La Dee-vina Comedia

In fact, the AFL's decision is all about the head, or, at least, what goes on inside it. The AFL believes not publishing player weights may be beneficial to some players' mental health. I'm not convinced, but I assume the AFL has had specialist advice which supports this decision.

According to the MFC release (above) training was due to commence at 3.15pm today. Come on Sydney Demons...where's the report?

Do you mean they can convert Brian Taylor into Anthony Hudson? That's impressive.

What may help is that the State Government could see an opportunity to take the state seat of Caulfield. It's currently held by David Southwick, the deputy leader of the Liberal party (the party currently in opposition). Whether the temptation is enough for the Government to throw some dollars at Caulfield Racecourse remains to be seen.

I haven't seen the full team yet but is it correct that the announcement will include the sub as part of the team, rather than having a player "promoted" from the emergencies just before the game? If so, that's a significant improvement. On that point, I'd be looking for a "runner" as the sub. I expect Windsor will play somewhere around mid-60% of game time. Oliver may also be slightly underdone (he would normally play around 90-92% of game time but may play less than that in the first 2-3 weeks). Just because of these two reasons, I'd like another runner to be available to share the load.

An arguable claim. You may be correct, but I'm sure others would support Gawn, Petracca, Viney and May as other contenders for the title. Me? I think it's Gawn for his play plus his leadership.

Doesn't Goodwin have a policy of not picking debutants as the sub?

Fixed it

I'm not sure players are the best judges of their own readiness to play under any circumstance.

My suspicion is that the AFL has an ongoing promise to Richmond and Carlton that they will play the first game of Round 1 every year. And the AFL has found a way to stick to that promise.

I see that the AFL's own media people can't work out whether next week should be called Opening Round or Round 1 so they've used both.

In some respects, that may take the game back to the 1970s and earlier when players were not full time professionals and as such were not as physically strong or able to run into other players all match long. It may turn out to be a significant improvement in game style, putting skilled ball handling and kicking ahead of the ability to crash and bash.

Has Oliver ever played in a reserves/seconds game before? (Not counting last week's "match simulation")

And there is already a purpose built fenced dog play area on the western perimeter of Caulfield Racecourse. (Search "Pawfield Park Fenced Dog Park" on Google Maps.)

When you mentioned 99 and Max, I thought that...you were about to say something about Max Walker. My memory might be faulty, but I have always believed Max Walker played 99 games for the MFC before quitting football to be a test cricketer.

You should probably apologise to the family of Barry Humphries, too, for equating Robbo with Sir Les.

Which is better: Robbo or AI? After all, News Corp has stated that it uses AI to produce 3,000 stories a week. In fact, how do we know it didn't prepare this list?

Alternatively, perhaps having looked at who's available to be added to the list, the club has decided to wait until better choices become available, such as in this year's national draft.

Does the club have an annual "Most Courageous Player" award? If not, naming one after Brayshaw would seem appropriate to me. He has shown as much courage this week in making the decision to retire as he showed on field throughout his career.

But how would the AFL have Brayshaw's medical advice? Surely that's personal health information which wouldn't be shared with the AFL unless Brayshaw explicitly gave permission for it to be provided.

It's going to be hard to beat this as my choice for post of the year.

Maynard should not make a public apology. That would just be analysed and picked apart. He should, however, make private contact with Brayshaw to extend best wishes for Angus's future. He may have already done so. The secret of being classy is to have done it when no-one (other than Brayshaw) knows you've done it.

If the AFL has created a substitute for game day to compensate a team that loses a player due to concussion, it would seem to me a logical step for the AFL to allow a team to replace a player on its list who is forced into a medical retirement because of concussion. Clubs should not have to be forced to wait to do so until the next available draft period. If nothing else, it puts unnecessary pressure on players contemplating retirement due to concussion who may feel they are leaving their team one short.

The fact that an appeals body determined that Maynard should not be suspended clearly confirmed that a new rule was needed. We might not agree with that tribunal's decision, but the AFL was left with no choice but to amend the rule to ensure a future tribunal would not make the same decision in similar circumstances. And to be even more controversial. I wonder how Maynard feels today? I expect he feels terrible. Whether anybody on here cares, or should care, is another matter, of course.

Brayshaw reminds me of Luke Ball in that upon retirement he has so many options available to him. Will he go into the media? Into AFL coaching? Into an admin role at club level or within the AFL itself? Few players who retire have these options. Whatever he chooses, I'm sure he'll be successful. With Paddy McCartin, that means picks 1 and 3 from the same draft have been forced into early retirement because of concussion.