John Crow Batty

The midfield needs a rebuild. Steele and Viney are just adequate stop gaps. Pickett is still a part timer and too small and light to be in the guts all game. The loss of Petracca and Oliver are no great loss given our weak midfield performances from the past two seasons. I can’t see it being any worse next season but I expect it could improve somewhat if King can instil some team ethos to how they play. We do need to find two new gun midfielders who are genuine ball winners. I don’t believe any of our current second string midfield rotators are likely to develop into the real deal.

Would be interesting to see how Gawn performs as leader without turbulent players like Petracca and Oliver who with depressing regularity allowed our midfield to be slapped around all too often by no names for the past couple of seasons. Viney to a lesser extent is a culprit as well in our recent past disfunctional, ego driven and selfish midfield. Fresh faces to serve might rejuvenate him.

For your info, Chin has played 23 games in each of the past 3 seasons. Is solid, dependable, injury free and internally highly regarded. Only Trent Rivers and Ed Langdon have played more games in the past 3 seasons.

Lonesome, On’ry and Mean

A bit disingenuous perhaps. The rumours of him leaving were very strong all season.

Bunbury, Geraldton, Albany, Wagga Wagga, Dubbo, Rockhampton, Cairns, Townsville. Mildura, Noosa, Byron Bay, Newcastle, Ballina, Tweed Heads, Wollongong. Plenty of options available.

We were ridiculously easy to score against in the Balme days. The defending was hopeless.

The billionaires just buy and sell the clubs. The operating money comes from the media rights and TV advertising. Cities that host clubs are even forced to build, upgrade and pay for stadiums or else clubs leave for better offers. The billionaires don’t have to spend any more of their money. Unlike the AFL the NFL benefits from a perpetual gravy train and owners are modern versions of ancient warlords with their own private armies living off plunder. I believe only Green Bay Packers is owned by the Green Bay community.

The value of US NFL media rights is so enormous, NFL clubs don’t need sponsor. Clubs don’t need to grovel for loose change.

What is clear by this thread is that he’s left a bitter taste for many supporters who won’t see any relief for a long time. Football is a passionate game.

Looks like him. I think so.

Clarrie showing off his potty mouth again.

Why is it so?

I watch quite a few other AFL games on my IPad. I don’t watch any other televised show or sport. I watch a couple of movies a month on streaming and read a lot. I get the impression the 2025 season was a disaster for televised games with too many dud games in prime time and regular time slots.

The title of this thread should have been ‘ The 2026 Fix is in’.

I don’t think the public knows what it wants other than their clubs doing well and be entertained. Kneejerk Reaction is always the first horse out of the blocks when radical changes are made. The public bemoan lack of a more competitive season now complain the AFL engineering more competitive games. And what exactly do the public deep down want? Other than a more exciting games I doubt many can articulate their thoughts further than that.

Funny that I was at the 21 GF and stayed on and I can’t remember Heroes being played or anything else after the game. But by then I was emotionally floating off to another planet.

The reason Cripps was let off was something to do with being denied due process whatever that means. I am quite sure that charges can be worded to deliberately sabotage tribunal hearings by creating get out of gaol technicalities.

Heroes by David Bowie. I remember hearing it a few times in the 1990’s before our games and it was inspiring. https://youtu.be/lXgkuM2NhYI?si=qjyXnHYjbX2uDKhc

It’s effing sports entertainment and been so for a long time. No use moralising on a high horse. It’s WWE with an oval ball. Once all the froth and bellowing is over, the fans will love it because most are of simple tribal tastes. The AFL is giving fans more of what they want and that’s more contests and blood and guts.

On reflection I am now for the Wildcard round. The second half of the past season was mindlessly boring due to the lengthy conga line of dead end games. I look forward for 12/13th on the ladder in rounds 21/21 having a red hot go in an effort to move up to 10th and knocking off complacent sides which have there top four spots locked in already. Give it a few seasons it will be just normal business just like the current rubbery fixture we now have.

So is he coming back now? Left it a little late this season if so. https://x.com/_russ2468/status/1987661348306833796?s=20

At our current state it is a benefit to us so that’s all I care. It’s not just a battle for 7th to 10th but also clubs below that who have incentive to fight out the season and have a sniff for a wildcard game.

Amazing that Scott Pendlebury who has played 425 career games has never played at Geelong and likely never will.