Go Ds

Yep! I did mention that he mentioned Tracc. It wasnt like an acceptance speech at the Brownlow where you mention anyone and everyone. Gawn said he's close with both guys BUT Oliver lived with his family for months making that friendship just a little stronger. Maybe he's furious with Tracc. Maybe he's furious with Green & co for sacking Goody. But who knows. As annoying as it is hearing vetted stuff if he admitted the above about Tracc or Goody and we're 1-5 next year as always the media would tuck into Gawn and the team's morale/culture.

He won some BS award for most valuable tall sponsored by a company that sells tall timber. Everything's new at the club so hes excited about next year. We probably havent developed enough of our youth - if Geelong won the recent GF maybe 14 of their participants would be new premiership players. The league has talented ruckmen and ruckwork evolves. Gawn loves sports, especially cycling - all he can gain from it is improving fitness techniques. He's doing a lot of running at home. Wnen he retires he'll probably run a marathon. My final memory is that Trac and Oliver were such a big part of the club. He's still cloae with them, especially Oliver, but concedes they needed a new start. Hw hopes Oliver regains his form and wins a Brownlow. (So nice enough stuff but hardly "must-listen")

Yep, Exhibit A 🙂

A long enough interview - even with 3 minutes of blah blah blah from a sponsor. We all love Gawn but I get the feeling he's as well-trained as a politician to stay on message and never blurt anything out.

Our new coach until a few months ago was mainly considered a Geelong person. I'm guessing thus we'll play his old team twice, orbat least continue the yearly 'tradition' playing at Geelong with crowd hoping their team beat their former alumnus.

I tend to agree with those not desperately hoping for a soft draw. Admittedly sometimes due to harder matches the eighth best team comes tenth and watches the bottom team in the eight get a shellacking in their elimination final. Actually maybe that'd be better for Melbourne who I dont think will be a real contender next year. But for those that are the ones that are 8-3 against the top 8 sides is both better prepared and probably a better standard than those finalists who had less hard games and comparably are 3-6.

Yeah, that MF couldn't bring it. 😁

He just went round at Melton harness. He was 1.20 (for every dollar you bet you'd get a 20c profit ) , so very short. Maybe it was fitting but he only came 4th and never looked like winning.

It was also amusing that weeks after moving Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis on the Hawks recruited Mitchell Lewis.

Yes, and what if this was all psychological? If we fixed it all at the start of the last preseason maybe wirh better fitness we win a few more games and without the flakiness we win a few of those infuriating close games too. I don't know what to expect next year. But think about it - if a player (or players ) have a bad season and they go into the next season now free of the problems that plagued them and still with the same ability as from earlier years why wouldn't become a great player. Surely you've seen players across the league return to their old form before? Tex Walker and Cripps are two obvious recent examples.

Its not so cut and dry. In the previous month Geelong had beaten the Saints by 5 goals and Freo , Hawks and Sydney had won by smaller margins (and GWS beat them by 2 goals a month later.) If Melbourne could just stop the momentum, say, with 5 mins of nothing followed by a goal re-establishing a four-goal margin we realistically win that game by five goals and do as well or better than many good sides did in the same stretch of the year. I guess we'll never really know but if this season's biggest problem was psychological stuff then maybe without that we win lots of the close games, built up confidence, make the finals and go on next year to be a team that occasionally jump from bottom of the eight to next year's premier.

St Kilda's gone nowhere in the last two years. In that time Lyon's aura has completely fallen away. The brownie points for a few close grand finals dont last forever.

Because there are so many variables in 100 plus minutes of a match it's hard to know the effect of rules changes until theyre put into practice. They wont all turn out perfect but I'm happy with all these changes. The sport can always be improved and it's not like there's 77 changes or suddenly there's 14 a side. I cant see any of these changes being illogical or changing the fabric of the game. So let's see if they'll make the game slightly better.

Ummm, I think there will always be exceptions to a rule and errors. Most of the time a kick with enough force to go thirty metres will do something like deflect or be obvious as it is seen or heard contacting the opponent's arm/ hand. BTW if you've kicked the ball thirty metres without the opponent affecting the kick's trajectory or direction doesnt that mean the k miskicked ball was always gonna end up too close to the boundary line anyway? I love the way players can deliberately handball it into an opponents legs no differenly to the skills of blind turns, dodges and selling candy (and soccer-style nutmegs). Wheter a skilled player made an opponent kick the ball out this way last year or next Im very happy with such skill and guile.

But they DO get special treatment. They get booed. They get racist comments on social media and quite likely there's a bit of racism at some clubs (even if the Hawthorn accusations turn out to be close to nothing and even if most is subtle.) If players are so connected to their community and local surrounds that they cannot cope living numerous months a year elsewhere such as in inner Melbourne then fine. But if potential indigenous players are getting warned how difficult it is from previous ones surely that's a problem. And honestly I loved that clubs tried to find footballers in the British Isles (hello Stynes and Wight) and have tried to convert guys with a basketball background and then even find Mason Cox in the US. Just as long as the 30th to 34th best youngsters in the country are not missing out on draft spots. Clearly theyre not! If some extra rookie spots end up getting in some future stars whose talent would never have otherwise been realised I can't see how that can be undesirable.

What part? Can you explain why numbers of indigenous players are dropping over time? I think the clubs are so focused on success I doubt their attitudes have had lesser players on their books (or the reverse.) So what's changed? You think it's a coincidence?

I just found the 2003 Cox Plate. Bryan Martin actually firstly says "You've done it!" on the line. What's much more interesting is the exact namesake who rode the horse! Maybe it's an omen that in just his second ride the horse went from good to one of the best. Then again the jockey's nowhere as tall as a certain (former) ruckman who we're all really excited about for next year! 😉😉😉 https://youtu.be/hVO1JJMTtII?si=74ZtvOcRriVvUcDK

Hmm, for a pointless thread there's certainly enough posts to suggest otherwise. And Ghost Who Walks' post is atrocious. Why are less and less Indigenous players recently entering into the AFL? Not everyone of them has the same tragic backstory as Jurrah nor will all of them have crippling homesickness. I hope we're not missing out on some amazing talent (and proportionately there seem to be many that are so exciting to watch.)

It potentially would have been a good question but i doubt I'd find that many namesakes. (I'm sure there's a lot more than we realise but the John Smiths and Tom Browns would probably be only slightly famous and a player such as Ricky Nixon would be dead giveaways.) We had Bryan Martin. I just heard on the UK's Chase that a Jeremy Howe is a big producer. Of course speaking of Collingwood player it's possible Eddie Everywhere met his fellow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire host in the UK and told him how one of his players is also called Chris Tarrant. Mark Lee was both a player for Richmond and the same era played Mel Gibson's best mate in Gallipoli. Mark Maclure is almost another. But while the same spoken it's something like Mark Mcclure for Jimmy Olsen (in Christopher Reeve's Superman) Any others? It's amusing how Cameron Smith is a famous Storm player, but now the world instead would think of Aussie golfer Cameron Smith. (And two Steve Smiths have played cricket for Australia.) But who have I forgotten fron our great game?

Woohoo! I no longer feel stupid. League is okay ish but I can't get more than a passing interest in it. (Geez, there's already 18 hours of AFL more or less on the same weekends as NRL is on! 🙄) I must say I cant read the name Bryan Martin without thinking of the racecaller with the exact same name. Probably most famously he was calling a Cox Plate in which he part-owned an outsider. The horse, Fields Of Omagh , was leading in the straight and Martin called like a consummate professional showing no bias. At the line his horse had held on and won arguably the best race in the country. At that point he shouted out "he's done it!" and we were hearing the reaction of an owner. A few years later the horse won the race again.

Honestly this wouldn't be in the top 20 . 😂

Now there's a sentence i never thought I'd encounter! 😂