Skuit

We look like having a highly valuable early second-rounder. Plus two third-round picks and a fourth which could be packaged. Have no idea how the draft will look this year - but I never understood this concept that picks slide with F&S and Academy choices. I almost see it as the opposite. Teams will reach for their prospects or pay up in latter draft picks. It's a good position. Anyway, I think we could end up picking three kids in the ordinary 18-30 range if we hold and play our cards right. Can't see that by trading out any of our bottom ten will help us in any way. Free agents or a dead trade period I'm guessing.

I like Lockhart but for those questioning his omission it's worth going back and looking closely at the tapes. He made a lot of little errors which cost us dearly and I suspect he still has a lot of work to do on his defensive positioning within our structure.

It's going to be a messy draft. But if the first round overnight split is retained then the value of early second round picks significantly rises. I was cheering on Essendon.

I guess in that they're both measured characters with a focus on player personal development.

Haha. Round 22: we up up by 40 points early in the second quarter and let them back into it. Missed out on finals by 0.5%

Poor efforts against the Saints cost us in all of 2016, 2017, and 2018 in my mind. Please get it done this time boys. Go Dees!

So many elements of fantasy in this thread. One of them unmentioned though: Bell in the end had his hand forced in taking on and coughing up for Jesse. Based on Bell's behaviour to date, I can't see any scenario where he would trade Hogan back to us for peanuts. It would be too much of a loss of face (and please - that's not intended as an Asian stereotype). No way he would give up pick six (plus swaps) and take a fourth round pick from the same team as recompense two years later. He would get crucified by the very same fans who forced his hand in the first place.

Balme and Goody are actually a good match with similar philosophies. Would be a great get. And another platform to continue my get Nathan Bassett campaign. I'm staggered it hasn't happened yet to be honest. With Balme: a red & blue reunion. As far as I can gauge he and Goody are on good terms. Helped get him to the Dons. No one really talks about it but the MFC trading out Bassett isn't far shy of Thompson. 200+ game All Australian. Since being at the Power he has coached both the defensive and forward lines with obvious results. Plus multiple Redlegs' premierships. The only question I have is: why isn't he touted for a senior role more often?

I apologise titan and Redleg. My last comment was indeed straight out of the Stuie playbook. We're quibbling over what may have been a poor analogy I used to illustrate that outcome over action is an element of our societal punitive system. Anyway, the point has been made.

Okay fine. My logic is obviously completely out of whack with everyone else's. Anyone who wants to justify the act of drink-driving compared to hitting someone while drunk based on our legal code is welcome to do so. I can't see it but whatever.

I'm pretty sure that's the point I'm making. Outcome over action. Clearly if you drive drunk you're putting other people at risk. If you get pulled up you cop a slap on the wrist. If you don't get pulled up and someone wanders across the road in front of you and you're not capable of evasive action - you go to prison. Completely a matter of circumstances but same mens rea. The only difference in ANB's case is that it's difficult to establish mens rea or any reckless intent.

Okay.

The thing is - it does, privileging outcome over transgression. Just think of our drink-driving laws. Get caught over the limit and you maybe lose your licence. If you just happen to hit someone you will likely go to prison. It's the same crime but comes down to a matter of luck.

Just as a head's up. I noted like someone else (before last weekend) that the Squiggle auto ladder predictor had us in fifth winning five of the last six with a % of 112 or so (down from 118% at the time). Must have been one mighty loss. But then found out the simulation wasn't fixed. Hit the button again and we were down in 10th. And again into 8th. And so forth.

Often we dismiss poor behaviour as belonging to another era and blame the culture rather than the individual. The following quotes from the Muir article demonstrate that at least some people of the time had a conscience. Kudos to them. It means the rest spitting hatred and bile and racist tropes should feel ashamed of themselves. Alan Attwood of The Age: The Collingwood cheer squad, and a large proportion of the Victoria Park crowd, [were] baiting and abusing in the lowest manner that wayward but undoubtedly talented player Robert Muir. That was maddening: victimisation of the most despicable kind. Even when the match was over, the cheer squad did not give up. It stood outside the St Kilda players' race abusing Muir. If only they could have seen themselves, like hyenas round a cornered prey. One wished for a firehose to be turned on them. John Northey The only prominent football identity who has ever strongly condemned the name (Mad Dog) is former AFL coach John Northey, who mentored Muir in Ballarat. Ballarat Football Club: By the time he was named captain of Ballarat Football Club's Under-18s side in 1971 . . . Opposing fan: His burden was common knowledge in Ballarat; in an extraordinary display of bipartisanship in a region known for its bitter football rivalries, a Golden Point fan wrote a letter to the editor of the Ballarat Courier when Muir was 16, decrying the "filth and abuse" he faced during games The Truth: Four years earlier, in the wake of the Victoria Park case, Melbourne tabloid The Truth ran an unsubtle headline that captured the attention of everyone in football: MUIR HATE CAMPAIGN.

I stumbled across this article yesterday. It's a review of Time and Space by James Coventry, which Dee Man mentioned early in this thread - written by Russel Jackson (who I've been told has moved on from the Guardian due to a dispute). The review alone covers some interesting tactical developments and their surprise originators, which I was probably too young at the time to care about or have picked up on - though I think most wouldn't be aware of these aspects of AFL history. I'll be looking to pick up a copy now. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/jul/15/understanding-afl-tactics-russell-jackson.

This may sound counter-intuitive (especially to egalitarian Aussie minds), but I don't believe a 17 or 34 game season makes the competition any more equitable as some ideal we should strive toward. Teams have runs of form, injuries, suspensions etc. - when you come up against a team and the strength of that team at the time is partially a matter of luck. Yet, the longer a season goes obviously increases the sample size and thus a more equitable result in the end - so I believe there's some room to add a few extra matches without necessarily striving for 34 and weakening the game. It shouldn't be considered as a dichotomy. In practice, the AFL has probably hit upon the most equitable fixture in a practical sense. Playing more games against your previous season bracket. That would be easy to expand to the top and bottom halves of the ladder (17 + 7) and would create a greater sense of formal fairness for fans, as well as accommodating more of the big-money games without sacrificing the ideal. I feel that a 24 game season plus a bye or two feels about right.

We’re getting killed in tight tight and off half back and we were still in front at the half. Turn that around a bit and we should coast home. Our movement is relatively good. Tough match though. Also, stop kicking to Tomald. C’mon Dees.

I hate playing against the non-glamour Victorian clubs: North, St Kilda and the Bulldogs. We invariably lose against mid-table rubbish and it's not nearly as satisfying when we do win. But today would be very satisfying against a strong midfield outfit.

I agree with the sentiment. But that would be 55% of Sparrow's time on the ground I'm presuming - which last week was just 55% of total match time. So he's obviously mostly rotating on to give our other blokes a breather - effectively overall one less, but a solid player helping to maximise the output of our champion mids. It looks like he's mostly taken Harmes' minutes too, maybe also allowing for greater back-line stability throughout a match.

Had no idea that Whitten Oval was on Barkly street. That's almost as good as the bloke who recently got done for 500kg of cocaine in PNG - David Cutmore.

As imported from another thread: Dimma and Dimmer.

John Trotter: ex-Deloitte Global Managing Partner for Risk Services and Managing Partner of Deloitte Victoria. Seems a pretty safe pair of hands. "Chair of the Club’s Risk and Audit sub-committee. He is also Chair of the Bentleigh Club sub-committee. He has particular involvement at the Board level on the governance structures, risk management and finance operations of the club". Given our recent history it's almost impossible to imagine we're in a strong financial position. But he may be a clue.

My ex-girlfriend is still super-hot but when she starts talking about crystals again I know I made the right decision.

Goody confessed to as much last year. They were underdone at the start of the season, the confidence quickly evaporated and then the pressure came on: the end result was a series of aimless weekly tweaks.