The heart beats true

I think the industry needs to separate personality from commentary. Employ personalities to do the entertaining, and employ specialist commentators to call the game. Channel 7 is confused as to what to do with down time in our game - but they shouldn’t be as they’ve got that part right (special commentary). The part that doesn’t work as well is the calling of the game. Sadly they continue to worry about ‘expanding the game’ and feel they need to focus on general entertainment and converting people to AFL. I don’t think anyone comes for BT. They come for the high marking and the goals. A great commentator only make those highlights better - because they focus on gameplay and skill.

He looks good for his age I reckon. Let’s hope the AFL industry is ageist and he doesn’t get poached.

Is that right? Wow, that’s nuts.

Honestly, do you think when you look back at this moment in the future you’ll think ‘it’s such a shame no one can see the bottom 3rd of my face. That’s the real story here’? Enjoy it for what it is. It’s a Premiership cup, with our name on it!

We was robbed! Should have won by 120. When will this club finally put an opponent away? Percentage could mean a lot this year! Sorry, I’m struggling to adjust to being the Premiers. Maybe when my Premiership Cheeseboard arrives it’ll finally sink in?

It seems completely just and appropriate that after a 9 month wait for live football the season should kick off with a Thursday night blockbuster featuring…. 12th vs 13th 🤷‍♂️ Why is this a thing? It also predetermines that those 2 clubs get prime time slots for weeks after that due to break requirements. It’s beyond boring.

The training away from the club thing is to do with the AFLPA contracts and the stipulation that they have a mandated time away from their employer. So, contractually speaking, what you’re actually looking at in the video is ‘The Artist Formally Known as Petracca’.

A lot of predictions from the playing group that he was a certainty to be best on in the celebrations. Quite likely he’s still drunk, and not legally fit to sign contract. Can’t blame him. Been throw it the last couple of years.

Obviously the draft is being dragged out to maximise sponsor dollars. Just checked with the AFL and final list lodgement is November 29th. Might struggle to hit the deadline. 😴

Big statements are literally the worst thing that’s ever happened in the history of the world. Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

This is a great point. In a lot of ways the current system is much harder on clubs at the bottom. If they don’t take Daicos and he becomes a star somewhere else there will be blood, but if they do that’s literally all they get. Our system of clustered players is going to become the preference because we won the flag. It’s hard to argue against it, even going back to Lewis, Franklin and Roughead. 2019 we got oddly lucky. Went backwards massively and got a huge reward.

I think the AFL has got the academy system all wrong. Under these new rules there’s a disincentive for clubs to invest in junior players who look to be stars (likely to go top 20). Surely that’s not how the system should work. Why don’t they put the emphasis on the clubs to BETTER invest in the talent by asking at age 17 they limit each Academy draft pool down to 5. Then those 5 are the only ones they can match bids on (before they’ve played their last year of junior footy). Most clubs don’t have one kid, so it’s not a massive issue, but when you’ve got talent you can invest more into them - and if you get the pick wrong well then it’s no different to the draft. The kids get better access to the clubs which helps their development, and the decision is all on the clubs.

Yeah sorry, didn’t phrase that correctly. Should have said that the lockdown isn’t having the same result as last time. 👍

I see this a lot in my community too OD. I happen to live on the 4th floor of an apartment building in Elsternwick and at night I can see people moving around and coming in and out of houses (well after lockdown). In the last month it’s become almost laughable the way people are breaking the rules. I also think the rising case numbers prove that a lot of people aren’t following the rules, because their will has been broken by the oppressive nature of the lockdowns. It’s a really interesting social experiment. I feel like if the numbers were going down the perceived benefit would inspire people to do the right thing. It’s counterintuitive that the lockdown isn’t working and more people are doing the wrong thing, but here we are.

The only logical conclusion is to give it to whoever agrees to shave their head every week. That way all the bandwagon jumpers who hop back on after the Premiership won’t find it all too confusing. ’Good job Nathan ol’ chap’

I think the only question remaining for the media to ask is… ’Will this go down as the most boring trade period ever?’ Except it’ll be all Murdoch clickbaity and read more like… ’You won’t believe what this AFL star trade period bombshell’ (because they don’t even bother to spellcheck their headlines anymore) - followed by a story featuring Matt Rendell saying it was a ‘surprisingly’ dull trade period.

Wingard and Omeara are B graders. Can be good in the right mix, but are not in the top 100 in the league. Mitchell is an extractor with a great work ethic but needs to be surrounded by pace, or else any midfield would be far too slow. None of them are young enough to be of value to invest in. You can try and shop them around, but the market is clearly soft, and even softer for these particular players. You’d only take them if you got them for nothing - which is guaranteed to annoy the faithful. So they’ll stay and feel very let down. It’s a no win, all lose situation - unless your a vindictive supporter from another club. 🥳

This is brilliant. I wouldn’t change a thing about that edit. We looked in all sorts mid way through the 3rd. Goodwin ‘Believe in the fitness you’ve got’. Unbelievable.

Footy clubs are like life - they are great, and then terrible, and then great, and then terrible. Look at Richmond. Perennial losers until they weren’t. When you spend time in the wilderness it only teaches you one thing - don’t be here again. I’m enjoying the highs so much because I know the lows. That’s the lesson, and the lesson is the reward.

Good to see Touk Miller get some love too. He can come to Melbourne whenever he wants.

I’d say he’s right. The Brownlow is often won by a midfielder who had a good year in a side where teammates don’t take too many away from them. Wines is a great player, but does he swing games the way the other 5 can? Ditto Sam Walsh.

Eagles chasing Powell-Pepper to add to Petrevski-Seton. It’s the Double hyphen, Double Sam draft double.

Also, that reel really proves that we have been the best side all year. The scores are always close, or in our favour. Our biggest deficit in a game came in a game we won (44 points Geelong Rnd 23). I also think our second biggest deficit for the year was against Brisbane (24 points), which we also won. Anyone know if that’s correct? The losses were tighter and sealed at the end against Collingwood, Bulldogs and GWS. That is an insanely good season of football. I don’t think we knew it while it was happening, because we couldn’t believe it yet.

That was epic. What a season. Now would not be a good time for me to wander on over to the ‘Arrogant fan’ thread.