Jaded No More

Clearly it started yesterday at the earliest, which means they should be done by next Thursday, making it very easy for them to be available for a Saturday afternoon game at home. Can’t see any issues with them missing unless they either have Covid now or catch it during their iso period, which is not even a thing anymore.

I’m giving GWS a massive chance. Greene completely changes their side. I still don’t rate St Kilda.

Good balanced changes considering we never want to be without Lever or Viney. Massive chance for Dunstan. He would want to have a bloody good game if he’s to displace one of our other mids, which can only be a good thing. I imagine it won’t be smooth sailing and it might take a half for him to settle in. Tigers are missing Dusty and Grimes which just about equals us missing Viney and Lever.

A few 'season defining' games coming up this round. Geelong and Brisbane with the easy wins coming up is annoying.

Sub?

We don’t play those games.

I suggest Tmac goes back and Gus goes to the wing with JJ in the middle to help out without Viney.

Weid named in the starting 18.

You would think Dunstan for Viney, but then I look at the interchange and you can’t drop Harmes, Jackson, Sparrow or JJ

Well that sucks.

Oh bloody hell

I am tipping not getting well paid and this not being a legitimate career path is the major reason. If umpiring at the elite level was a proper full time job junior umpires could pursue, we would have a far higher uptake rate. It is amazing what people would do for money... they might even be willing to put up with players putting their arms up!

Can you elaborate any further? Still the calf?

I take nothing away from Freo, they have played really well and I am backing them for the 8. They might even finish top 4 with their home ground advantage and how well they have played defensively. And please nobody think I am in any way saying the Bombers haven't been horrible or that I am not thrilled at their failure. All I am saying is that we can't really judge teams definitively 5 rounds in, without taking into account who they have played.

For the last two seasons now we’ve played poorly in second quarters. You can’t be at 100% for 4 quarters. So it’s just a matter of minimizing the damage. So far we haven’t been blown apart in second quarters other than against the Dogs who piled on 7 goals. Not worried about last quarters. We’ve had games just about won in the last and have been parking the bus to conserve energy. We can go for 4 quarters if we need to.

I’d be very surprised if he moved to WA. His long term partner is here and so are his parents and I can’t see either leaving family. Understand his brothers are in WA but he has just as many people in Victoria as he does in WA. That’s not to say he won’t leave, and perhaps we are giving JJ wing time because we are worried he might, but he seems so heavily invested in the club. Something would have to go very wrong for him to leave IMO.

Haven’t listened to it yet. Can you elaborate what makes you think that?

Have a look at the ratings since around 1. It’s been dropping significantly http://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=136820

I agree it's nice, but gees they have had a really hard draw first up. If they had Freo's draw in the first 5 rounds they would probably be 3-2 and nobody would say a thing.

Putting everything else aside, this is a very important point. Attendance is well down, sure that might be partly due to Covid, but there is no doubt that a lot of people are finding themselves less and less interested in the game due to the constant changing of rules, poor umpiring and the standard of games. Without fans and members the AFL has nothing. The MRO and umpiring, as well as the rules committee, needs a serious overhaul. The lack of basic consistency, common sense and fairness is becoming a real issue for fans who are disengaging from the game. I don't think you will find a single AFL fan who thinks umpires should be verbally or physically abused. Everyone deserves respect in the workplace, and there is no room for abuse on the ground. Hell, there is no room for players to verbally abuse each other either if you ask me. But we can't expect emotions to be in check to such a level that players can't show any frustration. It is human nature when you invest your whole life in something and things don't go your way to be upset. To expect anything less from players is asking them to perfectly control their emotions on top of all the other things they need to execute perfectly on the field. The AFL is focused so heavily on TV rights and media deals, but if nobody wants to watch games, then those deals won't be worth much in the future.

Except that it very much is subjective because we've seen this happen at least 100 time in the last 5 weeks and only had like 5 frees paid as a result. So to say that what constitutes dissent is not subjective is just wrong. Even Scott said it's up to the umpire.

I can guarantee you that, true to form, if this incident was not involving AFL darling Cotchin and AFL outcast Walker, there would have been a suspension. To be clear I do not condone what Cotchin did, nor do I condone Walker being allowed to play AFL, nor do I condone the MRO for being a joke.

Maybe kicking a racist is a free pass? Cotchin should have been suspended or at least fined for that action, but on the other hand, who amongst us hasn't had the strong urge to kick Walker? He's a complete bozo.

There will always be people with legitimate reasons for being unable to attend, and as I noted in my post, I am privileged that I don't work weekends or nights or have kids to take with me to games. There is no doubt that the very large majority of Demonland posters are all crazy passionate and attend as many games as they can. But equally I think lots of people across the entire competition, not just Melbourne supporters, have gotten very comfortable watching games from their couch. The game is more accessible than ever to stream for very little money, and after 2 years of doing nothing but staying home, some people have probably come to enjoy it. Personally I hate watching footy on TV. You don't get to see nearly as much, and you miss out on the atmosphere. And I think after 2 years of playing in front of nobody, our players, who are at the peak of the competition and putting on a great show for us each week, deserve to play in front of packed stadiums. They have earnt that right and I feel sorry for them if they can't even get bums on seats when they are 5-0 and reigning premiers.

None of the other rules in the game are 'emotional'. That is, all umpires know they need to pay free kicks for in the back, trips, incorrect disposal, head high tackles etc etc. Yes of course it can be interpreted and umpires, like all humans, will make mistakes and see it differently, but overall the rules are quite clear cut. This rule is dependant on the emotions of an umpire. What I interpret as abuse or dissent, is different to what you would, and can also vary greatly from day to day, depending on what else is happening in our lives. Sometimes we are more sensitive, sometimes we aren't. Similarly an umpire might like a player, have a good relationship with them, and will be happy to get asked a question. Sometimes the umpire would have had a crap day and is sick of everyone and will call a 50 for everything and anything. This rule is too prone to inconsistency, as seen by the 50 plus actions this week that you could interpret as 'dissent' that went unpunished, and the few that were borderline abusive and did get punished. What if I put my arms out because I am annoyed at myself or my teammate and an umpire thinks it's to do with them? As always, the AFL has good intentions, but their execution is horrendously flawed. You want to get more umpires into the fold and improve the standard of umpiring, then pay them. You say how important umpires are to our game, and they absolutely are, yet they aren't important enough to employ full time, when the AFL employs people to work on their Instagram full time for goodness sake. It is clearly not important enough for the AFL, so they try to plaster over the real issues with bandaid solutions which are making it worse. If umpires were full time professionals who got paid handsomely for playing such a big role in our game, it would significantly improve participation in lower levels, because it is a legitimate career path instead of something you do on weekends only to get a rousing round of boos from fans.