Grr-owl

There’s a bunch of intelligent stuff being said here. And I reckon it’s fundamentally all correct; we’re all just ruminating over the details. We need to play consistently at a high level of energy to produce the work rate that applies the pressure that is the key to Goody’s system. When the fire doesn’t burn bright, as in yesterday, everything goes awry and Goody doesn’t appear (and that may be just an appearance) to ring any changes to do anything about it. Before the game, I thought the dogs looked really up and about and we looked a little flat. Knew then we could be in trouble. But, at half time, I backed the fact that we were in front to mean that we had the grit to pull us through. Woops. No grit. What I find myself thinking again and again at these times when we get busted open is that the team doesn’t seem to realise it. Part of me says that’s got to be bollocks, but it keeps happening so another part of me insists it isn’t. Team psychology is weird; there are days when you just ain’t got it. But the best sporting teams have a player who can rise above the psychological milieu and spark a fire, a change. Cotchin does it for Richmond. Remember when Warne came on to bowl, or when Richards came in to bat? Didn’t matter the situation, it was a new game. We don’t have a tool, a match metaphorically, on the ground or in the box that can spark a fire. Maybe one will develop...

I’m basically with you, but flexibility is a desirable trait; when a game is going down the poo hole, plug the hole with X, Y or Z.

Gotcha.

Confusing. They say the primary reason for Google’s success where Yahoo failed was and is the simplicity of the UI. Only one thing you can do: search.

Nev is an out and out champ. Hope the club has the brains and the means to employ him somehow. Blokes like Nev help dispel negative myths about indigenous people.

Ooh.... What if Saad refuses to sign a new contract with them, which is what media suggests at the moment?

If Saad is out of contract, that’s gotta be cheaper than Williams as FA, or do I have something [censored] backwards?

So, there’s evidence that we can join G, WC and R in sharing those characteristics. That’s as good news as we’re going to get, assuming those stats really are as key as the show asserted. But what, then, happens when these teams meet? I’ll have to go back and watch the G v WC game a couple of weeks back...

Swings and roundabout, though, so we have to be vigilant. Authoritarianism is rife outside the West...

Did anyone else notice that Vanders bounced about a foot off the ground after he was cleaned up by Weid?

Anyone see On the Slouch this week? Seems three teams in the comp have one plan but two modes, or perhaps that’s the same as Plans A & B.

Is better suited to delivering the ball inside 50. We need a Zac Williams or Adam Saad at HB to facilitate that...

Great answer. I’ve been thinking that maybe these past few weeks is exactly what the doctor ordered for the players: games that prove to themselves that 1. we are capable of playing the way the coach wants, and 2. what the coach wants will work if the players buy in, trust it, and go at it with energy. In that context, the next couple of games are about belief in the face of genuine opposition, one team pretty much even with us and the other having played significantly better this season so far.

In the wake of the victory against the Filth, I have a few questions for the tacticians. Are we winning because: 1. The players are implementing Goody’s tactics better? or 2. The tactics have changed? or 3. The opposition has been poor and we are getting away with tactics that better opposition will easily counter?

Ah....isn’t it great to beat the Filth?

If he keeps contributing like he has the past three games then keep the guy. If he has to play in the middle to play well, then play him there.. if we aren’t playing him where he plays well, trade. At the moment we’re playing him where he plays well and we are bagging points, so I’d say he’s fine and all is well.

Feel like I’m already there....

Odd how you can suffer from something for years without realising it.... Thanks. Now my condition has a name.

Can’t take not knowing anymore....have racked my brains, but nothing makes sense.... What is MFCSS?

I’m thinking these days that this thing is unstoppable, so the best we can do is invest large in hospitals to deal with the most serious cases and just let the rest of us get it...

I like the idea. Doing it helps solve the Brayshaw dilemma. There’s a new Robert Ludlum novel in that....

Also just want to thank Binman for the thread. Tactical changes shocked me when I came back to the game after 15 years overseas with my back turned. Felt as if finally someone got smart and drafted in a team of scientists to work out how to win. On Bennell’s performance against the Crows... There’s a fear there, totally justified, of what success will mean in terms of the impact on his body. With a family now, the stakes have risen. No doubt as a young man, his talent meant he had few reasons to doubt himself. But now he does. That all adds up to a big burden and it will be interesting to see how he copes. For mine, I think it is essential that he just keeps playing games and sooner or later a better footballer will emerge than he would have been otherwise...

Is he willing to have it? By that I mean, does the emotional sucking for him mean he becomes a dissatisfied and ineffective footballer? Is he too selfish to make the sacrifice? ive been thinking lately that B has to be played in the middle more, where he shines, or traded. Logic being there’s not much point having players in roles they aren’t suited for when we could have someone who is.

You know why 4 is "unlucky"? Because the sound for the word that represents the number is similar to the sound of the word for death. Consequently, buildings don’t have 4th floors, much in the way that western buildings often don’t have 13th floors. I used to enjoy debunking such superstitious [censored] with my students, logically asserting that, given there is but one earth shared by all peoples, if either were true then all buildings in Australia with 4th floors would be unlucky and all buildings in *hin@ with 13th floors would be unlucky, and as they’re not, the power of the belief depends upon believing in the first place.... and is therefore bogus. Not sure why I told you this. ‘Pose I just saw an opportunity for an anecdote. Belief is certainly powerful, however, and if MFC ever gets some we might win a flag...

Well, Brayshaw seems a plodder unless he’s in the middle, and Harmes seems wasted unless he’s played in the middle and forward, so f#$@ing do it, Goodwin....