A very tight election result in Victoria has overshadowed the announcement that Collingwood — from this point on to be known as the Barcodes here at AussieRulesBlog — will wear a clash strip against North Melbourne.

Although AussieRulesBlog cannot see the ‘clash’ with North Melbourne’s vertical royal blue stripes, the Kangaroos have recently been forced into impersonating Argentina’s Pumas when playing Collingwood — even for their own ‘home’ games!

Handwringing over the apparently hacked release of an Essendon web video of recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro extolling the virtues of Shaun Atley simply doesn’t pass the logic test.

It’s pretty obvious that the Bombers thought the best player they could expect to be available at pick 8 was Atley. When Dyson Heppell hadn’t been called to that point, they decided to reassess.

Hence the expected drafting of Atley was replaced by the unexpected drafting of Heppell. Not too hard to figure out, we think. And hardly an embarrassment for the club. More mainstream media hyperbole.

We got to thinking after putting together our previous post. Those now–ex-AFL players would have had a tough day following the draft yesterday, but perhaps none tougher than Robert Eddy.

Eddy has come within two of the proverbial bees’ dicks of virtual football immortality. Instead, he’s probably destined to be a footnote.

Readers will recall that Eddy was considered unlucky not to have made the Saints’ 2009 Grand Final team. He followed that up by playing in both the 2010 Grand Finals.

But for an unlucky bounce of the ball at the end of the drawn 2010 Grand Final, Eddy would be the proud owner of a Premiership player’s medal. With a little luck in selection the year before, he could have been a Matthew Scarlett toe-poke away from another Premiership medal.

And now, aged only 22, it appears his AFL career is over.

If anyone tries to tell you that AFL is not a tough game, remind them how a young bloke who’s done everything right to get himself into the team for the biggest game of the year has been ground up and spat out.

What may stick in Eddy’s craw will be the Saints’ final two draft selections after he has been cast adrift: ex-Cat Ryan Gamble and ex-Tiger Dean Polo. It’s fanciful, in our view, to consider that Polo could be picked in a team for a Grand Final and Gamble had certainly not secured a regular spot in the Cats’ lineup. We wonder whether the Polo recruitment will rival that previous ex-Tiger Saint, Aaron Fiora’s ‘success’.

These are curious decisions and, along with the recent exodus of coaching staff, must place some sort of question mark over coach Ross Lyon’s future.

And in a late announcement, West Coast have delisted Ashley Hansen. Interesting timing, coming the day after the draft. We’re not that confident that Hansen would have been selected by anyone, but the bloke is surely entitled to have a chance to throw his hat into the ring. We understand there’s little place for sentiment in the modern game, but we think West Coast have treated Hansen particularly poorly in this.

The draft may well have been ‘compromised’ by the Suns’ plethora of early picks — we’re not entirely convinced on that score — but we can’t help feeling there are some other issues.

From The Age’s report of the draft:

Luke Mitchell: “Missed much of the year with a shoulder injury. . .”

Wayne Hughes, Carlton’s recruiting manager: “Luke Mitchell is a centre half-forward who missed most of the season with a knee reconstruction.”

Some anatomy classes are in order for either Wayne or The Age’s reporter!

Adrian Dodoro (Essendon’s recruiting manager): “It was a year where we consulted our coaching staff. . .”

Gee, that’s an explanation of the Bombers’ woes we hadn’t counted on! In what circumstances would you not consult the coaching staff on the draft?

Neil Balme (Geelong football manager) apparently dribbled this into his bib about choosing to use the Ablett compensation pick this year: “Probably the logic is if you've got a player you can spend a couple of years working on him, you'll get a better player probably than a first-round pick at the time. . .”

And how good would the first-round pick be after spending a couple of years on him, Balmy? Or should we say, Barmy? And let’s just quietly gloss over the fact that, at 15, Billie Smedts is a first-round pick.

The draft is really like Christmas time for the clubs, except that they get to pick their own presents having previously had the chance to push, prod, poke, shove and x-ray the packages. The uniformly positive reviews from club spokespeople, when intelligible, have much in common with toddlers mauling the latest grant from “Santa”.

The list of probably now–ex-AFL players who had nominated, but were not chosen, casts a momentary pall over the raucous enthusiasm. Some, like Jay Neagle, have another possible lifeline, but for most last night was the end of their glory days. We feel for them and hope their resilience allows them to weather this blow to self-esteem. In our dotage, we envy them the experience of even having been part of an AFL locker room. Had Lucifer asked, we probably would have given our left leg for the chance to run out just once. . .  [Sigh]

We’re a bit dim here at AussieRulesBlog Central sometimes. We’d be most grateful if some knowledgeable reader could enlighten us on the benefit of high altitude training in the US (or anywhere else for that matter) in November for an AFL season between March and September played at sea level.

Our very basic understanding of physiology suggests that, by March, said high-altitude trainers will have reacclimatised to sea-level conditions again. If the “high-altitude” training were done at Mt Wycheproof (15m), there’d effectively be no wait for the reacclimatisation!

If the 2011 Grand Final were to be played at the top of Mt Kosciusko, perhaps there would be an argument for spending a couple of weeks there beforehand (assuming you’d actually made it!).

Perhaps the Eagles, Dockers, Lions and Suns could go down to Mawson for a couple of weeks to prepare themselves for the Melbourne winter?

Please! Someone explain to us how this is not a joke.

If you were on a jury trying the Bombers for murder and there was this much circumstantial evidence, the vote to convict would surely be 12-0.

AussieRulesBlog has already noted our disquiet over the sacking of Knights and the smoke of Machiavellian machinations surrounding Hird’s ascendency. The (according to the media) open secret of Mark Thompson’s arrival at Windy Hill and the ‘leaked’ evidence for accusations that he had been having a tete-a-tete with the Bombers for some time do nothing but add fuel to the suspicions of conspiracy theorists (and impartial observers).

We also noted our receipt of a personal call from Essendon CEO, Ian Robson, assuring us that there was absolutely nothing untoward in the recruitment of Hird

Nevertheless, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that someone at Essendon, presumably President David Evans and/or Robson, has decided to play very hard ball indeed! I hope the Bombers don't need the other clubs' support on anything important in the near future (10–15 years), because the most they'll get will be the remaining steam off some very, very old crap.

Of course, if there's a flag at the end of the rainbow, it will all be judged a masterstroke (in the media).

Back in the mists of time — 4 November 2010 to be precise; less than a week ago — Michael Gleeson wrote this in The Age:

[Mark] Thompson is expected to be appointed by Essendon this week, probably today, in an assistant coaching role with the Bombers after quitting the Cats on October 4.  . . . Essendon is understood to have only been waiting on chief executive Ian Robson to return to work before making the announcement.

James Hird says it would be great to have Mark Thompson join his new-look Essendon coaching staff, while insisting the two-time Geelong premiership mentor has yet to sign a deal with the Bombers.

Every club website has lashings of it on every page at this time of year. It’s what keeps us all fronting up year after year.

Club membership brochures sell it by the truckload, as does every overly-optimistic report of pre-Christmas training.

It is embodied in every AFL draft nomination form — some for the chance to show their wares, for others the chance to make amends or make a new start. Every scouting report carries at least some element of it.

The upcoming national draft will play on it as every club parades their potential new superstars to their supporter base. (Well, perhaps not EVERY club. On the Gold Coast people will still be asking, “Gary who?”, and the good burghers of western Sydney will still be wondering who this “Sheeds” chap is and what he is on.)

For the black and white army, still drunk on replays of their team’s humbling of the Saints in October, it revolves around “dynasties”. For the seven beaten finalists, it centres on figuring out how to bridge that gap and take that next step.

For those teams at the other end of the ladder, it often comes borne by a new coach or a gun new recruit — like that Gary bloke! For the new coach who doesn’t bring it, there is only waiting for the inevitable.

Rusted-on supporters often see it everywhere, even though it shimmers like a mirage.

It’s the same intangible commodity that Barack Obama mobilised two years ago with the chant, “Yes we can!” It’s the same commodity that gained Kevin Rudd leadership of the ALP and then the Prime Ministership. When both Obama and Rudd failed to live up to it, their popularity sank like a housebrick in a pond.

For the lack of it, marginalised people consider the unthinkable.

What is it?

Hope.

Is there something in the water down at Linton Street?

Ross Lyon will be working with pretty much a completely new coaching team for the 2011 season.

Brian Royal is the latest to depart the Saints’ coaching team, following Leigh Tudor, Andy Lovell, Tony Elshaugh and Stephen Silvagni.

It’s understandable for a coaching group to break up when the senior coach moves on, but, on the back of three successful years and the senior coach remaining in charge, it seems strange to see such dramatic change.

Also strange is the lack of rumour and innuendo — although we’re here doing our best to ramp something up! — from the mainstream media soothsayers. Why don’t we have Mike Sheahan or Caroline Wilson or Patrick Smith waffling on about behind the scenes troubles? Or is it just that the five weren’t keen on travelling out to Casey?

And I suppose the Saints’ younger players will be a lot harder at the ball with Paul Hudson as new development coach. . .

Winter weather in Melbourne, but no football! It’s doing our minds in!