AFL 2026

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@African-Monkey said in AFL 2026:

Ah yeah that, that was a good choke.

It's come back to me now.
The game v Brisbane was a choke as well.
Before the game (Rd 24) Freo was in the four, and Brisbane was in fifth.
A win for Freo would have virtually locked up a top four spot, (they would have only been out of 2nd on %)
A loss for Brisbane, and they would have been 7th on % (and thus unlikely to win the flag from there).
So a big game, with consequences, and Freo being in the better table position.
What happened?
Freo, f'n biscuits, choked it up and got flogged, not really a surprise to anyone!
Brisbane then made top four.
And Freo choked it up, again, in the first round of the playoffs.
Both games at home.
And Brisbane went on to win the flag; thank you very much Dockers!

AND THEN!!!!!
YOU BOUGHT A DOCKERS SEASON TICKET!!!!!!

And boy am I loving the journey so far!

@African-Monkey said in AFL 2026:

And boy am I loving the journey so far!

Yeah well
They are going good atm
so yeah, have your fun now
cos' later on, you know what's guna happen
and you'll be cryin' like a girl

As a Tiger fan its a tough watch , if im honest they are that bad im not watching much ,

But if there is a shining light they are accumulating good kids , doesnt guarantee its all going to work out mind you but thats all you can do in the meantime i guess

Tigers have probably bottomed out more than they wanted, but they got flags out of the cycle, a lot of them. Can't be disappointed by that. Better to be a Richmond fan than Carlton or Essendon.

AFL fans: The draft rules need to change! it's not fair that clubs are getting access to talent when they are good!

AFL House: Ok, you are right, we'll change the rules

AFL Fans of clubs it stood to benefit soon: Wait, not yet!! that's not fair! Change them AFTER we get our talent.

Do. Not. Listen. To. Fans!
Fans don't want equity, they want things to benefit their clubs.

@mariner4life said in AFL 2026:

Tigers have probably bottomed out more than they wanted, but they got flags out of the cycle, a lot of them. Can't be disappointed by that. Better to be a Richmond fan than Carlton or Essendon.

What the flags do , they relieve the pressure in a situation like this , what clubs can get sucked into , is trying to climb back up the ladder too quickly to please the supporters and relieve that pressure , when the reality is, the list isn’t capable of going all the way to the top anyway .This was Richmond in the 90s early 2000s ,and now the bombers .

I think you have to hold strong and rebuild the list properly as your focus and ignore the outside noise . You don’t make it to the top without A grade talent , and unfortunately they usually walk into your club as high pick draft selections anyway.

At least the Tiges are so bad it makes sense to stay that way. In all sport it’s proven that you should move on from an ageing star a year early instead of a year too late.

@game_film said in AFL 2026:

At least the Tiges are so bad it makes sense to stay that way. In all sport it’s proven that you should move on from an ageing star a year early instead of a year too late.

If you rebuild properly at the bottom of the ladder and go to the top no one really remembers it anyway ,

A bit of pain for long time gain

Brisbane now for example

if you do it too right they will re-write history anyway.

it's fucking hard to do, and there are so many pieces you need. Some pieces you won't get until half the work is done.

@mariner4life said in AFL 2026:

if you do it too right they will re-write history anyway.

it's fucking hard to do, and there are so many pieces you need. Some pieces you won't get until half the work is done.

Quite often you see 2 sides at the bottom rebuilding at the same time , one gets it right and one doesnt ,

I remember Brisbane and Carlton together at the bottom recruiting for quite a few seasons ,

Way back in our earlier bottom out that lead to the flags it was us and Melbourne , Melbourne got there eventually but initially they didnt, and they went back down and topped up

Now it seems to be us and West Coast

@african-monkey

top of the table to-nite!!!!!!

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@african-monkey

top of the table to-nite!!!!!!

Had it running at the same time as the Force game. Oh what a win against the Dogs B team from what I understand! That Hayden Young goes alright doesn't he?!?

Already counting down to next Thursday at home to Hawthorn. You blokes know where I'll be!

I'll take the one pointer finishing without Tex.

@booboo said in AFL 2026:

I'll take the one pointer finishing without Tex.

How good was that! I'm in Adelaide currently, hard to spot anyone without a Crows shirt on.

@African-Monkey said in AFL 2026:

@booboo said in AFL 2026:

I'll take the one pointer finishing without Tex.

How good was that! I'm in Adelaide currently, hard to spot anyone without a Crows shirt on.

I think winning the Show Down is more important than winning the comp. Somewhat more realistic too ...

Tigers start their season!

@antipodean said in AFL 2026:

Tigers start their season!

Good game that.

damn...got a little closer than i would have liked yesterday, blood just couldnt shake the D's

Look, I don't wanna be known as that guy here, but is it time we start renaming Fremantle as 'Flagmantle'?

The stadium was buzzing last night. Fantastic atmosphere.

@African-Monkey

haha
starting to get some "flagmania" are ya

4 big wins in 18 days is actually very impressive.
and were still going hard in the 4th quarter of game four, ran over the top of a good team
yes, i'm impressed

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@African-Monkey

haha
starting to get some "flagmania" are ya

4 big wins in 18 days is actually very impressive.
and were still going hard in the 4th quarter of game four, ran over the top of a good team
yes, i'm impressed

Already booked my tickets to Melbourne mate. Told the boss I won't be available for the last week of September and the first week of October either. Too busy celebrating.

I went for closer to a deep depression last night than should have been possible.
The Lions assumed by winning the first half by 8 goals they they just needed to turn up to win by 15 goals.
Unfortunately thr Blues woke up and honestly looked like a top 6 side. Smashed us in the middle and McKay woke the fuck up.
Waaaay to nervy last 10 and the type of performance that should get a bake even from papa Fages.

If Carlton found something in that 2nd half thrn they will give everyone they play kittens. Well done to them, shows that Voss hasn't lost the dressing room. Should have folded, did the opposite.

Lions need to be careful, I have seen teams who think they just need to get to finals before flicking the switch come undone over and over.

@mariner4life

thought the final series panned out nicely last year for the lions
1st - the dockers choked it up late in the regular season which let them into the top four
2nd - then they lost in the 1st round of the play-offs
3rd - then they demolished the suns at home (after the dockers choked it up again) and were able to get on a roll
4th - they really only brought it for the two games at the mcg
nicely done

I know North are a different beast to what we've seen over the last few seasons but damn that was MUCH closer than i thought it would be, hopefully the boys take that as a wake up call

Lol Carlton are such a meme

Coming off their best half of the season, one in which they put the shits right up the back-to-back premiers, and a few of their players finally came to life, and their coach resigns on Tuesday morning. He clearly hasn't lost the group, so what the fuck?

Rinse and repeat, maybe it will work this time?

Def not an AFL fan , but found this article interesting re promising young AFL players being recruited for the NFL as punters (free access) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-16/american-football-afl-players-hopefuls-punters-college-kickers/106665500.

Based on the info in this piece the $$ and a free degree are powerful incentives for many.

the shit Scott brother is rightfully fired.

can you imagine being an Essendon fan? Deadset if they reappoint James Hird then all hope is lost.

The league would be better off if they rolled all of Carlton, Essendon, North and St Kilda in to one team. The Greater Melbourne Losers.

I was driving earlier and listing to talkback sport SEN ,

The amount of people ringing up saying stuff like we need to get James back because hes an Essendon legend and he knows the Essendon way, whatever that is ( yeah putting aside the drug scandal he was a great player and one of if not their best )

But how many times does a favorite son player work out as a coach anyway ? its fairy tale stuff that for whatever reason seems to have a low success rate ,

T
And their best ever Coach Kevin Sheedy was a one club premiership player at Richmond , a rival club they hate .

@mariner4life

yep
merge them
or even better, relegate them back to where they came from, the VFL

I note that North are taking two home games to Perth
they'll get 40k plus at both games
where as in Melbourne they’d struggle to get 20k.
both games are back-to-back, I think, the great North Melbourne WA money grab!

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@mariner4life

yep
merge them
or even better, relegate them back to where they came from, the VFL

I note that North are taking two home games to Perth
they'll get 40k plus at both games
where as in Melbourne they’d struggle to get 20k.
both games are back-to-back, I think, the great North Melbourne WA money grab!

North wont get 40k plus for both games because they're playing Freo in Bunbury next week.

Speaking of Freo......time to hand them the flag yet?

Carlton actually look better since they canned Voss - funny how that works

@African-Monkey
so . . . you are off to Bunbury then!!
although maybe not, it's a Dockers away game.

The WA govt is not shy about splashing the cash.
Must be paying North $1m+

nothing like that would happen in NZ
Whangarei has to pay the Blues to get a SR rugby game!
quite a contrast

edit

Often wondered why Melbourne teams take Dockers home games country, when they would be financially way better off actually taking the games to Fremantle's home ground.

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@African-Monkey
so . . . you are off to Bunbury then!!
although maybe not, it's a Dockers away game.

The WA govt is not shy about splashing the cash.
Must be paying North $1m+

nothing like that would happen in NZ
Whangarei has to pay the Blues to get a SR rugby game!
quite a contrast

edit

Often wondered why Melbourne teams take Dockers home games country, when they would be financially way better off actually taking the games to Fremantle's home ground.

Nah wont be going, work haha but a couple of North fans I work with are. Yeah don't North get 2 mil from the WA govt for the games they bring here?

@African-Monkey

It'd be something like that.
The state govt may not be paying for the North v Eagles game.

The AFL may have competition integrity concerns if North took both home games actually to Perth.
Let North off with one game, but not two.
Dunno what the "official" view is on that.
But the fixture list was clearly worked around it.

the Bloods show some fucking grit!

stats popped up at the end, somethign like Swans time in front 20min.....Saints 120min...heartbreaking for them im sure an epic comeback!

Queue the fans of the club that has become the whingiest in the comp crying about conspiracies and being robbed. Shut up Saints fans, you are irrelevant.
Waaaah, it's everyone elses fault we have sucked forever

The bye rounds are pretty boring.

Freo look good. That was a quality game on Thursday and a good Freo win. They have talent in spades. Only question mark for me is the way Geelong were able to move the ball and score with relative ease at times. Come finals they will need to tighten that up to win big finals. But they have so much speed, and genuinely fun players to watch.
Adelaide keep racking up good wins at the moment and have found their mojo.

It drives home how many deeply ordinary teams there are at the moment when North somehow sit 7-7.

Carlton fans are probably very angry Voss was given the last year and a half.

Freo, Sydney, Hawthorn and Adelaide look the most likely to contest the GF at the moment, Lions too if they can get a few troops back, and not lose any more.

from memory the bloods havent come out of the bye well so this week coming will be a test of how weve changed things from other years

Adelaide did their best to keep Melbourne in it on Saturday.

Last 10mins was a procession of single points keeping it within 2 goals right till the siren.

Caught the 4th quarter kind of by accident.

Enjoyed the tension because the result.