Mike Read

Georgia!!!

It’s not for nefarious reasons, but it’s disappointing that 3 out of the 4 directors to be elected to Essendon’s board by members over the past 2 years have all resigned less than 12 months into their 3 year terms, creating casual vacancies for the club to fill.

If you didn't have the chance to join us, please take a look at the recording of this amazing event on why Israel must be banned from UEFA, FIFA, and global sport.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV0I...

The text is old but I have plenty of detail around Essendon’s board here, for those who are interested in the current state of play. With Muir reaching his term limit at this year’s AGM, even without any challenge the board would continue its renewal.

mikeread.com.au/essendon_foo...

They ought to do studies on what makes heritage listed buildings owned by developers more prone to spontaneous combustion.

Basically, certainly no shortage of logos that look like that.

Screenshot from IP Australia website of Gold Coast Suns logo trademark application, which was lodged by the AFL on 14/11/2024 and accepted on 16/06/2025. It's status is listed as "Accepted: Opposed". The logo is a black rectangle with a white stylised 'S' which has a horizontal line across the centre to connect the top and bottom curves of the S. This creates the effect of two halved ellipses inside the inner space of the S, to give the appearance of a football. The bottom half of the S has horizontal lines cutting through it.

Screenshot from IP Australia website of a registered trademark owned by Orizontas Pty Ltd, which was accepted on 06/03/2023. The logo is a black stylised 'O' which is composed of a black arc for the top half of the O, and two black horizontal stripes masked to the outer edge of the O for the bottom half.

Haven't seen it reported - probably as it doesn't get people as emotional as trade rumours, but last month Orizontas, a 'boutique corporate advisory consultancy' featuring a bunch of former politicians and political advisers, filed a trademark objection to the Gold Coast Suns' refreshed 2025 logo.

'To put it simply, the building blocks of March for Australia cannot be confined to discrete actors at the margins of Australian society – such as neo-Nazis. So too we must look at “mainstream” Australia itself. This snaps into focus when you consider the Albanese government can openly condemn the organisers of March for Australia – by saying that multiculturalism is a key part of Australian national identity – in the same week that the government sign a secret $400m deal with Nauru to deport approximately 350 asylum seekers, de facto reopening offshore detention. There is a structural similarity between these two positions in that both are predicated on the assumed authority to decide who can come to the nation and who cannot along racial lines. With this in mind, March for Australia cannot be blamed *solely* on so-called “extremists”. That too would be a euphemism that obscures the enabling conditions of the events we have seen play out over the weekend.'

'Whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism.'

~ Unkle Max Horkheimer (1939)

Made a few charts & bits last week that prove what we know - Collingwood is old.

mikeread.com.au/lineups2025....

Love seeing these pop up each year, amazing work!

Uhh extended stats, where are you?

‘Complicity’ is an insufficient word: the violence of western media The story of Palestinian author Mona Zahed and the violence of western media.

Read this by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun, then contact Tony Burke’s office.

amymcquire.substack.com/p/complicity...

Perhaps less imaginative than the predictions in this one

bsky.app/profile/mike...

Screenshot of a headline from an article in The Guardian by Barney Ronay which reads: The Hundred is just influencer sport and is the worst cricket thing ever invented

This assertion in this headline once and for all proves that Barney Ronay was not on my family road trip to Tathra in 1996, where my selection for our new car’s CD stacker was the We Want A Wicket single by Greg Champion & The Music Men that came with a copy of Inside Edge magazine

This is what *athleticide* looks like, a term scholars like @nkalamb.bsky.social & others are increasingly using

Irish national basketball team before a match versus Israel

Ep. 163: Gaza and Global Sport

We return from our too-long hiatus to discuss athletic boycott in the context of genocide with former Ireland basketball captain Rebecca O'Keeffe, as well as our views on some of the atrocities over the last seven months.

open.spotify.com/episode/3Odh...

Third time in the past week I’ve heard commentators on fox footy refer to a big win as an assassination and surely they mean annihilation.

This showed be viewed in context of June 2025 Social Cost of Gambling to Victoria report, which found 67% of money lost on EGMs in FY22-23 came from those experiencing problem gambling.

www.justice.vic.gov.au/safer-commun...

Also interesting to note that losses at Essendon’s Melton Country Club (90 EGMs), which until 2019 had been lower than Windy Hill (100 EGMs), are now about $2m higher in recent years.

- At just under $21k per machine, I can't see how St Kilda's machines make them any money.
- Perhaps it's convenient timing to make this point, with Richmond's premiership era recently over, but the 4 Vic teams still with pokies (Carlton, Ess, Rich, Stk) are all in the bottom 6 of the AFLM ladder.

Player Losses at Victorian AFL Club operated pokies venues – Mike Read

VGCCC's FY25 player loss data for pokies venues was recently published.

I've put some data here of the 8 venues run by AFL clubs:
mikeread.com.au/afl_pokies_d...

First impressions:
- $40.3m lost, almost unchanged from prev FY.
- $1.5b lost at AFL club venues in Vic since 2006.

How could he have such disregard for Ronny Lerner?

It should never be forgotten that Albanese, Wong & the rest of the ALP were active participants in the unwarranted discrediting of UNRWA, helping lay the groundwork for israel's policy of deliberate mass starvation.

Screenshot of AFL app commentary for Hawthorn v Carlton game with text reading: Scores were tied at 4.1.25 apiece that quarter, the first time since Round 9 that Carlton have not lost a quarter. In their Round 9 encounter against St Kilda, the Blues also drew the quarter. They have not actually won a quarter since Round 7 and have won only three third terms for the year.

Makes Carlton’s win last week all the more remarkable given they apparently haven’t won a quarter since round 7…

Since coming to Essendon, 74% of Liam McMahon’s kicks in the VFL have been scores, with 4 goals for every 1 behind.

If we can just get him to have about 30 kicks tonight, we’re a chance.

Can’t wait for the AFL to bring in this in-season competition, so Essendon or Richmond can snare a finals spot.

Jillian Segal and husband funding far-right group "Advance" - The Klaxon Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal and her husband are among the biggest funders of far-right group "Advance”, which spreads hateful propaganda and racist tropes.

🚨Antisemitism boss Jillian Segal and her husband are the second biggest funders of far-right group "Advance". The extremist lobby group spreads online racism and xenophobia, including directly targeting Palestinians...
theklaxon.com.au/hrgd

Universities and artists face funding threat under antisemitism plan being considered by Australian government Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal also urges Labor government to bolster education and seek new powers to deport visitors

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This is fucked. As it is I know of too many artists who have lost exhibitions or been ruled out of consideration for them, and academics who have had complaints against them, simply for reposting anti-genocide content on social media.

A bumper sticker reading: KEEP HONKING! I'm sitting in my car screaming along to "Venus and Bacchus" from the 1997 demo tape by SAETIA.

Having finally discovered the perfect bumper sticker, I am now ready to get a driver’s license.

Wise move! I feel like I’m in too deep now!