MadAsHell

I'd certainly offer two 2nd round picks for De Koning straight up. If we can get De Koning ahead of Grundy, it would be a massive win as it also looks after our future.

I don't see him at Arden Street myself actually. With Ben McKay and Aidan Corr, I don't see Tommo as a must for them. Can see him slotting into the 18 of plenty of clubs though and why he might want to try his luck. Could see him walking into any of Collingwood, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs, Port Adelaide or even a return to his old club at GWS.

That's pretty amazing stuff! Where does that leave this Summers broadcast of cricket? It sounds pretty untenable to have 7 as the broadcaster while they're in the middle of suing CA doesn't it??? The sooner Cricket goes across to Channel 10 the better it will be IMO. They never should have taken thr BBL off there in the first place.

Watched the BBL Draft this evening which made for interesting viewing. A lot of the big names eg Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Faf Du Plessis who could only play the early part of the tournament were overlooked for players who could play either the whole thing or the majority of which I think is a good thing. The only players picked who are only doing about half a season I think were Rashid Khan for Adelaide and Trent Boult for the Stars.

Amazed some people are saying that they would accept Meek, Pick 14 and an early 2nd round pick for Dogga. He's 2 first round picks (at least one of which should be in the top 10) at a minimum. As others have said, if we can come away with Grundy, an early pick to get another young key forward and a developing young ruck and Brodie Grundy, then that's something at least.

That's all well and good. Problem is GWS have had a good 7 years or so of being in contention and they can't even get an average of 7,000 to their games. What advertisers want to jump on a team who can't draw a crowd and are about to go through a rebuild?

Personally I still think the AFL should pull the plug on GWS and bring in a Tassie team to keep an 18 team comp.

WEEK 1 Brisbane def Richmond by 2 points Melbourne def Sydney by 31 points Geelong def by Collingwood by 5 points Fremantle def Western Bulldogs by 17 points WEEK 2 Geelong def Fremantle by 28 points Sydney def by Brisbane by 16 points WEEK 3 Melbourne def Geelong by 18 points Collingwood def by Brisbane by 39 points. WEEK 4 Brisbane def by Melbourne by 50 points.

We'll beat Brisbane on Friday night while St Kilda will win a tight one against Sydney on Sunday looking to end their season on a high. Means we'll finish 2nd having won 3 of our last 4, all against fellow finals teams including wins against Brisbane and Fremantle interstate. Pretty decent form to take into the finals IMO.

So in the last month we've had Ben Stokes retire from ODI cricket citing the schedule as a major reason so he can instead focus on Test and T20 cricket and we've also now had Trent Boult forgo his NZ cricket contract so he can spend more time at home. Cricket and ODI cricket in particular seems to be at a tipping point and something needs to be done IMO to salvage it. The T20 leagues and franchise cricket is here to stay unfortunately, so there's no putting the cat back in the bag. So in my view cricket needs a few fixes to keep things on track. 1. Look to take a leaf out of international soccers books and create international duty windows where players are to prioritise international duties over Franchise duties. 2. Scrap all bilateral international ODI and T20 series. All tours going forward should just be test tours (maximum of 5 home & away tests a year). 3. Outside of the ODI and T20 World Cups, all ODI's and T20's are to be World Cup Qualifier tournaments. This means that teams at stages will likely go 12 months+ without an international ODI or T20 match. But when they do play, they'll mean a lot! 4. West Indies to disband in White Ball cricket. I don't want to get rid of them entirely and this is why I think they should remain in Test cricket. But in the white ball format where the game can be grown I think they should go back to their own nations. This will make sense for things like Olympics and Commonwealth Games anyway. 5. Have one major cricket tournament every year over a 4 year cycle. ODI World Cup T20 World Cup Test Match World Cup (yep, time to introduce this) T20 @ Olympics (ICC is pushing for 2028. Should be able to have it by 2032 at the latest). In the meantime, bring the men in for 2026 Commonwealth Games as a trial before it hits the Olympics. Interested to hear what people think and if this could potentially work for cricket like it does soccer?

Was a great night of action last night in the Commonwealth Games with a lot of the team sports wrapping up. Claimed Gold in the mens Beach Volleyball, Netball and Cricket while we came out with silver in the Womens Hockey and Beach Volleyball. We also claimed gold in other events overnight in events such as the diving. I have to say getting the win in the Netball was very satisfying to watch. Not only did it mark 1000 Gold medals for Australia in Commonwealth Games history, but it showed some growth from the Diamonds, especially with their new coach. Back in 2018 when things weren't working against England, the coach made zero changes just expecting everything to work out and of course it didn't. Early in this final Jamaica were getting onto, so the coach swung some changes and was able to find a combination that got ontop. Final evening of competition tonight and we have the Kookaburras going for Gold along with some chances in the Mixed synchronised diving. And that will see the games to a close. Next will be Regional Victoria in 2026 (Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Gippsland) and I have to say I'm looking forward to it. Hoping Victoria take a leaf out of Tokyo 2020 and maybe try and include a couple of extra events. Surfing at Bells Beach seems to good to pass up and I've also become a fan of the BMX racing. Would also like to see the Men join the women and have a T20 tournament. Maybe like the soccer in the Olympics though, make it players 23 and under? Will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next 4 years.

Coming into the final 3 days of competition and the medal table is really tightening up. Looks like the team competitions could go a long to determining who comes out on top. Womens Hockey has an Australia v England final, Mens Hockey has then playing in a Semi Final just like the Netball. Throw in that they're both through to Semi Finals on opposite sides of the draw in Womens Beach Volleyball and the cricket and currently playing in the final of the Womens Pairs in Lawn Bowls and you can see how it could easily tip one way or the other. The rest of the tally makes for interesting reading to. Country Gold Silver Bronze Total Australia 50 44 46 140 England 47 46 38 131 Canada 19 24 24 67 New Zealand 17 12 12 41 India 9 8 9 26 Scotland 8 8 19 35 South Africa 7 7 8 22 Nigeria 7 3 6 16 Wales 4 5 10 19 Malaysia 4 4 3 11

Another golden day at the Comm Games over night with more gold in the pool, at the Cycling track, in the Gymnastics and on the Rugby field. Highlights by far were the new World record in the Womens 4x200m Freestyle relay and our womens Rugby 7's team downing Fiji in the Gold medal match and Emma McKeon becoming our first swimmer to win 11 Commonwealth Games Gold medals by taking out the 50m Freestyle. Nearly had a hat trick to add to that in the cricket with Australia's massive win over Barbados, however Meg Lanning put down a regulation chance which cost Alana King. Another big day ahead with plenty more medal chances. Here's just a few of what's on offer. DAY 4 5:30pm Lawn Bowls Mens Triples Semi Final v Fiji 7:30pm Swimming Heats 9:00pm Netball v South Africa 9:00pm Lawn Bowls Mens Triples Medal Match & Womens Singles Semi Final v Norfolk Island 11:00pm Track Cycling 1:30am Lawn Bowls Womens Singles Medal Match 2:00am Basketball Men v Kenya (Quarter Final) 4:00am Swimming Finals 5:00am Basketball Women v TBD (Semi Final) 6:00am Hockey Men v New Zealand

Gold to Trengove! (now Stenson) In the Womens Marathon. What a brilliant run!

3 Gold medals in the Velodrom and 5 in the pool kicked off an impressive day 1 of competition for the Australians with them 5 gold clear of New Zealand in 2nd. We also had a strong start in a lot of the team events with our Womens Basketball, Netball and Cricket teams getting off to winning starts while our mens Rugby team and our lawn bowlers had a variety of results in their multiple matches each. Looking ahead to day 2, here's a taste of what's to come. 5:30pm LAWN BOWLS - Womens Singles & Mens Triples Group Games 6:00pm ATHLETICS - Mens Marathon 6:22pm RUGBY 7's - Women v Fiji 7:30pm ATHLETICS - Womens Marathon 7:30pm SWIMMING - Heats 7:50pm RUGBY 7's - Men v Kenya 8:30pm LAWN BOWLS - Womens Singles & Mens Triples Group Games 9:00pm NETBALL- v Scotland 11:00pm HOCKEY - Women v Kenya 12:30pm BASKETBALL- Men v Trinidad & Tobago 1:00am CYCLING - Velodrom 2:30am RUGBY 7's - QUARTER FINALS 3:00am LAWN BOWLS- Mens Pairs & Womens Four's Group Games 4:00am SWIMMING- Finals 4:30am BASKETBALL- Men v New Zealand

Great start to the Comm Games tonight. Matthew Hauser claims our first medal with bronze in the Triathlon. In some team news both our Mens and Womens Rugby 7's teams have opened with very convincing wins over Jamaica and South Africa respectively. Our T20 pulled off a stunning win over India chasing 154 and being 4/38 have won with an over to spare thanks to two great innings from Gardiner and Harris. Our bowls teams have had a decent start going two from two in the mens triples and one from two in womens singles. We're looking in line for a swag of medals early this morning in the pool and the Diamonds are currently up 33-5 early in the 2nd term in the Netball. So far so good!

Well the opening ceremony has come and gone and I think it's fair to say that this one was certainly different! Still don't know if I enjoyed it or not, there was a lot going on. But fair to say it was an improvement on Gold Coast. Competition on Day 1 will kick off in only a few hours, so lots to look forward to on a Friday night mixed with the football. Some of the events we have tonight include, but are not limited to: LAWN BOWLS: 5:30PM Womens Singles & Mens Triples Group Games RUGBY 7'S 6:00PM (Women) v South Africa & 7:30PM approx (Men) v Jamaica SWIMMING HEATS 7:30PM T20 CRICKET 8:00PM v India TRIATHLON 8:00PM NETBALL v Barbados 10:45PM approx LAWN BOWLS 12:00AM Mens Pairs & Womens Four's Group Games BASKETBALL (Women) v Scotland 12:45AM approx CYCLING VELODROM 1:00AM RUGBY 7'S 2:45AM approx (Women) v Scotland 4:30AM approx (Men) v Uganda SWIMMING FINALS 4:00AM BASKETBALL (Women) v Kenya 6:30AM approx Plenty more as well that I've no doubt missed.

Top 10 would work better than top 9. We first had the top 8 with only 15 teams in 94, so no reason we can't do a top 10 with 19. Stick with a 4 week finals format. Week 1: 1st Qualifying Final 1 v 2 - Winner gets the week off and hosts a home Preliminary Final. Loser will keep 2nd seed (on opposite side of draw) and host a home Semi Final. 2nd Qualifying Final 3 v 4 - Both sides will play home Semi Finals the following week, but the winner will avoid the side of the draw the winner of the 1st Qualifying Final is on. 1st Elimination Final 7 v 8 - Winner progresses to Semi Final and play the loser of 1st Qualifying. 2nd Elimination Final 6 v 9 - Winner progress to Semi Final and play the winner of 2nd Qualifying Final. 3rd Elimination Final 5 v 10 - Winner progresses to Semi Final and play the loser of 2nd Qualifying Final. Week 2: Loser of 2nd Qualifying Final v Winner of 3rd Elimination Final. Winner progresses to 1st Preliminary Final against winner of 1st Qualifying Final. Loser of 1st Qualifying Final v Winner of 1st Elimination Final.* Winner of 2nd Qualifying Final v Winner of 2nd Elimination Final.* * Highest Ranked winner will go onto host 2nd Preliminary Final. Week 3: 1st & 2nd Preliminary Finals. Week 4: Grand Final.

So in about a week and a half time we have yet another games event on our hands as the Commonwealth Games rolls around again. This time the white sandy beaches of Gold Coast will be replaced with the Industrial jungle of Birmingham. With the Games back in the UK the medal table race between England and Australia will be interesting. Back in 2014 in Glasgow they knocked us off the top of table, but we got that back with some in Gold Coast. Some interesting sports of note to keep an eye on for this games will be the return of Cricket for the first time since 1998, but only for the women in T20. We'll also have Basketball but in the 3 on 3 format. Feel free to post all comments related to the games here. Time difference won't be ideal, but I'll be burning the midnight oil throughout. List of all the sports is in the link below. https://www.birmingham2022.com/sports

Bring in a team from Tassie. Merge North Melbourne and GWS. Rebrand Gold Coast Suns the Northern Australia Suns playing 7 games out of Darwin, 2 in Alice and 2 in Cairns. Keeps an 18 team comp while allowing Tassie to come in, the Kangaroos jumper to keep rolling and potentially fix to mistakes that were made in setting up Gold Coast and GWS in the first place.

If you want to talk about every team somewhere in history failing, I think Gold Coast takes that mantle!

Would have to be Freo IMO. Or Sydney if Buddy has indicated he's retiring at years end.

Given North's on field struggles, plus the financial struggles they will face if Tasmania is given a licence and North lose that funding to play in Hobart, their best foot forward may be a merger. Given GWS have played in multiple finals series and still can't generate any support and are on AFL financial life support, I think this could be a perfect match. Being associated with a club with some form of history worked for Sydney once, maybe they need to see if lightning can strike twice and rebrand GWS? Keep the North Melbourne jumper and become the Western Sydney Kangaroos or if you want the prospect of playing more games in Canberra (given its the only place they can get half a crowd) maybe the North Murray Giants? This opens the 18th spot for Tasmania and in theory everyone is happy. Except the couple of Melbourne based North supports I guess.

Having a 20 team competition could in theory be the answer re: allowing Tasmania in. But if there's question marks over how Tasmania could financially support an AFL club, there would certainly have to be the same, if not more question marks over NT.