Just moving this into a separate thread (a la the Chris Scott posts pre-2022) because (a) it's a worthy discussion topic on its own, and (b) it's spilling out over every other thread in here, and I don't want to have to play with the Richmond fans on the main board on this.
In short, for those...
Absolutely pissweak from PAFC if true.
Clubs obsessing over controlling social media messaging, "the brand", club image and the like - players aren't robots, footy isn't dispassionate, and there was nothing prejudicial or offensive in what Rioli wrote.
We need more emotional honesty and...
It's the silly season. I miss footy. I'm bored.
What are some of the more niche sliding doors moments that coulda-been for this footy club? I don't mean the big done-to-death stuff like "Ablett Jr decides to stay", "Sidebottom gets on the bus", or "Grundy over Thurlow" - I mean the little...
OK, so you are now AFL God. Congratulations.
Trade week is, naturally, a boring shitshow that follows the Uni Assignment rule - nothing, nothing, nothing for a week, and then a mad cramming rush at the end.
Here's how I'd fix it:
Trade radio declared illegal. No reason apart from that it is...
Had to share this.
I came across a Reddit thread recently with a young Sydney supporter whose Swans-mad Mum has had cancer for the last two years and is facing an uncertain future. You know the story - doesn't have tickets to the GF, has a sick Mum, would love to have tickets, pls help.
I...
It's kind of ridiculous that, particularly with out-of-contract players, we have to play out this charade where we all pretend that we don't know that they want to go, and exactly where they want to go, until all parties have finished their season.
It's also ridiculous that the AFL have rules...
Looking at the 1996 Team of the Century, it's obviously hugely weighted toward players from the 60s and 70s.
When considering the last 20 years - which players would actually get into that team now, especially if we included footballers from all old state comps? (Original team given at the...
Bit harsh, but are they the Milburns/Josh Hunts/Tim McGrath/Shannon Byrnes of 2024? i.e. the AFL player who plays out the year in the Magoos while younger players take their place?
Bews is only 30, but he's always been a limited footballer, and even with Bowes and Duncan out, plus a swathe of...
It's just as much a huge slice of luck rather than design (who saw Port and the Dogs falling from second on the ladder and runner-up respectively?), but I can't remember a draw being as soft as this for a long time.
While we've been incredibly good in the back half of the year - and done what...
As someone who lives in Brisbane, I didn't get the 11-game membership because obviously I can't make any more than two or three games per year... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't sell a loved one to make it if and only if Geelong makes the Big Dance.
At the start of the year, IIRC, the Grand...
Topping up with experienced recruits, playing established but limited veterans over hugely green and raw youngsters, it wasn't the wrong move - and it nearly worked - but we have to appreciate now, as a club, that Father Time has caught up with us.
It's not just that we were belted last night...
I might as well write this now as (Restricted) Free Agency is about to deliver us a second superstar in five years - so it doesn't look like whinging. I love what FA has brought for my club, but I absolutely hate what it's done for the competition.
One of the great things about footy in the...
Those of us with reasonably long memberships of this board will remember that there always has to be one whipping boy of the Board for each year. You know the type - the player who dominates every Match Preview with fans' fervently-expressed desire that they be dropped. Funny enough, all that...
Yes, I know that if you live in Victoria, this is going to come across as the whinging of the rich and famous. Sorry and sympathies. I have no doubt that our turn for lockdown will come soon enough - as it probably will around most Australian cities.
Anyway... I obviously now live in Brisbane...
This question occurred to me while discussing Tex Walker's fall from grace over his late 20s... who else just seemed to be tapped on the shoulder by Father Time a few years before everyone else?
I don't mean players like Modra, Stoneham, Nathan Brown and Schwarz, who copped awful injuries and...
About a week and a half ago, my Nan (and candiehappy 's Mum) passed away, with an admittedly very good innings of 89. Nan was our Patient Zero for Geelong - managing to raise Dad, me, and my other Grandma as fervant Geelong supporters, as well as some slightly less fanatical but still...
Deserves a separate thread IMO, it'll be the talking point for the next few days.
The more I look at it, the worse it is, I think. It looked similar to the Shiel one, but it was harder, it was later, and it was more crude. The Shiel one looked like a genuine accident; this one looked more like...
http://www.kiis1011.com.au/newsroom/two-afl-stars-are-caught-up-in-the-isreal-folau-homophobic-statement-scandal
Though I know he's very much a true believer, and he's at least not the person who instigated the post... Gary, you idiot. You're a senior leader of the club - you can't go around...
Have to say... I think he's in trouble. MRP have already shown that if you accidentally hit someone to the head, intent matters not.
Only thing that might save him is the impact.
Looking at how our recent player acquisitions have gotten so much positive attention this year, did remind me of what a fail our Dangerfield tag-along top-ups have been. Only one of the four played last night, and he was... pretty ordinary, especially in the first half.
Lachie Henderson (p17...
They don't always get it right - and we flame them when they don't - but some hard calls were made and they came through well.
Finally biting the bullet on Taylor and Henderson was a big call, but I'm glad they finally stopped trying to go with both. Keeping Harry in even at the age of 32 was...
... Smith, Tuohy, Henderson, Scott Selwood, and most of all, Ablett. (I'd throw Stanley, HMac and Rivers into that, too.)
Dangerfield, I think, was in a different category - because, simply put, you don't say no to a once-in-a-generation player like that. Our mistake was thinking that adding...
Consistently competitive - but loses genuinely good footballers on almost an annual basis.
Collective Minds camp seemingly a complete implosion, but then papered over with a complete farce of a press conference.
An unnamed senior player calls up Lever on the phone before a Grand Final and gives...
Let's count it up: over this last few weeks our scores have been 73, 50, 66, 93, and 69 - and three of those games were wins, and no serious weather to account for any of it. Let's face it, that's some awful footy to watch.
That'd be fine if we were an any-win-as-good-as-any-other kind of team...
Inspired by Cezz The Catter 's superb recent admission regarding Jarrad Jansen (see below), it's time to revel in some top-shelf mediocrity.
Any player whose career was cruelled by injury (Spriggs, Snell, Mitch Brown) doesn't count. I'm just after players where you were just completely...
It's procrastination time (study to do, things due):
What went right:
Mitch Duncan became the player we all dared to hope for, the same goes for Bews. I feel as though we finish the year with better midfield depth than we started it, too.
Parfitt is a class act, and while none of Zuthrie...
Straight into it:
1. Limited list depth
This has been an issue for a while, but especially over the last two years. None of Sydney, Adelaide or Richmond would have space for Murdoch, Zuthrie, Parsons or be forced to play Harry at CHF. Arguably, Blicavs, Bews, Parfitt and Kolodjashnij would also...
There is one thing that had me just about ready to put my foot through the TV last night - and it wasn't BT or Wayne Carey, it was our appallingly conservative ball movement.
This has been a really common theme when we've struggled this year - against Collingwood at the G, against Freo at home...