La Dee-vina Comedia

I can't imagine any scenario where Freo and WCE forfeit home games. The AFL has a TV broadcast rights agreement which requires 9 games per week. In addition, there's a big viewing audience in WA which the TV networks will want. The business of AFL will over-ride any petulant behaviour whether it comes from the WA Government or the AFL.

I have a technical question. When I open the gallery in my Chrome browser, the tops and bottoms of the photos are "chopped off" so I basically see a lot of headless players. Any suggestions as to how to fix this gratefully received. (Note: Any answers need to be understood by someone with the technical knowledge equivalent of someone under ten years old...or over 60). Also, that's a nasty swollen joint on Joel Smith's left hand ring finger. I wonder whether that's permanent damage or just some temporary swelling?

And having him back as co-Captain for the remaining 16 rounds might hurt them even more. Melbourne's players proudly talk about selflessness as one of their drivers in 2021. GWS seems to have misunderstood and has put one of its most selfish players (as seen by his consistency in "getting into trouble" onfield) as one of their leaders. For that reason alone, I doubt whether GWS will make the final eight.

Raw clanger numbers are a pointless statistic. On the other hand, clangers as a proportion of disposals might have some value. I say "might" because even without hard data to back it up, we can all recognise players who can accumulate but turn it over regularly, compared with those who have a high proportion of useful disposals. Compare, for example, Simon Godfrey with Christian Salem.

A "Covid crisis" according to 7 News. I think using the word "crisis" is way over the top given we are in the off season. I appreciate the writers like alliteration, but they haven't really left themselves anywhere to go should something actually serious happen They need to go back to the rules of commentary from Richie Benaud, particularly Rule 7

Just in time, too, as Pendlebury must be close to retiring.

And an average losing margin of 11.75 points (or an average "not winning" margin of 9.4 points if you add in the draw with Hawthorn).

Older! At 53! I beg to differ. All the best, Faultydet for both you and your wife.

I think the game is highly entertaining without the loose cannons. There are still plenty of characters in the game, our captain being one, of course. The game's future is much more promising without the thuggery that used to be a part of it because more young kids will play it, leading to a better standard of game overall.

Sorry...it may have seemed that I was being critical. That was not my intent. I love a criticism of anything to do with Collingwood as much as the next person. I also wanted to praise Jetta for going where it seems he's most needed at the moment.

Indeed. For those under the age of about 50 wondering about this reference. Enjoy yourselves. (Then read Hobbes "Leviathan" and understand why the AFL needs to make rules of the game...oh, and why Governments are necessary.)

Go for the bigger picture. Firstly, it's the club with apparently the biggest problem in racial matters and therefore on that metric most in need of his counsel. Secondly, most coaches become better at their craft if exposed to alternative processes. Should Jetta wish to move to coaching adding a second (and possibly more) clubs to his CV will be good for him.

What's Tom Scully doing with the police? Serving as a policeman or some other role such as fitness adviser? (It's a serious question, but happy for others to try to provide humorous responses, too.)

There is some suggestion that the omicron wave may have peaked in Victoria, but not necessarily everywhere else (eg, Queensland). If you're not already doing so I strongly recommend following @dbRaevn on Twitter for the best data on Covid numbers, hospitalisations and vaccination rates. However, we can't ignore the possibility of another variant arriving and causing fresh havoc. And the next one should be called pi, so it might be 3.14159 times worse. Or not.

I seem to recall the academies were originally created to compensate GWS and Gold Coast for not having access to any father-son prospects for a generation. If that's correct, it makes sense. I can understand why Sydney and Brisbane might have academies given the need to continue to develop local talent in non-AFL states. I'm not sure why other clubs have academies, but I see no problem with them if they continue to nurture talent which might otherwise find its way to other codes or just fall by the wayside. The issue is not having academies per se but determining what is a fair system for allocating the talent that the academies produce.

Let's hope we also win the AFLW premiership as well. Then we can say we're the proud holders of the most recent two pieces of silverware and a piece of painted wood.

Getting into AFLX territory here. As to the idea of 15 metre markings, while the idea is good in theory, it won't be practical on an oval shaped field.

A post that says this ☝️ in response to one that said "Sparrow outmarking Max in a one on one" is heaven sent for a meme showing Sparrow (or even a sparrow) continuing his trajectory over some trees or even to the moon.

In all the discussion here and in the media, not enough attention is given to teams outside last year's final eight as premiership contenders in 2022. I don't have a specific team in mind, but given that's what we did last year, why not also consider them? For example, while I don't think they have the team to mount such a challenge, what about St Kilda? Or Fremantle? For the record, I think Richmond won't make the eight this year. I believe their era has come to an end. And it's been a great era for them.

I suspect it might originally have been Prince's Park (if named after Prince Alfred who visited Melbourne in 1867-1868) or Princes' Park if named after the visit of two members of the Royal family (Prince George and Prince Albert) who visited Melbourne in 1881. Update: It's actually named after Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert (not the Prince Albert who visited in 1881) and was originally called "Prince's Park" (according to Wikipedia). I now fully expect my status to increase from "pedant" to "nerd".

A benefit of the speedy determination of holding the ball should be that it helps eliminate dangerous and sling tackles. How often has a good tackle been taken too far because the umpire has delayed blowing the whistle? This is good, not just because it should improve the game, but it should also reduce the risk of unnecessary concussions caused by the longer tackle.

Love the crackdown on delaying play...if it actually happens. Hopefully, the instructions as to what deliberately delaying play means are clear. My pet hates are holding on to players who take marks or get free kicks, standing over said players preventing them from standing up or standing over the ball to stop the player from picking it up.

What a bizarre post! The Bulldogs is mentioned because I asked the question as to how often Premiers don't start as favourites for the next year. Someone suggested that the Bulldogs may not have. That's the relevance.

Lovely reminiscing. It's far worse to lose a club than lose an old suburban ground.

How often would the reigning Premier not be the favourite leading into the next season? I can't imagine it happens very often. Perhaps leading into 2000 Essendon might have been favourites ahead of North, but since then I'd be surprised if any reigning Premier wasn't the next year's automatic favourite.