Big Col

Yeah, I heard that too. The salary cap for VFL is $110,000 which has to be spread amongst a small humber of non-AFL players (it's double for stand alone clubs ie $220k). Metro and country leagues typically have salary caps between $100K and up to $300K but I imagine those caps might typically be swallowed up by only a few elite players. I guess you play VFL footy to give you the best shot at being drafted by an AFL club, rather than money.

loved it

I'm loving this thread - even though I'm safely within Melbourne suburbs with my tickets booked for next week and hopefully more if needed! In 2000, I was teaching English language in a school in Valencia, Venezuela. I managed to reserve a 'spot' at an internet cafe (in the middle of a busy bar/nightclub area) to listen to the game late at night Valencia time. When I left the cafe I was swearing and kicking things over after our loss to the Bombers but failed to notice that I was alone in a what is normally a busy street. Unbeknownst to me, there had been a shooting close by and the police had 'cleared' the area. I still wonder to this day what those people nearby thought as I cried and screamed out in anger (f..king Bombers etc) as I walked along this street. Did they think I knew (one of) the victim(s)? It's a lot easier today to watch the game than it was back then, but I'm feeling for you and sending out all my ex-pat tourist luv stuff. Go Dees.

I have so much nostalgia about the past and all the players you mentioned WERE champions. But we are witnessing something very special here. If Clarry wins another Bluey this year, he'll be on 4 (or 3.5 if you only count his joint win as half) which will put him equal with Stynes (4) who I think is #1 (stas gurus correct me if I'm wrong). Clarry is only 25 and is only just hitting peak age now. He's winning these Bluey's ahead of 6(?) time AA ruckman Max Gawn and 2020 Bluey winner and 2021 Norm Smith medalist (and persistent top 10 AFLCA champion) Christina Petracca. Clarry may win a Brownlow this year, but if not he'd be a good bet to win one eventually. If not more. In 20 years time they will build a statue for this kid, outside the MCG, alongside the other champions there.

Home Final!

I smashed our outdoor furniture chair that day.

I'd rather play the Pies in a GF than a PF where their crowd dominates. In a GF there's enough neutrals to remove that advantage.

AFLCA votes in the last 2 rounds are held over as secret. After RD21, the leader board was: 88 Miller, Neale 86 Oliver, Petracca 75 Cripps, Rozee I don't think Neale would have received votes in Rd22 and certainly not last night. GC got thrashed last week, so I doubt Miller was in the votes I'd be confident that Oliver got some votes last night, and maybe some against Carlton. Trac possibly too. I think Cripps and Rozee are too far behind. If Miller doesn't get in the votes this week (GC are playing Nth, so easily possible), then I'd put money on Clarry taking home a 2nd consecutive award.

True, but an MCG final will save me lots of $$ in airfares and accom in Sydney.

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.

Fair call GYM.

I think it's about modernising our constitution. I don't think we need to wait for 'bad' things to happen before we take measures to address potential 'bad' things. The 20 member nomination requirement shouldn't be a problem for genuine nominees when it's also accompanied with other open democratic processes like allowing canvassing of votes (and before that nominations). It's the other 'open democratic' processes that may encourage frivolous nominations. Having said that, I would be disappointed if the club chooses to enact this nomination proposal without the quid pro quo of opening up the rest of the process.

I actually suggested this exact thing in the survey. Board nominees should have unfair impediments to election removed (such as the board endorsing certain candidates on club paid for literature - eg if Kate Roffey wants to write to members recommending people vote for certain candidates then she's pays for it, not the MFC). It should also more widely advertise their nomination process (eg notice should be given to members and the election process transparent) and not prevent candidates from promoting themselves including on sites such as Demonland. But the flipside to this is in order to prevent frivolous nominations that cost the club money, we should insist that board nominees actually have some support before they nominate. If a serious board contender can't even muster 20 nominations then how do they expect to be elected?

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