Opinion Commentary & Media IX

[giantroo]

 

[Caracas]

We are so messed up in the brain and downtrodden that we are already discussing getting the wooden spoon. Usually, we have to lose a few games before that happens. Talk about trying to bring ourselves down! This board is seriously in need of therapy.

 

[giantroo]

 

[spicerFanClub]

Daniel Hoyne has basically said we will win the spoon! Listen to his 6 minute segment on SEN…. Extraordinary.

Would be great for someone to track this guy's calls over the years for success rate. I'd say it's very low. Just says things without any followup or return to comments down the track. Falls into the classic data analysis trap for sports by pretending that every team should win the premiership every year, no room for growing or development.

He also doesn't say we'll win the spoon. He says the quantity of i50s generated need to increase and our kick mark needs to get more aggressive to do so. Says we won't win many games at 80 points ... jeeze what a genius.

 

[muttley45]

Give me Hodgy's, an actual multi premiership player's opinion, over the stat's obsessed Hoyne any day

 

[zoomba23]

11.20in

I think Hoyne's missing the part where we're still pretty rubbish.

Ok, 2.9 from turnover. How many of those 9 weren't tough shots? I remember Essendon having quite a few tough shots. From memory, they missed, what, three shots they should've converted? Number 26, Kako after Stephens shat himself, and another simple one from... someone. We had our fair share of ****-ups too.

Movement seemed slightly more fluid to me than I remember it last season. Part of that was because they just didn't man up; we had the top 5 players for distance, which NEVER happens, but still. I don't watch us kick it around the back and think 'Malthouse 2013.' I think 'maybe this'll lead to something, maybe it won't.' I'd prefer a more chaotic style but that would require quicker players, and we don't have quicker players. We don't tend to recruit them. Our half-backs and half-forwards are almost always top-heavy.

It was a cripple-fight. We knew it would be going in; I'm as pessimistic as anyone and I think he's jumping the gun there. Expected score can say what it wants, we were the better team. See what happens against Carlton and Richmond; that'll give us an idea of the extent to which each well-publicised flaw is ****ing us. I don't expect our defensive transition numbers to improve, but there's a chance we find something new within ourselves without the luxury of X destroying everything in his path

 

[shimaburnsgrieg]

Season way to open and closeness of the bottom 4 surely means its probably evenly split. I wouldnt say his prediction was completely probable but like i said 25 percent chance any of wc, nm, ess or tiggers could get the spoon. Would be pretty slim odds for any other team to finish below the former 4.

Well the current official odds via Sportsbet have the bottom 4 as us, *, Richmond and Carlton. West Coast are expected to comfortably jump out of the bottom 4.

If its any consolation our current odds are that we are expected to finish at the top of that bottom 4.

 

[Disco Dew]

#1 for applied pressure surprised me a bit. It’s certainly looked a lot better this year

 

[NMFC49]

Dick pic saga getting more interesting.

Bombshell AFL texts and emails emerge in Luke Sayers ‘dick pic’ saga​

Text messages and emails sent by senior AFL officials in the days following the eruption of the Luke Sayers lewd scandal threaten to reveal a cover-up.

Michael Warner

March 31, 2026 - 6:45PM

AFL texts and emails have emerged in the Luke Sayers lewd scandal. Picture: Michael Klein

Bombshell texts and emails sent by senior AFL officials in the days after the eruption of the Luke Sayers “dick pic” scandal threaten to expose a cover-up.
The Herald Sun can reveal lawyers for Mr Sayers’ estranged wife Cate are set to subpoena correspondence between top league figures and members of his camp as part of the couple’s escalating Supreme Court fight.

Sources close to the feuding couple say the communications paint a picture of an AFL hierarchy desperate to exonerate Mr Sayers and accept his claim that his wife was mentally unstable and responsible for the posting.

In documents filed as part of their defamation battle, Mrs Sayers’ lawyers have accused the AFL of colluding with Carlton and Mr Sayers, who was then president of the club, to clear him of the scandal.

AFL spin doctor Sharon McCrohan has already been hit with a legal letter, warning her to preserve all correspondence relating to her involvement in the saga.

Luke Sayers. Picture: Ian Currie

It is understood AFL commission chairman Craig Drummond and league chief executive Andrew Dillon are aware of the letter.

McCrohan - a former media advisor to premier Steve Bracks, federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten and the CFMEU - was engaged by Mr Sayers to crisis-manage the dick pic fallout early last year, before landing her current job as head of the league’s corporate affairs department.

Mrs Sayers is suing her husband over a statutory declaration he submitted to the AFL integrity unit, in which he blamed Cate for the posting of the photograph of his penis in January last year.

A series of communications between multiple AFL figures including league general counsel Stephen Meade, integrity unit boss Tony Keane and ex-corporate affairs chief Brian Walsh with members of the Sayers camp, including McCrohan, are understood to be central to Mrs Sayers’ case.

Stephen Meade. Picture: Getty Images

Former Labor minister Martin Pakula, who was working as a consultant for the AFL at the time, is also expected to be issued with a subpoena.

Briefings given to senior Melbourne football journalists who published articles favourable to Mr Sayers’ version of events are also under scrutiny.

At least one senior AFL figure is accused of repeating the claim that former PwC chief Mr Sayers was responsible for the lewd posting to journalists in recent weeks.

Mrs Sayers’ lawyers claim the AFL integrity unit made no attempt to verify any of Mr Sayers’ claims in the statutory declaration and have accused the three parties of releasing coordinated media statements as part of the collusion strategy.

Brian Walsh. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Martin Pakula. Picture: Getty Images
“The public communications of the AFL, Carlton and Luke were issued simultaneously and aligned in terms of messaging,” a filing last week said.

Mrs Sayers’ lawyers further allege that the investigations conducted by the AFL and Carlton were “not conducted adequately or honestly”.

A key focus of the Supreme Court fight is the involvement of Mr Sayers’ camp in the drafting of an AFL statement released on January 21 last year which cleared the Blues supremo of breaching any competition respect and responsibility rules.

The statement included the assertion that the picture of the penis had been “posted by a person not being Luke Sayers”.

Text messages between some of the AFL’s highest-ranked officials and members of the Sayers camp immediately after the resolution of the probe are also expected to be subpoenaed.

In last week’s filing, Cate’s lawyers said that documents would be sought from “relevant parties” under discovery and subpoena.

Sayers resigned from Carlton early last year. Picture: Michael Klein

One AFL insider said Ms McCrohan had appeared distracted in recent weeks and was often seen cutting laps in the bowels of Marvel Stadium in deep conversation on her mobile phone.

“Rule 1.01 in media and reputation management is that you don’t let yourself become the story,” the league figure said.

“But Sharon’s underlings are now fielding more questions about her than any other issue.”

Ms McCrohan came to prominence in the late 1990s as a crisis communications expert as Mr Bracks’ media chief.

She had previously advised Mr Sayers during a parliamentary inquiry into a PwC tax leak scandal.

Ms McCrohan replaced Mr Walsh, who now works for the DAZN-owned Australian pay TV operator Foxtel, last October.

The AFL integrity unit has come under intense scrutiny in recent years for its handling of scandals including the Essendon drugs debacle, Melbourne tanking affair and Hawthorn racism fiasco.

Sharon McCrohan, embedded in Labor politics, Collingwood (Eddie's spin doctor), now the AFL. Triumvirate or perhaps a Troika of influence and hence power. This is what the AFL now is.

 

[spicerFanClub]

Well the current official odds via Sportsbet have the bottom 4 as us, *, Richmond and Carlton. West Coast are expected to comfortably jump out of the bottom 4.

If its any consolation our current odds are that we are expected to finish at the top of that bottom 4.

West coast expectation now has probably become that that they'll jump a few teams at home. All it'll take is Yeo injury (already is) and Kelly regression and they'll be back down.

 

[Lomas]

Give me Hodgy's, an actual multi premiership player's opinion, over the stat's obsessed Hoyne any day

What I like about Parker is that he’s prepared to be hit hard, not just dole it out.

 

[ferball]

Interesting that X's hitouts to advantage in the centre are significantly higher under the new rules.
May even out by years end though, but interesting early trend.

Sometimes he just stops at the line, doesn't engage and is still strong enough to win the hit out against someone jumping over him.

 

[ferball]

He’s not wrong. Need to see cleaner skills and more speed on ball. Need to learn to pull the trigger faster.

This will happen. It happened on the weekend. Our best footy was when we moved the ball quickly by hand.

There's alot of room for improvement tho.

 

[Sphynx]

Would be great for someone to track this guy's calls over the years for success rate. I'd say it's very low. Just says things without any followup or return to comments down the track. Falls into the classic data analysis trap for sports by pretending that every team should win the premiership every year, no room for growing or development.

He also doesn't say we'll win the spoon. He says the quantity of i50s generated need to increase and our kick mark needs to get more aggressive to do so. Says we won't win many games at 80 points ... jeeze what a genius.

Hoyne is one of the best in the business.

He was calling Brisbane as the flag favorites early
to mid last year when they were out of the 8, purely based on their ball movement.

 

[Lomas]

Hoyne is one of the best in the business.

He was calling Brisbane as the flag favorites early
to mid last year when they were out of the 8, purely based on their ball movement.

And reigning premiers….

 

[king rising]

Hoyne is one of the best in the business.

He was calling Brisbane as the flag favorites early
to mid last year when they were out of the 8, purely based on their ball movement.

I value your insights most of the time but you’re quite biased regarding this stats space let’s be honest.

 

[Danni_Benson]

Daniel Hoyne has basically said we will win the spoon! Listen to his 6 minute segment on SEN…. Extraordinary.

Actually heard that segment. He’s very very worried about our style of play. No idea how accurate they generally are with their opinions all based on stats.

 

[spicerFanClub]

Hoyne is one of the best in the business.

Is he or is that literally just the tag line he gets introduced with on every show?

Would like to see some data on his hit/miss. As someone else pointed out, predicting the reigning premiers are the flag favourites is hardly an achievement.

 

[danj]

Sharon McCrohan, embedded in Labor politics, Collingwood (Eddie's spin doctor), now the AFL. Triumvirate or perhaps a Troika of influence and hence power. This is what the AFL now is.

Royal Commission time yet?

 

[danj]

I value your insights most of the time but you’re quite biased regarding this stats space let’s be honest.

That’s true only 63% of the time

 

[itchyscratch]

Hoyne is one of the best in the business.

He was calling Brisbane as the flag favorites early
to mid last year when they were out of the 8, purely based on their ball movement.

My 84 year old neighbour called it too. His fly has been undone all day and I’m pretty sure he still hasn’t found the false teeth he lost last week. Not exactly soothsayer material.

 

[Makeshift Park]

You mean the Daniel Hoyne who said this of essendon a couple of years ago?

“The impressive thing if you’re an Essendon supporter is its getting better & better by the week. It’s continuing to be a profile we’ve not seen for a long time. The last 6 wks ranked 11th in terms of what they do with the footy.
They are the third best team without the footy.
So what they are doing defensively at the moment they are the second hardest team in the competition over the last six weeks when you win possession to get a scoreboard return from.
In my time doing this I can’t remember Essendon being second in the most important defensive metric you can look at over a 6 week period.
The number 1 team in that area is Sydney and they are only just in front of Essendon.
They are coming and they are coming with a rush now”

The bolded is my favourite bit

Classic case of sports data nerd labouring under the misapprehension that just because he can read numbers it follows that he also understands how to extrapolate what they mean and the extent to which they actually matter.

 

[FlyHigh18]

11.20in

Harsh, but based on what we’ve seen so so far we’ll be lucky to get out of the bottom 4 this year.

We tried our guts out while * had half a team of plodders. Only a two goal difference.

 

[Rod Stroker]

View attachment 2568196
#1 for applied pressure surprised me a bit. It’s certainly looked a lot better this year

#1 for disposal efficiency was the surprise for me. Our skills against WC were horrendous, not great against * either

 

[amaz199]

We tried our guts out while * had half a team of plodders. Only a two goal difference.

Play like we did against Port and they cop an absolute belting. We were very far from our best.