The AFL draft is a parallel universe where things are always either good or about to be good. To understand that world, I spoke with the man behind FootyStuff, whose channel has become the draft’s accidental memory bank. New on One Percenters: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/the-archiv...

Still searching for folks to assist with AFLW previews for the following clubs: Collingwood, Fremantle, Gold Coast, GWS, Richmond, St Kilda, and West Coast. Is that you? Someone who follows you? Please get in touch or share this post. My DMs are open.

Gideon Haigh books about not-cricket, essays about the joy of discovering Proust, maddeningly addictive poker roguelikes, and more low-stakes maintenance – this is some of what I got up to in June. www.onepercenters.net.au/p/culture-co...

I want to write previews for every club ahead of the AFLW season – as I did for the AFLM. Only problem: I'm not super well-informed. So I'm looking for people who can help me. Is that you, or someone you know? Then please get in touch – and share this post. My DMs are open.

Last call for this piece, wherein I try to explain my feelings whenever a player goes down with concussion.

I wrote about Jeremy McGovern, and Paul Seedsman, and the Selwood twins, and grappling with the burden of what footy can do to its players. www.onepercenters.net.au/p/the-ethics...

There's no better way to follow the excitement of #AFLSunsFreo than by reading the latest Culture Corner. Read if you like: proto-existential Jewish philosophy, songs written by forests, and figuring out where the hell I've been for the last month. www.onepercenters.net.au/p/culture-co...

Books about right-wing cranks! Russian emigre writers! That exoplanet that might be harbouring life! Vapourware-inspired puzzle games! Read about all this and other things I enjoyed in the last month, in the latest edition of Culture Corner. www.onepercenters.net.au/p/culture-co...

With 25.6% of the Home & Away season already completed, I thought I'd do something very original* for this week's newsletter and write down my thoughts on how every single team is doing so far. The good, the bad, the key stats, even... a grade out of 10. www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-round...

Port find the right balance between the old and the new! The Crows can't defend! And Collingwood very much can. All that, and a bit more (including the now apparently regular Wanganeen-Milera role update), in this week's Roundabout: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-round...

Tonight, I'll be looking for: - How Carl improve scoring inside 50. Mid-fwd connection needs to be better. - How Carl can lengthen poss'n chains. Too many dump kicks so far. - Who wins fwd half T/O battle. These sides are #2 and #3 so far, all about execution. #AFLPiesBlues

Watching Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera on the weekend and getting the vague sense that he was playing higher up the ground sent me down a rabbit hole of unpacking St Kilda's unusual and effective ball movement scheme. That, and a bit on Brisbane's comeback: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-round...

Wrote some words about the books and essays I read, shows I watched, albums I listened to, games I played, and heroic feats of practical masculinity I accomplished in March. www.onepercenters.net.au/p/culture-co...

The main theme of tonight's game will be how Ess disrupt PA's ball mvmt. Ess are a decent intercept team (4th for intercept poss. in 2024) and PA are moving to a more handball-heavy scheme. Ess will get opportunities (Ridley in helps). All about how they capitalise. #AFLDonsPort

This Week in Football! Here's a new project to try to bring together a curated grab bag of short pieces of analysis from the many great footy observers in online/social media/generally non-club non-broadcaster spaces. thisweekinfootball.great-site.net?p=1

Sorry the newsletter is late. I was watching the replay of the Bombers vs. Crows game. There are many things wrong with Carlton's mid-fwd connection. An underrated one? They're not getting the ball into the hands of their best kicks enough. My deep dive: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-round...

Footy fans, please help me with some research for an article I'm in the early stages of cooking up: tell me your team's five best inside-50 kicks. The only restrictions are they had to be on the list in 2024 and are ideally best-22 when fit.

In the early stages of something fairly audacious: a guide to identifying the main tactical themes in a game. Call it a tactics cheat sheet. Ball movement, attacking/defending transition, stoppages, you name it. Keen to contribute? My DMs are open.

Anth - one of the best in business, follow him even if you're not an Essendon fan - let me don my Mr Hyde nuff persona to be consider what the Crows need to do to win at the MCG on Saturday.

On Saturday, Fremantle and Port Adelaide showed how you can fail the old, boring way – or the new, exciting way. Their insistence on elaboration was at the heart of their shocking results. In my first Roundabout of the new season, I dig into how it happened: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-round...

To celebrate the return of footy, I'm offering 25% off annual subscriptions until the end of March. Just $45 to support a different kind of footy media for a whole year. Redeem your offer here: www.onepercenters.net.au/orsale

The Bulldogs are one of the most mercurial sides in footy, led by one of its most eccentric coaches. Underneath it all, they're a good – very good – team. But, this year, they face some difficult challenges. My 2025 Western Bulldogs season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Here's a sneaky lil season preview with some pretty charts and (I think) good reasonable opinions www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...

The Eagles are entering an exciting new era. New coach. New game plan. Lots of new players. But many of the same questions are still waiting for an answer. My 2025 West Coast preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Had a great time chatting with former Freo champion Paul Hasleby on SEN WA about the newsletter, the new stats Champion Data will be collecting from this season, and what Freo need to do in order to improve: open.spotify.com/episode/6mPq...

Sydney were the best team in it, or very close, until the day it mattered most. They will need to rebound from another chastening Grand Final defeat and adjust to a new head coach. But their talent is beyond question. My 2025 Sydney season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Season 2 of the Rossnaissance didn't quite deliver. And a spate of injuries threatens to derail Season 3 before it even begins. But the Saints are a more interesting proposition than many people realise. My 2025 St Kilda preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

The Tigers are at the beginning of a long road. What lies at the end of that road depends in large part on how their eight new draftees acclimatise to the AFL, and how their coach and senior teammates can help them grow. My 2025 Richmond season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

On the surface, it was Groundhog Day at Alberton: Port beat bad teams and lost to good teams when the heat was on. But underneath the surface, tectonic plates began shifting. How many shifted in the right direction? My 2025 Port Adelaide season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

It's Year Zero again at Arden Street. The hope is that a trio of Premiership players will help mentor a talented young group and, at long last, let supporters see light at the end of the tunnel. Will it work? My 2025 North Melbourne season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Oh, hell yes. That's gorgeous data viz.

The Dees had the season from hell. On and off the field, everything went wrong. There are question marks over the coach, the culture, and the future of key players. But I'm not quite convinced they're done, just yet. My 2025 Melbourne season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Many thanks to Jake for having me on to chat about the newsletter, the Cats, and which teams might rise/fall this season. I don't think I babbled *too* much.

The Hawks are brash. But they're also well-drilled and superbly well-coached. And, in 2025, they'll be even stronger. It is up to rival coaches and analysts to find a way to stop them. My 2025 Hawthorn season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

23 minutes into their Qualifying Final, everything was looking great for the Giants. The hours, days and months that followed were disastrous. They could bounce back. But it's just as easy to see them sliding down the ladder. My 2025 GWS preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Damien Hardwick improved the Gold Coast Suns in his first year. To make them genuinely good, he needs to improve the quality of their forward-half play, and slay the demons of the club's inglorious past. My 2025 Gold Coast season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

A silly little milestone. Thanks for all the support so far!

The Cats have added Bailey Smith to a team that was winning the prelim with fewer than five minutes to go. Will he be enough to make this endlessly fascinating side an A1 premiership contender again? My 2025 Geelong season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

The Dockers probably already had a Premiership-calibre list. Then they traded in Shai Bolton. Good times should be right around the corner. But there's a couple of problems. My 2025 Fremantle season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Same number of wins. Same B&F winner. Same cautious early-season optimism curdling into disappointment. On the surface, the Bombers appear to be treading water. But I think they're finally beginning to go somewhere. My Essendon 2025 season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

The Pies are doubling down on a strategy of recruiting established players and largely bypassing the draft. It could work. But it's a huge risk. My Collingwood 2025 season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Three years into Michael Voss' tenure as Carlton coach, and it somehow still feels like we don't know if this combination of list and coach can truly push for a flag. The Blues think they can. I have my doubts. My Carlton 2025 season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Brisbane: they won the Premiership through significant adversity and completed a very satisfying narrative arc. They have yet another Ashcroft. But they also lost Joe. How will they go defending their crown? I took a look.

The Lions climbed a mountain many people thought they couldn't to win the flag in 2024. Whether they can go back-to-back will depend on how well they can replace an enigmatic, moustachioed cult hero forward. My Brisbane 2025 season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

The Crows wilted in the face of heightened expectations in 2024. But beyond the gloom and disgruntlement, there are some reasons for cautious optimism. My Adelaide 2025 season preview: www.onepercenters.net.au/p/2025-afl-s...

Copying a thread I wrote over on the bad place. Some loosely connected thoughts, trying in vain to make sense of an awful couple of days in footy. Caveat: very little has been revealed about the deaths of Troy Selwood or Adam Hunter (totally reasonably), so I'm filling in some blanks.

Shabby treatment of Peter Lalor by SEN. Ethical journalists are able to separate their personal opinions from their professional work. Media employers should be backing their staff, not caving into pressure from those who disagree with presenters' personal views. theage.com.au/sport/cricke...

The Essendon Football Club is in mourning after the passing of VFL Senior Coach Dale Tapping on Tuesday morning. A universally loved and respected football person, Tapping bravely fought Myeloma, an aggressive form of blood cancer, from January 2023. Rest in peace, Tapps ❤️

Need a reason to be somewhat optimistic about the Crows in 2025? Izak Rankine and Riley Thilthorpe only played 1.5 games together last year.

This is wonderful - a great analytical tool and also just a fun thing to use. Three cheers to Ben!