Another week of some excellent sporting questions coming in. I really feel the bar is being raised in the creativity stakes. Keep them coming.

If you want to submit a question you can do so here.

Long Time in Footy

If 12 months is a long time in football, how long is a year? - Kyle

It’s a good question Kyle. I seem to remember the 2013 season felt like it went on for several decades but maybe that was just ASADA’s investigation.

There can be no doubt that 12 months is a long time in football, as is, I’m told, a week.

Weirdly though, a year is a short time in football. This is due to the Higgs Boson, The Matrix and something Mark Jackson once did.

Jake King

When is Richmond’s resident Garden Gnome going to get the credit he deserves for trying to put bikie Toby Mitchell on the right path? Giving up his time outside the club to try and help this man straighten up, and not getting the credit for it, must be driving Kingy nuts!! – Peter

There can be no doubt that the Tigers outreach program for ‘at risk youth’ gets a bad rap. Not only have the good folk at Punt Road provided steady employment for Dustin Martin, they also kept Robin Nahas off the streets for years despite no discernable purpose.

It’s a shame Jake doesn’t get the recognition he deserves for his work in the outlaw motorcycle community.

History though will judge him kindly, after all, Nelson Mandela was once seen as a terrorist. Not that I’m drawing a comparison but, yeah, totally similar.

Equalisation

No one likes to go to the footy to have their beloved footy team cop a shellacking. I propose a handicap structure to assist cellar dweller sides by having the goal posts adjustable so that when playing a class opposition, say Hawthorn, the goal posts close up to a 2 meter opening.

The less skilled side, say Brisbane, attack the standard goal post opening at the other end. When the sides change ends, the posts open or close to accommodate each respective side. This handicap system would allow lower achieving sides a chance to be competitive and score blow outs would be a thing of the past. I can only see positives here. Titus, do you feel this system could help take the pressure off poorer performing sides and lift the spirits of their supporters? - Darryl

Given I’ve sat through the past decade of Melbourne games, there’s a lot to like here. To be honest though, in some of those games, the goal post would need to disappear below ground for the better team so they can’t score at all.

That said, this idea is so good I’m putting you forward as the AFL’s new head of equalisation. I’ve said it before, soon we will have a ‘Premiership Circle’ instead of a ladder.

Shane Watson

If Shane Watson fell in a forest, would anybody hear? - Geoff

Apart from the obvious answer of, ‘yes, the person who pushed him’, this is a profound question.

Let’s assume Doolan and Marsh continue to play well and the Shane continues to be widely disliked by his teammates.

Let’s also assume the forest is the Belanglo State Forest….wait, I’ve already revealed too much.

Strangest Sport

As a resident of Melbourne (according to twitter, at least...), are you familiar with the sport of Disc Golf in your area? If not, you should be and you should go and try it out.

For a question worthy of being answered though - what is the strangest sport you have heard of and played? – Luke

Luke, what this doubt about Twitter being true? Everything on Twitter is fact. That’s just a fact. Life is more rewarding if you accept that.

As for the strangest sport I’ve ever heard of? It has to be Disc Golf, just then. The strangest sport I’ve played is AFL but that’s more about how awkwardly I played it.

Richmond Tanking?

What did Richmond have to gain by tanking against Melbourne in the NAB Challenge? - Joel

The clear agenda here was to fast-track the crushing of hope that usually occurs against Carlton in Round One, to a meaningless pre-season game.

Of course the longer term play here could be Richmond are going to tank all seaon to take advantage of the bumper draft coming at the end of the year. This match was just a way to throw investigators off the scent early by establishing a low baseline.

Back to the Future

In Back To The Future when George McFly knocks out Biff and changed the course of history, how did this effect the AFL (then VFL)? Is there any way to find out who originally won the VFL/AFL flags from 1956 onwards before the time space continuum was altered by McFly's left hook? – Daniel

This is truly the best question I’ve ever gotten and one that I’ve spent years researching.

Firstly, the alternate history had Norm Smith staying at Melbourne and preventing the long-term decline of that club.

In a broader sense though, things don’t go well for the VFL/AFL. Instead, the arts and sciences become popular, relegating sport to a mere afterthought.

People attend academic lectures on weekends and worse, art galleries. Young people are rewarded for their intelligence and sensitivity.

With no Collingwood Football Presidency, Eddie McGuire becomes Premier and is on TV and radio all the time. No big difference there then.

Basically it’s awful. Luckily for us, George McFLy did us a great favour while also delivering one of the great trilogies.

Got a question? Submit it here.