00:00:00
Speaker 1: Blockbuster games on Thursday and Friday night and off Broadway on Saturday afternoon. A game that could decide the future of one of the most fundamental cornerstones of our game. Round two is here and it's the Code AFL Show. I'm Ed Burke. I'm joined by Dan Chenney and Lauren Wood. Thanks for coming in, guys. Good morning.

00:00:15
Speaker 2: Great to be here.

00:00:16
Speaker 1: Ed. There's a currently a presenting and influencing workshop, a little in house seminar going on downstairs that we have not been invited to, but it's good that we can at least be here and present and influence the news in the football sphere.

00:00:30
Speaker 3: Well, you are, obviously the dawing of presenting, and Daniel Cherney's social media presence makes him the drawing of influencing, So I might not hear the presentation downstairs, but I'll get it from both of them.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: Hopefully they watched the podcast, decided it no further no further intervention was needed, and we're good to go. Zach Merrett. First thing we'll get into today. News has emerged that Essendon's put a relatively large contracting extension in front of him earlier in the preseason. He expressed a bit of a willingness to enter talks with Essendon and potentially long he stayed. But then on Friday night, his body language at times looked a little disinterested. I'm not sure what I'm meant to be doing here, and how do we see this one? It seems I'm surprised that Essenon have gone for it this early in the season. Table something in front of.

00:01:16
Speaker 2: Him, Oh, surprise.

00:01:17
Speaker 3: I don't know how you feel about this, Dan, but surprise is probably an understatement from my point of view.

00:01:22
Speaker 2: I mean, first things first.

00:01:22
Speaker 3: On the body language, I'm not buying, I should say, I'm not marking what people are kicking on that front when it comes to, you know, off having a drink or or coming last out on the race. I think we're reading far too much into it, and this is the microscope that's going to be under for the entirety of the season.

00:01:39
Speaker 2: You would imagine.

00:01:40
Speaker 3: But I just can't really see the benefit for either party on this Dand if he's what is he contracted to the end of next season anyway? So the reports are that this deal would boost next year's contract and then be a significant uplift in salary for multiple years following that I can't really see the win for other party here.

00:02:03
Speaker 4: I suppose I think it's mutually beneficial at the moment in the sense that given the extreme levels of awkwardness that followed a captain trying to leave his club for perhaps its most bitter rival, you know, with some subterfuge thrown in there as well, I think the idea of to be seen to be getting along and happy and trying to extend the tenure and kick the can down the road, I think for both parties, and for a club like Essendon which is facing another very tough cell this year, I think there's a lot to be said for the optics of this, and I don't think either party would be unhappy that this is out there, and you know, to give the impression that all things are rosy now whether this contract actually ends up getting signed or extended. I mean, Essendon have just endless cap space, so there's no issue there.

00:02:46
Speaker 5: They've got the money.

00:02:48
Speaker 4: Look, it is absolutely bizarre and you know, the cynic in me feels like, as I said, this is just a sort of a pr exercise for both parties to sort of be seen to be getting along and happy. Given it's going to be shapes as being a very long year. The flip side is that I suppose we have seen in recent times that from a leverage perspective, Essendon maybe they will be having a discussion and saying, hey, look, yeah, we didn't let you go last and we we needed to last year. We needed to make a stand. You're a captain. Then we're not saying that we wouldn't let you go down the track, but can we at least seem to be try to extend the contract out and potentially by a year or two there's more money and then that becomes that provides Esthdam with greater leverage from a trade perspective.

00:03:30
Speaker 5: It ever, it gets to that point now.

00:03:33
Speaker 4: It's a it's a sort of a backwards way of going about things Buttent, particularly given the imminent inclusion of Tasmania and then the further draft compromises. Esendon has to be creative with its trying to expedite what shapes is another very arduous list build and whether merit is there or not, they they need to be trying to find ways, as I said, to make things faster and better.

00:04:00
Speaker 5: So maybe this is a way of doing it. I don't know.

00:04:01
Speaker 4: It is a very unusual situation and just a byproduct of not letting an unhappy person go last year.

00:04:08
Speaker 1: So there is a world here where he signs on, say to twenty thirty two or something, and then decides at the end of this season. Knowing what we do about Zach, he's probably more inclined to move to someone where he thinks he's in a Premiership window. It might not necessarily be Hawthorne, but there could be an opportunity at the end of the season for him to get across to another club that's contending the rest of them let him go. In that case, do you think can they hold him again even though they've signed him to.

00:04:34
Speaker 3: A Well, this is where it gets interesting, doesn't it, Because I mean you talk about the awkwardness factor playing into it. I've seen contracts sign for family factor, for go home factor, for football factor, the awkwardness or band aid factor of a contractor it just doesn't typically work, does it, Because you might be signing him to Essendon for your own pr and, as you say, to remove the sort of heat around the commentary.

00:04:58
Speaker 2: But if then the long ter view is that it could be potentially to leverage the trade factor.

00:05:03
Speaker 3: The team that takes him is either going to have to take on the burden of that contract or you're going to end up in a Brodie Grundy like situation where Essendon are having to wear it anyway and pay part of all of portion of that contract. So I mean, these are discussions that they're going to have to be having with an eye down the road, as you say to Tazzy coming in, and I would argue that this is you know, it probably.

00:05:28
Speaker 2: Goes without saying it.

00:05:29
Speaker 3: It's the most complicated deal that they could be looking to do, you know, certainly in the short term memory that we've had because of all of these things that are having to go into it on top of it, which the Devil's compromising that draft for the next few years.

00:05:43
Speaker 2: So I don't envy them.

00:05:45
Speaker 3: I mean, it's one of the most we're hearing, you know, word out of coterie groups, left, right and center out of Essendon. They've obviously had so much to continue over the last fifteen twenty years, a lot of it's self inflicted, so it sort of just rolls on and I can only imagine what it's like for Essenden orders to be stripping themselves in for potentially yet another saga.

00:06:03
Speaker 1: I do think they need to hold their nerve the Bombers that the exposure that they got into those young players in twenty twenty five during that injury crisis could be really important later in the season and not necessarily going to show straight away and in the first month. But Hawthorne were a strong opposition with the game under the belt, so there is positives there for Usenden. I think still based off how much exposed they got into younger players last year. I chuined into Andrew Wilson's speech before the game. It was his first president speech at a men's game. Very positive language, talking about them being bold and relentless and assessing and taking action. There was a lot of sort of motion motion words, but also not much focus on on field expectations, a lot about the off field stuff, the investment Windy Hill, a real message of off field unity, and they had every sitting president, every former living president was in the room or something like that, so it was an emphasis on the off field unity. But it is similar messaging to what we've had in the last few seasons from the Bombers.

00:07:02
Speaker 4: Look the thing with Essendon and it's a similar to night dynamic with Carlton. It's actually similar dynamic with North Melbourne and Sekuilda, but estenon Carlson obvious is magnified because of the size of the clubs, is that you've got this incredible compounding factor of impatience. So when it's now been in you know, it was obviously very well documented by John Ralph and Glenn McFall and their series ahead of the season about Essendon's lost years. And now that it has been twenty five years since the premiership, more than two decades obviously since they've last won a final, and we're sort of into the umpteenth iteration of a rebuild at Essendon and you sort of we're now four into Brad Scott's fourth season. You sort of think, how we seemingly seemingly now one game in but seemingarly like at ground zero after.

00:07:48
Speaker 5: All that, And this is why.

00:07:51
Speaker 4: And it's such a heavily political club where these ghosts of Kevin Sheedy and Adrian Dodoorro and James Hurd are never.

00:08:00
Speaker 5: Too far from the surface. It'd be fair to say.

00:08:04
Speaker 4: You they have to try to keep the die hards on side. Hence why they are you know, bring them into the tent. And Andrew Welsh is a good other guy like Andrew Wells. She's a good, good guy's a unifying figure. But I mean, you step back and just all these missteps, all these draft picks. The one part of the Eston rebuild, all this period that I just feel I cannot get my head around is when you look at they had all they've had, all these debutantes. I think that they've had between Eston Hawthorne, they've had the last twenty debutantes Yeston. But this is a club that two years ago brought in Ben Mackay, Jade Gresham, Zavier do and Todd Goldt in the same offseason. You're thinking, and then they bring in Braden fear Any him like what are we actually doing here? Like are you doing it properly or we just sort of like trying to have to do it? Then just throw a few old players here, are there?

00:08:52
Speaker 6: Well?

00:08:53
Speaker 1: The Bombers fans worried about your Big four status because that's been called into question. This way, we wouldn't be talking about you like this. You were in a Big four club. Takes big four clubs to be discussed about whether you strip them of the title, so they're still on the frame there. I want to talk about Saint Kilda and North Melbourne, who couldn't have more contrasting fixtures. The Saints going a bit of a emission. This week's probably the toughest away trip in footy this weekend j WS on the road. It doesn't get much easier from there because Brisbane in a couple of weeks will have a couple of players back that's at Marvel and then two games at the Adelaide Oval Port Adelaide and the Crows. There's a world there where the Saints could be one and five just by virtue of Veslag and six on the road.

00:09:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, and it's not a world.

00:09:37
Speaker 3: I think it could very well be this world unfortunately, and as you say, starting this week, oh I know it's been said, but it just rings so true, like this was just not.

00:09:48
Speaker 2: The year to start, Like this was it. It was all.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: It was everything that happened in the off season. We don't need to document that again. You know, the sort of big boxing day sales spinning spree that they went on and now coming in with a huge credit card bill to sort of match it again, like we keep sort of saying you say, for essen Ol, you know, it's a small sample size and we don't want to look at it like that.

00:10:09
Speaker 2: But that's all we've got, really, isn't it. At the end of the day. With Saint Kilda and gw Wes.

00:10:16
Speaker 3: We've seen what's happened with Nazaiah over the last couple of weeks, getting so much attention from opposition teams, and they're just another team that's going to do that again with a bit of grit type is the word I'm going to use, and I'm not They haven't been afraid to be physical in the past.

00:10:31
Speaker 2: They are a team.

00:10:32
Speaker 3: That has always they've always had a chip on their shoulder, you know, Dave Matthews leeds from the front and does you know it doesn't want to be called a franchise club. And I think that's that's trickled down that they've always felt like that the competition is against them, and I feel like that has trickled down to the way that they play letter course by Toby Green, whose style as a player.

00:10:49
Speaker 2: I absolutely love. But they are going to have Nasiah in their sites, are they not? This this weekend and.

00:10:56
Speaker 3: They're going to be ready and waiting and they will have seen as closely as anyone what's happened over the last few weeks. Now, one, while it doesn't make a summer, one player doesn't make a team, but he's a player that can winne the game, isn't he?

00:11:07
Speaker 2: And they're going to be waiting for him.

00:11:09
Speaker 1: Daniel, you mentioned a couple of weeks ago on the podcast GWS love when they're when they're back to the war. I've got someone in their sites when they feel like they're hunting rather than rather than being hunted. So if Sint Kilda are dropping a game there. North Melbourne on the other hand, with a relatively easy fixture West Coast away, it'll be tricky. Will see how they go there. But then Essendon and Carlton at Marvel, Brisbane at home, Richmond at home. They could be five and one after six weeks. Have you got North Melbourne, who have struggled for five or six years now chalking out wins while Sin Kilda are struggling with this tough fixture. How much does it dart the pressure on ross line and how much can he do to protect the side because on the weekend he's almost threw an a sigh under the bus in his press. I asked him what was going on with the use of Wayne and Miller in the last quarter, because he'd kicked three goals. He had it had quite a good game, but it felt like it was an optimal whether or put him on the ground in the last quarter. And Ross suggested that that was driven by the side he can go wherever he chooses, and he basically implied that the bench was one of his options.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I'm sure he wants to be on the phone in a moment like that.

00:12:12
Speaker 1: And he looked like he didn't. He was confused about why he was on the bench when he was on the phone, So I'm not sure if that was his intention to take himself off. But what are the sayings to do he does the messaging change around that, because they do need to protect the two million dollar man from the scrutiny that they're going to get if they do have a tough next couple of weeks.

00:12:29
Speaker 4: Look, I think clearly, if you take the money, you then subject yourself to the pressure.

00:12:35
Speaker 5: And it's all come very quickly from Nasaiah.

00:12:37
Speaker 4: I mean, if he's been a building player, but that growth in the back half of last year was so exponential. I mean, even if you took about the midway point of last season, he still he was going well. But then it just went to a whole nother stratosphere. Obviously, with the Melbourne game being that the centerpiece of that. Look, I think if you'll across his first two weeks he hasn't played poorly.

00:12:57
Speaker 5: I think that would be very harsh to say.

00:12:59
Speaker 4: But as I said, if you're on two million dollars a year, people expect you to perform miracles.

00:13:05
Speaker 5: They need a lift across the board.

00:13:08
Speaker 4: There's areas and quite reasonably is enormous attention on the sire, but they need a lift out of a lot of players there. It's been like Tom to Cony similar has atually played quite well across the first two weeks. But again, when you're on one point seven whatever it is there about million dollars a year, that expectation goes to that whole other level. The SAME's going to have to hold their nerve. I mean, they were still I'm very low to be an apologist for them here, but they were actually on pad. Look though they actually were a younger teamer by man to a man, the Melbourne on Sunday. There are still a lot of kids in that team, and I think they are getting the inconsistency of of some of that youth. I think that Jack mccray's injury is possibly timely from a tricky selection perspective, because I think he was getting to a point where he's still actually winning quite a bit of the ball, but he just he looks so slow now. Whether he was being labored by that during the game, quite possibly the case. I think look Ross was very strong in his defense of Anthony CAMEREDI post match and sort of really back to the play, which I respect as a coach.

00:14:13
Speaker 5: I have my serious.

00:14:15
Speaker 4: Doubts as to whether Anthony CAMEREDI can be a long term AFL player. I think there's an argument that to bring back and there would be an unfashionable call to bring back Google Howard to show up the defense a little bit. But you've got to play like Alex Taru, who is who is a is a great player in concept, and you see these moments, but at the moment the way he Willkie, Jack Silovanni and Camanedia are playing together does not seem optimal. They've gone in without a small defender early days without Liam Stocker, they're sort of.

00:14:46
Speaker 5: Using Jack Jack Carroll in that that role.

00:14:49
Speaker 4: So now that they're gonna be hugely under under the pump and they are already, I don't think look Giants still have a few out. I think the Giants actually still gettable, but they also are very good side as you touched on when they're backs against the wall and they got easy to forget.

00:15:02
Speaker 5: They got massively touched up by the Bulldogs on the weekend.

00:15:05
Speaker 4: So yeah, it could easily become pretty quickly panic stations for Seculda with having dropped two games that they probably should have won.

00:15:12
Speaker 1: I'm interested in how ross Lyon adjusts his messaging to the fans, which is through the postgame press conference, because the way that he's absorbed questioning and then tried to deflect from it. It's been more pronounced in the first two weeks of this season than I felt it was last season, even after they suffered a couple of a couple of heavy losses during the season where it was quite open in the press conference about what they need to work on. He's been cagy so far. He's been grumpy. He's tried out a couple of different things a couple of I can't hear getting people to lean forward, and there's no real difference in volume. We play back the recordings, but he's just trying to keep reporters on their toes. Does he remember that this is how he addresses Sinkilda fans like through these press conferences or is it a bit of a bit of a siege mentality thing going on.

00:15:56
Speaker 3: It'd be interesting, won't it, Dan, Because as we know, it could go either way over the next few weeks. You've got you do have to adjust, and especially if they are facing that, like we say, potentially one five zero six, I mean, things can turn and turn quickly. But he doesn't strike me as an adjuster either, by the same token, does he.

00:16:18
Speaker 2: He's who he is pretty pretty.

00:16:20
Speaker 5: There's a pretty long track record. I mean he does.

00:16:21
Speaker 4: He does love the little mumbling drive by or even though a drive by a little sort of clarification that he might just want imitating. But you'll do, you know, say something and the just quickly sort of trail off under the breath for a second. There you'd like to see a little bit more. I mean, you listen back to him, and there are times where it's like, actually This is quite reassurances of the path they're on, because he does sound like he knows what he's talking about, and and and the quips are sort of based in degree of truth.

00:16:56
Speaker 5: And again I have lost by two goals.

00:16:59
Speaker 4: It's not like they have been atrocious, but ultimately because of the way, because again to a lesser degree, the nest of Carlton, because there's been this long obviously long suffering, particularly really long period that they have been nowhere near it that not that, and then when you go out and try to top up, suddenly it's like, okay, well there's no excuses now the very least you gotta be contending for a wild card spot. And if they quickly slip out off the pace there, then that is a very difficult cell because again not to go too far down the track.

00:17:33
Speaker 5: But it won't be long until the conversation turns to Saints.

00:17:37
Speaker 4: You're out of the finals race and NAS is out of contract at the end of next year, and then it's all referendum on that all over again.

00:17:43
Speaker 5: Having said that, it is much much.

00:17:46
Speaker 1: Still plenty to discuss ahead of round two. Earlier, Lauren and I caught up with Corey Mobilio for the Champion Data check in. Jared Healey calls in the second rateest man in football realistically is probably somewhere more along the five to seven mark. We'll have to inspect that further. It Corey mcvilliaur Champion Data Analysts, welcome back to the studio for your second appearance of the season.

00:18:10
Speaker 7: Thanks for having me.

00:18:11
Speaker 2: Guys, might be Jared's power list next time. Who does he think it's number one?

00:18:15
Speaker 1: I think it's Horny. I think the inference is that Horney is ahead of you, but you're hopeful of overtaking him in the He's.

00:18:22
Speaker 7: My boss, so I probably can't speak too much on that.

00:18:25
Speaker 5: Next question.

00:18:27
Speaker 1: Cory's been muzzled early on the cod AFL podcast, but Champion Data, But I just want to look ahead to Thursday night. What popped out you from Hawthorne over the last fortnight particularly, and how do you think what are their keys against the ones?

00:18:40
Speaker 5: Yeah?

00:18:41
Speaker 6: I think the player who's performing way too good to ignore now is Nick Watson when he goes into the midfield. So obviously it's a two game sample size, but Hawthorne when he is a midfielder a plus fifty nine points per one hundred minutes on the scoreboard this year and breaking even when he's forward. If you look at his game against Essendon, nine center bounces, which I feel like is the right mix for him. He kicked the four goals, had eleven score involvements, polled.

00:19:06
Speaker 7: The nine coaches votes.

00:19:07
Speaker 6: So I think this is a player now that his form in the back half of last year is.

00:19:11
Speaker 7: Translated to this year.

00:19:13
Speaker 6: He's developing his role and he's impact at a center bounce and we know how important those players are.

00:19:18
Speaker 7: And then another little one.

00:19:20
Speaker 6: Since the start of last year, Hawthorne of five and five when he's a top five rated player on the ground, so his impact in that center bounces is really important.

00:19:29
Speaker 3: The new barometer almost isn't he really for the Hawks. I had a front row seat watching him at Witnoble in the practice game, so I'd say almost says two and a half game sample size. Really, isn't it if we were looking at that one too. But it's just that sparky they really need, particularly in that midfield. It goes to show his maturity as a player. He's developing multiple strings to his bow and sometimes they just need that little injection and he can pop forward like He's just the ultimate spark player, really, isn't he.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: Sam Mitchell's probably looking at those numbers. I probably didn't need to throw him in at half back at the end of that final and the Hawks are trying to win the game. Last year, he could have just gone straight into the middle. Friday night, huge clash Western Bulldogs go to Adelaide. It's a massive game for Adelaide in front of their home crowd. Isaac Rankin returning from suspension. They've been using Josh Rochelle in his sort of role, giving off what he produced last week against Collingwood. How do you think the Crows use him and Rankin this week based on the numbers?

00:20:21
Speaker 7: Yeah, I wouldn't rush getting him out of a center bounds.

00:20:23
Speaker 6: So you look at his game against Collingwood twenty four disposals and ten score involvements, just a second time in his career he's gone twenty plus disposals and ten score involvements in a game, getting further up the ground and obviously impacting at a center bound. So if you look at him since the start of last year, when he attends the center bounce, Adelaide have won fifty four percent of the clearances, which is the highest return in the competition. So I think with Isaac coming back, obviously a bit of injury and you can probably ease him in and let him spend a bit more time forward, allow Rochelle to do his work up around the ground, and then just have short spurts of of ranking going through there. Obviously that might evolve as the year goes on, but I think what we saw last year in the final series is when Rankin wasn't out of center bounce, they just really lacked a bit of spark in that part of the ground. So now talking different magnets going through there and obviously providing something a little bit different.

00:21:17
Speaker 1: And the Dogs were really humming against GWS last week. He's anything jumping off the page that you're there from the Bulldogs.

00:21:23
Speaker 6: Yeah, look, I spoke about it before and it's the one that caught me by surprise.

00:21:27
Speaker 7: Is just the sustained dominance of Varren Norton.

00:21:30
Speaker 6: So he's kicked forty five goals in his last eleven games, He's averaged thirteen disposals, seven marks and eight score involvements in this period of time. He's kicked two or more goals in eleven games now, which is the longest streak by Bulldogs playing champion data history. It's just and we spoke about the dynamic with them last week of when Bonton.

00:21:50
Speaker 7: Pali goes forward and.

00:21:52
Speaker 6: Now you've got Darcy, who I think is going to start hitting these straps obviously injured after Origin. You know Bonton Pali's impact going forward and Norton's done it for a long period of time. Now if you look at the last eleven games excluding final, so the last home and away rounds, he's a number six rated player in the competition. So Butts, Waraw and Murray are all going to have their work cut out from on Friday night.

00:22:14
Speaker 1: That's huge numbers from Norton. Luke Luke Beverage on three sixty earlier in the week was talking about taking pressure off Sam Darcy about the one hundred goal in a season conversation. He didn't say anything about taking the pressure off Norton though he could be a man.

00:22:24
Speaker 2: Well, maybe it's the ultimate deflection.

00:22:26
Speaker 3: We know Bevo's he's a coaching and media mastermind. He's been doing this for a long time. Maybe it is all about putting all the focus on Sam Darcy. There's been so much talking about him over the summer and then almost frees up Norton doesn't it to just do what he does, which, as you say, it almost flies under the raidar, which seems crazy with those sort of stats to sit here and go wow, likes he's achieving incredible things. He was part of that incredible collision against the GWS last week. So all players have come through unscathed and you have to say Bev would be breathing an incredible sigh of relief when you look at what he's producing that he got through that one.

00:22:59
Speaker 1: Okay, you probably should have been all Australian last season in marve in the end, just off what he did in the second half of the season alone. We'll go to Melbourne. Just really interesting last week, a really positive start to the season. It was a great atmosphere at the MCG. What have you found in the numbers from the.

00:23:15
Speaker 6: D's Yeah, something a bit different from the d's which was I think if you're a Melbourne fan you can go home and you can be.

00:23:21
Speaker 7: Excited rocking up to the football.

00:23:23
Speaker 6: You've got the youth factor, you've got the new coach, the new method, the new brand.

00:23:27
Speaker 7: So just a couple numbers.

00:23:28
Speaker 6: Seventy points from turnover they scored, which was their fourth best return from twenty twenty four onwards, fifty two points from defensive half, second best return, and twenty eight percent change to score. So basically anytime they got their hands on the football from a clearance, a turnover, chain or a kicking over one in four times that was able to be put on the scoreboard. So what we saw was super aggressive. It was a shootout that game, low pressure. They really challenged Saint Kilda at an aggressive line towards go. Look the asterix on that is how how long it can be sustained for obviously the defensive part of the game, but I think for so long Melbourne fans have been wedded to this long down the line, force a contest and reset and go again. So it was something refreshing and it was the second youngest team the fielding in over four years, so something to you know that can be really positive and like I said, as a Melbourne supporter, you can go to the footy now and be excited to watch your team.

00:24:25
Speaker 1: Melbourn spporter or no, no, you're not well. Melbourne looked refreshed as you said, and Christian Petrak are also looking really refreshed up north. Can you just take us through his numbers in the first two weeks. They seem astronomical.

00:24:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, obviously probably gone the back to back brown low votes against Richmond this week.

00:24:43
Speaker 7: Who knows it could be three threes in a row.

00:24:45
Speaker 6: So number one rated player on the ground in back to back rounds, which is just the second time he's been able to do that across his career.

00:24:51
Speaker 7: So he's on an absolute tear.

00:24:53
Speaker 6: And you know, obviously he leaves Melbourne, he joins Gold Coast and he's having a big impact up there.

00:25:00
Speaker 3: To read too, all the work he did over the summer. I read Scott Gullan's piece on Code Sports, the work that he's been doing with Adam Larkham, who's traditionally in the sort of biomechanics and athletics field. But Petraka wanted four players to work really closely with him. It just goes to show, doesn't it like that fresh start went up there. I mean, I don't want to speak for him, but it really feels like he felt like he had a point to prove. I mean people were saying when he was at Melbourne last year. Is he's best behind him? Obviously he'd had that horror injury, but it's almost like he heard that. I know it's a small sample size of only a couple of games, but he's heard that and thought, you know, I'll show you.

00:25:33
Speaker 1: And he is constitutionally. I don't know how this works, but it might have some homework for you next week. I reckon the closest player to that fifty five disposal seven goal mart first two weeks in recent he has been Harry Perryman in twenty twenty when he just went off the chain on the wing during the COVID game. So that might be one to check that one with me.

00:25:50
Speaker 7: Yeah, well yeah.

00:25:52
Speaker 1: Christian Petrarca could be the Harry Perryman. Thanks very much for joining us, Corey, thanks for having guys.

00:25:58
Speaker 7: Cheers.

00:26:04
Speaker 1: Queen Mary was at the MCG yesterday for a manual visit. That it was very timely to help with the promotion of the start of the AFL season, and there was a bit of an effort to get Tasmania that the Devil's up in lights as part of the media opportunity Lauren, but it might have fallen flat.

00:26:20
Speaker 2: It was close but no cigar.

00:26:22
Speaker 3: As I finally live out my dreams of being a Hello Magazine royal correspondent. My Nan would be so proud. Yes, so I've got the inside word on what happened at the MCG yesterday. Obviously, Queen Mary and King Frederick were in town, all the way from Denmark, so the call actually came to Hawthorne. So there were quite a number of Hawthorne officials there, CEO ash Clein, President Andy Gowers, a number of players as well. James Cicily, Will Day, Eliza West and Emily Bates were all on hand and all on the turf with the royal couple as it were. So the call came through to Dingley, to the Kennedy Community Center. Hello, it's Denmark's house here. I'm not quite sure exactly how it played out, but the call was certainly from the Danish royals to Hawthorne to be involved in this opportunity. So, as I say, we're putting two and two together here, assuming that Hawthorne's links to Tasmania, obviously Queen Mary's home town was naturally part of this. There was a push potentially from our end and our pictorial department to maybe try and get a tazzy devil's scarf on Queen Mary, because obviously it's a big week for them, their first BFL game on Saturday at North Hobart Oval. But unfortunately our correspondents were not permitted on the turf.

00:27:38
Speaker 1: Who are we to decide who Queen Mary of denmarkkins.

00:27:41
Speaker 2: Well, so this is where it's interesting.

00:27:43
Speaker 3: So the majority of officials, including officials from Hawthorne, were kept in the stands of the MCG so it was a very limited few who were allowed onto the ground, including the AFLs.

00:27:52
Speaker 2: Laura Kine she was there as well as part of it.

00:27:55
Speaker 3: But Queen Mary, we understand told Danish media in Dannie No Less that.

00:28:01
Speaker 2: She already has a team.

00:28:02
Speaker 3: She's affiliated with Carlton, which is quite interesting in itself.

00:28:07
Speaker 5: That's right Mary from Copenhagen.

00:28:10
Speaker 1: We picked that up because Lauren understood the Danish phrase. But if you beat our midfielders were stuff.

00:28:15
Speaker 2: That's right where stuff. She's a big fan of Sam Doggerty's work, perhaps.

00:28:20
Speaker 3: Sachot all that made it all the way to Copenhagen. But she basically said, you know, I do have a long affiliation with Carlton, but I might have to change teams soon, with potentially hinting there that the devils.

00:28:33
Speaker 2: I mean the dark green. It works for a lot of people. It's very forgiving. I think she'd quite like it, the green, the moron, the yellow. It is almost a little bit royal, isn't it.

00:28:42
Speaker 5: Changing teams is un Australian. That's why she's no longer one of us.

00:28:46
Speaker 1: I hear your Hawthorne friends who are at the function event texting you regular weather updates about Dingley since since we discussed the Scandinavian style climate.

00:28:55
Speaker 3: It did all start here, of course, on the couch at Code Sports, where we talked about just.

00:28:59
Speaker 2: How windy it was out at Tingley.

00:29:01
Speaker 3: Yes, my phone has been picking off regularly with updates since we revealed the plans for the wind mitigation strategy.

00:29:07
Speaker 1: Do you consider yourself personally responsible for the Hawks spending five hundred thousand dollars on a wind break.

00:29:12
Speaker 3: Well, they're trying to dispute the cost, but I've got some industry sources that affirm that five hundred thousand to me. But no, they are taking every opportunity as I probably would too, to remind me nearly every morning that's there's.

00:29:24
Speaker 2: Not a breath of wind.

00:29:25
Speaker 3: Out here, there's not a breath of wind, so I do drive past it often. It's down in my neck of the woods, so I'll be keeping a very close sign on it, don't you worry.

00:29:32
Speaker 1: Hawks and now Darlight Savings. We've still got another couple of weeks to go, I've been told. So that's carrying on longer than longer than you'd think. Yes, it's because of the early start of the forty seasons. It's just messed with my your body cloth. You've noticed something on the weekends games that could be catastrophic for the future of the Red Share.

00:29:50
Speaker 3: It could be I'm just putting a watch on this one planting the flag. I'm holding my treasured Red Share And here one of our photographers made note to me, there's a lot of games, Michael Klin, I'm looking at you.

00:30:02
Speaker 2: One of the best.

00:30:03
Speaker 3: No red foot is out in action on the weekend, not even in the daytime games. Of course, Melbourne and Saint Kilda was at the mcg's you say Daylight savings. It was well and truly finished within the daylight hours. So just putting a watch on it ahead of this weekend. There's another couple potentially one on Saturday afternoon and early one. What this could mean, because we're tackling the big issues here, the yellow sharings are out in force.

00:30:25
Speaker 4: The policy has tended to be those who watch these things closely, which is you. Is that I believe anytime if a game starts at maybe two ten, I'm not surely have it that many two ten starts anymore. But if it's a pre two o'clock or they're about start but an outdoors, then it's red. The problem is that the recent games of the earlier games have happened to be at Docklands under the roof, because of course all games at Docklands now are under the roof, so that's yellow. The Melbourne Secular game was an absurdity though, because as you said, it was a three fifteen start, which notionally would finish under lights in footy season, but of course the footy season starting an absurdly early time, while the Sheffield Chields still going on, and yeah, Melvin' se killed the playing with the yellow footy on a perfect day it's at the g.

00:31:18
Speaker 2: I might put a call into Richmond see what the plan is.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: I don't know who's responsible, who is actually responsible, is it? The home team is a bit like legal You've got to supply the footies on a on a Saturday afternoon. But one fifteen of course that game Saturday against the Sun.

00:31:30
Speaker 5: I think that.

00:31:31
Speaker 4: I'll tell you what, if there was no Red footy for the Richmond versus Gold Coast game, then we are officially in crisis.

00:31:38
Speaker 1: The death of the red footy burn it put its ashes in an Urn March crisis.

00:31:43
Speaker 2: We live for this.

00:31:44
Speaker 1: Here is where the pigmentation of the ball was for. So if you see a red ball during the week, in Round two or in rounds to come, just savor it because we don't know when the last game of the Red Bull might be. We're talking about a twilight Grand Final and different things. The Red Bull could be gone soon, so just keep an eye out the issues. Love it, Lauren Dan, It's been great to have you on for the Code AFL show. You can follow all our coverage of Round two on the Code AFL and Herald Sun websites. Thanks for coming on.

00:32:09
Speaker 5: Press Red thread