Mazer Rackham

It's neck and neck between horse racing and boxing for "the most" corrupt sport. AFL mounting a strong challenge.

Unfortunately the p-word does not exist in the AFL comp. Wasn't it only last year when May got done pre-season for high contact, and we all thought, "well I don't like that but as long as the AFL are consistent ...". Then along comes Ablett and does it deliberately! Sending the AFL emergency star protection division into overdrive. SPOILER ALERT: I think we know

Yes they did. It's what the AFL always do. Instead of enforcing their own rules properly, they (in a fit of something approaching a guilty conscience) tack another rule on top, expecting that to improve things. If they wanted to stamp out such tackles, they would penalise any tackle with the potential to cause concussion. Sending a message to all players: do not attempt this kind of tackle. Instead they do the very AFL thing of only penalising the ones that actually do cause concussion, creating another rules grey area, which will inevitably be greyed further some time in the future, with another rule change.

No, no favouritism. The whole AFL refereeing & tribunal system is corrupted, in the sense of damaged, warped. Without clear direction from the top, they just drift form mini-crisis to mini-crisis and don't even seem to notice. The reporters & journos are either jumped-up fanboys, or compromised & beholden to their masters, so no real scrutiny or accountability. I'm not following. Is there a problem? THIS WEEK IN AFL SURVIVOR: WHO WILL BE VOTED OUT OF THE HUB? AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE THE DRAMA AT THE CAPTAINS' DINNER PARTY

They should do it, not because it will cut any mustard with the tribunal, but because it will be reported in the papers and embarrass the useless umpiring department.

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That it is not a sporting competition. That it is an entertainment experience. "Survivor AFL." "AFL's Got Talent." "Goalkicking With The Stars." "My Midfield Rules." The integrity and manipulation and favouritism is along the line of any reality show.

Who can forget the mental gymnastics to get Ablett Jr off, twice in a row?

Various teams are coached to go to ground when tackled as they know 99 times out of 100 the umps will call for a ball up instead of holding the ball. Especially if the ball is held to them, and it doesn't particularly matter who's doing the holding.

I'M SPARTACUS

I bet some actual coaches, such as Neeld, Bolton, Leppitsch, etc, sounded awesome when talking about numbers and strategy.

Jesus Christ that would have to be the worst spectacle of football since round 11 Melb v Fitzroy 1981 Our players can't handle the ball Can't kick it to each other Can't catch it if they do Do our players think their teammates are 3 metres tall? Why every handpass over their heads? And again, why does every opposition team find time and space when they have the pill, but we're always always always under the pump? So many players went missing it was like playing 3 men short AFC using the tried and true method of defeating the MFC. And again we had no counter for it, other than to hope AFC are worse than us. (Spoiler: they are.) The umpiring. Let's not go into the usual weekly inexplicable decisions, the non-decisions, etc. AFC were under obvious instructions to rough us up, scrag, hold, and ... the umps let them. In a way the joke was on AFC as I was waiting for the evener-uppers in the last quarter. Sure enough, they came and we got goals from them. On the plus side, Jackson starting to find his feet.

When did you start composing this opus?

This is like when you're looking for your sunglasses and eventually someone says "they're on your head!" No wonder Goodwin can't find the problem.

In these bleak times, we can still take enjoyment from Collingwood losing a match they should have won.

Purely me surmising .... reading between the lines if you will. I have no inside knowledge whatsoever, but I do get concerned by things I see and hear about being stats-driven, which to me is the tail wagging the dog. Cargo cult science.

Or they were put in place against his "better judgement" at his assistants' urging, only for Goodwin to dismantle them at the first sign of imperfection. "Your fancy new system saw us outscored in one quarter ... plainly it's b*llsh*t." Or "yeah, that's all good on paper, and we're winning games, but let's just try going back to ferocious attack on the ball ... you know, our brand?" The infamous head rub of Jennings may have revealed the dynamic.

Give us credit for thinking outside the square. We hire assistants who barrack for other clubs and have never played in the position they're coaching.

I can't see Port scoring anything tonight

We play "our brand", meaning manic attack on the footy. That's it. Regardless of the opposition. When it works it's overwhelming. But it's been worked out and is easily thwarted. When it's not working Goodwin doubles down on playing "our brand" with even more intensity. It's like a snooker player saying "if I clear the table every time, the other bloke can't get a look-in". It's like a tennis player saying "if I just serve aces every time my opponent won't be able to score." Not serving aces? Try even harder to serve aces every time. Still not serving aces? Try even harder! Rinse and repeat while plummeting down the world rankings chart.

This is the broken record we encounter every week. Every coach has studied our "game plan". Whereas our coaches appear to know nothing about the opposition. Every coach comes up with some strategy to thwart us. Our coaches are bewildered every time and have no answer. When was the last time our coaches did a number on the opposition, strategy-wise? Our coaches have had their pants pulled down so many times they might as well donate them to the Salvos. They're so used to going around bare-arsed.

Some Titus to help with the grieving process.

Harsh. If we'd been playing 20 minute quarters, there's every chance we'd have scored 5 goals too

It's always possible that the team NicNat plays for knows what they're doing and their coach has them playing something more sophisticated than AusKick level.

There was a rock opera about a kid called Tommy who was deaf dumb and blind. After all these years ... could The Who have made it about the wrong MFC personality?