La Dee-vina Comedia

Should we play Petty and van Rooyen in the same forward line, I'd rather see Petty undertake the relief ruck role. I don't think he'll be any better than van Rooyen - he may even be worse - but I'd just like to see van Rooyen playing all his game time permanently as a forward.

Cricket and boxing immediately come to mind!

Bowey 5. May 4. Viney 3. Pickett 2. Turner 1. Langdon Was also really pleased with the games of Langford and Lindsay. And Melksham. Once again, though, too much was left to too few.

He was also a cartoonist drawing the "Ben Bowyang" comic strip for the Melbourne Herald for many years.

Final teams are in. As I suspect most expected, it's Lever and van Rooyen in for Petty and Howes. Billings, McDonald and Adams are the emergencies.

Like Shakespeare you've invented a new word: "stragedy" defined as a tragedy caused by a failure in strategy!

In 1916, Fitzroy won the Premiership from last place on the ladder. 1916 VFL season - Wikipedia

Too old. But I've got a great memory!

If my memory is correct, about 100+ years ago Fitzroy was both bottom of the ladder and Premier in the same season. I think that it was during World War I when there were only 4 teams in the competition.

If the wildcard round idea comes in (and I truly hope it does not), it won't take long for someone to suggest a pre-wild card round to allow teams in positions 10 through to 13 to play each other to see which one gets to be the 10th placed team to then play in the wildcard round.

The model was different way back then, but essentially this is how Jim Stynes and Sean Wight started. Just based on the success of those two alone, I would say we have a fantastic record in this space.

I assume Champion Data.

If kicking efficiency stats are "locked away", I suspect it's not about making commentators look like experts* but keeping the best stuff for customers who are prepared to pay. *Like so many other things, you can put lipstick on a pig, etc.

Petracca and Lever will both be 30 years old by this time next year. Irrespective of anything else, I would have thought our next captain should have a longer playing career ahead of them. The only players I can see on our list who are in the right age group (say 23-27 years old now) and who might be suitable are Rivers (currently 23), Chandler (25) and Sparrow (25). The captain doesn't have to be the best player in the team, but does need to be good enough not to have people questioning whether their position in the team is secure. Also, there's much more to being a captain than being a great footballer. Most importantly (in my view) is whether other players are prepared to follow them. You can't be a leader without followers.

Gold Coast burned us for pace last time we played. I expect that's partly the reason behind Sharp's recall ahead of Laurie. (However, my own argument fails to explain why Windsor has been dropped.)

Plaudits to the medical, training and conditioning staff. That's an amazingly short list for this time of year.

I thought there was an AFL rule that if you were called Archer, Archie, or Fletcher you had to play for Essendon.

Would count for salary cap purposes. [Insert pseudo-humorous comment here].

Maybe. Which shaped ball are they using to practice goal kicking? 😁

Any player who has travelled to Queensland on their break should lose the right to complain about "too much travel" during the season! (Having said that, I'm also unaware of any of our players who have complained.)

Keep in mind that the 50m penalty evolved from the 15m penalty because coaches decided that giving away a 15m penalty was worth it, similar to a "professional foul". I suspect if we went back to the 15m penalty, the same would happen again. Furthermore, I suspect about half the 50m penalties given away likely result from breaches of the "stand" rule. I'd get rid of that rule altogether which would immediately remove many 50m penalties.

To be fair, Demonland is full of criticisms of Goodwin for not trying different things. It would appear he's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't.

It's still "Bang! Bang, bang, bang." It's just that what you are hearing now are bubbles being burst.

Gawn 5. Langford 4. Fritsch 3. Pickett 2. Bowey 1. Turner PS: Langford is going to be a star.

Unlike the Collingwood game, I thought that the umpiring was pretty good yesterday, apart from a couple of dubious "insufficient intent" decisions. But that's such a silly, subjective rule that it's almost impossible to umpire.