La Dee-vina Comedia

Do you mean "for the kids" or "from the kids"?

The publishers should consult Demonland to find out who's photos should be used. Just look at the contracts thread and avoid anyone who doesn't have a contract beyond the current year. And then avoid anyone for whom there's been speculation as to the possibility of moving. If they'd done that this year, they would have known to avoid using McVee, Petracca and Oliver. It won't be foolproof (May could have left, but didn't), but better than what they do now.

Story is locked behind a paywall, unfortunately.

Always love the photos. But I'm amazed how many people who go to watch training are constantly looking at their phones. Reminds me of this excellent Leunig cartoon.

Keep in mind, though, that match sim training can't replicate a full game as you need 46 available players (fewer if the interchange bench is less than 5 a side). As a consequence, the match sim at training is always going to have more space. It's just a question of where that space is going to be found.

Don't forget Adams. I don't know if he'll make it, but he'll also be competing for one of those spots.

I think it's a great idea. Anyone remember him as a Melbourne player? Apparently he played 4 consecutive games in 1977...and that was it. (Source: the invaluable Demonwiki)

I'll argue that Thursday night footy is not the success claimed because of the collateral damage to Saturday night and to some extent Friday night football. I'm sure others will disagree with me.

Even if there is no change under the current broadcast rights deal, the attitude of DAZN, as the current owner of Foxtel, will be significant for the next deal. It is not helped by the AFL continuing to bow down to the Seven Network (as seen by relatively recent decisions, such as dropping FTA football on Saturday nights, the expansion of Thursday night football, and the introduction of Mildcard round (my favourite deliberate mis-spelling)). The AFL needs a competitive marketplace for the next rights deal and won't achieve that if it doesn't stand up more to Seven.

Sounds like your statement to Police when arrested for having Fritsch's jumpers in your possession.

He still looks skinny in the upper body which suggests two things. Firstly, he might not be ready to play straight away and secondly, if he's that good now, he's going to be even better when he gets stronger.

Gets close to self-incrimination on a couple of laws being broken if he was still under 18 at the time.

As a matter of interest, does the AFL or the club decide where these community camps are held? As a follow up and possibly related question, do we have any particular affiliation with this part of Victoria?

Just ask your streaming service to play the music of 1967. 1967 in music - Wikipedia

It's not cynical and it is exactly what I would do (if the accountants let me) if I had taken up the job as the new CEO. It's also not a bad strategy, either, to get all the bad news out of the way as the club tries to convince its supporters that a new dawn is breaking.

Guy Rigoni territory, isn't it?

To continue the analogy, we're better served with hard nuts than soft centres.

I know you're referring to players' height, but imagine if their footy IQ was 194-195.

Great photos! I'm surprised players wear watches during contact training. Getting hit on the head with a stray arm with a watch on it could be very painful.

Arguably the best player we ever drafted was also our worst decision because he never actually agreed to play with us. In the 1986 draft (the first ever draft) we selected Darren Jarman. A star with Hawthorn and Adelaide...but not with us.

I was hoping "learnings" would have left the MFC vernacular when Goodwin left.

Any analysis of the of the draft on its own is senseless. What would make for much better analysis is an holistic analysis of list changes through trades, free agency, drafting (including the rookie draft) and other additions/subtractions. One teams "poor" draft might be as a consequence of having used up draft capital through trading.

The 60s wouldn't have been the same without either of them.

Can someone please advise on the following? How many players with indigenous backgrounds are now on our playing list? It's at least 5 (May, Pickett x2, McAdam, Mentha). Any others? Is 5 (or whatever the current number is) the most we've ever had on our playing list?

And you and Max have played about 250 AFL games between you, too.