La Dee-vina Comedia

Love this. The first five words are absolute, followed by the next six which equivocate. So, Jaded, are you sure or not? I expect it to be one of the best games of the season, and I don't mean one of the best that we've been involved in. I don't want it to be so, but I think Brisbane will win.

Good article in The Age today about our boy Trent. Backman to the future: Young Demon Rivers getting a kick out of footy (Note to mods: might want to change the thread title to "Trent Rivers in the media")

We know, because we can see, that winning increases the gate, membership numbers and Channel 7's appetite to seek more prime time games with us involved. What is less transparent is what it does for sponsorship revenues, although we can see if we gain any new sponsors. What I'm curious about, though, is whether the agreements we already have with sponsors have some sort of trigger clause based on performance which generates extra income for the club. For example, does Zurich, or any others sponsor, pay us more when we win more? Or if we get more prime time TV exposure? Is there anyone on Demonland who works in this area and can explain how these major sponsorship deals are structured?

Connolly makes clear in his article that his rating is based not just on performance (that's what the ladder tells you) but incorporates subjective assessment against pre-season expectations. I don't think before the season began anyone expected Essendon to be as advanced as they are.

Craig Jennings was speaking with Gerard Whately on SEN today on a regular segment where Jennings provides an extremely interesting insight into coaching strategies. I only heard part of the segment, but the topic of the importance of role players came up. Jennings said that ANB is the ultimate role player, so much so, that even if people might believe he's the 22nd best player in the team, he's still the first player picked each week. (Bit of hyperbole there, I would think. I somehow think Gawn, Oliver and Petracca and a few others might all get picked before him.) He went on to explain that ANB's role is to free up Petracca so he (Petracca) can "do his thing" and leave it to ANB to block, stop and otherwise clear a path.

I'm pretty sure the first row of the MCG Level 1 was cordoned off for our first few games. I thought at the time it might have been more about keeping the fans away from the footballers, rather than the other way around, though, given the stringent protocols in place to protect the players.

Sensible advice. These are Collingwood players after all. Who knows what you might catch from them.

"All politics is local". SA will allow AFL games with crowds once the Government there determines that the voting public prefers AFL games to be played at the Adelaide Oval to their fear of another Covid outbreak.

If you think I've dissed Parke too much about his kicking let me add that I still believe he was the best contested mark I've ever seen in red and blue. I remember a game at Moorabbin where it seemed like he took 16 marks on a muddy ground and almost all of them contested. (This is back in the days when statistics on "contested marks" probably weren't collected.) I also appreciate that memory plays tricks - so his kicking might be better than I remember.

What's Ken Emselle doing these days? Taught me maths in about year 10 which would have been in the early 1970s.

It's hard to see on TV but I think the gameplan requires the defensive wingman (ie, the one not in the play) to run back hard when required to allow Lever to get off his man. Whether than means Brayshaw/Langdon go to Lever's man or whether they go to the nearest forward and the defender on that forward (ie, Hibberd/Hunt/Rivers/Salem) goes to Lever's man I'm not sure. In fact, I'm not even sure I'm right with this suggestion in the first place.

Thankfully he kicks much better than Greg Parke

So, one in ten played the next week. It will be interesting to see if that number increases as the coaches keep pushing to change the medical sub to a 5th interchange. I'm not against the concept of the medical sub. However, I don't trust coaches not to use it to their advantage. I would change it so that any player subbed off does not play again until the 12th day after being subbed out. (Still doesn't stop the medical sub rule being abused in a Grand Final to replace a poor performer on the day.)

Ironic use of the word "spell" given some of the words in this sentence!

10 posts all saying it's got something to do with "confidence". That's really a metaphysical concept, rather than a practical problem. What does this actually mean? His lack of confidence makes him timid? His timing is off? His hands are too hard? He's too upright? or not upright enough? I'm not criticising the suggestion that it's his confidence. But if that's the problem how do coaches fix such an ethereal problem?

Well done, @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew. Others may have been affronted and ascended their high horse. You've taken the more mature approach.

Confirmation bias. Plenty of people say sorry for things that are accidents. It's what we do in a polite society.

This makes a lot of sense.

Average Sydney person: Get up. Got to work. Go home. There might be a cheeky supermarket trip or meal at a restaurant in there, too. Average Melbourne person: Get up. Got to 5 different Bunnings on the way to work. Have 19 coffee breaks at different cafes throughout the day. Cross the Yarra to go to Woolies. Visit every ancestry-listed relative before heading to a mate's house party for a few knock off beers. Go home.

I haven't read the whole thread so someone else might have asked this question: Is this the week we see the Tom McDonald-to-the-wing experiment? That would mean B Brown comes in for Langdon. There's one obvious reason why not and one less obvious reason. The obvious reason is that McDonald is our best tall forward so we should leave him there. The less obvious reason is that the plan must have assumed Langdon would be on the "offensive" wing and McDonald on the defensive side. With Langdon out, would Tom be expected to be the "offensive" winger? So, I don't think it will happen. My gut is telling me we'll see a different experiment with Langdon's replacement being Bowey, with Hunt and Rivers sharing Langdon's wing.

Some possible reasons: Melbourne is the city with the largest population in Australia. (Don't believe the story that Sydney is the biggest. Sydney's number is inflated by inclusion of population centres further from Sydney than Geelong is from Melbourne...yet Geelong's population is not included in Melbourne's total) Apparently Melburnians travel more across the metropolis than Sydney people do across theirs thereby increasing the scope for transmission of the virus (this was discussed on 774 last week) At this time of year, Melbourne is the coldest mainland city which it would appear allows the virus to survive longer on surfaces the QR codes system in Victoria was a mess with multiple instead of a single system plus a slack appoach to its use by the community Victoria's Health Department has been shown to be a shambles with the head of the Department being forced out resigning last year. Changes to large organisations inevitably take time, so it's no surprise if it still hasn't got its act together

The way things have been managed so far, don't be surprised if they're taken to a quarantine hotel. No risk there.

Quick question: Did we breach any rules when we recruited Fritsch? It seems like there must be an AFL rule that says all players with the first name of Bailey must play for the Bulldogs. Or did we get him on a technicality because of the way his is spelled?

This thread has transmogrified Demonland into Liquorland.

I think I prefer the reference to D-Day given we were on the winning side that time, rather than the Charge of the Light Brigade which commemorates a loss. Noble and heroic, but a loss, nevertheless.