La Dee-vina Comedia

The real problem with the departures of McDonald, Bruce and Green was not that they left when they did but that there were no obvious leadership contenders to replace them. We're still a bit thin of the ground and probably will be for about 2-3 more years by which time those who seem to have obvious leadership capabilities (ie, Viney) are mature enough to take on the responsibility.

If we can do this, forget football. We're going to make a fortune farming.

I'm not sure why there's such angst out there. Carlton supporters should have a look at the 2003 Rising Star result. Nick Reiwoldt won with Chris Judd runner up. St Kilda supporters have been very happy with Reiwoldt and West Coast/Carlton have been equally pleased with Judd. There's room out there for both Hogan and Cripps to be superstars. I look forward to watching them both play for years to come.

Mind you, if we want to take everything Mark Robinson says that's pro-Essendon with a heavy degree of scepticism, I think we need to treat Caro's anti-Essendon with a similar amount of wariness. Just because she writes in a more articulate style than the Chief Football Writer of the Herald Sun doesn't mean she's necessarily more accurate.

I wonder whether he's eligible. If it's best first year based on when he actually played his first senior game, then yes. If its determined by when players first become eligible to play, then he's not eligible (which would be a mockery).

Good point

This was his second year...which means next year he's going to be truly awesome.

Just a thought. If Cross doesn't use social media himself perhaps there's no point to the players using it to compliment him on his career.

OK, will do. I'm happy to thank anyone who had a hand in providing us with our Jesse...so thanks to Mr and Mrs Hogan as well.

Old dee, your predictive skills appear to be attuned to the wrong area.

And it might be appropriate to just quietly thank Mark Neeld for getting Hogan to the club.

You're not kidding. Look at the posting times attributed to some of the above. A couple are recorded as being posted after 10.00 pm tonight.

"Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery" - Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize for Economics (so he probably knows a bit about the subject).

Which one? The mark running in from the side in the goal square where he played on straight away and kicked the goal? Or the one at the end of the third quarter where I thought the interchange umpire wasn't doing his job as I believed there were 23 Giants players hanging off him as he took the mark? Both were things of beauty.

Joeboy - Demonland's Mike Sheahan (Note: Meant in a good way)

I'll agree with you on points 2 and 3, but realistically, we should assume that at some stage next year we'll again lose three to five "top 22 players" to injury for a significant period of time. Teams that succeed on field generally have either greater depth to cover these injuries or extreme luck with injuries in that particular year. If we're relying on luck, that's probably not a sound strategy.

And presumably you've forgotten about vandenBerg. Promote?

The Age reports today that the judges are the All Australian selectors plus Kevin Sheehan. I can't find the link, but I know that group includes Mark Evans, Luke Darcy, Kevin Bartlett and Danny Frawley. The judges had to vote 5,4,3,2,1 by yesterday and provide their votes in a sealed envelope to be opened at the ceremony today. Whether they meet prior to voting to discuss contenders or (heaven forbid) collude to get a "preferred" outcome, I have no idea.

I don't think that's correct. It's been publicly stated by Liam Pickering (his manager at the time the deal was done with Sydney) that Franklin only gets paid the full amount if he plays the full 9 years of the contract. I imagine it's a heavily front loaded contract, so he wouldn't be getting an equal amount over each of the 9 years, but he also doesn't get the full $10 million if he doesn't complete the 9 years. Anyway, I think the amount he's getting paid is irrelevant to the matter at hand. He may be suffering from anxiety that he won't be able to play for as long as he wants for a variety of reasons, but that anxiety may be as much about being unable to do what he loves as much as (or more) than it is about the money.

Herald Sun is reporting Buddy rushed to hospital last Friday following a seizure. Could the issue be seizure-related (epilepsy, perhaps?) and not depression? I realise seizures and depression are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

If I'd told my family "I wanna watch" they would have given me one.

Carlisle has officially asked to be traded. Herald Sun retweeted Jay Clark ‏@ClarkyHeraldSun 32m32 minutes ago Jake Carlise has formally asked Essendon to be traded. Confirmation from manager Anthony McConville. More @superfooty

So, Sydney agreed to a multi-year, multi-million dollar contact in the full knowledge of this problem. That suggests to me that the issue is resolvable and perhaps just one of unfortunate timing. (The alternative explanation that Sydney are idiots doesn't match with their consistently smart decision making.)

No.

I'm looking forward to Melbourne reminding me of St Kilda circa 2010...