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Showing posts from July, 2023

Round 20 AFL Preview

Last Week 7/9   Season Total 116/162 Last week there was a lot of discussion around crazy ideas like a best-of-three Grand Final and Wildcard matches to qualify for the finals.   This then descended into comments around just how compromised the fixture is.   The first evidence of this compromise is that Charlie Curnow leads the Coleman race but has kicked 19 goals against West Coast alone.   That being said, Tex does get his chance when they play West Coast for the second time in the last round. Anyway, I have come up with a plan to fix the compromise and make all stakeholders happy.   Revenue from broadcasting rights is at the centre point as well as making the draw equitable to all teams.   I think this plan is so good that I am making this my platform for running for Prime Minister at the next election.   The plan is as such: Step 1.   Build six 100,000 seat capacity stadiums in Alice Springs (bear with me…).   All games will ...

Round 19 AFL Preview

Last Week 7/9     Season Total 109/153 Wow!   What a weekend of footy, packed full of thrilling and exciting matches…assuming your weekend ended on Saturday Night.   I’ve made many mentions previously about fixturing and I’m not sure what they were smoking when they decided to isolate those two matches on a Sunday.   On the flipside, the family were happy to see me for the first time in weeks. A lot has been happening over the last week.   The Aussie women won their version of The Ashes in a last ball thriller.   The Australian Women’s Soccer team (The Matildas) won a friendly in front of 53,000 people at Marvel Stadium, which out-did the Demons vs Lions match by about 20K.   This bodes well for the upcoming World Cup which is sure to be an event to remember for Australians.   At least the Australia vs France friendly was much more friendly than the Ireland vs Columbia ‘friendly’ which they abandoned when Ireland feared for thei...

Round 18 AFL Preview

Last Week 8/9     Season Total 102/144 Normally when you want to exit a member of staff from your company, there is a process.   Usually it starts with verbal warnings, then maybe written warnings, then maybe performance management and then, finally you can sack them.   The AFL process is a little different.   First you come out in full support of their position and highlight their brilliance and that they are the way forward and they have the full support of the board and the playing group.   Then you heap more praise on them.   Then you sack them.   Personally, I’d like to find the business consultant that came up with that process and buy them a beer.   Misdirection, deceit and two-facedness are excellent qualities when you can walk away from the situation as the good guy. Poor Stuart Dew is exited as the 4 th Gold Coast Suns coach and their longest serving coach with the highest win percentage of any of the Gold Coast coach...

Round 17 AFL Preview

Last Week 7/9     Season Total 94/135 I’ll be honest.   I sat down at the start of the week and wrote many pages for this pre-amble, all about the Bairstow incident and the subsequent reactions on each side.   I have decided to leave it out though.   I had a nice holiday and don’t want to spoil it with sports politics.   But perhaps a conspiracy cricket theory…? There is footage out there, also known as the Zapruder Film that shows both umpires.   If you go to Frame 313, you will see both the square leg umpire and the controlling umpire had started to walk towards their alternate spots when the stumps were broken.   Had they considered it over?   Ultimately, it was left to a mysterious third umpire, positioned on a grassy knoll to make the final decision.   In all of this, no one has confronted the umpires.   Like footy, the umpires cannot be questioned for their role. Luckily, the AFL is on during the day…mostly. ...