Skuit

Downing a vodka and shouting huzzah! every time Oliver Henry misses a shot . . .

It's also not a one-way street. I've noticed in the past that the MFC is one organisation to have acquired my data from a third party.

Fair comment. I base my contentions on very little other than being Adelaide-born and sticking with the Demons when the Crows came in (like many friends, at a very ripe age for poaching - but I also attended every Adelaide game and was a Footy Park member). I also have mad Rioli-connected Hawks family in Darwin, but know they would switch teams in an instant, especially if the team was indig-focussed. Having also lived up north, I would expect many locals to jump on board, and every footy-starved 'Mexican' to declare official second-team status.

For those questioning my ongoing support of and the viability of an NT team, here are my solid contentions; An Indigenous-led team will be underwitten by the fed and state governments, as a social mechanism. It will still attract massive sponsorship $$$, in a CSR respect (sorry Santos and INPEX). The locals will be more likely to switch allegiances or support the NT as a second team compared to Tas. Most of Australia will take up the dynamic (cliche) NT as a second team, inc. dinky memberships. Anyone who has ever watched footy up north will know it's not just a cliche. [censored] is exciting. A local team will unearth local hidden talent, adding to the AFL pool. See Jurrah x 10. The conditions are challenging, but it's not a big deal in winter. Just a bit slippery. Seriously. A new 25,000 seat stadium in the city will fill out every second week the team play at home. The same stadium can host other stuff and bring in people from SEAsia. Benefit NT. .................................. I'm a Norwood supporter, but would back an NT team before a third SA or WA team. An NT team would outperform GWS and GC on almost every metric in their first season, on and off field. Canberra? pfft. Darwin leans AFL but is fairly split with NRL. Start a team up there and watch the fans and kids gravitate. I have first-hand anecdotal evidence: my kid brother is 6ft.7 and build like the proverbial. He should be an AFL ruck already but is still [censored] around playing rugby.

You mean like other non-profit organisations? Also, it's the league which is non-profit. Commie alert: the bigger clubs help pay the way for the smaller ones. And I don't think the AFL is at any immediate risk of going broke. The commission are caretakers of the sport in Australia. It should be on them to manage the balance between the commercial aspects while growing the competition, with a focus on the latter including greater grassroots investment. Sustainability as to the competitive strength of the individual teams is another matter, but largely subjective. I'd wager most on here lament some supposed 90s glory days. Spectacle in one thing, but objectively the sport is played at a way higher level than in the 80s and 90s with far more professionalism. Many have already commented on the 'there but for the grace of God' nature of sending North to the bin, considering what we dished up for a long period.

Leave North alone (add Britney meme): they have a proud and boring history. Add Tas and then NT. Build a truly national sport and they will come.

I'm impressed the US has 32 teams, even though I expected they would have a few more around. Seems like a big country. What is this sustainability you talk about? The AFL is a non-profit sport: the biggest in the country.

I get your point. But I'm in full demonstone mode trying to work out where you plucked your example numbers from?

In the history of the MFC, we've won between 80 and 90 games against seven current teams. We have the opportunity to push Geelong off that list by the end of the year.

Just quietly: a player like Pickett you can't measure on available stats, but he's on the way to another 40-plus season (Cyril achieved that twice in his career). Fritta will also likely be in the top six or so for the Coleman by the end of the round. And Petracca is on track to once again claim the goal assists title.

Today I learned that Ralph Smith from Richmond doesn't get the Bobby Hill full-name treatment but is actually a bloke named Hugo. I'm still not sure about the umpire Mattstevic though.

It was a light blind-side gut-punch, maybe caught a rib, off the ball. Clarry went down and will get accused of overplaying it once again. But people don't appreciate that those hits to the mid-section can hurt if unexpected/unbraced. A couple people laughed at my previous post on the matter. I like contact football. There's nothing tough though about swinging an arm into anyone when they are just standing there. Deliberately punching someone should be an automatic suspension in my opinion, whatever the outcome. It's not related to football.

Intentional / low impact / body = fine. Meanwhile, if you did that to somebody in public, it would be considered assault.

Week in week out the AFL has another tribunal controversy to deal with as it attempts to address concussion issues and balance player safety with the contest. I'm quite torn, as I enjoy the heavier aspects of our sport, but recognise some of what went on in the past is not really okay. I don't enjoy the AFL's bumbling efforts at a fix but I also don't have a magic formula. The one thing though, no matter how inconsequential or not, Marlion Pickett should take at least a two-week break for striking Oliver. We can't get the other stuff right, but if the intent is there in a non-playing action, it should be an immediate suspension in my opinion.

We should probably just put him on the market now and pick up a key forward from another team.

We've conceded six goals so far this season after the 26th-minute mark (including a dead one vs Port). Geelong have let through nine. We've also scored more late in quarters than we've lapsed.

The sliding doors are extra bigulous on this one, plus the random 2020 draft. We got done by Geelong though. They beat us to Isaac Smith, then jumped us in the draft for Holmes. So we looked to Rosman for wing2, then plugged, first with Hunter and now with Billings (also shout out to Gus). Got a flag, they got a flag. Lingers is a bit down since.

For the record, we defeated Brisbane toward the end of last year. In what would have been part of an 8-game winning streak heading into the finals were it not for a dodgy score review against Carlton.

Maybe you can enlighten. I've often wondered if your moniker relates to our disrupted six-peat as some sort of angst you've been holding onto for 65 years? Like the MFCSS version of long-Covid?

The MFC remained the only unbeaten team by the end of round seven, is what the tweet is trying to convey (I think, but didn't check the data). Confused things by adding 'so far' to the Geelong stat.

Can that dodgy earlier stat be cleared up somehow? By total average, Harry has in fact kicked a goal every three games across his entire career.

It was round 20 when he kicked 6. Was subbed out of the following game with two to his name. He has been returning from a tricky injury since.

Anecdotal evidence, but I think most of the hurling talent also grew up kicking a round ball. No less than Mason Cox and some Sudanese migrants for example. I also took to smacking a 'slither' quite naturally. For me, hurling more closely matches the multi-skill-set and vision and athleticism required for AFL than what Gaelic footy does. My take.

On a basic level we're now competing with 17 other clubs for the signature of maybe one or two players a year. There's also valid reasons why those guys might prefer to be based in Brisbane or Geelong, and go to clubs which already have Irish accents on the list. There are also costs/risks involved and the talent likely has less exposure by coming over at a younger age. How many absolute Irish gems have been found since Stynes, compared to plucked from local/other sports? Where I think clubs might be missing a trick though, if they haven't been doing so already, is in scouring the hurling stocks. It's a dynamic, multi-skilled sport that I think translates well to the AFL.

I've been a bit bored watching the footy since the departures of Fitzy and Frost. Thinking the Kolt might fill that chaos gap but with a bit more competence. Hopefully we can now accommodate a square peg.