Skuit

In all seriousness though: Pickett looks like he could do with a rest. Also the perfect opportunity to switch out Jones for Harmes. Our structure seems more important this year than actual personnel. So Omac stays unless we go small and recall Jetta or Lockhart. Fritter (& Hunt) in for AVB and Hannan maybe. Also looking forward to Bennell. Melksham will never be dropped so I'm wasting my time talking about it. Hibberd i think unlikely to take the field and it shouldn't be rushed. Out: Jones, AVB, Hibberd. In: Harmes, Fritsch, Hunt.

Little Charlie Spargo looks like he could do with a rest.

This season to date wouldn't be possible without Ed Langdon. Everyone knew it was an issue and we went out and plugged it (as well as finding another pressure pocket in Pickett). Tomlinson not such a big hit though. Another winger/half-back runner the first point of order. Throw everything at Zachary Williams please. Land that and we can sit on our thumbs for the rest of trade period. Otherwise we need Bennell/Hunt/Baker to step up. Maybe look at another key forward. Beside that we're pretty good for balance.

Was great to have some unorthodox camera-work tonight to get a real appreciation of Langdon's work-rate. I was puffed out just watching him. Whether league-wide recruit of the year or not, I think he is our best plug in eons. Another one this off-season would be a dream.

Called it off the boot, as did I. It's far easier for me to revise my opinion one second later though. He should have overturned his own initial call, but I've also officiated sport before and the second you realise you've made a bad mistake the mind goes to complete mush. Thankfully for both him and us we prevailed - otherwise I think that one would weigh on his mind for some time. I still dwell on on-field errors from 25 years ago. Overall the quality of the umpiring was decent tonight and mostly consistent. It's not the first time I've said that about one of our Alice matches.

Loved his big smile in the post-match interview. He knew he did good.

There was a subtle shift in the external rhetoric heading into the game as to aiming for finals and such. There was a huge shift in the coaches box. Training wheels are off. Goodwin devised a plan to counter the Saints.

I barely ever touch this thread but unusual circumstances with three defenders getting us over the line: May Salem Petracca Oliver Rivers Apologies to Langdon

Goodwin is full of [censored]. I didn't recognise that brand of football at all.

To be fair I don't think many of us would have predicted Trac's huge recent leap in focus and maturity.

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.