The pick they used on Hodge was a priority pick even though they traded for it, a crap decision by Fremantle.

Hawthorn yes traded for pick 7 – from pick 10.

Oh, and you forget Denver Granger-Barrass as a top 10.

Funnily enough, if you only count Premierships with Free Agency, you rule Geelong, as it only came in for the 2012 season.
If you talk about talent from 2000 onwards, Ottens was the only big-name recruit to come to Geelong before their 3 premierships. Mooney wasn’t even the steak knife in the trade involving Colbert. They grew their list, with the addition of some FS (Scarlett (all 3), G. Ablett (2), N. Ablett (1) & Hawkins (2)), the rest were all recruited with a couple of high draft picks (4 in the top 10, with Selwood the last).
Hawthorn got it another way – Priority picks and top 10 picks before GWS & GC came in. Croad (pick 3), Hodge (1 & priority), Lewis (&), Franklin (5), Roughead (2 & p), Sewell (7) and Ellis (3 & p). Good coaching helps as well, but would either have won without the players at their disposal? That is the real question, Clarkson has struggled with a list as those players have left. Scott has apparently inherited the list from Thompson, though he did have an influence. He has kept the Cats up contending for a decade with recruiting. I would even say Hardwick has benefitted from the players he has, not just his coaching won the flag.
IF we go with the AFL era – I would have Longmire up there as well, he has rebuilt Sydney to win in 2012, RU in 2014 and contending since. Ross Lyon would be another even though he didn’t win one.
I personally believe it is a blend of coach and player. How would Clarkson go at the Gold Coast? High draft picks like Hawthorn, but are they on the same plane as Hodge & Co.? Or a Lyon at say Brisbane or PA? Both have been up there recently, but just missing something.
It is a great discussion.

She is not offside when the ball is kicked, as for obstruction, that occurs all the time with nothing pulled up.
Also you can’t tell if there was obstruction without a view from behind the goal. If van Egmond is not moving how is it obstruction if the Swedish girl runs into her?

The problem is did it really affect the defence or not? A defender can also run into an attacker and claim they were blocked.
Did you also see reasons as to why every decision is made/not made. Unless you have access to a different angle or a close-up, it is hard to tell anything, Considering that the same tactics have been employed throughout and this is the only one called up it is disappointing, especially on the consistency front.

And if you have watched most of the games, you would see that the Matildas are not the only team that does it. Yet this is the only one I can remember in this tournament that has been called.
People want consistency from the refs. I would rather the same call made even though incorrect than to have the inconsistency, and I think there is where most people have the issue – other teams have set up for free kicks the same way and no calls like the one made have happened.

But then shouldn’t the offside (if obvious) be called straight away? As they are offside before the goal is scored, not the other way around. They have stated that they let the play go and then check, the same could have happened here, so as not to deny a goal being scored. This is why the Swedish girl who was very much offside was allowed to keep playing while VAR checked, it was so obvious she was offside, but allowed to continue. Same could have happened here, what did the ref have to lose? VAR either backs her decision or doesn’t, then the debate is over.

Yeah good one.
So then the La Liga, Serie A are unknown leagues? They get smaller average crowds.

Just proved my point.

It is ranked in the top 5 of spectator sports in the world with average attendance. Behind the NFL, Bundesliga and Premier league which are all from countries with a larger population than Australia. It draws bigger crowds than La Liga, Serie A, etc. As you mentioned Australian Rules is only played in 1 country and for about 6mths.
Plus the discussion is about Australia, not the World. If soccer was so popular in this country, why aren’t the TV stations paying to show it? Where are the supporters being turned away from the sold out grounds?
Why do soccer supporters need to attack other codes? As mentioned I enjoy all codes (played two), yet will call out figures that are incorrect.

A-League barely got 80k per match a few years back (Simon Hill quote, who is heavily invested in soccer), in March no A-League game attracted more than 28K. 2020 final between Sydney and city drew 151K viewers. AFL GF topped 4M, and the NRL 2.9M. AFL and NRL regularly get 600-700K viewers for Friday/Sat night games. They both top 100M viewers for the season.
Don’t get me wrong, I follow WU because the were from the West of Victoria (I’m from Geelong originally) and am invested in soccer as a player and a dad. In fact it is my daughter who kicks the goal from halfway in this video
https://www.theroar.com.au/soccer/club-roar/under-11s-player-lobs-keeper-from-halfway-1083604/
playing for the Northern Tigers. I just don’t understand why the a-league needs to become the big dog straight away. Find a niche and grow it like Basketball or Netball.

Covid has skewed numbers as last A-League season wasn’t interrupted like the NRL and AFL.
As for average attendance over the last couple of years, the A-League is a fair way behind the AFL. Take out last year as games locked out to crowds, and the AFL is still in the top 5 world wide in terms of attendance. NRL has struggles with crowds that’s has progressively got worse over the last decade or so, but still pull in big viewing numbers.

Higher turnouts? Didn’t know the A-League was in the top 5 most attended sporting competitions in the world, which the AFL is. Memberships in the AFL were over the 1M mark before Covid hit (still >990K in 2020 and >970K in 2021). NRL was on track to maybe get 300K in 2021. A-leauge was pushing 100K in 2019/20.
The only aspect that Soccer wins out in is participation numbers.

Yet they are not a Melbourne team and deserve 11 home games. Not their fault that the Tigers, Pies, giving up their traditional home grounds. Melbourne, Richmond and Collingwood get to play on their home ground (MCG) 14 times a year. Most other teams are lucky to play 5-8 games a year there before finals. Jealousy of being able to maintain a home ground in their home city is beneath other supporters.
Your mob have only been doing well for the last 4 years and now you go on about home ground advantage. It was always there and suddenly the Tigers don’t want to travel? If you are such a good team, then it shouldn’t be an issue to play the Cats in Geelong. You want fairness, yet you want to deny it to another team.

AFL is worth more, they are getting $950M from Foxtel and 7 for 2023 & 2024 which is 10x more than the $40M per year that you mention. Originally it was $418M a year for 6 years (>$2.5B in total).

NRL is getting $1.8B over 5 years (2018-2022), which is $360M a year.

How much a season? Post the figure instead of just mentioning it as there are at least 3 sports I can think of that have larger TV deals.
Should have gone to Geelong, A-League needs a regional Victorian team like NSW. A stadium is already there (GMHBA), which gives more time to build a purpose-built stadium or continue at GMHBA.

Yes with the RWC, however in Australia it is not doing much really. The Shute shield though has gained in popularity, maybe because of the Super rugby sides (Waratahs especially) not doing well. This isn’t good for attracting TV deals in Australia

The ARU really blew their chance after the 2003 RWC – it was popular everywhere, even Melbourne had pubs packed out for games. That was their chance to become a big player.

That ain’t going to happen any time soon. If you look at participation rates, NRL had barely anyone outside NSW and QLD. The AFL figures from 2019 have 100k+ participants in QLD alone. The NRL has struggled for what ever reason. The reason PVL has chosen QLD for expansion is that he is worried about the AFL. Personally I don’t see a problem going to Perth etc, but I do think the growth of League has stopped, the UK league is struggling financially and Rugby 7’s at the Olympics and Comm games is the growth area.

I would argue that the Matildas, the Women’s Australian Cricket team are much more successful international sporting brands. Locally the AFL rules the roost.
As for nowhere else being interested in AFL, have a look at the competitions that are being played at amateur levels – UK, Europe, Asia, US are examples. If these competitions didn’t exist, I would agree with you, but they do.

Like to see a proper side-on view, the tip of her glove was in front of the stumps and there wasn’t a deflection of the batter.
Fantastic glove work though! A thing of beauty, the leg side stumping.

Like Richmond for 37 years before 2017? Suddenly played 4 years of exceptional footy and it is conveniently forgotten?

I like the idea of more than one tier with promotion/relegation (10 teams each). I would prefer that everyone in played every team in their tier at least throughout the period of each Championship and you rotate home and away between Championship periods. E.g. We play India in India next and the Ashes are here this time, in the next cycle, they are reversed again. The biggest issue is the Financial side of who is touring whereas some Countries don’t generate money and/or aren’t that big attraction (I would love to watch Australia play Afghanistan though). This is where Australia’s ability to play in the NT and Queensland in Winter can come into play.

Something similar should come into ODI’s and T20 and rank the teams for seedings come the WC’s every four years if that is at all possible. This would at least give some meaning to every ODI and T20 game that is played. Again each nation should play as many of the other nations as possible on a H&A basis.

So would you rather be like other countries around the world with Covid running rampant? The UK still has thousands of infections despite having a greater percentage of the population vaccinated (just because you are vaccinated doesn’t mean you can’t pass on Covid, or get sick just a milder version). Brazil is another example where the President believed Covid was not a serious virus, they have had 100K+ infections in a day recently. South Africa has the virus running rampant. The reason we don’t have many infections is because of the measures put into place.

Was supposed to play, but with Covid restrictions, it made it too difficult for him to go to the West Indies.

I am with you – Khawaja is much maligned, but the perfect fit at the moment. He is (was) in better form than most last summer. Problem with Australian Selectors, they go with the big names even when not performing. They need to read (at least watch) Moneyball. Often it is the scrappers who get you through due to their consistency, rather than potential or history.

Don’t worry, I’m with you