Diamond_Jim

An excellent example of a player who deserves a second chance in a premium competition. If only we had one

Just got an email from AFL asking me to update payment credit card. Logged in and they have a current credit card. Anyway deleted the card and put it back in and all ok. Fills you with confidence about their data management systems

With Pickett out for the first three matches our season may well turn on how well he fills in. His second half of this season at VFL level was sub par for one of his supposed ability. Fingers crossed

Would be a nice first. Quick search suggests there has never been a 7ft AFL player. (213cm) Tallest are Mason Cox and three other players at 6ft 11 (211cm) https://www.topendsports.com/sport/afl/anthropometry-tallest.htm

As you say you have to overlay the talent paths with the private school AFL programmes operated by Hailebury and the like. These don't exist north of the Vic border. Not sure they exist in Tasmania either to the extent of Vic. Your point on SA and WA is interesting. In both of those States the potential draftees are playing in the senior WAFL and SANFL comps. Perhaps they are the school equivalent? Would be great to hear from those living in WA and SA. One idea which I like is increasing the draft age by three months each year until we reach 20 as the minimum age. This allows kids to have a life outside football post school and puts less emphasis on the 16 year old "finishing schools" that we now seem to have

Does that exclude leasehold improvements at Casey and AAMI Park

Strange thing with the Gus write down is that it will increase profit in the out years as we forced to operate under a reduced salary cap. A nice financial up but terrible from a team structuring viewpoint

I like that idea. Langdon is a valuable player but I'm not sure the modern game suits the boundary line play which is his specialty. Bringing him infield and slightly forward could result in much faster and centred transition

Profession sports people including AFL players are excluded from workcover. The premiums would be enormous I suspect if they were

The AFL wants to discourage long term contracts. Concussion aside a player almost always has a long term injury as they age. If the final year payouts were outside the salary cap it's a neat way of avoiding the salary cap. You may recall that the AFL said to Sydney when they recruited Buddy on the ten year deal.. "Don't come asking for salary cap relief when Buddy retires injured in seven years." Luckily for Sydney Buddy lasted the ten years and a little longer

From today's Age.... Outgoing Demons chief executive Gary Pert said the Demons were in a strong financial position, underpinned by a future fund of $23.7 million, while there are $9.5 million of funds available for investment in the club’s training and administration project. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/exercising-with-demons-christian-petracca-returns-to-training-track-20241122-p5kssh.html First time I've seen that figure of $9.5M. Personally I'm glad we're not putting future fund money into the training facility

Fritta was a special case in that he had a back injury and took a few years off football. Not sure he even put himself into the draft at 18. He also starred in his year as a Casey player from game 1. It's a hard ask to break into the AFL if you miss out on the 18 year old draft. Not impossible but very rare

Undoubtedly they get the tech but will they use it. Much cheaper to have an identical world wide platform serviced from a low cost country. Merging the DAZN Australia content with Kayo content in the short term will be a challenge especially in setting subscription charges. Watching the 4K cricket yesterday was a real pleasure.. other than our batting

Another potential buyer has appeared on the scene for buying Foxtel. Company is DAZN, a big player in the Europe streaming market. From Wikipedia... The DAZN platform was founded in 2015 and broadcasts live and on-demand sport in over 200 countries worldwide with a strong domestic presence in Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, France, Portugal, Belgium, Taiwan, the United States and Canada, where it has key domestic broadcast rights.[7] It is considered to be Europe's largest digital sports broadcaster with over 75 programming rights.[8][9][10][11] As of 2023, the service has 20 million paid subscribers globally.[7] Hard to say what it would mean for Kayo. One suggestion is that they could ditch the Kayo backend and replace it with the present DAZN platform. Content would not change due to geo restrictions but the actual screen quality etc might alter. Cannot see it being a good thing for Foxtel's local staff including productions and commentators if DAZN goes on an efficiency drive that favours a light touch global platform. https://mumbrella.com.au/potential-foxtel-buyer-revealed-857377

Perhaps but Bell delivered that

mmmmm We seem to have a pattern with picks of this nature Good luck to the young man but.............

In simple practical terms what was the difference to Brisbane between us picking Ashcroft at 5 and other teams picking him at say 1 and 10. I know it's points but what does that point differential translate to in cold hard picks Thanks

One thousand young lads nominated and around 60 selected. I feel for those who miss out especially those in the 60-120 category. Life is tough to be forever pigeon holed at that age.

Understood but unless that mystery team was next in line WC could have lost Bo Allan (especially as Freo was next in line.)

This is unfortunately true. Not sure what the answer is and I don't think the AFL is interested in exploring the answer The funneling of talent seems to start as early as age 12 but is really evident by age 15 I have often argued for a summer comp in NT featuring local players and some young VFL level players. It might help in widening the pathways and giving exposure to remote indigenous talent. It could be age limited to say 23 with two older players per team. I've never been in favour of the boarding school route. It has overtones of the many "good intended" mistakes made in the past.

Gather Round has potential but it needs to be strung out a little and the accomodation needs a think (cruise ships etc) Having a game on Thursday is a good start but I can see a game on Wednesday and Monday in the future. Adelaide would be party town for nearly a week. Like the World Cup and the Olympics the daily sport is the glue but the surrounding party vibe is the cream

One of the most watched items in NFL is the "Fashion Walk." Players dress up in top fashions and walk to the team plane or into the stadium Not my thing but a small example of things that interest fans https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-nfl-game-day-has-transformed-into-a-new-kind-of-runway/

They admit this with the following: The priority of those rules has been to maximise attendances and broadcast ratings in the first year of a $4.5 billion deal with Seven and Foxtel, We failed on both counts.. we don't rate TV wise and our attendances don't punch through the 50k mark often enough Let's hope we turn it around in 2025. I'm certainly hoping for some better forward connection and two wins against Collingwood.

Went to the World Cup in Russia in 2018 (great experience... learnt it's all about the bar scene but that's for another day). At the games I was amazed by the number of people videoing the games. Very annoying if someone was holding an ipad in your viewing line (I later realised that few actually see the match as everyone stands up in their seats). Of course videoing is de rigeur at concerts (Taylor Swift at the MCG choked the wifi) but it got me thinking. Why not have a section of the stadium where interacting is encouraged. Give them some instagram type props. Have a few key players dedicated to driving the vibe etc. Needs work but it might work My holiday town of Penang became a world wide instagram hit by getting a Lithuanian artist to paint street murals that encouraged an interactive selfie. You could sit on the back of a virtual bike or go for a swing etc. I'm sure you could do something with a similar MFC theme. "Holding up the premiership cup with Max Gawn for example."

If you want to say goodbye to BT... here's your chance During the 2025 AFL season, Fox Footy commentary and production will be available on all games for the first time along with no ad-breaks during play and every match will also be made available in 4K on Kayo Sports and Foxtel. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2024-fox-footy-tv-commentators-for-2025-season-leigh-matthews-joins-anthony-hudson-and-gerard-whateley-call-friday-nights-new-afl-360-and-on-the-couch-hosts/news-story/3ea9e46e284c91e3be16d14d2acfae05