Nasher

Spargo for Sparrow seems obvious to me.

I see Lever and TMac competing for the same spot.

Is Petty an automatic selection when available? He’s probably a better player than van Rooyen and Jefferson, but I want to see the latter pair get a run together.

What I’d do:

In: May, Spargo

Out: Lever, Sparrow

What I think will happen:

In: May, Spargo, Petty

Out: McDonald, Sparrow, Jefferson

2 minutes ago, Longsufferingnomore said:

My son was playing hockey for his school and was hit in the head by a hockey ball. This parent (me) flew down the hockey ground, coat flapping in the wind, nothing was going to stop me from being with him at that moment. He was lying still on the ground. I would do the same if he was playing on the MCG only slightly slower getting to him. I can imagine what Tommy's mother was feeling at the time worse because she couldn't be with him.

I spoke in a previous post of when I had a serious head injury - I was 8 at the time. According to my mum, the sight of me unconscious in a hospital bed was the one and only time my dad cried in the 25 years she knew him.

Swans season alive according to Derwayne. They’re three games and percentage out of the 8 with four games to play.

“Mathematically possible”, I guess. Them winning 4 on the trot and neither Bulldogs or Freo winning again seems fairly long odds.

Edit: it can be any two of Freo, Bulldogs, Hawthorn, Suns, GWS or Geelong to have to lose 4 on the trot, as well as Sydney going WWWW. Anyway, not happening.

6 minutes ago, binman said:

I don't think it was intentional either but i think collectively the sport needs to get its act together in what is ok on the field.

Reckless seems to be considered not such a big deal. Acccidental adjacent. Sure give him a few weeks, but it's not as if he meant it, yada yada yada.

Mooney's response in commentary was that sort of vibe. He'll get weeks, but geez he's a bit unlucky. A football act.

But reckless is a not accidental. And its not unlucky.

It is defined as 'acting without regard for potential consequences or dangers, often characterized by carelessness and a lack of caution.'

And that exactly describes Xerri's action.

The ball was at Sparrow's feet when he was struck. Xerri got nowhere the ball. And in doing so he showed no regard to the potential consequences of swimg on a closed fist in the vicinity of an opponents head.

And dees fans know full well how serious the consequences can be.

Tragically so do Pies and Eagles fans who have seen players in their team also have to retire because of concussion in the last two years.

We'll never eliminate the risk of concussion from footy, but if the AFL is serious about minimising the risk of an injury we know can cause LIFELONG damage then they need to get serious about penalising acts that show zero regard for potential consequences.

Four weeks is a total joke for that hit. Change it to six minimum and players might think twice before swinging a clenched in a way that could conceivably result in a player being struck to the head.

I agree with what you’re saying. Make reckless the same penalty as intentional is now, and make intentional immediate deregistration.

1 minute ago, Tom Dyson said:

Disagree Nash, Xerri is an old school enforcer type who likes to hurt people/throw his weight around.

Watching the footage back, it looks absolutely intentional, he lined him up from a couple of metres away and closed fist smashed him in the face.

You do that act outside a nightclub there are criminal consequences.

It simply must be 7+ weeks.

I watched it again and think you’re right, it’s pretty hard to see what else he had in mind. I still don’t think the MRO will see it that way though.

I didn’t think the Xerri hit was intentional. I thought it was a reckless fist from a big unco bloke. In any case, it’s reckless/severe/high on the rating system which adds up to 4 weeks.

Just hope Sparrow recovers. Given that he still seemed to be lights out when he went off is not a good sign. I had a head injury like that as a child and it took months to come right. I’ll be surprised if we see him again this year.

19 minutes ago, adonski said:

IN: May, Windsor
OUT: Lever, Sparrow

Windsor played.

Staggered that we can’t find a place for TMac in the side. There has to be a role.

Sign Melksham for another three.

Has van Rooyen suddenly remembered how to play football? Clunking marks and nailing goals again. He’s been a pleasant surprise.

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Pray for my dog and my TV if we put up a poor showing.

Put the remote and your phone away and have a balled up pair of socks handy. Your TV will thank you.

19 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Can’t be nodding off on my flogger now can I?

Don’t talk about Mr Fritsch like that.

5 hours ago, Roost it far said:

Can you just run me through the players where a long term contract has backfired on the club, leaving out concussion as I think those terms will change again.

The Brisbane Bears poached Alastair Lynch from Fitzroy on a 10 year contract in 1993, way, way before long contracts were cool. I bet they were definitely spewing when in year 10 of 10, after 3 flags in a row and an illustrious career and with retirement imminent, he got rubbed out for 10 weeks for swinging hay makers at fresh air, supposedly aiming at Darryl Wakelin’s head.

44 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Luv kozzie great talent but will all these long contracts impact our ability to trade in talent eg free agents, impact to hang onto remaining talent due to less $$

How would one long contract be any different to signing him on shorter ones 3 times in a row?

If anything it gives more flexibility with restructuring it as required across the term to meet whatever our objectives are. Comfortable in the salary cap? Bring some of Kozzie’s contract forward. Need to free up some cap to land a big fish for a few years? Chuck some of Kozz’s money back a few years.

Obviously all that requires Kozzie to be amenable to those adjustments, but assuming like all footballers he’ll be motivated by wanting the team around him to be good as possible, and he makes bank either way. It’s not like only earning 700k instead of the full 1.4 or whatever for a time is going to stop him from putting food on the table.

On 15/02/2024 at 18:26, Whispering_Jack said:

First day at school a week or so ago …

Jeepers. This reminds me of the Billy Stretch thread.

Just now, dees189227 said:

Funny how he finds out stuff

Slash makes stuff up.

4 hours ago, Roost it far said:

It’s one of the most nothing incidents I’ve seen the media harp on about. Doesn’t matter if May said “you fffing moron, you always kick to me in those situations” It’s 2 blokes who are deeply frustrated at what just occurred, not only today but this season. We had them, we absolutely had them. I was filthy and I was just watching.

Exactly this. Given what we know about May he probably did give Max some harsh feedback that the big fella wasn’t quite ready to hear yet, but so what. He knew he fluffed the kick but more importantly, we fluffed about 10 other moments in that quarter, all of which could have won us the game. He was filthy and rightly so - not just because of his kick but because he’s the captain of the team that let a golden chance slip. Realistically that play from Max was never going to be the winner anyway.

Max’s face reflected how I felt, honestly.

As you said - two ultra competitive blokes who were deeply frustrated. They’ll both have moved long past this by now and it’s so frustrating that the media are so desperate to keep this nothing story of nothingness alive.

42 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Viney?

Forgot about him. If he’s good to go then Howes, Windsor or Tholstrup can make way. I’m probably leaning towards Howes.

26 minutes ago, binman said:

This is one of the arguments the media often make when poo pooiing the idea of umpires going professional.

Not having a shot at you Nasher, but it's one if the arguments that does my head in because it's got a false assumption baked into it.

The assumption is a professional umpiring model would build on the current model - which is that most (all?) umpires are well paid professionals in other fields (usually white collar it would seem, and often lauded as smart, high achievers in that field) and part time umpires.

But they don't have to be. And perhaps that model is actually part of the problem.

An alternative professional model is having a base starting salary of say 130k for AFL umpires. And then bonuses on top - eg finals, marquee games, performance, accuracy, etc.

And perhaps have some levels, eg based on games officiated, performance etc so the base for the best is say 200k plus bonuses.

They train together as a group (aerobic, decision making, team work etc etc) officiate AFL games, AFLW games and go out to local footy clubs leagues and help train young umpires.

I suspect plenty of young men and women who love footy, want to be involved in AFL footy would but know they won't make it as a player, would see that as a legitimate career pathway. One that they could be involved in until their 40s.

We don't need high achieveing accountants and lawyers who are part time umpires.

We need high achieving umpires.

Thank binman. FWIW it’s not my argument, it’s just one I’ve heard and think does reflect an actual problem (potential umpire exodus on transition).

I guess the way to solve that problem is to phase the new model in, such that all the existing umpires who don’t want to be full time are retained until the full time capability is developed.

There will always be a need for casual/top up umpires though.

No change.

7 minutes ago, deegirl said:

Making them professional and paying them a decent wage would help with retention. How many good umpires have given it away because it’s too much to work full time and work a second part time job as an umpire.

This is one of the arguments against full time umpires, in that many of them have well paid careers already that they’d then have to give up if they wanted to continue to umpire. The pay would need to be competitive - also because it’s a fairly dead end job with a finite shelf-life, in a similar way to playing is.

According to Gawn, he didn’t even hear what May said because of the noise. Talk about a storm in a teacup.

18 minutes ago, The Cult of Disco Turner said:

It is driving me away from the sport.

I read that as driving you away from the airport. Was having a hard time drawing the dots.

The free kick against Melksham for being pushed in the back resulting in a tunnel was by far the worst one.

Just now, In Harmes Way said:

7 news about to go into the winners rooms.

I’ve never seen inside the umpires rooms before, should be interesting.

I never thought both Fritta and Melksgam would work in the same forward line, but they were both outstanding today. Hats off.

I fkn love Melky and this new lease on life he has. When he took that hanger he was like “these ……s are going to just keep kicking it to me in a 2 on 1, I’ll just have to find a way to grab the thing”. He’s playing his guts out for the the team at the moment.

7 minutes ago, sue said:

I'm amazed by some of the negativity here (...no I'm not). Almost everyone thought we'd be lucky to come with 5 goals of them, many expected a 10 goal thrashing, yet we lost by a single point!!

Sure it would have been great if the point was in our favour instead, but it wasn't. Despite all our mistakes, it ended up a toss up.

Of course we could have done better and we have problems.

But if that is all C'Wood can do against us then I'd say they must have problems too.

I’m normally pretty good at not losing it sue, but this one stung, a lot. For a start my blood pressure was at heart attack level for pretty much the entire game, and we had a golden opportunity to show the comp we’re serious by knocking the top team off. The high I was setting myself for was ripped away from me. The come-down from this one will be lengthy.