A.F.L. Thread II

[Jono]

After winning two premierships and a Brownlow, and its made him a better player and better leader.

Looked a great move last year even though Geelong won the flag. But Gold Coast have been run poorly this year so its a bit dodgier now.

Put it this way, if he is holding up the Premiership Cup as captain of Gold Coast in 2016 it'l be the greatest move in 20 years.

 

[BoyBrumby]

After winning two premierships and a Brownlow, and its made him a better player and better leader.

Looked a great move last year even though Geelong won the flag. But Gold Coast have been run poorly this year so its a bit dodgier now.

Put it this way, if he is holding up the Premiership Cup as captain of Gold Coast in 2016 it'l be the greatest move in 20 years.

Hmm. Fair dos, I suppose. Players want to win tho and (probably) the game's greatest current exponent has a season's record of 0-13 now. He looks majestic in defeat, sure, but it must eat at him, as the "I'm buggered either way" type of stories that've been about of late suggest.

Dunno. Maybe I'm looking at it through association football eyes.

 

[Spikey]

Family played a part

 

[Burgey]

Think he should move to Sydney tbh.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

I'm sure Ablett is holding out for success in future years. I think there's a pretty big difference from Messi going to Wigan because A) there's pretty much no chance of Wigan winning anything even with Messi there, and B) there's no reason to think Barcelona won't keep being highly competitive in Spanish/European football for the rest of his career.

Geelong will inevitably fall off a little bit once the bulk of their premiership stars are gone, even if it's only for a year or two and even if they don't fall that far. There's also the chance that they'll do what a lot of dominant sides do and fall very hard and very far.

Like Jono said, in a few years if GC are playing finals football and they're doing it with Ablett having built the side from scratch, obviously it'll look a fine move. If they don't though, you'd have to wonder what could have been... especially in terms of personal rewards, because there's no doubt that Ablett could win more Brownlows etc at a decent club. He could have gone down as having one of the greatest individual careers in the history of the game, which is unlikely to happen if he doesn't see finals again for 3-4 years.

Still hands down the best player in the AFL for mine, which is ****ing impressive when you look at what he's working with. The amount of influence he has on games is just incredible.

 

[howardj]

I always thought it was a strange move, given that he would be set up for life in the financial sense whether he stayed at Geelong or went to the Coast. I mean, at Geelong, he would have been able to get $700 000 per year, before endorsements. Plus he would have been assured of being in contention for another flag tilt in 2011-2013 at least. Furthermore, in terms of lifestyle, there's just no footy culture on the Coast. He'd be missing the footy culture badly, I'd reckon.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

It was probably discussed at the time, but what's the consensus on Ablett going to the GC? Sort of the equivalent of Messi going to Wigan for the wedge. Can see why he's done it, etc but whichever way you slice it, a chap at the very peak of his powers has moved to a gash side for money.

For such a smart bloke, this is a completely awful analogy.

 

[BoyBrumby]

For such a smart bloke, this is a completely awful analogy.

Well, that may be true. Unless you suggest a better one tho it kinda looks like an arbitrary insult.

Anyway, the analogy isn't really germane to my point, which is that, to an outsider who takes a passing interest, it looks an odd move for a chap in his prime from a real & successful team in a football heartland (like Barca) to an artificially created team in what's primarily a rugby league town (like Wigan).

 

[vic_orthdox]

Despite the fact that supposedly their disagreements weren't as bad as what everyone perceives them to have been, it still would have been interesting to see what the result would have been if Thompson and Ablett were getting on alright in their last season together.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Well, that may be true. Unless you suggest a better one tho it kinda looks like an arbitrary insult.

Anyway, the analogy isn't really germane to my point, which is that, to an outsider who takes a passing interest, it looks an odd move for a chap in his prime from a real & successful team in a football heartland (like Barca) to an artificially created team in what's primarily a rugby league town (like Wigan).

Except that there's a system in Australian sports where there is designed parity, with a draft process and a salary cap which means that when your best players get old you can't just buy new ones at the top of their game to replace them. The analogy is inherently poor because Barcelona will never be bad unless they go financially bankrupt (which is almost impossible because the government in Spain would bail them out). They may lull, but at worst they'll be top 3 or 4 in the second biggest league in the world. Even if things went completely down the tubes ala Liverpool, they'd still be competing at a higher level than a club like Wigan who will never be successful.

Whereas here, all awful teams generally become competitive and challenge for honours on a cycle (except for the Demons but that's more down to terrible management and fanbase, plus we haven't had a player of Ablett's class in my lifetime) and with the way these teams were awarded both draft picks and huge amounts of money to throw at established stars, their success is almost assured in the future unless they're hugely unlucky with both draft picks and injury.

The analogy would be better if you compared it to say, the NBA, and said it's akin to Lebron James saying "**** this, I don't particularly like Miami and winning the conference every year, I'm gonna go to Charlotte cause they'll pay me more" (which is technically impossible because of Bird rights and such, but this is about as close as you'll get with an analogy"

 

[vic_orthdox]

Watched Adem Yze kick 5 in the last quarter after my team were 6 goals down 10 minutes into the last to win the game for us. Unbelievable.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

The one and only. By far my favourite player.

 

[Jono]

Was he wearing long sleeves?

 

[Spikey]

AFL - Adam Yze Kicks A 'Very Clever' Goal 2007 - YouTube

never 4get

 

[benchmark00]

Times Gold Coast have beaten Richmond: 1
Times Gold Coast have beaten North Melbourne: 0

 

[Jono]

Amazing you've played Gold Coast twice and GWS once and you're not in the 8. Embarrassing.

 

[benchmark00]

Amazing how Richmond are supposed flag favourites but haven't been in the eight for the past 20 years.

 

[howardj]

Geez Eddy, why don't you just ask Lleyton to unzip

Anyway, Collingwood v West Coast next week

Absolute blockbuster

 

[BoyBrumby]

Round Twelve Tipping Update

A more or less complete waste of time, tbh.

As everyone who tipped went for exactly the same ****ing results we all get maximums. Even Johnners and tozz, who missed the first fixture. As everyone who was arsed went for WCE the lowest score achieved on the game was "1".

Weekly

Brumby 6
Jono 6
skd 6
howard 6
HDS 6
Spikey 6
morgie 6
Benchy 6
Vimes 6
altoz 6
Johnners 6

Literally as you were but 6 tips & .01s to the good.

Overall

1) howard 80.06
2) skd 79.06
3) Brumby 75.03
4) altoz 73.04
5) morgie 73.03
=6) Jono 72.03
=6) Benchy 72.03
8) HDS 70.01
9) Vimes 67.04
10) Johnners 66.01
11) Spikey 65.04

Round Thirteen Fixtures

Sydney vs. Geelong (SCG)
Western Bulldogs vs. Brisbane Lions (Docklands)
Collingwood vs. West Coast (MCG)
Fremantle vs. Essendon (Subiaco)
Melbourne vs. Greater Western Sydney (MCG)
North Melbourne vs. Adelaide (Docklands)

 

[benchmark00]

I see you haven't rectified the alphabetical order discrepancy which has dogged this competition.

Turning into a farce itbt.