u/ItsABiscuit

Aren’t the Suns supposedly paying him quite a bit to do the joint playing/coaching role?

A common theme I’m seeing in the immediate reactions this morning is that it is upsetting that we didn’t get a chance to do a farewell for Pendlebury due to how/when this was announced. And I get that, but wanted to just share my thoughts on why Pendles would not have wanted to say anything earlier.

Everything we know about Scott is that he is professional and a team-first kind of guy.

First and most obvious, he would have been hoping that he hadn’t played his last game for us yet. If we had won, he would have been working to be available the following week or the next.

Secondly, the team had an elimination final to play and the last thing he would have wanted to do while being injured and not able to contribute onfield was create a sideshow and distraction for the team going into that game.

Thirdly, I think the good and bad aspects of his record breaking game extravaganza probably played a role here in his thinking on that “don’t want to be a distraction” point. The backlash he copped about it distracting us as a team from that game, about him making it about himself etc was unjustified but quite loud. He would not have wanted to be seen as doing the same thing again. But also, in terms of an amazing tribute from the club and fans to him, how would we have topped that - what was left to say in terms of thanking the guy?

Finally, I think he probably didn’t want to take the spotlight away from his good mate Sidebottom. It’s not that Steele has lived in Pendles shadow by any means, but he has always had to share that spotlight with Scott and while they both loved playing together and being a duo, I would imagine Scott liked seeing Steele get to be the clear focus for a celebration and didn’t want to distract from that either, especially as he isn’t actually retiring.

It was a pretty good game BEFORE he made the match saving play.

Essendon were excluded from the 2013 finals when they were found to have deliberately committed a serious breach of the welfare of their playing group. Geelong have seemingly acknowledged they made a similarly grave breach by having a player sign away their legal rights so he could keep in playing when he shouldn’t have. And apparently a second team has done something in the same vein.

It’s a harsh sanction, but I think Bombers fans would be entitled to ask why this breach shouldn’t be treated with similar seriousness.

Just curious about this issue this week. If eventually we get to a state like the NFL where they’ve just accepted that brain damage is a risk that players have to be willing to accept, and the legalities are somehow sorted, would knowing that is now an explicit part of the game that we accept affect your enjoyment of it? What would the AFL industry need to have in place in terms of financial compensation or support for you to feel comfortable with continuing to watch and pay money towards the AFL as professional entertainment?

Good discussion between Bob Murphy and Corbin Middlemas about Bob’s reaction to seeing the 4 Corners story about CTE, a bit different from the normal footy talking heads. The conversation about that topic starts at the 28mins, 15 second mark and goes for about ten minutes.

Per ABC radio just now.

Aka Damo says IF other clubs refuse to do what Sydney does and say “we just win games of footy” THEN are they stupid???

Without wanting to pry into his privacy as he recovers, was wondering whether anything further had been shared since Tues morning that I might have missed. Hope it is going well with him.

Was thinking that a lot of the teams that are looking exciting and real contenders this year such as Sydney, Melbourne, Freo, and even Hawthorn, are the teams with a really gun ruckman and/or strong ruck duo, eg Grundy, Gawn, Jackson, and Meek/Reeves.

I guess there are other strong teams without a star ruck and maybe the degree of correlation is the same as it has always been, but have the rule changes and shift of the game made having a good big man more of a prerequisite to contend than it has been in other recent years?

A large and beautiful old tree near me was felled in a storm yesterday and today has been cleared away. One thing continuing to read Tolkien has given me is an appreciation of the beauty and significance of individual trees and I’d stopped often to admire this one in the sunlight, and am quite sad it is gone.

What do we think an ent, or a wood elf would say upon seeing a tree they knew and loved pass like this. It’s not a reckless felling of the type orcs, dwarves and men might do - it was obviously old and had a weakness that the storm exposed and “killed” it, which is a part of nature.

Just now, I was thinking “your spirit should go back to Yavanna, while your body returns to the Earth you grew from and nourishes it in its turn”.