Game’s hard enough to adjudicate without asking them to pick and choose when to enforce the rules. Infringements don’t always have to be intentional or spiteful, and this was a clear violation. The ball isn’t the umpire’s, its Gold Coast’s, the umpires don’t handover the ball on free kicks, which is why there are rules about interfering with or delaying their ability to take a free kick.

Besides, Petch had front position, shoulda bloody marked it!

Not really, and I say this as a West Coast fan. To the letter its the right call, can’t knock the ball away when its a free to the other team. Even if the ball doesn’t really go any further than if it had bounced.

I know some will argue for “common sense” but Aussie Rules has too much scope for grey areas and interpretations as it is. If you want them to call it as its written, then its the right call.

Feels like their could be more to the cheating story to come. There’s belief in the paddock that the cover story from Penske – that they erroneously left software installed in the ECU from the hybrid engine test – is a smoke screen, and that Penske have likely found a way to spoof the signal that is sent by Indycar to activate the Push-to-Pass system, because it was posited there is no software to install or uninstall between the engines. Its also suggested that one team even raised concerns last year that Penske drivers were using P2P illegally, due to observations of on-board footage.

It would explain why two of their three drivers are pushing a button that should be inactive.

As it was explained the ECU is controlled by Indycar and the manufacturers (Honda & Chevrolet), with the specific software layers relating to the P2P system locked out by Indycar. They issue a software unlock to all the teams ahead of pre-race warm ups, however the P2P system doesn’t activate until it receives an encrypted signal through Indycar’s on track transponder system. This encrypted signal is however received by the Central Logger Unit, which communicates with the transponder system, and sends the signal to the ECU. Its even codified in the regulations:

“Rule 14.19.15. An indicator to enable Push to Pass will be sent via CAN (Controlled Area Network) communication from the timing and scoring beacon on board the Car to the team data logger. This signal must be passed on to the ECU unmodified and uninterrupted during all Road and Street Course Events.”

Yet, unlike the ECU, the CLU is controlled by the teams.

That Ganassi was so critical in his comments, and Chevy have distanced themselves as much as possible, would indicate not everyone is buying their story.

Walters head didn’t even hit the ground, it hit the ball he was carrying.

The question then has to be asked: find another F1 driver in the 74-year history of the sport who has faced this amount of negativity against them – because I guarantee you nobody ever has.

You wont because social media more now that ever has amplified negative attitudes and toxic behaviours, but I’d say on balance we’re passed Stage Maldonado and are at Stage Grosjean. We’re not quite at Stage Ide though.

The problem is the nature of Stroll’s blunder. It wasn’t the heat of battle, like Hamilton v Verstappen, or even Magnussen v Tsunoda, Stroll buried his car under Ricciardo’s during a safety car restart, when there is no overtaking. The contact wasn’t slight; he didn’t bump him, nudge him or clip him, like Vettel did to Hamilton at Baku; it wasn’t a marginal error that could be excused because the pack bunched up; Stroll completely switched off and nearly had another car on top of him.

And to then to have the gall to show absolutely no contrition or accountability only made it all the more infuriating.

Lance Stroll has ultimately outlived his usefulness in F1. He is in his 8th season and consistently underperforms while Alonso is challenging for the front row and fighting in the upper top 10. He actively costs Aston Martin points and places in the constructors, and ultimately prize money. He is a seat clogger protected by family connections. At a time where every fan wants to see more seats available for the talent coming through, we have one less, so long as Lawrence owns the team. I honestly hope he either gets shipped off to AM’s WEC program, or the rumours about Lawrence looking to sell are true.

(also the humourous side-note to the whole Ricciardo / Stroll affair is that Daniel’s best mate, Olympic snowboarder Scotty James, is married to Stroll’s sister. Might make for some awkward gettogethers)

This was huge, not only for Beale himself, but for any ageing person looking for inspiration. Beale proved that being 35 is no barrier to being a productive member of society, and that age is just a number, albeit a number that indicates how old you are.

For me it was Randy Couture winning the UFC championship at 40. Or more recently Fernando Alonso still getting it done in F1 at 42.

While true to an extent; their footy is rugby league and schools have “AFL” teams; and there is also an element of laziness/convenience by people on online communities to use “AFL” as shorthand when referring to the sport, there is undeniably a concerted effort by the AFL to make themselves synonymous with the sport, from telling kids to “Play AFL” to those TV ads featuring migrants socialising within communities by joining their local “AFL” team.

This is all very deliberate and why it is no longer just Queenslanders and New South Welshmen who call it AFL.

Even the Fox& Ch7 commentators are deliberate in their language; a recent game one of them referred to the ball as “the AFL football” while describing its unpredictable bounce.

This is why it is frustrating when articles on this very site will often have passages within them that reel off list of sports like “Basketball, Golf, Cricket, Union, League and AFL…”

Rather they just said Skinfolds will be abolished because they aren’t very useful and don’t provide any meaningful data, rather than the very real potential they have to lead to eating disorders in young athletes if improperly handled.
Because while both are true, its very easy for antiquated “tough” guys to dismiss the latter as being “soft”.

It all started with the horrible mistake that was abolishing an independent administrator of Australian Football, and making the AFL the “custodian of the game”.

The league became beholden to no one, and can do what they want, from promoting the sport as “AFL” to whitewashing football history erasing the significance of other leagues like the VFA, SANFL, TFL, GFL and WAFL.

They answer to no one, not even fans, because where else are you going to go? The AFL has its hooks into football up and down the eastern seaboard and the Northern Territory. The VF(A)L is a glorified AFL reserves comp, with 5 teams out of state. Even the The Farrer Football Netball League has the spectre of the AFL looming over it.

And the clubs and broadcasters all play along because you don’t bite the hand that feeds.

You’re better off trying to spin straw into gold.

I hear people screaming at me that in a fast-paced game, accidents happen

And to those people I always say; accidents happen in the real world… people are still held accountable for them.

“and regularly beating his team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, in his second.”

While it’s true Mick finished ahead of Magnussen more times than not, Magnussen still scored more points. Because on the days the car was capable of the result Mick was often at the back of the midfield, whereas on the day the car was not performing, they were both finishing around 13th-17th. Mick only managed two point scoring results the entire season, whereas Magnussen brought it home in the points six times, which includes the two times Mick was scoring. Can’t also forget the hefty damage bill Mick was racking up.

Regarding Stroll, I honestly hope the rumours of Lawrence looking to sell are true, as its the only way we will be rid of Lance. Unless he’s covinced to give up F1 for Aston Martin’s WEC program. If Lawrence does sell I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Zhou partner Alonso, if Audi land their rumoured top picks Hulkenberg and Sainz.

Literally had a man advantage for 10 minutes and still lost.

The lack of accountability should be alarming.

Saints
Crows
Power
Giants
Lions
Eagles
Suns
Roos

Dunstall’s old club Cooparoo will be returning to the QAFL seniors next year, after a 30 year absence at the top level.

Hope he announces his retirement, so he can do a lap of honour in the popemobile with the 2018 cup. 😁

Dusty looked cooked on the weekend. Zero impact, with no run and gave up on defensive efforts. The much vaunted Dusty v Reid showdown was very one sided.

Speaking of Reid, he’s definitely living up to the billing, but it was also great to see Yeo back to his best. God I hope he stays healthy. With Reid, Yeo and Ginbey, West Coast has their most physically imposing midfield in a long time, and it frees up Kelly. Just have to get Allen, Sheed and Ryan back on the park. Expect to hear Gaff announce his retirement mid-season, dropped three weeks ago, listed as an emergency for the last two.

Often wonder where our perceptions of Alonso would sit if he didn’t have Stroll as a teammate, if he had someone capable of challenging him every weekend, the way Russell has come in and challenged Hamilton.

Was fair annoyed when Kravtiz judged Ricciardo missing Q3 a “failure” given he was only .055s off Tsunoda with essentially one practice session.

The knock against Tsunoda is 4 seasons into his F1 career he is still prone to outbursts like we saw in Bahrain where he defied team orders and dive bombed his teammate on the cool down lap. Red Bull want a team player in that second seat, not someone who is going to cause disharmony and give them headaches. An uptick in form wont change euro-centric Helmut Marko’s mind if you look like a problem.

and although Albon’s crash wasn’t his fault

Debatable. Igor Sushko who raced in Japan for 8 years pinned the blame on Albon:

“100% Albon’s fault. You can’t place your car there, the circuit is way too narrow, Riccardo was on the inside AND in front of Albon.”

Even as a Williams fan, I felt he was optimistic trying to take the outside line through the Esses on the first lap. Given Williams situation he had even more incentive to take the more conservative option. Was satisfied with it being called it racing incident.

Ricciardo qualifying .055s behind his teammate after essentially one practice session gave hope to a positive result. Alas both RBs were swamped starting on the mediums, which lead to the inevitable midfield melee he found himself in. It seemed to me the boffins at RB didn’t get a good read on the conditions, which were warmer and drier than Saturday (IIRC Sunday was about 23°C with about 45% humidity, while Saturday was 17°C with 74% humidity), which lead to incorrect tyre prep on the formation lap. They promptly switched Yuki to softs for the restart.

And while I’m a lifelong Williams fan, I’m in two minds about Albon’s car positioning. He had bags of grip, which lead to a speed advantage over Ricciardo, which lead to him putting his car in the only space available. But it was also a move that was never going to work. More so given Williams current position, a more conservative mindset would have been beneficial. Afterall they had opted for a low drag setup which would have made them a beast down the straights.

There are plenty of people ready to discard Ricciardo into the wilderness, Australians included (the toxicity has practically made engaging with F1 social media unbearable). And if you were to objectively measure his performances like you’d do any other driver their rationale might be justified (but never their language) But I can’t bring myself to join them. The guy can drive, he beat Vettel at Red Bull, he’s the only teammate that challenged Verstappen, he took Renault back to the podium, and even in a year of misery, he still brought it home to the top step that one fine day in Italy. RB will be giving him a new chassis for China, a track he has won at, and often done well. So let’s hope he has a good weekend, because I dread the response if he doesn’t.

In Steiner’s defence the new car was already designed and developed before his departure. To Komatsu’s credit though his pragmatic approach is seems to be fostering a more successful environment than the emotional rollercoaster that followed Steiner.

Freo spokesperson saying that arrangement is ‘best for our program’.

Best for our bank balance more likely.

*alluding to obtaining drugs

Chris Mainwaring OD’ed on cocaine.

Daniel Kerr has a laundry list of red flags

Joel Smith, failed a drug test last year and now charged with trafficking cocaine.

Sam Fisher was charged for trafficking, with reports indicating St Kilda were worried about his “lifestyle issues” as far back as 2012.

Gavin Crosisca admitted he was addicted to marijuana, amphetamines and alcohol throughout and after his career.

Chris Yarran is on record saying meth ended his career

Dayle Garlett started using meth not long after being drafted by Hawthorn

Then there was the Jack Watts text messages alluding to text messages, and the photo of him snorting white power that apparently was “totally legal tobacco product”

I mean if your bar is Ben Cousins, the most extreme and public example of addiction, then you need to lower the bar

“He is a ball-getting player, so he’s not the best tacker, because the best tacklers are prepared to lose their feet to stick that tackle.”

The criticisms I saw weren’t about his tackling or defensive pressure, it was about him shying away from loose ball contests. He wasn’t getting the ball.

Not all that unrealistic though, seen enough MMA fighters try to post out of a takedown only to break their arm when their weight bends it the wrong way. When you’re not expecting the fall people tend to reflexively stick their arm out.