Macca

They could make the JLT games 14 a side. Less contact, less tackling, less congestion, less injuries (?) The players still get to run around on an oval and game plans can still be enacted. 4-6-4 instead of 6-6-6

The rotation numbers should have been capped 20 years ago ... and those in charge are supposed to be ahead of the game. That is their job. In Soccer and Union there are no rotations and in League it is 8 maybe 10 per team (for the entire game) Footy went to 160+ per team. Custodians failed. And I am not late to the party either ... been saying the same thing for years now. Finally, something is being done about it.

Refreshingly honest FE ... should be more of it. Others are saying that there is nothing wrong with footy but are also saying that they only watch their own team play. Their acquaintances the same. Which of course makes no sense Tough love can work but and the soft approach is often doomed to fail ... sitting on ones hands achieves nothing The good news is that the new rules are a good first step to fixing the sport Leigh Matthews can see no downside to 6-6-6 and he should know

The AFL are late to the party though ... if they were ahead of the game then this conversation doesn't even exist. The explosion of rotations led to where we are now but the new rule changes does address the issue from a different direction Reminds me of the introduction of the diamond in the early 70's to counteract the congestion we saw in the late 60's The VFA went to 16 a side in the early 50's for the same reason.

So you don't know anyone who watches neutral games? Do they like the sport at all? Doesn't seem like they do TV footy needs neutral supporters by the way ... without neutral support, it won't rate.

All sound reasoning dc The feedback I get (and I talk to a stack of people about footy) is that many say that they hate congested footy. And the AFL hasn't brought in all these new rules for the sake of it either ... they know that they've got a viewership problem and they are trying to fix it And they've got my support because when I watch neutral games I only watch those games for the aesthetic qualitities. Scramble ball/congested footy is ugly to my eyes. For the myriad of keen watchers there is no issue. But the keen ones aren't the problem ... most here (on this site) I'd describe as keen. Night GF is related as the broadcasters need to bring in greater revenues. May or may not happen.

But that has always been the case New information here bub I'll ask you as well ... do you know people that have dropped off watching the game? Wall-to-wall down to 'selected' games does matter.

Yet the NRL have maintained their numbers whilst the AFL numbers have dropped off at an alarming rate I am not barracking for the NRL either ... couldn't give a rats toss bag Do you kbow people that have dropped off watching AFL? If so , ask them why. If not, you and I are obviously in different circles.

No Numerous people have been banging on about the commentary (and the umpiting, perceived drafting errors etc) for decades You are allowed to criticise yoor own sport ... I have no problem doing it. It is called tough love. But my view is in the minority

Most I know hate the congestion ... they have switched off accordingly. The sport has come down to their team winning and that is it. Others here might have an opposite view with their circle The keen ones aren't going anywhere ... they don't mind the congestion at all and a large percentage of the keen ones are into fantasy sports where the stats rule supreme. They love their footy no matter how it is served up. A good example is the 'Other game' threads on this site ... hardly a word about the actual sport and filled with people complaining about the officiating. The sport needs to be spectacular and bullet proof.

And the truth of the matter is that the AFL has lost nearly 20% of it's TV viewers since 2014 ... a peak of 108 million down to 90 million last year .... read more here It's any wonder they are bringing in new rules to try and get rid of all the ugly congestion. Facts are facts. Most people I know just watch their own team predominately. The keen ones aren't going anywhere but it could be argued that north of 120 million should be watching the sport now ... and that's not even using incremental growth.

The Giants could get in first anyway (?) Here's his Combine performance ...

There's a lot going on next weekend apart from Super Saturday at Flemington & Guineas day at Randwick. We've got the Group 3 Newcastle Newmarket on Friday and then on Sunday it's Black Opal Stakes Day at Canberra with 4 feature events to be held. And then Bruce McAvaney graces us with his presence on Monday for the Adelaide Cup Meeting ... hopefully working with James Jordan again with JJ giving out his tips. They worked really well together last year. The horse that won the cups treble out of Tassie in Eastender is running in the Adelaide Cup ... drawn 18 but it often gets back as a general rule. Still, with 20 horses in the field that's a lot of horses to get past. Good field, all the same. Run over the classic 2 miles.

Foles to the Jags? @Clintosaurus @Dappa Dan - thoughts?

I only watched our game rjay but I felt that we saw a different balance between the in-close footy and open footy. There was plenty of pressure on players disposing of the ball - especially on Angus who, to be fair, did have 37 disposals. So from an overall perspective, if that's the sort of footy we get to see, I'm on board. You don't want too much one way or the other (congestion/open footy) so I hope we get to see a good balance in the neutral games. Our game looked like it was easier to officiate too. We saw the 'longer' bomb from the kick in and that was interesting - cleared the press a few times thus opening the game up. But it's early doors ... we won't be able to make a judgement call on the rule changes until about a third of the way into the season. My ideal game would see about 32 goals being scored in a match - and both us and the Tiges scored 16 goals each on Sunday.

With everything to play for Liverpool can't even score against Everton ... meanwhile, City keep finding a way to win. I'd like to see Liverpool win the title but draws ain't gonna get the job done. With 9 games to go and only 1 point separating the 2 sides, it's now down to who blinks first. I'm not sure that Man City will leave the door ajar again like they did in late December so Liverpool may have to win at least 8 of their 9 remaining games. Maybe even all 9.

Clarrie has that look about him though and the bloke behind him has that look of utter despair. They're both possibly looking at their own footy future's in that snap. 'A picture is worth a 1000 words' was never more apt. Oliver is your quintessential above the shoulders player. Born to play footy.

So that's what Josh Mahoney looks like. Who knew? The club has copped it left, right & centre on our drafting & trading history but what about the recent past ... Oliver, Brayshaw and (probably) Petracca are star quality whilst I believe Weideman could be really good if he can develop a genuine belief in himself. Salem is another success story. Viney the same. Melksham & Hibberd came for 2nd round picks. Fritsch, Frost & AVB came reasonably cheap as well. On top of that we've used top end picks to trade in 2 quality backmen (May & Lever) to shore things up down back. Trading/recruiting for senior talent in Cross, Vince & Lewis were also good moves. We've gone from predominately missing to predominately hitting with regards to recruiting.

Hawkshot, Hartnell & Mystic Journey get the 3 remaining wild-cards for the All Star Mile Read more here

I started a thread here once about the 'Best combined 22 that anyone here had seen play.' That opened up the possibility for both young & old (here) to post up players from any era. But if I was picking an all-time great Demon 22 then I'd be putting up plenty who I never actually saw play. Ivor Warne-Smith, Norm Smith, RDB and many others. But RDB supersedes all and therefore has to be brought into the conversation ... he was too good a player and played as a ruck-rover (midfielder) This is not to detract from Clarrie's obvious ability but he needs a similar output for a few more years yet before the true accolades can be bestowed on him. Wells is the best midfielder I've seen play at the club but again, RDB is miles ahead of all of them if we trust the history. And I trust the history.

Clarrie did win the Morrish Medal (fairest & best in the Under 18 comp) so every club would have known about him. But you're right, working our way to the 3 pick was a masterstroke. The Bombers were all set to take Oliver and Parish with picks 5 & 6 but we usurped them.

"In Lyon's time on earth" but ... Clarrie has a long way to go before he catches up with Ron Barassi I never saw RDB play but I know plenty who did see him play ... a gun ruck-rover (midfielder) who was arguably best on ground in 3 winning grand finals. Universally regarded as a great footballer. Oliver is on a similar trajectory but he's still got to get there. Not sure we should ever dismiss the past so easily.

T-Mac was cut out of the game yesterday by a very good player in Rance ... with Hogan gone T-Mac is now almost certainly the main focus for opposition teams. He'll be double-teamed as well as not many teams have a backman as good as Rance. We really missed Melksham yesterday but we need Weideman to stand up and become a consistent 2nd tall option. If he does that, opposition teams will have 2 talls to concern themselves with. If both talls fire along with Petracca & Melsham, we're more than half-way there. The small forward and/or the 5th forward option can shine if the base is strong.

The way I saw it a lot of his kicks were under extreme pressure but he (Brayshaw) was still trying to direct the ball to the 'hot' spot ... only for that area to be often occupied by Richmond players. If our forwards stopped trying to take the easy option of leading to the boundary line or playing from behind, they may have been on the end of those rushed kicks to the hot spot area. Basic footy 101. We made it easy for their backman by not sticking to the basics ... and Brayshaw often had no option but to kick it forward when under pressure - the other option is to get caught in possession or to handpass it to another player who could end up under the same pressure. Surround Brayshaw with the 9 good players who missed yesterday and you'll see his disposal efficiency skyrocket. By the way, Brayshaw doesn't quite have the turn of foot that Martin/Dangerfield/Judd has but he's a different sort of player. We need our forwards to play in front and lead to space or to the hot spot ... cause & effect at play here except Brayshaw isn't the cause of ineffectual forward play. We need to own the hot spot if we're to dominate games. Constantly leading to the boundary line just makes it easy for opposition backmen. If our forward line fires, we can win big. The midfield isn't the issue nor is the backline a problem either (with the acquisition of Lever & May)

And I just gave you the reason - he often disposed of the ball under extreme pressure. So it stands to reason that when disposing of the ball under extreme pressure, the player can only do his best. If you want pinpoint accuracy from those situations then you're a hard-marker. Our problem this year won't be the likes of Brayshaw ... we absolutely need a fully functioning forward line with our forwards displaying the basics as well as top skills. By the way, Brayshaw often favours his left side to wrong-foot the opposition but even with taking that option, he was still (yesterday) under a lot of pressure on numerous occasions. If he goes to his preferred side he may not get the kick away at all ... and again, our players forward of the ball need to be reading the play and position themselves accordingly.