La Dee-vina Comedia

Mind you, Robert Flower made any jumper he was wearing look better than it probably was.

While I like your nostalgia, you do realise there is nothing stopping you from sitting at half-time with your thermos and fruit cake and discussing the progress of the game with your family, friends or bloke sitting next to you? And I'll defend the game and the spectacle as it is today. Apart from anything else, getting to watch it played on grass instead of mud and while sitting undercover instead of standing in the rain help make the experience better. Players are fitter, stronger and on average, better skilled. It's the non-football activities which are spoiling the experience. For example, I'd much rather watch a Reserves match than a couple of mascots doing handstands.

Cliche alert.

I think we can anticipate that whatever happens it will be promoted as a major shock: "In a major shock, none of the delisted free agents was picked up by closing time in the delisted free agents period" "In a major shock, player X, was the only delisted free agent picked up by closing time in delisted free agents period" "In a major shock, player X and player Y were the only delisted free agents picked up by closing time in delisted free agents period" etc

I note that Get Smart was first broadcast in 1965. Coincidence?

I feel like I've just read the synopsis of a three-part TV mini-series. It would be even better, though, without the last seven words so I can imagine you as a digger in Vietnam in the late 1960s.

Please to do so.

The problem with tattoos is that they're permanent whereas MFC logos are not. I wonder how long it will be until your tattoo is out of date?

Why 1999? (Is this a pop-culture reference I don't get?)

Personally, I thought the red in our 2018 jumper was a touch too orangey. I'm not looking for any major changes, but would like the red to be a little darker.

How does anyone know? How can anyone know how they'll behave for an event which is so foreign that for basically anyone under the age of 60-odd it will be our first experience?

There's another thread about the value of player contracts and whether players are no longer sticking to their side of the bargain. This is the other side of the same coin. Also, I can't understand how a player's contract today doesn't include an obligation for the club to keep the player on the primary list (except in exceptional circumstances, such as a player failing a drug test or requiring disciplinary sanction).

I note the King twins are reportedly different heights. Amuses me given that they're identical...but obviously not. Not quite as amusing as the Wakelin twins who were identical but different heights and were born on different days. Or the Febey twins who were identical except one was right footed and the other left footed.

I recall reading an article years ago that mentioned our ACL expertise (stopping them from occurring, rather than repairing torn ones) is the best in the world. As Harry Hoo might have said (but probably didn't), this presents three possibilities: we're both right and there were two such articles one of us is wrong neither of us is right.

Only if it's associated with Melbourne.

It's so long ago, I've forgotten how it played out, but did we "move him on" or did he choose to leave? Choosing to leave during our basket-case years would hardly be a surprise.

Mazer, I want to agree with you but I'm not quite sure whether I should. I can't quite find the link between what you've said and my post that you copied. Maybe I'm in public holiday mode, but what exactly was your point about my post? (But, nevertheless, kudos for the red and black ink pun).

I think it will also upset supporters. How often is the word "tradition" bandied about, including on this forum? A 22 game home and away series is an inherent part of that tradition. My gut feel is that more people would be aggrieved with a 17-game "fair" fixture than purists might expect. The 10% increase idea might be true, but it's also possible that attendances might drop because of the perceived damage to the traditional fixture. In short, I think tradition will outweigh integrity of the draw in the minds of the majority. Agree with everything you've said. As I've posted before, I can't recall one Premiership being won by a club where the inequity of the fixture was considered to be a significant contributing feature to that result.

I just assumed Lyons to the Lions was somehow organised by the media to give them more opportunities to write the simple puns they seem to love.

When did Bruce retire? And when did Denis Cometti come back?

Whether we like it or not, ever since players went fully professional, the competition became a business. I can't see it going back to semi-professional footballers who train only 2 or 3 times a week with the commensurate drop-off in fitness and skills. And if it's a business, it needs to make money to pay the players (and the officials, such as umpires, etc).

Don't forget to add from the other side of the ledger: sponsorship dollars from the NT Government membership money (if any) from NT locals "brand" exposure value (if any) from being physically present in Darwin and the Alice I suspect only the first dot point has any meaningful value.

Personally, I don't understand this concept. Couldn't we equally say we've given the number 12 to the first player we draft as a tribute to Sylvia, given that he was the first player we took in his draft year?

While I agree with what you've said, that's only relevant when we have the ball. In my view, our speed weakness is when we have to defend. We look very slow when other teams have the ball and stream through the centre. Having said that, I think sometimes it's a problem of being slow in thought (ie, slow to react) rather than physically slow.

Because the AFL is a competition of many things. One of them involves tradition. Another is that a large group of Australians support Essendon and through no fault of their own have been made to suffer the ignominy of supporting a club that brought the game into disrepute. Those followers deserve something in return for continuing to support the AFL competition.