Diamond_Jim

TBH I don't see much of a net benefit to WA opening up pre April/May. If they can keep the Big O out for the rest of January why do a Queensland in February. There's no perfect time to open up but as Qld, SA etc found out now wasn't a good idea. Everything points to Omicron burning itself out by mid March (just in time for the next variant) WA teams moving to the east coast for 2 months is a small price especially if those games were designated as non home games allowing a string of home games later on.

Lynden Dunn at 50 surprises me. A solid team player in the 10-15 ranking of a season's 22... 50th best player over the last 50 years though ?? Great list though !

In a round about way they already have the "extra" players in the form of the VFL listed players. The issue is when would a club be able to access the top up players. Do you first have to exhaust your AFL uninjured list. Can you top up by reference to positions etc. Fixed rules could be a nightmare. My suggestion would be to use an MRP type body to make individual decisions based on "overall fairness". From left field should clubs have to lend players to other clubs as top ups. (Ruckmen come to mind)

I had wiped that Essendon debacle from my mind. Thanks for resurrecting it. It's one of those games where we can all remember where we were at the time. Personally my line these days is 36 points up five minutes* into the last quarter. *That's five mins on the timeclock or about ten minutes on the groundclock. Carlton (2018?) was a fun game

Having never been to the Whitten Oval I would be very interested in a food report and in particular a burger report from those attending. A wide range of food and beverage options will be available including the Bass Strait Beef Burger Bar, Pancake Parlour outlets and food trucks.

I think you may find that the rules on isolation are very different in two months. We're already down from 14 to 7 days and there is talk of five days soon. In low risk environments where you are not mixing with the highly vulnerable one has to wonder if quarantine will become a thing of the past.

Don't disagree but do we not already have Rivers and Salem in that role. Does Hunt have the defensive skills of Hibberd? Hunt's main skill is the ability to break lines. Unfortunately he seems far too often to try and go that one bounce too far and his disposal is therefore pressured. If Bowey could add run to his game he would be excellent.Can't see Smith getting a game short of injuries and the Petty/Tomlinson conundrum is unanswerable. Rivers to the wing and Brayshaw back to the centre.... Interesting but then what about Sparrow and Jordon. Is Harmes at risk? Great to have such an apparent abundance of riches.

Interested to see a discussion about the relative strengths and weaknesses of Hunt and Bowey as we move into 2022. Hibberd will work hard to keep his spot but who else can take that role short term?

seems that catching covid in the last 6 months was an out. My cynicism radar is on full alert.

And just after you thought things could not be more "interesting".... Along comes another likely variant. In France at present from the Cameroons. The medical world is on alert yet again after a new mutant Covid-19 variant emerged in France recently. The new strain, dubbed “variant IHU” or B. 1.640.2, was first detected in the nation last month, but is now making international headlines after catching the attention of global experts. At least 12 cases were confirmed near the Marseilles area, and it is understood that many of those patients were hospitalised with the illness. https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/health/french-scientists-discover-new-mutant-covid-variant-which-could-be-more-resistant-to-vaccines/news-story/3f0f3dd255130ce57d68cde9292a94d6 But there could be good news..... However, on a more positive note, the new strain does not appear to be spreading rapidly. The article also goes on to say that it could be outcompeted by our "friend" Omicron !!

Live sport buffering works on a completely different model to general video streaming which can buffer say two minutes worth of video if not more as you watch the show. Kayo seemed to buffer about 30 seconds worth and thus you will see every short dop out as your wireless signal goes up and down in strength. If the stream has been adeqately buffered you should have no problem. At home the signal will be relatively constant and thus no issue but on the move it's a different story. When it comes to replays I'm not sure how much they buffer but in theory it could be more like normal video streaming. It's not so much the speed of your connection as Kayo only requires around 8-13Mbs to deliver quality video but rather the consistency of the flow. Try sitting the phone down on a desk or table where the signal should be constant and see if you still have the same problem. Another trick as others have suggested is to allow the video to run for say five minutes and then move the cursor back to the beginning. In this way you are providing your own buffering. I had big troubles buffering etc with Kayo when using the old ADSL lines but once the NBN arrived it's been perfect. Good luck

Hopefully not an omen.....

Must say that the rate of increase in the recently opened States has surprised me a little given the pre entry testing that was relatively full on for the first week or so. Qld social media is full of people lamenting the open border policy. Will WA really open in the first week of February. Surprised we're not letting overseas tourists in. Can't do much harm.On the other hand there's little politcal upside for the Feds to make that decision. The Queensland pre testing rules which are unenforceable remind me of the copyright rules introduced all those years ago re taping TV chows onto VHS. (You and the family could watch it but you couldn't share the tape.)

Back in Melbourne at present. Came back in January via Adelaide quarantine Most of South East Asia including Malaysia has tough anti covid rules so it's not a pleasant place to be these days. Definitely looking forward to a few games at Casey in a few months.

According to the ABC report he got it in Melbourne. Interesting that if both he and David Boon had been following the new National Cabinet testing protocols neither would have been tested. Could this be the end of sports covid testing for the non symptomatic

It's warming up out there and I'm not talking about the weather. To date we have had the luxury of studying overseas trends in advance of significant outbreaks but not this time. The new rules for PCR testing could see a nominal reduction in official cases but the speculation about "real numbers" will explode.

yes that is a strange one. Immediately you would think it's the Ch 7 bargaining power or the anti siphoning rules but their is no prohibition on dual channel showing as long as one is FTA. On the bargaining power Fox pays the lion's share of the boradcast rights so you'd think they have a seat at the table. My pet hate is of course the Channel 7 commentators when the Fox game is also FTA

You have to look at internet charges as a function of local average wages. In Malaysia I have 1Gb fibre internet (up and down ) for A$50 per month but locally the average wage is around a quarter of what is earned in Australia. Where you see a big cost is in the area of laptops and other hardware. These items are "world priced" and to a local they are simply out of reach to many. During the pandemic families would share one or two phones for online learning. Kayo is excellent as it debundles sport from costly add ons. Its problem is that other providers will gradually cherry pick key aspects. A quick back of the envelope calculation shows that it is very hard to run a profitable sports streaming channel in Australia given the price paid to the bigh three .. AFL, NRL and Cricket. My guess is that next year when the contract runs out F1 will be cherry picked just as A League was last year along with the Socceroos. And that brings us to the 2022 World Cup. In 2018 most of the WC was behind the Optus paywall until their site fell over and SBS picked up the ball. Given the killer timezone and the location it may be the least watched World Cup in many years.

Very true Also I notice that he is rarely able to position himself so he is free to get the break on an opponent and take the relatively easy mark. Both Brown and Fritsch have this skill. If he is to replace Tom Mac his ball skills will need to improve.Tom Mac is very useful as a handball receive and give. Have rarely noticed Weid demonstrating these skills. Perhaps he is too one dimensional for the modern game

On ABC radio Glenn said that his father had to work this morning and that he had hoped to be at the ground by noon !!

A wonderful performance by Boland I think we may see a bit of discussion regarding ball technology shortly. The Kookaburra is a new design this year that is supposed to keep the ball harder longer. Interesting that reverse swing has been non exisitent and there has been very few sessions where batsmen of either side dominated. Don't think there has been more than one 300 run day if any. Winning away from home requires a great team and this England team is not clearly not one of them. Well done Scott Boland !!

The travel testing is starting to become ridiculous. Stories on social media about people having multiple tests in hope that one is in the 72 hour window.Others tell of friends and family in various queues with travelling party being ferried around the centres. Who knows if it's true but it's now farcical.

No ...just the spit in the tube... five minute test Given that they were all having Christmas lunch together 48 hours ago it goes to show that the definitions of contacts etc are going by the wayside ... good thing

Assume your problem with Kayo is the replays which are condensed. I doubt WatchAFL is much different as the source of the replays is probably the same. The live streams on Kayo are quite good in HD. They might add a 4k premium sub in future years. More likely if Foxtel is sold as has been mentioned by NewsCorp.

almost as stupid as the 72 hour pre departure test for the UK. By the time you land its 100 plus hours and they have 125k cases a day !!!