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Showing posts from February, 2024

2024 FIXTURE ANALYSIS PART 3 of 3

The start of the season is so close I can almost taste it.  February has been a real struggle.  But this week we did get a bit of a sporting reprieve when some pre-season practice matches were shown on the subscription services.  At the time of writing, Melbourne played Richmond and I didn’t watch it but looking at the score can only conclude that Melbourne will miss the 8 and Richmond will win the premiership. What exactly can you take away from pre-season practice matches as a spectator?   All I hope, watching my own team, is that no injuries occur.   Other than that, what is really riding on it?   I remember the good old days of pre-season cups and night premierships.   They were glorious times when there felt like something was riding on it and if before the season you knew your team was no good, they might pull out all stops just to fill the coffers for the end of season trip.   Do clubs display that silverware?   Maybe you can let me know.   Now we’re confronted with practice m

2024 FIXTURE ANALYSIS PART 2 of 3

February continues to roll on as only time can.  As we eek out an existence in this sports wasteland, we have to find alternatives.  It’s usually this time of year that I find bespoke sports on my subscription TV channels to subsist on.  Things like Lawnmower Racing or the Marble League or the thrill of the diecast rally championships.  However, we take a brief pause in all of this and can watch the biggest sporting event of them…bigger than the Olympics if you ask some Americans…The Superbowl.  Or, as is more accurately portrayed in the telecast, Tay-Tay-watch.  The Grand Final of American Football was plunged into a viewers dilemma of watching the game or watching Ms Swift sit in a seat…standing occasionally.  The build up to the game was not about team selections, history, or training, but was a live stream of Tay-Tay’s flight data from FlightRadar24 as she jetted in from Tokyo to see it.  During the match whenever she moved, downed a wine, itched or farted for the full length of th

2024 FIXTURE ANALYSIS

As we all know, the AFL Fixturing is far from fair.   I’m sure I covered this before, but my statistical Leviathan was developed to help me make sense of the inequities of the draw and try and remove some of the emotion from conversations by having some hard datatistical (I’m going to try and make that a new word for the dictionary this year) facts that a conversation could fall back on.   I soon found though, that while conversations without emotions are convivial, they lack a certain substance that is required to be engaging.   For example, a previous, emotion-charged conversation goes like this: Footy Fan: “No wonder your team made the finals, just look at how many MCG games they get.  It’s unfair.” Me: “F. U Buddy! Your team gets way more advantage than my team.   Look at all the handouts they get.   In my book they’re just a bunch of cheats!” Footy Fan: “You’re an idiot.   It’s my shout.” But things are different now that I have all of this data available to me: Footy F

2024 PRE-SEASON

Here we are in February already and the smell of deep heat is making its way to our nostrils.  The blood on the floor from Shamar Joseph’s butchering of the Australian Cricket team has barely congealed and footy is already making headlines.  It seems only a short few weeks ago that Collingwood were crowned for the 2023 season after a gutsy 4-quarter effort over a challenging opponent in Brisbane.  Did this banish the demons of 2002 and 2003?  I doubt it. Technically the Demons were banished in the Semi’s last year, by the Blues.  In their infinite wisdom, which shall not be questioned, the AFL has moved the start of the season to March 7 th so this is officially a reminder that there are but a few weeks to go to set up your tipping competitions, pay for your tipping software licenses, nag the office co-workers/friends/family/rivals to pay their tipping money and start thinking about the season ahead and where your beloved team will finish and where your head says to tip for or again