La Dee-vina Comedia

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?

We don't have to be saints. We're Demons, after all.

Or perhaps the entrepreneurial suburban hoteliers swapped music for pokies because of the better returns. That still doesn't prevent the other 950 from taking over the live music business. My point is that I suspect poor hotel management (lack of entrepreneurship) in the 950 killed live music in pubs. They were gifted the opportunity to take it up when the ones that previously offered it turned to pokies. There is another alternative, of course. Maybe people who used to attend live music no longer like the style or quality of music being offered.

Pretty simple economics I would have thought. Revenue earned needs to be more than the cost of the ad. If the ad cost nothing (contra deal with the sponsor), how can it be in any way a bad idea? On the other hand, If we paid for the ad, I'd like to think we'd get a sponsorship from it that covers the cost of the ad and then some. Could be worse. We could be Cronulla heading into a season without a key sponsor and possibly 14 players.

I'm not sure that pokies necessarily killed off live music in pubs - though it seems to be the standard excuse offered. There are 1,200 licensed pubs in Victoria and only about 250 have pokies. So what are the other 950 doing?

I'm not sure what you meant by "unbridled promotion", but it's probably worth pointing out that advertising of poker machines in Victoria is banned.

Please tell me you mean Russell Robertson and not Mark Robinson.

Under this scheme who decides when a team is no longer in contention for finals? And how? Mind you, while I see some merit in considering the scheme, I think removal of the priority pick is the best method. As has been said before, it's the extra pick that was the problem, not the ability to jump up a place or two in the order.

I'm always worried when I see a player with a knee reconstruction has a hamstring injury. My admittedly rudimentary understanding is that the graft to replace the cruciate ligament is (sometimes? always?) taken from the tendon at the top of the hamstring muscle. If I recall correctly, the hamstring tendon in such cases can sometimes become problematic. Let's hope that Gawn's hamstring problem is nothing more than the standard strain. (Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than me can confirm or debunk, as necessary.) And a shortened injury list may not just be due to good luck but to good management by David Misson and his team. i think it's generally accepted that players with better base fitness levels are less inclined to soft tissue injuries. But fitter players also get to the right position more often and kick the ball to position more regularly. Too often players get injured because they move in an un-natural direction to reach a ball which should have landed on their chest without them having to deviate.

The Australian cricket team helps even more. Mind you, the collapse of interest in cricket has focused more attention on pre-season AFL than ever before which has provided non-stories and negative stories with more oxygen than they usually get. So perhaps I should re-visit my opening comment and say the the Australian cricket team hasn't at all been helpful.