Diamond_Jim

As a restricted free agent Gaff will probably come at a high price simply because the likes of North Melbourne and St Kilda will bid up his dollar price. (Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume Eagles only have to match the price of the club he wants to go to. In other words if there are three clubs bidding for him and he picks the lowest offer it is that offer that the Eagles must match.) From today's Age: "Melbourne, despite the club’s enviable young list, have the salary-cap space to make a strong bid for free agent Andrew Gaff should the star West Coast midfielder decide to come back to Victoria. The Demons, who successfully fended off other Melbourne rivals to land Jake Lever last year, are understood to have enough room in their salary cap to have a tilt at Gaff – or another seasoned recruit – despite having their own free agent, Tom McDonald, still to sign and the emerging Angus Brayshaw out of contract." https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/demons-have-room-for-andrew-gaff-20180529-p4zi9a.html

Mate.... Bears were dominant team with three straight premiership wins and in a GF for a fourth. If they couldn't build lasting support on the back of that success let's face it they are dead. The Suns were DOA before they started I am afraid. One team maybe but two is madness.

It's the "Deep Whirlpool"...when we have the ball

just to be picky... I would prefer to play in Melbourne in the first week. If we win the next two I will look with renewed eyes at the second half of the season.... last time I looked it was far from a pretty sight but perhaps the view will improve during the bye week. seems low but I assume it has a high percentage factor included

Very much agree. I know the win made everything rosy on the weekend but the backdrop was magnificent. Even the brown grass was in an Australian outback way, attractive. Interesting comment on the openness of the game. I'm going to "enjoy" the replay once more and I will watch closely. I had the suspicion on the first watch that they had less cameras at the game or similar which meant more wide shots.

"The intensive training" is all about the workload. Not an indicator that you are going to play. Remember when we had the substitute rule. You would often hear of the sub running 50 laps after games end to make up for the missed game time.

Isn't it wonderful to feel like a Hawthorn supporter.....long may it continue

That is so right. For example I would love to see the showdowns live in Melbourne on a Friday night when those teams are up and about. There is no doubt that the Carlton fiasco has damaged ratings and if anything good has come out of the drop in ratings is that such things will not happen again. Game starts are an issue with traffic issues etc getting to the ground but I agree a 15-30 minute earlier start would be ideal. Do we need to wait ten minutes after the start of the broadcast for the game to start. Could we shave a few minutes off the breaks between quarters. On another tack all together, perhaps some may now realise that the ridiculous amounts being offered for TV rights will not forever increase at the present exponential rate.

Bugg is mad if he doesn't start looking for another club. He's on the cusp but it seems he is out of favour. I'm sure both he and his manager are doing the rounds looking at where he would fit on the other lists. Balic may not be the easy re-sign either if he continues to perform at VFL level and can't crack the senior team. Good problem to have when players are too good for VFL but can't make the senior team. Could also see Stretch ask for a trade at year's end. At least we have the "slowing down" of Lewis and Vince to offer as hope to some of the up and comers.

No problem with the media pumping up our tyres as it will lead to more attendances and better exposure for sponsors. What will be very damaging is if we get pumped up and don't deliver ... not talking premierships.. just the home and away season. A crowd of 90k on QB is worth a lot of money if we can swing it. The kind of money that might make it easier not to sell games to NT. It's "fun" being a Dees supporter this month which is a feeling we have rarely had for ten odd years. Long may the "fun" continue.

if there was an injury to Hannan or Fritsch (not wishing for that to occur) his inclusion would not surprise ... particularly if we were talking round 18 and his VFL improvement remains on track. There's definitely something there... he may elect to go to another club next year if he can't break into the Dees.

yep... remember that mark... I assumed it was Weideman but asked somebody in the crowd and they said it was a new guy called Fritsch.... a very special day

Leaving for Russia this weekend. Having a few days in Moscow on the way to Kazan so I will try and give you some colour pieces as I travel. Our tickets arrived this week.. luckily as I was not looking forward to having to collect them in Russia. As one poster put up on another forum... What could you expect when I am in Australia going to a game in Russia buying tickets from an organisation based in Switzerland that has them printed in Italy... what could go wrong.

Is the NRL Friday night game still chosen by Channel 9 six weeks out as it used to be? According to Wikipedia it still is but I am not sure. "The Friday night game is considered to be the most watched game of the week and many NRL clubs have openly stated that they appreciate the publicity given by these matches. The Nine Network choose the game they consider to be the "match of the round" 5 or 6 weeks in advance. This system has both positive and negative consequences, as it increases the likelihood of a good game played between two in-form sides, but does not allow fans or clubs a large amount of time to know on which day they will play in any given round ." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Football_(NRL)

Not according to the article,,,, AFL have had better TV audiences since 2011. "At the halfway mark of the season, the NRL is set to eclipse the AFL as the most watched football code on TV in 2018. If current trends continue, the NRL will have a higher premiership season audience than the AFL for the first time since 2011. " I find this the most worrrying comment: "Compared to 2017, AFL TV ratings are falling even faster ... down 13.9 percent to the end of round 9, while the NRL season, which began two weeks earlier, has recorded a drop of only 0.6 percent to the end of round 11. " Ground attendances are good but they aren't where the money of the future lies.

No you're not the only one. Where Dogs had an okay 2016 and then a very good finals series the Tigers had a great 10 week stretch from around mid July. Five games out from the finals I had picked them to miss the 8 but they did their supporters proud.

The AFL TV product this year has in the main been poor especially the prime Friday night games. NRL also have a Thursday night game which gives them another slot to gather ratings.

BTW why wasn't the Alice game played during the indigenous round? Seems that culturally speaking it is as important if not more important than the Richmond v Essendon night game. Thought the paid advertorial by Daisy and BT was very amateurish. I'm sure it could have been done a lot better by others. Loved the cameos by Gilbert McAdam and the starring role of the "tree". Definitely looking at coming up next year but obviously I will have to make sure I buy my tickets in advance. PS: Now understand that it is the Pastor Doug Nichols week and we kicked it off.

On the rest theory I have seen a few clubs "managing" or resting some players but correct me if I am wrong it is not widespread. Cannot see it happening given the 9 day break that follows this game and then the bye. Spargo played a very solid game so not him. Vince looked fine as did Lewis. You can't rest Max and the midfield is working like a Swiss watch.

Took Tim a while but he may just have done what CBDees imagined 18 months ago. Thought he looked like as though he belonged on the weekend. Strong and not easily moved off the ball. Real competition between him, Pedersen and Weideman for that third tall spot.

Casey play Williamstown at Williamstown next week. Hibberd played his first game for us at Casey in the opening round against Williamstown last year along with Weideman and Pedersen.

Was surprised to hear that the ground capacity is as low as 7,000. Not sure it's a long term proposition at such a small ground.

Almost impossible to make a case for a change .... NO Change. Weid and Pedersen back to Williamstown.. almost deja vu save that instead of Hibberd they will have Hunt off the backline. Next week should be a regulation win if we are the team we wish to become.

Went to watch Casey yesterday play Port. One of the things that struck me was that whereas in the past a player would look to kick a goal around the 45 metre mark yesterday the Casey players would look for the handball/kick to a player closer in. Was thinking of making a post last night. To a large extent it didn't work for Casey. ( In fact I criticised Oskar Baker for not backing himself from around the 40 metre mark.) Imagine the surprise when the 7 commentators in the Alice mentioned the accuracy of the Dees and Daisy chimes in to the affect that they were passing off so the kicks were within 20 metres of goal. In a period of AFL football that includes remarkable inaccuracy I think this is a very important part of our game plan

It's not just one player of course but the addition of Gus to the midfield has just made us so more powerful as a team. I think he will soon be paid the compliment of a tag.