At a semi-private function recently, the MC referred to AussieRulesBlog as a “tragic Essendon supporter” — a bit much coming from a committed Melbourne supporter, but we’ll let that alone for the moment.

As a lifelong Bombers fan, the past couple of years have been quite difficult. Not nearly as difficult, we hasten to add, as the Essendon players, Danny Corcoran, Mark Thompson, Dr Bruce Reid and James Hird have had to endure. Nevertheless, the constant speculation reporting on the supplements scandal program have encouraged humorous kindergarten-style barbs directed at us — the bigger “us” that includes players, coaches, staff, board, employees, members and fans — wear one down and diminish our affection for and enjoyment of the game.

Notwithstanding those issues, we attended as many games as normal in the past two years, watched as many games as usual on TV and consumed more than our fair share of footy media while avoiding the ambulance-chasers peddling the most strident anti-Essendon agendas.

All this has had its effect on AussieRulesBlog — this blog, not our online persona. Our practice had degenerated into, largely, commenting on media stories. There's only so many times we can write that the head football writer of The Age (an appointment that continues to baffle us) is pursuing an irrational agenda. So, we stopped writing altogether.

It's time for AussieRulesBlog to be reborn. The supplements saga still has some way to run and, no doubt, we'll be writing about it again, but our intention is to comment on issues without reference to the speculative media.

It's footy’s quiet time, but we're sure we can find something to write about. Now, how many years is it since Melbourne’s last Premiership?

It seems like there may be only two people who aren’t enjoying the way the game is being umpired. Well, two with a public forum anyway.

Kevin Bartlett and Patrick Smith seem fixated on the game being umpired to the exact letter of the law, splitting hairs on the placement of commas and counting the angels dancing on every full stop.

For the rest of us, the game is flowing and the annoying 50-50 free kicks that annoyed almost everybody have been consigned to the dustbin. Obvious free kicks are being awarded (when they’re seen) and the game is a better spectacle for it.

Congratulations Wayne Campbell and Hayden Kennedy, and good riddance Jeff Gieschen.

Apparently Taylor Hunt is unlucky for being suspended for bumping Daniel Rich and initiating a head clash. It seems he was only “shepherding”.

AussieRulesBlog is no spring chicken, but when we were learning the game, a “shepherd” meant spreading your arms and trying to hold an opponent away from a teammate who had the ball.

What Hunt did was to pick off an unprepared opponent who didn’t have the ball and wasn’t in a position to intercept. It doesn’t matter how close the ball was. This is not a shepherd. It’s sniping. It’s cowardly. End of story.

Much consternation about AFL scheduling this week. Rohan Connolly has picked up on scheduling as one reason for clearly lower attendances, but the AFL has a hospital handball cocked ready to avoid being caught holding the ball.

AussieRulesBlog was posting about critics of a 30-minute delayed broadcast back in 2009 and it has been a couple of years now that we’ve had wall-to-wall live football.

Not so long ago, live broadcast was THE biggest issue in AFL football. So many people HAD TO HAVE the game broadcast live, because they couldn’t avoid a news source for two and a half hours.

Given that the game takes around 2.5 hours to get started and then play itself out, there are limited slots available so that all games will be broadcast live to air.

THAT’s why we have games scheduled at 7.10pm on Sunday nights — that and the power of particular clubs to pull a primetime TV audience.

The hospital handball? Vlad will say the AFL have only done what the fans demanded.

Who’s the luckiest player in the AFL this week? Probably the Blues’ Jarrad Waite.

If you don’t have Foxtel’s Comedy Channel and you haven’t had a laugh for a while, check out Waite’s Oscar-worthy performance from last Thursday night.

Click the image to view the video. Scroll forward to about 2:50 for the big show.

Why is he lucky? Well, young Jarrad has form. AussieRulesBlog outed him for a very similar incident back in 2010.

A bit of a one-trick pony, is Jarrad. It’s a pity for the Blues that the trick isn’t playing consistent footy.

The first quarter of last year’s season opener was a heart-pumping, hard-running goalfest. Last night’s 2014 season opener began in gripping style, but wasn’t a goalfest in any sense. The Barcodes and the Dockers armwrestled for 30 minutes before the Barcode defence burst asunder like a dam wall and the Docker goals flowed freely.

Over recent years we’ve become accustomed to a Blues-Tiggers opener, and these too have mostly failed to live up to the hype.

After a five-month hiatus, it’s unsurprising that our expectations get ahead of reality. But 2014 has had an extra dimension with the pre-season “challenge” offering few clues as to which teams are up and running and which are foxing.

After game one, one thing is certain. The Dockers are looking ominous.

For the Barcodes, on the other hand, it’s a hard ask to believe that Didak, Thomas, Shaw and Jolley would have kept the dam wall in one piece. Reid and putative Barcode-debutant White wouldn’t have made the difference either.

And it’s clear the Barcode faithful don’t have Foxtel, because they were incensed that the umpires weren’t umpiring to the 2013 “Gieschen” interpretations. The trend begun in the pre-season, with umpires umpiring games as though they are Grand Finals, continued into game one of the home and away rounds.

What a refreshing change to enjoy the football rather than rant and rave about over-zealous umpires!

Starved of genuinely competitive football, AussieRulesBlog has been watching round one of the NRL's 2014  season.

Craig Bellamy is a genius and Cam Smith should be awarded the keys to the city of Melbourne.

The thing that had struck us is the number of video reviews. Apparently there have been rule changes for 2014 designed to speed up the game. Sadly for RL aficionados, whatever benefits may have accrued from the rule changes, the unwillingness of the referees to make a decision on tries means that the game is developing a stop-start nature that no-one can think is good.

There's a lesson here for Mark Evans, the AFL's football operations boss. The crowd and the television audience are fed up with interminable video reviews. We want the officials to make a decision. That's what they're paid to do.

AussieRulesBlog is seeking expressions of interest from suitably equipped entrepreneurs for the secure carriage of mountains of cash to the live AFL games we attend in 2014. We attended our first game of the season this week at the Docklands Stadium and received our usual early-season shock at the “catering” outlet.

The indignity of paying for the equivalent of liquid gold dispensed in plastic cups was reinforced when we sought something to sate our hunger. $5.60 for an “Angus” pie! We can purchase FOUR of these same pies at the online supermarket for $8.27.

How is it that an organisation buying in bulk — the AFL’s “caterers” — can add 170% to the price of the same product in an online supermarket? We assume the online supermarkets aren’t retailing at cost, so there’s already a significant markup built into their pricing structure.

Our companion fared even worse, parting with a princely $9 for an indifferent sandwich that had spent half a lifetime in its packaging.

We’ve already scheduled an appointment with the bank manager to arrange overdraft facilities for our next visit.

Not content with fleecing us for food and beverages, venue management chose to play the game in semi-darkness, with the goals at each end a nightmare of half-shadows — and that’s just for spectators!

Doing their bit for non-existent anthropogenic climate change, no doubt.

Oh, the football? No great heights, but it was a practice match after all.