La Dee-vina Comedia

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I guess Hore would be delighted to be considered "young".

I've been trying to work out who the Robert is on our list...and then realised that you probably meant Roo.

I now expect this to be mis-reported in the Herald Sun as "Melbourne culture problems continue as Oliver sidelined for showing resistance to training"

Great work, Werridee. Keep it coming.

If you want to take the glass half full approach, we finished in the second-best position available to the top six (after H&A) after finals. Collingwood finished in the best position because they won the flag. For everyone else, second to sixth is meaningless except for the draft position you end up with. Ergo, if you can't be Premier, be sixth.

Is the auto-censor having a rostered day off? Edit: So on Demonland's original post the word remains in all its glory. When I repost it, the auto-censor is back on the job! If you're wondering what the word is, and if you're experienced with cryptic crosswords, I would say that the word is a bit cheeky.

How do we know it's not an AI generated deep-fake?

Um. Why not? It's an award that recognises performance in a full home and away season for both sexes. It's completely appropriate. I'm sure both captains are disappointed in their teams' performances in their respective finals series, but that doesn't diminish the achievements of each individual home and away game that got them there.

Thanks for doing the podcast. I was a touch underwhelmed...but only because Taylor played his cards so very close to his chest. It's not at all surprising that he thinks all the players he was asked about - which is everyone recruited or traded in in the last three years - have bright futures. What else could or would he say? I'm not sure I really learned anything we didn't already know. Please don't misunderstand me. Taylor's job is to recruit the best available talent, not to be the best spruiker of that talent. I'm more than happy with what he does for his main job. And equally, very happy that he made himself available for the podcast. Well done, Andy.

I don't discount the possibility that the club arranged for Oliver not to be present at the first day of training so as to avoid a media circus.

I'm not sure I remember any of them as Melbourne players once, let alone twice! (Am I right in believing that Chris Aitken is Wilbur Wilde's brother?)

I'm reasonably confident he ate all his crusts when he was growing up.

I really hope you're referring to Peter Patrick Pius Paul Keenan and not having a dig at me with that post!

Add him to the list of Melbourne players who left and subsequently returned some time later. Carl Ditterich and Gary Hardeman are on that list. Who else? (I'm ignoring WW2 which impacted on players like Bluey Truscott and maybe Jack Mueller).

Neville, maybe?

My big thanks to all our trackwatchers. It's so good to have you back. By the way, is Satyricon in attendance? (Saty, if you're reading this, I miss your reports, although I can understand why you may have chosen to withdraw.)

The Collingwood players should enjoy Bairnsdale. It would put them close to their supporter base at the Fulham Correctional Centre.

Reminds me of Melbourne in the Neale Daniher era.

Grading the draft in isolation of other list management decisions, such as trading and making use of free agency, is a bit pointless. Grading the whole shooting match from go to whoa is far more interesting...albeit we need to see how the individuals actually play. In other words, wait three years.

I wonder about that. When the Essendon players were banned, they basically couldn't attend anything. I seem to recall the ban extended to Dustin Fletcher being unable to attend school football games in which his son was playing. I recognise that there are different circumstances, hence my question.

On my monitor, the opening post includes this line, "our recent recruits who have yet to play a senior game, who he thinks will be the next Judd" with Judd being the last word on that line. I think that's a great question just as it is.

Just on players who are not at training, what's the situation with Joel Smith? Is he still "provisionally suspended"? And what does that even mean?

??? And you forgot Amp (from Ampere)

You're not a member of the English men's Test cricket team, are you?