Webber

Sad news. Gus was an exceptional, old-fashioned, pure footballer. Loved watching him play, cos he was never anything but committed to getting the best out of himself, and solely for the team. His premiership game was exactly that. They’ll miss him in ways we just won’t know. That it places a shameful, dark context over the QF ‘hit’, and how the AFL behaved then and since goes without saying. Picks 1 and 3 of his draft year retired due to brain injury. This will change the game, and should. Go well, Gus, we of course know you’ll be a presence at MFC ongoing.

Outstanding. And the MFC don’t employ your services because ………… ?

Where we finish depends on injuries/players available through the season. As it does for all clubs. It’s the single greatest determinant of success, even if the least sexy.

Nibbler is still (inexplicably) the flag bearer for many on DL, I reckon.

Very confidently tipping Taj to be the break-out player of 2024. Underrated on here, but has all the tricks, along with an uber-professional attitude. Will exponentially improve with experience. (also tipping he’ll be a whipping boy until his value becomes undeniable).

I reckon the eye tells us, as you’ve just revealed. Knowing the numbers simply doesn’t matter, so shouldn’t be anyone’s business but the players and club. As for any effect on public or media ‘body shaming’, it won’t make an iota of difference of course.

Good. Couldn’t be less relevant to the public. (Cue objections)

On his 2023 form, top 10 selected every week. A pure joy to watch. Wrings every last skerrick of ability and effort from himself.

Brilliant. @Demonstone, your best work yet, methinks (sheepish self-identification notwithstanding).

Extraordinary. Closed shmosed!

Big boy. Wasn’t expecting that.

Having come across @binman in the wild, I can confirm that he looks just like Garry Baker ………………….or does he?!!!!

Just a simple thing. Lauren Pearce played a great quarter, but she can’t kick straight. This is known. Why has there not been at least one option running past her to take the handball ? Not one, not once.

A full return of confidence will win this, not the static reactivity and panicked disposal of the that half. Swap Zanker and Harris through the centre square, and play through them at all costs. They won’t lose a contest, and if we put muscle and run at the drop, with Kate Hore leading from the square, we’re away!

Honest, thoughtful, respectful, grateful and intelligent is Brody. I’m completely SHOCKED the sensationalist, mindless, muck-raking media even considered publishing those thoughts.

In fact it’s one of the defining virtues of Australian Rules Football. Compared to other football codes worldwide, female attendance at games (and via membership) has always been close to parity with males. Which is but one of the reasons it was so frustrating we didn’t have a comparable women’s game until the last few years. So many willing participants, so little opportunity! No wonder when their chance came, at a participant level, the game just exploded. Girls want to play footy, and they want to continue playing as women. Well, duhrrr!! At a personal level, it’s thrilling to be witnessing the evolution of the professional women’s game. I went to the first Dees vs Dogs game at the G - showcasing the best 40 players in the country - thinking, sadly, that the AFL probably wouldn’t commit to growing the game. It’s staggering now to think that a handful of years later, we have 18 teams, all of whom would thrash those first two teams. But I still worry about the AFL’s commitment. Never has there been a better reason to throw everything at a competition, with an excited participant market of half the population. You know, like the men’s game. Fixturing however, in every respect (venues, times, number of games), is still problematic. It almost feels like the AFL is putting obstacles in the AFLW’s path. The old ‘if it fails, it wasn’t because we didn’t give it every chance’ notion, only with the the second bit being rubbish. Given the potential for continued growth (based on the game’s exponential evolution alone), things like needing crowd KPIs to trigger more rounds is just short term, commercially obsessed nonsense. To steal from an arts-cultural touchstone - build it, and they will come - if only cos they’ve been banging at the door for years. We’ve seen how women’s soccer has built what I believe to be a non-fail place in world (and Aus) sports culture, commercially and otherwise. I have no doubt that women’s Australian footy will leap-frog it, it just needs true, unwavering commitment from the guardians. [On a professional note, it was enormously concerning in the early years how prevalent ACL ruptures were in the women’s game (the order of 3:1 compared to men), and I was worried parents would literally stop their girls playing. Even this is now on the slide]

Yep. Her last quarter against the Crows at Casey was extraordinary. She was out-jumping every opponent in the ruck, slamming it forward and allowing Tyla Hanks et al to set up quick entries for Eden Zanker. If she’d been able to play on-ball the entire quarter, I’ve no doubt we would have run all over them (almost did anyway). She scares oppos sh**less, is enormously valuable, and consistently gets underrated for it I reckon.

Sounds good. Strangely enough, I get more excited about going to Prinny Park (Ikon, shmikon!) than Casey Fields.

Yep, my glass is looking oddly fuller now, too.

I reckon Billings is one of those players, like Colin Sylvia, like Jack Watts, who has ALL the abilities required for A grade footy, except one thing - pure, CONSISTENT competitive will. It’s the most important quality in any player (Jason Taylor recruits based on it), which if married with top 10 percentile skill, creates a champion (luck with injuries notwithstanding). Can you develop that at 28 years old, in the last 20% of your physically viable career? I’m glass half empty, but I guess there’ll always be exceptions.

True. None of us know the extent of Petty’s injury, other than it being a Lisfranc disruption, which have a spectrum of severity, even for those requiring surgical stabilisation. Clinically, across epidemiological history, outcomes aren’t great. We used to call Lisfranc fracture-dislocations career killers, but things have improved a lot of recent years, and the chances of them being chronically unstable have diminished greatly. The main concern is related irritabilities and compensating behaviours in the biomechanical chain (foot, ankle, related soft tissues), along with variable responses to progressive and repeated weight-bearing - running, jumping, day on day, week after week. Personally, in relation to outcome consistency, I’d rather do my ACL. So in summary, Petty’s foot could be anything from great to not at all. The MFC know this, and are planning for the best outcome. As they should.

Once again, I’d make a case for umpiring determining the outcome of the game. Too many absolute shockers that went the Crows way. Still, we should hardly expect the W game to be better than the men’s.

I posted at halftime that the game would likely be decided by umpiring. And so it came to pass. The state of AFL umpiring is killing the game. For all the brilliant play, and players, all the work, dedication and teamwork, umpiring is simply making the game unwatchable. Congrats to Collingwood, but we’ll forever know there’s a huge, ugly umpiring asterisk hanging over this flag.

Brisbane’s defensive system (or lack of it), just can’t get their head around Collingwood’s corridor game run from transition. It’s like they’ve paid zero attention to the way Collingwood play. Then again, apart from Quaynor, Maynard and Moore, Collingwood’s defensive 6 are bog ordinary, and Bris get to score frequently from inside 50 entries. So what we have is a high-scoring GF. Anyone’s game from here I guess, but if the umps keep paying high tackle frees for Nick Daicos, that’ll get them there.

Marchons! Marchons!