La Dee-vina Comedia

Apart from ANZAC Eve, have we ever previously played a Thursday night game broadcast on free-to-air TV?

Luci, I wouldn't give too much credence to anything Goodwin says publicly (or any coach, for that matter).

In the last post in the now locked Changes thread, Kev Martin says Sparrow is a great kick. Who's right?

Has Sparrow been training with the defenders? if not, who takes the seventh defender's spot to replace Jetta? Harmes?

Which airport? Could we not fly in and out of Maroochydore's airport?

I wonder if that's muscle strength, fitness, confidence, game style awareness or a mix of all the above. Anyway, hopefully all of them will improve with time.

You may be correct. I didn't check any stats to confirm my impression. Maybe he did change last year and I didn't notice until now.

Working from home is really dulling my senses. Truly, my first thought when I saw this picture was that Covid had really aged Max Gawn. Then read the piece and realised it wasn't him.

I'm not sure there's a common understanding of what "x factor" means. In a football sense, to me, it means someone who is not possible to define. They're not a forward or a back and they're not reliable. They show potential with occasional flashes of brilliance but have never yet realised any semblence of a consistent form line. If they were a comedian, they would be described as "zany" - a word used to describe someone who isn't actually funny, but you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. (The word to use if they're not funny and you want to be critical is "buffoon", regularly used among people I know to describe Bill Brownless.) For what it's worth, I don't think Smith has x factor (as I've defined it). He meets some of the criteria, but I'm yet to see any flashes of brilliance.

Nice pun

Today's Age suggests strongly that rorting the salary cap was widespread around this time. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/many-clubs-rorted-salary-cap-league-knew-veteran-hawk-official-20200727-p55fy0.html In other words, nothing to see here, folks. Don Scott just seems to be grandstanding for no reason.

The Melbourne score that day is similar to scores this year. I assume that means we were playing 16 minute quarters while Fitzroy played the full 31 minutes and 10 seconds of Q4 and the equivalent in the other three quarters.

On my reading of Richo's report there might be nine changes! It's like everyone who played for us deserved to be picked in the seniors next week. (I presume the players get real feedback, not the confected garbage we're given. To be fair, I'm not sure what else Richo could actually say publicly about individual performances, though.)

It's a sad state of affairs when this becomes a necessity. The game suffers and becomes a less pleasurable viewing experience. For this reason alone, it is incumbent on the AFL to do something pro-active. Maybe we won't need to worry about zones, 6-6-6 and interchange limits if the ball moves quickly away from stoppages in the first place.

I see it the other way around. Don't discount the possiblity that this story has been released now to distract the media away from Hawthorn's current problems. Kennett would know a thing or two about not wasting a good crisis. And if there's to be a Clarkson v Kennett brawl (and I suspect there probably won't be), it would be a beauty.

Excellent pick up. I mistakenly thought the problem was our inability to clean grab the ball in the wet compared with the Brisbane players.(Just to be clear, some of our players, such as Hannan, Harmes and Fritsch, definitely had a problem gripping the slippery ball at other times during the game). Now that you've pointed this out to me, I wonder what else I miss when watching games.

And I don't think he has the same flexibility in his spine, either, hence choosing not to bend at the waist. That could be why he's ducking his head too often, too.

Just to add a comment about Oliver. I was delighted to see him chasing Cameron, even if he didn't catch him. The biggest weakness up to know in Oliver's game has not been his disposal but his willingness to run hard both ways. This year he's improved his kick to handball ratio and improved his two way running. Two big ticks from me.

I believe he genuinely believes it to be true. On balance, I also expect it is true (perhaps not in the specifics but in its essence), but I also believe every other club was probably equally guilty around the same time. As mentioned above, 1987 was apparently the first year of salary caps. Those of us old enough to remember can recall the lengths many clubs went to to avoid proper scrutiny in the first few years of caps. Also, while I think he's eccentric, I wasn't trying to suggest that the eccentricity made his views either incorrect or irrelevant for that reason alone.

Jetta shouldn't play precisely because of form. If he happens to need a rest because of the head knocks, that just makes it more palatable publicly. (I was going to say "softens the blow" or "lessens the impact". both of which seem inappropriate terms under the circumstances.)

I think it's well accepted that Scott is quite eccentric. (His age is irrelevant, although the age of the incident is not.)

1. Were there even salary caps in place then? 2. Would Don Scott even know what was going on, or just think that he knows? 3. How reliable would any evidence be now? 4. (If salary caps were in place), how many other clubs were breaching the cap at the same time? I safely predict this will go nowhere. Which is precisely the right direction.

Thanks for your work, Mazer. I suspect, though, that the wording of part (a) is the relavant provision with "unrealistic attempt" being short-hand for not "legitimately Marking [or] attempting to Mark". I can't even work out what part (c) means. What does "unduly pushes or bumps an opposition player" - and in particular the word "unduly" - mean? It can't mean either Prohibited Contact (which I assume is a defined term elsewhere likely to include high contact and arm chopping) or engaging in Rough Conduct (which I assume is also a defined expression) as both those forms of contact are addressed in (e) and (f). And after all that, I still don't see why players should not be allowed to make "unrealistic attempts". If they want to waste their time and energy taking a high-risk option, who cares?

I'm assuming Brayshaw isn't 100% fit. Otherwise I can't understand his reduced game time. Pickett is really struggling and I would be giving him a rest even if we had a 7 day break. I think Jetta's time has passed. I would rest those three. In addition, if it's time for Bennell to to take a break, now is the week to do so. I'm comfortable with Jackson remaining in the team as he seems to be gaining momentum. I'm assuming Jones can back up again. As to the replacements, I would bring in Tom McDonald for Pickett (!, thereby playing Jackson as a mobile forward rather than a designated KPF), Hunt for his pace to replace Bennell, Rivers for Jetta and Tomlinson for Brayshaw's vacant wing position. If Jones is also rested, I'd bring in ANB or Sparrow.

6. Oliver 5. Viney 4. May 3.Petracca 2. Gawn 1. Salem In consideration: Hibberd and Langdon