La Dee-vina Comedia

It would be peak Carlton for them to sack Teague now, replace him with Clarkson and then discover that the new coach and the rest of the football department are unable to work together resulting in the football team once again going backwards.

Where are you getting the "6 hours" from? Assuming the flight is to the Gold Coast, it's a 2 hour flight plus 30 minute bus ride at the Gold Coast end. That's 3+ hours at the Melbourne end. Are the players getting together at the Melbourne end first?

Um. What?

Is 'ironic' the appropriate word to use here when noting that a comment that Cunnington has 'lost a nut' is liked by someone going under the name of 'Rodney "Balls" Grinter'? (Good luck to Ben, by the way.) Of all those teams, I'm backing Melbourne for the upset. I think this week we'll surprise everyone by finally overcoming a bottom half-of-the ladder team.

And in a related point, if certain age groups have been locked out of the process until it's too late to be fully vaccinated before the Grand Final. Round 1, 2022 is a different matter. I'd be all for it then.

I wonder whether Nasher can add some Prozac to the Demonland software servers? I'm just about ready to slash my wrists, not because of the MFC situation, but because there are so many "woe-are-us" posters on this site spreading misery like it's a delta strain!

Are you sure it's not one of your diabolical mid-week conundrums?

I have no idea if McGuire is correct, but given he works with Fox and the broadcasters need to be consulted about the scheduling of all games, I can see how he might have been leaked this information. If this game is going ahead, I assume it's Darwin instead of the Alice because that's what our sponsor, the NT Government wants. Whether it should be in the NT at all is a separate question. I'm not sure why there's so much anguish. Surely Adelaide is less incentivised than us to try hard wherever the game is being played.

I seem to recall many of the players claiming to have enjoyed "hub-life" last year as it gave them a chance to bond better. A two week stint in northern Australia and Perth while all living and working together may help re-bond them at a time when we are looking a little shaky. The bit in italics above is pure speculation. But it is no different from speculating that two weeks away from home or various long distance trips is going to be detrimental. Or, to pit it in simple Neeld-speak, it is what it is.

I've just put TBC into Google maps and it's come up with the Templestowe Baptist Church. I would have thought Demons and the Baptist Church might not lead to the best possible outcome.

It bugs me that Melbourne supporters anguish so much over interstate travel. The non-Victorian teams all do far more than we do every year (apart from Covid-affected seasons). I'm pleased to see the club doesn't complain and just gets on with it.

Wait. 19 degrees in Melbourne this Saturday? Surely not.

Not sure you can say Hardtack necessarily shares this view. What he is doing is sharing his age by referencing this Monty Python gem.

Is Bowey a confirmed 'in' or are we just relying on the prognostications of Jay Clark? That's not to say Clark is wrong, but before getting too excited I'd like confirmation first. I think it's a good idea to get some games into the "next best" after the starting 22. We may need them in September and I would rather have them with some experience of the senior team game rather than coming in cold.

Post of the year. Not so much for its content (as entertaining as it is) but for the dedication you showed in attending in the first place. Edit: For those not in Melbourne, Picket's description of the weather today is accurate. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd bumped into Macbeth and some witches while he was there.

Why on earth would you choose to bring proper mathematical analysis into this debate?

I hope those numbers are temperatures and not cases of Covid in the community in northern NSW

This the sort of thinking which suggests you'd be a good coach. Please apply for the Collingwood job. I'd be happy for them to have you as their coach.

Given the number of times I refer to the Western Bulldogs as Footscray, I'm somewhat amused that the one time it is correct to refer to our opponents as Footscray, the title of this thread goes with Western Bulldogs.

Games played in the southern states in late March and April are often played in temperatures of 32 degrees or more. I hope we don't have to go to Darwin to play during the night or day, but I'm not sure a 32 degree temperature in the dry season will be sufficient reason to stop it from happening.

I think Frankston is back in along with another 2,327 teams from the rest of Australia.

What we have here is a Don Bradman problem. In theory, no-one should have a batting average so far from the normal range. But because Bradman did so, it's now not possible to say that the Bulldogs excessive free kick count is somehow not theoretically possible without some form of improper bias. Nevertheless, there is clearly an issue here. Whether the problem is (1) with the umpires, (2) the rules or (3) the understanding of how best to play the game to take advantage of the rules is less clear. (For what it's worth I think the least likely option - and by a long way - is that it's somehow the umpires' fault.)

Haven't seen the footage and am not in any way trying to defend the removalists. The bigger picture is the problem here as very well explained by Jaded a few posts back. What we need is one of those fantastic retrospectoscopes. You know, the tool that would allow law enforcement to look back in time at the behaviour of idiots alleged law breakers well after the threat of Covid has passed. In that way, law breakers may be willing now to be cooperative.

A billion? Really? Also, there's some suggestion the removalists did not break the mask-wearing rule which may have an exemption for professionals (for want of a better term) while they are moving furniture.

Unless he did and the player(s) with that responsibility failed in that task