La Dee-vina Comedia

I agree with you. Unless we win.

I'm facepalming myself, not you, LFS. Good pick up!

6. May 5. Petracca 4. Sparrow 3. Brayshaw 2. Jordon 1. Lever Honorary mention to the Channel 7 Director who must have a crush on Oliver and gave us more shots of Clarry than when he's had a 40 disposal game.

Which one? "Death and the Maiden" by Schubert? I must admit, I hadn't realised Pickett could be motivated by classical strings. Seriously, what do we think might be wrong with Pickett? He's obviously not playing anywhere near his best. But why has he not been in any centre bounces for 10 weeks after being their occasionally in the first few rounds? Does this mean the club is helping him manage an injury?

It's quite extraordinary how unhappy are the supporters of the teams currently sitting in 4th and 5th on the ladder.

I think Spargo will have a whole chapter. He's earned it and needs to understand that ducking into tackles doesn't work anymore.

Some random thoughts: 1. I suspect Smith was dropped because his defensive work on Tom Stewart and Nick Haynes was not good enough. Perhaps Melksham has been given that role this week. (For what it's worth, I don't believe in the concept of "defensive forwards". I'd rather 6 attacking forwards causing problems for our opponent's defenders). 2. With Jordon and Woewodin selected, I suspect Petracca may spend more time playing as a forward. 3. I wish people would stop judging players on their disposal numbers. Players are given different roles and responsibilities. Some have the job of accumulating the ball (Oliver, Petracca, the wingers). Others appear to be there to play defensive roles and/or create space for the ball accumulators (Neal-Bullen, especially). If someone is playing a defensive forward role (see Point 1), please don't judge him on how many times he gets the ball or how many goals he scores. Instead, judge his value on whether he stops his opponent.

Do you live equidistantly 5 minutes walk away from the MCG and Marvel? How else do you manage to fit it all in within 3 hours! 🙂

I've been thinking about why I don't go to Marvel. The best answer I can come up with is that I can only go to a limited number of games each year. I'm limited by other commitments (work, family, etc). As such, given I have already pre-paid to attend games at the MCG (I'm an MCC member with the added on MFC membership), I choose to attend games which make use of that membership. If I wanted to go to more games than just MCG games, I don't believe I would be against going to Marvel. In other words, it's not any perceived soullessness, travel or transport difficulties, or concerns about ticketing at Marvel - it's just me making a decision to prioritise the value of my MCC membership.

Is the roof closed for night games when the weather is fine? If so, why? I can understand daytime because the lighting plays havoc with TV cameras. And I can understand when it's wet, day or night.

The AFL could do a lot worse than put RedFox, me and all the people who responded to our posts in a room as a focus group to understand what encourages and discourages people from attending games at Marvel. Or they could spend a million dollars asking one of the big four consulting firms for advice which will prove to be useless.

I would argue this the other way. AFL football is a professional sport and as such those who run it need to respond to the wishes of the people who pay to attend. If the public are saying they don't want to attend any particular ground, the AFL should do something about that. Either don't schedule games there or make the venue more attractive to encourage people to attend.

My guess is that he replaces Harmes in the midfield. That's not to say Harmes will be omitted, though. I could see Harmes taking Fritsch's role as the mid-sized mobile forward.

Forgive my ignorance, but what role or position(s) has Woey been playing at Casey?

I think Oliver is arguing, "I like my hairstyle the way it is and there is no way I'm going to wear a beanie to cover it up. And, in fact, anyone who wears a beanie has no sense of style."

I think I heard that Goody felt the pre-game overnight stay at Geelong was such a success that they're all now at the Quest Docklands Apartments and will stay there until 90 minutes before game time.

Keep in mind that Gawn will be 32 at the end of the year. What we may be seeing this year is the inevitable decline because of age of one of the greatest ruckmen the game has seen. If Gawn's career comes to the end sooner than any of us may want, Grundy becomes a critical player for us given that we have no viable third ruck option just yet. In fact, I have always believed Grundy was recruited to enable us to continue to be contenders while we still have Oliver, Petracca, Lever, etc once Gawn retires.

Yep. I didn't notice Bowey's involvement as much as others did. Interestingly, I just went and looked at his stats to discover he had the same number of disposals as Neal-Bullen (19 - the same as Lever, Harmes and Pickett, too) with 4 marks (to ANB's one) and zero tackles to ANB's 3. I'm not trying to compare them on the basis of stats - I'm just surprised I didn't notice him, other than when he popped up for that very good goal.

The Age is reporting today that Oliver is likely to play this weekend. If that's correct, I see him as a straight swap for Harmes. I posted earlier that I would also pick van Rooyen to play Smith's role and then try Smith in Fritch's role. I'm now wondering whether Harmes should play the Fritsch role. I accept that Harmes is an unreliable kick, but he's a good mark for his size and can provide the mobility we are lacking in the forward 50. So, assuming Oliver is good to go, I'll change my suggestion to: In: Oliver, van Rooyen Out: Fritsch (inj), Smith

Assuming Oliver won't be back and that Fritsch will miss, I'd bring in van Rooyen to play Smith's role. Smith survives to play Fritch's role. Harmes was a liability yesterday. I think it's either Jordon or someone new to replace him. If Howes is ready, does he come into the backline and Rivers goes midfield? Or is Woewodin the one who comes in as a direct replacement? I'm unfussed about whether Melksham or Jordon (if he's not picked in the main squad) as the sub. So, my suggested changes are: Out: Fritsch (inj) and Harmes (omitted) In: van Rooyen and one of Jordon/Howes/Woewodin

6. Viney 5. Petracca 4. May 3. Hunter 2. Langdon 1. Neal-Bullen (yes, really)

And he's standing next to former Carlton player, Milham Hanna.

I really hope this is not a typo. For everyone's sake, I hope you weren't intending to type "bitter".

The sub won't be announced until Sunday. You may be misreading the post that references Spargo as the sub who played last round and is not selected in the final squad...but he can still be chosen to be the sub. (Could the AFL find a more complicated way to announce teams?)

That could be done. That would presumably result in less revenue for the broadcaster which would then translate to lower rights payments to the AFL.