Diamond_Jim

we always have an excuse.... we are Melbourne

No reason not to be 8-2 at round 10. Indeed if we are improving we should be 9-1

Australia is not rolling out the vaccine until March.You need 70% of the population vaccinated. It's a 2 jab process where immunity is given around 15 days after the second jab. Simple maths tells you that the vaccines will not be effective to reach heard immunity until around August at the earliest. By the way they do work and the safety tests have been enormous. As of today over one million doses of the Pfizer vaccine has been given for example. Was reading a fascinating stats paper the other day by a US statistician. Assuming herd immunity is achieved at 70% of the population and no vaccine the US would take 5 years at its present rate of infection to achieve herd immunity. With a vaccine take up rate of 40% it takes 15 months. Jump that take up rate to 60% and you get there in 6 months. Please take the vaccine and get your friends to take it as well. Otherwise 2022 won't be much better.

well at least we won't have to worry about socially distancing for this round assuming we get to go. The latest NSW outbreak shows that 2021 isn't going to be normal by any stretch. Will the players put up with another bubble season?

better win it by 20 plus definitely send the B team to Freo in the practice match if we're smart Mind you we never are

Other than the drive to Casey there's nothing wrong with it per se. It beats Punt Road from a spectator viewpoint where you sit in the stand or nowhere. Lacks the aeshetics of the old grounds such as Port Melbourne. Went to Frankston once on a clear winters day....Fantastic fun The outer wing at Casey is very sterile and usually devoid of spectators. Up until end of 2019 the surface drainage was very bad. I assume that was fixed in 2020. Most VFL games attract small crowds. Have been to Casey on a nice day to watch us play the Collingwood VFL team which was probably the biggest VFL crowd I have seen. Maybe 5-7k. Usual crowd I suspect is between 1and 2k. It's just a lovely day of no stress high class football. Could it be improved.. sure Coburg has craft beer. Frankston has a delightful sausage sizzle. Perhaps because the crowds are small there could be a half time address by a team official to those interested in team tactics/development etc. TBH I have for a while been of the view that they are not interested in increasing VFL attendances. Most of the crowd get in for free and if there were bigger crowds they would need more toilets, car parks, attendants security etc. In fact I can't ever recall seeing security at a VFL match which is a good thing.

we have a pretty good win rate in the meaningless games. It's the ones for points that we find harder

AFL is naturally shielded from the talent decline you mention because there is no external yardstick. For the those more international sports such as cricket rugby soccer swimming and even netball where we continually punched above our weight we are coming back to the pack as other countries develop centres of excellence etc etc

my guess is 5k maximum There's very few seats at Casey so it will be social distancing on the grass. The advantage of it being the second round is that we will get the chance to see what happens the week before

Yippee... a trip to WA in February what a pleasure

most of it is occupied by one club/sport or another. There is a large ashphalt area adjoining the athletic track where they race land yachts. There is also space between our oval and the main road which is not being used to the naked eye. On the other side of our oval is a wetlands complex which I cannot see being touched.

It’s in the Age article (Bulldogs thought on trade night that Pies were paying $1.5M over the contract period. Final deal is Collingwood only pay $1M .) One month after Adam Treloar was traded from Collingwood to the Western Bulldogs an agreement has been reached that will see close to $1 million of the midfielder's contract carried in the Magpies' salary cap over the next five years..... The elongated negotiation process began when Collingwood disputed the Western Bulldogs' belief that the Magpies had agreed to pay $1.5 million of Treloar's $4.5 million deal that extends until 2025

That little stuff up cost the Dogs half a million of salary cap. I hope they have documented their "learnings" for next time.

no we had them notionally in 2020 It would be nice to think Richmond and Collingwood will say...bad luck you missed out... here have 2021 but I can't see it happening easily

Not sure what is a fair outcome. It's not as simple as splitting 2021 revenues as that means that the 2021 home team only receives 50% of its expected revenue in a two year period. Perhaps splitting for both 2021 and 2022 is fairer. It's a hard one

Not sure that the power clubs will like floating fixtures if it means an end to their cosy arrangements. Jeff K has been very quiet of late but I suspect that there's some back room discussions going on among the Big 8 presidents. Looking at the blockbusters I have come up with this list of who has the home team advantage for 2021 and therefore the ground receipts.. Couldn't think of anymore but I am sure there are some.The Derbies don't really count as those teams will play twice anyway. Essendon are a big loser along with ourselves. Carlton v Richmond (opening round) Melbourne v Richmond (Anzac eve) Collingwood v Essendon (Anzac day) Collingwood v Melbourne (QB) Richmond v Essendon (Dreamtime)

One of the big changes was time on being added for the ball being out of bounds. It was introduced in 1994 with the 20 minute quarter Time on was first introduced to the Laws of the Game by the Australian National Football Council for the 1928 season.[1] From 1928 until 1994, quarters lasted 25 minutes playing time, and time on was called only for scores and injuries; the rule of thumb was that there would be roughly one minute of time-on for every goal scored. From 1994, the AFL Commission adopted the shorter 20 minute quarter, and introduced time-on for many other stoppages, including a ball-up or boundary throw-in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_on

could you unpack those learnings for me please

We definitely need to be 4-2 at the end of 6. A 2-4 start which is so often the case will do nothing. Now for the debate over receipts sharing for Anzac Eve. (It may not be pretty)

Yes the degree of exclusivity at Gosch's will be interesting. I think there will be a land deal of sorts done that grants some element of exclusivity and that is the main reason why the site is being kept quiet. Perhaps a fenced arena with gates left open in times of non use

many many times I can recommend the bacon and egg rolls and the Berwick mound for viewing. My comment is based mainly on funding. Hard to see who will pay to maintain both a training ground and Casey. Why wouldn't you play future VFL matches at the new training ground near the MCG.

Casey and MFC Increasingly feeling that the romance is ending...... Covid is perhaps that one last fling but like all good Edwardian dramas ?

At last... the training protocols..... "Clubs will be able to train without restriction when outdoors after players and officials underwent another round of COVID-19 testing on Thursday and Friday. Industry sources said players would only be required to follow the rules imposed by their state governments when away from the club. All officials and players will still need to be screened and temperature tested before entering the club, meetings held indoor will have their numbers limited and each session should be restricted to within an hour. Testing is unlikely to occur weekly, but a COVID-19 compliance officer will still need to make risk assessments to determine how regularly particular individuals need to be tested." https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/perfect-storm-set-to-result-in-afl-medical-exodus-at-clubs-20201205-p56kux.html

It was published last week that while trade details were usually required within (I think) 48 hours of the trade period closing the AFL had extended the timeframe for this deal indefinitely

I have always found that the best decisions in life are made when one is confronted by choices. It seems tome that by limiting themselves to the MCG area the Board has given itself a choice between something and nothing. Something will win out as it always does because it appears better than nothing. I would have had three competing programs... Casey, Goschs and another inner city area.. and competed them to the end.