Skuit

Haha. Sorry demonsaw, just being playful. No insult intended - I was born with my tongue firmly lodged in my cheek. However, you did just manage to denigrate the entire industry which currently pays my bills (although I agree with the conning assessment).

Anther oddity is basically having to learn the names of the 46 competitors to effectively do their part-time job; i.e. for ruck nominations and indicating the receiver of free kicks and who an opponent should hand the ball back to. Equally bizarre is that the players also have to know the names of their opponents so as not to incur further penalties, and often their first names as well. Lever getting told to return the ball to 'Eddie': who the hell is that?

If Collingwood had snuck in another late goal against us on King's Birthday do you think any commentator would be dismissing that win? No, it would speak to their brilliance in reining in another contender. See vs Port.

While no one would argue that our forward-line looks like a well-oiled machine, we're still third for points scored this year, and with a better defensive record than the two teams ahead of us. And it's not like our mids are contributing all that much, bar Petracca in a hybrid role. Gawndy have been good for 20 (many of those as part of our forward set up), and Viney and Sparrow have together chipped in about 15. Reality is, our forwards have kicked a lot of goals this year between them. I suppose one needs to consider i50 conversion, but that's a function of our game plan.

You've convinced me to your way of thinking, that we should maybe contemplate competing for this year's flag - I just hope the footy department are on board with such an approach. Even if our first-rounder slips back to say #21, we could possibly package it up with our future first and Freo's second to move back up to around that #17 mark.

You're right. I have no idea. I should have stated that I don't think we will be on the board until probably pick 5, with plenty still to choose from. One thing no one has remotely considered is the potential for us to slide backwards ourselves to secure two late top-tens/early teens by splitting #4 and upgrading one of our seconds.

Lol. I always suspected 'binman' was a take on Oscar McDonald = Oscar the Grouch = the bin man.

ARN seems like a natural fit. Trumps Orlando in the name-stakes. Though Riak is pretty cool.

We're not getting Reid or McKercher. Move on.

Haha. Ignore the meth and $18 pints.

On the subject of Sparrow's poor delivery to Petty, causing an injury, I recall a similar debate raging about someone getting injured circa. 2017 - maybe the Hogan broken leg? Any ideas? To me, it looked like our young brigade (Bowey, McVee, Sparrow, and Rivers) had watched a bunch of videos and were overcompensating for wind that didn't exist. Brayshaw and Salem were also ****housen with the kicking/floating handballs though. I think the latter also got suspended via angry pills in a corresponding match on the apple isle?

Bank the draft cookies. They can select the cream in the mid-field and sell the spares for extra draft-points.

Indeed. I forgot the point about North being list strategy gurus.

Thanks for the explanation demonsaw. I can be quite daft at times. But we still have to consider if we want one flag now or potentially a few in the future driven by drafting in top AFL talent. It may be worth tanking out in straight sets again if our current pick 17 looks like it could be pushed back to 18 and then slide further with FS and priority picks. Our second pick will also slide back. Another 'straight-sets' exit could land us pick 15 maybe, and potentially lead to multiple premierships if we keep our window open between 2025-2028 before Clatracca retires. #selfdeathride.

We need a 'Jack Viney made me fly' thread for somersaulting Simpkin like a pancake.

Kozzie Pickett has only ever kicked four goals against the Blues, but I doubt many Carlton fans would take solace in such a stat. If he manages ten more goals over the next five 'guaranteed' MFC matches in 2023, he'll be just five shy of the half-way mark of Cyril Rioli's career tally, who took until his eighth season to kick 40-plus and only achieved the feat twice. Eddie Betts and Charlie Cameron notched their first 40-plus seasons in their sixth go-around. Kozzie will likely have done so three times in his first four seasons.

Melbourne blowing their chances for Harley by stupidly pushing up the ladder . . . North likely to receive a couple of extra 'picks' through a potential mix of pre-listings, FA compensation or priority handouts in the hypothetical range of #8 to #19, pushing at least one of ours further out. If that's the case (say prelisting Sanders, or/and realistically getting end-of-first compo for McKay, and/or a mid-first or end-of-first 'trade' priority pick), I imagine they will trade for #1= Reid. Currently they have #2, #15, and then a possible top ten prospect in Sanders or maybe #10 plus one #19 or two ~#19s - on top of future firsts and seconds in the projected range of #1-#4 and #19-#23. If they get a free shot at Sanders, then the public opprobrium of trading out their extra cookie-handouts for a shot on Reid diminishes. They have a new generational talent, plus a serious prospect and another decent draftee. My expectation (the softest scenario because of the serious talent they already have listed) is that they will receive an end-of-first 'tradable' priority (plus possibly an end-of-second), and band 3 for McKay. That would be #2, #15, #19, #20 (the first second-rounders have a bit of extra cache due to live-trading), as well as a projected F1 and F2 #2 and #19 to play with. If they get and extra #3 or #4 it's already over. I can't see us getting close to this kid, even if we sell some farm to GC and the rest of it to WC. We have maybe #4, plus #17 as it stands, and another projected sliding #23 and F1 #18-#16. And that's all before GWS enter the frame, with #6 and #11 currently in hand. If WC split, they would prefer a 'gentleman's' agreement dealing with North, so that they can at least secure Curtain. The way I see it unfolding is North swap #2 and something significant for WC #1 and another top ten. North pick Reid, WC get Curtain, and Hawks end up with McKercher (plus Walter to GC). We then have the fifth or sixth pick. We could still trade to GC and end up with a second top-ten pick, maybe in the #8 to #11 range after priorities and such. My guess would be Duursma and Caddy/Watson. Not a bad result for a premiership team (I won't speculate on our third pick). But then we will have to start turning our attention to a future KPD and hope our ruck plan pans out, and then another class mid.

It undoubtedly does. But it's conceivable that Petty wouldn't have a premiership medal if it weren't for Tomlinson's knee injury (suffered at the same dung-heap I believe). The reverse may play out this year. Smith was another who could be considered unfortunate to miss out in 2021, due to chronic bad luck with injuries, and may just take Petty's place, due to the latter's current chronic bad luck with injuries. Karmic rebalancing is the best positive spin I have.

Why would we pay Port to take Grundy if we want to keep him and he requests a trade? Why does everyone keep talking about his existing contract in relation to this scenario? Am I missing something?

I was huge on Laurie's draft highlights and super-excited when we landed him (proving once again that I have no idea), but it should be noted as part of this discussion that it was likely Taylor had Holmes and Bowey biroed in before a late blindside, and that assessing the 2020 draft crop was seriously tricky. Besides Sydney academy selection Gulden, it's not like there are any serious midfield claims selected below Bailey. Taylor gets a mulligan on that one, together with the Rosman pick, who we likely wouldn't have selected if successful in our bid to lure Isaac Smith. That last point makes for some interesting what-ifs. If Smith had hypothetically chosen us to fill our second wing spot, would we have then switched our attention to forward reinforcements a year earlier? McCreery seems like the pick of the bunch selected after Laurie, and very much in the Taylor mould. Wonder where he was on the list? Also MFC 2022 with Smith?

Fixed it for you.

If I came across a refreshing beer after a particularly brutal encounter with the morning sun (or probably a rejuvenating vial of laudanum in Donne's case) and said, 'gee, don't you look refreshing', I would be saying that to myself, of the beer (I've been in Southern Europe lately so know exactly what I'm talking about). Speaking to a ale is just plain silly, as it has limited self-consciousness, as is speaking to someone else after 15 or so pints for the reverse reason, despite my habit of doing so Demonland. Now suppose I encountered and ingested some strong field mushrooms, and said, 'gee, aren't you little brutal cups of golden morning sunshine', that may however be another matter. But narrator-protagonists in text don't 'speak' to anyone or thing, despite the most common attribution device of 'he/she/so-and-so said'. In this case, the anti-Romantic poet John Donne, likely suffering from a hangover of some sorts and lamenting the morning sun, at best speaks to an implied readership, of that dastardly morning sun. If you would like further instruction on implied readers and even implied authors, or textual semiotics, I have an account of Fiver. It's free to sign up. Although I feel like I might have undermined my credibility by forgetting to note the most 'ironic' point of this sub-discussion on pedantry; it's taking place in a thread about a player named Petty lol.

Extra amusing due to the presumed etymology of 'pedantic'. But alas the term has nothing to do with feet according to the Google robots, which offer anti-romantic hero John Donne as the first to textually adopt the French equivalent, pédantesque, in the poem 'Sunne Rising,' in which the protagonist desires black-out curtains so as to linger longer in bed with his lover, saying of the morning sun, 'Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schooleboyes.' It's worth noting that the word sun was once spelled as 'sunne' but somehow the English language and that giant fiery orb in the sky both survive to this day, and that the concept of chiding schoolkids coincidentally featured in the very first recorded use of pedantic in written English. Also interesting is that the word 'donnish' is given a synonym for pedantic, despite having nothing to do with the metaphysical poet John Donne.

What do Paul Simon, Peter Allen and Skyhooks have in common?

I keep seeing Clockwork Orange