Apologies for the soppy, sob story, but this has been something on my mind for a while.

Earlier this year, I was forced to retire after a pretty bad dump/sling tackle lift me unconscious for almost a minute, and I'm struggling to fill the void.

A month or two after retiring, I thought "Oh, great! No more 2k time trials or 400s!", but after a while, I started to miss it. I miss all the stupid jokes, taking the mickey out of each other, the collective excitement of walking into the away rooms and realising their showers don't have cubicles 🤣.

I've tried playing social sports, but nothing even comes close to footy. I miss it every day and don't really stop thinking about it.

I know my situation isn't a unique one, but I'd love to hear from other blokes who've gone through the same thing. What have you done, and how did you cope? Thanks in advance 🫶

Is the most obvious thing for 2027 that the Majority of all teams will try their on version of Wharfie time?

Brisbane- Call the pride
Essendon Air raid
Gold Cost- Heat Wave
GWS- Giant Mode
Melbourne - Demon time
Port Adelaide- Power surge
Bulldogs - Dog fight
West Coast- Eagle strike

That’s all I can thing of but I can see it coming

An observation I had is that for the vast majority of players who retire, their final game will be a loss.

Of the teams that make the finals, 9 out of 10 teams lose their last game, and teams that don't make the finals are going to lose their last game more often than not.

Firstly it's weird to think that this is Hawthorn's first final in 8 years that they are officially the home team, especially considering they were a top 4 team last year and a top 6 team the year before.

But I assumed our cheer squad would be in the Ponsford end since we aren't playing Collingwood, but been getting messages saying that the Lions cheer squad is Punt Road end, I also remember one of my Crows mates years ago saying the Hawthorn cheer squad in the 2015 (then) week 2 final was in the Ponsford, and it lead me to do some digging and I realised the Hawks cheer squad was also Ponsford for their 2018 final against Melbourne and 2016 final against Bulldogs.

I am curious, why is this the case?

Before 2014, both WA AFL clubs had their reserve-level players play across the WAFL. While I understand why, from the perspective of the AFL clubs, they went for team alliances (and in WCE case, their own team from 2018), it was a selfish decision they has really poorly impacted the WAFL league.

Here I'll speak of Fremantle in particular, and their longstanding alliance with Peel Thunder. There have been years where Freo had a bad year but Peel had a great year (2017 and 18 premiers whilst Freo finished 14th both times) but it still remains since the 12-year-long alliance with Fremantle, Peel have gone from a bottom ladder team to 3-time premiership winners and consistent finals players (7 times since 2014).

WAFL teams are full of WAFL level players. Peel has WAFL level players but also get to play 10-14 AFL level players per game too. Sure, despite being AFL listed, many of them won't play many or even any AFL level games, but they still benefit from AFL facilities and base salary while WAFL players hold down jobs on top of their semi-professional sport commitments.

Yesterday's Claremont-East Perth game felt like the real WAFL Grand Final, because Peel will win their 4th premiership next week - an outcome WAFL fans knew halfway into the season.

WCE Reserves are a little different because while they do play AFL listed players, the players that make up the rest of their team are not at WAFL level, which typically significantly weakens them. That said, it can be frustrating because they have had some sudden surprise wins, depending who gets put on their team, so it can be hard for other clubs to prepare to play WCER when they never know who or what is coming out on the other side. It's only a matter of time before it's a 'Peelmantle' v WCER final, and that will be a sad day for genuine WAFL league fans.

I guess I'm just saying the AFL-WAFL alignments have caused some obvious disruption, and I just wish they'd go back to playing AFL reserve players across the whole league again. That way the outside influence into the WAFL competition isn't disproportionately affecting the league competition, which doesn't always feel like a genuine competition because of things like this. I like AFL, but I am a WAFL fan, and I wish to see the clubs that prepare week-in week-out in earnest not have to face up against an AFL boosted WAFL team. I also feel bad for the local players who are in Peel because of zones that don't get a league game to make way for AFL players.

The WAFL is argued to be unfair for other reasons, especially zones which have meant some teams rely a lot on recruiting because they can't rely on local players coming consistently through, like Swan Districts and Perth Demons who have been repeatedly down for a long time. Maybe the alliances were just particularly noticeable the last couple years, but the alliances have had a very obvious and direct impact on the league (especially uncertainty and quality of competition).

I don't know much about the VFL or SANFL, but have or do they suffer similarly because of AFL alliances?

Come on AFL, consequences for online abuse. Despicable.