La Dee-vina Comedia

Actually, I was just talking with someone from Jamaica last week. While genes help, Jamaica benefits from (1) Government resources being concentrated on training sprinters rather than dispersing funding across multiple sports and (2) most of the best sprinters end up gaining scholarships to US colleges where they train using top notch training facilities.

I can't speak for what happens in Jamaica, but every medallist at an Olympic Games is tested as are winners (and other placegetters?) at World Athletic Championships. Your inference that we should be suspicious of Jamaican athletes who have never been found guilty of doping is an unfortunate by-product of a general suspicion of all high performing athletes.

To be fair, the rules committee changes rules because of what the coaches do to the game. So, coaches, rules committee and umpires all contribute to the problem. Having said that, I don't think the rules committee has covered itself in glory in the last 5 years or so.

I would normally agree with you but I wonder whether it was intended to get Hogan into the game early. He's obviously been struggling recently. Whatever the reason, I thought Hogan was one of our best. Unfortunately, his poor kicking, particularly for goal, sees his performance (rightly) being scored lower.

At the opening bounce and after many (but not all) goals we start with an extra forward running from the defensive side of the centre square. Hogan was the designated forward at the opening bounce. It's a tactic I quite like.

6. Jetta 5. T McDonald 4. Oliver 3. Hogan 2. Hunt 1. Tyson

I think you'll find he's not as tall as you might think once he takes his helmet off.

Max Gawn was interviewed by Neil Mitchell today. Here's a link to the 3AW website where you can listen. The chat is more about life outside football than onfield matters. That's not a surprise given that Neil Mitchell is not a sports journo but a "serious news" talkback host. He's also nominally a Melbourne supporter. Max comes across as a humble, mature, impressive individual.

Interesting data. It amazes me how much older (on average) the Carlton team is, even though their games average, while higher, does not seem so great. I guess this means that the Carlton team has a number of fringe players who have played fewer games per year. Hardly surprising, if that's the case.

Thank goodness we've improved our trading and recruiting. Just a few years ago we'd have been more likely to end up with Andrew instead of Usain

Ankle injuries can do this to you. Who knows what he might have achieved with us if it weren't for injuries. But as time stands still for no-one, I suspect his playing days are quickly drawing to a close. I wish him well and hope he fully recovers from his concussions.

I wonder whether Geelong has played a disproportionate number of home games in the final round to help the AFL with the rest of the final round scheduling. The AFL clearly wants some flexibility in the final round so scheduling Geelong at Geelong provides more opportunities for other teams to play at the MCG and Etihad. Having said that, 8 out of 9 is probably not quite enough to be statistically significant. It might just be randomness.

My suspicion is that Michie might come in for Pedersen (or Hogan if he's not fully fit/over his illness) if it's particularly wet. Pedersen could count himself unlucky if that's the case, but with a lot of rain and showers forecast from now until gameday (and beyond), it might be judicious to replace a slower, marking tall player with a ground player. If Garlett isn't fit, I would expect Neal-Bullen to be called up. And I don't expect Weideman to play at all, given the expected conditions.

Or Maynard G Krebs?

Extraordinary. He left out Roughead.

I just hope Hogan beats Weitering every time they play on each other over the next decade or so. Purely from a generic AFL interest point of view that match-up might be the most enticing since Carey/Jakovich.

He's a very experienced journalist (and, irrelevantly, Jude Bolton's uncle).

The only advantage Spencer will have over Pedersen is that he'll be able to keep his head above water a little longer. Sunday is going to be the third wet day in a row. Rather than bringing in Spencer (or Weideman) for Pedersen I suspect the better question might be whether we keep Pedersen at all because of the expected conditions. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Pedersen and Garlett (if injured) out and two of Kennedy, M Jones and Neal-Bullen in.

I've believed for many years that teams finishing 7th or 8th (before finals) are just making up the numbers in that particular year. However, it can be of immense value for future years as it provides the playing group with both belief and the experience of playing finals. Not every team goes on to greater things (Fremantle, Richmond) but it's rare that an inexperienced finals team goes all the way. Whether we play finals or not this year is moot. But if we get there, I'll be delighted for what it portends for the future.

Is it actually possible for something to be both "misleading" and "spot on"?

Cynic. But an accurate cynic.

It's probably still stuck somewhere in his subconscious.

OD, I'm trying to work out whether "reverse" means your doctor said uncontrollable laughing is good for your health or whether your health is not good for uncontrollable laughing. If it's the latter, I think you'll need to explain a bit more.

The Round 23 schedule has us playing Saturday afternoon and North on Saturday night at Etihad. If it all boils down to that night game I'm going to be sorely tempted to travel to Etihad to support GWS. Might even buy some orange and charcoal gear and represent myself as one of their Victorian supporters. (AFL please note: Just because I might go to Etihad to watch the North v GWS game, it does not mean I will attend a Melbourne home game there in 2017 or any other year).

Ted Richards has announced he's retiring. And the AFL announced that Pavlich would be retiring when they released the fixture for Round 23. Not sure if that counts as "official" though.