Timothy Reddan-A'Blew

This is what I don't get; I hear this as a rule - perhaps only in some jurisdictions? - but "...awaiting the results of COVID-19 tests..." in the Sydney coaches case implies they only need a negative test (and no isolation meanwhile??) for full steam ahead for Saturday! If your experience - as experienced by many others, evidently - were to apply, Saturday night was off the minute they walked into that cafe

Only the AFL period, WCW, post 1990, and the first was Wheeler in 1994, so that's more than one a year! (p.s. Intrigued by Cryptic crosswords at #1 in your interests. I'm a doer (DA tragic!) and constructor (my alter ego johnno2 in the South Gippsland Sentinel Times). I wonder if there are any other 'landers bearing the cryptic cruciverbalist / Dees supporter cross?)

Sorry, 'land; missed the "We are not..." Anyway, fun(?) coach killer fact(?), Wikipedia's table of Round 8 2010 (when the Bulldogs became the first(?) club to complete the States and Territories win set - ref that topic here) has the footnote "Hawthorn's win over Richmond was a significant one. It later emerged that Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson would have been sacked had they lost." They won, 13.11 to 13.8...

Curious timing! Anyone in mind? I see we're absent in the killers and high in the killed. Mock?

I'm the proverbial 110% with you on the first two parts of this sentence, CYB. On the third part, does anyone have the answer - where did that narrative come from? It may just be front loading is mopping up current and early salary cap space (if that's how things can work)? Would three years of coaching at the back end (if exercised) somehow come from a different pool, too? Re the injury/form/age concerns dotted through this thread, does the coaching option provide a salvage-something Plan B (again, if this is how things can work)? I note the coaching option goes a fair way to answering my earlier 'life after football' question, btw!

Me, too, dj. Keep the anger coming on Hawkins; it won't change anything but maybe the internet ether will rattle his guilt neurons. I don't think I imagined the direction of, and look in, his eyes at the instant of impact.

Don't get me wrong, P2J, I thought it was great, and just how I imagined Christian would be. It just made me curious about the broader person Christian was. I'd also hope, noting your Dusty comparison, that he's not relying on marketability, particularly if it's looks/physique based - that has a shelf life not much longer than football...

Interesting that Christian apparently did "...not want to eek [sic!] out every last dollar from Melbourne to the detriment of his teammates...", the implication being he could have got more, to - as the commentary often goes - 'set himself up for life'. He's sure in the echelon of players entitled to bring that condition to negotiations. Maybe $6m+ does that anyway, but is he adding other strings to his bow while playing - education, qualification, business, investment, etc - does anyone know, that help him take that altruistic view?

I reckon they're getting their money's worth out of the club website 'All of the Melbourne Goals' segment this year!!! (They're also getting their money's worth out of my current renovations, too!)

...it all. That's what's so nice.

'Twas an Olympian effort either way!?

Ouch! What about Jimma? (though I take Bob's point on the ballet skills, which weren't in Stynes's playbook) I'm thinking of the combination of in-the-air and off-the-ground skills.

I do love a good read!...

And a further rider, Bush, is that we have beaten current 5th and 6th but have yet to encounter 2nd, 3rd and 4th (and 7th and 8th). I don't know (but am tempted to obsessively research!?) who we had beaten in our next-best season start...

The Goodes comparison works for me. Also, Jimma?

May be deliberate in this case, for all the Johns he gets?...

...and good to see he/they have been recognised in the Jag FMOTW. His run also, btw, had shades of his No.36 predecessor with a very Flash-reminiscent baulk sidestep?

Paywalled, JCB?

Just clarifying, Second Verse, this is the players' first 'x' games in the seniors, since debut in the seniors, but aren't consecutive games, as James's have been? Bryan Kenneally's, for example, were rounds 11 (debut) and 12 in 1959, then rounds 2, 5 and then 6 to 15 in 1960. James does indeed have a little way to go, but I wonder where he sits in the consecutive games since debut field?

Nathan Jones's debut was more than a year away.

More than just shades, DA!? Can someone do a side-by-side video of The Wiz in Round 11 1998 and Kossie in Round 7 2021? From first gather of ball, to ball through the sticks, it's 17 seconds Farmer, 16 seconds Pickett. ...and I've gotta say, while the runs are equals for effort and tank, Kossie's shows of skill street Jeff's straight charge! (as do the respective involvements of teammates btw!)

LOL, "Back-to-back blockbusters", not "Back-to-back-to-back blockbusters" to include QB. Not our fault!...

A fascinating analysis of that here, Doc: https://foxsportspmd-a.akamaihd.net/free/nogeoblock/2021/04/26/DVU_260421_HIBBERD_V_MARTIN.transfer_202104261759/DVU_260421_HIBBERD_V_MARTIN.transfer_202104261759_1596.mp4 Good on you, Mr Hibberd!

Au contraire (eventually!); he was one of those lucky few able to turn that fleeting '10-year rule' into a premiership (North Melbourne in the mid-'70s thus providing me a 'second team' to get interested about)

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2021-kysaiah-pickett-scoreboard-sledge-jack-riewoldt-vision-reaction-melbourne-vs-richmond-afl-360/news-story/68e2fceb5c445dc072d359c91b0362ab Yeah, right...