You have to be
surprised that there are apparently no howls of protest from
Essendon fans about their Bombers being effectively rubbed out
for the season. It may be because the season is already rooted,
and has been from Round One, and few of them, if any, still
care.
Connor McKenna. Very
flakey. Negative last Wednesday, irregular Friday, positive
Saturday? Mmmm. He must have got himself into some nitty-gritty
situations where there was the deliberate exchanging of bodily
fluids, otherwise how else would have he picked up the killer
virus? Touching a contaminated door knob during an open
inspection as he looks to snap up some bargain Melbourne real
estate on his bloated stipend? McKenna has issues with
homesickness - we know that - but sending him back to Northern
Ireland again would probs be going a bit too far. That said,
there would have to be some old school die-hard Bomber's
supporters who'd reckon it's a good idea. Then, lo & behold,
Connor tests negative yesterday? Cured in four days? WTF? Is
that a double false positive or a double false negative, or
both, or what? Too much confusion.
The intrinsic
unfairness that The Corona bought to the new 'season' has been
amplified into a meaningless echo chamber. There's no fixture
list beyond Round 5 for a start off. Certainty is at zero. Essendon are down a game
(as are Melbourne - has anyone asked them how they feel about
that?), and no-one has any idea if it will ever be played. The
AFL Boss Cocky glibly said last Saturday "we may have to treat
it as a bye". Neither side would be happy with sharing the
points. Some say it's lucky McKenna only took out one other
player as a "close contact", but how so? He's still out of the
Bomber's next game through no fault of his own. Is it just lucky
that their whole backline didn't get ruled out? Do we now
consider positive players and their close contacts as mere
'injuries'? How does the rest of the comp feel about the new
outright ban on 'contact training'? Or the absurd notion of
splitting up your backs and forwards in tactical training, so
they don't lose a whole swathe of the team front or back in the
event of a mass outbreak. Really? Those struggling with match
fitness - and there are plenty of them - might as well kiss
their year goodbye. A lot of players don't have their hearts in
it as it is, and even less will now, as they ponder whether
being a footballer was the right career move after all. It's a
severely time-limited career for most and will never ever be the
pot of gold it once was. The AFL is like a flexible and agile
free-form globule at the moment, capable of mutating into a dead
loss at the drop of a hat.
With most of the
players living in Melbourne (and how many of those live in the
recently declared 'hotbeds'?), you'd have to suspect that the
only reason the AFL season hasn't been postponed yet again is
the TV rights; they have to keep playing to fulfill their new
contractual obligations. Otherwise it's another shitload of dung flung
into the spinning blades. And how Seven must be kicking
themselves...gleefully announcing before the start of Round 3
that they'd renegotiated the TV deal, saving themselves $87M in
the process. That's the first time since 1971 the broadcaster has paid less. Then, almost as soon as the
signatures are affixed, a player tests positive. The television
rights instantly deteriorate even further in value as yet more
gawkers at the telly slip away and continue to find something
more entertaining to watch/do than a Mickey Mouse comp with no
crowds apart from wankers in private boxes and a badly mixed
canned soundtrack. Never mind the AFL being down another $87M
flogging a dead horse - their business model was a shot bird as
soon as it was bitten on the arse by The Corona - and no one has
any clue about fixing it, because there's no certainty, going
forward, about anything in this crazy mixed up world, anymore. By rights,
the AFL season should have been up to Round 15 by now, in a 23
Round season. That's two-thirds done and we should be talking about
who's going to be who in the finals. It's cold. You do the math.
NORTH MELBOURNE
2.3, 3.9, 5.11, 8.12 (60). Goals: Brown 3,
Zurhaar, Ahern, Hall, Dumont, Simpkin.
SYDNEY 2.1, 5.3,
10.8, 10.11 (71). Goals: Papley 2, McLean, Hayward,
Dawson, Blakey, Heeney, Rowbottom, Taylor, Parker.
At Docklands Stadium.
Crowd: 0.
Don't mind a great deal
where we are really - do you? The care factor is starting to
bottom out - but it's not very often in any season of following
two teams, that they both win on the same weekend. Balmain and
Townsville have history, so this is good too...although with the
half-time score at 34-0, the Mighty Tiges took the foot off the
pedal, when back in the olden days when things actuially mattered, they
should have won by a cricket score.
WESTS TIGERS 36. Tries:
Musgrove, Leilua, Brooks, Aloiai, Jennings, Mbye. Goals: Mbye
(6).
NORTH QUEENSLAND COWBOYS 20. Tries: Feldt (2), Drinkwater,
Marsters. Goals: Feldt (1).
At Campbelltown Sports Ground.
Crowd: 0.
