He was good, Pete, wasn't he?

He was very good.

You were outstanding.

Great to see you.

Uh, usually we start with a bit of a laugh, but there's been a big, big weekend in news around football, and mainly regarding the Carlton Footy Club.

What can you tell us? Yes.

So, uh, the front page of the Herald Sun today surrounding Lachie Cowan and Will Hayward, who were involved in an incident, uh, at a South Yarra house party, believed to be Hayward's house, um, with both of them then attending the Alfred Hospital for varying, uh, degrees of treatment later on.

Mm-hmm.

seat.

So Nathan Buckley, the story came out yesterday that he'd pulled out of the race, and it was almost a two-horse race between Graham and Buckley.

My understanding is that Buckley had pulled out as early as Friday after having an early coffee with Todd Viney earlier last week.

I think he just didn't really...

Want to go for the role.

He's got other plans moving forward.

Who knows what those are? Maybe down at the Cattery, Bill.

Go.

And everyone understands that's the case.

Yeah.

And everyone's okay with it.

Yeah.

But this one, it's just go.

So we're trying to think.

I knew I had one more cross for Melbourne.

I'm happy with the flip of the coin.

Yeah, yeah.

You just have an extra beer on the flight, you sleep a little bit more, and have a look at the pods that they've been in as well, the fully lie-down, uh, seats.

Now, I think in saying that, you do need a few days to acclimatize, 100%.

Um, you know, 17 hours difference in time zone.

Um, uh, I, I mean, I understand that the Rams sport scientists and, that, that have among the best in the world think that they can play on adrenaline and, and get themselves right.

But I think in terms of, um, what's gonna happen tomorrow morning Australia time, there's no doubt that the 49ers have set themselves up better suc- to succeed in the next 24 hours.

I mean, what happens in week two, I guess there's a debate that the 49ers might be off-kilter when they come back to the States.

How big of a brand is the NFL in Australia, and how much bigger do you think it will be after this game?

Yeah, yeah.

You just have an extra beer on the flight.

You sleep a little bit more, and have a look at the pods that they've been in as well, the fully lie-down, uh, seats.

Now, I think in saying that, you do need a few days to acclimatize, 100%.

Um, you know, 17 hours difference in time zone.

Um, y- I, I, I mean, I understand that the Rams sport scientists and, that, that have among the best in the world think that they can play on adrenaline and, and get themselves right.

But I think in terms of, um, what's gonna happen tomorrow morning Australia time, there's no doubt that the 49ers have set themselves up better suc- to succeed in the next 24 hours.

How big of a brand is the NFL in Australia, and how much bigger do you think it will be after this game?

Yes.

So Mitch, as the, uh, yeah, all over the details of, of everything, the fine details, has noticed that if you have something that you know is gonna last for at least another 30 seconds, what Mitch will do is he will wait until, let's say it's 9:30 in the morning.

Um.

Yeah, no, I think, I think if Gold Coast, um, had a, a, a great deal put on the table for them, even though Christian Petraka still has three or four years left on his deal, I think there's a chance that a deal could get done there.

I don't think Petraka wants to leave Gold Coast, but if the Dogs want to throw the kitchen sink at, at someone, and Petraka is that person-

Oh, God

But, no, North Melbourne have, uh, have, have refused to challenge the three-match ban that was handed down to Paul Curtis last night for a dangerous tackle on Hamish Davis.

So that means that he's gonna miss three pretty winnable games that are coming up, uh, in the next three, which I believe is Essendon, uh, Richmond, and, uh, Port Adelaide.

So three games that North Melbourne really need to win, and he's one of their best players, contracted until the end of 2033.

So not a great result for Paul and the Roos, but it's what the former skipper Jai Simpkin, uh, said after it that I can tell you, uh, is currently being discussed in AFL House right now.

So Jai Simpkin, and, uh, there were some extensive quotes that he put up on Instagram but then deleted, and I'll read you part of that, which was in response to Curtis getting three weeks.

He said, "The AFL needs to get it together.

What's that about? There must be a lot of meeting rooms.

So, uh, maybe he looks backward in hindsight with a little bit of, you know, maybe if he had've dived a bit deeper it would've been a, a more appealing job.

I think there's an argument to be made, Stevie, that, and as we all allude to, that Stephen King is overperforming with what he's got, and there's still a lot of things that are difficult at the Melbourne Footy Club, uh, behind the scenes with list and, and how they've got their hands tied.

I mean, they're still paying Clayton Oliver about $700,000 a year, and, and, you know, they gave away the, the, you know, first-rounders, and Petracca's gone.

You'd be looking at it in that instance and going, "Why would you take over this?" And then there's the executive concerns.

Paul Guerra was sacked, uh, pretty early on to, into his tenure, and right now there's about two weeks to go until they either lock in Waverley as a interim home to try and figure out what goes on with Caulfield, or they miss out and it goes to the Richmond Football Club.

They've been having plenty of meetings with the MRC behind the scenes, and the government between the MRC as well to try and get this done in the next two weeks.

But to ask, to answer the question around Bucks, it didn't look pretty, and Melbourne Footy Club are doing really well when there's actually still a lot going on around them.

... to say, "We're going with Stephen King" ahead of him.

Yeah.

And that was at, at least they tried to make that as dignified as exit as possible.

When Bucks finished at Collingwood, that was left to really late in the year, I guess, until it was beyond reasonable doubt, as people at the club would say at that time.

So for Michael Voss, I don't, I don't think this week is the week that he gets, you know, sacked, but i- it probably...

He's the only out of contract coach in the AFL, and it's hard to see a way that he earns a contract extension for this year.

What, uh, how did that unfold?

So second game back in the VFL after having about 18 months off, uh, and he's done a six-week hamstring in the VFL.

He'd kicked two goals to that point.