Is Nathan Hauritz really a front-line Test spinner?

It was so nearly an inspired bowling change. Ross Taylor had raced to 50 from just 34 balls on Saturday and was in a brutal but streaky mood. Ponting threw the ball to Hauritz (pictured above, trying to keep his head above water) whose third ball to Taylor drew an ugly swat straight to Johnson at mid-on, who lets an absolute soda go straight through where his hands should have been ... for four runs. Later, Taylor takes 25 off Hauritz's 13th over (which but for some Shane Watson brilliance on the rope, would have been 30) consigning him to the record books for the most expensive over delivered by an Australian in Test Cricket, and reigniting the debate about whether Hauritz is worth his place in the side. Thanks for nothing, Mitch.

I could have listened to Ian Smith, Simon Doull and Craig McMillan all day on Saturday: but there was AFL to watch. Smithy's description of Taylor getting a "bug, bug nuck - but all it touched was frish ear!" as the ball shot between Watson and Ponting in slips was beautiful. The thuckness of the New Zealand eksints was mesmerising. Can we import them for the Lions/Carlton clash on Thursday night? Smuthy does Super 14 Rugby commentary as well, so he'll pick it up quuckly.

Are Richmond and Melbourne any closer to a flag than they were in Round 1, 2005?

Although Richmond had sensibly toned down the hype heading into Round 1, both sets of supporters were bubbling with anticipation going in. Both teams were gone in 15 minutes. For Richmond fans it was the perennial bane of missed targets: for Melbourne's, it was the familiar sight of outmatched bodies coughing up possession under pressure. Both boasted more top tens than ABBA's back catalogue, but it's the mid-tiers of the list that continue to give supporters grief.

How can deliberate out-of-bounds still be such a lottery?

The AFL has to do something about it, it is so ludicrously inconsistent. On Friday night, Dustin Fletcher was pinged (rightly) for a blatant DOOB. But then Matthew Scarlett soccered the ball out of a defensive contest and over the line: great defence, apparently. On Saturday night Ted Richards kicked long and clear out of defence to open space, but it trickled over the line, and he was pinged for DOOB. Minutes later, Brett Peake, being chased along the boundary line, simply handballed it over, for a throw-in. Go figure. Every game has the same examples of mind-boggling interpretative randomness.

Has Fremantle finally developed some steel?

While it's wrong to anthropomorphise coaches' attributes in their entirety onto their players, it's long amazed me that Mark Harvey - who regularly went where angels wouldn't go in an Abrams tank - presides over a side that can go to water so freo-quently. But the Dockers looked positively metallic in demolishing a top-four fancy in Adelaide by 56 points - a margin that flattered the Crows. Hard running, intensity at the ball, hunting and overwhelming the ball carrier: these are not qualities usually associated with Freo, but they were on display in truckloads (or should that be container-loads?) last night. Essendon, and to a greater extent Geelong and St Kilda, will test this seeming resurgence out over the next three weeks.

Was it really worth $40 million - or whatever it cost -  to stage the Grand Prix and watch Mark Webber finish ninth?

Yes, the crowds were strong, overseas interest was high and the Webber factor helped attract a whole new local audience. And after the Bahrain borefest, motorsports fans were looking for the Melbourne race to salvage some of the sport's pride - which it did, in spades. But that was probably down to the weather: the rain added a whole new variable to tyre and overtaking strategies. (So maybe the decision to make the Grand Prix a twilight event was vindicated by the rain and gloom). As to the value Victorians are getting as taxpayers, the government argues the expense in staging the race is worth it given the economic impact of the event on Victoria, but you would stand a better chance of seeing President Obama's birth certificate than the real bottom-line numbers on the Melbourne GP.