again, conspiracies exist because the claims are not complete fabrications, there is fact sprinkled in amoungst it therefore they cannot be discredited.

But this is exactly the opposite of what you are arguing.