hardtack

And Princess Panda, Funnyface Gordon and the rest of the crew.

No... but it should have been; we won it.

Yes, and I didn’t see him in Shanghai.

That’s probably Ron Blaskett or Happy Hammond; posthumously.

The rain... sounded like polite applause.

If a player was to contract the virus from close contact with other players, then that would mean a player that already had the bug, was playing ?

Yeah, they do watch as much... the difference is that their media take a much more level headed and informative approach to the reporting with lots of public service announcements re the precautions they should be adhering to.

In Taiwan a bit over two weeks ago and there was none of the kind of behaviour we're witnessing. No panic buying, no fighting over toilet rolls or hand sanitiser. They take all of the necessary precautions and get on with their lives with no fuss. Similar population to ours, yet the 4th most condensed population on the planet, yet their case count is maybe one sixth of ours... they're obviously doing something right. Oh, and I'm the oldie in this family.

You shouldn't feel any guilt for helping out a friend, it's the black marketeers who deserve to be smashed! If you see any such activity, catch a screen image with person's name and then name and shame them in the public space (Facebook, Twitter, wherever) and there must be somewhere these things can be reported.

Oh I don’t know; anyone can have a premiership cup, but hopefully, only one team will ever own the Corona Cup.

I think this season should officially not be counted as a Premiership season. Maybe all teams could play for a one-off Corona Cup.

Nice one... that’s a 3rd hypothesis! Here are the other two (which you’ve ignored as they probably don’t suit your China bashing agenda): “For many years, medical historians and epidemiologists hypothesized that the outbreak could have started at: 1. A British army base in Étaples, France or 2. At Fort Riley in Kansas, where the first American cases of this new strain of flu were recorded in March of 1918.

With no crowds, I think a lot of the “where you play” aspect is taken out of the equation. They are inside a stadium that could be anywhere, but without the crowd influencing umpiring decisions.

Yes, but I don’t subscribe to the idea that we are the AFL’s “whipping boy”; we get what we get courtesy of poor performances. However, I do think that the other considerations I mentioned will come into play, making it a very unpredictable season (much more so than usual).

Hey, it’s the off season ?

I can’t read the article (paywall), so I don’t know how they come to their conclusions, but I would have thought that early rounds being played to empty stadiums could have a big bearing on results, particularly in SA and WA where the crowds have typically had a big impact on umpiring decisions. Another consideration is the fact that there will be no VFL competition (is that right?), meaning that the clubs who can keep their best 22 on the field deepest into the competition may have an edge, due to replacement players, despite training, possibly not being at full match fitness.

A two week lockdown? Can’t see that achieving too much.

Well, going on your logic, most Demonlanders must be right leaning, based on the similar victim mentality they display in the belief that the MFC is hated by the AFL and umpires ?

Which is essentially what I’ve been saying.

It’s pretty hard to avoid politics when the sporting bans etc are to some degree, politically driven. They are a part of the move to slow down the spread of the virus, and the discussion of issues relating to possible failures in addressing said spread should be expected.

Your response has nothing to do with my post...it seems to be just an opportunistic attempt to bash what you perceive as a left wing attack. It was an attack on poor leadership and relates to their position in the US two weeks ago. I think Demonstone has given a pretty good summary of where the POTUS has gone wrong. Hopefully he has since learned to take the whole thing a bit more seriously. Albo not being PM is not responsible for how we approach this issue in Australia, so enough of your red herrings please. It’s rather ironic that you claim this is just a right wing bashing exercise, when all your post does is blindly attack the left.

Haha... thanks! Yes, I did mean Sparrow (I failed the Biddle's Bird Watchers entry exam... now I know why). Fixed.

I agree on the 5 they have suggested, but I'm also interested to see how Sparrow (thanks YB) performs this season. He's looking a very likely type.

I'd like to see them play the first couple of rounds (at least) to empty stadiums, and then take a 7 week break (the 5 dropped rounds and 2 weeks of the "bye" no longer required) and then, if the situation has settled enough, play the remaining rounds. The AFL has said they could extend the season if necessary, so there might be room to make that break 9 or 10 weeks.

It took you two weeks to get to my comment... have you checked the figures since my original comment at which time I think there were less than 100 cases? The US as of today, has 4,657 recorded cases and in just the past day recorded 977 new cases. This has nothing to do with the Democrats; Trump is the current POTUS and he has been failing miserably. My comments were made at a time when he was signalling that people should just go about their business as usual (including going to work), and telling us how he had it all under control, despite the warnings from health experts. You're so rusted on to right wing politics that you cannot see what is patently obvious; he has failed and is now scrambling to do something meaningful. Kiss the ground knowing Trump is in charge??? Hah! Kiss my [censored]!