La Dee-vina Comedia

He lets cleverness exceed decent levels

My apologies to Demonland and Dion di Mucci, who I had incorrectly consigned to another world. (I wonder why?) Indeed, there are five people on the cover of Sgt Peppers who are still with us: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Dion Di Mucci, Larry Bell and Bob Dylan.

And there's a member of the current Geelong team who played last weekend who could get a game in this side, too.

To keep the quiz theme going, go back to the magnificent cover of Sgt Peppers. There are four people in that artwork who are still alive. Who are they? I'll give you two of them...Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (both there twice). So, who are the other two?

Did someone say Animals? As it happens, on this week (and for the next three) in 1964, the number 1 song in the charts was House of the Rising Sun by Eric Burdon and the Animals. If that's not an omen, I don't know what is!

Here's my shorter option for Friday: "Unfinished business"

Have the first sentence for the Prelim and finish with the second sentence on Grand Final Day.

Agree with your point about Lever, but I'm not convinced Jones, Oliver, Petracca or Viney are leadership material. That's not intended to be disrespectful, but while each shows high qualities on the football field, I don't get the sense that any of them have the necessary tools to be leaders. And that's OK. Not everyone is born to lead.

Completely agree. I also believe the bye destroys the end-of-season momentum for footy fans. Particularly those whose teams haven't made the eight. By the time of the first final, many of those supporters have completely lost interest in what happens.

Most of these will work OK. I like this one: "Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

Based purely on the data in the opening post, I'm confident the AFL will bring back the pre-finals bye next year to create more tension in the finals series. If the Qualifying Finals' winners overwhelmingly keep winning Preliminary Finals, there's not a lot of point in having the semi-final contests.

Dog biscuits?

The way Carlton is managing the "process" for getting a new coach, I wouldn't at all be surprised to find out that they've appointed this Nathan Buckley by mistake.

It worked, didn't it?

My guess is that it's not the selection process that's troubling Lyon. I presume he's concerned about the reason for the shift in thinking which suggests there are people on the Board who don't want him. If I were Lyon, I wouldn't want to coach any club that didn't have unanimous Board support for my appointment. I think he's been wise to avoid a fractured club.

A couple of what?

You must interpret this sentence differently from me. It's from the Australian Government's website (health.gov.au) " The vaccine will protect a person who receives it by lowering their chances of getting COVID-19 if they encounter the coronavirus"

Are you confident this is correct? Are you sure it's not more accurate to say that "Vaccines do not prevent all people from getting or spreading the virus"? In other words, don't these vaccines work by reducing the number - quite significantly - of people who will catch and spread the virus?

I still don't understand the argument that stopping someone who is not vaccinated from participating in an event, such as attending the football, infringes on their rights. How is it different from requiring people to be X-rayed before they fly?

In all this discussion about on-field improvement, let's also recognise that we've come a long way on the administrative side, too. It's amazing how helpful a stable Board has been. The problems on-field at Carlton and Collingwood reflect the issues they're having in their back-of-house now.

Growing up in the late-1960s I kind of liked that Melbourne was the only team to have won a Premiership after a drawn Grand Final. It somehow made me feel I was following a special team. Of course, in those days we were on 12 Premierships with only Collingwood on 13 ahead of us. So we were special, anyway. Actually, we're still special.

It may be just coincidence, but Dan Andrews is aiming for 23 September - two days before the Grand Final - as the date when further lessening of restrictions on Victorians may be allowed. He has made clear, though, that the date is an estimate and the real number he will be watching is the number of people who have had at least one vaccination. It needs to get to 70% and is on track to do so by that date. So, if you (I mean everyone, not just you, Jaded) want some more personal freedoms come 23 September, make sure you've had at least one shot of vaccine by then. Who knows - if we get vto 70% the Premier might even allow home visits for Melbourne supporters on GF day.

Looks like a cross between David Teague and Mark Neeld.

The strike record of coaches second time around is not good. The only coaches to have won Premierships the second time (or more) around in the 21st century are Leigh Matthews at Brisbane (who had already coached to a Premiership at his first gig) and Mick Malthouse.