Mazer Rackham

I went to an ice hockey game. Fair dinkum, the yanks would watch tiddlywinks if it was in a huge stadium with flashing lights, ear splitting music, popcorn, kiss cam, remote control blimps, G-rated strippers cheerleaders, and various other mind numbing distractions for tiny minds. I'm surprised they were able to concentrate for 11 entire minutes. No wonder they hate cricket.

so far it's hard to tell if these sackings are all part of a master plan or just dear leader going through a stalinist purge of everyone he doesn't like it could be that he has pretensions to up market acceptability (in the sports arena????), and any presenter with a whiff of bogan, meathead or numbskull about them, or someone who might not pass muster in camberwell village, is being shown the door. why then would hillier go? why would maher stay? why would those two knuckleheads in the morning stay? they're sacrificing a lot of SPORTS knowledge for .... what exactly? the mellifluous tones of mr "i have unshakeable principles unless slobbo is around to shout me down" whately? ultimately it's all about ratings and ad revenue, so time will tell. but so far this brave new SEN seems to be all over the shop.

You're on the right track, Ron. If you keep up the good work, you'll be loathing 17 clubs like the rest of us.

Lord knows I don't really want to immerse myself in this kind of discussion but I can't let this bit pass... CNN & MSNBC are not so much biased or slanted in their coverage as stupid and unaware. They prefer bright shiny objects over actual reporting. NYT cheerleaders? They have been running a vendetta against Clintons of all flavours for decades. WaPo is the closest thing to fair and balanced of the lot of them. "Equal shoutout"? This is known as "false equivalence". Two wrongs don't make a right. Don't excuse Fox for their execrable and antisocial coverage.

That's because Port have told him he's got to be more like Joe Daniher. Fast learner, our their Jack.

SEN have been low rent for much of their existence. They didn't start out that way. Started out with big names – Lyon, Brereton, Brownless, and big salaries. But quickly found out that while companies may fall over themselves to sponsor Collingwood and Essendon, they don't fall over themselves to sponsor a radio station that talks about Collingwood and Essendon. They ended up with a moth eaten collection of almost literally low rent advertisers. Jacques from Xenium Mortgages, anyone? In no time at all, Brereton left because they couldn’t pay the bills. When Pacific Star bought in, there was an uptick in the quality of the advertisers but not an equivalent growth in audience. They have been hovering at 2s and 3s for a long time. They recently tried it again. The “big stars”. Morning "dream team" with no chemistry. Garry promptly set up Hollywood Boulevard again and poor old Hamish "brother of" was let known, even on air, that he was not part of the boulevard. He was an onlooker. He was right to leave. And still ratings flatlined. The "big names" talking about the same stuff as the no-names doesn't draw extra listeners, because the die-hards are all listening anyway. Now Whately ... the big fish ... this is Francis Leach all over again. The "inna-lekshul" "egg head" "big words" toff. Doesn't fit the demographic of tradies and bogans. It looks like they may be trying to change the demographic but realistically ... how much more can they eke out of the broader radio audience who mostly want old songs, daft DJs, and talkback lashing one political party or the other? By the way, it's clear that Whately left the ABC in such a hurry because Hutchison said, I'm offering $$$$ but you need to make your decision today! The offer's only open until close of business. If you can't commit, we're not interested! And yet Hutchison obviously was very keen on getting Whately. Hutchison is much more experienced in the wicked ways of the commercial world than Gerard who is a babe in the woods. There may be some room for growth as SEN have increasingly gone all out on AFL. Bugger-all soccer, hardly any cricket ... recently when Chuck Berry was hosting, he said one day "there you go … we were supposed to be talking about cricket but somehow ended up talking about St Kilda." They struggle to go for 5 minutes without coming back to AFL. Whately looks like their gamble to pick up some disaffected fans of general sports. Can’t see it working. Their bigger strategy might be that they want to get into live commentary of cricket, soccer, tennis, Olympics to add to AFL and basketball. With sports increasingly going the other way, into pay TV, free to air coverage for the die hards on SEN could look attractive! People like Maher and Fine, for all their flaws, represent good value for SEN as they surely can't cost much but actually know how to keep the show moving. Guys like Lyon need a chaperone/MC like Hamish or Huddo. Harford was a good performer and they let him slip. Dunno why they dumped Ox. It’s taken years but he has grown into a polished radio man. Whereas “Marko” remained one dimensional, and that’s putting it kindly. KB & Doc … KB is an inveterate stirrer and cannot resist an opportunity to do so. With solely him in the driver’s seat, it's somewhat amusing to see how many people he gets to bite. He is SEN's best performer and actually knows something about sport other than AFL, specifically, athletics. (Also horse racing, on the generous assumption that that counts as a sport.) Doc generally makes for good radio and good entertainment. KB & Doc for 3 hours ... No. Their Tuesday morning one hour love-in consisted of KB trying to bait Doc, and Doc slapping him down, rinse and repeat. 3 hours daily? No thanks.

If you drink enough, you'll find that he does!

Three pages now. OP will be pleased. It's hard to eke out the responses in the off season but JW is a faithful topic guaranteed to draw us in regardless of time place and circumstance.

What is this, pre-season training for MFCSS? A bit of practice self-flagellation so you're primed and ready to go in round 1 if he kicks a bag?

In days of yore, we had to do that. Shirts vs skins. Of course some days it was so effin' cold it didn't matter even if you had a shirt on or not.

When coaches and clubs start jumping up and down that there are jumper clashes and it could cost someone a flag!!! then I will believe it is an issue. Until then it just the typical AFL bullsh!t inconsistency and making it up on the run. The last time I heard clubs grumbling was when the AFL themselves engineered a clash between us and the umpires!

Round 3, 2017 Round 20, 2017

1. Dank probably won't show up 2. His "legal team" will be straight out The Simpsons 3. as an appeal, it won't be a re-hearing of the case. So no introduction of new evidence. It hinges on whether the AFL applied their own rules properly. 4. if the ban was quashed, the AFL drug tribunal can sit again and ban him again. No "double jeopardy" because they're a sporting tribunal, not a court. 5. either way, what sporting club wants to attract the kind of attention that Dank brings? So, a circus, but not the expose that many of us would like to see.

I wonder what the international audience of 2.5 trillion people in 1,250 countries will make of the comp putting a drug ringleader on the main stage? What a showcase for the game!

His lawyers and "legal advisors" are usually class acts. This could be very entertaining, assuming it even gets to the starting line.

Not much danger of him spilling the beans at a sportsmans night as he has threatened that umpteen times and never done it. The kind of people who would fire shots into his house are not the kind to worry about what he'll say at a sportsmans night. they're more worried about what he'd say to cops, lawyers and govt investigators. Hence the gunshots. They're not into subtle.

Remember that ASADA only found out about Dank as they were tipped off by the Aus Crime Commission who were investigating organised crime and bikie gangs. This guy Dank appeared on their radar and the trail led to Essendon. The rest is history. (The ACC had plenty on the drugs used at EFC but for legal reasons ASADA couldn't use it and had to start their investigation from scratch ... after the shredding machines got burnt out from over use.) One day the ACC report may be tabled in parliament. I expect it will be eye opening. The gunshots fired into Dank's house? Strangely reminiscent of warnings given by crime/bikie gangs to other crims ...

What was he buying, magic mushrooms and calf's blood?

Right now Gil is in his study sitting in a leather upholstered chair in front of a roaring fire. Nursing a huge balloon of brandy, smoking a Cuban cigar. Congratulating himself and contemplating how he has managed to steer his prodigal son back to bigger finals attendances the path of righteousness.

Cricket. Yes, Harry wanted to bring this impenetrable game of elites to "the people". Somehow ignoring that not only toffs, but also bogans, and everyone in between, played it in droves every weekend. Problem was, Harry and his crew didn't know much about it themselves. I think Bill Jacobs had a fair cricket brain but the rest of them were of the "ooh, he's had a big hit at it" ilk. It was like listening to when your uncle who watches one ODI every three years sits down in front of the TV. "Now why didn't that bloke run then? There must have been a run in that!" "He dropped it! Did you see that! How can he drop that catch!?" "Why doesn't he just bowl at the stumps and get him out?"

Harry used to get horribly frustrated by "tiggy touchwood" free kicks. So much that sometimes he could barely speak as he raged over these .... these .... tiggy touchwood frees! No one ever knew exactly what he meant as he never went into any detail but it was assumed he meant the soft frees that were "technically" there but which fans often don't want paid (especially against their side). He wanted 20 frees paid a game. Circumstances be damned. And this was when he was the umpires' boss! The first advocate of not umpiring according to the rules. Maybe that's when the rot started to creep in.

Let's cross to Tommy down in the rooms. Are you there Tommy? I'm ere Arry. Can you hear me? Tommy, have you got Phil Carman there? I don't fink so Arry. I can't see anyfink because it's dark in ere Arry. I fink I've locked meself in the broom cupboard Arry.

Hird's "good bloke" genes must be something powerful to overcome landing the AFL in its biggest scandal in its history. game in disrepute bees d*ck from an entire team being suspended swathe of sackings and resignations fines galore possibility of future health issues ... stacked up against: good bloke

Just like the AFL exec. Going hard on the easy targets and looking the other way the rest of the time. Could be an admin role in Jobby's future! AFL football ops manager, after an apprenticeship as personal barista to Gil.

Wow, the drugs must have finally worn off.