whatwhat say what

Premier: Richmond Runner-up: Footscray Wooden spoon: North Melbourne Moving up: Footscray Set to fall: Filth Brownlow Medal: Macrae Coleman Medal: Lynch (tiggas) NAB AFL Rising Star: Matt Rowell Best new Demon: Ben Brown (once he gets on the park) Demon All Australian: Gawn, Oliver in the side, plus Trac, May, and Lever in the squad Demon B&F: Oliver Big call: Oliver and Petracca sign extensions announced in the lead-up to Queen's Birthday, Salem leaves as a free agent Ladder prediction: 1. Richmond 2. Footscray 3. Port 4. Bears 5. Geelong 6. Us 7. Aints 8. Meth Coke

what?!?? is that for real?

according to afl site, pickett will definitely play, as will may, salem, brayshaw, and oliver - no mention of hibberd which i guess puts jetta back in the starting side frame, and the general 'vibe' seems to be that jordon will debut... B: Jetta - May - Lever HB: Hunt - Tomlinson - Rivers C: Langdon - Petracca - Salem HF: Jones - McDonald - Neal-Bullen F: Fritsch - Jackson - Pickett Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes I/c: Spargo - Brayshaw - Jordon - Baker Med sub: Chandler Emerg: vandenBerg - Sparrow - Petty

i went in at 10am yesterday and got 4 afl member tix with no dramas on level 2 in afl members, which is my 'traditional' preferred spot any idea re crowd expectation at this point in time?

afl level opponents > vfl level opponents

there's very little difference between where we sit in 7th (experience of 70 games per player) and 6th (average age of 24.6) and fremantle (14th with 58.2 games per player) and brisbane (15th with 23.9) for instance, there's a bigger average discrepancy from 1st in average games played (geelong with 88) and 7th (melbourne with 70) than there is us in 7th and 18th (gold coast with 53)

other than a home final, presumably? at the moment bears are 3rd, crows are 4th - would much rather be at home at casey than having to travel interstate - particularly as it would likely be 'same day travel as play' situation

this is true, but i also think daniel's relatively quiet second half - at least compared to the first - was because they were winning the ball at the contest rather than executing slingshot from half-back for all of daniel's influence for footscray in the back half in quarters 1 and 2 it wasn't necessarily reflected on the scoreboard (in no small part due to their inaccuracy)

i think the big q for me is when can you 'activate' the sub - is it for the 20 mins that it takes to go thru the concussion protocol testing or only after that?

what i'm expecting: B: Hibberd - May - Lever HB: Hunt - Tomlinson - Rivers C: Langdon - Petracca - Salem HF: Jones - McDonald - Neal-Bullen F: Fritsch - Jackson - Pickett Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes I/c: Spargo - Brayshaw - Bowey - Jordon Conc sub: Baker Emerg: vandenBerg - Petty - Chandler - Jetta what my mfcss tells me: B: Jetta - Petty - Lever HB: Hunt - Tomlinson - Rivers C: Langdon - Petracca - Neal-Bullen HF: Jones - McDonald - Spargo F: Fritsch - Jackson - Chandler Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes I/c: Bowey - Jordon - Sparrow - Baker Conc sub: vandenBerg Emerg: Bedford - Laurie - Rosman - Smith

$75 for the t-shirt simon day wore in the "don't go now" clip is a bit steep

velvet sledgehammer loves to tell the story about when big al came to him at the start of the 2000 grand final he said 'fantastic, been waiting for this match-up' or words to that effect four goals in a 10 goal premiership...that's almost under par for lloyd ultimately

that forward line looks better than what our prospective rd 1, 2021 one is looking like

if majak is match-ready, i'm actually not opposed to playing both - t mac spent the whole summer, or at least the first two-thirds of it, training to play the wing... round 1, maybe? B: Rivers - May - Lever HB: Hunt - Tomlinson - Salem C: Langdon - Petracca - McDonald HF: Fritsch - Jackson - Neal-Bullen F: Chandler - Daw - Pickett Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes I/c: Spargo - Brayshaw - Hibberd - vandenBerg Emerg: Bowey - Laurie - Baker - Petty if they play brayshaw they play hibberd and i expect avb to be picked too; you'd presume as long as they got thru a game and a half of competitive football, even at vfl level, they will be picked as they're important to the way we want to play i'm pretty worried about taking all three of them, plus an underdone pickett and a hamstrung salem, into the game - but i'd prefer them to any of the players i've got in the emergency line - we tend to debut a player in rd 1 and bowey seems the likely candidate if one of salem or hibberd don't get up i expect they'll back in tomlinson to keep 'playing his role' - he's the obvious candidate for demonland 'whipping boy' in 2021 - but i'm hoping petty can take the role the likes of astbury plays for the tigers for us longer term

i wonder whether the game was moved forward to friday night given the weather forecast for tomorrow

footyology is a fun listen but my god those two let their bias show

you'd think so i imagine that the numbers for the pre-season competition were a bit of a surprise given that they expected them to be chockers; most that went was about 10,000, i think, of a max of 25,000 it's going to be interesting to see what happens on tuesday; i still can't believe that the afl is doing all reserve tix for afl / club at essentially the same time; ticketek / ticketmaster will definitely melt down

heard some talk today that mcg crowd expectation is, at this stage, as low as 25k - i.e. half the max capacity interestingly, the tiggas v carlton game expectation is expected to be under 40k - i would be amazed if it wasn't much, much closer to 50k

Broken chest bone, out for 10-22 weeks* *was my MFCSS assessment upon hearing it was a chest injury

peptide-powered

I actually read this the other way around; the glass half full look is that Majak is there is everything goes horrifically badly and our prime key forward / back / ruck options are injured or horrifically out of form Oh...wait...

errr, no - category a rookie at the tiggas they were always likely to sign him up

based on what we've seen thus far, i think they'll rush brayshaw and pickett back - prematurely imo - in order to have another big inside mid and a small forward who has genuine pace, but i can't see the likes of viney, hibberd, or melksham being good to go...and if may isn't okay for round 1 we might be in a spot of bother... B: Rivers - May - Lever HB: Hunt - Tomlinson - Salem C: Langdon - Petracca - Neal-Bullen HF: Fritsch - McDonald - Jones F: Chandler - Jackson - Pickett Foll: Gawn - Oliver - Harmes I/c: Spargo - Brayshaw - Bowey - Baker Emerg: Jordon - Sparrow - Petty - Jetta

yeah, but it's relative - 2018 is looking pretty light on talent-wise some two years on outside the majority of the top 10 - which we traded out of to land may, kk, and sparrow - and a handful of players beyond that, it's hardly a super impressive crop

being sarcastic? one was pick 27, the other was 33 - hardly high end picks not many from outside the top 10 of the 2018 draft have really cemented their roles at clubs as yet