La Dee-vina Comedia

I know this is a thread about Tom Sparrow (or Tom Barrow according to the Herald Sun) but in response to the criticism of the umpires in this thread, I'd just like to say that I thought the standard of umpiring was pretty good. In fact, and not just in our games (where umpiring always seems better when you win), but across the board I think umpiring has been better this year. Perhaps it's the generally free flowing games. Maybe less congestion removes the umpires from being so noticeable.

Killjoy

6. Gawn 5. Langdon 4. Hunt 3. Lever 2. Pickett 1. Petracca Unlucky: May, Salem, Brayshaw

I'm not a fan of having two of ours tackling one of theirs. It means the opposition has a spare player somewhere, usually nearby, and if the ball does get released, that spare player may be off to the races before we know it.

Is "Brukie" otherwise known as Peter Brukner, former MFC club doctor (amongst other things)?

You have a job? Surely this is an April Fools Day joke?

Pen, paper and a postage stamp. Address it to Mr S Goodwin at the MFC.

Weird. Why does Stephen Dank's bonce appear in this photo? He doesn't appear in the original post (at least, not for me).

If only it were true...

I think it's disrespectful not to appreciate the effort that the paper went to to translate the English language into the Sydney language.

Good perspective.

When I read the thread title, I assumed it was a temporary shutdown for some technical reason. I was cursing Andy for not including the word "temporary" in the title until I opened the thread, read it, skipped a heartbeat and then thankfully realised the date. While I'm here, it's never too often to thank Andy, WJ, Nasher, the mods and anyone else who keeps this site going for, well, keeping this site going.

Maybe it all depends on the Mystery Injury of the Week. Although if there are no injuries, I would still contemplate switching Jetta for Hibberd, but only if Hibberd is truly fit. Otherwise, I can't see the need for any further changes.

I know we recruited Stephen May to play on the gorilla forwards, but as good as he is I'm not sure he would cope with any giant gorillas that might turn up to climb the Empire State Building.

A 50/50 proposition at best on Demonland.

If it had wings, it could fly...

Could the Ever Given be our new training venue? It fits beautifully between the MCG and the Rod Laver Arena (Have your own fun with the Ever Given here: https://evergiven-everywhere.glitch.me/ )

I suspect the ARC isn't empowered to check whether the boundary umpire made the right decision.

Can't decide whether Old Dee is concerned that it would be cruel punishment for him or for Charlie Spargo. Or both. Congratulations Demonstone. Not only the most click-baity of thread titles, but you had me checking the calendar to see if today was actually 1 April.

I didn't get around to voting, but if votes were being given for excitement value, he would have got my top votes. But for actual performance, I can understand why he wasn't in everyone's votes. The wide spread of names in the votes shows how even the perfromance was across the board. Pickett missing out is no insult to his performance. For what it's worth my votes would be: 6. Oliver 5. Salem 4. Gawn 3. Petracca 2. McDonald 1. May

Of course. It's part of Gil's ongoing Americanisastion of the game which will see every team from 1st to 18th win a flag . And all the players will get participation ribbons.

Surprised by this. I would have thought AFL attendances relative to population would have been higher than NFL due to the size of the US population.

A cynic might suggest that it's been planned this way to boost accommodation sales in Canberra. I'm not that cynical, though. I agree with SWYL that the timing is likely to be Foxtel driven.

Are we meant to conclude that the small crowd is because most Richmond supporters are vampires?

Under this rule, defenders have to defend by stopping the player getting the ball in the first place. On the small sample size to date - and before the coaches have had time to work out alternative defensive strategies - I like what this rule has done.