La Dee-vina Comedia

And Kynan

There's an amusing story in The Age CBD column today about "NFL legend" Rob Gronkowski. He's apparently been brought out here by V'Landys to promote the NRL games in Las Vegas. He was in Melbourne over the weekend and went to the races where he was raving about...AFL. Hardly the script Peter V'Landys would have been looking for. It's the second story in the column which can be found here (although could be behind a paywall).

Nothing wrong with the club taking its time as long as the acting CEO is doing a good enough job. And if the acting CEO is an applicant for the position the club is getting an opportunity to see how he performs in the role.

I suspect this is correct. I assume partly because (1) the heartland states of NRL (ie NSW and Qld) have much larger regional populations who can't otherwise get to games and (2) they generally play games in smaller and poorer stadiums which don't encourage spectators to attend.

Plus, they have to find something to say that is AFL-related every day at this time of year. There's not always a genuine news story, so puff pieces and fillers like this dominate the off-season.

Why is T-Mac considered to be the "4th tall" rather than Petty? Based on a combination of training reports and last year's form of both players, I can't see how McDonald is behind Petty. It seems to me that it might be Petty that misses out. Doesn't mean he can't be picked as a forward, of course, although he would also appear to be behind Turner, van Rooyen and possibly even Johnson, given that Johnson might be picked to help Gawn.

The newspaper headline says: "Millionaire Sanjeev Gupta pulls rug out from under David Koch over Port order new guernseys to ditch GFG logo". Err, what? Hope they have a succession plan for their major sponsors.

It's interesting how the tabloid Herald Sun (and its predecessor, the Sun News Pictorial) were always called the "little paper" to contrast it with The Age which was a broadsheet. Even now, after The Age has been tabloid size for quite some time (more than a decade?) the epithet "little paper" still clearly suits based on what it says, rather than its physical size.

Poor Jefferson...the forgotten man.

These are very good points you have made. Nevertheless, using Henderson as an example, isn't Werribee facing that problem already? All their planning for 2025 (financial, team balance and structure, etc) has just been hit.

Should someone do a welfare check on Picket Fence? I'm worried a snake finally got him.

Still nothing official that I can see on either the MFC or AFL websites. However, this article on the AFL website is stating it as a fact. Mind you, I only wanted to link to this story to make the point that it's no surprise that Sandy Brock has gone from the Gold Coast to West Coast. It seems his whole football career was pre-determined by the name he was given.

Thanks - but that article is still conjecturing. It may well be correct, but it's not an official statement.

Has there been an official announcement anywhere or are we just relying on media commentary? I can find nothing on the MFC or AFL websites (although both sites are so poor it could be there). The media is always right, isn't it?

Just wait for the outcry when the season proper gets underway and people discover there are no FTA games on Saturdays.

Am I allowed to question a player's character based on appalling hairstyle choices?

Serious question: Does Ed Langdon ride his bike to training at Casey?

Isn't the hamstring connected to the bone at both ends?

Slick. PS: If anyone "likes" this post you can be sure they're over 60 years old.

But how do we know where he's best suited if we don't try this? Imagine if he's best suited to being a true midfielder and we've missed out on this for years!

I've now read the article on the Port website. Why do people churlishly assume from what's been made public that Hinkley is being moved on by Port? That analysis doesn't make sense to me. Surely, if Port wanted Hinkley gone, they would have done that before the end of 2024. I think it far more likely to be exactly what Port says it is: a well organised succession plan. I hope it works. The AFL world would be a much better place if most clubs organised succession plans the way Port seems to have done in this instance. It's much better than radical overhauls where a new coach comes in and dumps the former assistants.

Dangerous pun territory. As a matter of interest, Demonland's opening post is coming up blank on my screen. Is anyone else having the same problem?

I hope one day we'll read "Adams and Hore defeat Jefferson in big contest, much to delight of teammates".

I didn't read this article to mean that clubs can't offer long contracts. Only that the Board would be required to sign off on any such deal rather than leaving it solely to the football department.

And even if they were not looking good, as you say, I'm pleased that we at least seem to be trying various options rather than continuing with the "same old" plans.