La Dee-vina Comedia

And neither do the bookies' computers. I expect setting the odds these days has very little, if any, human involvement. I assume that the computer's algorithm calculates the odds based on the flow and holding of money on each contingency and varies the odds automatically as required.

And Carlton have...

What does that actually mean? 14 good games? 14 great games? 14 goals and none kicked on him???

That can't possibly be true. Otherwise someone's lying when they say they're not thinking about finals and just worrying about the next game and getting the four points and not talking about the 'f' word and...

It's that great paradox. Club's get criticised for not beating teams above them on the ladder, yet the higher the ladder they climb, the harder it gets. Conversely, by definition, the worst team in the competition only ever beats teams above it. I'm always nervous about any game, but this should be our best chance to beat the Swans in years. Demons by 48.

Nice turn of phrase.

I think it's simplistic to say that the reason WCE and Adelaide get so many frees for is solely due to their home ground advantage. If it were simply that, why is Fremantle so far down the list? I suspect something else is at play, possibly, but not necessarily being helped by home crowd support. Perhaps WCE and Adelaide play a game style that encourages free kicks (do their players "duck into tackles" more than other teams' players, for example) and the crowd noise amplifies the incident. Away clubs need to work out what the true drivers are and not just assume it's purely home ground bias.

Who to believe. Tough choice.

Are there still going to be rookies next year (apart from International/Alternative sport category)? I can't see the point anymore. Can't rookies play at any time now without being "promoted"?

Goodwin on Gawn: "He’s just having a light week. He’ll train fully on Saturday and he will play on Sunday. We’re really confident about that." I was really happy reading this. Until I read the last sentence. "Really confident". Doesn't instil me with confidence at all. If they were certain, he would have said "We're certain about that".

This is the usual image of "rampant" (not a bad likeness, with all that facial growth and little on top)

The differential is not the only interesting figure. How come the Bulldogs have had 11 home games whereas ten other teams, including us have had 9? And I assume this data includes nominal home games, irrespective of where they are played. Would that be right?

The Herald Sun today (9/8) has a table showing accuracy for all teams over the period 2017-18. (I'm not sure if finals are included in the data). It is simply ranking teams based on how many times they scored more behinds than goals. St Kilda is worst with it occurring 28 times. We're the best with it only having happened 8 times out of 41 games. The story is about St Kilda, so I didn't read it all, but I wonder why we are the best? Is it that we have more set shots given we have two power forwards? Is it that we have fewer shots from tight angles? Do we have more players with better foot skills? I guess it's probably a mix of all of these things.

If he's able to play with this affliction, I'm surprised he even noticed the pain from the broken collarbone.

Has it been stated or refuted that Hunt's drop off in form was related to whatever his injury was? In other words, was he playing with the injury (or a precursor to it) before the injury stopped him from playing? If the Match Committee wants him in the team for finals, it might be that he gets called up this week to replace Smith to give him game time in the seniors. As much as a run in the seconds helps with fitness, it doesn't help with playing at the high intensity/high speed of the game needed for seniors footy.

We should keep this thread going until the positive thread has more posts than this one. It will remind us of the dark days and what we've had to survive to enjoy going to the footy again.

Actually, pretty much the best Melbourne team since these sort of statistics were collected.

I posted just before in the "Embarrassing Records" thread that it's time we started a thread for positive records being broken. For example, yesterday's win means we have defeated teams by greater than 90 points three times this season. That's a first. Ever. Our first quarter score was the highest in something like 40 years (someone will know). Anyway, you get the drift. Please add.

It's time we replaced this thread with a positive one: "Records: Oldies but Goodies Being Superseded". I know that actually seems like a headline from when iTunes first came on the market but I love hearing about how this modern team is making its own positive statement. For example, yesterday's first quarter score was our highest Q1 since ??? (I can't remember. Was it 1972?); When was the last time, if ever, we beat opponents by more than 90 points three times in a single season? etc

especially when finishing with "like that"

To be fair to Jacobs, Hunt knocked himself out by running headfirst into the immovable object.

There's always going to be differences of opinion on starting times. I happen to like the 3.20 start. And what we like or don't doesn't matter. The timeslots aren't chosen with ground spectators' interests in mind. Furtheremore, the 3.20 start is here to stay as long as there's a live football match broadcast on free to air TV.

Joeboy's deliberate pun?

Not sure how much more HB Salem can play! But I like the idea of Fritsch going to the backline and another player (obviously Melksham if fit) replacing J Smith. if Melksham's not ready, may be it's time to reconsider Tim Smith or Weideman. (The pessimist in me sees the possibility in this game of having to send Tom McDonald to the backline). I believe that right now JKH provides more value to the team than Spargo who seems to run out of steam very quickly. (In the longer term, I expect Spargo to be a very useful addition). Garlett played yesterday like he expected Melksham to be back next week and realised that one of the small forwards would have to make way and he didn't want it to be him.

Interesting to read through and see the consistency. Almost everyone had the same 5 players (Oliver, Hogan, Salem, Brayshaw and Harmes) although not all in the same order with a wide range of players getting the sixth vote (Tyson, Jones, Garlett, Frost, ANB)