Gawndy the Great

I saw this or another report on Channel 7. I maybe mistaken but I recall Ch7 saying that 20 or so MFC players/staff were away from training due to covid. Must have misheard because there has been nothing officially or anything on here either. Can anyone confirm?

I really like this bloke. So personable and easy to relate to. We are really spoilt for choice. We can manage an injury in just about every line atm but let’s hope for another healthy season. May is really the only player that has soft tissue vulnerabilities in backline but you could argue that his hammy in the finals was more a result of the push than anything else.

I think it is. I heard the commentary mention one of the players was raised in Parkdale - It caught my attention because I went to Parkdale Secondary College. I’m pretty sure they were talking about Boland at the time as he was bowling.

Is it to early to say that this will fall way short of the mark w.r.t consistency, the MRPs role and current operator and the whole bloody system which is ripe with inequity and favoritism? I still think the MRP matrix needs be clarified w.r.t the impact. It needs to have a category which covers the scenario where the player is injured and can no longer be part of the game - so impact grades can be low/medium/high (used when no actual injury has occurred) and critical (which is where injury has actually occurred). So if you bump someone off the ball and they are not injured or concussed, then its one of low/medium/high. If they are injured and need to be subbed out of the game, then it is automatic critical and that is 120% of impact= high or something to that effect. Or completely remove the 'actual' injury or lack thereof out of the equation, so if you elect to bump off the ball and head contact is made, irrespective of injury, automatic 2 week suspension. The more black and white this can be, the better for all (except the media and ensuing news cycle of course)

He did have a solid year, which was capped off by a phenomenal GF. Unfortunately that doesn’t count towards to the B&F… or does it?

Agreed - I was trying to Shazam it to find the artist and album but was unsuccessful which makes me think it maybe a live band.

There is also an espntv link that requires an account (and credit card) http://espn24tv.com/best-and-fairest/ From the 20ms I can see from the live feed before the login prompt pops up, it seems like nobody is sitting yet.

Just on loop. Waiting for the thing to start. Running late or tech difficulties?

Hard to see anybody take this away from Oliver. 1. Oliver 2. Trac 3. May 4. Salem 5. Gawn Norm Smith Memorial Trophy (most consistent): Its a hard one, but probably Oliver takes this as well? Ron Barassi Jnr Trophy (best leadership): Lever (assuming Gawn is not applicable as Captain?) Harold Ball Memorial Trophy (best young talent): Hard to go past Bowey Ian Ridley Memorial Trophy (community work) : Hard to know this one - presume Jetts still doing the good stuff. James McDonald Trophy (Melbourne spirt): Going out on a limb here to say ANB as the ultimate role player who was able to turn back from the 'abyss of delistment' and forge himself as premier small forward.

Rankine is an absolute jet. Is already a top performing small forward but also has the potential to become an elite midfielder. Hard to say what has caused his stagnation, but i think a lot of player development issues exist at Gold Coast. Remember when Rowell exploded onto the scene in his first 3-4 games before he did his shoulder? Since coming back has really just faded in obscurity.

Experts predicting 25K+ new cases per day by the end of Jan. If i have understood that number to be correct, undoubtedly we can expect a major impact on the AFL Footy season. Im going out on a limb and predicting that the team that manages to avoid COVID the most (luck) will probably end up with the premiership. I do hope that the AFL does introduce some common sense principles into whether games go ahead or not - something in the ball park of 5-10 of the starting 22 (missing due to a positive covid test) would be reasonable but how they make a fixture work with more forfeited games will be tough.

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.