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Joined June 2014
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AFL, NBA and cricket fiend, but can watch just about anything.
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By nearly every measure, the opening Test of the summer between Australia and the West Indies had much to appreciate: two double-centuries, another century…
With Tom Lynch seemingly out the door at Gold Coast, once again we have no shortage of talking heads and internet commenters decrying free…
The AFL's free agency system has once again received ample coverage in the press over the past week, and none of it positive. Geelong…
This is basically just a re-jigged Victoria v All-Stars game. No one born outside of Victoria would want to play for Victoria (even if they’re called ‘Us’), and no one from Victoria would want to play against them.
I actually think the Allies would field a way better side than they have in the past – whether or not they’d have the same passion to play as someone representing their state would be doubtful though.
Schedule-wise, you cna have a 2 week break in the middle of the year. Have the State games (Alternate who plays each other each year) on the first weekend. Then the second week can be a mid-season trade period.
So the players still get at least one weekend off, and the intrigue of the trade week keeps the public engaged while there are no games on the second weekend.
No crappy, drawn out bye week and the Players Assoc would be stoked because most players would be getting the two weeks off during the year that they want.
AFL doesn't need Origin, it needs an Us vs Them game
Agree with the article, though it seems to overlook instances where players have been filling for injured guys, ie Hastings’ one test.
Another example of the baffling selection criteria was Shaun Marsh in South Africa. Debateable whether he should have picked, makes a great hundred, fails in the next match and then gets dropped!
Huh?
Have recent Test debutants been given a raw deal?
Maybe if Stevie J wasn’t a recidivist with a ton of carryover points and a poor record he’d be let off more often as he wouldn’t accrue as many points per incident when the MRP looks at them?
We need Nathan Fyfe to win the Brownlow Medal
Minor Premiers: Syd
GF: Syd v Freo (I think they’re in better shape than most think, even with the St Kilda stinker. Walters back will be huge).
Premier: Syd – DOn’t think Freo has the backs to deal with Sydney’s key forwards.
Norm: Luke Parker – gets a lot of it and hits the scoreboard.
Coleman: Hawkins – always a chance to kick 4 against anyone and – unlike Buddy – generally kicks straight
Brownlow: Pendles – Pies have won enough games and he always has the ball in his hands for extended periods of time, as opposed to gettign rid of it straight away. Umps will notice.
Rising Star: Bontempelli. Even field, but he’s th eone rookie who has shown he can already take over and win them by himself.
Hawks for flag, Buddy for Coleman
You raise fair points, but I’m not sure I’d agree all players will choose the higher up clubs on the ladder. Some undoubtedly will, but the concession they make is they will likely make less cash as better teams will generally have less cap space.
And if bottom-placed teams have money to spend, players will join them – look at Chris Dawes/Mitch Clark joining Melbourne or GAJ joining the Suns – they were money-based decisions rather than decisions made for a lack of quality sides chasing them.
I think to assume a blanket course of action across all players is a bit presumptuous and we should at least wait and see how it all pans out.
Free agency doomsayers need to calm down
I agree, and I should have stated in the article I think players being able to poo-poo a trade they don’t like isn’t fair to the clubs.
I think being able to trade for future picks would be a good idea, and I also think a system where a player’s current club can offer him more money than others – like the NBA’s Bird rule – would be beneficial also.
But I think we need to simply wait out the current system until 2016 befroe we make changes so we can know exactly what does and doesn’t work – making snap judgements like King et al after two seasons is jumping th egun a bit IMO.
Free agency doomsayers need to calm down
Thanks for the props.
I get what you’re saying re Harry Taylor, and i’m sure Geelong are paying more to keep him than they would have if free agency wasn’t in place. But I also think it’s a bit rich to complain about paying him closer to what he is actually worth on the open market.
As for loyalty, it’s a two-way street – Collingwood could reward Goldsack for his years of tenure by not assuming he’ll return and make him an offer.
Free agency doomsayers need to calm down
It’s simple: blow the whistle for ball-ups faster.
Don’t let it sit there under packs and in rolling mauls for an eternity, waiting to ping someone on a BS holding the ball decision – bounce the thing and the game keeps moving on.
It's time to leave the laws of Australian Football alone
This will never happen, even though it should. No company would ever take measures that would see its revenue drop by millions of dollars.
But something needs to be done with the bye rounds, splitting up Round One and then having three weeks of byes just diminishes interest and momentum.
And State of Origin is gone, though I believe it would be a success especially if played on a Thursday night before a bye weekend as proposed above.
A 17-round AFL season may work
Mid-season trade week in lieu of the byes would be great. Would give a supporter of a bottom-four or underachieving side something to be interested in.
Imagine what Port might do if a trade week was on now?
Or West Coast might choose to grab a tall defender to maximise their positive start to the year.
Would definitely add drama to the season, and could change clubs fortunes. Look at the Cavs in the NBA – they were wallowing and then made mid-season trades which totally refreshed the team and they made it to the Finals.
I also agree with trading future picks but there needs to be cap on it, ie only being able to trade picks from the next draft, or if you trade future picks in one off-season you can’t do it the following year.
My reasoning is there are already clubs in pretty dire circumstances right now, imagine if they didn’t even have any draft picsk to look forward to because they whiffed on a major trade. ie, Fev to Brisbane was bad enough for the Lions and they’re still reeling somewhat five years later – imagine if they also threw in some future draft picks to land him?
What the AFL should steal from the NFL