It's hard to tell what happens behind the scenes of the AFL, but that's why the Rover's here.
How does he hear so much?
Big ears and a low profile, oh, and a willingness to sift through the garbage bins out the back of AFL House
Whatever the downside of the Rover's personal life, it works out as a positive for the rest of us as we get the good word early.
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Hawks not as happy as they make out
Contrary to what’s coming out of Hawthorn at the moment, the club is running out of patience with the Cyril Rioli situation.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone loves Cyril, but the inner-sanctum expectation is that even if he gets back on the field this year his heart won’t be in it, and come summer it’ll all start again.
Exit strategies are being planned and debated, as well as possible ways to keep him on the list while satisfying his personal needs, to the point where he could be on a fly-in, fly-out basis in 2019.
Interesting times as the Hawks slowly move away from being a club players are desperate to be at, to one they can take or leave.
And there’s more trouble in the Rioli clan
Speaking of Rioli’s, Daniel has done some spectacular stuff since getting back into the Richmond side, but he may be managed through a few games in the second half of the year.
There are ongoing concerns the foot he injured in last year’s Grand Final victory isn’t back to full strength and Dan has been pulling up far from 100% after the last couple of games.
Residual soreness happens, and in Rioli’s case it’s complicated by an injury in the same foot from his last VFL appearance a few weeks back, so the Tigers aren’t panicking but they’re determined not to risk one of their major assets in the run to finals.
The gifted small forward will keep fronting for the big games like Adelaide this week and then the Giants, but may miss the bus to Etihad Stadium in round 18.
"Only a Rioli!"
— AFL (@AFL) June 28, 2018
What a brilliant start at Etihad Stadium! #AFLTigersSwans pic.twitter.com/d4JgoERWpY
Protected zone not so protected
It looks like the AFL is actually listening to the fans and commentators (and players for that matter) and will be making changes to the ‘protected zone’ rule that’s currently driving everyone mad.
Not that the League will admit to stuffing up.
There’s been a few meetings this week over the matter and umpires boss Hayden Kennedy has already been given a directive to tell his charges to soften their interpretation as of now.
Come the end of the season there’ll be clearer information on what’s happening in the future, which seems to be a toss up between making the zone smaller or possibly reducing the penalty to 25 metres.
Personally I hope it’s the latter, and that they decide to apply the shorter distance to other ‘less serious’ infringements like arguing with an umpire.
