Gawndy the Great

i hate injuries - have suffered from them in one sort of form or other whole of my life. Feels a bit like Glass Man from Unbreakable in comparison to some of my mates who have had relatively injury free lives. Now, its the long chapter of degenerative type injuries, which unfortunately nothing can fully fix.

We are truely a scary proposition and will be better in 2022. i think the Doggies are the only team who can challenge us. Port are pretenders and the Lions don’t have the talent to match us.

Not sure non one-eyed supporters would agree with you on every aspect of this. Still think Libba has Viney covered. Treloar is much better than Harmes and Smith is ahead of Brayshaw.

It is a curious topic. I think it is fair to say that whilst we were dominant in the finals, there are still a lot of footy fans that are less than convinced. A repeat in 2022 would probably put that to bed. Whilst the Doggies probably edge us out in their midfield depth (Bont, Macrae, Libba, Dunkley, Treloar, Hunter, Smith), they lack a major weapon in the ruck department and we have two of them in Max and LJ. So overall, the Demons probably have the better total midfield setup. Max's prelim was a performance for the ages - it will be talked about for the years to come. If we take Cox as the best modern ruckman, Gawn is probably just on top in terms of the quality of his performance (leads in average Hit outs, Disposals, Inside 50s, Clearances) but with almost half the amount of games played in comparison to Cox (he is about 140 games shy of Cox's 290) the quantity of his quality performances falls dramatically short. I do wonder how many games Gawn has left in him though - he should get over 200 easily (currently at 159) but not sure whether he will get to the 250 milestone (would require another 4 seasons of footy) and at 29, while it is certainly possible, would require a relatively injury free run. If he gets to the 250 mark, and is able to maintain his form to within 10-20% and snag another premiership, then i think Gawn will be able to have that title with some distinction. Anything short of that, will then be a matter of perspective and opinion.

Cant question that logic Binman..solid game plan.

I still think we will make revenue from gate receipts but you have to look at our draw and say that the AFL didn't give us the well deserved opportunity to maximize this revenue stream. Perhaps its a compromise given the commercial arrangements in place with NT - who knows. Then there is the white elephant in COVID and restrictions/lockdowns that will loom over 2022. On Sponsorships - i doubt they would be setup that way. Usually you will setup tiered sponsor packages that will entitle the sponsor to things like Guernsey sponsor placements, access to AFL players etc for a specified cost. I'm not in the business of marketing so dont hold me to it but what you explained is more or less a performance based contract, where the contracting entity is willing to payout incentives for services rendered.

How is that commercially great? 30K at the G is where you break even - probably even more now given COVID. Prime time is only good for our sponsors - we don't get any added revenue unless 1) we have sponsorship agreements which taken this into account (doubtful) or 2) we show up at the gate and with what others have already said already the number of interstates teams we have as home games will reduce the potential crowd in attendance and hence, revenue will be less than what should have been for the premiership side. I'm not complaining about the difficulty of the draw. It should be the most difficult IMO - in terms of the teams we play - as we are the number 1 team.

if i was Gary Pert, i would be seething. This is not a good draw from a commercial perspective (Thu/Fri night footy) or from a general week-to-week proposition given we just won the GF - i dont know what else we need to proove. We play entertaining football. I don't mind playing the top teams twice - its only fair given we have 23 rounds with 18 teams. But to get WC and Geelong away yet again is farcical. WC doesnt phase me as it once has, but the Cattery is a hard place to win. We also don't play at our home ground for 5 consecutive weeks and have yet another final round game away. Seriously WTF.

If all the talk of culture, selflessness, playing for each other is true, then I think the core playing group (best 10-15 players) will do whatever is necessary to stick together to win more premierships- even it means restructuring deals (i.e. Maxy and TMac) to take under what they are worth. Hopefully they also realise that the opportunity that MFC has right in front of them doesn't come around all to often for clubs let alone players and that they are immensely lucky to be part of this current generation.

The point of this type of training - called interval training - is to build your body's tolerance to higher intensity activity -or to look it another way maximize the output of your body. An example is if you were to run 10km today at a pace of 6 km / min with an avg heart rate of 150 bpm it will take you 60 mins. Interval training will allow you to run more efficiently so you can either run faster whilst maintaining the same heart rate OR run at the same pace but your heart will work more efficiently in effect reducing your heart rate to say 140 bpm. It also has the ability to reduce you heart rate recovery, which means your heart rate can normalise quicker, allowing your blood pressure to return to normal. You can think of your heart rate as the overall output measure of your body. The higher it is for longer, the more taxing it is and you will fatigue quicker.

That is enviable. Im 41 and my best 5km was ~25 minutes. Didnt get to do much interval training as my back and knees finally caved... Now its just walking!

Yep if otherwise fit and no vascular related concerns, then you just need to ensure you maintain electrolyte balances and are well hydrated. Still it is something you work up to and perhaps Lever went too hard too early. But he will be better for it no doubt!

Only risk is the lure of basketball. Pays better and has the potential of representing country.

i remember hearing Burgess last season or the one before that, saying that heat was our friend - the hotter the better. Obviously you want the heat training to be controlled, but it has been proven in sports science that this type of training can be extremely beneficial to fitness and performance.

That is hardly a collapse. That happens to me every time I get up off the couch after a few beers.

Enjoyed it thoroughly. The tribute to Neale was fantastic and fitting. Would have loved to see the players get a bit more involved in the day though. Could have had them and the coaching staff comment on key moments throughout the replay, a few fun competitions etc. Cant wait for 2021.

Improvements i would like to see is putting to bed the games we should win by a 6+ goal margin and not just stumbling across the line. We could probably improve our stoppage game including structures, clearances and improving the cohesion with Gawny's tap work and LJ's alternative influences. We still had a few games where we were missing for large chunks of a quarter (Lions, Cats R23, Doggies 2nd encounter + GF, Hawks, Crows etc) - now it is inevitable that this will happen, but to respond quicker and not to let 2-3 goals consecutively turn into a 1-1.5 quarters of MIA. These are really grasping at straws when it comes to improvements, but a pillar of successful, high performing teams is continuous improvement. Oh, and the last area is Goodies pressers. Need to change the narrative a little there i think :)

it is just an example - a real life experiment performed live on social media. independent from all the govt sanctioned studies, where the same result was achieved. How is that surprising?

100% there was a lab technician (works in covid testing labs) that did a social media video and was posted across various platforms, where he tested his antibody levels from immediately after to 6 months after the Pfizer double shot. it was legit as far as i could tell - which isn't saying much. When compared against somebody (else) which had Covid (without being vaccinated) , his mRNA induced immunity at month 6 was still double what the natural immune response of said person. There are plenty of studies that will back this up and im still surprised that people are shocked when i tell them this, thinking that natural immunity = mRNA induced immunity.

I like Adelaide too. They have a hard working midfield. They are similar to the Doggies in that they can attack and score but equally can be scored against heavily. They put a lot of speed on the ball, which makes for a great spectacle when it works. However the Taylor Walker situation is a big mess and it may impact them coming into next year as he was a focal point in the f50. Not sure whether he plays in the first quarter/half of the season either.

This is sooo wrong. I reckon Cats and Tigers are on the edge of a massive cliff - Geelong moreso. Will it finally giveway this year, who knows but the Giants are sneaky top 4 in my book. All they need is a good run with injuries and they will be a force to contend with.

I think a large chunk of players in the AFL are largely inseparable in talent. Put in a good system with well defined roles and limit individualism and you have the makings of a successful team. You just have to look at the difference in us from the past 2 seasons. We couldn’t kick, score or defend. Now we are the masters of all 3. I think Dunstable will thrive in our environment and he has a point to prove so effort and commitment will not be in question.

Even with the push in the back there is a line. And I think the JJ one was a definite one. But having a rule such as this open to interpretation is why we will have these issues forever and a day.

Finally picked up a blue-ray edition of the 2021 Grand Final. After at least 4 weeks of not watching the grand final, it was so refreshing to watch it again. My better half was amazed that after so long that a yelp (or two) and the odd fist pump were on display. I haven't bothered to trawl through the pages of discussion since i last visited this topic and I'm sure it has been discussed to death, but wanted to share a few things that were apparent to me this time around. 1. Alex Neal-Bullen had such an impressive game. The big-time players have all been well documented (Trac, Oliver, Brayshaw, Fritsch, Salem and LJ) But ANB had 25+ disposals and just seemed to be everywhere, with his gut running, score involvements and defensive pressure. I for one commend him as i would have been leading the pack to have him dispelled a few years back. Happy to swallow my pride on that one and am so glad he is playing for us. Most happy with his decision making inside 50. 2. Umpiring. Whilst i will caveat this with the fact that we had the upper hand in umpiring decisions, and that in general the umpiring was good, there were several decisions (or non-decisions) that, in the moment could have had a major impact on the game. The four that were most apparent and during the most critical points in the game that I noticed were: a. Gawns point (looked a goal) b. Hunters ducking free (resulted in a Doggies Goal) c. Harmes & Kozzy high contact inside 20m in front of our goal - non decision d. Johannison push in the back on Doggies goal line (resulted in Doggies goal) 3. First time i watched the post game celebrations with attention to detail and can confirm Basil is an absolute a-grade [censored].

Why would we do that? Best case is saints finish last and that pick would only give us 55 without any fs or nga bids. Doesn’t make sense