GuyWhoLikesSport

As I’m writing this in Melbourne, it’s bloody cold.   Over the last five weeks, the AFL is scoring three fewer points per team per game than across the whole season.   Even with a couple of bangers last weekend, we’re officially in the dog days of the season, and a few of the teams that we expected to be good or goodish heading into the season are in a rut.   Everyone reading this, and the fella writing it, have all been in ruts before – whether they be personal or in relationships.   Sometimes, the rut is terminal to the relationship. Other times, your partner just needs to dress up like a cop and you need…

I don’t know if you saw the news, but Essendon sacked Brad Scott a couple of weeks ago.   As soon as it happened, the James Hird media mafia went back into gear and started agitating for it to happen. Even Hird himself, alongside a blistering media offensive which included basically every famous former Essendon person, said that it should be Hird because Essendon needs an Essendon man.  My favourite part of the media blitz so far is Jon Pierik’s piece which quotes “two industry sources” – probably James and Tania Hird – who rubbished suggestions that spending a decade out of footy would mean that…

Alastair Clarkson is one of the single best football coaches in my time watching footy.   After a demolition loss to Adelaide that simply shouldn’t be happening in year four of the Clarkson experiment at North Melbourne, after a season of “nearly” games that include close losses to Sydney and GWS, it might be time to reckon with the idea that he might be yesterday’s man.   Two things can be true.   But before heaping dirt on him, we have to remember what he inherited.   The two coaches before him – Rhyce Shaw and David Noble – had a nervous breakdown and were sincerely hated by the players…

There’s a clear standout top 4 teams in footy, and they currently occupy the top 4 on the ladder.   But nobody is impervious to weakness. Achilles had the heel, Superman had kryptonite, Tony Soprano had Livia Soprano.   What is the fatal flaw for each of the top 4?   Let’s find out  Sydney: Defending in general  You cannot make a with-ball case against Sydney. They’re ridiculous.   A fortnight ago, I would have said that if you can stop Justin McInerney and Angus Sheldrick’s corridor running lines you can stop Sydney, but both North Melbourne and Melbourne did that over the last two weeks and the Swans still…

Michael Voss has the look and feel of a man that is currently being tortured by his dream.   He looks like Fabio Wardley right at the end of his war with Danny Dubois, where he knew that his dream of being the champ was probably dead this time, but he’d still swing a few haymakers just in case a miracle happens.  He knows it’s a matter of when not if he’s given his marching orders, but he still has his boys fighting on grimly while they’re in his charge.   On Friday night, once again, they were competitive and carried a never say die…