Macca

Fair enough I quite like the sport (NRL) and find it to be fast moving game and easy on the eyes. Highly skilful As previously stated, I know quite a few who also like the sport. And they are all AFL die-hards Different circles but Rugby League is very popular despite not everyone liking the sport There again, I also like the World game, Union and NFL as well ... there's not many sports I don't like but white ball cricket bores me to tears Each to their own

I'm with grazman on Murphy ... if we get another road he'll get tonked

The play-in game would aid the teams finishing 5th & 6th as they'd get a week off over the teams below them as well as the home ground advantage But given the history of the final 8, there's barely a team outside of the top 4 that has made the GF The key element is winning the QF with the current set-up

Packer described RL as the ideal TV sport where as our game is much better live (when there's only a small amount of congestion) Over a decade ago Foxtel (or maybe Optus) had a function where you could watch AFL on wide angle with only the crowd noise ... it was very good but took a bit of getting used to NFL is ideal for TV as well but wide angle would work better so as we could keep an eye on the WR's

@grazman @dl4e The word around the traps is that Warner will play and that Green may miss out if Murphy stays Hazlewood to replace Boland

Ok then ... an electrifying evening!!

Seen the last broadcast rights money? Enormous and in the $Billions. Actually over $2Billion over the next 5 years And it's dying? If you're talking about crowd numbers, they've never been big RL aren't as obsessed with crowd numbers as we are in the AFL Most people I know have gone from never watching the NRL to watching quite a lot of RL ... with peak interest with Origin games. And nearly all Melbournians You'd never know it on this site but this is a Demons site with all things AFL being front & centre

The players in general and therefore the clubs would prefer the weekend off but the punters? I believe the weekend off gives a free kick to the NRL A better idea would be for the weekend off to be a celebration of football Under 18 championships, All the GF's ... WAFL, SANFL, VFL. Country & Suburban finals and the AFLW What we get now is not very much and as previously stated, the supporters in general do not like it

If we didn't have the weekend off (as it is now) then I'd be ambiguous about the play-in games but the weekend off leaves a big void and I don't know anyone who likes it (the weekend off) But I see the 2 extra games as not being harmful. And if we happened to finish 9th or 10th one year we'd all be in on the play-in I can't imagine anyone protesting against their team being in a play-in game So we might not like it but we'd still support it! haha

Might be working late but a chance if I get off early Sounds like it will be a good evening!

Knowing my luck there will be breaking news on Thursday involving some sort of AFL betting scandal on Demon games If that happens I will exit the joint never to be heard of again. I will completely disappear, Gonzo (You'll have to run the NFL tipping comp)

And with our backline up and going (May, Lever, McVee, Rivers, Bowey, Salem along with a fit Petty and a fit Hibberd) Brayshaw can just play as a pure midfielder With Petracca forward as well as playing some midfield minutes (or in his old role as a HHF?) One fit and firing KPF might be enough once Fritsch returns. Melksham & Petracca the other medium forwards along with Kozzie and another small A bit like Collingwood's forward line with the mediums? The form of Melksham suddenly adds a lot more options We'll play 2 KPF's but one might be used to draw defenders to a pocket or as used as some sort of decoy With the right set-up we've got weapons everywhere, layz Not forgetting the return of Clarrie Exciting times ahead

Apart from his dash, elusiveness and lovely kicking skills (to position) he has a great ability to get the vital punch/spoil in Positions himself beautifully on the right shoulder for that spoil And then the run on gather after the spoil? This bloke is a beauty! As Nasher said above, a natural defender

Petracca has adapted well to his forward/midfield role but IIRC, he spent the 2019 season as our best forward playing as a High Half Forward In the off-season (2019) the story was that he wanted more midfield minutes The other part of Petracca forward is that Brayshaw gets his attacking midfielder's role back - slotted straight back in too (on Friday he also played the double role of tagging Neale) And when Oliver returns Gus will stay in his current role you'd imagine ... with Sparrow & Jordon rotating through to help out Oliver & Viney If we can get our KPF's firing, we are cooking with gas

I reckon we have to wait and see what unfolds ... although, your changes could well come to fruition Back a couple of months ago I was projecting JVR to be a mainstay CHF by this stage of the season so I'm still holding out hope that he can nail down that role As for Brown, it's all about his legs and whether he can get back to decent form A predicted dry Sunday afternoon could see JVR & Brown get amongst it Adelaide are a dangerous opponent but if we can deliver the ball well to our 2 KPF's, we can get them both into some sort of form Wouldn't it be grand if the 2 of them were to snag 6 or 7 goals as a pair? Grundy probably plays at least 1 game at Casey? But I'm guessing, deevs

You're twisting my words again ... if anything above frivolous is asking for trouble, then zero tolerance could be applied So don't ask for trouble is what I was saying back then. All the way up to outright abuse Besides which, there was a lot of grey overhanging what was going on They've now got it about right but the players have pulled their heads in too

What shouldn't be forgotten was that he went into bat for minority groups and those groups that were vilified. That stuff was admirable

It is wrong My attitude to dissent was that frivolous acts should not be punished but obvious dissent should be punished. And everything inbetween needs to be judged correctly So get your facts straight and stop twisting my words Try as you might, you'll never catch me out. I'm nothing but consistent with my views on all things umpiring

You might be right but who would watch it? (Bruise-free AFLX type footy)

I'm happy that they have found a happy balance with regards to dissent And was advocating as much when the dissent issue raised it's ugly head last year There's a line that can't be crossed and its an arbitrary one Again, players need to behave themselves ... they are well paid professionals so they need to act like pro's Right across the board, umpires need to be respected. It's not just the domain of males anymore I reckon it's great that we now have female players and female umpires The males will have to behave themselves By the way, I set a great example to others ... if we all toned it down, there would be no issue You should be right behind my way of thinking (and actions) Accept the impires decision and get on with it

What? About female umpires being abused & threatened? You should be leading the charge against that type of abuse 1000 times

I say it to a lot people ... go and umpire if you think you can do it properly Good money but even at junior level, you'll get abused. It's a toxic environment I read recently where a 14yo female umpire had been abused and threatened by a 6'2" male. Try google for the story Now if it wasn't footy, should that male be charged with an offence? I say yes whether it's at the footy or not On this site, an AFL female umpire was called a B and a M by 2 posters here Is that somehow ok? I'm starting to sound like Stuie here but his heart was in the right place (apart from all the facepalms!)

Thank you It's not an easy thing to do but I've always enjoyed taking on a minority view when outnumbered! haha My frustration with footy has always been that we never seemed to have enough good players Thankfully, the clubs mindset is to always improve a good list. No sitting back And you know what, you do that and the luck can start going your way Possibly Pick 4 from Freo? We can now get another star midfielder through the draft (as well as trade for a gun forward with our other picks) Peaches & Cream

Be the best team? Let's just imagine for a minute that the Daniher decision was horribly wrong ... that May does not even touch Daniher at all. A clear wrong decision But here's the thing, because of our list of talent and because we have a really good team, we were/are able to overcome adversity and win the game But if we are an ordinary outfit, we're probably going to lose anyway (as we did for more than 40 seasons from 1964) So it's not true that we were a poor side for 57 years ... that's an exaggeration So take the umpires out of it

We've had these discussions before but full time umpires and clearly defined rules with way less grey areas would help enormously But how do we arrive at clearly defined rules unless we make the game easier to umpire? And to make things easier we need to play 14 or 15 a side ... but who wants to watch bruise-free football? AFLX was farcical but that boring version of footy showed us how the game can be umpired without much controversy Doubt we'll ever see it again So unfortunately, I don't see much changing at all but with all the flopping & staging, I can see things getting worse And the error rate is aleady at 2 or 3 out of 10 (that includes non decisions when there could be a decision) So I see what everyone else sees but have a different reaction because I just see it all as a clusterxxxx Be the best team and play to your best and then you win ... take the umps out of it as Smith probably did (way back when)