La Dee-vina Comedia

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...

Quick question. If Hogan wins the Rising Star, will this be the first silverwear (meaning any award/prize/flag/trophy) won by Melbourne for anything since Jared Rivers won the Rising Star back before the Dark Ages? (Excluding meaningless match day trophies and the meaningful women's competition).

Dear Gillon McLachlan If you are wondering why the crowd at the Melbourne v GWS game was the lowest for an AFL game ever at Etihad, let me help you out: Melbourne members and supporters keep telling you (both in writing and by their absence) that they object to home games at Etihad it was Fathers Day 1.10 pm on a Sunday...which was Father's Day. Seriously? Stop blaming Melbourne supporters and remember your own comments about match day experience. The supporters are telling you what they want. Stop trying to dictate to the supporters what you want from them

The club chose to play him in 87 out of the last 88 games from 2012 to now, including all games coached by Paul Roos. I reckon there's a fair bit of "buy in" from both the player and the club. I suspect his future just boils down to price. The club is likely to want to keep him if the price is right. If someone else wants to pay him more, that's the nature of professional football and good luck to him.

Has Steve Johnson formally retired or, in effect, been delisted?

Jack Watts listless? In so many ways.

I suspect Watts wasn't eligible to play.

Can anyone please enlighten me as to how the voting works? I remember that one year recently, every player was awarded votes from 1-7 for every game played resulting in the strange result that players who might have played just one poor game for the year still got votes. Is it still that system? if so, it makes it hard for players who missed multiple games with injury irrespective of how well they played when on the park (eg, Viney).

Not when you're arguing about a team's performance in an individual game. It might be for an ultimately different prize, but if a team isn't trying its hardest to win...it isn't trying it's hardest to win. There's a different question to be answered, though, whether it matters as much if a team's actions impact on the fairness of the finals competition by (1) potentially changing the finals mix and where teams play and (2) giving some players in some teams a rest when other players in other teams do not benefit from this same advantage. In my view, what Freo and North have done is significantly worse than any team attempting to improve their position in the draft. There are eight teams with a chance of winning a Premiership and two of them have been granted an AFL-endorsed advantage. That's an immediate reward. With the time period between drafting and a team at the bottom becoming a finals contender, any advantage of an improved draft position is reduced by a whole suite of other factors.

I gather you don't think Hogan has a future.

Agree. My highlight is that every single one of the players drafted last year, including the rookie draft (other than Petracca) played at least one game. And none of them seemed to have been out of their depths beyond what one might expect for first year players (although I haven't seen O-Mac or White play so am basing that on comments made on here as well as stats, game reports, etc). Take a bow, recruitment team.

The converse, however, is that with so many draft choices it could be argued that it would be impossible to stuff them all up and therefore the only reason for failure is their subsequent poor development. Anyway, it's a moot point and it's been done to death. In another thread I've commented that Paul Roos' gameday coaching doesn't inspire me but his ability to get the list management, recruitment and player development right is where I see his lasting legacy.

Some broken clocks are better than others.

I think we'll be OK. We've still got Lamumba, VandenBurg, Trengrove and Dunne

Wouldn't it just be fantastic, though, if North and Freo bowed out of the finals quickly? (Note: Until the "resting" matter arose, I would have been happy for any one of the Bulldogs, North Melbourne or Fremantle to win the premiership. Now there's only one team I want to win it.)