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Topics - Lods

1
The Sports Desk / Enhanced Sports.
I was listening to the news on the radio this morning and heard a story that former Australian swimmer James Magnussen is returning to swimming in the ‘Enhanced games’

https://www.news.com.au/sport/olympics/australian-olympic-swimmer-james-magnussen-confirmed-for-enhanced-games/news-story/5af1458677cd222363589c4aec2996c6

Basically, it is an anything goes competition.
Drugs, Supersuits….whatever aid you can get.
Big prizemoney for breaking world bests.
I checked the date.
It’s not April 1st.
My first reaction was WTF. Stupid idiots.

But then I had a think about it.
Was Lance Armstrong the only cyclist using performance enhancers?  Of course, he wasn’t and many of those who finished close behind him were probably similarly doped up. Yet his name is ‘shame’ and others not so much.
I had a look at a ‘shame’ file of track and field athletes who were denied records because of doping infringements. The thing that struck me was that list contained a number of athletes who still hold ‘legitimate’ world records. So, they were caught on some occasions, got away with it on others.
Marita Koch (400 metres) Jarmila Kratochvilova ( 800 metres) hold records that date back to the 1980’s. Both athletes were part of Eastern European regimes where doping was well documented. Florence Griffith Joyner set records that women are still not within ‘cooee’ of achieving.
Some of the men’s throwing records also date back over 40 years
So the whole world record thing in many sports is a farce and not worth a pinch of salt.

The reality is the only true measure of ultimate human ‘achievement’ that can be taken as reliable is, very sadly :( , the records set by the druggies.


2
Robert Heatley Stand / Cripps Backs JSOS
https://www.afl.com.au/news/1071191/carlton-skipper-patrick-cripps-backs-son-of-a-gun-jack-silvagnis-role-in-blues-flag-pursuit

Quote
"I think his role's really important," Cripps told reporters on Monday.

"He plays that hybrid forward; he can play tall and play small with his pressure. His biggest one-wood is the competitive energy he has.

"(There's) that second ruck role that he can play as well as an undersized player with a bit more mobility around the ground.

"It's all up to the coaching staff in terms of if we play two rucks or go the hybrid role, but you know what you're going to get when SOS (Silvagni) plays.

"The boys love playing with him."

One of the problems (a good one we have) is how we set up our forward line next year.
No doubt there will be a element of 'horses for courses'.
It will be interesting to see how they use Jack next season and how many games he plays.
He'd be in my team simply because of his versatility, but he does face some competition.
3
Robert Heatley Stand / Energy Flowing at Carlton
A couple of articles on the club website give an indication that the team is on a bit of a high at present...and ready to go in 2024

https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/1476272/cripps-keep-levelling-up

Quote
"We’ve had two years now of everything stable off-field: the coaching group has been really stable, so we’re coming into an environment that on day one of pre-season, it’s not like the first day of school,” he said.

“You just know what to expect, the standards have been set and we feel like it’s flowed on from last season.”

While senior players weren’t expected back as early as the younger ones, Cripps said it was an unspoken commitment to come back and train as soon as possible.

https://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/1476237/cerra-relishes-stability-and-resilience-of-blues

Quote
“Stability has been great – last year we showed resilience and I think having the same coaches and same playing group staying together helps us through the ups and downs of the season.

“We feel like we’re a really resilient group because of it. We’re trying to continue to build that connection and get stronger.”

Energy
Stability
Resilience
Connection
Motivated
...seem to be the buzz words.

Of course the real test is still to come but there seems to be a real positivity about the place and a sense of unity and common purpose and message.


7
Blah-Blah Bar / AI and creativity.
I’m not sure how fair dinkum this is.
Maybe some of the more technical of us can verify it, but if it’s true you can understand the concerns of folks like scriptwriters, actors and musicians over the impact of AI on their intellectual property.

There’s often a debate over the best lead singer of some of the big power ballad groups of the 70s and 80s.
Often the popular choice is Freddie Mercury.
My personal favourite is Steve Perry of Journey.

Has AI made it possible for a more direct comparison.
The Mercury clip is still a little ‘tinny’ but time will only improve the quality as the technology improves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjzHMhBtf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbZlQcys6o0


8
Robert Heatley Stand / Who stood up?
One of the best criteria for judging the quality and character of a player is how they stand up under finals pressure.

We have at least two games this year to make the call.
There's probably no need to call out those who didn't quite rise to the occasion.
If you don't get mentioned then you have some work to do, and a game to do it in.

I'll start with two and we can add names as we go.

Cottrell
Acres
...stood up.
10
The Sports Desk / Pole Vault Gold
Nina Kennedy won the Pole Vault at the World Championships. ;D
World Champion ;D

Where's our public Holiday? >:(
11
Notice Board (Visitors Enter Here) / Resources.
We're often seeking information regarding rules, status of players etc.
This can usually be found with a quick search, but sometimes the information is a bit elusive.
I thought it might be useful to have some of these resources in a thread where they easily accessible.
We can add to it with suggestions and I'll transfer those to this opening post.
Just to kick it off....


GENERAL

AFL- Laws of the Game 2023
https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2023/03/28/2527d0ea-9b3c-45a3-aeeb-a32bc68a4fb6/2023-Laws-of-the-Game-Booklet-Mobile.pdf?_ga=2.223185884.654292344.1684826039-1357641489.1669622692

AFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (2017-2022) (download)
https://www.aflplayers.com.au/resources/afl-collective-bargaining-agreement-2017-2022

Players Association Handbook 2023 (download)
https://www.aflplayers.com.au/resources/afl-players-handbooks

13
Robert Heatley Stand / Strengths and weaknesses as at rnd 5
There are probably a lot of reasons for the result on Thursday night.
The reality is we haven't been playing well...we could quite easily have been 0-5 (even the North game looked shaky at times)

We probably have a few issues that need addressing.
Attitude, structure, injuries and depth, speed, Plan B's etc all get a mention.
On weeks like this one even our strengths come under the microscope.
We look at them and think they might not be quite as good as what we thought they were.

One of the ones I've noticed is a lack of strength.
It's manifesting itself in two ways.

1) being pushed, too easily, out of contests.
2) failing to make tackles stick

We have a couple of big guys but even they often find themselves out manouvered.
We also have more than our fair share of lightly framed guys, some with a heap of talent, who are sometimes too easily run through or pushed aside.

A loss will often bring these things into focus, and on Thursday we were clearly out muscled.
These things are always a bit of a balancing act...speed and endurance emphasised over size, strength and power.
I'm not sure we have the balance right because we seem to be lacking on both sides.

Obviously it's just one aspect....
What do others see as the major areas of concerns...our weaknesses?
What are our strengths...and are they as good as we thought?
15
Robert Heatley Stand / It wouldn't surprise me if....
At this time of the year expectations are often high...even during our poor seasons we usually started off with hope that the coming year would be better.
This year the expectations will be pretty high. Finals is probably the 'lowest' the bar is set and maybe, just maybe we'll go all the way.

This thread is a bit of a no-judgement thread. We may have something in the back of our mind that we think is probably unlikely but "it wouldn't surprise us" if it did happen.
It can be an individual player, coach, team or club thought.
It can be as wild as you like, (funny as you like), improbable as you like, good or bad.

So to kick it off...
I didn't watch a lot of VFL last year but in the games I did see, one player struck me as having little impact, having few possessions and looking a bit out of his depth....but this guy was an 'almost' player.
That spectacular marking attempt 'almost' came off. If only he hadn't taken that extra step, if only he'd given off the ball a little earlier, if only he hadn't fumbled.
It will be interesting to see if some of these things have improved over the off-season and they do start to come off.
If they do.....

It wouldn't surprise me if Dom Akuei plays senior football this year.