Dr. Gonzo

The academies are a joke, the AFL is the governor of not just the league but the sport as well since it usurped this role from the ANFC. It is therefore the afls responsibility to manage development programs but they have delegated responsibility to the club's. And this was done as some kind of appeasement due to the northern state club's having their own academies which in themselves are a rort, particularly for the NSW club's. Now the non-northern state club's derive close to zero benefit as seen by us this year and this is only going to get worse as the AFL expands the rules so that club's can't match bids within the first 40 picks - so what is the point? Get rid of all academies, I'd even be happy to get rid of the father/son rule (which is nice but an anachronism) and move towards a pure draft. Footscray getting back to back number 1 picks while making a GF, the Swans getting Heeney, Mills, Gulden, Campbell et al while being perennial finalists - the system is a joke and the AFL is trying to have a bob each way. A pure draft is the only way to go in a league focused on parity/equalisation.

We're the only team that's proven it's possible so far 😉

All the finals are in bluray? It's just the GF isnt it? I've got the GF bluray and the victory pack but won't shell out for the season pack if the quality isn't that great. I found copies online of every game in 1080p including multiple commentary tracks for the QF and didn't have to pay a cent. It's only just over 200GB in total too so you could fit it on 4 or 5 Blu-ray discs (50gb each I think). Surely the AFL/distributors can give us some better quality asking us to pay in excess of $100.

It has

Anyone looking for some time to kill during during isolation or just wanting a general pick me up I highly recommend reading through the GF matchday threads on opposition boards on BigFooty. I read through the Bulldogs one the other night and it was heartwarming to see how quickly they went from "we've got this, Melbourne are [censored]" to "uh-oh I think we're in trouble" to "**** we've [censored] the bed here" to "no one could match them, Melbourne were unstoppable" The Carlton and Richmond board threads were pretty funny in their own ways, it was a joy to read the Hawks supporters realising how far away their midfield was from competing with the best (IE OURS!!!) the St Kilda thread was just depressing I felt a kinship with them after reading through that misery (Petracca winning the Norm Smith just to rub it in) and really hope they can break their drought soon. Looking forward to killing time reading through the Essendon and Collingwood threads, the Geelong one should be hilarious too.

I drove past Whitten Oval yesterday (I'm only about a 10 minute drive away), would it be cheeky to drape Ted Whitten in a Demons scarf just before round 1?

Well apparently half the Geelong team were bedridden with flu/gastro before the Prelim and they were still allowed to play, why should players miss games because of a little sniffle 🤣

Never left the goalsquare until he had to go back for his run-up

TMac was instrumental in our form earlier this year. Without him we don't win the minor premiership and possibly the flag.

Do you use the phones 4G/5G or your home wifi? If it's the home wifi there could be interference with the wifi signal. If you have 2.4ghz and 5ghz options for your home wifi try the 5ghz one as it usually has less interference from home appliances such as microwaves etc

I never really have that problem but my mum and brother do. Might just be the servers you connect to or the congestion on the internet in your area? Usually pausing for a couple of minutes to let it buffer will fix it.

Viney is severely underrated on here which is suprising considering his finals series.

I assume that's Grgic on the left maybe Hopgood next to him? Don't know about the last one.

Agree and he did finish 10th in the 2020 B&F while playing a virtual lone hand up forward for much of the season which I think some are forgetting.

7 against North (on debut?) and 7 the following week against the Pies on Anzac Day This was in 1991 when we also had Darren Bennett up forward and Jakovich dominating later in the year.

Yeah was a stress fracture of the femur from memory

I would go with the latter

Either he was including Brayshaws goal from a few minutes earlier or he was emphasising the Oliver goal. Oliver goal - bang! Petracca, Sparrow, Oliver - Bang, bang, bang!!!

ANBs goal to put us up by 42 is when I knew it was done. I felt it before that but when that goal went through I knew we definitely wouldn't lose (even being 5 points short of the Chris Sullivan line I think the time left in the game combined with the ubdeniabke momentum and the fact the Dogs had given up the ghost was enough for me to go one goal early 😅)

I see him as an eventual replacement for a guy like Melksham, not best 22 but definitely part of the 30 or so squad of players who will get a run during the year and can play mid/half forward.

I actually think he'll surprise a few and become more than just handy depth. May take a while for him to get his chance but when he does I think he'll take it. Was touted as a future captain early in his career and I thought he generally performed well at the Saints when I watched him particularly in recent years. His kicking often let him down earlier in his career but I thought he improved that but for whatever reason he was on the outer with Ratten. I think it's an astute pickup by our recruitment team and if he ends up being nothing more than a solid depth player it's still a win and better than when we were 5 or 6 years ago when our depth players were guys barely good enough for VFL.

I think he started to show he belonged in 2020 and then had the stress fracture in his hip last preseason which derailed him. His game against the Pies was very bad but other than that he wasn't terrible. I'm not willing to write him off yet, give him a full preseason and I'm backing him in to contribute if not cement his spot next year.

Don't even joke about that mate 😡

Dunstall is fine, he actually has a clue and isn't too bad about Melbourne. It's Dermie that's the moron and doesn't have a nice thing to say about us