Accepting Mediocrity

Two Sheds, I raised a glass for you tonight mate. I remember first reading this thread as an 18 year old like it was yesterday. I never even met you, but I’ve always tried to live by the courage and strength of character you showed here. It’s lived with me ever since and I’ve never forgotten it. Rest easy mate. Go dees.

I'm sorry Ms Jackson!

That guy is rugby league level stupid.

This gets repeated all the time and it's complete bollocks. Since 2000: Neale, Tom Mitchell, Dusty, Danger, Fyfe, Sam Mitchell, Swan, Ablett, Bartel, Goodes x2, Cousins, Buckley, Aker, Black, Woewodin all won brownlows in top 4 sides. Winning games >>>> teammates stealing votes.

Logic agrees with you, but history doesn't. Aker/ Voss/ Black; Judd/Cousins/Kerr; Ablett/ Bartel; Mitchell/ Hodge; Swan/ Pendlebury; Fyfe/ Mundy; Danger/ Selwood, etc. Not many Brownlows get won by good players in bad sides (Fyfe the only recent exception). The winner almost always comes from a team that wins 15+ games. Bont, Oliver and Wines will be a clear top 3 I reckon.

2020: we need a vaccine, fast! 2021: whoa, not that fast.

Not sure what's worse - the content of the OP, or the use of comic sans font. Get around us!

Unpopular opinion maybe but I don't think Franklin would be undeserving. He's ranked equal second for goals per game - you could make a strong case that he's been the second best tall forward after Hawkins. Unlike McKay, he actually does something when the ball is on the ground. Missing 6 games is really the only thing counting against him. The guy is a dead set freak.

I'd have both Charlie Cameron and Greene in the side - Greene's pretty much an automatic selection, and I think Cameron has been the best genuine small forward for the year. He's been a tad inconsistent but 47 goals is a fair effort.

Sadly I can't see it happening. I suspect it will be vaccination targets rather than case numbers that dictate when restrictions ease. Looking like early November at this stage.

You might well be right. I can't see Miller not making it though - he has been huge. I prefer Steele over Parish. Parish had a purple patch mid year, and his best is probably more eye-catching, but I think Steele has been more consistent. Walsh is another that would be unlucky to miss. Cameron has more goals and more tackles than Papley, so I think he gets in. I want a swans player in the side, but Hickey is behind Gawn and NicNat, and there have been better mids than Parker, Mills and Heeney. Buddy might be there best chance, but he's missed a lot of footy.

Gawn, Oliver, Petracca and Lever are certainties to make the 22. May probably 50/50 - Aliir and Andrews have been outstanding all year as well, and one of those 3 will miss out. Weitering has also been great in a terrible side. Charlie Cameron will take the small forward spot, but Kossie is a chance to make the squad. Fritsch probably doesn't do enough aside from kicking goals - not a knock on him, but he's probably competing with Greene who has been better. Salem will make the squad but probably wasn't good enough in the second half of the year to make the team. Some good players will miss out. I reckon it will look something like this: FB: Lever Andrews Stewart HB: Rich May Dale C: Merrett Oliver Macrae HF: Stringer Hawkins Petracca FF: Cameron McKay Greene Fol: Gawn Bontempelli Wines Int: Miller NicNat Steele Aliir

Why is everyone getting behind the saints? We're effectively 3 games clear of Port - we'd need to implode for them to take our spot in the top 4 from here. A qualifying/ prelim final against Port would be a best case scenario for us.

NSW removalists are the gold standard though.

Love your work Demonstone. I'll take the easy ones: James Morrison - the Doors Keith Richards - Stones Ray Davies - the Kinks Bryan Connolly - the Sweet Missing the Neil Young/ Gary Cowton link, and the centreline has me lost as well.

All good mate, every second email/ phone call is a scam these days. But the survey website is legit and there's no reason anyone would gain anything from making people do a survey. They're not collecting any personal info or anything like that. It was in the general discussion area as well - I presume it was moved to the main board to get more respondents. Seems to have worked in any case.

What motive could anyone possibly have to bother doing that? He/ she (or at least a poster also going by 'the academic') was inviting people to complete the survey on bigfooty (and presumably other footy forums) as well. Who knew, it's possible that footy forums are an ideal place to locate a bunch of people with an interest in AFL. Researcher: - Completes bachelor of science, achieves grades necessary to enter postgraduate research. - Completes honors/ masters thesis, develops expertise in field. Achieves results required to obtain PhD scholarship. - Undertakes PhD, commences novel research in field of expertise. - Develops expertise in survey design, data analysis, etc relating to field of research. - Completes PhD thesis, publishes results in peer-reviewed journals. - Results subject to rigorous and soul-destroying peer review process by rivals in the field. - Successfully procures funding to undertake further research via competitive grant application process. - Designs 5 minute survey on racism in the AFL based on well established survey methodology. Coal miner from Queensland who failed year 9 science: - Bull****!

I think it goes the other way more often, i.e. the best team isn't always the minor premier. E.g., last year Port and Brisbane finished 1 & 2, but both lost home prelims against better sides. Freo finished top in '15 but got belted by Hawthorn in a home prelim. Not too many flags have been won by sides that didn't have a genuine claim to being the best team of the year. Everyone brings up the dogs winning from 7th in '16, but they won 15 games, which would be top 4 in any other year, and they were top 2 for most of the season before injuries hit. Being top of the ladder doesn't make us the best team or flag favourites - we're favourites because at this (very early) stage, we've looked comfortably better than every other team in the top 8.

IMO there are 3 categories of players on our list. 1) The whipping boys: Serviceable bottom 6 players, that get for varying reasons get judged harshly by supporters regardless of how they actually perform. Always the first to get blamed after a loss. 2) MFC favourites: most players on the list belong in this category. We love them and won't hear a bad word said against them. 3) The underrated superstars: players like Gawn, who have been so damn good for so long that we take them for granted. We focus on their limitations and don't fully appreciate just how unbelievably good they are. These players are generally rated higher by opposition supports than our own. IMO Viney belongs in the third group.

Watching it live it was a blatant free to Lever. Watching the replay without the emotion, it was probably a 50-50. They never pay a free for blocking if the player doesn't take their eyes off the ball. Hipwood took his eyes off the ball for a split second, but he probably disguised it well enough to get away with it.

I rate Jake Niall, but that's a pretty questionable team. FB: Grimes Andrews Stewart HB: Dale May Rich C: McLuggage Oliver Walsh HF: Petracca Franklin Green FF: Walker McKay Pickett Fol: Naitanui Bontempelli (C) Macrae Int: Gawn (VC) Parish Lever Martin Grimes shouldn't even be in the squad currently, and there is no way he's starting 18 ahead of Lever, Weitering and Starcevich. Salem has had a quiet couple of weeks but he's still been the best medium defender by far. No way Franklin gets in having missed a third of the games. AMT has been a better small forward than Pickett to this point if we're being impartial. Naitanui as starting ruck over vice captain Gawn is a pss take, surely.

That might have worked once, but it makes zero sense in modern footy. The scenario you described probably plays out 80 times a game, it would be crazy to pay a free kick each time. Not to mention incredibly harsh on the person getting the footy.

John Hopoate has entered the chat.

I'd love to see it, and Christ knows we owe a few teams, but I think genuine thrashings only really happen these days when one team is badly off. I noticed that in 2019, Richmond had a massive win against GC, but other than that their next biggest margin was a regulation 7 goal win against us. No doubt we'll hit a team having an off day at some stage this year and pile on a big win. I'll join in the anti-BT chorus. It's not even the try-hard funny man charade that does it for me - it's the fact that he knows absolutely nothing about modern footy. The other week Darcy had to explain to him what an intercept mark was - he wasn't even playing the fool, he genuinely didn't know. The entire premise of modern game plans and he can't even grasp the most basic elements of it. It's excruciating. On another note, how good was James Brayshaw calling how lucky Lever was to not be penalised for HTB when he just managed to get boot to ball in a tackle - thanks to this weeks relaxed interpretation of the rule he reckoned. In 150 years of footy, I'm yet to see a player get pinged for HTB when they get a kick away.

Mate, our percentage is currently better than any minor premier since Sydney in 2016. The key to a healthy % is restricting opposition scores, not belting teams off the park. We're tracking fine.