Mazer Rackham

15 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Didn't Haywood play for the Filth in the '70's? Gun recruit from the country.

Does he pass the character test? I mean, he's been up his mum and his legless sister and he thinks he's killed his old man.

I don't mind the variance. It's part of the skill of ruckwork, to be able to anticipate where the ball will fall, and part of that has always been to "clue-in" to the style of the umpire with the ball.

My beef with thrown-ins is the stage management of waiting waiting until two ruckman are present, everyone in position ... lights camera action! WTF? Just throw the thing in! If one team doesn't have a ruckman ready, too bad. Nominate someone else.  If the AFL really want the game flowing, have the boundary umps throw the thing in immediately they've got their hands on it.

33 minutes ago, mauriesy said:

My perception is that the umpires changed the technique of boundary throw-ins not long ago. They sling it across their chest more angularly, rather than just straight over their head.

Yes, they have. And it doesn't seem to make any difference to anything.

43 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

But to be fair, hating Essendon and Collingwood (and Carlton) was ingrained in him from childhood by his Richmond mad dad and his Hawthorn mad mum. 

That's a sound start in life for anyone

7 hours ago, bush demon said:

I liked Essendon when they had their breakthrough flags in 1984/5 but must say have disliked them since their sniping tactics in the 1990 and especially 2000 grand finals. I still don't like them for this reason, plus the later d**g/p******s  scandal, but must say the whole thing feels tragic now, esp. for many of their supporters. Don't forget the Dees spent generations in this wilderness, and it ain't pretty. They are my feelings after reading through some of these Bomber blitz comments.

Stay strong. Eliminate these feelings resembling "sympathy". I don't recall anything but derision and contempt coming our way in our many years in the wilderness.

This stadium funding charade is a game of ticking boxes. Doesn't matter what your true intentions are, as long as you tick the right combination of boxes to unlock the $$$. Some clubs are very good at it. We are terrible.

15 minutes ago, Ouch! said:

I think some of the media asked a similar question to this through the week, and admittedly I think there was a dissent 50m paid in one of the earlier games this season, but this rule is subjective at best, and dare I say is based on how the umps are feeling often more than hard evidence. 

This is a huge problem with many of the AFL rules. For reasons unknown, the umps do not enforce all the rules, only some of them, and the subset of rules that gets enforced changes throughout the season.

Can you imagine any other sport suffering this nonsense?

"It might have been offside, but I'm not in my offside phase at the moment."

"You say the serve was out, but when considered from a postmodern perspective, what even IS 'out'? Can we not say that in some way, we are all 'out'?"

11 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

Is dissent still a rule?

It is, but as can happen with all AFL rules, it's not currently in the collection of rules that is enforced each round.

But fear not, it will get its turn. The AFL will eventually "bring on the sub" (in response to a high profile outcry) and this rule will once again have its day (even as another rule is spelled on the bench).

8 minutes ago, BoBo said:

Push in the back for me is the absolute worst. I don’t know why or how it came to be so confused, but it honestly gets paid at random. 
 

There’s Ginnivan as an issue yes, but Tom Hawkins has been gifted probably 50+ goals throughout his career for pushing in the back. It’s maddening. 

Then you see guys get the full force of another player's weight in the back -- from hands, knees, or the entire body -- SPLAT, ending up prone on the turf. Play on.

On 01/04/2024 at 10:48, Whispering_Jack said:

For the benefit of anyone distressed by the Speed Demon reference, it has nothing to do with the current controversy in the media and absolutely no offence was intended. 

You're just trying to divert attention from the Ginnivan situation. It won't work.

On 31/03/2024 at 00:43, KingDingAling said:

I think he has the attributes to remain on a list somewhere. But time is running out to find his role. It’s probably a third tall rotating as a relief ruck. But he’s had time. It’s not like Watts, who was always a quarterback played up key forward. 

These exact same things were being said 4 years ago. Some people just aren't cut out for it.

On 29/03/2024 at 02:59, UK Demon said:

Please forgive my ignorance, but living over here there are some things I don't understand.

1. Why don't the selectors pick Adam Tomlinson. Seems he is the most hardly done by player we've had for years.

He didn't finish cleaning Goody's spa when he was supposed to. Also he was asked to put the lawn clippings on the rose garden but he went and put them into the green waste bin instead. Goody was furious.

Sydney are a "golden child" club, so their complaints are more likely to be listened to than, say, a minnow Victorian club with a champion ruckman who has a bruised head.

Put another way, they are under the protection of the mob bosses, while certain other clubs are under suspicion, at least until they start bringing in more moolah.

5 minutes ago, Billy said:

Essendon are a joke, you can’t manufacture toughness,

But if you're Brad Scott, you can revel in it and sit back with a port and a cigar and enjoy the view as your players lay into the oppo.

The umps, being amateurs, and seemingly on board with the idea of being amateurs in an otherwise professional sport, get mixed in with a random group of umps every week. 

A professional organisation would take a professional approach and have fixed "teams" or "crews" of umps that train together and take the field together each week. (They do this in gridiron and baseball ... this is one area where we SHOULD copy the Americans!)

They can then learn each others' styles and movements and don't need eyes in the back of their heads. As it is, they appear to be ball-bound with no-one watching what's going on off the ball.

Professional umps, grouped into "crews", for a better umpiring experience that actually enforces all the rules and not just the ones the umps feel like, or have time for.

The AFL of course has no interest in this as long as the mugs fans show up and Channel 7 pays $$$$$. What's it costing them?

Laws of the Game 2024

18.3 PROHIBITED CONTACT
...
18.3.3 Permitted Contact
A Player may use their hip, shoulder, chest, arms or open hands provided that the football  is no more than five metres  away from the Player and the Player does not make Prohibited Contact as per Law 18.3.2 above.

This rule is infringed at nearly every centre bounce.

1 hour ago, Young Angus said:

Anyone know much about the "transverse process fracture"...it sounds very serious but they don't seem too concerned???

They used to open for Spinal Tap. They gave up when they found their material had been plagiarised, uncredited, by Bon Jovi. The guitarist now works delivering school lunches and the drummer is a plasterer. They're talking about getting the band back together. Their new material is really strong, apparently!

1 hour ago, Red But Mostly Blue said:

The less we hear about Lever, the better, I think (hope). Although it wouldn't surprise me if he's just a quiet, late out for the Port game. But if he's in, it'll make it easier to plug that hole. May isn't really the sort of guy you can cover, and he was in good form, but Tommo can do it ...

The problem with losing either of May/Lever is that they are our generals in defence. It's like having an on-field coach.

The problem with losing both of them is we also lose the on-field coach aspect. We're not exactly back in Frost/Oscar territory, but the cohesiveness our of defence relies on having at least one of them on the ground.

36 minutes ago, jane02 said:

My husband cracked his vertebrae a few years ago and had to wear a brace for six months. It was very painful and certainly limited his movement.

Is this reverse karma? Where the punishment happens before the crime?

52 minutes ago, chookrat said:

I'd be surprised if May misses more than three weeks and hopefully he is back for the Brisbane match. He can always wear a guard to help protect the ribs.

Something like this?

53 minutes ago, Rocknroll said:

Commentary was horrendous

Monday morning review meeting at Fox Sports.

"Commentary horrendous?"
"Check."
"Didn't know basic facts about players?"
"Check."
"Obvious and pointless expert comments?"
"Check."
"Inane and meaningless expert comments?"
"Check."
"Butt-hurt former players musing out loud?"
"What's 'musing'?"
"Whingeing."
"Check."
"So five out of five. Again! Well done boys, see you next Mondee."

11 hours ago, Beetle said:

There are no expectations on us this year, with the heavy media emphasis on our “disastrous” off season…they are off us and we are no longer considered the hunted.

Nothing fixes off-season drama like wins on the scoreboard.

Our guppy-brained media now have some new targets drifting into their viewfinders. Collingwood (but softly softly until it's obvious they can release both barrels), Crows, Lions, Bulldogs. It's a tremendously exciting time for them. And they always have us in reserve if we have some "off-field issues", ie, start losing.

1 minute ago, BDA said:

People have too much time on their hands. 

Now we know where the real Kate Middleton is. Playing in the no 30 jersey for Melbourne. It makes sense if you think about it. (after spending 30+ hours straight on twitter and facebook)

33 minutes ago, Pennant St Dee said:

And yet we had a Dees supporter call SEN during the week with some conspiracy theory regarding Nibbler always being one of the first players to congratulate a teammate after the teammate had kicked a goal. The caller believed it to be orchestrated by Nibbler to just get in the highlight reels.

Yes, it's the uncanny way he knows who's going to score the next goal, and manouvers to be near them, that impresses me. He must read the play better than anyone who's ever played the game! And still doesn't manage to rack up 40+ possies per match. I guess that speaks further to the selflessness of the guy.

Has my name been mentioned yet?

Mason Cox for the big dumb henchman, swift to anger. Maynard in the opening sequence as a bad guy who gets his comeuppance. Eddie McGuire in a Bond parody movie as the evil mastermind.

52 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

It's not that hard. The rule is simple: If the name ends in an 's' sound, you drop the 's' and add a 'y'; if it ends in a 'y' sound, you drop the 'y' and add an 's'. For all other names, add a 'y'.