Dear Bear,

In fact I was in Tagaytay, a lovely hilly town about three hours from Manila, on Saturday when the game was played. Well, lovely might be an overstatement, but it sure beats Manila - whose traffic system was apparently designed by the same guy as Adam Simpson's kicking style. Although arguably Simmo's kicking is more efficient than Manila traffic design.

I had harboured fantasies about watching the game on the Australian cable TV channel, as I did last time I was in the Philippines (in fact, we may well have been playing Collingwood then too) - but the slightly crappy resort-type place we are in has no cable TV.

Instead I relied on text messages from others, and at some point during the morning's proceedings at the workshop I was attending (people were making presentations about the terrible evictions of urban poor communities in Indonesia and India) I heard that we were up by 17 points. This was promising (the score, not the evictions) - although I noted that we seemed to have kicked a lot of points at that stage.

Later in the afternoon, the workshop moved on to the South African example, where there have been some fantastic cases won about evictions. My enthusiasm for this jurisprudence was rather tempered, though, when I got the message saying we had lost by three points, in a terrible game, and that Shagga had missed from point blank range in the dying minutes. Oh well - at least for the first time in three hours I was able to concentrate on the workshop properly.

At least it appears we played some good footy, and that we should have won the game. Really, in a season where we aren't expected to make the finals, aren't moral victories just as good? (answer: not against Collingwood - in fact, not at all). And in Thomas it appears we have unearthed another tragically inaccurate small forward.

Anyway, I'll be in Malaysia for next week's game. I think it's against Port - although I could be wrong - I really am taking it one week at a time. If it is Port, we are practically a statistical certainty to win. Not sure I'll catch the game (I have a feeling it's on Sunday, and we'll be en route to a small island) - so I'll have to rely on your report again.

Hoping for some sensible umpiring next week (especially in the quantification of 50-metre penalties)...

Dan