Skuit

Can't help but think this is a continuation of last year's injury and he hasn't been right since pre-season 2016. Sad for the lad, especially after the journey he took to get listed. And best of luck in the recovery - I too think that his best may provide a bit of a surprise.

Whenever I close my eyes I have nightmares about Ollie Wines. It's best to just stay awake.

An easier solution would be if we just convinced Josh Kennedy to come to us and leave the other three behind.

Willmoy, I rarely have the faintest idea what you're talking about, and I say that in an affectionate way. Then I see you're from the Daintree, and I begin to 'understand'. You're not Rod Davis perchance are you?

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?

Can I join the circle-irk if it's the Geelong and Richmond games that get my goat? We didn't rock up for Freo and Hawthorn - a part of football. But we got screwed against the other two after dominating most of the day, and if we don't get a chance for payback in the finals it will be those that will linger in my memory of regret.

I came form the working classes in Adelaide - which meant every girl I dated in my formative years came from a Port Adelaide family. Meanwhile, I supported Norwood, Melbourne, Chelsea . . . some sort of Freudian aspirational classist self-hate I suppose.

Had one of the fully-toothed variety as a flat-mate last year. He just told me that he secretly hoped we give them a hiding on Queen's b-day, in that it might finally force the admin to make a move on Buckley. Reminded me of my darker S&MFC desires during the Neeld days, and the first time I've ever felt any sense of empathy for a Pies' supporter.

Yes. Having a Collingwood mate is delusional.

Levi Casboult is a free-agent and would offer more than Kurt as a key-forward. 201cm, 26y/o, can take a pack-grab (which we're lacking with our kpfs) and can also ruck a bit. He could simply hand it off to Watts and co. for a shot within the 30m arc a la Bernie from outside 50 - though he is going at a crazy 17-4 so far this year - and I have to admit I've always had a soft spot for Levi.

I was mostly just trying to bait the 'scoreboard' types with some additional psychobabble. Inverted U is archaic, but it's still a concept that persists at elite levels (as is IZOF), and I would bet it's covered in the Level 4 AFL Coaching curriculum (of which Goodwin is a graduate). And when Goodwin speaks of our brand of football, he is almost certainly referring to our high risk, high energy contested style which has brought rewards. To break it down minus some of the the theoretical jargon: Our game-style demands a high intensity with a high level of risk-taking and so then skill execution. With 'flow' models, peak performance is achieved when the challenge is sufficient enough relative to skills to hold concentration and execution before dropping off due to anxiety/arousal. We have a young but talented team being set challenges more against themselves than against the opposition. It's taking them longer than normal to recognise the challenge - hence the easy comebacks - but they're also being asked to perform at a high level of execution and bravado - hence the tightening up as anxiety rises in close encounters.

The solution to saving a sinking ship is to throw chairs overboard, not shuffle even more around on deck.

You've been using this term a bit lately and as a concept I think it could hold the key to explaining our statistical anomalies this season - particularly with regard to the Inverted U Hypothesis. Arousal and 'flow' are linked to anxiety (in the broader sense of the term) and the nature of the challenge at hand relative to levels of skill. We have a high-risk (and so high demands on skill execution), high energy game-plan in place (with a young but talented team on the field). As such, our optimal arousal for peak performance could be seen as being set further around the figurative horseshoe, with a greater build-up in reaching a flow-state and a smaller window before tipping beyond. AFL also has one one of the longest run-times for a sport of its type, which compounds the issue of trying to operate in a narrower band of effective arousal. Some will argue this is just another way of saying we need to maintain intensity or be more 'switched on', but I think it's a little more complex than that. And Goody keeps urging the team to 'get back to its brand' when we're down, but we may not have the capacity to do so yet from an 'arousal' perspective when peak-arousal is set at a higher and less forgiving point. Super-elite athletes such as Roger Federer seem to have the ability manage their arousal states and achieve flow at a lower rate of intensity (or earlier along the horse-shoe and then within a wider band), but we're a team of kids. As we develop, peak arousal will gravitate back to the centre, yet we will still be playing the same high risk, high energy game-plan. Goodwin has set a high bar, and the pay-off will come. Fans want to believe in psych issues such as mental fragility and hubris but this is an elite sports environment (and we're also not privy to internal biodata and how the team might be being managed). I half-joked previously that Macca should take the last two minutes of pre-game and half-time address, but this could be well off the mark.

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

Hogan returns after the death of his father and what is presumed the removal of a [censored] . . .vs. Collingwood. What are the chances a numpty Pies' supporter will cause another media blow-up by saying something highly offensive? Pretty darn high is my guess.

Just had the axis of the first digit wrong. -13

Based on your track record, I call bs.

Doubly certain?

For me, the skiing segments were like a rain delay in the cricket: the cue to go outside and kick a ball around. Though I fell in love with the Irish sport of hurling thanks to WoS. On a side note - I've always thought that hurling would be as rich if not richer pool than Gaelic footy for AFL player raids. Something about the balance and movement of the sport strikes me as a closer match for AFL despite the difference in apparatus. Coincidentally, one of the sports greatest modern champions is a bloke by the name of Carey.

Supermercado's demonblog Every Day is Like Sunday is also a good source for a spot of catharsis after a loss.

Thread title could do with an edit. Despite not thinking he has a future in the team I still get excited by the prospect of seeing Jack named again. Not sure why they haven't shifted him to HF at Casey as one last roll of the dice.

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?

Liam kicked a ridiculous goal over his head from about 30 out (v. Saints 2009?).

AFLCA website or AFL.com summary .The AFLCA site can be a nuisance to navigate at times if you are me.

Improved without a doubt (but some of that I think is taking off the hand-break - i.e - switching from learning-mode to something closer to full-flight). But that we're in the same position as last year suggests our depth isn't quite there yet. I've been critical of some aspects of list management, but there's only so many contingencies you can cover. We're in fantastic stead, but bad luck (not just injuries to key personnel, but the timing and location of those injuries) has been compounded by inexperience - otherwise I imagine we'd be the best traveling team in the league (bar GWS who can lodge their own complaints), and that equals a massive improvement. There is only the slight question over game-plan, because we haven't had much of a chance to see it in action with a full list and better luck/greater experience.