With two additional teams to roster in, the pre-season competition was always going to be in for a significant shake-up. But we’re not sure that the round-robin format for round one doesn’t provide more disadvantage than advantage. And we don’t have a better alternative to put forward as we write.

The roster for round one looks like a three-ring circus, but the real sting in the tail comes for the team that gets a ‘rest’.

Teams with a break are going to have a hard time keeping their guys active after forty minutes of footy, but without tiring them too much. Entering the third ‘game’ with a list that has cooled down and then has to warm up again is going to be a huge challenge. Are there 28 exercise bikes available at each venue to keep the legs moving?

Teams starting in the second ‘game’ will start ‘cold’ against a fully energised and warmed up squad, as will the ‘break’ team after its break.

Clearly, the team playing the first two ‘games’ has a substantial head start over their pool rivals, and the ‘break’ team looks set to run a significant soft-tissue injury risk (Again, we haven’t begun to consider alternatives — and it doesn’t matter because this is what’s going to happen!).

What’s immediately striking about the announcement is that, at the date of the press release, Operations chief, Adrian Anderson, is still consulting with club fitness departments on solutions to the dilemma.

How long have the AFL known about this arrangement? Did someone doodle it on the back of an envelope last week, or have they been working on the pre-season fixture for eight or ten months? Smart money would punt on the latter, yet continuing consultation suggests it’s a relatively recent ‘solution’.

It was only two extra teams, yet the ramifications are only starting to be felt.

Reports that Geelong will announce Chris Scott as their new senior coach suggest that the Geelong Football Club has learned the lesson afforded when it appointed Mark Thompson a decade ago.

Thompson, it should be remembered, was a no-frills, no-nonsense half back through three of Essendon’s recent Premierships, the last as captain.

Immediately preceding Thompson, neither the flamboyant Malcolm Blight, nor the showy Gary Ayers could manage silverware for the Cats (nor a swag of ex-Geelong players since 1963).

It’s worth noting the adjectives we’re using for these three. No frills, flamboyant, showy. And which one brought home the silverware?

If the reports are proved correct, we think Scott is an inspired choice, for the simple reason that he had many of the same attributes as a footballer that Thompson had. The style was certainly different and the Scott boys certainly played for keeps, but would happily accept the labels ‘no-frills’ and ‘no-nonsense’ we think.

Twin brother Brad has had an excellent start to his senior coaching career, dragging the Kangaroos to the brink of finals contention when nearly everyone — not AussieRulesBlog, we hasten to add — had them set for the lower reaches of the ladder. No doubt that indefinable ‘Shinboner spirit’ played its part, but we think Scott also understands what is needed for his lesser lights to contribute at a level that helps the team get the greatest benefit from their stars.

There’s one other benefit from going outside of the Thompson coaching ‘family’ — a completely different message for the players, delivered with a new voice. Just as Thompson could be jaded after ten years, the players may well relish a new flavour to their footy and their pre-season.

Adding to the interest will be the new Hird regime at Essendon. It would be hard to imagine a greater contrast than between Hird and the Scott brothers as players. How well superstar Hird understands the minds of mere mortals will go a long way to determining how well the Bombers perform over the next four years.

Last week, we pondered the effects, a year on, of Brisbane coach Michael Voss’ brainsnap decision to recruit Brendan Fevola by offering up Michael Rischitelli and Daniel Bradshaw.

Well, the jury is in. Only the Tigers deemed it necessary to offer a player up without his asking for a move. It’s not all that clear to us why they would have done so, since a team that relied so heavily for scoring on one player, Jack Riewoldt, would seem to be in need of a forward foil with some goal sense. Andrew Collins has seemed, on the few viewings we’ve had of him, to have looked like he could provide a useful contest and some goal sense. Shaun Grigg seems to be more of a defender come midfielder. Curious. Nevertheless, we are Damian Hardwick fans, so we’re prepared to see what happens.

What has been stranger to watch has been the merry-go-round of assistant coaches this year. Of course, they all arrive at their new home terribly “excited” about their new team’s prospects.

Gavin Brown’s exit from Magpieland and Brendan McCartney’s “defection” to Essendon were the biggest surprises sprung. Outgoing Geelong President Frank Costa seemed resigned in a television interview tonight to the viewthat Mark Thompson will also bob up at Bomberland sooner or later.

Brown is probably the more interesting move. His three years coaching the Magpies’ ‘magoos’ suggests he harbours senior coaching ambitions. This year’s Malthouse–Buckley slow-motion coup agreement would appear to close off any avenues at the “Which sponsor do we have this year” Centre. We wouldn’t have thought that assistant to Ratten would look terribly impressive on a CV, but perhaps no-one better credentialed made an offer. Will Brown’s blood boil, or his head spin ’round a la Linda Blair in The Exorcist, when he has to sing We are the navy blues. . .?

The framing of the media coverage on the McCartney change has been interesting. A “defection”? Of course the spectre of Thompson turning up as Hird’s mentor, and persistent reports that it has been on the cards for months, seems to suggest some labyrinthine machinations, but defection? We should also note that McCartney had been ‘demoted’ from an assistant role at Sleepy Hollow to overseeing up and comers in the Academy squad this year. It’s hard not to conclude that Thompson had a significant part in that decision. The coach’s rooms at Windy Hill might be an interesting place to be if McCartney and Thompson are to be reunited.

On a recent visit to the grandly-titled Windy Hill ‘Precinct’, we didn’t detect anything resembling Checkpoint Charlie (younger people click here for an explanation), so would that mean that the Bombers are on the side of freedom and the Cat Empire are the forces of darkness? Well, cold-war defection did go both ways and we are thoroughly red and black! :-)

And there’s only 110-odd or 120-odd days ’til we’re back into the pre-season footy!!  :-(  We can only hope that the Ashes Tests will offer something more diverting than recent summers have managed. The Poms look to have put a decent squad together and the Aussies attack and batting have more holes than a colander. Please let it be close with a series win to the Aussies on the last day of the last Test.

No, not a cricket story about Mitchell Johnson bowling a no ball!

It’s typical of self-appointed guardians of society like Neil Mitchell that they take it upon themselves to flout conventions, regulations or orders protecting the identities of those suspected of some criminal activity.

Of course, there’s more than enough precedent in everyday media. Television news broadcasts routinely name people being arrested or being taken into custody, often even when pixellating their images.

It’s reasonable to ask why high-profile footballers should be treated any differently.

But the real point is that NO-ONE should have their name broadcast before being found guilty.

This principle is even more applicable in accusations of sexual assault which can turn on the participants’ varying understanding of consent as it applied in the context of the alleged assault.

Let’s be clear that there should be no quarter allowed if the assault is proven to the satisfaction of the law and that the victim must be protected as far as possible from further harm.

But let’s also be clear that those accused or suspected of sexual assault are entitled to not bear the opprobrium if the case is not proven.

For at least some sections of the community, Steven Milne, Leigh Montagna and Andrew Lovett will be considered sexual predators whether charges were/are sustained or not.

It is reasonable and right to guard the identity of the females involved in these cases. It should also be reasonable and right to similarly guard the identities of the males involved up to the point that they are convicted.

No conviction, no ‘name and shame’.

A report in The Age says the Saints’ coaching staff adjudged Zac Dawson the Saints’ best player in the Grand Final replay.

All of us here at AussieRulesBlog Central are a bit reluctant to go to town on individuals — other than Jeff Gieschen, Scott McLaren, and perennial favourite, Stephen McBurney.

Zac Dawson the best-performed Saint in the GF replay. Huh?

We must confess we regard Dawson as one of the more ordinary players going around at the elite level. His decision-making and disposal are questionable at best, and along with a physique little changed since the monstering by “Pebbles” Rocca which saw him banished back to the Hawks’ reserves, leaves him disadvantaged against all but the weakest of the opposition’s forwards.

Zac Dawson the best-performed Saint in the GF replay. Nope. It still doesn’t make any sense.

Frankly, the only person looking more lost than Zac last Saturday was Kosi.

Zac Dawson the best-performed Saint in the GF replay, and the equal of Hayes and Goddard for the finals series. Please!!! If Ross and his colleagues think this, then, as we foreshadowed in the title of the post, we know nuttin’!

It will be interesting, come next Monday afternoon, to look at the trades that have been done and consider the flow-on effects of last year’s disastrous play for Brendan Fevola by Brisbane coach, Michael Voss.

How many clubs would be willing to countenance losing club champion Rischitelli, elite goal-kicker Bradshaw and emerging star Henderson for the questionable social skills and on-field narcissism of Fevola.

Time will tell whether Voss’ arrogance has condemned Brisbane to an extended period at the less-glorious end of the ladder, but a certain amount of trust between coach and playing group must surely have also been lost in the transaction.

Who’s really to know whether Hawthorn have already paid a price for hawking [no pun intended] Campbell Brown around the traps without his knowledge? Is it credible that a man who seemed to epitomise the team spirit of ‘the family club’ would pick up his little red wagon and head north otherwise?

However much we may dislike the Trade Week ‘meat market’, it has provided a relatively ordered and civilised means for players to escape poisonous environments and make a new start. More so, the dramatic concessions afforded to the Suns and GWS have empowered some players to visit retribution upon clubs when they’ve been treated shabbily.

We wonder about the deliberations of the AFL’s Laws of the Game committee, comprising Messers Adrian Anderson, Kevin Bartlett, Luke Darcy, Andrew McKay, Leigh Matthews, Matthew Pavlich, Luke Power, Rowan Sawers and Michael Sexton.

Changing the composition of the bench for the 2011 season from four interchange players to three interchange and one once-only substitute will reduce congestion, increase fairness and, we assume, reduce injuries — or so the AFL would have us believe.

On ‘fairness’, teams losing a player early in a game will be less disadvantaged by not losing a fourth bench rotation player. Well, OK, but it’s a pretty marginal argument given the Saints’ second half comeback with at least one ‘cripple’ on the bench in 2010 GF #1.

Great play is made of the increase in average interchanges from 58 per game in 2007 to 117 in 2010. Does the committee seriously suggest that there’ll be an average of substantially less than 87 — that’s three-quarters of 117 — in 2011?

Will Collingwood only rotate Dane Swan once per quarter now that they’re one down on the bench versus 2010? Of course not.

Pretty clearly, midfielders, along with high forwards and their opponents, will continue to be high-rotation players with deep forwards and deep backs the likely candidates to spend more time on the ground.

This effective 25% reduction in available interchanges versus 2010 will also, according to Adrian Anderson, reduce defensive pressure and increase disposal efficiency.

These expectations fly squarely in the face of common sense, and history suggests coaching staffs will, by next Tuesday at the latest, have worked out how they can manipulate this change to their teams’ advantage.

Apparently there is also an injury trend which will be arrested. Quite what that trend is isn’t spelled out.

Perhaps Anderson and his committee could have done the game a greater service by mandating that the Gieschen gaggle use the 2010 special ‘Finals’ edition of the rule book from the first bounce of the 2011 pre-season comp?