Paul previews the Cats v Tigers game.
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[Music] What’s up everybody? Paul here from the Hoops Crew with the first Paul James show in a little while. It is our round 17 preview episode. It’s good to be back doing the Paul James show once again and excited to have all of you who are already here getting active in the chat tonight. We’re seeing Mark who’s here talking about getting the W on the board against the Cats. We’ve got Shadoo that’s popped in. We’ve got Jackie here. Um hoping I don’t miss anyone. Amy’s just popped in. Lots of you already there busy in the chat tonight. Looking forward to chatting to all of you over the course of the show because it has been a little while about a week and a half now since we’ve had any any dialogue. We’ve of course had the the live stream the other night for the the mid-season review uh episode that myself, Ben, and the chaps were all on board for, but the the old Paul James show format uh it’s been missing roaming. Good to hear you there in the chat as well. And apologies if I’ve missed anyone else at this stage, but it is really good to be back. Good to be doing it again. Um and I’m looking forward to getting into the show with you nice and soon. Firstly, in terms of the run of show tonight, we’re going to go through match selection where there’s not a lot to it. Uh we’ll jump into match preview mode, talking about the Cats and the Tigers in a bit of detail. We’ll explore the other games of the round. We’ve got a player spotlight where we’re going to talk about Ollie Dempsey and all he’s notched up so far and of course his awesome contract signing since we did an episode of this last. We’ll jump into some Q&A. We’ll deal with game of the week, which is going to be a little bit different this week. I’m not going to be spotlighting a game, but more of a a near and dear subject within the gaming industry. Um, and we’ll wrap things up from there. It won’t be the longest of shows tonight. I’m really looking to try and keep it closeish to an hour simply because uh for me this is the final week of the school term and I am absolutely stuffed. Um, so not a lot of gas in the tank. Got to try and limp through. uh very much looking forward to doing this and kind of that there’s that little surge of energy, but I need to go get an early night. I’ve I’ve run out of steam. Uh it’s time for this teacher to go into into power down mode for the most part. So, let’s get into things uh before even getting into match selection by talking about some of the big topics of the week. One of those, a very large topic across the AFL was the conversation around Tom Lynch. Of course, he’s not going to be playing for the Tigers this weekend because he has been suspended for five weeks for that uh throwing of hands on the weekend. He got a bit Alistister Lynch um in this particular scenario and uh took a few pot shots at I think it was Jordan Buts from from Adelaide um and has a fiveweek suspension for it. The Tigers decided not to contest it after they they pushed for three. The AFL pushed for five. If anyone saw the video that I put together for the hoops crew where I was speculating, I thought it was going to be three or five. I actually felt like the rubric was going to work in Richmond’s favor and that that would get them to three. But whether they they saw the writing on the wall or they just didn’t think it was worth it, I don’t know. But uh five was the decision. I think it’s the right one, but I just didn’t think we’d get to that uh particular conclusion. Um five weeks is the suspension. Uh Fight Club we’ve got at Richmond here between between Tom Lynch and Noah Bolter. Apparently that club just likes taking pot shots at people. So, um, yeah, we’ll leave that alone. I don’t want to get too I don’t want to get too in the weeds about one punches and those sorts of things, but that’s a cultural thing. Let’s fix that one up. It’s a societywide problem, of course, as well. So, let’s let’s not be encouraging it. Let’s not be glorifying it when you’ve got this amazing pedestal and you’re earning millions of dollars over over multiple years. It’s not on. Um, Shadoo, sorry. Roaming says, “Please boo no a balter.” I don’t like booing to be honest. Um but I’m no and us as a club, we’re better than that. I would say we are better than that. So that said, we also heckled our own we heckled our own in eyes recently. So I don’t know what to believe anymore. Um but we’re better than that. So let’s let’s not be booing Tom Lynch. I get it roaming. I totally understand how and why people would want want to do that. But ah I think everyone got it out of the system in that Gold Coast game. Um and it’s done. Another piece of news this week does relate relate to our beloved Jalong Cats. It is relating to Mark Blitz because he’s recently gotten engaged. So, a massive congratulations uh to Mark who’s now engaged to and I to be honest, I didn’t know her name beforehand, but uh Georgia Mina. I don’t know if I’ve pronounced her surname right there, but Georgia Mina. Um congratulations to the both of them though. Uh and not sure if there’s some sort of timeline in place for the wedding, but uh I’m sure on behalf of everyone at the Hoops crew, everyone in the community, everyone in the Jalong supporter base, we’re wishing them all the best and hopefully that goes really really well to them. Shoo nails it. Congrats, Blitz. And that’s the the smaller news stories out of the way and it allows us to get into uh match selection. And as I think Jackie nailed before, match selection equals no change. There’s no change for the Cats this week from the team that went to field against Brisbane a couple of weeks ago and lost. Um but no changes for the Cats there. It means that our bench uh currently looks like Tyson Stangle, Lawson Humphre, Mitch Duncan, Mark Oconor, and Ollle Henry. One of those of course will be the sub this week. The emergencies I think is exactly the same as two weeks ago as well. Jed Bues, Jack Bose, and George Stevens, who even when we’re playing against the Tigers cannot break through. This is getting infuriating. Please, please give this bloke a game. Um Roaming’s also shout out that North is being smashed at the moment. Jeez, I started the show early and didn’t expect to see a hiding nice and early. I tipped I tipped the dogs by 42. Oh, hang on. It’s 12 to zero. Oh, but the game’s been going for less than 5 minutes. Okay. Uh, justice for views. It’s right. Uh, should do surprise no rest. I mean, look, for me, I I wouldn’t be banking on a rest off the back of a buy because everyone’s got an arrest. Um, so I don’t know that the rest sort of rationale is the right one, but uh I’m just surprised there’s been no changes. Anyway, did they not do match selection? Maybe not. Maybe. No, it’ll do. That’s fine. We’re playing Richmond. Just send them out there again. But please don’t underestimate the Tigers. They’ve proven on a couple of occasions this year they are not as bad as everyone expected them to be this season. They’ve got some fight in them and if we’re not careful, it could come back to bite us or give us a bit of a give us a bit of a scare. That said, this was the perfect opportunity to give George Stevens a go, as Shadu says, and I’m really disappointed that hasn’t happened. some milestones though this week. Um, Chris Scott is playing his 350th game and jeez, I wish I should have been more alert and had the graphic ready. Might see if I’ve got it available somewhere because I’ve got it here and we’re bringing it back just to just to spite Ben for a moment. So, hang on. Let me get rid of that. We’ll stop sharing that screen for now. More on that later. Um, we’ll bring this one back just for just for Ben because if he if he ends up coming off the emergencies list, we want to congratulate Jack Bose. Uh, Jack Bose uh on his 50th game in the event that he comes off the emergency list this weekend. But Chris Scott, 350th game as a coach is the the big milestone and a massive congratulations to Chris Scott. That is an enormous accomplishment. Um, I believe Most games coached as a cat’s coach now. Games coached at Jalong. I’m pretty sure he’s comfortably above that milestone now. Yeah, he’s Yeah, Red Cheeky was 304. That’s right. He did it ages ago. Um so most most games coached uh 350 this weekend. Hopefully capped with a win. um as opposed to the last 350 game milestone that we celebrated two weeks ago. An update from roaming. North is no longer being smashed. They’re down by five points. Um but let’s let’s keep this one going. So yeah, congratulations to Jack Bose if he plays game 50. Um, continuing on from there though, looking at the injury list, Cam Guthrie is listed as a test, but we spoke about this on the match, sorry, the mid-season review episode the other day. Uh, there was photos of him from training looking pretty sharp. The hair is starting to grow, so his magic powers might be back. Toby Conway is now down to two weeks out of football. Sam Doning down to two to three. J Clark will be I presume this is going to be out of date. He’d be coming out of concussion protocols now. would have thought. Um Ben might have because Ben’s been working on the the show notes for a little while. He may well have written that one up before it was updated July 2nd, which was yesterday. He’s still listed as the concussion protocol. So that’s an interesting one. And uh Jake call Jazznney is listed as indefinite. We’ve got some notable absentes to discuss. Of course, all three of those that are already on the emergency list. So I think it’s really important to acknowledge Jed Bu and sorry Jack Bose um and George Stevens as players who are frightfully unlucky to be not be playing as Roaming said before as I wholeheartedly agree justice for Jed. Um I want to see I want to see Buy playing week in week out but maybe there’s some sort of strategy to it similar to last year where he is going to be right there kicking the door down and then comes in at a million miles an hour at the end of the season. uh what dead Bu’s played the last two or three home and away games and then all through the finals and played fantastic football. Maybe there’s something maybe there’s something in that. I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to be repeated this year. Uh Roaming says saying #justice forbes for each time he says. I just did it twice then. Justice for Jed. I like I like the it rolls off the tongue better. But beyond the emergencies, we’ve also got three other notable absentes. Mitch Nevett who’s been playing good footy in the VFL, Ollie Wilshshire and Ted Closy, all three have been doing some really great stuff for the Cats uh in the Seconds. And you know, I mean, I guess regardless of where we stand on on the various players who are in or out of the team at the moment, I think it’s great to have six, we’ve just, you know, spoke about six players who are absolutely, if required, good to go and are playing at a really high standard of football. And that’s just six. There’s there’s more than that, but we’ve just spoken about six from tonight. It’s really good for for Jalong. Depth is obviously such an important thing in the AFL. We spoke about in the match uh the season review episode the other day. The Cats have played 30 different players so far this year. It’s not a lot when you think about it. Um especially probably compared to a lot of other clubs. We’ve had a pretty solid uh 23 for the entire season so far. to only roll seven other players through in various different capacities is great for depth, great for form and and and fitness, but it’s also awesome to know that those who are on the fringe are playing really good football and if needed will come in and hopefully kick some goals, maybe literally one literal ones as well. Mark says, “Jalong’s future is looking bright with such players not being able to break into the team.” Absolutely. Amy says, “You’ve got to have good depth. That’s what every successful team in the AFL has is depth. It’s why Carlton’s struggling at the moment because they don’t have any. Uh in terms of the opposition this week, we’ve got three in, three outs. The the number one draft pick, Sam Lelor, returns for the Tigers, as does Thomas Sims and Morris Rioli. the outs. We’ve obviously spoken about Tom Lynch in his fiveweek suspension, but as well as Tom Lynch, they’re also leing uh losing uh Mckelty Lefoul and Steelely Green, which is just a wild name. Steely Green. The umpires for the week, Lee Fisher, Justin Power, Jack Howard, and Harrison Burch. That uh that is your ins and outs for this week. um some really I guess fascinating decisions or lack of decisions when it comes to the the team selection, but we are now building towards a finals campaign hopefully and um we’ll see how it all continues to shape up over the course of the season. Romy’s just kind of referenced Jack Martin. Um it it’s a really interesting one I think to kind of see how the club handles Jack Martin over the course of the season. He’s obviously taken a long time to to crack the team. He’s had his good and and bad moments over the course of the the year. Um, sorry, over the course of his couple games he’s played. And I think we’re I think the club wants to persist with a, you know, wait and see, like give him time, see what he can do, see if he can flourish and find find that form that he’s had when he was at Gold Coast and Carlton at his best and when he’s fit. And if he doesn’t find it, well, he just slips out. So, I think there could be something to that, but we’ll wait and see. Um I the guy’s super capable so it’s just whether he can kind of rediscover some touch getting into larger match preview mode. I might just project the game so that we’ve got Oh my god. Yeah. North in front as as Roaming has said. What is going on? I tipped the dogs by 42 points tonight. It’s early. It’s early. That’s all. Like I’ll just keep that in my head. It’s early. Um, we’ll just keep Jack Bose here for a little bit longer. Uh, let’s let’s bring up the Cats and the Tigers where we are one day 20 hours and just shy of 30 minutes away from the bounce of the ball. 4:15 p.m. on Saturday, July 5th. Um, Saturday, July 5th for that matchup at the MCG. No, sorry, GHB, I should say. Um, so make sure if you’re going going along that all the more reason I guess if you want to go down the roaming path and boo noa, there’s going to be a lot of supporters there around you, but let’s be better than that, please. Um, I’m looking forward to this matchup. Not because it’s necessarily going to be the most enticing, not that we’re necessarily going to maybe feel much tension through this game, but to see the Cats come out and maybe flex their muscle a little bit should be really, really good. Uh, oh, the chaps popped in. Assume Jake. um saying, “What would his cafe be called, Jackie?” Jed Bruise. I love it. Absolutely love it. Um and sorry, that’s in reference to the fact that Jackie said earlier that Jed is apparently Yeah. working on a cafe, maybe opening a cafe, which is awesome. Uh some some details around the game. So, as I said, 4:15 uh Saturday. Make sure you’re arriving early. Of course, we know that what the traffic and the parking situation can be like near GMHBA, let alone during the wintertime where things are slower again. The temperature, the forecast is 16° with a possible shower. Going into this game, the Cats currently sit fourth on the ladder, coming off a loss, as we’ve discussed earlier to Brisbane. Five wins from our last six games. The Tigers, they are 17th on the ladder right now. Uh they’re in the midst of a six-game, hopefully a sevengame losing streak with two wins from their last 14 matches. Some history here. Jalong need a smashing to win the comp over. I don’t think anyone’s kind of fallen out of love with Jalong off the back of the Brisbane game. I think most outside observers are looking at Jalong go, okay, they they had a they had a bad one. And I think that’s where most of us kind of stand on that game as well is that execution was the biggest problem for the Cats um in that that particular game. We just couldn’t hit our targets. We were missing basic basic passes um at critical points on the ground and they came back to bite us on the ass. And we’ve had that blip a couple of times this year. I would say that was the case against uh Carlton. I would say that was the case against St Kilda. So, I think I I I I don’t think anyone’s necessarily jumped off us too much. And Shadu’s just jumped in saying Fox has a possible premiership winner. Everyone would have seen I posted I think Jackie had posted in the Discord. I grabbed the image and dropped it during the the match the sorry, damn it, I keep doing the season review video that we did the other day. Uh Jalong is I think one of three teams that Fox has got in the premiership window based on being inside the top six for scores for and scores against. Um, it’s obviously bottom four for scores against, but let’s get into some history justice for Bose. There we go. Let’s Let’s do it. Jack Bose, what a ripper. Um, all right. So, history, 203 games have been played between Jalong and Richmond since 1908 with the Cats winning 53% of those. They’ve been uh sorry, they’ve played off in 12 finals, including three grand finals, 2020, which we got a star next to. Uh 1967 and 1931. There’ve been three draws between the two uh the two teams. The last time he played at Cadinia Park, round 13, 2024, the Cats won by 30 points. Richmond has lost six straight games at GMHBA Stadium and have had one win from 15 attempts. Uh for a little bit of extra history and for some reminders here, uh take let’s go back to 2017 when the Tigers were sooking up after having to play at GHBA that year. Now, of course, they won the flag that year in the end, but didn’t take too kindly having to play in Jalong at all. Uh get over yourselves. Uh Jalong’s won four of the five last meetings between the two teams. And of course, some golden memories here. Jalong’s highest winning margin against the Tigers was 157 points at what is now referred to as Marvel Stadium in 2007. I was there. If you were there in the chat, let me know. Uh that was an amazing amazing game. Round six, 2007. I could not believe what I saw. It was also the highest score that Jong has ever notched up against the Tigers with 222 points on the scoreboard that day. To dive into Oh, Jackie was there. Good. If there’s anyone else, please, you know, let me know if you were there that day. Awesome game of football. Um, oh, you were there with the Richmond family. Sucked in Richmond family. I’ll keep hitting those. If there’s anyone else that was there that day, let me know in the chat. And, uh, looking forward to kind of making sure we highlight that because some awesome history uh, in that window of time. We look at the two clubs and players that have changed hands over the years. Tyson Stangle um was at the Tigers. Brad Uton’s big pill, Trevor P, Rex Hunt, Shane Williams all played at the Tigers before coming to the Cats. On the flip side, we’ve donated a lot of our players to the Tigers over the years. Josh Caddyy, Taylor Hunt, Mark Neil, Adam Hulahan, Craig Bittiskum, uh Paul Paul Sarah, Andy Preston, Graeme Landy, and Gareth Andrews have all been cats that have then gone on to wear the black and white for the Tigers. The footballing department, of course, there’s also Neil Balm and Tommy Hayy that have exchanged hands between the two clubs over the years as well. Here’s a little bit of trivia for you in case you missed it. recent Richmond debuton or you know one of their recent draft picks this this past draft. Luke Traor is the grandson of Jalong legend Doug Wade. It’s a shame we don’t have grandfather sun rules because he’s a pretty damn good player from all I’ve seen. Did I say black and white? Sorry, roaming. Black and yellow. Yellow and black. Um but yeah, L train grandson of the Jalong legend Doug Wade. It’s a real bloody shame that we can’t don’t have some sort of uh grandfather son thing in place cuz he’s a pretty good player from all I’ve seen. Would love to have had him in the hoops. Not to be though. He’s a Tiger. Maybe we can woo him over sometime in the future. In terms of the opposition and what we need to be looking out for me, there’s a few key players that are really, really important. Nick Vston, Jacob Hopper, and Tim Toranto. I’ll also put the spicy meat meatball Deion Preia in there as well. the uh sorry the Richmond midfield still has a lot of skill behind it and there’s you know you add your Sam Laws and your Luke trainers who young and got depth and skill and just need to develop their bodies and get more experience at the highest level. Uh like their midfield pretty pretty solid. Um so look out for the midfield. Nick Vost is obviously really important for them in the defensive end. Um, and I did kind of kid the other day about um, Noah Bolter, but you know that the game would end after his curfew, but or sorry, would end before his curfew, but yeah, 4:15 start. Oh, lineups. He is still Yeah, he’s still listed. So, I guess the belief is that they can wrap the game like he can finish up at 6:30 or whatever and jump in his car and just race home. No, no need to uh have an unwind. No ice baths. Just get home and and make sure you don’t get in trouble with the cops. Make sure your your ankle bracelet doesn’t go off. Um so what time what is it? 10:00. I thought he’s I thought his um Noah Balter What’s the curfew? Oh, he has to be home by 10 o’clock. Yeah, that’s okay. That’s plenty of time. There’s plenty of time. But as as Amy’s just highlighted, there are Yeah, Jackie is correct. Yeah, it’s 10:00. Um there’s plenty of premiership talent on that team. Noah Balter, Nathan Broad, Nick Fost, Don Preia, Big Nank, Toranto, uh, sorry, Torto and Hopper haven’t. Um, but there’s, you know, there’s still a few Premiership players on that list and some then some other really talented players in around him. Interesting to see they’ve put Sam Lor at full forward this week. um that certainly won’t be the case. But um there’s there’s a lot of talent on that list and you know don’t I guess it’s so easy for us to go we’re playing the tigers. Everyone expects them to be last. They’re 17th on the ladder. They’ve not won many. Don’t underestimate them please. This is still a very very talented team uh with a lot of young players and we know what what it’s like for a young team where once they get their tails up they can be hard to stop. Um, so please let’s and you know for us as supporters but also the Cats players, make sure we take him seriously. Talking about father sons, I’d like Tom Brown. Damn Tigers. Yeah, Tom Brown. Tom Brown. Uh, where are we? Uh, opposition. So strength uh, the strength of the Tigers. I mean, it’s that midfield. I just discussed it. That midfield is is pretty pretty stacked to the brim with some talent, both experienced and young and up up and coming. and you know our midfield is perhaps one of our vulnerable areas. So um we got to be really careful in that respect. That said, the big weakness for the Tigers right now, especially with Tom Lynch out, is their forward line. Uh and Jalong’s defense is one of our greatest strengths. So I think we could potentially have a bit of a field day with these with these young developing inexperienced uh Richmond forwards and really run them off their legs, play that insep game really well uh and and kind of kill them. So, I think that’s I think that’s their greatest weakness and and greatest opportunity for us at the same time. Sorry, Amy, I accidentally clicked that one. What did we say? Uh, but for as many games they’ve played, yeah, they they’ve been they’re a pretty talented team. We need we need pepper spray. Is that for for Noah Bolter. What’s at stake? Well, for the Cats, we are obviously making a push for a top two finish. The loss against the Lions didn’t help, but we are still in the box seat to get that top two spot on the ladder. So I think it’s really really important that we make sure we bank this win and if percentage is going to come into the mix. I think our biggest competitor for that spot is actually the crows percentage. We’ve got to build that percentage up whenever we can. And this is one of those occasions. I know I’ve just spoken about underestimating the tags, but if we don’t underestimate them, if we come at them as if they’re a top t top eight team buying for the premiership and bring that like the intent is there, we should win by 60 plus points. And if we do that, we’re really looking after that percentage. So, we’ll see what happens in that regard. But, uh, Cats by 60 plus for me is the is the final margin. For the Tigers, of course, they’re trying to avoid that final spot on the ladder. Um, and good luck to them. They’ve filled their boots with the recent draft, so they don’t necessarily need to um tank or worry too much about getting pick one. So, we’ll see what happens in that particular regard. They may not even have pick two either. If the West Coast Eagles come last and they lose Oscar Allen, they may get pick two as a result. So, the Tigers might be looking at pick three in this particular draft regardless. And that is the main segment of our show here, our match preview. So, before we go any further, we are going to get into our player spotlight shortly. Uh we’re going to talk about all the other games of the round. We are first going to take a word from our sponsor, Sirill Cook Florest. Drop those flower emojis, please. The Hoopscrew Media Network is proudly sponsored by Sirill Cook Florest. Visit them at shop 1211 Leather Street in Breakwater. Phone them on 035LE24 or visit their website at www.sircookflorest.com.au AU and use the offer code goats in the voucher field at checkout to get 20% off your next online purchase. Thank you sir Cook Forest as always for your ongoing support of the hoops crew and all we get up to. Now, let’s move on from that into the other games of the round where we can see here that as we’ve been talking a little bit about over the course of the game so far, the round has begun with Oh, we’ve got a Ben typo. Not Melbourne. North Melbourne versus the Western Bulldogs. The dogs back in the lead here to the tune of six points. 4-125 beating the Kangaroos 3119. Carlton play the pies at the MCG on Friday night. That is a mighty interesting game with all the talk about carton and then the fact that they have to go headto-head with the pies. Now obviously the pies are one of one of the benchmark teams in the competition here. But this is the sort of occasion where all that noise tends to disappear and it’s all about we hate the pies. We need to trounce these BS. And maybe that is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Blues. Maybe that’s what they need to just get up and about, get out of their own heads, go and try and, you know, really bash up on an opponent. And while I don’t think they’ll be successful in in that endeavor, um, it might be what, you know, fans, coaches, officials at the club all need to see, certainly what Michael Voss may need to see. And also, sorry, thank you to those who’ve been dropping those flower emojis there. And yeah, that not is also very Cthulhu like. I like it. No dying flowers. Yes. Oh, shu. I didn’t even notice. Yeah, no dying flowers in there. Or maybe it’s just like a weeping one. I don’t know. Uh, Saturday, lots of football on Saturday. West Coast and the Giants kick it off at Opera Stadium. Essen and Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium. The aforementioned Jalong and Richmond is your Saturday afternoon or Saturday twilight slot there at GMHBA. Then at night time, we’ve got Brisbane and Port Adelaide. St. Kilda and Hawthor Oh, there’s another typo. Brisbane and Port Adelaide at playing at GMHBA. Apparently that’ll be at the Gaba. Uh St Kilda play Hawthorne at Marvel Stadium. S uh Sydney and Freo at the SCG on Sunday. Adelaide and Melbourne at Adelaide Oval. Round everything out. I’m baffled as to why we’ve only got two games on the Sunday. Why one of those Saturday afternoon games, and I don’t mean long in Richmond, but why one of West Coast and GWS or Essen and and Gal Coast, and honestly, it’s probably Essen and Gold Coast, uh because it’s a game in Melbourne, why that game couldn’t have been shifted to Sunday is absolutely beyond me. But everyone, send your love to Ben for two typos in the graphic there. Uh he won’t he won’t love me [ __ ] staring him. I know he’s been very busy and he hasn’t been able to provide me other graphics tonight for that exact reason, but uh suck [ __ ] champ. H give it to him everyone. Oh no, don’t tell me. Did he make a Did he Did he make that typo? Hang on, I’m bringing it back. I need to look at the graphic. Did he Did he miss Oh no, he spelled Sydney. Okay. Right. Bullet dodge for Ben there. Okay. Uh that is the around the grounds for this week. But we do of course have the VFL to consider as well. Uh Jalong who is 15th takes on the Tigers in ninth place. That is 12:05 on Sunday at GHBA Stadium. The team will be named on Friday afternoon. So stay tuned for that. Whilst in the VFLW, the Cats team is surging right now off the back of a couple of consecutive wins. The Cats are now 11th taking on the D’s in 12th. Sunday 11:05 at Casey Fields. I really really don’t like the fact that the women’s team at 11:05, the men’s team at 12:05 that they overlap. Why on earth couldn’t we have had a double header? Why couldn’t we have had them? Maybe if it’s not a double header, but at least not running at the same time so you could bounce over to Well, I like between Casey and GHBA. Roaming says the team’s already been named. didn’t realize that. But uh thank you. I guess Ben maybe. Yeah, he might have. I don’t know. I don’t know. Uh Ben’s a busy boy. So, and he does so much work for me this so I’m not going to sink the boots in too much. That’s for all of you to do. And that takes us to the I guess one of our main attractions of the show tonight, our player spotlight on this bloke, Ollie Dempsey, who has recently resigned through till 2029. It’s awesome to see the recent the most recent rising star winner has been doing some amazing things for the Cats this year. Um, and let’s kind of talk about that in a little bit of detail. So his early his early life is comes from a basketball background as is fairly you know frequently discussed but he comes from a basketball background. You can see it on the way he plays all the time that aerial capacity that game sensor. He really knows quite well what’s going on around him. It’s a fantastic skill set that he’s got. He was drafted by Jalong from Kerry Grammar with pick 15 in the 2021 rookie draft. So many people forget this is a rookie drafted player in the first place but he has blossomed into something amazing. He debuted in round six 2022 against North Melbourne and played two games that year. Let’s not forget that game that was down in Tazzay, that debut game of his. All his mates rolled up in like two°ree temperatures. Their shirts were off um celebrating him. I think they had letters written all across all across their their guts. Doing an amazing job. You love to see it. Um oh, massive shout out to Glenn who’s popped into the chat tonight. Good to see you there, mate. roaming. Uh, a little bit subdued there, just saying Ollie’s a good player. Ollie is an absolute ripper, but I I know what you’re getting at. Um, so yeah, drafted by, sorry, overlooked for the 2022 final series. He’s then he then went and played seven games across his first two seasons before exploding last year. He did get that nomination in round one of 2024 for the rising star and went on to win the award. It’s the second Jalong player to ever win it with the other being Joel Cwood. Uh he was one of the front runners all year and especially once the likes of Sam Darcy and Harley Reed were eliminated from contention. It became so unbelievably obvious that Ollie was going to be um the front runner this year. And sorry Ly’s kicked four goals already. Taking a bit of a look. That’s a monster effort. Good job, Nick Larky. Um, where did I go? Sorry. There we go. Um, across his four seasons now, Ollie Dempsey has played 47 games, kicked 46 goals. Really? He’s been averaging like one and a half a game. Okay. Anyway, he’s played in he’s played in two uh two finals, including the 2024 prelim loss to the Lions. Gig three goals on three occasions so far. Uh he’s recorded his his PB 27 disposals in a game against Richmond in 2024. He’s won the Rising Star medal, the Tom Willis medal, uh sorry, the Tom Wills medal I should say, and was unsurprisingly to all the 2024 winner of Jalong’s best young player award. There’s been some memorable Ollle Dempsey moments up to this point. Of course, his first game, as we mentioned there at Tazzy, taking selfies with all his mates. Uh he’s Oh. Oh, damn. clicking things that I shouldn’t. Nearly nearly destroyed the stream. My bad everyone. Uh where are we? So yeah, first game in Tazzy, you know, taking selfies with his mates. Um he’s very upfront and honest and I guess sorry upfront and obvious respectful of his faith in God. He’s got a great connection with Gary Abble Jr. Um I think they probably really bonded over that particular aspect of both of their lives. He uh made sure during his acceptance award for the rising star to thank Harley Reid and Sam Darcy for getting suspended. He took that awesome hanger on Steelside Bottom earlier this year. Going to give himself a chance at winning the mark of the year this year with that one. And wacky Wednesday with notable Formula 1 driver effort so far. chat, I want to hear from you before we move on to another segment here because uh we are absolutely rolling through the show tonight and I did say I need to keep it a bit shorter, but we are absolutely rolling through the show tonight. What have been some of your favorite Ollie Dempsey memories because um he has been unreal for us in the last two seasons. Uh I’m genuinely of the mind that he is the front runner for a all Australian gig on the wing this year. I think between him and Mluggage, we’ve got two genuinely superb wingmen that should get selected in that spot. It shouldn’t be a dumping ground for midfielders. They want to get into this into the center but can’t because we’ve got two excellent um wingmen that are doing amazing things this year. Oie is one of those. Oh, that is a good one. The one the when he stole the ball out of North defenders hands and kicked a goal. Uh the other one where he kind of just backed right off to allow a deliberate a deliberate rush that got him then a free kick is he’s very very clever in those tight confines and and high stake positions of the ground. He’s very alert. Uh Shadu highlights so many freakish goals. He’s so exciting when he’s in front of goals. It feels like anything could happen. He’s doing great stuff and I’m loving the way he just floats in from the wing like he is making the his opponent sorry opposing number work to get to that other end of the ground and make he makes them accountable. Um and then does the work going the other way? I’m loving it. Is that Ben hiding on the Hoops crew account from his mistakes? Absolutely that is Ben. The chaps obviously we did see I think it was Jake earlier on commenting but uh that will be Ben absolutely highlighting that Ben when he mentioned that Lucky just missed his chance for a fifth goal. What is going on in that game? North by six points at quarter time. Good on him. Good on him. But also, I tipped the dogs by 42 points. So, if we cannot blow out my margin too much, ridiculous. Uh, we love Ollie Dempsey. He’s an absolute superstar, and I think he’s I mean, 2029 takes him, I think, to free agency. Uh, but I’m pretty confident we can hang on to him beyond that. He’s he’s an absolute he’s an absolute ripper. All right, our next segment is game of the show and then we’re going to get to some Q&A and Ben has provided us some trivia here as well. So, we’ll get into our game of the show here and like I said, we’re doing things a little bit differently tonight. Uh, there’s been some pretty shitty stuff going on in the video games industry in the last 24 hours. Um, and I want to rather than spotlight a game, I want to spotlight the news itself. This is from one of my one of my fellow editors at my website, player2.net.au. Please go and check it out. And I would love for people to give this article a bit of a click and read through it. I’m not going to scroll through the entire thing and give you the opportunity to read there. I would love for you to just go and, you know, show it a bit of love. It’s gotten a lot of love from the local industry. We’ve taken a bit of a risk with this because we’re, you know, potentially jeopardizing our relationship with PR by saying what we’ve said here. But for anyone who’s, I guess, a little bit out of loop. Um, Microsoft layoffs. Overnight, it was announced that Microsoft has cut 9,000 jobs um as a part of an ongoing like ongoing wave of um restructures in the in their industry. And that in a lot of ways affected their Xbox division. Keep in mind Microsoft owns Xbox and there’s been games cancelled, teams completely closed. Um for a bit of context for anyone who’s kind of really does follow this stuff, uh the initiative, it was a team that Microsoft had built from the ground up oh going back eight years ago now. Was meant to be one of the next big things. They were working on a new Perfect Dark game. Perfect Dark being a beloved Nintendo 64 franchise uh that Microsoft acquired when they bought Rare many many years ago. More on Rare in a second. Um and that team has been completely shut down. Uh the game has been cancelled. They showed Perfect Dark last year and it was looking amazing. Um I said we’d get back to Rare. When it comes to Rare, that team, the team responsible for Banjo Kazouie, for the original Donkey Kong countries, if you want to focus on for Perfect Dark, um for Golden Eye back in the day. If we talk about the Xbox side, they did Sea of Thieves, they did Viva Pinñata, they did Banjo Kazoui Nuts and Bolts, which is [ __ ] Um this team is absolutely phenomenal. It is one of the most iconic teams in the industry. They were working on a new game called Everworld. That game has been cancelled. The head of the studio and the one remaining person who was a connection to the golden era of Rare, Greg Males, he left the studio after 35 years overnight. Uh Turn 10, the team responsible for Fortza Motorsport, 50% of their team has been laid off in one fell swoop. And I’m sure there is more coming. But that 9,000, this for perspective, it is gross how big this company is. 9,000 people that got laid off or fired or left represents just 4% of Microsoft. 4% of Microsoft was 9,000 people that got fired. And again, not all of those are from the the video game arm, from the Xbox arm, but it’s absolutely insane. There’s been people from Blizzard that have been fired as well. And actually, I can see a few comments there. Shoo just kind of reference someone on the Blizzard Q&A team said to the employees to stay home. The players are already at home. The real um where are we? Bren Brendan says roaming uh sorry that that wasn’t a games one. Um that lots of cuts from Blizzard Q&A. Uh Amy should do. Do you play World of Warcraft? We’ll get back to that one. Jared says well what the [ __ ] Microsoft that’s lots of jobs gone and plenty of lives potentially destroyed and dreams were definitely destroyed. Dick move Microsoft 100%. So, I want to highlight this p piece and please, if you’re watching now, jump across to our website player2.net. It is our feature piece for the day. My editor, Matt Houston, I absolutely love him. He gave me gave me this opportunity to write for the website. Um, we’re now kind of one and two IC. He’s the top dog. I’m I’m the next one in the chain there. He’s put together a letter to Phil Spencer um an open letter to Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, um outlining everything that is wrong with this and everything that’s wrong with his leadership. We haven’t gone for for graphics. We haven’t gone for images. We’re not going for clicks uh for like clickbait. We’re not going for engagement. We’re not going for money. This was a letter from the heart that outlines every single concern with what’s with what is going on, what has gone on at Microsoft Xbox. And it is so clear that all of this is for the shareholders. And I’m so [ __ ] pissed about it. Um, so yeah, that’s that’s that one. Whoa. Shoo. Met your husband on WoW in 2004. That is unreal. Uh Brenton, what what’s your thoughts on suspending players front umpire contact? I feel like there’s got to be like at such a fine line like at what point? Yeah. No, I I hate it. I I hate it. Now obviously there’s there’s some level of it like there’s probably got to be some scope in there like but accidental and incidental contact versus something deliberate or even you know could deem be deemed careless you know in the same way that we kind of define strikes and those sort of things in the game. Careless or deliberate I you know maybe well definitely for deliberate but for careless maybe. But if it’s just the umpire backed into your space, what are you supposed to do? Like it’s insane. So yeah, they’re my thoughts on that one. Um, should just back to the World of Warcraft thing. You owe that game so much. Absolute respect. I think that’s unreal. I would love for you to share a little bit more in the in the chat about that. Like how did how did it all come about? like how did you how did you go from kind of chatting and engaging through World of Warcraft to then meeting face to face to then becoming a couple and and you know and getting married like that’s I I think that’s absolutely amazing. So really really cool as Amy says I’m keen to hear a bit about it. Um Shu uh used to be a gamer lot played lots of games now I only have time for World of Warcraft and mostly that’s out of habit maintaining a 20y old tune. Um, isn’t it avoidable contact to an up? Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, 20 years is impressive. It’s stink. It’s a crazy effort. That’s awesome. Absolutely. Yeah, massive props. Um, so yeah, uh, our game of the week this week is not a game of the week. It is an open letter to Phil Spencer and the larger company at Xbox. We’ve put our, you know, put ourselves out on the line there. We We work very closely with Xbox PR and they’ve been amazing to us over a long, long time. We don’t know how they’re going to respond to this. Um, I think most people inside and even outside of Xbox probably share the same thoughts around this whole thing that it is an awful, awful thing, but we hope that they don’t hate us too much for it. But please take a moment, read the piece. There’s a there’s a lot there and it’s Matt really spoke from the heart when he put this together. So, please consider checking that one out. Um, it’s there on player2.net.au right now. And when we do the show on Monday, we’ll come back to our normal game of the week proceedings. 9,000 employees, 4% of Microsoft cut instantly. It’s [ __ ] All right, let’s get into some trivia before we get into some Q&A and before we wrap this show up. We’re going to power through these a little bit because like I said, I am short on time tonight, short on sleep, short on rest, short on everything. Um, so first up, which team ah this is this is a softball to start with. Come on, Ben, do better. Which team has won more head-to-head matches between Jalong and Richmond since 2000? So remember, these are all Jalong and Richmond related pieces of trivia. So which team has won more matches between Jalong and Richmond since the year 2000? I’ll wait for the first comment there to answer that one. Shoo nails it. Jalong, of course. We’ve done that to every team in the competition since basically 2004. Which Jalong player holds the record for the most hand balls in a game against Richmond? And yes, shout out to uh to Ro to roaming to Jackie and to and Jared who’ve all said Jalong for that one. Yeah, roaming high. It’s their fourth last for winning game since 2000. there. But anyway, yeah, sorry. Um, so yeah, which player holds the current record for the most handballs in a game against Richmond? I’m seeing the name if someone is even able to give me the number. So, yes, it’s Joel Sard. Does anyone know what how many does sorry, how many hand balls that was? Joel Swood with how many. I’ll wait for the chat to pop off there because I know there’s going to be that bit of a delay. Jackie says 22. It is higher than 22. I was I’m shocked by this number. I don’t even know what game it was. Higher than 22. So, higher than 18 as well, Mark. Definitely not 56. Definitely not 8,647. Uh Roaming might be having a bit of a time here on the keyboard. 1 2 3. Oh, he’s just throwing numbers at me. Oh, he’s throwing all sorts of numbers. Jared says 27. It is higher than 27. It is higher than 25. Mark, but Jared, you’re starting to get really close. Roaming’s gone a little too high there with 37. It’s less than 30. Higher than 27. I’m going to have to look this up. 29 is the number roaming is should do know who got there first. Oh, it’s all popping off. I looked away for a second. 29. Mark was first in with that one. I’ll see if I can find the specific game where it occurred. I don’t think I can. Either way, AFL tables give me that number though. I’m also seeing an a like an AI thing that says that most hand balls in a game is 30, but I don’t think I believe that because you know it’s AI. Um, is that the game he got something like 20 48 disposes? You would imagine so. I would I would have thought that’ll be that game. So, uh, how many behinds did Gary Abble senior kick in his 14 goal hall against the Tigers in 1989? So, the game that you kick 14 goals against the Tigers in 1989, how many behinds do you kick? And keep in mind, this was Richmond’s biggest loss to Jalong prior to that famous 2007 game. How many behinds did you kick? Mark says one. Jared says seven. It’s lower less than seven, higher than one. Roaming nailed it with two. He’s just tossing numbers out there, but two is the right answer. Roaming, this is dodgy [ __ ] you just spamming numbers. Uh, next up, how many times uh, it’s another Ben Typo here on the back end. How many times did Gary Albert senior kick 10 or more goals against the Tigers? So, how many times has Gary Sior kicked more 10 or more, sorry, 10 plus goals against the Tigers? Mark says five. It is less than five. And Jared has nailed it with three. Three times Gary Albert senior kick 10 or more. Oh, here’s a good one. This is a good bit of trivia here. Which Jalong Ruckman holds the record for the most hit outs in a game against the Tigers? Ben’s also just jumped in owning his mistakes, I’m sure, about his typos. Uh, Chris Scott bobbleheads are available in the cat shop apparently. But yes, sorry. Which Jalong Ruckman holds the record for the most hit outs in a game against the Tigers? And it is not Oh, it is Jed. It is not Brad Utons, unfortunately. myself and myself and my wife used to refer to this big bloke as legs. Not that that’ll help you with anything, but that’s what we used to call him anyway. Uh he’s also dropping the Chris Scott bobblehead link. It’s not Flanigan. Fairly recent in the grand scheme of things, this Rockman. Fairly recent Rockman. Post Bradton’s post Brad Utons. It’s not Big Segs. It’s not Blakey. It’s not Stephen King. This player played for the Cats after Brad Otton’s. It’s not It’s not uh It’s not Trent West. It’s not Big Shane Mummy. Not many ruckmen left. Not many Ruckman left that have actually played enough football for the Cats to be able to or to probably achieve something like that. Hint, he came from another club before joining the Cats. He then might have returned to that same club. Not Mark Blitz. Sorry Jared. I know you post that one before I said what I said. Close, but it’s not it’s not me. I’d love to get 51 hit outs against started a different club, moved to the cats, and then went back to that other club, which is why Yeah. Ray Stanley doesn’t quite fit the bill. Jackie, there we go. Zack Smith with 51 hit outs. Grime Grind Meers. Uh 51 hit outs to Zack Smith. Uh, and our final bit of trivia for the night. Which Jalong Ruckman? Oh, Ben. I’m just going to pin him here on the screen. Ben, the typos tonight have been outrageous. You screwed up in the Hang on. Let’s Oh, I don’t have I don’t have it. Hang on. Yes, I do. Look at your handiwork, Ben. Not to North Melbourne and Brisbane and Port Adelaide are playing at GMHBA Stadium. Get your [ __ ] together, mate. Um, North. It’s Yeah, it’s all Cthulhu Cthulhu stuff. Um, so sorry. Yeah, our last question here. Which long ruckman holds the record for the most free kicks in a game against Richmond? So, we’ve narrowed it down a little bit. There’s a player that Jalong holds the record for the most free kicks against Richmond, but he’s a Ruckman. Which Jong Ruckman holds the record for the most free kicks in a game against Richmond? For context, that day Jalong would plus 26 freeze four that day, but lost by 50. It is uh free kicks four, Jackie, to your point. Sorry. Freeze four. this individual that day. Oh dear. It’s not Reese Stanley. It’s not Brad Uton’s. Oh my god. It’s not Yeah, not Ree Stanley. Not Bradton. Sorry, the the comments are coming in quickly. Um, older. Much older. Not a modernday cat, we’ll say. I reckon this one might take a little while. This is a tricky one. Like Ben is throwing up a real doozy at the end here. Not not Graham Poly Farmer, not John Barnes. Thinking not much older than John Barnes still, not Mark Blake. Pre-200, we’ll guar I’ll guarantee you that. Pre-2000 there’s no this individual did not play AFL football at all for this club or any other club um in the year 2000. Hell, this individual didn’t play football for the Cats or another club post, I don’t know, like before 1970 even. a very well-known Jalong Ruckman. Oh, hang on. Okay, let me rule out the 1970 things. Sorry. 1980 was the final year that this individual played. I got my I got my uh my timeline’s a bit wrong just because he’s an old bastard. Everyone loves what this individual has to say. A very divisive individual. I got to stop ping Mark Blake. Sorry. Yes, there it is. Big John Sammy Newman uh with 13 free kicks. 13 free kick. Sorry, I know. Maybe my sarcasm I hope my sarcasm was clear. Yeah, everyone loves him. Um, but yeah, John Sam Newman 13 uh 13 free kicks that day he received. Like I said, Jalong were plus 26 freeze for the day but lost the game to the tune of 50 points. All right, let’s get into some Q&A. Now, there’s a few prompts here that I’m looking for the chat to contribute to. Uh, okay, good. You heard the sarcasm. That’s a relief. I’m, you know, sometimes a bit hard to convey, especially when you don’t necessarily know someone too much face to face. So, I’m I’m glad that that was that was clear. Um, oh, oh, hang on. So, Ben’s first one is which Dong player will Richmond fans boo this time? Obviously that’s a reference to Tom Stewart um of the other year after he collected the spicy meatball Deion Preia. Uh for me I don’t see there being anyone honestly I don’t like and sorry roaming the question was specifically around which Jalong player will rich fans boo. So, I don’t think there’ll be unless we collect someone. I don’t think there’ll be anyone, but if there’s going to be someone, Zach Smith will be the sorry, Zach Smith. Bailey Smith will be the one. Uh, we’ve kind of spoken a little bit about this already, so I’ve gotten a few different answers from from people so far, especially those who attended on the day, but where were you when Jalong smashed the Tigers by 157 points in 2007? Me, I was at Marvel Stadium. Jackie at Marvel Stadium or whatever we called it at the time. That was probably the Telster Dome then, I reckon. Um, so yeah, that’s uh yeah, I was there and absolutely loving it. But for those who weren’t, where were you watching? Where were you? Were you watching it? Roaming was at home watching it. Um, oh, hang on. What? Sorry, I’m flicking back and forth from the game, but did Ed Richards KO LDU? Yeah, I was kind of in the half forward flank that day, but it was it was a nice relaxing relaxing night, that’s for sure. Lots of celebration. How is North competing here? What is the What are the Bulldogs doing? Smoke them. And yeah, Luke Davis Zuniaak is out injured apparently. So, I don’t know. Is there video yet? Hang on. Let me see if Twitter can answer that for me. What is What is Hang on. Sorry. Um, LDU. So, LDU was getting a concussion test, but I haven’t. Okay, let’s have a bit of a look here. A high fend off apparently. Okay, reflex fend off. Not much in it. Okay. Okay. but he might be concussed, which then instantly kind of brings it into the conversation whether we like it or not. But we’ll see how that one shapes up. Um, my DMs have just pinged. Oh, hang on. There we go. Jackie, you’re a rockstar. just sent me the No, no, there’s nothing in there. It’s accidental, but no, that’s nothing to say there with that one. But thank you, Jackie, for sharing the link. That that really does help. Much appreciated. All right, let’s continue on with the Q&A here. Uh, should we be happy for Josh Caddyy after he won two premierships with the Tigers? Obviously, former cat came really close with us. Jump Ship then was part of the Richmond teams that went on to beat us in a few grand finals uh or beat us towards a few grand finals. Should we be happy for Josh Caddy? For me, yeah. Like um I’ve got I’m not going to begrudge anyone who did Who did we What did we get out of the Josh Caddy trade? Let me have a bit of a look at that. Um, great. Domain’s expired. Um, um, um, um, Well, that’s useless. I’d love to see what came of it, but I’ve got I’ve got no problem. Like I don’t begrudge anyone. Um I’m actually I’m a bit like Jackie. Like I just I just don’t think of him. Like congratulations. Good on him. Um trade involved Jalong receiving pick 24 in the 2016 national draft and a swap of later picks in exchange for Caddy and 56. So who did we pick up? Jalong draft 2016. Who did we get out of that? Huh? We lost Josh Caddy. Oh, no. I I am more than sorry. I am more than okay with what came of that trade. So this stupid draft guru site doesn’t work. But um in that trade we took we as Jackie’s just nailed Brandon Paret with with pick 26. That was the most direct and obvious one. But then there was exchanges of picks. And what’s really important to note here is that pick 40 we got Tom Stewart. Pick 43 we got Asava Ratagalia. Now of course we know what Asava’s been able to provide for us through through the picks we got back for him. Tom Stewart is a legend. We’ve got two premiership players uh in Parett and Tom Stewart. We’ve you know there’s a Sava Radiga you can go toss Quinton Knuckle in here was really good for us for a while. I sure congratulations to Josh Caddyy on his two premierships but Tom Stewart has offered this game so much more than what Josh Caddyy has ever done. Um and you know two premierships to Caddy, two between Par and Tom Stewart. Maybe Tom Stewart gets another one this year. I am very very happy with how that worked out. Congratulations to Josh Katy. Um Ben’s got a couple here for me, but I might go with one more. Yeah. And it relates to the Tigers, but also North, who’s playing right now, and West Coast. The final question of the night, at least in terms of the ones that Ben’s provided, otherwise throw a few different ideas at me before we wrap the show up, is will Richmond, North, and West Coast return to the top eight by the year 2030? Now, I’m not saying they all need to be in the top eight in the year 2030, but will they have all been in the top eight by the year 2030? Will they have been a relevant team again somewhere by that particular point in time? For me, the answer is yes. Um Richmond, I mean that they’ve filled their boots with that draft um this past year. They’ve got so much talent on that list now. They just need time to develop and they’re still going to top up with a few good kids along the way as well. So Richmond, yes. North Melbourne, I think they are steps ahead of Richmond at the moment. Yes. West Coast, well, they’ve spent so much time at the bottom. How could they not, right? Unless Unless they do lose your Harley Reeds and I mean they’re going to lo seems like they’re going to lose Oscar Allen. You lose Harley Reed, but you get so much back presumably through these things and you’re you’re going to be a seller dweller still for a couple more years. So, you’re going to fill your boots with some good picks. You’re going to get what you need probably before Tasmania comes in, assuming the whole thing works out for Tasmania. You get all that you need before they come in and really compromise the draft. I think all three teams, yes, will have played finals and been a relevant team by the year 2030. I don’t see there’s actually I could quite easily see a scenario where all three are top eight teams by that point, but we’ll see how we go. All right, throw some other comments, thoughts, and ideas at me. I’ll give it five more five minutes before we wrap the show up. Um, thank you to everyone who’s been dialed into the show so far. It has been much appreciated as always. Um, but like I said, I am well and truly cooked and just need to go get some rest. Ben suggests Lawson Reed greater than Harley Reid. Will we still say that if Harley Reed becomes a cat or do we just not engage in that conversation at that point? It’s a bit like how and I’ll I’ll throw myself under the bus here. Bailey Smith. I mean, you all heard me on the show. I was given them and you know, Bailey sniffed jokes left, right, and center until um until he became a cat, which point, “No, no, we’re better than that. Put it away. Put it away.” So, I’m a hypocrite. Um, but I mean, look, I think at face value, certainly based on what they’ve offered to their respective clubs so far, I would agree with Ben’s sentiment, will we still speak this way when Harley when Harley Reid is a cat at the end of 2026? Thank you, Jackie. I will Uh, Harley Reed just needs brothers with some with the same hair. Yeah, Ben tells me to go put those PJ those turtle PJs on. Yeah, we’ll see. It’s not going to happen. I don’t have any. All right, there’s the turtles emojis. All right, we’ll wrap things up there then. Thank you all very very much for having tuned in once again. Have you’ve engaged every step of the way through our team selection, our match preview, the player spotlight, we spoke, we did game of the show and really honed in on a on a really big topic in the video games industry there instead of touching on a game. I really appreciate all of you and how committed you’ve been to the show tonight and how actively engaged you’ve been. It’s been awesome to have you all on board. Roaming has just dropped a bomb at the end here. Uh, North will win tonight and go on a run and win two flags in, sorry, win the flag in two years. Trust. That’s a big one. Shadoo’s just said, “Sorry, I’m back.” Shadoo, we’re about to wrap things up. Uh, Ben also says, “We need a behind the play episode with the creators of TMNT. Tell me people, you know, of my love of video games. in the off season should it like I I want to keep chatting with people. Would you and I know I know there’s many of you here and I think what I really want to hear from are some of the people who aren’t into video games in the community here in the offseason. Would you want video game streams? Would you want me streaming games here for like on the Hoopscrew YouTube channel just not necessarily because you love video games but just as an opportunity to chat and engage and still be part of the community and and chat amongst ourselves. Would that be a thing that people are interested in? And I guess it is there’s two lenses to this because of course there are other people who within our community who do like games who do play games and and then there’s others that you know perhaps maybe don’t dislike them but don’t play them. Would be keen to hear your thoughts on that particular one. So because Oh, IRL stream meet up. I mean that would be really cool. Um wouldn’t mind it. Jared’s Jared’s keen 12-hour marathon uh stream on grand final eve. Book it in. Maybe I take a couple hours playing a game. Maybe we’ll play a few rounds of AFL 20 24, sorry, AFL 26 um midway through the stream. We’ll see how that goes. But always like streaming. Maybe play some games together or something. We could definitely get some co-op session. Like we can use the Discord to try and get some um some co-op and competitive stuff going. We can play some rounds of bit of Hell Divers, whatever the other big multiplayer game happens to be at the moment. Not Fortnite. Um, so I wouldn’t, but I don’t play them. I tune in for the footy. Mark though, would you would you would you pop in for that that community aspect and us all just chatting? Like we’d be we’d have the live the live stream like we’d still run it as usual. The chat would be going. We’d be looking to chat to people. Could be a really good time. So like that sort of thing. Really keen. Flop stream did not go above 20 20 viewers. Yeah, it’s an interesting one. But we are of course clashing a little bit with the football right now. Fortnite with Baz Lanka. Shadoo says Joe says would check it out if not busy. That’s fair. No, I don’t blame anyone for that. I think that like compared to what we usually do, like numbers would be well and truly down on engagement because it’s just not um uh it’s, you know, not not the bread and butter, but um I like I like the opportunity. I really enjoy getting to chat to all of you guys. And if I’m sitting there playing a game and getting to chat at the same time, I think it could be great fun. Couple hours a week, good opportunity to all hang out. Paul has a Richmond themed PS5 controller. No, you have ignorance, Mark. Clown. Jackie says, you know, not a me thing. Would give it a go. Mark Wood because he likes the the chat community. That’s awesome. Uh, an easy game anyone can get amongst like Team Fortress. It’s just a game for anyone. Team Fortress. All right, that’s where we wrap things up. Thank you all. Oh, sorry. Hang on. Are you planning more collab streams with the chaps? The other night was great. Um, I think it’s definitely on the radar. Trying to get it logistically right can be a bit of a challenge. I suspect big long two and a half hour things like the other night wouldn’t be the norm. Um, but it’ll be really cool to get some of those things going every now and then. I think it’s awesome when we all get together. So, my fingers are crossed that we can make it happen. All right, thank you all for having tuned in. As always, uh it’s been an absolute pleasure to get to chat. If you haven’t already done so, please make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, like this video, tell your friends and family, get the word out there about the Hoops Crew and all the awesome content that we’re creating. Use that comment section as many of you have done tonight. But if you’re watching this after the fact, as I’m sure some of you are, please make sure drop your thoughts in the comment section. would love to hear what you’ve got to say about all of the topics that we’ve discussed tonight. You can be heard using the super chat function. Way too late for that right now, but please consider it in the future. It also goes to the continued growth, just like our Patreon, goes to the continued growth of all things Hoops Crew. So, every donation you make doesn’t just disappear into the pockets of YouTube. It goes towards us getting improved equipment like we did with the lights to really improve my output this year. And I think uh and microphones and all those sort of things. We’ve got big plans for what we can do with the money that comes in to improve the product that we’re then creating for for you. We want to reinvest in this business. We’re certainly not lacing our pockets with it, that’s for sure. Um, so we want to we want to be able to make a better show, make better content, higher quality content. It’s it’s awesome. So, thank you all. Whether you use Super Chat, whether you’re a Patreon supporter, we appreciate everything that comes in and it does help make our content better. We love you for it. You can find me on socials. That’s Paul James Games on Twitter, Instagram, and Blue Sky. Thank you to our sponsor Sirill Cook Florest for your support of the Hoops Crew and everything we do. And of course, as I mentioned a moment ago, there is the Patreon. That is patreon.com/theoopscrew. $5 a month is all it takes to get access to our exclusive early access and extended content that we’re delivering there from myself, the chaps, from Ben. Lots of cool stuff. We’ve been doing live uh live watch alongs for some of the games. Um that has been really well received so far. We’re continuing to develop that and refine it. So it’s been exclusive to patrons right now before we roll that out publicly somewhere in the future. I know that we have one scheduled for the Jalong and GWS games. So stay tuned for that. That is exclusive to Hoops Crew patrons. So please consider checking it out. And that is where we’ll wrap things up for the night. Thank you to all of those who pop. Oh my god, the the chat’s popping off. Um, where are we? Where are we? Where are we? Pregame live. Yeah, possibly Baslo watch along. Yeah, I think we might have to do a Brown low watch along. I’ll I’ll stream the Brown low. Um, what I’d also like to do is do a stream of Kaji just like we did last year. But yeah, really keen on that idea. Awards season streams would be really awesome. We could all dress in formal wear. Yeah, I’ll suit up for it. Uh, watch parties coming in 2026 as Ben expands. I want to see Ben in a suit and bow tie and Paul in fancy a fancy vest. Birthday suit and bow tie. That’s more Lucas’s kind of behavior. Oh, there we go. Should now. That’s Yeah, Lucas’s get up. N in the turtle PJs. Sorry. 50 patrons. That’s what it takes. Paul needs to do a turtle cosplay at the meetup. Don’t forget to hit that like button as Mark says. Please smash it if you haven’t already. It all helps with engagement which then puts our content in front of more people and this community expands as a result. We finish up by talking about the dogs being up by 12 points. 42 points is what we’re looking for. Another five goals extend to that margin, please. Doggies, make sure to check out postgame live. It’s going to be a late one on uh Saturday night. Ben can’t get there till 10:30. That’ll be postgame. I can’t make it till roughly the same sort of time. I’m kind of out of action for a while. So, it going to be a late postgame live. Um, but stay tuned for that one. We’ll make it work. We’re looking we’re keen to hear all of your thoughts on the Jalong and Richmond game where hopefully we win by a minimum of 60 points as I highlighted before. And that’s where we’ll wrap things up. Thank you all as always for that ongoing support of all the content we’re creating, our live streams, everything. It’s awesome. Wow. Wow. That hurts. Uh, that’s where we’ll wrap things up. On that note, enjoy your nights. Enjoy the Cats hopefully winning by a large margin on Saturday afternoon. Remain jong strong and I’ll see you later. [Music]
