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Am a regular podcast listener, and while they do laugh a bit too hard at their own jokes, there are some real gems in there. It remains rough and the sponsorship segments make my skin crawl (I know they are a semi pi$$ take but still). But overall I love the roughness and relative honesty in a very cultured media landscape. Off the cuff points I got out of some recent episodes: 1, So Fraser Rosman is the 3rd biggest kick in the club after May (and (Hunt’s 70m torp), was definitely excited to hear this. 2, They do give very big hints about team selection, Dunstan seemed a monty after listening. 3, You get a sense of dynamics between the players, they scratch the surface beyond sound bites about how players get along and I find that super interesting. 4, Max’s ability (and it is an incredible asset in a leader) to admit ignorance and learn (his grammar and general knowledge is woeful) is extraordinary, demonstrates humility and confidence in equal measure, truly amazing individual and that honesty of his is a really good way to get a bunch of different individuals around the same cause, cannot go on about this enough. 5, Listening to stories involving other players / Sandy Dragons / I find super informative. 6, Gibby being the straight man, wish him every success seems a very decent human. Anyone else there that thinks it is a good insight into clubland?

Apparently locals now refer to the left of screen as the Bang Bang Bang end...

And why would there ever be any doubt about Gus staying. Listening and watching the lads each week is far more comforting than the click bait the media put out. These two are the heart and soul of our Premiership culture!

OK

I’ve always seen Dunstan as inside. Think he’s as good as we’ve got to try and replace Viney.

I watched the St Kilda / GWS game last night. There were two moments for potential ‘dissent’. The first one was a player upset and clearly showing a form of dissent and then immediate obvious remorse for his action. No 50 given, a logical outcome, move on. Second incident, pretty much a player suggesting that the ball had touched the ground and was not a mark. There was no malice, no disrespect, at worst some emotion but definitely nothing bordering on being over the top. No reasonable person would say he was being disrespectful to the umpire. 50 metres was given! Classic example of subjective nature of decision making process of two different umpires. I am now convinced that the AFL will succeed implementing this rule but at an incredible price. The price being that they will strangle any emotion being shown on the field. Players will become very wary about showing any passion whatsoever. It is slowly sterilising and killing the game. Fans will become increasingly frustrated and vent even more frustration at the umpires. My reaction last night was exactly that and that was watching a game that I had relative little interest in. It is ripping the heart out of the game. I just can’t see how what happened last night will encourage anyone to want to umpire at a junior level. I feel sorry for the umpires, players and fans. I am really (censored) off at the AFL.

Well, we eventually turned Scully into Steven May & Tom Sparrow I believe. And at the rate that Sparrow is improving, he could easily have a better career than Scully. May was All Australian last year and a premiership hero So Scully goes to GWS and we receive a compensation pick in the mini draft (Hogan) in return Eventually Hogan goes to Freo and they give us picks 6 & 23 in return (we gave them some inconsequential pick in the 60's as well) We give pick 6 to the GCS for May and use pick 23 (eventually pick 27) in the draft on Sparrow Turned out alright when factoring in Gawn at pick 34 as well All's well that ends well

That’s abuse of the Queen’s English. Tex should apologise through a video with the Queen awkwardly sitting behind him…

Jeez now we haven’t beaten a team above 11th.

https://www.afl.com.au/video/746178/saint-pinged-for-umpire-dissent-after-this-gesture?videoId=746178&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1650625574001 That right there is the reason there’s so much heated discussion around this topic. IMO it’s an absurd umpiring decision. I turned off and switched over to Netflix after seeing that and I’d consider myself a footy die hard. AFL is an entertainment product designed to draw in customers and if the customer doesn’t like the product then the product is a failure. They need to fix this rule or the product will continue to go backwards as more and more customers switch off. Players don’t like it. Coaches don’t like it. Supporters don’t like it. Customers don’t like it. Umpires surely don’t like it. I can’t imagine anyone would want to pick umpiring as a job/career with what we’re seeing now. Fix the rule you dimwits.

particularly ironic as he's sitting in a studio in docklands

A Brayshaw is an OK player, isn’t he?🤗

Tex: We know the way we want to play, and it's starting to come to tuition now. hahahah

As long as the AFL CEO gets his $2 Mill a year. Gambling advertising will get even more intense They will say “the game has never been in better shape”

He is better than that and his Form at Casey has been solid if unspectacular. Sometimes players who can play do not shine in lower levels. I expect Dunstan to be very solid and link up well taking Vineys spot

Gotta love being the undefeated premier team ! You can hang [censored] on everyone !!!

You just have to love Mundy.

The beautiful sunshine attracted me to RSEA Park, the Moorabbin HQ of the St Kilda Football Club (once the home ground of that team in the glory days of Plugger Lockett). Legend has it that they used to water the ground on the night before a game so that it would suit the Saints’ style of play and, back in the day, it truly was a smelly bogheap saturated in mud. But this afternoon, the surface was a lush, even magic carpet of green and the Sandringham Dragons put on a master class for the visiting Tasmanian Devils State Under 18s who are part of the NAB Boys League competition. First things first - the final score was eerily familiar to any Melbourne fan - the Dragons scored 21.14.140, a score that for eternity will always be associated with 25/9/21. Tassie managed to make it to 10.8.68 so they weren’t much better than the Doggies of that day. You get the drift though - Sandy destroyed them. The Dragons also had a medium forward who performed his wizardry with the football, kicking some magical goals and displaying some nifty footwork to finish with six goals and a couple of behinds (one poster) on top of giving two or three away and having the occasional stint in the midfield where he also picked up a few touches. Harry Sheezel is good and will go top 10. This is probably not the last time that I provide the disclaimer about having seen him grow up from a 7-year-old junior footballer with enormous talent back then to a 17-year-old on the brink of even bigger and better things. Now, if he wasn’t best on ground, then fellow 182cm medium forward Charlie Clarke who played half forward and kicked 7 goals would take the chocolates. He’s hard, robust, has great running patterns and is a real goer who is dangerous with ball in hand. From this day on, he will be ranked in the draft top 20 if not higher. Midfielder and Brisbane Lions father son prospect Will Ashcroft was silky smooth and full of class in the midfield and he and Cameron McKenzie combined well to ensure that the Dragons were well on top in the clearance battles. The above four are all going to feature heavily in draft discussion and there are a few others in a very solid Dragon defence who will also be fancied because they certainly combined well to keep the Tassie forwards under control. Unfortunately, I was closely following the Sandy forwards (going from end to end at the start of each quarter) so I couldn’t really pick up the numbers or names of the better ones other than one Jakob Anderson who looks a really good stopper. And that’s not all - two top agers in Hugo Hall-Kahn (4 goals) and 202cm ruckman Max Ramsden pressed their credentials for possible selection in this year’s Mid Season Draft. Tasmania were far less organised and nobody really stood out to me but one of their small rovers was quite nippy and kicked three goals. I discovered later that his name is Brandon Leary. Given that he’s a Tasmanian, I wonder if he’s related to former Demon, Noel Leary who played for Melbourne in the early 70s before going back home and becoming an AFL Tasmania Hall of Famer?

24 free kicks to 10. Not surprising of course. That’s standard for the Dogs. Being logical and impartial, given that this is a repeating phenomenon, there can be only two explanations for it. 1. That the umpires are heavily predisposed to pay more frees to the Dogs than their opposition for reasons other than being deserved, or at least ‘equally deserved’ , or 2. that the Dogs are just spectacularly good at drawing fairly adjudicated frees, the obvious implication being that they train to create this. Can there be any other explanations, because it’s gone way beyond random? Way, waaaaay beyond.

Just shows what a great Coach John Northey was. We made Finals in ‘89 after being obliterated in ‘88 Jeelong were incredibly violent in the ‘89 Semi Final

Another pretty standard Bulldogs umpiring result 24 to 10 Doggies thew it and dropped it all day. Strange to say, but glad the crows won

Back to Willie Wonka's chocolate factory for Caleb Daniel.

Dogs are quickly slipping into Geelong territory for me in terms of pure hatred. Absolute cheating scum.

Dogs midfield is an over glorified accumulation machine. Sure they get lots of it, but have virtually no hurt factor. They must all have themselves in their AFL fantasy teams.

To play devil's advocate (😉), sometimes they have too much candour

This is what happens when you appoint a coach to run the umpiring. The coaches have been responsible for many distasteful rule changes over the years. Since when have they had the good of the game in mind? Their mindset is far removed from what's required. Scott doesn't know what he's doing and even less idea of what he should be doing.

2009 AFL Draft Pick 1. Tom Scully Pick 34. Max Gawn On one pick we lost huge, but we won 100 x over on the over. Hindsight!

GWS halftime huddle.,,

Things we are learning: 1. Carlton can’t deal with pressure. 2. Freo have copied our game plan……. but 3. They don’t have May, Lever, Petracca, Oliver or Brown.

I know Ive just tuned in and it's not half time yet ...... but ...[censored] me ....The Premiers are in trouble.

How can they sing, with any modicum of enthusiasm, “we are the navy blues” when they wear white?

Yes. Freo play a similar game to us.

Free kick Dogs is out of control

Yeah, I generally love the show for all the aforementioned reasons as well. I do find it can be a bit long at times and I struggle a bit keeping up to date, but generally great listening. Do really like the very candid interviews they get with all the big name personalities around the club as well. Choco, Yze were great and I even found they were able to present Jack Viney as having a personality 🤣😉.

This probably isn’t the place to debate it but this is a massive cause of frustration for me and to me is tantamount to cheating/clear favouritism by the AFL. I totally understand the “maximising attendance” attitude but it should be on a rotation between ALL Victorian clubs to ensure each Vic team has to make the trek down there and face off against the most parochial crowd and what I would call the strongest home ground advantage in the AFL. I might be wrong but didn’t Hawthorn or the Tigers “have to” go down there a season or two ago? And of course their fans were up in arms. The choice should be one of two: either make it a rotation of “big clubs” going down there every year (doesn’t have to be all of them just one or two), or they play all their home games down there. I don’t think you could find a competition in the world the bows at the feet of the “big clubs” more than the AFL, it’s disgraceful.

Hi WCW. I've actually known people from as far west in London as Roehampton and as far east in Kent as Margate do the same so there are some outliers. Ormond isn't one of them though so I have no idea where Max picked it up from. Incidentally, in Ireland (I know you're Irish) they drop the h a lot and say ting instead of thing. I lived in Dublin for 5 years and enjoyed listening to the different accents. All accept one guy that worked in the mail room from somewhere north of the river who I could not understand a word of what he ever said. I couldn't have a conversation with him unless there was a third person with me to translate. It was like Klunk in that Stop the Pigeon cartoon with Dastardly & Muttley.

I feel the same. I always hated them for all the draft assistance they received. I always thought they would become an unstoppable force eventually. I feel they have missed their chance and are closer to a rebuild than a premiership.

Might need to keep Sparrow away from Gosch's until the seeds get going.

I've been asking the same thing for a while . There are 4 situations: 1. Umpire pays free and player shows dissent clearly 'disrepectably'. (in fact you may as well be abusive - the penalty is the same.) 2. Umpire pays a free or mark and player indicates verbally or with gestures the decision was wrong in a respectful way- eg. last night's 'ball hit the ground' gesture (and presumably non-disrespectful words). 3. Players 'demand' a decision should be made by waving arms and shouting 'ball' or 'deliberate' etc. before the umpire would normally blown the whistle or say play on. 4. Players indicate that a free should have been made as per #3 but after it is clear the umpire is not going to pay the free. #1, 3, and 4 show disrespect to the umpire. I'd argue #2 does not. #1 and #4 are more serious, but even #3 implies the umpire is incapable of deciding for himself. And the degree of disrespect of #3 and #4 will depend on timing. The AFL should produce examples of what consitutes disrespect for both players and spectators and enforce them consistently. OR it should state the players can say or indicate absolutely NOTHING relating to free kicks or disputed marks, paid or not paid or potentially payable. The extreme option. The extreme option is at least clear and can be more consistently applied. Doubtless players would in time adapt to it - though good luck with #3. (We can argue seperately about the loss to the game or if it is the main solution to umpire shortages.) As has been argued before, if the AFL won't go for the extreme option, then the penalties should be graded fines (and worse for repeat offenders) penalised AFTER the game. Disrespect does not affect the flow of the game in contrast to other things which lead to 50m penalties. Therefore why penalise it during the game and why 50m?

Last week it was a selfish Devon Smith asking for a handball from a teammate that was lining up 10 metres out and subsequently missing a left foot snap, then last night we had Himmelberg doing exactly the same thing to Flynn. No wonder those teams are struggling when players are making it all about themselves, back your teammates and get around them.

Maybe we give it a few games rather than just the one.

As sure as the sun rises in the east, King will kick straight when they play us in a few week’s time.

Scoreboard flattered GWS. Should have been an 8 goal plus win to the Saints. Their set shot kicking from close range was atrocious

Watching the Gawny & Gus podcast and Max lays claim to holding the longest streak of games without taking a bounce

The game tonight was ok only. Was expecting better but GWS just seem to lack real purpose when the heat comes into the game They don't use the corridor enough and can't seem to get on a run when needed. Not a lot of physicality although they were better than last week. There's something missing though As for the Saints - hard to judge them tonight but they do keep winning. As Ben mentioned above, their defence is decent They are a reasonably good team but I'm not sure they can reach great heights just yet. A top 4 spot is within their grasp though with a 5 & 1 start to the season. And if you're top 4 you're a chance

In this entirely premature exercise I think it will be... Dees (1) v Freo (4) Lions (2) v Swans (3) Saints (5) v Blues (8) Dogs (6) v Cats (7) Richmond to resume their rightful place in 9th.

If by poor man’s Dan Hanneberry you mean that he actually gets on the park and doesn’t just take 800k a year to sit in the stands, then yes - he gets paid a lot less, for a lot more.

Mystery solved. The Kansas Tornado just delivered Majak back to Casey Fields and he’s going to line up in the ruck against the Tigers VFL side on Sunday afternoon.

true, but if they were full time professionals they could better hone their decision making and rule interpretation (as well as many other useful activities) So, for at least improving umpire standards and consistency at the AFL level it should work

Nah - this bloke would be copping 50's left, right & centre