Diamond_Jim

Pity this game is so early in the season as the next two weeks offer the perfect scenario for management of players

Sums it up well. Sydney played the prettier football but we pressured them out of it

somebody pulled the plug

Being dominated in the ruck which is unusual

Swans showing much better connection

Blues winning the close ones this year

That started when Cameron left...Probably the only player on the list with value is Green (without the E) In reality does it matter.. bit like the Suns ...a permanent 11-16 team with no followers

We probably would have beaten the Pies tonight. Problem is they won't kick 8:15 that often

A cat toying with a mouse Should have been a 100 point win but in the end the mouse still loses

3 back half players on the interchange bench and Brayshaw notionally listed at HFF No Chandler Strange composition PS Sorry they hid Chandler on the HBF

You stay in the same conference but you play cross conference games as well as intra conference. US NFL has 2 historical groups.. NFC and the AFC. These two groups which once were separate leagues then have divisions with each division having four teams. Below is wikipedia's description of the NFC draw. Much the same for AFC Each NFC team plays the other teams in their respective division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to eleven other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL: three games are assigned on the basis of a particular team's final divisional standing from the previous season, and the remaining eight games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions. This assignment shifts each year and will follow a standard cycle. Using the 2021 regular season schedule as an example, each team in the NFC East plays against every team in the NFC South and AFC West. In this way, non-divisional competition will be mostly among common opponents – the exception being the three games assigned based on the team's prior-season divisional standing. At the end of each season, the four division winners and three wild cards (non-division winners with best regular season record) in the NFC qualify for the playoffs. The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game with the winner receiving the George S. Halas Trophy. The NFC champion then plays the AFC champion in the Super Bowl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_Conference

Franklin back in. Will we fall for the obvious trick where he plays up the ground and drags May away from defence. (cue the praise for May when Buddy only scores one goal)... Buddy's not the man anymore

Freo v Eagles is shaping up as a possibly pleasant watch after the Red Bull procession aka the GP

Happens quite often Preston probably had as many supporters as North back in the 60's and 70's. The whole VFA competition which was at one time as big as the VFL is no more. St Kilda went into liquidation. Fitzroy was effectively bankrupt. Collingwood under McAlister almost went to the wall. The more relevant question is why do we hang onto ten clubs in Melbourne when clubs rise and fall in almost every other competition around the world. As an aside I wonder if Footscray rebranding itself as the Western Bulldogs was successful. Seems to me that given the explosion of the population in the west of Melbourne that it hasn't really had any meaningful benefit in membership numbers

The introduction of the 19th team and the consequential issue of byes and ladder positions with an asterix will lead to a call for a solution. It will come in the form of the 20th team. That team will require government backing. The capacity of the Norwood ground is irrelevant. Any new team from SA would play at the Adelaide Oval. As LDC points out Canberra and Darwin are alternative possibilities as would be Perth, Townsville and even Launceston. As usual it will be decided by television money

Add to that very few if any travelling Swans fans. Hotel and flight costs on GP weekend are high and would have been booked heavily by GP fans before the AFL fixture was released

Tickets for Saturday and Sunday were sold out within minutes of sales opening. At rather mouth watering prices for most tickets as well. Make no mistake Grand Prix is now a big event thanks to the hit Netflix series.. Drive to Survive The notional value of the franchise has increased almost three fold since the new American owners purchased F1 from Ecclestone

Great points... Do you think this is why in the first round we saw Oliver launching attacks more from half back. As another poster pointed out the Pies had around 13 goal kickers last weekend. I think we would be pushing to find more than 7 in any one game in recent times

Agree but why not go say 4 days early and train under lights. Instead we flew up day before and had a light daytime run. If players could not make it for personal reasons take the rest of the team. Was always amazed we used to do a drop in at Darwin but at least then we weren't playing a Darwin based team. I expect the football budget is so tight with its cap that we can't do it but I'm sure if it was Collingwood or Geelong they would find a way

What a difference a week makes Last week 1 player not available This week.. 5

Salem... 6-8 weeks !!! Hell

GWS starting to go into a downward spiral. 12-16 is probably the best they can hope for. You wonder if the AFL will give them assistance in the draft etc. I assume they have access to NSW players on the same basis as the Swans

Probably not but perhaps the real question is whether anyone will care if they do. GWS was the science experiment with their excellent drafting but even they couldn't crack the relevancy factor

You have to wonder why he stays. Sydney would love him for example

Nice stat but with the AFL introducing their 50/50 rounds to increase TV viewing in the early season you will see more of these types of stats