GuyWhoLikesSport

We haven’t even played Round 1 yet but footy looks different through five official games.  I found the game itself last year to be a bit on the drab side, generally down on scoring outside of the Bulldogs and careening toward a more grinding, front half stoppage centric game.   But if last year footy was Anne Hathaway uglying herself up at the start of The Princess Diaries, in Opening Round she took off her glasses and revealed herself to be incredibly good looking.  The league went full Dulles Brothers and astroturfed a revolution from their office. Unlike the American coups in Guatemala, Chile, or the Dominican Republic, it might end up in good…

At the risk of sounding like Ezra Klein after He died (RIP), for St Kilda this season there’s a right way and a wrong way to lose.   The wrong way to lose would be to have spent an offseason renovating the list, then deploying it using Ross Lyon’s dreary, old-school footy from yesteryear.   Doing that is like buying a $12,000 couch for your caravan.   In their Opening Round loss to Collingwood, on the other hand, the Saints showed genuine attacking intent and zeal when they had the ball and at least some level of urgency to try and keep the ball in their front half. That’s the…

Footy is back! And in classic AFL fashion, it’s starting with a whimper.   We have a little over half a round, four fifths of which will be played in the northern states to “take advantage” of the NRL being in Vegas this weekend.   I’m not quite sure how that works but stick with me!   There’s also a fifth game, but that’s happening at the MCG because Collingwood has cracked the sads and doesn’t want another interstate trip to add to their three this season.   The internal logic of the Fast and Furious movies makes more sense than the AFL’s decision making around “Opening Round”.   By the way, don’t call it Round 1 or Andrew…

There’s a fine line between an admirable iconoclast and a stubborn idiot.   You can so quickly go from being Ange Postecoglou dragging Tottenham to their first trophy in a million years, to Ange Postecoglou not winning any of his only eight games in charge of Nottingham Forrest and getting sacked after 39 days in the worst Greek on Greek crime since the civil war.   Adam Kingsley, with this hyper talented but ageing and injured Giants’ list, is treading that line.   Kingsley has a clear way he wants to play, and when it works, oh boy is it sexy. They win the ball back close to their own goal…

At the start of last year, I compared Fremantle to Catherine Tramell from Basic Instinct. I knew that they would probably let me down, but they were just too hot to listen to my better judgment.  After kicking 5.3 against the Saints in Round 8, I was calling coach Justin Longmuir Mark Jackson and demanding his head.  Heading into Round 23, I said that a Fremantle win against the Bulldogs in a win and in game was an existential crisis for the AFL.   After Round 23, when they beat the Bulldogs, I was singing Longmuir’s praises again.  With that much back and forth last year, you’d have to send me…

Why Couldn’t Brisbane Do It Again?  At this point, Brisbane has the feel of the Oceans movies.   In Ocean’s 11 they were stacked across the board. In Ocean’s 12 they added Julia Roberts to the team. For Brisbane in 2024, that was Levi Ashcroft as well as a fully healthy Will Ashcroft.  In Ocean’s 13 they added Al Pacino or, for Brisbane, Oscar Allen.  They just kept adding and adding and adding. And they stayed successful through their additions.   But, you know, they were movies.   The Lions have to pull their own smash and grab to win three in a row and, almost as impressively, make their fourth straight grand final.   If there’s ever been a team that’s set to do it, it’s Brisbane. Indeed, I’m picking them to…

Neil McCauley lived by one rule: “don’t have anything in your life that you can’t walk away from in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner”.  That’s a bad rule in life but a good rule for a bank robber. It’s also one that Neil abandoned time and again, particularly to save Chris during the bank robbery and to kill Waingro.  Neil didn’t stick to his own rules.   With their spending spree in this past offseason, adding Tom De Koning, Jack Silvagni, Sam Flanders, and Liam Ryan the Saints have abandoned their rule as well.  The Saints were less explicit than Neil in…

Following on from Part 1.  In brief, I’ve gone through every list and picked out just the high-end talent. I have identified the superstars, stars, and the potential stars and given each tier of player a certain number of points. From there, I’ve stacked teams by total points to tier premiership contenders heading into the 2026 season based on list talent alone, not taking into account balance, coaching or anything else.  Tier 3: Teams that don’t suit the exercise  Hawthorn ($8.00)  Superstar: N/A   Star: Jai Newcombe, James Sicily, Will Day (injured – not for season), Dylan Moore, Blake Hardwick, Massimo D’Ambrosio, Jack Gunston, Josh Weddle, Josh Battle, Nick Watson, Tom Barrass (22)  Possible…