Straight Sets Simon

Just think of it as getting rid of Jack Watts. Short-term pain of losing a much-loved and skilled player for the long-term gain of ridding the club of a bad influence. There will no doubt be a revenue equivalent of Bayley Fritsch waiting in the wings.

I would love the AFL and all sports to rid themselves of all gambling revenue and I appreciate that there is some hypocrisy here. However, in my mind there is a slight difference between sports betting and pokies. At least sports betting has some skill involved, whereas pokies are machines that a designed so that over a period of time the user is guaranteed to lose money. I'm not trying to defend sports betting (the over saturation of it makes my skin crawl) and I totally agree with your point, but pokies as a product offer its users no benefit at all.

Please, what benefit to society do pokies bring?

They've made profits the last two years from memory. There are other ways to make money other than gambling.

Great news, if North Melbourne can do it then so can we. Really proud of the club for doing this.

This was from round 1.

This was from round 1.

He tends to poke at the ball a bit, not a long and fluent kicking action.

AFL Ratings aren't everything, but check out Bugg's effort:

Your Twitter account has been hacked, change your password.

1. Hogan’s tackle 2. The response when Brisbane equalised 3. The clash jumper

I’m happy to put my hand up if wrong but I’ll be shocked if Balic is any better than Michie, Kennedy or Ben Newton.

Hawthorn’s style of play relies on good skills and a brilliantly coached system. We rely on pure grunt and effort. If we can get a bit more of the way Hawthorn play then we will be a much better and more well-rounded team.

The umpire was actually shouting “he handballed”. Different rules for different players.

The way Hawthorn kick out in front of their teammates is sublime.

His best ever game was his return game against St Kilda last year where his marking was a highlight. At the very least he could come in and play as a forward, he wouldn't be any worse than Bugg.

What’s Pedersen got to do with Watts?

You’re not implying that Watts is a downhill skier are you?

I still cannot get my head around Dom Barry being back in the AFL. Great example of players being drafted too young. He’s been solid too.

Sydney are so slick, neat, clean and skilful. Their recruiter is the best in the business because every player who comes in has these attributes, no matter where in the draft they are taken.

As mentioned in a 2017 post above, I think it’s our style of play which relies on pure grunt effort and not necessarily good skills and system.

I wonder if Fritsch is the first player to kick multiple goals in a game, all after the siren has blown.

Our core midfield depth is non-existent. Without Viney, Oliver is our only genuine ball winner (aside from the odd Jones cameo).

Garlett has been robbed of votes by a lot of you.

You're only as good as your next game. We get frustrated because we see the same mistakes over and over again, and when we make these same mistakes against better opposition we will lose. The result is almost irrelevant, it's about seeing the team play a certain way and creating habits that will lead to sustained success.