La Dee-vina Comedia

Actually, I used to admire DeeSpencer's comments. But I'm done with DeeSpencer's cheap comments. I'm done with his know-it-all approach. And I'm done with his vitriol. Move on.

Smith - deer in headlights. (But, definitely showed enough to persist with him. It must be hard for inexperienced players to transition from VFL to AFL level football. Loved his desire and his effort but he doesn't know what to do with the ball when he has it. Nevertheless, I saw enough to believe he can make it.) Pedersen - retirement beckons, soon Lewis - clearly our best. (Why do we mark him so hard when he makes a couple of disposal errors when so much of his disposal was first rate?)

Easy. He was (by far) our best player today, even though he had one errant handpass and one very poor kick in the final quarter. The problem wasn't the defence, most of whom played quite well, but with the midfield and the coaching structure. Jetta nearly got votes from me. 6. Lewis 5. Oliver 4. T McDonald 3. Viney 2. Fritsch 1. Gawn (not his usual dominant self, but he made sure Grundy wasn't dominant either).

Trading these days sees complex deals so we shouldn't be looking at Player X for a specific draft pick number. All sorts of things get packaged together so that ultimately it could be something like Players X, Y and Z plus draft picks from this year and next involving three other clubs with us ultimately receiving a first round draft pick plus three picks in the fifth round. The complexity of the deals is one of the reasons "trade week" is longer than a week as the often involve multiple parties who all have to agree.

I think the requirement is that we have to take three players in the draft (with each promoted rookie counted as a selection). How we get to have the available spaces on the list can be via retirement, delisting, loss of free agents or trading.

A heartbreaker, in fact.

If Channel 7 is genuinely asking the AFL to do something to improve the game, then the AFL is within its rights to ask Channel 7 to improve its coverage. So, what should the AFL ask for? My suggestions: agree to start the Friday night game at 7.35 pm (viewers have little interest in pre-game twaddle, so start the game 5 minutes after the broadcast starts) put a minimum of four games on FTA each week, generally being one each on Friday and Saturday night and one each on Saturday and Sunday afternoon provide more diversity in its coverage. This is not about being for or against particular commentators (eg, Cameron Ling, Brian Taylor, etc) but that they overuse the same people. The coverage could also benefit from new blood, and not just ex-AFL players.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a switch - more games on free to air but of lesser quality, with fewer, but better* games behind the paywall. *For this purpose, "better" means games with anticipated higher ratings, which, as we know is not entirely linked to the perceived quality of the game.

Does his body break down regularly or has he had difficulty returning from one specific, albeit longterm, injury? For what it's worth, whether it's Kent, vandenBerg or any other player(s), I would be expecting the list managers to be trying to get us back into the pointy end of the draft this year, so some reasonably good players may be traded to fulfil that aim.

I remember when we previously picked an under-developed first year player for his first game on Queen's Birthday. What a difference today. If Petty plays, he's not going to be selected as the hope of the side like poor Jack Watts was required to be.

My view is that Pedersen plays really well in his first game back from the VFL with diminishing returns thereafter until he is dropped again. It's also a bit of puffery to claim he's "good for 2-3 goals a game" when he's actually only kicked 69 goals in his 78 games. We always play 7 defenders. Usually 2 talls (Oscar and Lever) and 5 running defenders (Jetta, Lewis, Vince, Hibberd and Salem).

It's very dark in Melbourne at the moment. Will they be training under lights?

It must be a very fine line between maximising revenue on the one hand and maximising exposure on the other. Personally, I don't think either the AFL or Cricket Australia has the balance right at the moment with too much of the product hidden behind paywalls.

Strong statement. Who do you have in mind?

As a matter of interest, when Peter Jackson was on leave, who stepped into the role of CEO in an acting capacity? You'd think if it was the same person every time, that person would be the preferred in-house candidate. Doesn't mean he/she will get the job, but it would be hard to imagine someone else internally would be ahead of him/her.

Maybe. But that just seems to be try to find a reason to justify the first argument. So, I'll reiterate, I think the comparative data for West Coast and Fremantle throws a spanner in the "home ground bias" theory. Having said that, the AFL would not be doing its job properly if it didn't try to understand why the Eagles do so well with free kicks.

Those figures do support an argument that Sutherland has done a good job. But I'm not sure I can believe the figures. Participation of over 1.4 million (which is actually one in 17, not one in 20) seems very unlikely to me.

Makes a change from 2013 when we had to have the membership tents outside the 'G' before the game to catch people on the way in when they still had hope rather than on the way out when their dominant emotion was despair.

This is a good post. The concept of convergence over time would occur if the awarding of free kicks was fully random. That the convergence hasn't occurred effectively confirms that other matters are at play. That's not to say there is anything nefarious, but you are correct that it deserves a proper assessment to ensure there is no unconscious bias or (in a worst case scenario which I don't believe for one minute has occurred) some form of corrupt practice.

Dr Matthew Cobb

I don't share your enthusiasm for James Sutherland. In my view under his watch cricket has gone backwards overall. I accept that there has been great progress in women's cricket and the Big Bash, but cricket is no longer the dominant summer pastime like it used to be.

A good idea but can't be implemented because Round 1 sometimes falls over Easter and Geelong is already "locked in" to play Hawthorn on Easter Monday every year.

The problem with this theory is that if it were true you would expect Fremantle to be similarly advantaged and instead they are minus 308.

I think it would be coup for James Sutherland rather than for any club that might appoint him. I've been surprised for the best part of the last decade that Sutherland has remained as CA CEO while that sport has progressively diminished in so many ways.

Code for leaving Mt Buller?