That's it. I'm giving up Australian Football.

[goswannies]

Based on a sample size of one (this year) the bye after round 23 threw up a number of things that had never occurred before.
A team finishing seventh won the flag. Previously only one team in the last twenty years outside the top four had ever won a premiership.

I think it only once in the history of the AFL/VFL (Adelaide) ... although to be fair, for a long time it was only a top 4, so winning from outside the top 4 would have been somewhat challenging

[AnnieH]

Trade ban AND Trade Restriction!!
But at least we still have COLA, or is that COKE? I'll have to ask Talia.

I'll never give up on the swans; but any respect I ever had (if any) for the AFL has shot right out the window.
I can't wait to see what surprise they have in store for us on the eve of trading.

[Nico]

I also think AFL in Sydney needs new Journos. OneS at SMH and Daily Telegraph are too meek and mild. It is obvious whatvtgey are thinking on twitter , nonwvwilling to sau "umpiring bias decides grand final"

That's because they are AFL accredited and are too scared to lose their ticket. Remember the Channel 7 reporter who broke the story about medical records of Hawthorn players being found in the street. Never seen or heard of since, the poor bugger, and he thought he had a scoop and he did, but paid the price.

[Maltopia]

Admittedly a few decision went against the Swans in the big dance but the conspiracy's about being the least looked after side in the comp are far from the mark. Swans are 5th in free kicks for all year (Bulldogs first).

You must be counting the finals which skews the results since only two teams played 26 games.

During the regular season, we did not win the free count vs any Victorian team except against Essendon. That is an indictment on the umpiring given half of those games would have been at the SCG with a supposed home crowd pressure on the umpires to give more frees to us.

[ScottH]

I'll never give up on the swans; but any respect I ever had (if any) for the AFL has shot right out the window.
I can't wait to see what surprise they have in store for us on the eve of trading.

I believe we can only trade for players that have a Z and a Q in their name.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

[dimelb]

The pre-finals bye is an unnecessary interference with the fixture. If a club is in the position to do a Lyon, why shouldn't they? They've earned the right. It would seem that the only reason for interfering with the existing fixture is because it upsets the bookies' plans. And that really riles me!

[Industrial Fan]

You must be counting the finals which skews the results since only two teams played 26 games.

During the regular season, we did not win the free count vs any Victorian team except against Essendon. That is an indictment on the umpiring given half of those games would have been at the SCG with a supposed home crowd pressure on the umpires to give more frees to us.

we won 3 free kick counts all year which did not include the 113 pt pasting of the tigers or thrashing of the saints at docklands. ????

[Ludwig]

I believe we can only trade for players that have a Z and a Q in their name.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

That's okay. At least we can trade Qom Mitzell and Queen Towerz.

[Blue Sun]

Not sure if this has been posted yet (Tadgh Kennelly says what no one else has had the balls to say): Home | Live Scores & Latest News | Fox Sports

[Danzar]

I'll never give up on the swans; but any respect I ever had (if any) for the AFL has shot right out the window.
I can't wait to see what surprise they have in store for us on the eve of trading.

It's been some time since I felt any respect for the AFL. How they viewed and handled our 2005 season, early Tippett and Buddy, COLA, trade bans, academy, Buddy redux, 2016 Grand Final; all of these have either been knee jerk, or worse, considered responses to idiotic commentary from other clubs and Melbourne media.

There are plenty of other gripes I have; particularly how they manage ticketing, which is a core issue when it comes to equitable fan access to the game. The Doggies are quite within their rights to be well pissed at how tough it was for even the average fan to see their team play in a Grand Final.

On Saturday, we had our chance in that last quarter. I think we could have done it with Hanneberry, but that was just bad luck that saw it go differently. The umpiring could never has prevented his injured knee, it just denied us natural justice in a free kick. That's tough, and probably makes it a lot easier to focus on the rest of the frees as a tipping point that may or may not have denied us the game. That said, there were a couple of moments in the second quarter that stopped our momentum when we'd piled on four or five consecutive goals. I can't remember exactly what they were (not ready to watch a replay yet), then we were finished off with that BS free against Jack, 50m then goal to Mclean. The rest were just numbers.

[Mug Punter]

Not sure if this has been posted yet (Tadgh Kennelly says what no one else has had the balls to say): Home | Live Scores & Latest News | Fox Sports

�I don�t think it was the overall difference between winning and losing the game,� Kennelly told Fox Sports News 500. �But it certainly contributed in a way that helped the Dogs win the game.�

Not sure he is supportive of your coronial inquest either.

Horse nailed it, we lost because ultimately we had too many players not contributing.

Having said that there can be no denying that the umpiring left a lot to be desired. And I'm sick of the consistently crap decisions we get that have cost us games - I can assure you I was rabid after the slime greens robbed us against Hawthorn. We should be keeping some stats record re this because we are not a dirty team and we need to be able to show some compelling evidence re not only our free kick counts but also the nature of the free kicks, many of the few we get are junk free kicks at the end of the game once the result is beyond doubt and I'd love to see a "junk time free kick" count because I think it would be telling and quite possibly persuasive in any submission to the AFL that we don't get a fair crack from the Umps (not that those pricks would care anyway)

I'm just glad it didn't affect the end result. If we have gone within a kick at the end after that display then I would be feeling the same outrage that many are still feeling.

- - - Updated - - -

It's been some time since I felt any respect for the AFL. How they viewed and handled our 2005 season, early Tippett and Buddy, COLA, trade bans, academy, Buddy redux, 2016 Grand Final; all of these have either been knee jerk, or worse, considered responses to idiotic commentary from other clubs and Melbourne media.

There are plenty of other gripes I have; particularly how they manage ticketing, which is a core issue when it comes to equitable fan access to the game. The Doggies are quite within their rights to be well pissed at how tough it was for even the average fan to see their team play in a Grand Final.

On Saturday, we had our chance in that last quarter. I think we could have done it with Hanneberry, but that was just bad luck that saw it go differently. The umpiring could never has prevented his injured knee, it just denied us natural justice in a free kick. That's tough, and probably makes it a lot easier to focus on the rest of the frees as a tipping point that may or may not have denied us the game. That said, there were a couple of moments in the second quarter that stopped our momentum when we'd piled on four or five consecutive goals. I can't remember exactly what they were (not ready to watch a replay yet), then we were finished off with that BS free against Jack, 50m then goal to Mclean. The rest were just numbers.

+1

[Untamed Snark]

I believe we can only trade for players that have a Z and a Q in their name.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

This year only.
Minor Premiers to give last year's minor premiers a player of their choice. To reciprocal trade required.