Pates

That would be the right and fair thing to do. So naturally it will remain exclusive to Foxtel and Telstra with them doubling the price!

Not necessarily, Geelong’s home games are always a sell out and of course they get all gate receipts. They would’ve budgeted for that, whereas I would picture we have budgeted a lot more modestly for our home games, particularly against the likes of free and GWS. I wonder how much renting the ground will cost with no fans? Perhaps that will be something the AFL subsidises?

So what was written in that article was that they’re expecting the first 4 rounds to be played with no fans. We can afford that to go to round 5 as we have two home games and they’re both low drawing but round 6 is the big one, for the ANZAC day eve game if that’s a lock out, that will be an absolute killer for us. I still don’t know what to think about the lock out, it feels like a hysterical response to it all. Could they have looked at alternatives such as segmenting large crowds? What a crappy way to start the decade.

I honestly can’t see how you could possibly see that conclusion. Ok perhaps we’ve performed well there with hostile crowds before, but to ignore the obvious that the crowd influences not only the WC players but the umpires is baffling. The eagles are usually good for at least 3-4 goals from direct umpire intervention that comes from the hostile crowd. As for the players being flat, we have to trust that the coaching staff will give them the right motivation to get them in game in bizarre circumstances. I would be filthy if I was an Eagles fan as it has nullified a big component of a home ground advantage.

I just renewed my overseas membership then, obviously my situation means that virus or not it makes no difference to me. I've got to gold level membership thanks to consecutive years of being a member, I really do think the club has the makings of being up there this year and next year so I want to makes sure that if I were to come back I would get those benefits in finals. As for everybody else, I totally understand the difficult decisions people have to make with managing funds. Not everybody has the income at their disposal to pay for a membership and it's quite often combined with the idea that going to home matches balances out the ledger. But to those that are in a position to pay for a membership, our club has (yet again) been caught in some bad luck given that this was a year that was meant to provide us with multiple blockbuster games. If this virus persists and affects our gate return then it will hit the club hard, they've beaten us around with some shocking years (last year was a massive kick to the gonads), memberships will be important to our bottom line.

Just a slight topic change, I hear that the NRL are going ahead with their round one as per normal (as it falls after the Monday) and that good old ScoMo is going to be attending the Cronulla Sharks game. If Dutton has tested positive for the virus shouldn't our brilliant PM be self isolating?

This is all really quite bizarre to watch unfold, if round one goes ahead that certainly brings the home ground advantage down. I expect that if a player gets diagnosed with the virus that will signal shut down of matches. Makes the AFL’s farcical fixturing system even less even, always said that teams should never play another team twice until each team has played each other once. At least if they augmented the season down in rounds that would be a lot easier to control. Just on the gathering of 500 people, shame they can’t let say 100 from each teams cheer squad in. Just to give a tiny bit of colour.

Seems a bit OTT to be be cancelling a practice match if no players/staff are exhibiting symptoms or could be at risk. I get them wanting to protect the players (and that’s a good thing) but surely this wouldn’t be that high a risk.

Weid still for me, I could see Jackson being played on the bench with combining as a second ruck while also played forward/midfield, but if it’s a choice between them Weids ahead by physical development.

The choice of Casey (while not ideal) makes sense for a number of reasons. I imagine the main one is we will be doing mainly (if not all) closed training sessions for the foreseeable future, shame because I really like hearing who’s killing it out on the track. Casey allows us to close the doors, Gosch’s Paddock (please can we change the name!) is open to the public. It sucks but so be it.

Setbacks will happen with him, as it happened before. It’s about minimising the damaged and ensuring those setbacks are only minor so the recovery time reduces to more manageable levels. FWIW I think we’ll get games out of him, the challenge will lie in managing recovery and in game fitness. Whatever happens I’m glad we’re supporting him.

Meh, cheap shot. Beat the pies on QB and make sure he knows all about it. ?‍♂️

I agree, my first thoughts when I saw it was that the AFL have stitched us up, but we’ve been sent there with 6 day turnarounds. At least this way we have time to prepare for it and finalists are traditionally a little bit sluggish early. Scoreboard pressure early in the game massive for us though.

I can never keep up with these things as to where the reporter thinks they rank right now or whether it’s a Nostradamus style thing of saying this is where they will be rated once the season is going. Trac hasn’t done enough in season to qualify but if he continues his pre-season form he’ll be top 50 (higher) for sure.

The episode with Kozzie on the beach with the gruelling training day was the best one I reckon, well done to the club for doing this documentary. And well done to the cinematographers and all involved with it, very professionally made. It's got me pumped for the real thing now, can't wait to see Maxy lead them out there for round one!

Knowing our MFCSS Viney will get a week while the bulldog who did a worse tackle (and worse result) will get off.

Are we actually worried about Viney’s sling tackle? Commentators keep mentioning it but surely a fine at worst given the Hawks player was totally fine.

The sample size of what we have to go on is positive from Tomlinson (and Langdon). Whichever way you look at him, getting Tomlinson to the club has improved the overall quality of the list and I think he’ll be a positive contributor this year.

So far I’ve only seen the first half, but I can’t see any reason why people would be having OMac out of their round one side. His kicking was a lot better than Hibberd and May’s (apart from May’s awesome kick out!).

Weideman at the moment but jeez Sam’s really gotta pull his finger out. Not doing enough around the ground, can’t just be a back up ruck, has to be expected to get 1-2 goals a game.

Yeah I’d have to agree, LJ looks the goods but we are not in a position of needing to blood him so I reckon Casey will be where he finds himself early days. Interesting to think about Casey if him, Bradtke and Preuss are fit, that’s quite a bit of tall timbre. Throw in one of Weids or Brown as well as I can’t see a combo of Weids/Brown/TMac being used too often.

Unless you wear a very specific type of mask (which most people don’t have), wear it properly (which most people don’t), and implement proper procedures while wearing with (ie don’t contaminate the mask, which most people end up doing) then wearing a mask is absolutely pointless and in fact may even increase your chances of getting sick.

Kozzie is a very different player to ANB, more of a traditional small forward whereas Nibbler works hard and covers lots of territory. Hannah hasn’t had a pre-season, I’m a big wrap for him but I think he’ll need at least a week at the VFL to gets some match fitness. Smith has barely been training with the main group, OMac is ahead of him until Smith gets fitness and form I would’ve thought.

His kicking is ok, it’s his decision making that’s the issue. Much like Frost he’s not a smart player.

Interesting robust discussion on OMac, I’m not a huge fan of his but I think as a second tall he does a decent enough job DEFENSIVELY. When he gets the ball I may panic attacks though. That said I would always expect May to be taking the opposition’s no. 1 key forward which leaves OMac/alternative option on their second tall forward and Lever floating as the interceptor. For now I think OMac has done enough to have that place in the team, I’m just glad we don’t have both him and Frost there together.