Skuit

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.

Tick for the umpires too. I hate to bring up gender on the internet, especially with such broad statements, but maybe less ego getting about? I helped to officiate a carnival recently, and a female umpire was by far the pick of the bunch on the day as well. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, or maybe just no crowd influence or not a particularly physical game, but worth a mention that they did well when they were so heavily slammed on here last week.

All this bathwater to sup from. Watch me follow it up with a shocker in the changes thread.

The FD undoubtedly rate him but I personally can't see it. Even with all the caveats of KPD's taking time to develop. a) seems to have a problem with his depth perception. You don't often see players completely miss the ball when going for marks and spoils. He does this frequently. b) he suffers from the same fundamental disposal issue as Tom. It's not just the obvious howlers, but an inability to correctly judge the path of a moving player. They both compensate by putting the ball vaguely into space for a runner, so it won't show up in the D/E, but it slows down our switch when a player has to collect and often puts that player and the next under unnecessary pressure. c) slow decision-maker (and today was very slow to move the ball - which should put an extra question mark over a spot in Goodwin's defence. We may as well have Dunn still). The slow decision-making may be a developmental thing, but he just doesn't strike as an instinctive footballer (nor an aggressive one). Slow decisions lead to bad decisions. d) not particularly fast or evasive. Issues with body-strength I would be willing to give him time, but apparently he already weighs nearly 100kg, so I would say that he might just not have the frame. He might be doing all the right things for the coaching department, but I question his physical ceiling to ever really make it as a KPD, or his ability in the long-term then to provide the alternative characteristics we seek in our defensive set-up.

Pretty sure it's in the top five.

I'm firmly in the Goody camp. Even when I might disagree, such as with leaving out-of-form players in for too long, I can still discern and appreciate his m.o. Though I had started to get a bit concerned that he hasn't been able to drive the players across the line in our close ones - as well as the flat starts in the first and straight after the break. Then I read one the players said he's not the 'motivational speeches' type, but just tells the players where they need to improve. Thought maybe it would be an idea to let Macca take the last two minutes of the huddle. But Goody is a numbers man, and it will be frustrating, but modern AFL is about numbers, and their weight will tip in our favour. He's also had a difficult early apprenticeship with KPP injuries - even we arm-chair critics have struggled to come up with innovative stop-gaps or selection solutions - yet he's tried things, most of which have had an impact.

I think in the wash we probably weren't as bad as it seemed in the first half. Certainly a culmination of frustrations though. They had a heap of extra run early after coming off the bye. We looked like absolute midgets next to their talls. Structurally we are still really really hurting. They had the wind and used it the old fashioned way, while we couldn't get the distance from outside 35m. When we had the wind, which had died down considerably, we were trying to control our entries but couldn't execute properly, and still we had a heap of shots on goal. After the half, this short-passing game clicked, GC lost their running advantage, the wind died off, and Pederson shifting forward largely fixed our forward structural issues.

Again, like Adelaide, I thought he was a bit down on touch today. Again, he kept at and tackled and kicked multiple goals. Last year/this year.

Imagine living next-door to the MacDonald clan. Mister, can we have our ball back. Mister, can we have our ball back. Mister, can we have . . . .

Hibberd and Pedo can go and stand next to Nev in the Reliable Camp Omac can go and stand next to that Traeger Park tree and wait for the next electrical storm. Might spark some life into the boy.

Essendon/Adelaide

Loving that our ruckman has been our cleanest ball-user to date. Yay! Go Dees!

MFCSS logic (in the event of a win): Why couldn't we play like that against North? Gold Coast are a rabble. It means nothing.

Neither GWS or the MFC drafted Aish so it's a win-win on the Kelly-Tyson deal as far as I'm concerned. We knew what we were giving up but had to make the sensible choice at that time of our rebuild. Simple. Fat load Kelly would have been if we had had no-one to win the ball, and he probably wouldn't be tracking the way he has if he had his development stifled by coming to us. Matt Jones and Jordie McKenzie were in our starting midfield. Right now, Kelly and Lobb are exactly what we need, but GWS had the luxury of not needing a surplus Tyson at the time.

The whole league seems quite young this year. Maybe that's why the comp is so even and the level of footy has been a bit underwhelming? The 'Baby Bombers' had an average age of just over 24y when they took the premiership - not sure whether that's squad/team - and I think the median for a prem. team is generally between 26-28. I recall last year there were at least three teams above 25y? Or maybe I'm just getting old.

Kent will be disappointed he didn't get selected if this is our game-plan.

And on another side-note, Nat Jones will move alongside Todd Viney as the 11th-most capped player in MFC history with 233 games to his name (three shy of ninth spot).

Some words from Nev on the importance to him of 'Indigenous Round'. (Apologies if a re-post) http://www.aflplayers.com.au/article/players-voice-neville-jetta/ Love the idea of his suggested cross-promotion with the NRL to make it an Australian-wide celebration.

Port at pick 7. If GC had nominated Viney at 2, there was an unlikely but possible chance that we wouldn't have matched and Todd would have throttled Neeld on the spot. On top of everything that went on, could you imagine the first time Jack tore us up on the field? AAMI would have been torched.

From a statistical KPI perspective, we're actually a very close match with Gold Coast - except we have a massive advantage in tackles. Exactly where we need to win this match.

Who fancies taking up the challenge of finding a named starting forward line in recent history consisting of one player over 190cm and no-one above 193cm? The cupboards are bare. But if there was something on the top shelf we wouldn't be able to reach up and grab it anyway.

MFCSS logic: The opposition are rebounding off an embarrassing loss. Melbourne are going to lose. The opposition are in good form and coming off a win: Melbourne are going to lose.

Cultural match. Tolerance and idolatry.

In recent years, Roughie got done for a trip against us? Can't recall who.