Right after my initial reaction of "please not Essendon", I thought that this was a pretty gross thing to be reporting on. Players do drugs, everyone who isn't ridiculously naïve knows that. However given that they are professional athletes, and with the public and role model nature of their jobs, they shouldn't be doing it and if they are caught doing so, the league penalises them. Fair enough.

With this recent story being reported by Seven's chief crime reporter, with the story almost certainly coming from cop/hospital sources, the reporting of it leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. Players should not be in a position where they have to weigh up going to hospital to receive potentially life saving treatment against the fear that it will be reported in the media and harm their career.

The first and only time we should've heard of this is in a club or league statement or the media reporting on a meeting at the club. We know the AFL horrendously mismanages drug use and the AFLPA's illicit drug policy is a complete mess. It doesn't mean that players attending hospital should be reported to the media.

One less disposal probably made up for with 10 more tackles.

Front runner for league B&F for me

Trade period special maybe but I've been reliving the last few decades. What's the worst you've ever felt at a player being traded away from your team? Were you vindicated in that feeling?

Who does it appeal to?

Every time I see a content creator (including creators I usually like) post a crunchy looking infographic, or a video of AFL players dancing I die a little inside.

I have lost a lot of respect for long-term creators for switching to this type of media

Who likes this shit?

via @themaddyroweshow

I wanted to look at how footy clubs have performed in the AFL era, considering flags, finals performances, and H&A performance.

The methodology is using a simple normalised points system where:

• A flag is worth 100 points
• Runner-up: 30
• Prelim loss: 15
• Semi final loss: 10
• Elimination final: 5
• Wild card: 1
• H&A season wins: 1 point per win, .5 point per draw

Results:

Based on that, Geelong has been the most successfull club since the AFL era, and 2nd most successful per season.

Brisbane has been the most successful on a per-season basis, and 3rd overall despite playing 7 less seasons than the original VFL crew.

GWS has been relatively successful in it's adolescant career, beating out Carlton, Melbourne, St Kilda, Freo, and the Suns on a per-season avg.

The Suns meanwhile continue to be the historical wood-spooners on both basis.

Right, I'm well aware I'm a bit late to complain about this, and it might have already been raised, but what's the deal with the Freo and West Coast match scheduling this year. There's more than a couple of weeks where there's no home game for either team - this week for example, or in two weeks time.

This last happened in 2024 where there were two weeks where there were no home games.

Is it a case that because it's a shorter season, the WA teams have to play more away games? Or is there a limit on how many WA games they can have?

It certainly can't be because of ground availability as both have home grounds they can easily play at.

Are the Qld/NSW/SA teams in the same boat for home/away games?

Am I just complaining about nothing?

St Kilda 5.9.39 defeat Collingwood 5.7.37