Mazer Rackham

This is what it means to be an unfashionable (losing) team. But we don't want to be begging for pats on the head from the likes of Brown anyway. Victories on the field are the only things that count.

Can I go on radio and say whatever i want, however obnoxious? No, I can't ... there are consequences. TV? No. Newspapers? No. Somehow the internet has grown up with the idea that you can say anything, without consequence. With few exceptions, that holds. Just look at the sewers of twitter & ****book. Anytime someone says "that isn't healthy for society, why don't we look at that?", along come the shouts of CENSORSHIP!!! But censorship is really about stopping me saying "XYZ political party is awful", or "all drugs should be FREE", etc. It's repressive, not protective. Why should the internet be exempt from basic standards of decency and ethical behaviour? What we're really talking about is not censorship, but regulation to save people from themselves, and other people from their recklessness: the online equivalent of shouting "FIRE!" in a cinema. Of course there is a cost, and Twitter and ****book don't want to pay the $$$$ that would require actual human moderators. They'd rather tread water with "algorithms" which superficially treat the problem, until the next inevitable outrage. Allowing people to bring out their worst, in the most ill-disciplined way, is an assault on society, and the ****books have a lot to answer for.

I don't think so; they're facets of the same issue. A censure of the culprit at the time would have a sent a strong message to the nuffies to either (better option) reconsider their thinking, or (least worst case) bury it so as not to encourage others. Maybe then Harley could have kicked his very emotional goal without having some cretin spoil it with a message broadcast around the world.

Sorry, this is not correct. If you mean it's only an "issue" (meaning grappling with it) in Western societies, you may be on to something. But "racism" is rampant around the world, including in Asia, Middle East, Baltic/Salvic countries ... plenty that wouldn't be considered "Western" ... the "not like us" impulse is powerful and universal, and if it's only Western societies that take issue with it, well, more power to them. It's a start. NOTE: on re-reading your original post, I mis-characterised your take. I understand that you see that racism is rampant around the globe.

The AFL have really led from the front on this, and are not afraid to make examples of high profile people to make a point. If someone with a high profile, closely connected to the AFL, were (say on broadcast radio) to compare a player or ex-player to a giant ape, for example, then they would come down so hard and fast that ............................ hmm, let me rethink that one. That is the great imponderable. I had thought for years that individuals that people could admire, like Muhammad Ali, Viv Richards ... Andrew McLeod ... Usain Bolt ... make up your own list ... would help afflicted individuals learn that they can respect people who are "not like them", but unfortunately, I have had to conclude that there is no helping some people. Which is a sad reflection on us as a society. I hope to be proved wrong one day. They have magicked themselves into a time and place where they can hold plenty of power, but they shirk all responsibility. Their recent pitiful rearguard actions are PR moves and in no way represent any move toward accountability, which is the last thing they want. The basic operating principle is greed.

That was from lipreading the coaches in the box

So, we showed a glimpse of what might be if we move it inside 50 with a bit more consideration. But Lord, all the polish has been chaos-ed out of this team. It's going to take a while.

The good news is, they already know. So no harm done.

Which flag is this? The white flag?

It is hard to believe. How many times have you seen fans at the ground, after a gutting loss, hang around chatting and laughing it up with oppo fans? Everyone has their heads down and just wants to get out of the joint.

This (ruck nomination) is an example of a rule change brought in to "fix" things which has not helped. All the while, squads of track and field athletes constantly dash on and off in relays to freshen up ready for another burst of rolling mauls. It's like having an infestation of ants and trying to cope by hiding the sugar. Get rid of the root problem first!

I think them being constantly in "frantic" mode is what leads to the poor (non-) decisions when going forward

It's just stupid enough to be true

"Your kicking looks poised and balanced, and usually goes right to one of our blokes. Check out our former captain over there, you could learn a lot from him."

Well how about this: Grimes won't get his hands on it much if we use randomness to our advantage. How about we randomly bomb it inside 50 as much as we can? He can't be everywhere! Not even our guys can know where it's going. Goody's masterstroke.

CLARKO LOVES US That's all the validation I need Now we can all get some sleep

5 weeks

When EFC couldn't wriggle out of their charge of "bringing the game into disrepute" (in the doping saga), they got to negotiate their penalty with the AFL. Some people who've gone before our courts wouldn't mind that kind of justice. "M'lud, my client has been found guilty and according to statute, he has to serve a minimum of 5 years, but he would really prefer to serve six months suspended." Judge: "Hmmm ... it's a fair point ..." Nothing new for the AFL to find ways to play favorites. Christ, the miracle would be is if they stopped finding ways to play favourites. I can imagine this "negotiation". Eddie: I'LL GO ON THE AIRWAVES EVERY DAY TEARING STRIPS OFF YOU Gil: But Eddie ... Eddie: DON'T YOU EDDIE ME, I'LL MAKE SURE THERE ARE ENTIRE EPISODES OF MILLIONAIRE WHERE EVERY QUESTION IS ABOUT HOW TERRIBLE THE AFL IS Gil: Oh all right Eddie ... you're frightening me ... you win ... Eddie: We're all mates here

There a simple way out of this ... increase the intensity of our attack on the ball, generate more inside fifties, and play chaos ball to the point where it looks like we were playing chess before.

Congratulations. You have discovered "coaching". May our football department have the same revelation. With a bit of luck they can progress to the next stage, "effective" game plan. So, actually a sound argument?

We marked time and waited until the off season to do anything about the glaring deficiencies in our game plan. It's debatable whether we have in fact done anything. Exceptionally well ... I wish I had your crystal ball. It's way too early to call.

I could have sworn we had at least half of 2019 to start to adapt. Don't tell me we just blindly kept forging on with the same one dimensional game plan whose counter was fully understood by all the other clubs? Oh well. I suppose we must start sometime. Maybe this week?

So in other words, we didn't try to fix our number one problem of bombing it long to an inept forward line, and instead brought in a type of player whereby we could bomb it in more frequently?

We know we can do this. We did it against Carlton, for a while. All the other clubs know we can do this. So they put their energy into working out how to stop us doing this. When it works, like Carlton did in the second half ... like Geelong for most of that match .... like WCE for most of that match .... we have no answer. No answer! Our players run around chasing tail, looking slow and clumsy because that's what teams that are behind look like. We seem to be blindsided by this astounding strategy of exploiting our lack of defensive pressure and our lack of foot skill, every week! All clubs have tremendous talent on their list. All teams will look a million dollars against no opposition. There's just this snag about being effective when you have some opposition, especially opposition who know what they're doing and are playing specifically to nullify your strengths and exploit your weaknesses. That's what's happening week in and week out, and if we could pick a team from Richmond's and WCE's players, within a month that team would look confused and inept, because our "game plan" is one dimensional and predictable.

Brendan Bolton found out the hard way, it's one thing to develop the kids ... but you have to WIN GAMES at the same time. You can't just tread water while waiting for things to happen. That roaring noise you end up hearing won't be the applause of the crowds, it will be the waterfall that the current is dragging you towards ...