DeeSpencer

I have to assume you’ve also got access to the best surgeons, physios, doctors, a renowned strength and conditioning coach and 40 hours a week full time to rehab? Definitely the same situation. It wasn’t just a precautionary job on Brown’s knee either, they clearly had the who medial side supported. You might do that to get a guy through a finals series, not trainings in January.

There's decades between the events of Vic Park and the Collingwood of the Lumumba years and now. I don't think it's anything like the same club. Vic Park might've been the worst but it was hardly the only one and society has take huge leaps forward since those days. Eddie's a huge problem and the Lumumba issue is a big problem too, I'm not denying or lessening those. I said that with those 2 things it's impossible to claim the systemic issues don't also feature individuals and overt acts of racism. I'm just saying the authors might've found something similar at Melbourne 5 years ago or even now. We've got a few things going for us in Jetta, May, Matty Whelan in his job, an Alice game and the Reconciliation plan. But I don't think there's been any significant concerns about Melbourne for a long time and yet the same systemic racism might've been found in the way we draft, hire, promote, develop people and so on. Not a single individual racist incident or person but the same systemic issues. We don't have an Indigenous board member, or coaches and who knows how many formal processes for reporting racism or similar we have. There's a disconnect that people think 'systemic racism' means it's really widespread, like the place is like the KKK or a southern country club. I don't think Wells, Varcoe, Krakouer, Leon Davis and plenty of others would think it was anything like that. Jewish Vice President, Indigenous woman on the board. They've certainly got some changes to make but the systemic racism part of the problem doesn't have to involve racist individuals. It's a comment of systems not individuals and most of the measures put forward were more about prevention of further issues than fixing current problems.

The list looks in great condition, that's Burgo's job. Managing injuries is mostly up to the doctors and physios. We've been better under Burgo at getting guys in to see the surgeons and being proactive rather than the old process where we've stuffed around for months before fixing a problem.

Why? They've stuffed around with Brown having fluid on his knee for months and then decided in February to have the surgeon take a look at it. He'll have a scope and miss 4 weeks then they'll rush him back for the start of the season underdone Jay Lockhart's spent the better part of 2 years with huge tape over one or both knees and has over looked hobbled. Obviously half the side were in the same boat for the start of 2019. If it takes half a roll of tape to get you through a January training session then something isn't right.

I don't know why Pickett gets one little band of tape across his knee but I'll make an allowance given it's clearly not a huge structural problem. Same goes for Salem's wrists and thumbs, that's meh. Not sure why Langdon has a bandage on the back of his hand but same deal. Smith - absolutely, if you need that much knee tape then back to the rehab group for you. And Oliver I don't want anywhere near contact work until his shoulder is far more progressed. Find a photo of Richmond from any of their recent grand finals, barely a player taped up at all.

The debate stemmed from a genuine discussion about overhead handballs. A few posts going slightly off topic that are pretty easy to scroll past shouldn't inconvenience your day. That's the lifeblood of internet forums. Personally I like when things tangent off from the main gist of a thread. You've now contributed to 2 irrelevant posts. Your own and this reply. Become a moderator if you want to police every post. In the meantime I trust the mods to know when to move posts to a new section of the forum if a topic becomes overrun.

He's trained all season with a mountain of tape. I'd have a pretty simple rule, if you want to train you can't be taped up. Come back when you've fixed it. Anyway, as a Brown skeptic I'm sad for him but hopeful the Weid gets his chance alongside Jackson and either Fritsch or possibly a ruck/wing/forward McDonald. The 3 big talls up forward was never going to work.

The definition of systematic racism doesn’t require any one individual to be racist. Collingwood have a point when they say that. The systems in place can simply discriminate against races by inadvertent design or ignorance. Depending on the authors threshold for what thoughtlessness or ignorance actually is they might be able to label thousands of institutions as systematically racist. The issue for the Pies is making those kind of distinctions which might usually be correct when they have at least the Lumumba situation unresolved.

Sports that through greed or desperation put everything behind paywalls will suffer as well. Free to air TV still reaches the widest audience which then keeps it relevant and makes more money in the long term. The question is how much longer free to air tv will even exist and if everything ends up owned by big tech in the end. The thing I'd like to see is members rewarded with a free or discounted streaming package. Pay $300 for a membership, here's a link to access all 22 Melbourne games streamed to you.

The kayo app is up and running, it's purely the discount that is new. It's already $15 for telstra customers, now it's $5 for existing AFL Live customers. The AFL app had streaming restrictions that banned it from full size. Kayo's fine to chromecast, connect to a laptop via hdmi, with an apple tv and I think with telstra tv's, samsung tv and android tv.

Good point. Telstra should make kayo unmetered for customers. The size of data plans are escalating pretty quickly though. I'm looking at an ad right now below this reply box for $30 for 36GB. And it's well overdue that gyms start installing some proper wifi.

Kayo has replays, but it's a very good question about the pro version of the stats. Which really isn't all that pro anyway but at least offers more insight than the basics.

The bad nba teams are awful to watch and juniors should probably be made to watch top quality college sides not the pros. That’s very true. But the pros are so deadly on the fast break and a second true big is often a defensive liability. So the big man waiting for the offensive rebound is usually clogging the lane and getting exposed in transition. The spread them out game is still fundamentally sound and fantastic to watch when it’s the Spurs and Warriors of late, even the Raptors tittle team. And LeBron is LeBron. If I were coaching juniors I’d be fine with them shooting 3’s if they can make them. It’s sure better than long 2’s. The most important thing and the biggest issue I have with the nba is teams that don’t pass and cut. The James Harden iso step back 3 is a problem.

I wouldn’t say dramatically but the crew cut pairs nicely with added definition in his arms and shoulders now he’s fully matured. He’s always been super fit and really only suited to the high half forward role so I wouldn’t expect a change. But hopefully he can stick more tackles with a more aggressive approach to the contest and tackling. Legally this time too.

Have you watched basketball in the last decade? Read anything about analytics? The entire sport has changed to find the most efficient shots which are: - 3 pointers - Dunks and layups - Free throws Apart from freakish midrange scorers like Kawhi everything is designed around efficiency. 3 > 2. 35% from 3 beats 50% from 2. Anyway, back on topic. Pressure has drastically changed afl footy. It’s no longer possible to just string multiple regulation hand balls together and get anywhere. Teams will flood the area and force bad turnovers. I hate the Hollywood handballing and thing it often should be banned, but the umpires have allowed it. So in the right moment it absolutely has its use and should be trained. Lewis was good at it. Salem is good at it. Jones probably not so much. But if we keep our shape around the contest and know where the outlets are it’s actually not all that risky. It either works or it gets turnover but it’s in tight and we’ve then got a chance to pressure and cause a more costly turnover.

Why haven't they got in Max's ear and told him to stop being such a clown and just chill? We don't need captain funny man. Makes me want to throw up.

Put me down as someone less convinced by the 'systemic' part of this. That's a result that happens when you get academics in to study the real world through their fantasy land lenses. Yes the constant self praise can be tiresome but the AFL industry is one where Indigenous people are far more represented, respected and well paid than almost any other in this country. Every club surely has an Indigenous welfare and community representatives too. Spare me the need for quotas across the entirety of the club, 'truth telling' and auditing the board. The biggest issue at Collingwood is having an unchallenged leader with massive blindspots. The only system that needs to change is to make sure there's accountability at the top. More diversity could help, it's hardly a surprise that a white male of his generation has the blinkers on but if Eddie is picking yes men or yes women it doesn't matter what their backgrounds are. 17 other clubs don't need special reports and 18 recommendations just to keep on doing the right thing.

Are you thinking of Sparrow? Jordon played 15 games in 2019. That’s a good amount for a first year kid. Still very hard to make any judgments when he was a raw draft pick and will be a much different player now.

It's 30k across each of the 3 zones at the tennis, which should mean about 50% capacity for the major courts. The Margy Court zone might actually be the best deal rather than the biggest courts. 50% and therefore 50k seems like the right number to start with for the MCG at this stage, so for most games the problem with be less about the availability of total tickets and more about the priorities of how they are divided and who gets their regular seats. Level 4 Row ZZ might get a work out but I guess you might get the fresher air up there! In many ways I expect this year to be more frustrating than last when it comes to the footy. Hopefully everyone can just embrace the challenges.

Zanker did kick our first with quality forward craft, dropped a few as the game went on and the knee jarring might’ve got to her. She’s close to tearing a game apart and her ground level and ruck abilities make her really valuable. It will frustrate if she misses chances but I think she’ll put it all together soon. Scott was still involved in some nice patches but was just messy. I think if we get a bit more pressure from the smalls we’ll have the confidence to go direct and can stretch teams. 5 might be hard to fit in like today, but minimum we’ll have 4 talls that will be hard to stop.

Some of the marking is very good and yes I’d agree the ground balls by comparison are poor. The tackle pressure is huge. And the ball bounces around a lot because there’s a lot of hacked kicks and smothers. Apart from that I’d say there’s still a lot of basketballers and netballers used to catching a ball more than picking one up. Meanwhile even those who have come through the juniors haven’t dealt with nearly the same pressure. Men’s draftees take time to make the adjustment to the massive leap in pressure too. Hanks stands out because she has excellent ground ball technique. She goes low and hard and is comfortable evading on either side. It should improve as more natural footballers come in to the system.

Positives: - McNamara: She does a mountain of running, gets to the right spots and whilst her disposal needs work it's decent enough. AFLW Eddie Langdon in year 1 pretty much. - Hanks: I think that was her most prolific midfield display. Her footy smarts and skills are a step above and she'll find more space as the team gets more cohesive - Paxy: Yep. - Reinforcements: Downie should come back and give the backline more height and defensive ability. Anyone know what's up with Gay and Lampard? A couple more Irish girls to get in to the side as well Negatives: - We got lucky with the free kicks and 50's delivering easy scoring chances. Without them the game is closer - Over handballed around the packs especially early - Few too many are still very one sided and can only cough the ball out when tackled - Rushing inside 50's. Scott was a culprit. When they trust the forwards to win one on ones it works better - Forward pressure. Thought it was ordinary and they possibly had to swing Heath forward. 4 talls, Scott and Hore is top heavy. Petrevski got one lucky holding the ball but generally looks a step behind. - Birch had a shocker Neutrals: - Bannan and Fitzsimon both showed a bit without having great days. Bannan might take time but I can see the upside and Fitzsimon has some smarts and they trusted her to rotate on ball - I'm still not convinced by Cunningham and Parry trying to share the full forward role. Both a little one dimensional. Cunningham had her good moments but can't rely on marking it over the top as much as she wants to. Was nice to see her punch occassionally - Lil Mithen, great warrior, but needs to be less reliant on taking tackles and hacking the ball out.

Missed 3 weeks with a similar problem in 2017 after attempting to play through it. But then it threw out his foot and ankle for 2018, and then had him on a restricted preseason for 2019. So at some stage in 2017 he was in a similar predicament as this one and it cost him playing at his peak for 3 years. It's unlikely that happens again, but it can't exactly go down as nothing to worry about. I hope this is a new medical team learning from previous mistakes and getting ahead of the problem.

I wonder if it was the same foot as his previous plantar fascia troubles? Hopefully this is getting ahead of an issue and we give him time to recover for once. The difference between a healthy Viney in 2020 and the one who hadn’t done a preseason in years in 2019 was chalk and cheese.

A little too much excitement over some time trial results and a natural runner here. The wing is such an important structural position we have to see if he can get to the right spots at stoppages and when defending, that's challenge number 1 for any winger and isn't easy. After that we can't even be sure he'll be a good ball winner. Then the final step is probably how he uses the ball and thumping left foot boot means little if it's not going to a team mate. It's probably more likely at this stage that we'll see Tom McDonald at 28 on the wing rather than Rosman at 18.