La Dee-vina Comedia

No wonder the ALP was (allegedly) keen on trying to get him into Parliament.

I'm sure all Melbourne-based Demonlanders know you mean the Herald Sun, but now that The Age has gone tabloid (sorry, "compact" as Fairfax prefers to call it) how long til the expression "the little paper" loses its undeniable meaning?

It's a poorly written beat-up article with no substantive quotes. A couple of references to rumours which may or may not be true. Or let's put it this way...why are the supposed drinking stories still suggested to be rumours and not confirmed as facts? AFL clubs have shown over the years an inability to keep secrets. So I'd take everything which is an unproven allegation in that particular article with a very large grain of salt.

I assume you're counting eyes, not heads. [insert weak pun here about one-eyed supporters] I'd be surprised if it's much over 15,000. I hope for more, but two poorly performing teams, two poorly supported teams, Easter Sunday and (because it's a Melbourne home game) wet weather, makes me pessimistic.

Thanks for the link. I'm inspired as much by his achievements off the field which, before today, I knew nothing about.

IF he wants to play AFL again, IF he wants to play for MFC, IF he's prepared to relocate back to Melbourne (city) and IF he's prepared to commit to the requirements of Neeld, Misson and Co, I'd have him back in a heartbeat. But that's four very big IFs.

You should get a job with the Herald Sun*. More readable and sensible than most of what that journal delivers. I hope you keep doing these previews for the rest of the year. *Actually, no you won't. Far too well written.

reports on Twitter that Jurrah found NOT GUILTY

I was there in 1964, although I was only 6 and don't really remember it. But don't give up hope. Another might be just around the corner. It's just that we don't know how far we have to travel until we get to that corner.

With all due respect to Old Dee, at least he's seen a Premiership (or perhaps more than one?). I'm more concerned about the other x thousand supporters who have not had that particular pleasure bestowed upon them.

My suspicion is that Sylvia is like the bright kid at school who only achieves when he's pushed by his teachers. Until Neeld came along, I don't think the coaching style sufficiently pressured him to achieve. He got by on innate ability but didn't push himself hard enough. With a coach who can push him to get the best out of himself, I suspect we'd see a different player. I hope Neeld is that coach. And I suspect you could replace "Sylvia" with "Travis Johnstone" and the above still stands.

No wonder the AFL got his FA status wrong. He apparently doesn't exist at AFL HQ. After all, how many times have players from opposing clubs escaped match review penalties for 'collisions' with this invisible man?

yes, co-captain in 1995 and 1996. Probably not one of the best captains Geelong has had. Allegedly didn't know the names of some of his teammates.

With Marc Murphy becoming captain of Carlton, it got me thinking...has there ever been a captain of Melbourne who's father or son ever captained Melbourne or any other AFL team? The only father-son captains I can recall are Gary Ablett Snr and Jnr, Tim and Jobe Watson and now Marc and John Murphy.

Don't forget, it's arguable that at 21 he's only really had two pre-seasons and one full year of AFL standard football. I'm becoming more and more convinced that the Bailey years were way off the standard. Watts is also still undersized - if he's 90kg (as I'm sure I saw reported somewhere) he's about 5-6kg under the weight he needs to be. If he can add that weight around his hips (without losing pace) he'll have a much better centre of gravity and be able to contest in packs more.

I'd rather we won every game we played - whether it's pre-season, main season or finals. But I also don't see pre-season games as important. On Footy Classified last night Brad Scott admitted his team didn't go into the last pre-season game against Hawthorn with a balanced team - he pointed out they had five key position defenders, for example. He wanted to try some things out and presumably see which of those five he wants to play in the season proper. I'm sure all coaches use the pre-season to try different things and aren't that interested in results of individual games. So we shouldn't be so concerned either. If we win only 6 games this year, I'll be disappointed, but I'll only be concerned if I can't see progress. And I'll measure progress by various signs. For example, fewer blowouts; fewer run ons of goals against us during short periods of play; individual player improvements; signs of cohesive team play; off-field behaviour; and, perhaps intangible, but signs of players willing to do anything the coach wants rather than the other way around.

Clubs might be limited in their ability to set payments, but not in their ability to determine the length of a contract. A player who is overpaid might find that he doesn't get a contract extension.

I was speaking of the past rather than the future when I listed PA, Bulldogs and Melbourne together.

I'm not for one minute suggesting that Nathan Jones has not given his all, and consistently...but I'd like to think there's another level for him to rise to as well. But I agree there should be a lot of upside in the other 9 mentioned.

I think it's also part of the EBA negotiated by the AFL with the clubs. We need to keep in mind that except for players who have qualified for free agency, players don't have a choice at which club they play. It would be grossly unfair if a player got less money solely because he played at one club (eg, PA, Melbourne or Bulldogs) instead of another (such as Collingwood, West Coast or Adelaide) when he has no say in where he ends up.

Maybe he's actually going to be picked for the Third Test in India.

At least the cool change should have come through by then (anyone living in Melbourne understands). Makes it much more pleasant for the spectators...oh, and the players.

And don't forget the game stops during the replacement of the bloodied payer. Given teams rotate players 130-140 times per match, one more rotation - with the game stopped while it happens - is perhaps not a big issue.

Do we have to do homework? Seems to be a problem for some at the moment.

It's always amused me that there can be differences from his end of season list and his subsequent pre-season list. What's changed in that time given no-one has played a game?