binman

Its about 15 minutes long.

Agree with much of the above. One quibble - Bad Bunny IS mainstream. He's not some obscure; niche woke artist that the NFL put on as some sort of statement. As i have noted he is the BIGGEST ARTIST IN THE WORLD. As RPFC noted the NFL are a massive, massive business. The biggest sporting organization in the world, they generate more than $23 BILLION every year. It is untouchable. The silly MAGA boycotts and alternative half time shows are water off a duck's back - in fact as i noted the NFL would love all ythe faux outrage because it's free publicity. As they could care less about losing the MAGA crowd, which for all the pathetic snowflake bleating, they won't anyway. The NFL is aggressively looking to expand into foreign markets and make NFL an international sport. Next season they are playing nine regular season games, for points, internationally, including one at the MCG. Another is in Brazil. They are looking at having a team permanently based in Mexico City. The NFL choose Bad Bunny solely because it was a very smart business decision - who better to penetrate international markets and drive brand recognition than the world most popular, most streamed musician? As i predicted yesterday, the Bad Bunny (and Lady Gaga and Ricky martin) half time show had more viewers (140 million views and still climbing) than any previous show - just shading last year's artist that caused such angst among the MAGA snowflakes, Kendrick Lamar. In a world where attention is currency that's very good business. As for the show being in Spanish? More than 60 million Americans (including Bad Bunny) speak Spanish as either their first or second language - nearly a fifth of the American population.

Spot on. Just look at the key trading decisions King and the club have just made: Out: Tracc and Clazz In: Steele and Miochek Out: two players with questionable impact on culture In: two players widely considered to be solid citizens that positively contribute to culture. Viney is the very definition of such a player.

They didn't choose Bad Bunny because they thought it would increase their Hispanic audience. They chose Big Bunny because he is the biggest, most popular artist in the world that has enormous appeal, particularly among young people. And the Super Bowl half time show has very little, if anything, to do with attracting new fans to the NFL. It's all about the insane advertising revenue (aprox $8 - $10 million for a 30 second slot), which in turns drives the broadcasting rights. The hilarious thing is MAGA, as was the case with Kendrick Lamar, made Bad Bunny the easiest of easy choices as with all their pathetic bleating and x posts they predictably ensured the decision would get ongoing blanket coverage. And their confected controversy ensured the NFL got millions and millions of dollars of free publicity - and above all, eyeballs tuning into the half time show to see what all the fuss was all about. In a similar vein, it's also hilarious that Trump slammed the NFL for choosing Bad Bunny and said he would be watching the TPSUA alternative half time show featuring a mid-fifties pervert (poorly) lip syncing to stale old hits rather than Bad Bunny. Yet he comes out today with a Truth Social post slamming the performance, having clearly watched it in its entirety (i 'couldn't understand what he was saying' - yeah dude, it was in Spanish). Even the haters couldn't turn away.

Goody would have loved the Seahawk's defence. Incredible

The only musician that can compete with Bad Bunny for popularity is Taylor Swift. No one else comes anywhere close to his streaming numbers, record sales and ticket sales.

Last year the right in America went absolutely ballistic about Kendrick Lamar's half time show - it was the most watched Super Bowl halftime show ever, with a TV audience of more than 133.5 million viewers. I'll bet my bottom dollar that is no longer the case (ie: i reckon this year's will now hold the record).

Agree you can't compare the two in terms of budget, and for that reason there's no way the AFL half time show could ever be as spectacular. But there's plenty of things the AFL could learn from the NFL to improve our routinely woeful half time without increasing the current funding envelope. For a start they could contract an artist to create and produce an actual show (instead of the glorified Rock Eisteddfod Challenge the AFL puts on) - Jay-Z's Roc Nation has produced the Superbowl half time show since 2019 and are contracted for another few years. That means that unlike the AFL's halftime show, each show has a distinct theme - and performances and staging are structured around that theme. This year's theme was love, unity and an expression of Bad Bunny's pride in Puerto Rico and his heritage (by the by, it is shocking how many Americans appear not to know that Puerto Rico is territory of the United States and Bad Bunny, like all other Puerto Ricans, is an American citizen). A notable thing about the Super bowl headliners is they are usually homegrown (the exceptions in the last 15 years are The Weeknd, Shakira, Rhianna and Coldplay) whereas our headliners are always B grade artist from overseas that are past their prime. The other big difference is, as you correctly note, the NFL do not pay their headliners - much, if not all of the $20 million budget goes to the production company (Roc Nation atm). The AFL, on the other hand, spend almost all of its $5 million budget on washed up B graders from overseas, usually America. We have plenty of uber talented artist/festival organisers/theatre producers etc etc that could produce an awesome show with a $5 million dollar budget, particularly if done in collaboration with the performing artist as Roc nation has done since they started producing the Superbowl half time show in 2019. With a $5 million dollar budget and a focus on using Australian musicians and performers, a top notch producer collaborating with an artist like Flume, Kevin Parker (ie Tame Impala) or Amy Taylor would put on a killer show.

Why?

At least the games aren't on at the same time!

Love it - Saturday 21 March wil be a banner footy day for me. Catch the dees v dog at Whitten Oval (when not windy an awesome ground to watch footy at i reckon), a 20 minute drive from my place. A saturday arvo game at Whitten Oval starting at 2:10pm is just perfect - real old school vibes Home by 5:30. Rustle up a quick BBQ dinner and then settle in to watch us knock off Freo in Perth, triggering a discussion about where the dockers are at. Life doesn't get much better.

Yep, awesome, awesome lineup. It's been a bit hit and miss for the last few years, but they've got it spot on this year. Djrum won't be everyone's cup of tea, too experimental, but right up my aural alley and is one of the acts I'm most looking forward to seeing. Assuming we get our normal spot, we'll be on couches under a gum tree on the slope to the left of the mixing desk (not far from the right corner of Eric's bar). Here's a recent picture of me:

I can promise you i won't - despite my very best efforts I will stick with Latrelle

I thought so, but perhaps I'm imagining it

I think its part of the agreement with fox and 7 to protect their investment. Not that VFL games would be a deal breaker for somone umming and aahimg about getting a Kayo subscription, but if for example you could cast the coverage of vfl games (or the preseason games) you don't need Kayo to watch it on a TV.

See below (crazy to think this song, one of my favourite who tracks) was released 61 years ago in December 1964.

That's weird. Two of my comments were combined - first para was supposed to be against in response to your comment that 2 of your posts had disappeared. Wasn't funny so didn't post. Second was a reply to Brownie. But on new music ive been loving cali band upchuck (think combo of the minutemen, early chilli peppers, circle jerks and black flag - would not look out of place in the film repo man). And also loving Chicag/new york ban Water from your eyes. Not sure of a comparison but they remind me, more sensibility wise than sound, of erudite late 70s new wave bands like Talking Heads. The Gnomes are a young Frankston band playing early sixties, Beatles style power pop. Great fun. All three are playing at Golden Plains on Labor day weekend so probably playing gigs in Melbourne.

Sorry, did you say something? When is Big sound?

"I think most of us are pretty confident that Harvey Langford will turn out to be a Fairstar." That's harsh - his turning circle will surely improve.

Yep, tend to agree. And as much as i hate to say it i think tracc is a perfect fir for them and won't surprise me if he get back to his AA best. And they looked super fit last year. A really interesting thing about the Suns, at least to me, is their game plan. Hardwick has them playing a style not a million miles from that of the Tigers under him - contest, defence, and most notably bucking the trend of short and medium kicks to transition the ball and instead doing what the Tigers did under Hardwick - kicking long and focus on winning the subsequent ground ball or aerial contest. As evidence of that, in 2025 the Suns were number one in the AFL for metres gained per kick - diametrically opposite to the Lions who were 17th for metres gained per kick.

Does anyone know if we are at Gosh's tomorrow? (i did look on our website, no doubt it's there somewhere but i couldn't see it and i dont have an hour to look!)

Agree (pre-season predictions are generally of little value), and that's particularly true of the dee's 2026 season. And i'd argue that it's even more difficult these days to predict how teams will go because the collective fitness of a team has become one of the most significant determinants of success - i'd argue only behind injury and the strength of the list in significance. It of course all but impossible to gauge a team's collective fitness during the preseason, particularly of teams you don't support and to a lesser extent in the first third of the season (the phase where teams are still getting the full benefit of the preseason). The analogy i think of is baking a cake - all the ingredients are mixed up; it goes into the oven and looks great as it cooks and comes out looking delicious. But you don't know how it tastes until you try a piece. That said, I'm pretty confident the Lions will once again be a premiership contender as their list is so strong, they list is settled and they clearly have one of, if not the best, high performance programs in the AFL that has mastered the art of being in optimal condition on Grand Final day (look at vision of their players in the last 2 grand finals - they all look incredibly cut, and clearly more so than even a few weeks prior. And they have run over both their opponents, the Swans and the Cats and clearly look fitter and stronger). As for Melbourne, I think it's great that the consensus seems to be that 12th is our ceiling as it means the team can go out about its business without the weight of expectation and fans will enjoy the wins more and be less likely to jump on the club after losses. As I've noted before, there are too many variables this season (eg new senior coach, tweaked game plan, impact of Claz and Trac going, new players, new CEO, new Prez etc etc) to make an informed prediction of how we might go. That said i'd be very surprised if the club did not think the finals were a realistic goal - and i will not be surprised in the least if we do make finals, I think we have a very underrated list, even among dees fans, with some serious talent under 25 years old. In Koz, Bowser, Roo, The Duke, The Bison, XF, XT, Latrelle, Jeffo and the Kolt we have ten players under the age of 25 who were first round draft selections. And I'd argue that Riv (24 - and taken at pick 32) and Disco (23 - mid-season rookie draftee) both would've been worthy first round draft picks. The jury is still well and truly out on Jeffo and the Kolt, and of course two of those players are yet to debut, but still, that is some serious young talent spread between 19 and 24 years old. We have obviously lost some top end talent with the loss of Claz and Tracc, and it's not unreasonable to argue we are a bit thin for talent in the 25 years and older bracket. But we have the best ruck in the competition, in Fritter one of the most consistently productive forward in the AFL and if Lever, who is still only 29, can stay injury free he is a top line defender (i'd love to say ditto for Steve May, but I'm not convinced he'll get back to his best). We didn't have great first half of the preseason in terms of the number of players in rehab. But against that most players in rehab have had relatively minor injuries and have been able to continue build their aerobic base. Bowser's injury is no good, but he is the only long-term injury we've had thus far. If we have decent Jan and Feb i think we will be in pretty good shape, pardon the pun, come the season in terms of our collective fitness. The other factor is, as i have argued previously, i just don't think the competition is particularly strong outside the Lions and perhaps the Crows. There isn't much separating 10-12 teams IMO, and i think there's a chance we will beat some teams that at this stage pundits have us well ahead of us (eg the Dogs, Freo, Pies and Hawks)

That's great as one of my big frustrations with the team over the last couple of seasons is how many times we fumble - sometimes it felt like Koz and Bowser were out only one touch players.