2019 Club Champion

[Go Swannies]

I thought Craig Willis did a good job as MC.

The staff waited until people were going to their table before handing out the drinks. Did the old way (handing around while we waited to go in) produce problems? Perhaps a bit of mummying?

We galloped through the replays before the points tally, probably because there were extra awards. I like to see more of the players in action.

Teddy's farewell interview was a hoot. Horse's speech was pithy and a little briefer than usual I thought - still impressive and continuing to do a great job. I was impressed with Rampe's acceptance speech - a bit long and rambling but obviously heartfelt. He had to pause and gather his feelings a couple of times, but we filled in the gaps with applause. I think he got the point, namely that he is a much loved member of the club. No-one mentioned goalposts. And a great speech from Kirky.

The food varied from horrid (pork belly yuk!) to good on drinks and dessert. Mrs d and I sat next to Go Swannies - always nice to put a face to a fellow R&W contributor.

I thought Craig was a good MC too - made it seem a bit effortless.

And so nice to be seated next to Mr and Mrs dimelb! Lots of talking about the remarkable Adam Goodes - who appeared by video.

I went looking for Tom Papley after but couldn't find him - probably tired of 900 people asking if he'd be with us next year. But did get to thank Smooch for being so reliable for so long.

[Kafka's Ghost]

Horse spotted just now in a bakery in Hampton , bayside Melbourne , eating a Pie ( not sure what flavour or whether there was sauce involved ) and talking to an older man in a suit . Courtesy of my accountant friend who was also getting a pie. Wonder what he’s upto ...


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He went to Danny Frawley’s funeral.

[bloodspirit]

Just noticed a curiosity in the voting: the club website is doing a countdown of the year's 10 best individual performances based on the votes players got used for the B&F count. Rampe was voted as having the equal best performance of the year for his performance against Essendon (ironically the game which was so controversial because he climbed the post) despite having unspectacular stats. What's interesting is that, although the 5 coaches gave Rampe 44/50 votes (which was more than any other Swan on the ground) for the B&F count, he only attracted 2 votes in the AFLCA voting - behind Parker (who got 10 votes), Hewett and Sinclair.

The AFLCA votes went like this:

10 Luke Parker (SYD)
8 Orazio Fantasia (ESS)
5 George Hewett (SYD)
3 Callum Sinclair (SYD)
2 Dane Rampe (SYD)
1 Zach Merrett (ESS)
1 Dyson Heppell (ESS)

Looking at that breakdown of votes: Rampe got 2 votes from one coach. Parker got 5 votes from both coaches, Fantasia got 4 votes from both coaches and most likely we gave 3 to Hewett, 2 to Rampe and 1 to an Essendon player. The alternative is that we didn't give Rampe any votes and only Woosha did.

To me it seems odd that there is such a difference between the way our coaches voted collectively in the B&F and the votes in AFLCA, however they are arrived at. I imagined there would be some collaboration for AFLCA purposes but maybe Horse does it on his own and he rated Rampe's performance less. Another possibility is that the two sets of voting are done at different times, one with the benefit of more time to reflect than the other and the review changed the perception. I would have thought the B&F vote would be the more considered, after having time to fully review the game. Perhaps Rampe's contribution was less obvious and required this closer scrutiny, rather than just stats. Then again if a lot of the value of Rampe's performance came from him marshalling the defence and keeping everyone organised, wouldn't this have been at least as apparent on the day? Perhaps not.

Another theory is that we deliberately obfuscate in the AFLCA voting because we don't want to give away to opposition what we value. But this seems less likely to me because it is a meaningful award that I would assume is taken seriously and approached with integrity.

Can anyone illuminate this discussion in any useful way?