La Dee-vina Comedia

Good post, Praha, but I wonder what you mean by the fan experience being "worse"? I'm scared that someone from the AFL will read your post and decide that what's necessary is louder music, a kiss-cam at every break and a Wurlitzer organ being played after every goal.

I'm not sure they can. Clubs named after inner urban Melbourne suburbs, such as Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond are presumably a part of the same land as us and I imagine would also be part of Narrm. Perhaps interstate clubs and Geelong could do it should they choose. It's a great sign of how we're going that any of Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond etc could have got the jump on us and called themselves Narrm before us.

Shared between Gosch's Paddock and Casey? We won't need them any more.

Please make this happen. It would solve all our problems. A new training ground, space for admin and a social club...and get those ferals far away from us. PS: Won't happen.

Shai Bolton and Jack Higgins both on 27 votes. Hunt made Bolton disappear in the Richmond game. I expect he'll go to Higgins this weekend, hopefully producing the same result.

Now 14. Let's not get blase about this. That's 5 more than the next best.

I'm not a great fan of this particular design because I generally prefer a less cluttered look. I also prefer jumpers that are about two-thirds navy blue and one-third red. However, because it's being worn against North Melbourne, in this instance having red as the dominant colour may prove to be wise.

Given the Bulldogs and the Tigers were the substantial outliers last season as well, I'm of the belief that it is the way each plays, not the way the umpires do their job, that produces this result. Whether it's deliberate by the Bulldogs to play in a way which attracts free kicks or not, I'm not fussed.

It's a small thing, but I like that the two players in the photo wearing the jumper are May and Viney - a player with indigenous heritage and one without. Whether it's deliberate or not, it shows that indigeneity is integrated into the club. If it had been May and Pickett (or any other indigenous player), that integration would be less obvious.

Two points. Firstly, we shouldn't assume payers with Covid will be automatically fit to play the next week. I thought Lever looked way off the pace on Saturday, although Viney seemed as good as new. It may be risky, therefore, to bring back five Covid affected players all at once. Secondly, a couple of people have suggested dropping Hunt. I think that might be based on looking at disposal numbers rather than the job he's doing. It seems to me he has become Jetta's replacement as the lock-down defender playing on the opposition's most dangerous small forward. I'm pretty sure he played n Shai Bolton and kept him out of the game and was it Luke Breust on Saturday? (I couldn't get to the game and it's hard to identify match-ups from the TV coverage.) It makes sense if that's become Hunt's role as it leaves the distribution roles to those better at it, such as Bowey, Brayshaw, Rivers and, when he returns, Salem.

Worth highlighting that we're the first team to go 7-0 in consecutive seasons twice.

Is head-butting still a reportable offence? Maybe actions such as occurred here should be considered as such.

The minor premiers win the Dr McLelland trophy which, apparently, is "a perpetual shield that is kept at AFL House" (see Wikipedia)

The kicking in last week's game against Richmond still gives me nightmares. Imagine what it must have been like when Hawthorn played St Kilda in 1977 and kicked 25 goals and 41 behinds (with only two of them rushed, apparently). That's 66 scoring shots overall!

Can't beat "Short and Broad" for names which also describe the way they play.

That was the original intention. However, I assume it was changed because the AFL realised it could be abused by clubs who had to take off an injured player, perhaps with a hamstring strain, for example, claiming that the said player also had concussion.

I'd be happy to get rid of the medi-sub if we could be confident that clubs will bench a concussed player for the rest of that game. Do we have sufficient confidence in the integrity of every coach and medical staff that they will keep a concussed player off the field if there isn't a replacement player available?

To be honest, when reading stats of a game I haven't seen which says (hypothetically) that it was Melbourne 2 x 50m penalty and our opponents 0 x 50m penalty, I have no idea whether that means we received two or gave two away.

Isn't it the same principle as a free kick - ie, for and against? For every free kick for that a team is credited with, a free kick against is credited to its opponent. Isn't it the same with 50m penalties?

I don't like Thursday night football for various reasons (see below). But, the AFL and presumably Channel 7, thinks it is a prime slot, so we can't complain about our success being ignored. List of reasons why I don't like Thursday night football: Hard to get to the game on a work day when there is a work day the following day Ditto, school days for kids I struggle to be ready to watch a game on TV on a Thursday night because of other very standard lifestyle commitments - like finishing work, getting dinner ready, etc I'm psychologically not ready for football on a Thursday - football is a weekend activity and there's no way of describing Thursday night as the beginning of the weekend It devalues the Friday night game, whoever is playing It spreads the football out too much with it taking four days to complete a round Related to the previous point, there's too much football. (Die-hard footy watchers will disagree, but the AFL and Channel 7 risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg with football saturation. I know I now watch fewer games than ever before precisely because there are too many games too watch. It's lost it's special status.)

Didn't age well. As sorry as I am for Jordon that he didn't get a run in the GF, I'm proud of the club for upholding the spirit of this rule on the day. I can understand why the "concussion sub" became a generic medi-sub (because players who pull a hamstring would also just happen to have concussion as well, thereby leading to abuse) but the AFL should have held firm and stated that any player who is subbed out will have to miss the next game and a minimum of 12 days.

Presumably not a fan of the supergroup Cream. Anyone who remembers that band would automatically call Oskar Baker "Ginger" rather than "Sauce".

Helpful that Langdon plays the whole game on the southern wing side. Will make it easier for Yze to communicate with the bench.

It's 4 out of 23, 3 in to 22. (The trickiness of the medi-sub.)