La Dee-vina Comedia

Add Liam Jurrah to the list of best players to watch. Robert Flower is still on the top of both my "best" and "best to watch" lists. And Max Gawn comes second on both.

My suspicion is that the AFL years ago promised Richmond and Carlton (and/or the free-to-air broadcaster) that they would play the first game of the first round. To avoid breaking that commitment, the AFL plays some games in a round that's not called the "first round" which immediately precedes what is called the "first round". If I'm right (and I've seen no evidence that says this is the reason) it's very slippery sophistry.

What is funny is asking AI to "show me the current time on an analogue clock"

Have you checked your mail since you got back to see if they've sent you a restraining order? 🙂

"20 minutes plus time on"? Why the time on? What does it add? Why not just make it three periods of 25 minutes each?

Maybe this belongs in the Lookalikes thread, but: Marlon Neocleous Draft Profile - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central (formerly AFL Draft Central)

We might all be over-reacting. How can we be sure that Mitch Cleary got his facts right? Just maybe "People at Hawthorn say Al has become Sam Mitchell's new obsession" might actually mean Sam Mitchell is obsessed with his predecessor, Alistair Clarkson.

I think this is a really good point. Players like James Hird, Dustin Martin and Scott Pendlebury seem to have already worked out what they're going to do with the ball before they've got it.

Or maybe he wants to see what Zac Merrett looks like in all the different Hawthorn jumpers.

Not just every kid, but also every adult, too. In fact, even though I'm in my 60s I'm still just as likely to get a game now as I was as an 18-year-old. I always thought Harmes was a limited player with average skills which he made up for with unparalleled effort. I would have picked him every week on that alone.

Well argued.

Is Oscar Berry category B? If not, what category is he?

"4 Days of Darfness"?

Or maybe he'd just returned from performing some super-hero task and hadn't changed.

Have just watched the clip. It's possible that those two sentences were edited together. The first one was about the difference between King and Goodwin. The second one might have also been about life under the new coach, but it might also have been about something else, such as changes to the playing personnel.

This is where we differ. I think if a team finishes tenth of the ladder and goes on to win the premiership, it has made a mockery of the whole home and away season. And given the home and away component is about 85% of the season (in time spent), I think that's a problem. Mind you, I doubt we'll ever see it happen, so we won't know whether your view or mine ends up being correct.

Serious question: Is that before or after the wildcard round? In other words, at the end of home and away or end of the finals?

I don't expect it will ever happen, but if a team that finishes 10th actually goes on to win the Premiership...it will kill off the wildcard round. Why? Because there will be an outcry that a team that likely only won about half the games in the home and away season shouldn't be considered a better team than those that won around 80% (18 out of 23 is 78%). It will make a mockery of the whole season.

What surprised me most about this story, which is void of sensationalism and strong on factual re-telling, is that Jill Beaconsfield was described as the "hero" of the story, rather than the "heroine".

You left out skill and fitness. They were necessary, too.

So, does this mean Mihocek doesn't get a game...

I guess the best question to ask in this particular thread is: Of the two, which team will be the first to win a final - Essendon or Melbourne?

While I agree with your interpretation, there is an alternative possibility that the club did not consider the 2024-25 seasons to be ones of underperformance but thought that without making changes, 2026 would be. Either way, I like that we were prepared to make the tough decisions that we have.

I'm never sure with foot injuries which foot is more impacted. Is it the foot which connects with the ball or the foot that gets planted into the ground? Perhaps it depends on what the injury actually is.

Harriet Cordner (grand-daughter of Don, according to Wikipedia) plays with Carlton in the AFLW.