La Dee-vina Comedia

We've come a long way since we debuted another player on Queen's Birthday. Instead of being an over-hyped PR gesture it seems this time we're blooding someone who's (hopefully) ready.

One of the greatest movie versions ever made of any Shakespeare play is Laurence Olivier's "Henry V". As the battle of Agincourt begins, there are three riders, which becomes five riders which becomes nine riders and eventually hundreds. All shot in one scene. We need our team to play like that on Monday. We need to overwhelm the opposition in numbers.

Vanilla might not be to your taste, but replacing it with ginger can throw the balance way out. In other words, Jordon on a wing is safer than Baker because he plays his role correctly. Baker is yet to show he can do that.

I think it's worth adding that the difficulty with Thursday nights is not just about getting home afterwards. It's also about being able to get there on a workday. I know people might say it's the same on Friday but I disagree. On Fridays many people manage their work to be able to finish earlier (if they can) because it's the weekend. That's much harder to do on a Thursday because there is still a workday to follow. What really annoys me, though, is that the AFL clearly schedules Thursday night games to satisfy Channel 7. The AFL is being dictated to be a company that has its own short-term interest at heart. And I believe in doing so, Channel 7 is damaging the long-term future for the game. It's the AFL Commission's job to stand up to Channel 7 for the long-term good of the competition and it is miserably failing to do so.

Understandable. The AFL needs to satisfy itself that there's nothing more than has been already stated.

Those who rate Mihocek and those who don't can all agree with this comparison. Those who rate him can assume he's like Tom and those that don't can think he's like Oscar. Personally, I think he's a very good player and would be even better if he had some good tall forwards around him.

Unless it's a different time, my recollection is that Oliver was under 0.05% but because he was on his P-plates he needed to be zero. So, not drunk driving at all. But the essence of you point is spot on.

At least it doesn't say "Learnings from the past". Of all the modern day palaver, that misuse of language is right up there with the most egregious. It's as if we haven't learned anything about the correct use of the English language in 57 years.

Petracca's comments are not new. The legendary Roman hero, Corialanus, was complaining about the lack of vocal support about 2,500 years ago...

An infection in his hand? From connecting with May's teeth perhaps? Or did his fist also scrape the ground?

I could see this incident turning our season around. Positively. I can just imagine the leaders (coaches, Gawn, Viney, Pert, etc) coming down hard and using this to shake the team out of its lethargy. It should remind everyone that it's time to pick up their game. Passengers won't be tolerated and they all need to get back to the selfless mantra they espoused last year.

Perhaps they thought QB stood for Queensberry Rules

Before last year came along I wondered whether we'd ever win another flag. Now I'm optimistic. Another one will come along in 2078.

Not sure I've ever seen the Herald Sun and fact checking in the same sentence before. It's not the way that particular newspaper (for want of a better word) usually operates.

I'm convinced William Shakespeare is a Melbourne supporter

Gawn got top votes everywhere that I've seen. Except from Mark Robinson who wrote in his Monday "Likes/Dislikes" column that Sam Reid would have got the three Brownlow votes. (In Robbo's defence, who, generally speaking, doesn't want to see more Brownlow votes being awarded to non-midfielders?)

This might come as a shock to some, but the umpires are only human. And accordingly, I think the opposite is more likely to happen. The human reaction to an accusation of bias or unfairness is to protect previous behaviour so as to avoid having to admit that mistakes were made. I think it's therefore more likely that should the umpires respond to the accusation, it's likely to be defensive and therefore not in Collingwood's favour.

I hate to say this, but football is entertainment. It's Petracca's and his teammates' job to entertain us. It's not our job to gee them up. If the team can't play the way they should because of quiet crowds or small numbers of spectators, the coach needs to work out a way to re-focus the players. They should play to the same standard whether there's 60,000 or 60 spectators watching on. That's what being professional means.

Did my plea work already? Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think there was music played after goals were scored on Saturday night.

Couldn't the breakdown also be: 5/5 Gawn 3/3 Reid 4/0, 4/0, 2/2 McCartin, McDonald, Mills 1/1 Viney? Edit: I'm assuming the coaches splits weren't provided. If so, I apologise.

I get so much value out of Demonland. Until today I had thought all truths, by definition, must be absolute. But apparently not. There's all sorts of truths like this in Wikipedia, or this or even this. Seems to me WCW, you can state you are whatever age you want and you'll be able to find a way to claim it's the truth.

Make of it what you will from the following facts: Melbourne v Sydney Saturday 4 June 2022 at the MCG starting at 7.25pm - 32,753 Melbourne v Sydney Saturday 8 May 2021 at the MCG starting at 7.25pm - 35,567 Going into the game in 2021, Melbourne was top of the ladder, Sydney was fourth. In 2022, Melbourne was top and Sydney seventh. On 4 June 2022, very cold and some showers. On 8 May 2021, the day had reached 19.8 degrees and there was no rain. Arguably 2021 would have been more "Covid-affected" in the sense that I suspect more people would have been avoiding activities involving crowds.

I haven't done any analysis, but is it possible that we player better opponents at the MCG?

I prefer to take the glass half full approach. That means there's a whole group of people prepared to outlay money for membership whether they attend or not. I'm more interested in getting more non-members to games. Firstly, the best chance to convert them to members is if they become invested in the club and attendance is the best way to do that (although winning would help) and secondly, it's additional revenue. The bigger issue here is not about MFC members, MCC members or non-members attending or not attending Melbourne games, though. It's what is the AFL going to do about it? What process will they undertake to identify why, exactly, numbers have dropped across the board? And how do they fix that? Is it the game? Is it the umpiring? Is it the scheduling? Is it the floating fixture? Is it Covid? Is it the ticketing process? Is it the cost? Is it competition from other sports and events? Is it the effect on consumer attitudes of streaming TV? Has the AFL given too much to its broadcast partners at the expense of those who might otherwise attend games? I think this is the biggest task facing the new CEO of the AFL. By far.

Has it been confirmed that May will be back? Concussions aren't always resolved with one week's rest, after all.