Diamond_Jim

Of course we could add in the opening of the stadium entry doors (thus creating a wind) to help the home team. This apparently worked wonderfully well for the Russian javelin throwers at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

Adelaide oval in cricket was always the interesting one: Traditionally hits to the long on or long off boundary frequently allowed the batsmen to run five. Conversely the boundaries square of the wicket were often cleared for six. Boundary ropes have massively changed the game in cricket. Fascinating post on another thread that mentioned the Docker's training facility has other ground dimensions marked out on it.

Ah.... why not I'm on the bandwagon The real question is do we want to play GWS or Adelaide in that first final. I hope for GWS as it should be easier to get tickets. Of course we could still end up top two and not have to worry about travel in the first week. I'm starting to feel almost Hawthornesque in my optimism.

will the path take a twist this weekend and moreover shall we emerge on the goat track of Thermopylae or will it be the glorious yellow brick road of Oz

So yesterday it was Watts and Hogan to play with Garlett as a test. Today it has all gone to #$%@ ...... MFCSS surfacing again What makes me think Buddy might find his kicking boot again O well ... there is hope... Bugg might kick 5 or 6 !!

Not sure that White's form at Casey has been that good. It's been okay but .....

could not have put it better. DS ..... who do you suggest in place of Garlett and why would also be very interesting

We are about to see the old rule that got the Essendon players off before the AFL tribunal called out AFL did not call Oliver which then raises a presumption he would not have supported AFL's case Amazing

Ah !!! the old self inflicted wound defence !! David Grace QC is saying there were two incidients. He said Oliver chased Schofield and Oliver's right side of his face struck Schofield's spine, and that caused Oliver's pain.

Houli... Guilty sentence to come

Interesting to look at them also by reference to home game averages: We are easily the leader of the "rest of the pack". In EPL terms it is time for us to break into the champions league. (Not sure if it includes the Alice Springs game in our average. If it does the average MCG attendances would be way higher.) AFL Season Match Type Home/Away Sort By « 2016 Attendances 2017 AFL Home Match Attendance Team Games Total Average Richmond Tigers 7 426,441 60,920 Essendon Bombers 6 337,616 56,269 Collingwood Magpies 6 296,118 49,353 Adelaide Crows 7 324,245 46,321 Port Adelaide Power 6 243,221 40,537 Carlton Blues 6 234,801 39,134 West Coast Eagles 7 264,982 37,855 Melbourne Demons 6 222,465 37,078 Western Bulldogs 6 217,658 36,276 Fremantle Dockers 6 194,787 32,464 Geelong Cats 7 222,687 31,812 Sydney Swans 7 220,370 31,481 Hawthorn Hawks 6 182,293 30,382 St Kilda Saints 7 198,026 28,289 North Melbourne Kangaroos 8 182,860 22,858 Brisbane Lions 6 94,055 15,676 Gold Coast Suns 7 87,214 12,459 GWS Giants

Hell .. a few days ago I started a thread on making the finals and now we have one on the BIG ONE. Ask me after the prelim !! Oh and I forgot to add what about GWS

Very impressive game by Max Frankly I expected less after his time out He could play a blinder on Friday night

I'm starting to like that idea of the bye after round 22 Jones to play in the VFL during the bye ... imagine the crowd !!

There's some strong logic in that notwithstanding that Oscar has been steadily improving in his position

I very much doubt that the AFL members will be full. Just the pre-sale ticket area is full. Level 4 will be half empty as will level 1 near the Ponsford stand. You need crowds of 70k to see those areas filling. The actual seating is updated on the AFL members site and at present it is showing general admission for AFL members as TBC If they thought they were going to get a seriously large crowd they would make it a pre-reserved game only

There are the same number of games each year (198) to be divided between the teams. Usually the top four teams if not more take a large number of those games thus leaving less games to be "shared" between the remainder. This year the top teams are having their fair share of losses and thus not reducing the win pool at the same rate. The other factor is how many games are the bottom four taking out of the available win pool. On the percentage we sit at roughly 100%. Compared to the other teams we have no advantage in that area is what I was saying. Unlike say Port that effectively have one more game as a result of their percentage. If we are forced to rely on percentage we cannot afford to lose games by any great margin.

Darwin airport readings for yesterday: 7pm: game time Temp 25 (feels like 27) Relative Humidity 70 10pm: end of game Temp 22 (feels like 24.5) Relative humidity 83 Melbourne readings for yesterday: 7pm: 13 (feel like 10) Relative hum: 60 10pm: 10 (feels like 8) Relative humidity : 83 (Same humidity you say .... nah relative humidity is measured by reference to what amount of water air can hold at a particular temperature..... so at a temp of 25 the air has a hell of a lot more water to achieve a humidity factor of 83 than at a temp of 10 degrees). As an example when our Melbourne temps are 25 in January our relative humidity reading is typically 40-50 Hopefully some of our whiz bang scientists can drop in: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Kinetic/relhum.html

As an exercise I just went through a dummy booking for the Darwin game on AFL travel: Return flight plus one night in a hotel ... minimum $1,000 !! Hell ... you can buy a GF package for that.

Fascinating ... everyone assumes 12 gets you in the final 8 but with the closeness of the season and the top four not being dominant you may well be right that it will require 13 and percentage (something we don't have much of).

Love the ending but two games in a row in Adelaide .... wow ........such confidence ...... Can you give us the starting 22 in the GF by any chance. I have Weed as a smokey kicking 4 and announcing himself to the world !!

Interesting .... wonder where the feed is coming from There are some free VPN's on the web if you are desperate. Once set up they work well but they do affect your download speed and can thus affect the quality of the video stream.

I understand injuries .... but why this year do we seem always to get the minimum four week type injuries. Just when I was finally getting free of my MFCSS another thing comes along. Pessimistically waiting for similar reports on Garlett and possibly Hannan which would really knock us around JKH has kicked one goal (perhaps three or four) during his recent VFL stint. Sure he played mid field but don't expect a like for like replacement with Garlett. If anything JKH has demonstrated at AFL level that deep forward is not his thing. PS... I forgot Viney as a possible out due to injury ... (why does my MFCSS fear the MRP as well)

The sleeper issue is the ongoing financial and player concessions that will need to be given to the Lions, the Suns and in time the Giants. Don't overestimate Sydney. If they take a downward turn on the ladder they may quickly enter the world of irrelevancy. The Lions have showed how that can happen. The fight in Melbourne will be between the haves and the have nots. When you have an empire such as Collingwood it grows itself and takes a lot to kill off. If you are an MFC, Saints etc you are coming from a much smaller base that does not deliver super profits. Would be interested if someone knows the added financial benefits to the Bulldogs because of their premiership. I suspect it was less even in unadjusted dollars than the benefit accruing to Collingwood from its 2010 flag and even perhaps its 1990 flag. West Coast are another that will sink or swim on the new stadium deal.

Basically with a membership you will get finals tickets up to and including the Preliminary finals. The priority is that you can buy the day before they are available for general release. Lead up finals are rarely sold out these days. For the GF.... forget it For this year after an increase the number of tickets available for each competing club is 17,000 At 40.000 members and growing you don't have much chance unless you have paid for a membership that guarantees you a GF ticket. I don't know the number generally available to "ordinary" members but I suspect that after they have been pre-allocated the figure might be 7,000 but no more