The Round Table is back! King's immediate impact on Gawn, Opening Round receipts

0:00With a sports-bed AFL same-game multi, combine multiple legs for bigger odds, about Smith 28 plus disposals, Gorn 40 plus hit outs, and Cameron 2 plus goals. Lock it in with sports-bed conditions applied. Chances are you're about to lose. It's Tuesday, March 10. I'm Nat Edwards and this is the AFL Daily Round Table. Now the Round Table format will be your Tuesday offering of AFL Daily and our favourite swans supporter Sarah Olly is off on maternity leave. We love you Sarah. So we'll be just Josh, Gablitch, Damien Barrett and myself with the big news and views and a few laughs and random tangents along the way. So settle in. This is the AFL Daily Round Table. Well, welcome for 2026, our first episode, Damo Gabbo. It's great to see you both. We'll get Sarah back for at least one week this year, even on maternity leave. Little cameos. Maybe she can drop us a voice note. She would certainly give us feedback on how we're going throughout the year. That's for sure, Gabbo. I was with her at the Montague

1:01on Saturday night, and I didn't get a commitment from her that she will provide some cameos across the year. Voice notes. Voice notes. So at a minimum, but I think we voice notes are dangerous together. Oh, we know and we will talk about the very topical and controversial voice note from Sam Dockini a little bit later in the show. Just one second, Damien, are you a voice note? You don't. Oh, I'm old school. I live a message on a recording device or text or phone call. Are you a voice note? Yeah, I love a voice note. Not prolific, but... Oh, I've like 15 minute voice notes, like back and forth. That's too long. That's too long. Is it too long? Absolutely. Obviously, they didn't have voice notes on the palm pilot back in the day, but we'll get that. Of the palm pilot. It took all of about 60 seconds for that to get a mention on the AFL Daily Round Table in 2026. But we have to kick things off the way that we've always done and that's with Get It Off Your Chest. All right, Damien, you're first one for

2:072026. What do you need to get off your chest? Just the fact that I know there's a lot of love for this guy, but maybe not the amount there should be. Errol Gordon, I'm referring to in that, for the Sydney Swans. We know what happened at the end of last year when he came back for 11 matches, and they happened to win eight of them, or seven of 10, I think it might have been officially. Half time of the first game of the season, they'll down the swans quite badly, or at least not playing anywhere near capacity, and he just took the game over in the third quarter. So I just think of all the players in the competition who are crucial to their team. I think no one gets near Errol Gordon's crucial status to the Sydney Swans having success. I like this from you. I mean, we all kind of knew that a fully fit Errol was going to make a splash this year, but geez, that second half was so blind. I couldn't see why not. Yeah, I mean, we're just in the out of the game in question on Thursday, I opened the season against the three votes for the three goals he kicked, but I felt he's the most influential in my some way. He just changed the game and changed it in a space of 10 minutes. But what about this year? Can you see winning a

3:08brown low medal? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, because he seems fit, doesn't he? And that wasn't the case last year. He missed more than half a year. So sad damaging. Yeah. Josh? Well, I've got a similar tone. Don't miss him this year. I'm positive talking about Ed Richards. You know, I love this guy. I spoke about him a lot last year now. He had a phenomenal career year, but it's been longer than that. It's been eight or eight months now since loopy average moved him into the midfield. He's now one of the best midfielders in the competition. I know he was in all Australian last year. I know when he's first best and first, but he pulled a 11 brown low votes last year. And I just think he's so damaging. I don't want them to miss him this year. 10 coaches votes to start the year. He was absolutely destructive. Wasn't he at the gabber? I mean, his left foot is as damaging as anyone's in the competition. Those two goal assists late in that game. That were long range. The weight is 16. Yeah, that was beautiful. Brilliant. Brilliant. He just was on the road a little bit last year. You did go early on in last year and fully validated in doing so. You're going harder and earlier again, brown line. I just want to see some brown low recognition. And they've got access to stats now. So I hope they're really

4:12drilling to them because it's not kicks marks and hand balls with him. It's scoreboard impact. He's so damaging. So I hope he gets rewarded. This is putting you on the spot. But would you have him in your top five midfielders right now in the competition? Not quite, but he's closing maybe. I think so. He's closing in on that bracket. So we need to find a way to get him in the AFLs. Not in the 25. How is he not in the 25? I didn't think he was in line. Well, somebody on the bottom of it, but he would have been top five. He would have been in the top. It's a beauty of the 25. It's subjective. That is correct. We will hope that maybe he's in the next edition of the 25 on AFL.com.au. What have you got now? Forget it off your chest. Give it to us. I'm scared. I watched football here. Maybe it was with Cain Collins for first up on Friday night. Maybe that's why I should be scared because I was watching football with Cain. No. I'm scared because the goal co-sons were that good. Like I knew that they would be good in 2026. I actually had them in my crystal ball predictions as grand finalists alongside Brisbane. But I just didn't

5:14expect that kind of performance against Jolong. I don't think Jolong were necessarily at their best, but I am scared for the rest of the competition. And I wasn't on board with the Andrew Bassets and the Cardolinas of the world in terms of St. Kilda bosses. And they're pushed to have some more restrictions and limitations on the Northern academies. But I saw Andrew Bassett at an AFL house just before and it made me think, I actually agree with you now. After watching that son's performance and I know that Zeke Jolong is only just going to get going. I just feel like this sunset is going to have access to some of the best talent in the next few years. And they're just going to be such a scary prospect moving forward. And Gabbo, to that point about the St. Kilda I suppose pushed to have this rectified campaign. It is a campaign. Yeah, it is. It's a valid point though, isn't it? Because of, and Ross Lawn cares it pretty well on AFL.com where you were a couple of weeks ago when he said there was once the pursuit for equalization in the competition,

6:15which did have its desired effect. And then at some stage, and understandable, he concedes it's understandable. But at some stage, then the pursuit of the promotion of the game and the the Northern markets became the focus. But he said it's gone too far. Clubs aren't saying you can't have them. You've just got to pay a fair price. Totally. He's tightening, but it's taken a long time for it to tighten. But having said that, when you look at the Gold Coast Suns, they're 15 years in. They've won one final. They were set up to have some sustained success, and they're on the cusp of it. But rightly so. And I think the Northern academies have served their purpose, but now it's time to maybe just reel it in just a little bit. I'd be too late. It might be too late, but they are very scary prospect. The Gold Coast Suns. I do love watching them go about it. Josh, I do want to talk to you though about Stephen King Melbourne's newest coach, because you had the opportunity to sit down with him this morning and have a one-on-one conversation. And I know, Demo, you had the opportunity to have a bit of a briefing at the Melbourne Football Club last week. Or not. I was invited now. I didn't get there. There you go. I went.

7:21You went. Okay, there we go. So at least some of one representative, afel.com.au. I was invited to child's sick. Couldn't go. Tell us about Stephen King. And what your first impressions were of him in this one-on-one interview? I had about 45 minutes with him. I found him really interesting, really open and honest. And I've been wanting to speak to him all pre-season. It's taken all the way up until the few days before round one to get him. So I'm glad I got him in the end. But he told me that he sat down with Max Gordon two days after getting the job. We went to Maddie Maddie's Hawthorne Restaurant, Moda. It's called and they sat down and spoke at length. And the one thing that stood out to him was Max Gordon said he felt threatened by change. And obviously it can go one of two ways. It's an opportunity or a threat. But it's stuck with Stephen King to the point where he led with that at the start of the pre-season to present this as an opportunity for the entire list to start with a clean slate. Obviously they made so much change in the offseason with Christian Patraca and Clayton Oliver moving. We'll get to them, of course, in a moment. They obviously looked

8:24to try and tried to get Stephen May out at the same time. We all know what's happened then in the months since then. But I found it really interesting that Max Gordon, a player that with eight all Australians, felt threatened by new coach coming in. And it really helped Stephen King get his message across to the group. They went away to Brighton the first week of the pre-season and it's set the tone. I think even Max Gordon was sort of saying at the Amazon Prime documentary premiere, which was the final siren, which I hosted. And I asked Max how he was reflected on that time, which is a really tumultuous time at the club last year when they were shooting this documentary. And he said, actually, watching back, it made him question certain parts of his leadership and he's now tweaked certain things moving forward to become a better leader. So I think there has been just a whole inward reflection time at the club. Everyone's sort of looking and seeing what they can change, what they can do differently. Because I think there is now admission finally, Dame O, that the culture wasn't fantastic. Well, it was overdue that admission wasn't it,

9:26and that for a number of reasons, from the very top of the club down, certainly at executive level as well with the way they ran themselves. But it's interesting that he said that's what Max wanted to about himself, because ultimately he has been capped in there for a long time and has happened under his watch. And I just raised that because we have been so in love having we as an industry, personally, in a work sense with Max gone, Max gone, I don't think I've come across a better person in my dealings with people in the sport. But ultimately it's under his watch, isn't it? And the massive and the magnitude of the decision to go into this year without those two stars, all-time great Melbourne players in Patrach and all of those, which is what I've written about in the column that I do on a Tuesday this year, just a reflective piece on how they both blew out of their box in their first games for their new clubs, respectively, Gold Coast and GWS, and how they're off through a good start. Melbourne's now got to live life without them and how that looks as well. It's a long game. I'm not making any judgments after one week, but yeah, massive decisions made, which obviously the person you spoke to together, Stephen King would have been instrumental too, particularly the all of the part of it more so than Patrach. Are you

10:29comfortable? Just on those two, leaving, like if you're Melbourne supporter, it would have been a tough watch on the way again because you've been warning to see those two players get back to that form across really the last two seasons that have been so hampered, had quite a lot of a situation and so many off-field issues. What would have been like as a Melbourne supporter on the weekend? Yeah, I would imagine it would have been tough, but equally Melbourne Free Club gave long term deals to these two players and I don't think anyone could argue or state strongly that Melbourne didn't look after those two players. Now they both had issues and they were a drain on resource and a drain on people power at that footy club. That's just a statement of fact. I'm not even going to let anyone debate that aspect of it and they both had problems with the club for different reasons. Christians was I think a reflection element to what happened to him after his injury, but even before then there was an element of just he was hard to deal with and Clayton Oliver just wasn't able to get his body nor life into the type of spaces that he was in when he won four best and

11:29fairest net in the space of six seasons of a pretty star-studded footy club, including the premiership year. I mean if that's that, he won his first best and fairest as a secondary player and it was an extraordinary short career he had at Melbourne at the very highest level. I asked him Stephen King this morning around those two coming out of the weekend, he said no individual is bigger than the club and that was his message. So can understand supporters being up in arms seeing those two players play so well. One thing I want to mention is Jack Steele because we look at the new faces across the competition and we were seduced by those two on the weekend, Charlie Kuno kick three girls. I feel like Jack Steele has gone under the radar a little bit, but when you consider those two have come out of that midfield, Jack Viny won't play in the first half of the season. Jack still becomes crucial to what Melbourne do in 2026 and he was so reluctant on even meeting Melbourne during the trade period. Stephen King told me this this morning, they met with him two days before the deadline. They couldn't even book him in. He didn't want to leave he was so loyal to St Kilda. Even the fact that they were shoving him out the door as a cross-fad captain, but he has had an extraordinary preseason in Stephen King's words and he's set for

12:33a big role this year. What about the trail picket because we all love the picket name. Can we see a debut this week? Expect him to debut this Sunday. Now Stephen King wouldn't book him in, he said he's got to get through the next two. Come on. Training sessions, they've got two main sessions this week, but expect to see him debut on the MCG this week and expect to see him play a lot of football this year. Did you expect him to be in the reckoning for a game first half? Not in November, but across the preseason, he's really rude to life and he was exceptional in the match, Jim, out at Casey against North Melbourne. An incredible story. This time 12 months ago, he just relocated for Port Lincoln. 650 kilometres to Adelaide to commit to fully full time. Spent the first 19 rounds of the season playing reserves at Glenelg, got three senior games late in the year and Melbourne just brought him in on draft night. No one knew that he was in the building and they took him at pick 12. The same selection they used on Cozy six years earlier.

13:35I love the symmetry of that. It is a really beautiful story and if he does get to make his debut at the MCG, what a moment for him on Sunday at Melbourne. Of course, taking on the Saints. Now we did our crystal ball predictions this time last week for afl.com.au. It's something that we absolutely love doing here as no one ever holds it. We like to keep receipts, that's for sure. Now, after one weekend of football, granted not every single club played, what's one thing that you would like to edit if you could Josh? I'd call him falling. Now, I don't want to react to one game, but they did record a prelim last year. I think I've got that wrong. I didn't spend enough time on the project. I just clunked a couple of marks late in that game. Sincura could have won. It was more than that. It was more than that. It was still very, very good. It was not just Nick. It was Jordan the girl. It was Josh Daikon. I love the subtle changes they've made to

14:39their style too. They promoted this in the off season. Craig McCragg was quite open about it on afl.com, but he wasn't about changes needing to be made. I had to get the ball to Dan Houston, and we saw that in the very first game of this year. Equally, I think, impactful was the decision to get in the tagging path with Harry Pyraman, which is something they haven't done in within that system's based approach that they've always had. I love them. My reflection piece net on the crystal wall. I had GWSE outside, even the tin. I think that's going to come back and bite me. I also had the giants outside, and I think that's going to come back to bite me too, so I would like to edit that. But also on the flip side to that, I did have Hawthorne in seventh, and that even putting Hawthorne at seventh was I was unsure about it, but I just think they missed the top eight. How about the top 10? See, this is the thing. Like, don't even talk to me about Wildcard. I can't. But you have to net, because my brain doesn't tradition. And 8v9, they are

15:41considered finals. While I get my brain around all of these changes, as you can tell, I hate changed just as much as Max Gorn. We're going to take a quick break in on the other side of this. Fact or 50? Hey, it's Carl Strong from The Framing of the Dockers, and you're listening to AFL Daily. Subscribe to wherever you get your podcasts. On the AFL Daily Round Table. I can't boy. I thought I could be accused of the Kennedy shooting next. Fact. You can't handle the truth. You'll definitely play the week after. At the truth, shall set you free. Yeah, I did promise he was going to play. I didn't know. I'm going to have to go back on that word. He's definitely not playing. All 30. Daymote. Fact or 30. Opening round next year should feature all 18 clubs. You know the answer. I'm going to give that you're not. You've heard me banging on about it for the three years of opening round. Yeah, it'd be novel, wouldn't it? To have all 18 teams play in the opening round of the season, please do it. Please do it. Yeah, just call it round one. Gabbo. Fact or 30. Sonscoach Damien Hardwick should bring in

16:44Jamar Uglhagen this week, our three six goals in the VFL practice match. Furfie. Hold him. Hold him. Hold him. Just let him build. Give him a month to build. My point of reference here is Jesse Hogan. How many games do you play in his first season at GWS? He's on Russian, so yeah, not the full quarter. Nine. Played nine games in his first year and kicked 20 goals and it goes on to become a common medalist and a star at that club. This is a long-term play for the sons. I know he's on a one-year deal. Give him a month to get right. They've got jet bolter that's going to come back from suspension. I think they're going to be patient and I think they should be. I'll beat you on that by the way. Yeah, he hasn't played since 2024. Elimination final didn't want to even train last year. I think Mikey murdered. If it's six or seven weeks over, I'm coming. And set him up for success, too. Just don't throw him out there and help conditioning. Now, at Faktor Furfie, Clayton Oliver should have learnt the words to the giant song in the off season. Fact, fact, fact. Great song. It is such a good song. Like how he didn't even know it going there. I'm not going to sing it. Is he okay? No, we're going to have someone else sing on this show very shortly, so I don't want to, I don't want to do that. But you've got to learn in the off season,

17:48you move to a different club. Just learn the song. It's easy. It's not that hard, but I'd big, big sound from the west of the town. Sound of the mighty giants. But I do love the fact that he didn't even try to hide that he didn't know the words. He was just like looking at the camera going, meh, shrugging. I have no idea. He has tried to hide it. He probably won't even know him after the 10th week. No, you're correct. Dame O Faktor Furfie, if the cats are 0 and 4 to start the season, which they very well could be, will you finally stop drinking the Jolong Kool-Aid? No, I won't. They were probably never winning that game against the Gold Coast first up, and I think their team selection may have suggested their own thoughts around that. I see. 0 and 4 wouldn't worry me. 0 and 6 or 7, I may throw that Kool-Aid in the bin. The Kool-Aid's going to poison you and you'll still be sitting there drinking it. It's been pretty good over the junior. If made finals in 23 of the past 25 years or something ridiculous like that, and I've had him top four over a year, Gabbo, no players under more pressure than Nassaya, Wanganine, Miller, Faktor Furfie.

18:49Furfie is not even the player at that club under the most pressure when he can see that Tom DeCone he moved across on a monster deal without being in all the strain, a best and ferris wheel. No, give him any cut-outs. He's $2 million. He can perform first up. That's many is under the most pressure in the competition. He's coming off in all the strain. He has the biggest pay packet in the entire competition. He's got the runs on the board. One game is, come on, I'm moving on. That Harris Andrews brainfade that earned him a three-game suspension is worse than the brainfade we saw from Oscar Piastry on Sunday at the Grand Prix. No, this is hard. That's all Furfie. Furfie, I think Oscar's was way worse because it was your home Grand Prix. Everything that happened last year. The battery surge. With the new rules, the battery surge. No, but he went all the way on the curb. It was unnecessary. It was the lap to get to the grid. Do you imagine how he felt the moment that car crashed? It just feels humiliated. I don't think anyone would have felt lower for a hundred

19:52years. I know. I nearly cried. I know they would have, of course, but that's a pretty low moment. Yeah, it was very low. Faktor Furfie, Demo. Yes. Luke Beverage should record an album featuring the song Fight Tooth and Nail before playing it. No, we're not playing it. Let's listen. Do you like it? What do you think? For those who aren't across it, Luke Beverage co-wrote a song called Tooth and Nail with musician Andrew Kidman, so it's a potential anthem for the club. It's been released by Sunset in the Windy Hills. You can actually buy it for 99 cents, I think, on Spotify. If you want. Do you like that, Josh? It was awesome. That was awesome. That was great TV. If you're a Western Bulldog supporter, you were tuning in. You've had one of the great home and away wins under that coach, and then you see your coach post-game singing in the room. Oh, yeah. It's like, I'm going on the guitar. Oh, and that was one of the things. You're not playing

20:55that. That was no good. It's a Furfie net. Gabbo, the Giants versus Bulldogs game is Saturday afternoon. Should be primetime. Furfie. If it wasn't this round, this round is stacked. This round is an absolute backup. Yeah, Fickett's not that worried about Sunday, but Thursday, Friday, the rivalry factors, massive, and then you look at the Saturday night, I'm not thrilled with the fixturing with the double header. Those two games are absolutely sensational. I'm dirty. I just don't know where you can fit this in. It does deserve primetime, especially when your factor in the Toby and the Bond factor as well. Yeah, that's what I was referring to. Now, we have a new segment that we're going to be trying out on the AFL Daily Roundtable in 2026. We need to come up with a better name for this segment. Sorry, to our listeners out there. If you've got some suggestions. What is it at the moment? It's media moment of the week. Okay. The media moment of the week, which isn't very creative. So I need a chat GPT that, but that's for later. But we want to talk about, I guess, what everyone in the football world is

21:58talking about. I don't know. You probably don't want to talk about it, but Dame, are you broke this story in terms of Carlton rescinding their invitation to Sam Dockety to attend a function on Thursday night? And this is off the back of a voice note being played by Dan Goring on Dan does footy, the podcast, and Sam Dockety had his say. He used some expletives and the language was strong, but he stand by what he said about Carlton's performance. Yeah, he did. And what I learned in the process of doing that aspect of the story, that was that he actually had said the same comments effectively, minus the expletives on the thread W match coverage in the time in question. So I wasn't aware of that until that part of the story, but I don't have an issue with Carlton making this decision. Equally, I don't have an issue with Sam Dockety having strong views about his former club. Take the expletives out though. I do have issues with how it got to the public airing. I don't think we need to talk about that aspect of this on that show that's been played out in other places, but I think both can be validated in their actions. The person who made the

23:01comments in Sam Dockety and also Carlton footy club this week taking him out of a club function on the Thursday, which is the night of the game. So was the CEO's call to do that? I don't believe it was. I haven't fully got to the bottom of that. And ultimately it doesn't matter because the CEO has backed the call and represented the club by saying we are backing out people internally this week on that decision. And I honestly don't have an issue with that. I think it would have been a lack of support from Michael Boss. How they allowed Sam Dockety to be on Carlton die more time. Whatever words you want to use on in that moment leading into that game. And I just don't I'm not as caught up in this this reaction that a lot of people seem to be with Carlton making the call on Sam Dockety. It's not a permanent call. He's going to be doing other club functions. It's just a this week call. And I think that's fine to to be done. What what is your view on it? Because I just thought that that's not actually Sam's fault. It's Dan's fault for well, dogging is made basically and stitching him up like that. I don't think that Sam should have to be edited. Dan's listening. Yeah, probably, but you're about the only one that's not on it,

24:04but you'll be on it now. Sam shouldn't have to pay the price for that. I just think that, you know, let him speak. He said what he said, you can back your people in internally, but someone who has been there through thick and thin at your club has an opportunity to speak, say what he wants to say, minus the expletives, but I think the rest of the sentiment of what he said is fine. I think you just it's play on. You brought more media attention to it by actually then rescinding the invite. I don't know. What did you just confirm your involved in that event? Well, this is, this is needs to be thrashed out to be confirmed. I'm not 100% sure if it was the event that I'm hosting on Thursday. I think the answer to that question together was yes, and that was hosting the event that Sam's opening was meant to be. The Carltonian's event cannot confirm nor did I. You really have a wide web, don't you? You do a lot of different events. You do high-end, you do bottom-end, you do a wide range. Girls got a pay for the lifestyle. But you didn't have a problem with it or you do?

25:07Back to it. No, my problem was, and Dan Gaurin just is conceded this, is he made a mistake, he shouldn't have done it. He took a while to concede it. He did, and he's placed he's great mate, I may add great mates, and I think Sam Dockety's mateship with Dan is actually allowed Dan to probably allow this to run for a bit longer than it should have, but had he not played it? Well, yeah, there's no story. Totally. Yeah, I think he did the wrong thing, I think he did the wrong thing clearly, but I'm intrigued by Sam Dockety, the media figure now, as he responded to this, because it was his first gig. Yeah, it was his first gig, so hopefully he bounces back. Let's take a listen though to Carlton coach Michael Boss, and his thoughts on the situation he was fired a number of questions about it this morning. I'll move forward with the team of God, because a lot of this stuff becomes, he said, she said, and you know, I can spend a lot of time talking about that here, but what I'd prefer to talk about is the game, and we're beginning again, that's what you do need to know. Well, you made a

26:07wear that he would be undivided. We'll move on into the new, so no, no, no. I'm patient, 40 times, in the next 48 hours, just one more on it. Does it mean any more, or because he's entered the media, is it just another voice on the outside? We'll move on to what we need to be able to do, which is focused in on the game this weekend. And they better focus in on that game this weekend, because they need to win this game of football. Yeah, they do. I mean, to go if they were to lose zero on two in this season, I don't know where that story goes. It does. I'm not saying they'll make a decision on him immediately, but it wouldn't be the right or preferred start for Michael Boss in that situation. I don't think anyone tipped him to beat the Swan's last week, but it was just the manner in which the second heart. The drop off. Older, yeah. Yeah. Which was the, which is the bigger problem. And now they've got to respond and regroup against the team, which actually beat them in the corresponding match last year, equally, unexpectedly. So Michael Boss, a three time premiership Lion Josh, which brings me to a new podcast that has been released. You have been working away over the summer with our great mate,

27:12Michael Whiting, or otherwise knows as fishy. And the podcast series is Return of the Pride. You guys have spoken to over 50 people across the industry who have been involved with the Lions. And we've got a six part series that's dropped. Just give us a little bit more about what went into creating this amazing podcast. I had this idea after they went back to back in September. I thought it would be a great podcast if we could do it across the summer. And I went up to Brisbane at the start of January, early January and spent time with Michael Whiting. And we banked a heap of interviews with all the key figures. Chris Fagan, we spent two hours without to move my flight back that day because he just gave us so much time and so much great information. Danny Daly, we spoke to all the new co-captains before they were appointed. Lots of premiership players. Big focus on the drafts. Clearly it was 16, 17. We're crucial for that build. So a huge McCleggage and Cameron are great. And then there were lots of figures in 40. Greg Swan, did him upstairs one afternoon here. And he was amazing. He was really crucial to getting

28:14that going in 2014. All the trades, so Don Manuel Brosio, the Lisbon manager, Steve Kinole, the National Recruiting Boss. Just kind of great stories behind the scenes of how they found these guys. And I think if you're a hardcore footy fan that follows Brisbane or loves the trade period, you're going to get a lot of nuggets out of these. And the name that kept coming up was Lucod's, Lucod's Lucod's. If he didn't make the decision to go in 2017, Lock and Elyl and Link MacArthur wouldn't have come. Follow you look at all the other names that came in the end. And it was down to Lucod's making that decision at the time when they'd won five games. So incredible to think. And there were another four games at his first year. Correct. Yep. And then Lock and Link came at the end of 2018. And I love little stories about where they met for the first time. And Don Manuel Brosio, the Lisbon manager, went to Darwin after Frio played Melbourne mid-year and they met at a Mexican restaurant called Hot Tamale. They spent the afternoon there and really did thrash out what a move would look like. They literally went through the whole list. Wow. Coming off five wins

29:16in 2017, it was hard to see where the progress was being made. But they knew there and then who was going to be a key part. So the one thing that did stick out for me with Chris Fagan was always interested, Domo. Why haven't other clubs come for him or why hadn't other clubs come for him? Because I'd never seen anything. Nothing had ever been reported. With Tommy, there were two clubs that did approach him during his time at Melbourne and at Hawthorne, Fremantle in 2001. Not directly, but indirectly found out before they put on a Chris Connelly that there was some interest in him back then. 15 years later, when Essin and moved on from James Herd, they made an approach for him to go through the process Chris Fagan. And once he heard that John Worseford was in the mix, he pulled out. Let's have a listen to what he actually said in this episode of Return of the Pride. I reckon when we were three men or a point of Chris Connelly, there was a little bit of interest in me by them. That was more because Cameron Schwab was a CEO there and he was part of the group that reported me to Melbourne in the first place. So there was a little bit of a flicker there.

30:20I'd agreed to go and have a chat to them and then it sort of came out and then used it. They'd flown to Perth to meet John Worseford. I ran out of the bloke and said, it sounds like you're going after John Worseford. I'm not going to waste my time. So that's as close as I got. So I didn't think it was ever going to happen. And I wasn't spending my life sort of worrying about whether it wouldn't. I was happy being the football manager at Hawthorne. We were a successful 40 club. Life was good. Chris Fagan there. Return of the Pride. The first two episodes are out now. Cannot wait for the next four to drop over the coming week. So make sure you head to wherever you subscribe. Or listen to your podcast to check it out. Return of the Pride. On the other side of this, I'm going to rank a little top five. It's a little something new that I'm trying out. And out on a limb before we wrap up what's been a massive show here on AFL Daily. Hey, it's Kyle Oren from the Brisbane Lions. Subscribe to the AFL Daily podcast now and never miss an episode.

31:23You're listening to the AFL Daily round table. Natted with Josh Gabblett and Damian Barrett with you now Jens. I want to try ranking some things this year. So got a little segment. What do you think? Yeah. Kind of. Anything I want. Or remotely. Exactly. I need a new segment name. So I've really been sleeping over the summer. So what's this one called? That's top five. That's top five. Really creative, right? But off the back of Tom Hanks. We're Sarah. We need her. Yeah. Creative minds. Off the back of Tom Hanks being at the Giants game at the weekend. And then being Forest Ump, which was very, very clever. It got me thinking, what are the top five celebrity appearances at AFL Games? Now just. It got me. It got me. I didn't get something about this. That's it. I'm glad you have. This is how our brains work. Okay. Some ground rules. Grand Final Entertainment does not count. So sorry, Snoop Dogg, Robby, Tom Jones, Lionel Witchy, Katy Perry. You're out of the mix. So this is my top five celebrity spotting

32:25at AFL Games. I'm going to go to five to one. Now, if you are listening as a podcast, just so you know, you can actually watch AFL daily on other roundtable and AFL.com.au. And the AFL like that. So we do have a little bit of vision here. If you wanted to jump online and check it out as well. But coming in at number five. Ed Sheeran. And this is because he was there for Michael Giddinsky's funeral. Obviously, Michael Giddinsky was a massive Saintspan and Ed Sheeran was down for that and just happened to pop up on the Sunday at an AFL game. I think it was maybe even Melbourne, St. Kilda that day. So Ed Sheeran comes in at number five. He's a pretty big name. Do you know who Ed Sheeran is? I do know who he's there. I don't care for his music, but I do know who he is. Yeah. Coming in at number four. Hulk, Hogan, and I don't need to say anything else other than listen to this. They keep on hitting. They get knocked down. They keep getting up. They don't start brother. This puts America to shame. This is awesome. Yeah, just to finish off,

33:26might you've been watching the game. This is a possible handball. If you could just get one away for us very quickly. If you go that way, that way. Well, that's Hulk Hogan. So Hulk Hogan, WWE wrestling superstar nearly handballs the ball into a game that is about to start. They had Mark Howard had to turn him around and say, hey, mate, handball it into the crowd, would you? But he was so animated. Massive, massive get by the AFL to get Hulk Hogan to a game. Coming in at number three, you might be a fan of this one, Josh. Sydney, Sweeney, Hollywood actress superstar. Swans were putting thing with it. Oh, the swans were all over there. I remember Isaac Haney having a photo with everyone. He was choosing to wash juice as opposed to listen to it. There's vision of it running. Yeah. She's an absolute stunner, but in the house made, this room is true that maybe she's in the devil wears prior to it. She's been spotted on set. So I remember it's all lady last year too. Oh, I know. Let's not go there. I remember. Number two,

34:26Tom Hanks. And he's such a massive name. Forest Gump. You know, all the Wilson blah, blah, blah, cast away. He is a huge Hollywood star shooting a movie in Sydney. But I love the fact that he got so involved. Like, he had the double finger gun, like, umpiring moves. And he got involved with it, which I thought was really cool. But he bought the sweet. He wasn't invited. He bought the sweet. Did he? Yeah. What a legend. How much would a sweet cost you? It wouldn't, but it's just, it wasn't like GWS reached out and said, oh, we know you're in town. Come on, it's the footy. He came on his own accord. He went to Bad Bunny, loved NG and bought a sweet to the footy. He loved NG Stadium. Loved NG Stadium allegedly. Haven't spoken him directly. NG Stadium except the Giants. Okay. Coming in at number one, though, it's big note. It's not one, but it's two. It's the Hemsworths. They are my number one celebrity appearance at an AFL game. Chris Hemsworth and Liam. They were the 2016 premiership when the Bulldogs won. They are massive dogs fans there. He is with Matt Damon,

35:29who honorable Ben should Matt Damon didn't make my top five. But I actually got the chance in 2016. We were doing a footy feed in the rooms after the game and I got to meet both Chris and Liam. Shook both their hands, interviewed Liam. Didn't wash my hands for all. Was that the game? Was another game where, where Gill and McLaughlin barniqued himself onto one of those Hemsworths? I think it might have been another game, but they've been at several. They're big Bulldogs fans. Hey, just before we move on from this theme. Yeah. I'm doing access this year now and at about 6.15 on Monday morning. That's early. I'm running the demo. We're at Sien, Rainmaker now. Damo mentions Jessica Albert. It's pretty early on a Monday. What are you a little bit of Monday on this game? On a public holiday as well, Martin. Why? Why are you mentioning Jessica Albert? If you just don't let the truth get too far in the way. I'm giving you a chance to clarify. I was talking about Joe Barrow, the quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals who

36:32Nat, this is up your alley, who may or may not be dating Jessica Albert. Well, are they, are they not dating? They've been photographing that. Is it AI? Someone told me that like Shakira dating Lucien who we love us, Emily and Paris Alfie, for those who are not across it. They were saying that it was AI photos. So like, I can't tell now what's real and what's not. I didn't thought about that at 6.50 on the Monday. No, yeah. You were being Jessica Albert. I'm a big Joe Barrow fan. 16 year age gap, but I was shocked to hear that. That is the name of his mouth. You were actually on the day. The fact that he was across the dating situation of an NFL quarterback. In the off season. That is a new segment here. Damo's dating segment. We'll come up with a band. You're naming today. We both have young babies, so we're sleep deprived. My brain doesn't function in the same way. Let's round out AFL Daily Round Table. Add on a limb. I'm going to stick with this title for the segment moment. Yeah, because we came up with it last year

37:33and I can't be bothered thinking about the name. Add on a limb. I'm going to go first because on Friday night, it's a big game. It's Essen and Hawthorne. Traditional rivals, they hate each other. It's going to be a little bit spicy with the whole Zach Merit scenario. I'm tipping Zach Merit to have 30 touches and kick three goals and just put it out there and show Hawthorne exactly what they're missing. But this peaked my interest a couple of days ago. Let's take a listen to his teammate, Nate Cady. We have a secret Santa. And everyone had to make presents and stuff. And yeah, John thought it would be funny to get Jack Inovan, who's one of his mates to sign a jersey for him. And there he gave it to Zach as a bit of a gag. And that was kind of, you know, put it, put it full self. That is the best gag ever. Isn't that he's funny? Why though? I'm glad they can laugh about it now. But you know, there would have been a point where it was just too soon. And how do you talk about those things in the locker room? I'm very interested. Jack Inovan denies that. Oh, really? I think it might have been his little right hand man.

38:34Oh, no. Whizzy. I think so. That would be even better. That actually makes the story better. Yeah, that was it did it. Daymo, you? I'm going with Mel with free club being a sneaky chance against Sincilder in the Sunday game. Yeah, I look, Sincilder didn't handle the pressure at all in my mind in terms of the in season game match shaping moments against Collingwood. I reckon they're going to be a little bit nervous about how they could look if they were to go zero to. And I reckon we'd have a bit of weight on them. And yeah, not not the clearing of Melbourne win. But I just think they're going to be it's going to be closer than what I think people are expecting. Okay, so maybe we should tune in on Sunday to that game at the MCG Josh. In the corresponding round last year, no? Sam Lola on the rising star nomination. I think another Richmond top 10 peak would get the round one rising star nomination this week. Sam Grill will get his chance. I believe on Thursday night and been a frustrating end of the preseason. All those injuries to their first round peak,

39:35Sam coming is such a disappointment when you can see how exciting he was in the preseason. But Sam Grill can't wait to see him come in and play because he would have played some significant in the back end of last year. If he was on the list, he played two great games at the VFL level, but he's got some in Sam Grill. The Grill Master. The Grill Master. I love it. We're running with it. So that is it for this edition of the AFL Daily Roundtable. We are back for 2026. Thank you so much for joining us. Subscribe to our podcast channel wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll see you again tomorrow with more on AFL Daily.