La Dee-vina Comedia

I suspect it's all part of the plan to include a 19th team from Tassie. It would allow every team to play every other team once and have five double-up games as there are now. I've always believed practice matches and pre-season games are both a waste of time and enthusiasm dampeners. I'd ban all practice and pre-season matches between AFL teams altogether. Everyone then goes into Round 1 with supporters not having their enthusiasm quashed by apparent poor practice match and pre-season form. If it were up to me, I'd do this, even if the season is kept at the current 22 matches spread over 23 rounds.

I'm of a different opinion. We're not the only club with talented players, but what was our point of difference in 2021? I think it was the selfless approach which the players talked about. Given the follow the leader mentality in the AFL, I expect to see those teams that get the selflessness approach right to be the ones who challenge us. A club that has just made Toby Greene its co-captain hasn't understood anything about selflessness. Greene is the poster boy for selfish behaviour.

I don't want Collingwood, Essendon or Carlton winning. Why? Because they're the only ones ahead of us on the ladder of "Total Premierships Won". Not that I need a reason to include Collingwood on that list. My soft spot is St Kilda.

Along with the obligatory hyphenated names, I'm delighted to see the ethnic diversity with Italian, Germanic, Polish, Chinese, Arabic and Dutch names, among many others. Surprisingly, no-one with the surname Nguyen, though. I feel for this family though. Unless it is truly a very unusual spelling of O'Connor

That's still the modus operandi of our political parties. I'd like to think it doesn't happen any more at any football club, but, frankly, I wouldn't know.

The set of steak knives thrown in used to be the less valuable commodity. Have things changed, or was a St Kilda membership worth less than an SMJFL one?

I think Chairs of Boards are perfectly entitled to support the case for specific individuals. Obviously, in a contested election, this means other candidates are not supported. The Chair has a responsibility to ensure the Board is unified and has all the skills that the Board needs. I'd be disappointed if the Chair wasn't taking those matters into consideration. If members don't like the way the Chair leads, or the way the Board functions, they have every opportunity to vote that Board out. With respect to our club, members have just had the opportunity to elect who they want and decided for whatever reason to return the incumbents. Did the Chair's active support for the retiring Directors help them and hinder Lawrence? Probably, but the members who decided to return the incumbents are still capable of thinking for themselves and decided as a group that they didn't want change at this time.

Is it possible to add a head slap emoji to ones own post? Thanks for the polite correction.

Not one of ours, but nevertheless, great to see Sam Docherty was playing in the Carlton ressies.

Keep in mind we're playing Round 1 on Wednesday. It's tough on the Casey boys to be playing today, but an MFC player in this game might be required then and needs an adequate break.

"senior footy"? What definition are they using?

I recall reading that Viney was missing last week because of "Covid protocols". At the time I thought this meant either that he has Covid or someone he had been in contact with, such as another family member, had. Do we know for sure that he had Covid?

29% for a candidate not supported by the Board is a high number. I assume he's disappointed not to have been elected, but Lawrence should be pleased to have received this level of member support. Disclosure: I voted for the incumbents.

I think the Government was also keen to have a 50,000 seat quality, multi-purpose, roofed venue to fill a needs gap between the Tennis Centre (about 17,000) and the MCG. Since then, they've also added a 30,000 seat venue at AAMI Park.

Just looking at this issue from another angle, our sponsor Haymes Paint must have done well. If our local streetscape is any guide, they must have sold truckloads of red and blue paint in September.

It's hard to believe today, but back in those days there was a strict 6 months cricket/6 months football regime in place for any Government-owned land...which in those days were all the football grounds. That meant football season could not start until 1 April and must conclude by 30 September. As games were only played on Saturdays (and only at daytime), the season could start as late as 7 April. Waverley Park would not have been on Government-owned land, so would have allowed football to be played in March...or any other time.

As a matter of interest, does anyone know whether our sponsorship deals include success payments? In other words, do our sponsorship arrangements require sponsors to cough up more as part of their contract because we won the Premiership?

I've heard, but never had it confirmed, that the then VFL was promised a railway line would be built which would go right past Monash Uni and Waverley. The State Government, the story goes, changed its mind because the Premier Henry Bolte preferred to send the trains to Sandown Racecourse instead.

It seems that most people who post here seem to disagree with the need for non-football entertainment. I'm one of them. But are we in the majority? So, a serious question for posters: Is there anyone who finds that non-football entertainment adds value to your time at the football? (I promise not to judge you.)

Where's a good moderator when you need one?*. Some cleansing of this thread of non-football material might be in order. *(No disrespect intended to our wonderful crew of site moderators and administrators. They do a wonderful job.)

He might have been closer to the mark than he intended. Both Scully and Judd strike me as players not much loved by their team mates. I accept, however, that one was a superstar of the game while the other showed occasional glimpses.

No, he wasn't. Nevertheless, let's all move on. If Jack Darling wants to forego his career because of his position on vaccines, that's entirely his choice.

Tom Browne sure is taking a negative approach suggesting we should see "plenty of draft talent" play this season. To get to that stage, every other player on the list, including rookies, has to be unavailable. I hope he's wrong.

I'm a bit nervous about asking this question. But "kiss cam" is followed by "[censored] cam". Is it safe to ask what's happening with [censored] cam?

I think MM's hatred is for anything AFL-related in general. I don't see it as being specifically directed at us. He strikes me as someone who has taken the view that if he can't be front and centre of the AFL, he despises what he's been excluded from. He's been curmudgeonly for years and now seems to be a sad relic of a bygone era. To go one step further, I'm surprised that anyone in the media pays him to provide his opinion as I can't imagine many people are at all interested in what he has to say.