La Dee-vina Comedia

Has Laurie ever been played in the seniors as a pure midfielder for a whole game? I feel that if Oliver doesn't play against Richmond maybe it's time to find out how Laurie goes in that role.

Don't forget Jeff Garlett.

Who would you play in defence to replace Salem? Hunter? Or someone else?

Same person?

Dodoro, on the other hand...

Umm...am I reading this right? A player who is not playing last night should be dropped and a player who did play last night is to be promoted into the team? Or is there a joke here I'm not getting?

Does having an injured collarbone/shoulder affect fitness? Shouldn't Bowey be able to maintain his fitness level during his recovery? I'm going to presume last night's performance was an aberration and assume wholesale changes aren't required. The forwards can hardly be blamed for not getting near the ball when the midfield was so soundly beaten. However, if it's possible, I'd like to persist with Rivers in the midfield. He's got pace, defensive skills when needed and unlike a lot of our midfield is capable of kicking on either foot. He's the perfect Brayshaw replacement.

6. Gawn 5. McDonald 4. Rivers 3. Lever 2. Langdon 1. May I was at the game and astounded afterwards to find out that Chandler had had 18 disposals. I barely noticed him all night. Hence, no votes from me but happy to apologise if he was more influential than I thought at the time.

I'm a bit nervous asking this...but what's on the screen in the background?

I suggest you both watch Salem more closely. He's by far our hardest and best tackler. Opponents really feel it when he squeezes the life out of them with his crunching (but fair) tackles.

Alan Johnson must be felling a bit schizophrenic (although in a good way). He's been compared with both McVee and Windsor today (see the Windsor thread). High praise indeed...to all three players.

Should be in the lookalikes thread with Luke Darcy

The Todd River in Alice Springs generally doesn't have water. The suburb in Melbourne called Bayswater is nowhere near the coast. The army has its base on the coastline in Darwin while the navy in the same city is situated inland. And red heads are called Bluey. That's what I like about Australia - all sorts of things can be the opposite of obvious.

Is it 3-2-1 per game or per team? Because if it's 3-2-1 per team, we must have really been spreading the running around.

Not picking a first gamer to be the sub made sense when the sub was medical rather than tactical. Staring a first gamer as medical sub meant that they may not even get on the ground which would be a major disappointment for the player and his family, especially if they had made a long journey from their home to wherever the game was being played. Now, though, the sub gets to play some part of the game, even if only a small portion (yes, I'm aware of Schache in the final last year -but that's truly an anomaly). It means first-gamers can be the sub and their family can be confident they will see him play at some stage on that day.

Is this photo from today's training?

Excellent word.

Do you mean they are supporters who were alive and supporting Fitzroy pre-1996? Or are they younger supporters who still hold an allegiance to the club formerly known as Fitzroy? I ask, because if it's just the former, I wonder what will happen once that group is no longer around?

It's arguable. See here: https://www.liminalpages.com/ellipsis-spaces-dots

As an ethical alternative, I've always found a bottle in front of me to be better than a frontal lobotomy.

What a wasted opportunity. This thread would have been much better if posted in the off-season. We could have gone to town on "um" versus "umm" and argued back and forth about whether an ellipsis has space between the dots or not.

You make a good point. I suspect that one of the reasons the AFL and SA Government came to a long-term agreement last year was to encourage investment in infrastructure, such as additional accommodation and conference facilities for Adelaide.

I think the economics is a bit more complex. Firstly, the SA Government benefits from their own people choosing to stay in Adelaide for school holidays because of Gather Round, rather than spending their dollars outside SA. Secondly, I assume Gather Round is a hook for other events such as conventions, conferences and business meetings that wouldn't otherwise occur in Adelaide. I was dubious about the Gather Round concept last year, but am now fully on board. My bigger problems is that the footy calendar has become too spread out with games all over the week rather than with consistent scheduling. With Easter, Gather Round and Thursday night football (and ANZAC Day and eve to come), there is too much football on non-traditional days and particularly inconsistent timeslots.

6. Petracca 5. May 4. McVee 3. Gawn 2. Sparrow 1. Lever

Forget Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Elton and Pink. Whenever I see it written as "The Gathering" I keep thinking of Diana Ross and the Supremes singing "The Happening"