La Dee-vina Comedia

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on" said Winston Churchill about this thread. Some extraordinary extrapolation going on here.

I imagine most player managers tell their clients not to say anything publicly about their intentions. I don't know what Brayshaw's manager advised, but he (Brayshaw) is more articulate and intelligent than most players and was more mature than either Pickett or Jackson when he made his comments.

What's Cornes' sinister motive?

Excellent post. We shouldn't complain about Pickett's two weeks. It's what he deserves. The real issue is whether the MRO will remain consistent throughout the season. If not, that's when we should complain. If this sentencing policy had been in place for the last few years, I doubt Pickett would have done what he did because he would have been conditioned to play differently. Hopefully he'll learn from this and take late bumps out of his game. And that will make it a safer sport, which needs to be the priority here.

6. Petracca (I felt he turned the game in the 2nd quarter, which was why I had him ahead of Gawn) 5. Gawn 4. Pickett 3. Lever 2. Oliver 1. Tomlinson It was a toss-up between Tomlinson and Neal-Bullen for the last vote. I decided on Tomlinson, not just because the Bulldogs tall forwards were neutralised, but because his work allowed Lever to do what he does best by zoning off.

Just one more... Best: Jeremy Howe flying for marks Worst: Jeremy Howe landing awkwardly. I hope he has a speedy recovery and can get back on the playing field. The game is so much better for his marking skill. Undoubtedly, the best exponent of not just the high, spectacular mark, but any form of marking that I've ever seen. And I've been watching for over 50 years.

This French actor Tom Leeb. I wanted to add a picture of Gil McLachlan but the file size was too large, presumably because of the size of Gil's wallet.

I saw in one of the papers today that Round 1 of the NRL had total attendances about 25,000 below the combined total of Richmond v Carlton and Collingwood v Geelong. I know NRL crowds are always lower, that they have smaller grounds and I believe have excellent TV numbers...but wouldn't you rather be at the MCG with 50,000+ other fans watching an AFL game than anywhere else?

We're used to clubs consistently being, ahem, economical with the truth about player injuries. Now it looks like the AFL has taken over this responsibility.

Wholeheartedly agree with your #2 and #3 of your Three Best. The MCG at night with lights on looks fabulous from the outside.

Adds weight to the argument that McDonald could be moved during the game to the backline if needed.

Getting in early for 2024 when 15 March will be on a Friday? Or perhaps you're recycling a post from 2019.

Unimportant, I know, but does anyone else think that the art design being used here is monstrous? I approve of including the jumper numbers with the names, but the distressed white writing is abominable. If Turner had played instead of Tomlinson, we would have had two of our seven defenders with less than half a game of experience between them. That might have been the Match Committee's concern and why Tomlinson got the nod. I also don't expect Harmes to play HBF. Instead, I expect the back seven to include Brayshaw and Rivers, along with the other five named in defence.

The converse is also true - the Bulldogs know his weaknesses better than everyone and can use that to their advantage.

Unlike 40 years ago, these days the MCG is used much more regularly so there should be more turnover of food. Also, food handling standards have changed significantly...along with the legal risk associated with offering unsafe food.

I really hope you're referring to the edible snack, not the team in black and white. In fact, it was about 40 years ago I was in the old Southern Stand at the MCG for a cricket match where I bought a Four 'n' Twenty and can of Coca-Cola only to find that the pie was cold and the drink was hot, rather than the other way around.

One reason given was that because the grounds often have two or three games per weekend, there was a concern that having a reserves game as well might be too much wear and tear for the turf.

In which case, we should win more than one Premiership with this group. It would be a waste of a golden opportunity. Not only might we have 3 out of the top 5, there are a few other really good players to add to that list, such as May, Brayshaw and Pickett (and others).

Apart from the game itself and winning and losing games, what are the three best and worst things associated with football? Mine are: Best: 1. The sound of the siren 2. The sound of a large crowd at the ground, especially at the MCG 3. Conversations about football all around town Worst: 1. The inconsistent starting times for games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 2. Music after goals 3. Swearing by supporters at the football (not because I'm a prude, but it shows so little imagination. The Oxford dictionary states that there are over 170,000 words in the English language. We should use more of them.) What are yours?

"Enjoyment and excitement" are different criteria from "best of all time". If my top five is based on enjoyment and excitement, Flower is still number 1 but Jurrah comes in at number 2.

I wonder whether ground availability might be a problem? Does cricket need any of the grounds before the (modern-day) traditional mid-March start? Marvel Stadium and some other non-cricket grounds would be available, but could the AFL schedule many games if there is no certainty as to the availability of the MCG, SCG, Adelaide Oval, etc?

How many knee recos has Gawn had? Or were his early knee injuries something other than ACLs?

For those with a statistical interest, the combination of Collingwood v Essendon in a Grand Final has happened 6 times. The most common occurrence is Melbourne v Collingwood with 7. There are a number of combinations which have happened 6 times, including Melbourne v Essendon plus Carlton/Colingwood, Richmond/Collingwood and Geelong/Collingwood.

I agree. Absolute momentum killer. (And for those of us living in Victoria, the State Government has also come to the momentum-killing party by making the day before the Grand Final a public holiday.) The worst week in footy is the week immediately after Melbourne's last game for the season, unless we've won the Premiership.

Until recently I would have said: 1. Flower and then daylight before whoever I had thought was second. Oliver has closed that gap significantly by his sustained excellence. So, for me it is now: 1. Flower 2. Oliver 3. Gawn 4. Lyon 5. Neitz Petracca is probably 6th and may jump into the top 5 if he maintains or even improves his output.