La Dee-vina Comedia

Most of the commentators retired from football at least 10 years ago. The game has changed since then in so many ways much of their commentary is superfluous anyway. But on this question of avoidable concussion, they are simply from such a different era their comments show how out of their depth they are. The sooner most (but not necessarily all) of those dinosaur commentators are retired and replaced with more recent retirees, the better.

I suspect you are querying why they are not full time, rather than commenting on them not being professional, given they are paid for doing this work. I suspect the answer might be along the lines of questioning what they would do to fill in the time between games. How much "training" and "coaching" would they need to do that they don't do now? Also, in my view, the problem is not with the umpires but with there being too many rules open to interpretation.

Off topic, but reminds me of the Billy Ocean song "When the Going Gets Tough" from 1985 which so many people misheard as "You can go and get stuffed".

It's a good strategic decision to wait and tackle if (1) the umpires are prone to pay a free kick for holding the ball/incorrect disposal or (2) data shows that your team is better than your opponents at clearances should the umpire throw the ball up instead of paying a free kick.

Will it ruin AFL? I'm not so sure. Legal action against the AFL or the clubs for allowing avoidable concussions might ruin it, though. And therein lies the problem - was it avoidable? Physics isn't my strong suit, but isn't force measured as a combination of speed and mass? If so, because players are professional and fitter, bigger, stronger and faster than ever before, I would have thought the collision forces today have the potential to be greater than they have ever been before. We're not going to be able to make players smaller or weaker, but we might be able to slow them down. Perhaps abolishing interchange altogether might provide the paradigm shift needed to make the game slower and therefore safer. By the way, an excellent article by Jake Niall in The Age today on this very topic.

Melbourne or Joeboy?

At least your birthday was on a public holiday! This was one of those games where the 21 votes on offer shouldn't be equal to the 21 on any other game played this year. Nevertheless: 6. Jackson 5. Jordon 4. Salem 3. Gawn 2. Harmes 1. Petracca

Reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger's: He denies it was deliberate, but he was a politician at this stage, so like all AFL coaches, I'm not sure you can believe what he said.

Well done, although you left out "for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee". Nevertheless, full marks. For anyone who's interested, here's the full work: For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne Next No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

Nice try, but no. Hint: It's only one person and not a musical performer.

Keep in mind that all coaches lie in public interviews. It may be that Melksham had a specific role that Goodwin doesn't want to discuss. However, if Goodwin was telling the truth I'd be most surprised if Melksham is in the starting 22 this week.

Just a backline: Peter Dean Any St Kilda player Paul Prymke Lynden Dunne Andrew Ireland Peter Bell

Most enjoyable. Any possibility of doing one with characters from Shakespeare or perhaps the metaphysical poets?

I love the implied optimism in this post. Your only concern is that the Grand Final might not be at the MCG. You don't seem at all concerned that Melbourne might not make it. Good for you!

To clarify, elections weren't held at Collingwood because they weren't necessary - there were never more people standing for Board membership than there were vacancies. If the membership were unhappy, they could have always proposed a slate of members to challenge the incumbent Board and wouldn't have needed an Extraordinary General Meeting to do so. In my view, that's not a dictatorship but a club which has a satsified membership. Should they have been satsified? That's a separate question.

I'll play the devil's advocate. If you were one of the Government decision makers, which risk would you rather take? Be criticised from every direction for keeping Melburnians in lockdown but with case numbers of Covid kept low? Or praised for releasing the shackles but subsequently criticised should Covid case numbers rapidly increase?

If you think we're being critical, try talking to Essendon supporters about him. They are enraged by his defection and actively wish that he be badly injured!

Tom Wills, although might not meet the modern definition of "first class cricketer" given he played before the concept of "first class cricket" was known.

Didn't I read somewhere that the "external review" at Carlton is going to be done by PWC? If that's right (and someone please correct me if I'm mistaken), I'm not sure how "external" that is given the incoming President of Carlton, Luke Sayers, is the recently resigned CEO of PWC Australia.

So, he's a "dominant narrow minded individual who would clash with others" and a "decent bloke". Interesting combination.

He did a year (or 2?) in the media after finishing as a player and was excellent. That's what I expect he'll be doing next year. I also believe he won't be lost to football and in good time will pick up another significant position such as Football Manager or some development role at AFL HQ.

That's unfair. I think it's much more likely they think Machiavelli is a pasta option at McDonalds.

"resigned to the fact" or "pleased with the fact"? If I were Hawthorn, I could see Clarkson leaving as a positive as it allows a refresh with Sam Mitchell in charge. In fact, it would be a win-win-win-win (Collingwood-Hawthorn-Clarkson-Mitchell)

It will be interesting to see how Robert Harvey goes. It's been well known that he wants a senior coaching role. But how many times have clubs been persuaded by the short-term results of an interim coach and felt compelled to give them the job permanently? It worked for Sydney and Paul Roos, but I suspect there have been more misses than hits. Examples of "mistakes" include Rhyce Shaw, Geoff Gieschen, and possibly David Teague. All perfectly fine Assistant Coaches but unable to succeed when given the top job after stepping in before the end of the season.

There's a brief article in today's Snap Shot in "The Age" which points out that Harry Graham was the first non-Englishman to make a century on debut at Lord's. The article from Peter Ryan also points out that Graham played two games for Melbourne in 1900. They were both wins against Carlton and Essendon. So, Graham made a 100 at Lord's and has a 100% win record playing for the MFC in, cough, nineteen hundred. (The Graham part is the second story in Snap Shot. And if it's behind a paywall, don't worry. There's not much more to the story than the above.)