La Dee-vina Comedia

That may well be right. I still think it's the sort of question that should be asked instead of the base level nonsense that most sports "journalists" participate in. Goodwin would then have had the opportunity to explain why. It may have been injury management, it might have been a view that the club believed McDonald was never going to be physically better than he was at the time (now proven to be wrong, if we accept Goodwin's description) or that there was no-one else available so they had to play him injured.

Did anyone ask Goodwin the obvious question? That is, if McDonald is moving the best he's been for some time, why was he playing previously if he wasn't right?

I think it's a testament to the coaches and the team how well we've done given the forward line problems. It's amazing to think that in the round 23 game against Hawthorn we had only two of the seven forwards who played in the 2021 Grand Final. All of Jackson, McDonald, Brown, Spargo and Fritsch were missing for one reason or another. ANB and Kossie were the only two who remained.

If it wasn't for the broadcasters I wouldn't have known that Sydney was playing for a home final. How many times did it get mentioned? 10? 12?

Keep in mind that odds are a reflection on the bookies' liability. There are so many Collingwood supporters, I assume there's more money being held for a Collingwood win just for this reason alone. Hence, Collingwood's odds might be a bit shorter with the betting companies than they truly deserve. Nevertheless, I can see the argument that they deserve to start favourites.

I wish him well. I'm strongly of the view that Melksham will move into coaching, eventually with ambition to be a senior coach. Does anyone know what the rules are for players with injuries like this which come at the end of a contract? Because it's a 12 month injury (usually) do we have a legal obligation to keep him on our list next year? Or, if he's out of contract, do we just not offer him a new one? It's a messy end, either way, unless he was already adamant that he wanted to retire at season's end.

I suspect it's not a question of whether Bowey gets dropped but rather has he received a shoulder/arm/AC joint injury that might keep him out.

In the last game he played (was it against Carlton as the sub?), I thought Hibberd looked like a player who had finally lost any remaining pace that he had left. I'd be surprised - but pleasantly - if he gets recalled.

The wonderful vagaries of the English language. Two posts in a row saying essentially the same thing using words of opposite meaning. Marvellous.

I'm sure we all know who you mean. But it begs the question...is Ross any relation to Andrew Dillon?

6. Viney 5. Fritsch 4. Petracca (quiet first half but essentially won the game for us in the second) 3. Neal-Bullen 2. Brayshaw 1. May Highly tempted to include McVee for the last vote. What an outstanding first year from the young man.

I hadn't realised this (although I recognise it could change if the Bulldogs replace GWS). And given the most recent premiership from all these teams was in 2012 there will be very few players, other than most of ours, with premiership experience playing this September.

That would change the game so much I would prefer to stick with the current rules and system, flaws and all. More than an eternity. Noah predates Jerusalem...which, if it had existed at that time, would have been underwater, anyway.

We read and hear so much throughout the season about integrity - whether it's the draw, playing (or not) games in Geelong and score review glitches. So it's quite surprising how little is discussed about the need for integrity reasons to play all nine games of the last round at the same time. I realise it will never happen, for many reasons, not the least because of the time difference between east and west coast Australia. Nevertheless, the lack of discussion suggests that the rest of the media obsession with integrity of the competition is confected in the first place.

Must re-read Demonland rules. I thought posting selfies was banned on this site.

Jack Reiwoldt is a ginger? Really?

Doesn't that also mean players no longer have to kick the ball through the goals? That is, it can come off any part of the player's body?

I accept that most coaches, including Premiership winning coaches, generally stay too long and eventually get sacked. Very few walk away, although it's not unknown (Matthews, Roos, Hardwick). But I would rather have to sack a Premiership coach who stayed too long than lose one prematurely because he takes a better offer leaving us with a lesser quality coach.

Maybe not. How many members did we have in those days?

Maybe we should get the ARC to check every claim by a player that he touched the ball to see whether he's been cheating. If we do that, though, we're going to need an ARC the size of Noah's.

I suggest you think about why this hasn't happened. Just maybe well-run clubs sign up successful coaches so they can't be poached.

I'll give two related reasons. Firstly, it's a mark of respect which he's earned. Secondly, and more practically, we run the risk of losing him to another club who might offer him better terms (dollars or length of contract) if we treat him poorly.

A quick check tells me that Goodwin has coached the 5th most games for Melbourne with 134. He'll move to 4th some time in 2025. He's currently the 4th most successful in terms of games won. Here's the top 5 for games: Norm Smith - 310 with a win rate of 64.35% Checker Hughes - 258 (61.24%) Neale Daniher - 223 (48.65%) John Northey - 167 (54.19) Simon Goodwin - 134 (57.46%) The leader for games won is Albert Chadwick who coached 58 games with a win rate of 73.28%. This information puts Goodwin in excellent company. All stats courtesy of Wikipedia.

I understand the rest [insert name of important player here] in the final game of the H&A series. My concern, though, is whether the bye between the last H&A game and the first final means that any rested player ends up having too much of a rest with what will become a three week gap between games.

Clearly it wasn't in 2000 that the premiership was won from 4th position, so it must be some time earlier than that. I have no idea when, though.