Mazer Rackham

Heard Mahoney on SEN talking to Garry Lyon and Tim Watson about this. Lyon was very positive. Lyon: did you sit down and review? Mahoney: we haven't been sitting on our hands. Mid season gives an opportunity to see what's going wrong, maximise the next 10 weeks. Offence needs lot of work. Players are out of form. Changes around offensive coach, therefore Rawlings. McCartney, Rooke moved to development -- that's their strength Watson: how have they accepted changes? Mahoney: Terrific. Also changes in high perf area. Attitude is we want to improve. Players also asked to go away and think how to maximise the next 10 weeks Watson: did you underestimate the Hogan effect? Mahoney: forward line was functioning without him last 6 weeks of 2018. But some players from then haven't been able to play. Thought we could cover it. Watson: what is there to salvage? Mahoney: who knows. Finals still a chance, we will push as hard as we can for that. It's a game of small margins. Ball can start to bounce your way. Played some of our best footy in the last month eg against WCE Watson: still finals chance??? Mahoney: [while not actually saying yes ...] It's not out of our thoughts. We don't have many mulligans left Lyon: Misson. What about Darren Burgess? Mahoney: [was non committal] It's open to all discussions Lyon: have you spoken to him? Mahoney: have been some discussions (there are mutual friends at the club) Lyon: give us an injury update Mahoney: Jetta, Melksham to come back in next month. VdB, JSmith long term injury list. Others like Lewis, ANB week to week Lyon: who will play on Hogan? Mahoney: May will , or Frost [hinted they would double team him]

Just look at those umps, lining up trying to get hot tips from Stephenson. They really are disgraceful.

Be careful what you wish for. Someone might go and do it, and then you'll want them to do it again. Before you know it you're dependent and could end up on bigfooty. It's a gateway football act.

When it comes to umpires, the AFL don't know if they're Arthur or Martha. They don't seem to have any underlying beliefs about what refereeing should be. Nothing to underpin their decision making, only (as per usual) seat-of-the-pants reaction. Their normal reaction is (as in this instance) to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted. Another one was the "absolutely no contact with umpires in any way shape or form" last year. Then Brayshaw low-fived one and it was celebrated. Which is it? Absolutely no contact, or benign relationship-building contact? The AFL don't seem to know, so how would the umpires or the players? I think the umpires are just as confused about this and their broader role in the game, because they get no support from headquarters ... unless it's of the "too little too late" form. They don't get backed up generally, their decisions (or lack of) are undermined by the MRO and even the MRO is undermined by the tribunal. I think that filters into indecision about refereeing in general, as exemplified by the above instances. I think that amongst themselves, the umps should agree that smiling and mugging with players is off limits, but I can understand why they would feel abandoned no matter what they do.

I'm hoping to join the Rolling Stones

The craftwork index. AFL coaches ranked from 1 to 16 by skill & aptitude in knitting, crocheting and quilting. 1. John Longmire – strangely enough, claims not to like the caper but has a string of awards from galleries large and small throughout Australia 2. Alistair Clarkson – maverick who is not afraid to drop stitches in pursuit of a superior outcome. Breaks needles frequently. 3. Chris Fagan – sock specialist. Has no peer. 4. Ross Lyon – sleeper. Creative talent, superior ability to match wool & needle. Doesn’t create his own patterns but executes published ones to a high degree of excellence 5. John Worsfold – excellent drape and fit, good range. Blankets, runners, or clothing: can do it all. 6. Alan Richardson – hook guru. The man to see for all your questions about all sizes and types of hooks. 7. Don Pyke – mastered Tunisian crochet at an early age. Impressive body of work, but has had trouble passing down to a younger generation. 8. Leon Cameron – garment specialist. Looking to start his own fashion house after AFL career comes to a close. 9. Adam Simpson – thinker. Will try different combinations of wool, needles, mixes colours well. 10. Luke Beveridge – let early success get to his head and his later work exhibits sloppy broomstick technique. Can do better. 11. Simon Goodwin – crossed from tapestry to quilting, shows promise, but could be making the switch too late in his career to have real impact. 12. Damian Hardwick – clumsy but tries hard. Some good results shine through occasionally 13. Stewart Dew – new kid on the block as an AFL coach, but yesterday’s man in the competitive world of quilting. Sound needle technique but tired ideas. 14. Nathan Buckley – hard worker but with little natural aptitude. 15. Chris Scott – another who lets his anger get the better of him. Questionable technique: uses needles that are too thick for his preferred wool 16. Ken Hinkley – not good. Goes through the motions. Appears to prefer football.

Crikey, I'm just glad our coach made the list.

OR .... before we get too fancy and la-di-dah ... maybe the real problem is simply that we're not attacking the ball hard enough?

All well and good in theory to have a set routine but where's the part where they drown? (Maybe Tracc's high ball drop is from too much grabbing at flotation devices) Club in the highest level comp in the country literally cannot score goals to save itself. But steady as she goes. Well it's easy to say that but have you considered that maybe the problem is we're just not attacking the ball hard enough? Einstein said something about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Now what was it again?

"Must be"? We don't do "must be" in the AFL. We run towards the behind post and swing our leg towards the other behind post, we stand sideways and kick low percentage bananas, we dribble the ball along the ground giving it plenty of opportunity to take a mug bounce ... please, leave your "correct technique" for games like rugby, rugby league, gridiron, etc. Games that require accuracy. We'll get on with our drowning practice, thank you very much.

Such sense! Darts players should not practice throwing triples in case it wears out their elbows Shooters should not practice hitting bullseyes in case they go crosseyed Pool players should not practice sinking balls in case they rip the cloth Sprinters should not practice running fast in case they get sore legs On it goes. Sports revolution in action Then they can show up to competition refreshed and fully prepared

Every minute spent on goal kicking is a minute less spent on drowning practice. Don't you want the guys to be elite?

I think we've seen plenty of it, but it must be hard for the players when they slog their guts out for 10 minutes, and inch the ball forward, only to have one of our "goal scorers" squander it, then the oppo whisk the ball the length of the field for a regulation effortless goal. I wonder "why can't we do that???"; surely our players must too? Much easier to maintain when there is reward for it, and we are winning games; when the ferocity has a tangible benefit and is not some abstract thing the coaches are demanding.

It's become clear that Goodwin believes that all out attack on the footy is how you win. Like the Mike Tyson saying "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face", Goodwin thinks if we play our way, no game plan can stand up to it. They fall apart and wilt under the extreme pressure. If they don't, it shows we didn't do it well enough. That's why there was no review of the prelim loss. We didn't play "our way"; if we had, the Eagles would have fallen apart. That's why there is no plan B. Plan B is simply to execute plan A with more intensity. Goodwin's ideal player is someone who can execute plan A, regardless of finesse. That's why a Spargo gets picked over a Preuss over and over, even though Preuss fills our current deficiencies much better. Spargo has the necessary "run around all day like a mad hornet" attribute. That he is more often chasing and tackling than in possession of the pill, let alone using it well, appears to be of no consequence. Still on the boxing theme, we're like a punch drunk fighter with no technique, getting picked off with jabs, but following our opponent around the ring, walking into his combinations, saying to ourselves, "I only need to hit him once!"

OR .... let's really throw them off ... let's attack the ball with EVEN MORE ferocity! No-one's game plan holds together up against that!

You mean 3 o'clock today? Okay.

Because our coaches are slaves to sports science and number crunching and have forgotton to use their own experience and instincts as players, and human beings. The tail is wagging the dog. And the dog is getting dizzy and is passing out. Look for a doubling down on the strategies that have proved unsuccessful this year. Meanwhile the fans are trying to say "but he's not wearing any clothes!!!!!" What would we know.

This annoys the hell out of me. This is like a snooker player saying "I've noticed good players sink most balls in the top two pockets. I'm going to sink EVERY ball in those pockets. Think how good I'll be then!" It's backwards. It's cargo cult science. A. he is then actually limiting his ability to score, and B. his opponent then stymies him by deliberately leaving balls up the other end of the table. In other news, there is a very strong correlation between people dying from being tangled in their bedsheets, and profits made by ski resorts. It's almost exact. (True fact. Look it up.) Now, it's clear, to stop people dying in the bedsheets, we just need to reduce the profits made by ski resorts. That's the kind of thinking we're facing here. Meanwhile our opponents are wise to this and clog up the space in front of goal. But hey, what if we park TWO players 25m out from goal. Or ..... (lowers voice in case opposition coaches can here) .... what if we park THREE players 25m out! Numbers can show a lot of things you wouldn't ordinarily notice, especially when presented in visual form (graphs, pie charts), but to be a slave to the numbers is as foolish as only betting on horses that have your "lucky" number.

Offset by most appearances on Masterchef

We've lost all sense over every other part of our game, why not the recruiting too?

Madden on the X box? Go for it Nate. Then in your twilight years you can try Tiger Woods PGA.

Good move. If we can keep other teams to less than 5 goals, we are a good chance to win 10 -11 games. Enough to sneak into the 8 some years!

Also he wouldn't get pinged for throwing. Umps don't ping anyone for that these days

Shh! Don't let the oppo coaches know or they'll start exploiting it!