AFL

Greg Baum

Greg Baum is chief sports columnist and associate editor with The Age

Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao trade blows in their WBO world welterweight title fight.

Heads you lose – every time

The fact of Donald Trump suggests we have peaked as species and are on the decline. None the less, wherever we are in 100 years, historians will look back at the last week and scratch the unprotected part of their heads in wonder.

Plenty to play for, says Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley.

Pies not cooked yet, says Buckley

Coach Nathan Buckley insists Collingwood aren't 'putting the cue in the rack' despite the 24-point loss to Hawthorn all but ending the club's finals hopes.

Bachar Houli

There's Bachar and there are bashers

South Melbourne's Jack "Basher" Williams was reported three times in the 1945 "Bloodbath" grand final, and suspended for 12 matches. This week, you might think he and his infamous deeds had been reincarnated in the form of his phonetic namesake, Richmond's Bachar Houli.

Gary Ablett celebrates his 300th match today.

300 for Gazza, hidden in plain sight

What if Gary Ablett, as those sliding doors began to close in 2010, had not stepped across the threshold? What if he had stayed on the Geelong side?

An expensive utterance: Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson copped a $20,000 fine.

Clarkson: a word, if you don't mind

On rate per word, dear to the heart of all journalists, Alastair Clarkson has copped the heaviest fine in footy history. The Hawthorn coached was docked $20,000 for commenting on umpires. In fact, it was $20,000 for one word, "disgraceful". It just as well he did not go on.

Cameron Pedersen, Jack Watts and Clayton Oliver of the Demons sing the song in the rooms after a wonderful win.

Fire and ice, but the Demons survive

From the moment Andrew Gaze was first down the slide into the giant ice bath, a theme was estabished: there would be no comfort zones at the MCG this Queen's Birthday.