Big Col

Given that percentage IS important (we get to see the Dees at the MCG!) let's f*&ng [censored] them. No mercy. Go the kill.

With the whole fam in Covid ISO, it feels eerily similar to the final round 2021. I'm hoping for something a little less traumatic on the heart. Go Dees. Go big time.

and no Bowey, so 3 missing (Jordon in)

Not really a huge amount of work but thanks for engaging! (I float these sort of things in my head all the time and only occasionally put them in writing when maybe someone is interested) I'll concede that the way I described it - by making it sound complicated and confusing - was terrible. I think I was trying to come up with a system that was more like a series than a knock-out comp. It's born of years of disappointment as a Dee. So when you finally make the finals you know you'll at least get to see them because (at least) one of their games will be at home. "My team made the finals, I'm buying a ticket" . "Oops, it's an away game in Adelaide". If you have a final series (rather than award the premiership to the top team) then you have to accept that any team that qualifies has a chance to win while presumably you still give an advantage to teams that finishes higher in the H&A. [eg In the NBA it's knockout with the only advantage being a slightly better home ground advantage based on your seed. (because they're multiple games, all fans get to see them at home at least once. The higher ranked team will host games in 1,2 5 and 7 of a 7 game series.] What is the appropriate advantage to give to for ladder position? Under the proposed BigColFinal9, form tends towards PF with 1 v 4 and 2 v 3. The current system trends towards 1 v 3 and 2 v 4 for the PF.

Was I bit too conservative and pessimistic?

The top team must finish first in its group to get a home preliminary final. If the top team finishes second in its group it qualifies for an away final If the top team finishes third in its group then it is eliminated These are the scenarios for the top team: In all cases team 1 has a bye in round 1 The loser of 6 v 7 will play team 1 in round 2. Team 1 will play the winner of round 1 in round 3 In Rd 3, Team 1 has 0 or 1 wins and is playing against a team with 1 win. If they lost in Rd2 then they will have to win in Rd3 to have a chance at finishing 1st or 2nd. That will come down to percentage. If they lose again, they're out. If they won in Rd2 then they will have to win in Rd3 to finish top. If they lose they will finish second and yes they will qualify for the PF but it will be for an away final. This could be an issue where the opponent is certain to be another Melbourne team, but you'd also be ranked 4 and playing the best of the other teams in the PF, rather than 2 or 3. A team that 'relaxed' in Round 1 would do so at their peril.

The top team must finish first in its group to get a home preliminary final. If the top team finishes second in its group it qualifies for an away final If the top team finishes third in its group then it is eliminated

This is my proposal for how a Final 9 could work should the AFL expand to 19 teams in the future (and want to make more money) Final 9 Proposal Main points: · Top 9 teams qualify · Every team that qualifies plays at least two games, and at least one home and one away game · All teams can win the premiership, but the higher your finish the greater your chance to play to play in a preliminary final and the greater the chance that it will be a Home PF · Finals series is for 5 weeks. The pre-finals bye is eliminated but each team will receive one bye in the first 3 weeks during the series. To win the premiership you must win the last 2 weeks (PF and GF) and at least one of the other 2 games (ie it is impossible to lose 2 games and win the GF) System: Teams that finish in the top 9 are allocated pools based on their H&A ladder position. Pool A - 1,6,7 Pool B - 2,5,8 Pool C - 3,4,9 Each team plays 2 games (1xH and 1xA) against the other 2 teams in its pool. The teams are then ranked 1st, 2nd or 3rd in their pool. Percentage is used to separate those teams on equal wins, calculated using only the results from finals games. The winner of each pool advances to the Preliminary Finals (3) as does the highest H&A ranked team from those teams that finished 2nd in their finals pool. (ie of the 3 teams that finished 2nd in their pools, select the one that finished highest during the H&A season to advance to the PF) All the teams that finished 1st in their group are re-ranked for preliminary finals. The highest finishing team in H&A who qualifies for the Preliminary Finals is ranked 1. The second highest is 2 and third is 3. The team that qualifies by virtue of being the highest ranked team to finish second, is re-ranked as 4th. Preliminary finals are 1v4 and 2v3 Grand final is the winner of each PF. The schedule in the Qualifying Rounds and How to avoid dead rubbers Each team is ranked 1,2 or 3 within their pools (eg Pool A, team 1 is 1, team 6 is 2 and team 7 is 3) depending on their H&A position. Each pool has the same system with each team playing one home and one away game. Week 1: 2 v 3 (team 1 has a bye) Week 2: 3 v 1 (team 2 has a bye) OR 1 v 2 (team 3 has a bye) Week 3: 1 v 2 (team 3 has a bye) OR 3 v 1 ( team 2 has a bye) The winner of week 1 advances to week 3, so that will determine which of the two options is played in week 2 and which is played in week 3. There can be no dead rubber in the final round. Example, with winning teams in bold. The teams finish like this at the end of the H&A season: 1 GEE 2 MEL 3 FRE 4 BNE 5 CAR 6 COLL 7 SYD 8 RICH 9 STK POOL A: Gee, Coll, Syd POOL B: Mel, Car, Rich POOL C: Fre, Bne, St K Week 1: Coll v Syd Carl v Rich Bne vs StK Byes: Geel, Melb, Freo Week 2 Syd vs Geel Rich vs Melb Freo vs Bne Byes: Coll, Carl, St K Week 3 Geel v Coll Melb v Carl StK vs Freo Byes: Syd, Rich, Bne In Pool C, Freo have a solid win over StK and win their group and St Kilda finish 2nd. But as the 9th placed team it’s impossible to finish as the best runner up, so they’re eliminated. In Pool B, Melb comfortably defeats Carl who finish 2nd in their group and await the results of other games to see if they can be the highest placed runner-up. Rich, having lost both their games was already eliminated. In Pool A, all 3 teams finish on 1 win, so the result comes down to the percentage over the three games (2 each). Geel are up by 20 points with seconds to go in the last quarter, but a behind after the siren makes it only a 19 point, win allowing Coll to top the group while Geel edges Syd out for 2nd place in their group. Geel qualify as the highest placed runner-up. If Geel had won by 20+ and topped the group, then Carl would have qualified as the highest ranked runner up. POOL A WIINER: Coll POOL B WINNER: Melb POOL C WINNER: Freo Best placed runner-up: Geel Preliminary Finals: Mel vs Geel Freo vs Coll GF: Mel vs Coll Melbourne go on to win by 634 points, after a shock 1st quarter where they were held to only 11 goals straight. Weideman returns to the team after 3 years in the reserves and kicks 27 goals while Oliver racks up 132 possessions. Petracca receives his 7th consecutive Norm Smith Medal. On the down side, Gawn has a disappointing 347 hit outs, while Jackson watches from the sidelines in his Freo scarf regretting life’s decisions.

This is where supporter culture comes from. Without pain there's no pleasure. Imagine if you were a supporter and had to put up with the rubbish they've provided over their existence. If they make the finals in 2022 you'd be ecstatic. More importantly, many more potential fans will come on board if they're up the top for a few years. Fair weather? Yes, but some will stick. But you have to lose and lose and lose and still be a fan, to be a real fan.

Not many would have predicted how well Bowey would play in 2021 (although it was obvious after just one game that he was the real deal). If we're going to debut JVR or Laurie, we should do it soon.

Or the Robbie to the Tom (Flower) ... Or the Kylie to the Danni (Minogue) .... Or the Eddie to the Frank (McGuire) ... Been a long time, but check out http://tonywilson.com.au/[censored]-siblings

Just one issue to take up with @Ben E's post. The VFL only had a 22-game season from 1970. For example, in 1925 it was 17 games long. In 1964 there were 18 games and it was 20 games long in 1968. Most seasons were 18 games long and teams played the reverse rounds of 1-7 and only played the teams from rounds 8-11 once. The VFL/AFL has a long proud history of unfair, inconsistent and incomprehensible fixtures. ( but I otherwise fully concur with @Ben E )

6 Petracca 5 Oliver 4 Langdon 3 Brayshaw 2 Viney 1 Harmes

yep

But kudos to @Bring-Back-Powell for an awesome effort to get to Geelong on a Thur night (unless he/she lives in Geel anyway in which case you'd expect nothing else)

Cast my vote for Freo and I forgot about St Kilda. I'd like them to win one soon but I SO don't want them challenging while we're at/near the top and taking the 'neutral' crowd from us. I think in a GF we might still be 'neutral' favourites against anyone except the Saints Once we've won 3 or 4 that wouldn't be the case and I wouldn't care any more ayway.

Surely he won't be available at Pick 18?

...our record against Ben and Brett from the Ratten family is pretty good though? Or was that the Rutten family? I get confused...

My takes ... Tommo BOG and comes in to the seniors next week Hibbo will need more time before he's considered Mitch Brown crashes packs and atm if Tom Mc doesn't get up I'd say he's a good chance of a game (perhaps even if?) We really have to look at Cory Ellison - perhaps a Rookie spot next year?

Here's the link. Starts at 2:05pm https://www.afl.com.au/afl-tv/stream?streamId=State League CH13&player=1Djg1qHoh

all sorted now

Thanks Mr Mullet

Can anyone help with this? It's a first-world MCC question. So ... I have an MCC/MFC Premium Membership that entitles me to 3 MCC guest passess for the season As far as I can tell, all my guest has to do is scan the barcode on my membership app. (I suppose I should send him the barcode because it's only on my phone atm) I can't work out what to do re reserved seats. Up until now I'd been booking a seat on Ticketek, but I can't work out how to book a seat for me and my guest without paying for the seat. I don't want to just grab any old seat when I get there because it might be someone's reserved seat. What am I missing?

To be fair to D17, the reference in the OP is only to the 'modern era of football', and every MFC supporter knows that the modern era only started in 2021. The period between 1965-2020 are now known only as the Dark Ages.

Yeah. Nah. Not once this season have I thought we were going to lose. It sounds weird saying this but I'm hoping for a team that can challenge us. Where are they?