La Dee-vina Comedia

Agree with the above except I think you're being generous when you say "We have made consistently bad decisions for a decade." It's a lot longer than that. I'd go with half a century.

While the idea of 'zones' is attractive because of the ability for the club to work within their zone to develop a culture and support base within it, the previous experience of zoning showed that some zones just happen to better than others which consigns those clubs with inferior zones to fewer selectable players.

So, is there a "permission to train" list for non-listed players at this time of the year too? Reason I ask is speculation about the reason for the "permission to train" list prior to the draft period each year. One suggestion was the need for proper insurance to cover non-listed players in case of injury. Presumably if that's the reason then (and I don't know if it is) the same logic should apply now.

Talking of meltdown, does anyone know whether there is (a) anything in the players' enterprise bargaining agreement about training outdoors when it's over 40 degrees and (b) could WorkSafe stop training under these conditions?

I hope Mark Neeld and Carey have a mutually beneficial experience. Just because he failed as our Senior Coach doesn't mean everything else he has done or will do will be a failure. But I can't help wondering if Carey is prepared for Mark Neeld wanting to make a Year 8 boy School Captain.

Not quite. If it had try to pretend to be national but really just be a Melbourne/Geelong competition it probably wouldn't exist except as some form of amateur league. The economics don't stack up without full integration of the country's most populous state.

Umm...how about us over the last few years?

That's an outrageous comment. I think you'll find alcohol is less than 10,000 years old.

Everybody trains in "blocks" now. I don't know how we coped before the term "block" was first used to explain training programs.

I think the AFL dodged a bullet with Franklin going to Sydney. If he'd gone to GWS he would be expected to do mountains of media which he's not comfortable with. He's essentially a shy person. And with Patton, Cameron and now Boyd the one part of their list in good shape is KPFs. GWS have, instead, gained enormously by getting Mumford, essentially because Sydney couldn't keep him as well as Franklin (and Tippett).

I think two mistakes have been made. One by the AFL and one by GWS. The AFL's mistake was not going into Western Sydney about 5 years earlier. That would have made soccer's task more difficult. GWS's big mistake (as has already been stated on here) was developing an unbalanced list primarily of talented youngsters. To some degree, they've corrected that a bit with the addition of Heath Shaw, Josh Hunt and a couple of others. I can recall the mid-1980s when people thought expansion of the then VFL into WA and Qld, and subsequently SA "wouldn't work" and would destroy the game we love. In fact, the Victorian Premier at the time, John Cain, threatened to legislate to keep the game "Victorian". On the contrary, failure to expand would have seen the demise of Australian Football as a major code as the economics would not support 11 teams in Victoria without national TV audiences.

Actually, my initial point has been somewhat lost. I'm just sick of the incessant criticism of Bail's and Nicholson's (and Jordie Mckenzie's and Tom McDonald's) disposal skills. It wasn't meant to lead to a discussion on comparative skills.

From the AFL website: "The Dees believe Hogan will be sidelined for 1-2 weeks with the injury." The Demonland optimists will assume that 1-2 weeks means nothing and that he'll come back stronger, fitter, cleverer and probably better looking. The Demonland pessimists assume the hyphen is a typo which isn't meant to be there.

Plenty of revisionism goes on here. Simon Godfrey's disposal was significantly worse than either Nicholson or Bail...and he was also much slower. I don't recall Luke Williams having particularly poor disposal but he probably didn't play enough games for a fair view to be formed one way or the other. Nicholson and Bail may be list cloggers and they may never improve. But the point still stands - if the club doesn't have to waste time getting their fitness up to scratch, they can spend that time improving their skills.

Keep in mind the categorisation of players as elite was based on Champion Data rankings. Given the low disposal gameplan we've been playing over the last couple of years, if Gary Ablett (either one) had played for us during that time he probably wouldn't qualify as elite either.

Agreed. But by starting off fit, they have the opportunity to spend more time working on their kicking actions.

I'm getting a bit sick of the constant criticism of Nicholson and Bail's kicking. Firstly, while neither are great kicks, I don't think either are as bad as they are sometimes stated to be and secondly, by keeping themselves super-fit the coaching staff can spend more time working with them on their kicking and less getting them to the fitness level required.

For those questioning the timing, don't forget if Kent and Jones are big improvers this year, signing them now will turn out to be a bargain.

Or it may make them bored and depressed and want to leave the club. Nevertheless, I suspect quality recruits would understand the point and react as you've suggested. I have an unfounded suspicion that young players expecting to be gifted games may have thrived under earlier regimes but hopefully not this one.

Does anyone know how much revenue we make from retail overall and then broken down by (1) online, (2) the store at the MCG, (3) the AFL stores, (4) those caravans set up outside the MCG on match day (and presumably at other grounds, too) and (5) all other outlets? It's a bit difficult to claim what the best arrangement might be without that information.

Be careful with your best mate. If you succeed you may destroy his relationship with his fiancee. Of course, you may think that's a side benefit.

Thanks for the report. Would "howl kicking" be "goal kicking"? And the overheard comments - who said them? Was it players, coaches or others formally associated with the club or supporters watching on the sidelines? if the former, that makes it a far more interesting observation.

Can someone please check that Rhino hasn't had his identity stolen. This reads like an optimistic post.

Did he grunt every time he kicked the ball? [On the off chance that someone from Channel 7 is reading this, I won't be watching any tennis while grunting continues to be allowed. Take it up with those in power and fix the game as a spectacle].

Glad to see you're keeping a lid on it!