Skuit

Kicking straighter than anyone at the Dees this year. I know, right? Been working with Sav Rocca and the shrinks. Trigger warning: John Ralph. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/carlton/levi-casboult-has-realised-goalkicking-is-about-more-than-physical-routine-its-a-mental-game/news-story/e3847aa3d78eebbcdffec81ecbbbab41

Motlop anyone? Free agent and the price would have plummeted. Cats are keen to move him on. Foolhardy to think that our club environment may get more out of a player than another, but they're some of the risks you weigh up when chasing a bargain and I would back Simon in to work it. We're likely to lose Spencer (and maybe Trenners) to FA for little return, bring in Motlop, Casboult and Jackson Trengove as free agents for no currency and we potentially plug most of our pressing holes. If the price is right?

Maybe you can swap one of these with the Paul Johnson reminder of the heritage massacre vs. Geelong?

Would absolutely love Lever. However, if we're looking for a defender to provide reliable intercept marking and spoiling, we potentially already have one in McDonald. Tom that is. He was tracking AA for the first half of 2015 doing just that, getting across for the the dead-ball spoil and dropping into holes for the intercept mark. But sometime thereafter his role was tweaked with a greater offensive focus - because there was basically nobody else. He was our zippiest defender outside of Lumumba and we didn't have any decent kicks anyway. He was also given the responsibility of marshaling our back-line. It hasn't quite worked, and his defensive side has slid since - most notably with respect to spoiling and marking (outside of the mitigating factor of our high zone and when the defense is reasonably set - unless it's a stamina issue, and the ground coverage is impacting his ability to contest as effectively in the air?). But we've since added serious line-breakers in Hunt and Frost along with clean distributors in Hibberd and Salem etc. We also have the likes of Lewis and Jones who can coordinate our defense and hold our structures. Goodwin wants all our defenders to be offensively-minded, and it won't greatly change things, but perhaps we can swivel Frost into more of Tom's role, and Tom can shift back to a more defensive focus and take Oscar's spot?

Said on another thread - 21 contested possessions on the weekend, 11 clearances, and seven of those in the centre (as well as a few of the standard super-human head-shakers). In 71% ToG. He's racking up these numbers in less than 3 qtrs of a game. Yet the kid barely got a mention in the Demonland votes. We've become very complacent very quickly re. Clayton's contributions, and that is full credit to him. No one has put up the same figures week in week out for the MFC ever, and yet we still know he's capable of more and hold him to that standard. After 23 games. Astonishing.

Should've kicked it.

We average 4.25 more points per game with Jesse and Max in the team. Multiply by the eight weeks of their joint absence and you get 34 = we're a five goal better team. Spread those 34 points across four games (Freo, Richmond, Hawks and North) and we sit a game clear atop the ladder and I get a job as the club's PR spin-master while BB and SWYL lose their [censored].

Creative accounting. We're actually a two trillion goal better team with them in.

Damn Cats. Soon we'll be saying stop 15 of them and they have no one. Ab-Wood-Danger: sounds like a Current Affair headline concerning an infomercial exercise-apparatus fad.

The collective Power defence are traveling well under the radar this year as well. Conceded the least points against by quite a staggering margin. And I haven't seen enough of them, but they seem to be running a high press and zone like ours. We would all love a big traditional full-back, because it hurts to watch us repeatedly giving up goals to the big forwards, but the reality is we off-loaded Dunn for free, and it's likely we'll be looking for mobility and someone who can slot in with our direction.

Could be as much as $10 each if he learns how to spoil.

Ranked 67th* in Total Kicks. Must be crap. *made up figure.

He should teach Watts how to take a proper chest-mark. Although I'm not exactly sure the mechanics of how Trac manages them so cleanly in the contest himself.

He reminds me of Dane Swan on occasion. But the good parts. And I would be disappointed somehow if he didn't end up better. Reasonable bar I've set there.

Apologies for the self-quotation, but I thought this was pretty amusing in the lead-up to the 2015 draft: 'I went to Bali with Vanders and Dom somewhere around round 21 and just emerged out of the back-end of the West Papuan jungle. I'm nowhere near up to speed, and usually pay little heed to draft prospect propaganda, but the kid appears to spend it before he has it in the best possible way. Seems to read the play a step ahead of normal human beings.' Ironically, I had no idea who Clayton Oliver was back then and was commenting on Darcy Parish.

Got a 'welcome-to-footy' heavy dumping by Hawthorn last year and popped straight back up. Some players you know it's probably not worth roughing up as they can't be distracted or provoked and will respond in the stats column. Kid seems to have a pretty unflappable temperament. The opposition would be better hiding in strategically-placed bins.

Highlights the quality of each media outlet in almost perfect order.

This is an interesting read and maybe a partial answer (probably a stretch but intriguing if so). http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2016-02-19/new-cockburn-base-has-best-of-everything Freo's new training facilities include 'a main training oval big enough to replicate every AFL ground and a GPS program that shows instantly where goal posts and markings need to go to mirror venues such as the MCG, SCG, the Gabba, Adelaide Oval and WA’s Domain Stadium'.

Sorry for the source . . . http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2014-03-27/skinny-flat-meet-the-slimmed-down-adelaide-oval Can just about bunt a ball for six square at Adelaide Oval.

Could never understand why they named a cleaning product after an ancient Greek warrior. Then realised the agency must have misinterpreted the 'tough on grease' copy-brief as 'tough in Greece'.

This thread is the definition of 'association' football.

I currently live in the Netherlands but used to support Ajax many moons ago - along with Chelsea - before the Abramovich take-over finally persuaded me that soccer as a sport was just one massive crock of [censored]: sportsmen as a dynamic visual representation of arrows on a spread-sheet. Anyways, I thought there were some interesting and uncanny parallels with Ajax's current resurgence and the MFC related in this article - in general philosophy and on-field approach. A worthwhile sporting read regardless. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/may/10/ajax-johan-cruyff-peter-bosz-europa-league-lyon The basic assumption is that: after focusing on in-house development and again rising to some prominence, Ajax will nevertheless have their players raided at season's end and that soccer's capitalistic imbalance will prevail. Yet, while it is true that Ajax won't likely overcome the 'big club' status quo, they will receive some decent compensation for lost personnel to continue building on steadily into the future. And this has got me thinking . . . We still think of the salary cap as the primary equalisation measure in the AFL. Yet, the draft and ability to develop (based on functions outside of the cap) are massive - as this is where you get a free injection to your bottom line. The GWS equation has driven this home. We haven't just fluffed selections as potential on-field saviours in the past, we've lost serious market currency; e.g. Toumpas for basically nought. The thing is now - we've assembled a seriously talented list of youngsters, and while we may be concerned we can't keep them together, we've got ourselves into a position where we'll be compensated enough to keep the momentum rolling. Kudos to Jackson and Roos. This is the real 'money-ball' at play.

A stat from a few weeks back, but: Number of times an individual player has kicked 4 or more goals in an AFL game since 2015: 401 Number of times an individual MFC player has kicked 4 or more goals in a game since 2015: 10 5 or more goals? I can recall maybe twice.

This article is a bit meaningless. Petracca has better early stats than some people who turned out good?

I would, but I'm afraid that Clarry would know my precise whereabouts and my girlfriend will find out.