Watching the Demons take on the Tigers and the thing we notice most is, paradoxically, that we're not noticing the umpires.

We also caught a couple of quarters of the Hawks demolishing the Lions. Similarly, we didn't notice the whistle blowers.

It's so good to be able to concentrate on the footy. As we noted a few days ago, the new bosses of the AFL's umpiring department look to have stamped their authority on the competition. Good stuff.

The new Demons showed a spirit and composure that was never in evidence over the past couple of years. Plenty for Melbourne fans to look forward to.

For the Tigers it was Groundhog Day. Skill errors were telling. They might tease again without making the transition into a good football side.

Despite the first dumb video referral of the year, the opening game of pre-season is a beauty (for those of us with Foxtel).

But the most remarkable aspect was the almost complete invisibility of the field umpires -- and there were four of them on the field.

Over recent years, we've become accustomed to the umpires blitzing on one rule or another in the early rounds and pre-season, sometimes two. Players, commentary teams and fans would all be bemused.

If this more sensible approach is an effect of the Wayne Cambell and Hayden Kennedy (umpires coach) leadership, AussieRulesBlog is pretty pleased with the result.

The dumb video referral was to check if a ball was completely across the goal line before being touched. Sharp readers will note that the video referral system was introduced ostensibly for just those decisions. Sadly, there have almost never been cameras trained along the goal line, and such was the case at Kardinua Park tonight. Surely the goal umpire must be aware that there are no goal line cameras. It´s a pointless exercise to call for a review.

In the end, we can't quibble overall. It's great to have footy back!

… and all through the house, nothing was stirring, not even a . . .

OK, hang on! There’s a fair bit stirring ‘round AussieRulesBlog’s abode. Less than twenty-four hours until the first bounce of the pre-season.

F O O T Y  I S   B A C K !

We’re pleased that the AFL will be explaining the new rules to fans via the scoreboard. It seems like it’ll only be before the pre-season games, which means many will miss it. But it’s a step in the right direction. Hopefully the broadcaster(s?) will pick up the ball and show the explanations to their viewers.

If we could send a message to Wayne Campbell, the AFL’s new umpiring department boss, it would be to be proactive in getting information out to the football public. Most fans won’t order a DVD, or search out the labyrinthine explanations of interpretations favoured by The (unlamented)Giesch.

The message needs to be simple and unequivocal. Most importantly, it needs to be reinforced out on the field by the way the umpires officiate the game — every game, every month, from the first bounce tomorrow night to the last bounce on Grand Final day.

We don’t care how wrong the decisions are. Just give us that consistency. No doubt the players will be crossing their fingers for that too.

Breakfast everywhere! What else could we do? After a year of undisguised prejudice, someone has written the following lead paragraph under Caroline Wilson's byline"

"To give James Hird the benefit of the doubt, there is no evidence to suggest that he sanctioned the ill-informed spin doctor Ian Hanke to launch a Twitter rant over the weekend against Essendon chairman Paul Little."

“THE AFL has introduced a raft of changes to its anti-doping code after a year of controversy, with a ban now in place on injections unless they are required to treat a medical condition.”

Interesting. So, is a broken foot a medical condition? Probably.

So a pain-killing injection administered by a qualified medical practitioner would be OK.

But wouldn’t that be performance-enhancing?

Some quite fine hairs being split.

Far be it for AussieRulesBlog to be critical before the first bounce, but what is AFL Football Operations boss Mark Evans smoking?

Apparently, having multiple pictures on one screen improves the rate of “conclusive” video review decisions.

Pull the other one, Mark.

Let’s get this straight. If an umpire makes a dumb call and asks for a video review for touched off the boot, a million SD pictures on the screen aren’t going to get to a conclusive review. Technology can’t compensate for stupidity.

The same report on the AFL website suggests they are well down the road toward installing goalpost cameras. ABOUT TIME, YOU DUNDERHEADS! We assume they’ll point them along the goal line . . .

The pre-season “challenge” will show whether Evans has used the off-season well or not.

Fingers crossed.

For AussieRulesBlog, the Australian (tennis) Open is sports valium — guaranteed to send us bye-byes in seconds flat. Nevertheless, we see bits and pieces here and there and Bernard Tomic is not unknown to us.

The boos that greeted Tomic’s retirement against Nadal set us to thinking about expectation and how precocious talents manage it.

Let’s start with a familiar refrain for this blog: precocious talents don’t, for the most part, ask for or desire the expectations that are heaped on them — no matter what the sport.

In tennis, the polar opposites have to be Tomic and Lleyton Hewitt. Both young and talented, both brashly confident, both burdened with the expectations of a public ready to forgive the mis-steps of a successful player.

Like him or not, Hewitt leaves it ALL on the court, every time. It seems the public may have made its mind up on Tomic.

Time to wake up! We’ve finished talking tennis.

AFL players are also burdened with expectations, and the footy public similarly aren’t forgiving of those they judge to have fallen short.

Tom Scully and Jack Watts come to mind as much-touted talents who, thus far, haven’t delivered on the bigger stage of the AFL. Expectation is a millstone for these players.

By contrast, the likes of Dyson Heppell, Daniel Rich and Jack Ziebell follow the Hewitt model and give their all — no millstones here; these guys welcome the expectations and deliver.

There’s another type too. These are hyped, but in an understated way, often burdened by expectations they’re in no position to control. It’s no secret that Jobe Watson’s career was teetering when he discovered something inside himself that has driven him to captain his club, win a Brownlow Medal and stamp himself as an elite midfielder.

From the same club, and also with a famous father, Jay Neagle didn’t find that inner drive that Watson found and failed to meet those expectations.

Will Scully and Watts find something to help them fulfil a substantial portion of the potential they showed at under-age? Will they be “Jobe Watson”s or “Jay Neagle”s?

And will Tomic discover within himself a way to meet the expectation he didn’t ask for (but hasn’t shied away from embracing)?

It’s one of the biggest questions in life. Why do some people find the drive to succeed, while others languish. If we could find and bottle that drive — we would have used it on ourselves long ago!!

We’re breathlessly awaiting the banner headlines that Cats coach Chris Scott is a racist. He must be, because The Age reports today that he thinks the new interchange cap will favour endurance athletes.

The last time this completely outrageous suggestion was made, its proponents were quickly labelled racist.

Those proponents, Paul Roos and James Hird, dared to voice the additional assessment that Aboriginal footballers generally might not have the endurance capacity of their non-Aboriginal counterparts.

It can’t be long before the headline appears . . .  We’re waiting . . . .