La Dee-vina Comedia

I love the statement "has him closing in on a spot among the VFL/AFL's all-time leaders for one percenters." All time? How long, exactly, have one percenters been recorded as a statistic? Nevertheless, let's not take away from the fact that he's having a sterling 2025 and has been a long-term reliable servant of this great club.

I fear you are correct. However, on this matter there may be other sources from outside the club who may have been in the know and leaked it. These include his personal referees, his current employer, someone within AFL HQ, someone at the other organisations in which he's involved such as Racing Victoria, and probably others.

My apologies, Rab. I had misunderstood or perhaps misread your post and thought you'd said our proposed Caulfield training base was not near any public transport. I suppose I could have gone back and edited the post, given so many people have now pointed out my error. I added in the Guerra comment because that was relevant to the thread topic.

Apologies to Rab, then. My mistake.

It was something Harpo said...

Pleasantly surprised by this nomination. Not the nomination itself, but the timing of it. I just didn't see last week's game as being worthy of the nomination. It suggests to me that the selection panel wanted to make sure that he got nominated because he may well be the type of player that is worthy of consideration for the annual award while never actually having a single dominant game. What I'm really talking about is a major flaw in the Rising Star award. A player can become nominated by having just one stellar game in the season while consistently good performers without one dominant game could miss out on eligibility.

"Miles away"? Caulfield Racecourse is right next to a train station with the unsurprising name of Caulfield Station. It also has tram lines at both its northern and southern ends. As to Paul Guerra's supposed lack of football experience, why should this matter? Do we expect our hospitals to be run by doctors? Do we expect our courts to be run by lawyers? Do we expect the wholesale fish market to be run by a fisherman? I could go on...

The glory that is Demonland. Two posts in a row. One gives Spargo a minus 1 while the other a vote of +1. My votes: Gawn 5. Bowey 4. Salem 3. Petracca 2. Sparrow 1. Rivers Viney's tackling was superb, but he seems to have forgotten the gameplan once he has the ball. Those long dump kicks don't belong any more. (What's worse, is that perhaps he was trying precision passing and wasn't capable of doing it.)

How to tell someone you're not a member of the MCC without actually saying that you're not a member of the MCC. Am I right?

I imagine we'll try to put Tom Sparrow on Vlastuin.

I know context is everything, but I actually felt a bit uncomfortable reading this. I'm curious...did it also affect others in that way?

I hope your son is OK.

Warwick Capper comes to mind.

I wonder whether the fact that the court was in NSW made any difference? If it had been a Victorian court, there is a stronger argument that the Victorian Premier shouldn't be commenting as it could be construed that the Premier, whatever she said, might have been trying to influence the outcome.

And I suspect someone would have accused her of being "soft on crime" if she didn't speak out. It was really a "no win" situation for her whatever she chose to do.

Really? I could also have added that some people come out of gaol more hardened (as in "hardened criminal") than when they went in. Is that a better argument?

Reasons why some offenders do not end up in gaol include cost. The community has to pay for every person incarcerated. If we as a society want to imprison more people we would have to agree to pay for it. That includes capital expenditure to build more gaols (because the ones we have are already full) plus the daily costs associated with keeping them there (ie, paying prison officers, food, etc). So, for anyone who wants more people to be gaoled, be prepared for your taxes to be increased. Someone has to pay for it.

Would they? I'm not sure about that. Isn't there some law about implied consent (probably the wrong term) that once you are on the playing field, matters are allowed that might be considered criminal off it. The only incident I can recall that ever ended up in the courts was Leigh Matthews hit on Neville Bruns. There have been many more, both before and since, where the incident was more brutal than the Matthews/Bruns incident, but no criminal actions ensued.

Presumably, that's where Balta plays on Thursday. He should be grateful it's there rather than a ground at a correctional facility.

Clever sentence from the Magistrate. More punitive than it might initially seem by deliberately stopping him from playing in some games. I don't know whether it can be appealed, but he'd be risking a heavier option if he tried.

Pickett McDonald (unbelievable effort to be the sole KPD for half the game.) Bowey 3. Gawn Viney Rivers And bonus points to Goodwin for not panicking when Turner was concussed. He could have moved Petty to the backline but stuck with McDonald alone.

As a matter of interest, who was the last CEO we had (excluding temporary appointments) who wasn't a recycled CEO from within the AFL industry? Clearly Pert and Jackson were. I'm not arguing for or against recycling, just curious.

If you can guarantee me a flag in 9 years' time, I'd gladly put up with our current situation. "Only" 9 years is a lot better than 57.

I eagerly await someone in the media linking this to the lack of a permanent CEO.