Go Ds

A lot of teams didn't take him. If he were the standout wouldn't he have been pick #1?

I still think 13 wins is a probable Finals berth. In the last 2 years 14 wins has easily been enough. I always felt that in the 22-game seasons that 12 was the magic number. Most years it was enough and adjusting to now 12.5 to 13 looks about right. Most #8 teams are average , so usually 14 wins 9 losses is a big ask. There'll be sides that improve from here and ones that will go backwards. Usually form, fitness, injuries , confidence etc will cause surprises later in the season. We will need some luck. But sometimes this will happen.

Yep, this was a guy's specialist subject on Mastermind tonight. Most of the questions I got right. I missed the ones about the team we drew with in 2006, our first goalscorer in the 2000 GF and how many games Mark Riley coached as caretaker in 2007. I reckon a lot of you would have done well.

That one of those teams is struggling and that we're an ok side.

Oh wow. I'm not gonna go overboard about our chances for the rest of the year but this season the amount of bovine excrement I've heard and read just on Melbourne and its individuals alone could fertilise every garden in the southern hemisphere!

BTW often the most recent episode of Front Bar is on YouTube for a few days. But often they get removed so you'd need to catch it soon (or stream on ch7 with ads)

If Kosi plays well and is pleasant it really doesn't matter if he's quiet or can barely express himself in any language. Yes, teams need leaders but not every player has to be. Kosi's fine as he is.

I meant specifically suicides of AFL players. You wrote a good post though.

It's a midfielder's award. There'll be a few that'll get lots of votes where if you looked back at the specific games where it's obvious the umps have overrated their efforts.

How did this happen?! Neither twin had suffered brain-altering concussions, or had they? Anyway this is heartbreaking and I agree with just about everything said here BTW Selwood, Tuck, Frawley... is that a disproportionate number of football families with these tragedies?

Yeah, possibly too far back. I think our best chance to scrape in is win 9 more games and with 13 wins and a poorish percentage leapfrog all the teams with better percentages but 12 wins. We've just beaten the reigning premiers on their home turf, who started the round on top of the ladder, yes. That standard will net more wins. Whether we'll consistently play that well from here on is the big factor.

It's way better than the threads talking about Goody's replacement coach after 3 losses . 🙄

Good. But instead let's focus on whatever's left of the season. 12th next week? Off the top of your head can you remember last year's round 11 ladder or Melbourne's exact position at that stage year in year out?

Laurie was pick 22 in 2020 Tholstrup pick 13 , 2023 Laurie averaged 9 disposals last year Tholstrup 11.7 Laurie's not hopeless. But right now Tholstrup is still an unknown quantity and could well be a much better player. Why should be Laurie be selected first?

It's difficult predicting past the current year (and even then there'll be surprises if come October you look at the Round 9 ladder). If we have, say, pick 39 at the end of the year and surprises everyone winning next year's Rising Star and his second Brownlow a few years after clearly our future will be a lot more pleasantly surprising. Of course I hope every staff member is trying their best to improve the team short and long-term. But as fans there's no point worrying too much about it. We may be better than you think. Who knows? At best we're making educated guesses.

Please check your facts before commenting. Last year 8th was 13 wins and 110 percentage (13 and 103 would've bettered 9th). Two years 12.5 and 110 was enough.(12 and 109 would've still bettered 9th) In the 22 game era usually 12 and maybe 105 was enough. But some years 11 or 11.5 wins was enough. So overall 13 and 110 would rarely miss nowadays, with 12 possibly doing it . We have too many flaws. But 9-5 and percentage boosters or closer games and 10-4 is plausible. (And if we average about 93 to 75, including those 10 wins, in the last 14 games we get to around 103)

Agree with most of that. But last year Brisbane beat us in Round 5 recovering to 2-3.

Hawthorn last year were like a horse winning at 100-1 .... unusual. We're too far behind at 3-6 to genuinely be in the finals mix. It was so annoying last week - good kicking and we're probably 5 goals (6 if a competent umpire saw the Pickett trip) up in the final quarter and probably win. If so everyone says we're a middle of the ladder side and 4-5 are a smokey to make the 8. Instead Hawthorn are 5-2 and probably in most people's top 3.

Where would we be in those stats if, say, we were an ordinary but better 11th worst for accuracy? These are all tied in together. Of course if the ball landed in better spots inside 50 and the forwards were doing better presenting or marking or the smalls were crumbling it would help too. But if the 'yips' has just kept snowballing more and more over a season or two then surely this diminished our efficiency further too. Who should we blame about poor kicking anyway? If players just keep missing and missing it is possible the best goal kicking coach is doing an amazing job despite everything. It's not the team's only problem and maybe dwelling on inaccuracy is just making things worse. But surely if the totals go up 20% with better kicking suddenly we're not 16 th in all these mini-stats.

I sure hope so. So much is monitored these days. I suspect some goal kicking is the player kicking multiple times and getting a feel for how everything felt for the accurate shots vs the wildly inaccurate ones. If a computer can see that with the accurate shots the foot formed a 1 degree larger angle with the leg I'm not sure if that won't hinder players during matches. Of course if a player realises they're still more accurate with their weak leg from the other pocket or with a straight kick from a pocket that info is valuable. But sometimes just practising is probably enough.

Society are getting better dealing with mental illness and those struggling with it. I think nearly always people want no one taking their own lives or those at risk having diminished lives. It's not a bad starting point to work backwards from there by at least accepting or not stigmatising others for perceived flaws or strange, but harmless, behaviour. Being judgemental can only exacerbate things (regardless of whether that's towards a famous sportsman or a loner at the bus stop with sloppy clothes and a thousand-yard stare.)

That's an incredible and horrible claim to notoriety for a player to have forever. It'd be rare that you could attribute a player's retirement to another player's actions. There would be drivers who have to live with someone's death or maiming due to their vehicle being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course many would be completely innocent and free of blame. But the authorities would thoroughly review every detail of the accident and find anything the driver did wrong. There is no way a Collingwood player would have jumped in the air so recklessly at a training session. If he did and a star such as Daicos then missed months with injury no one would have forgiven the act. Sorry, but it still rankles me how the whole Brayshaw incident was handled and how the instigator got off completely scot-free.

I've been rethinking how much footy and footy media I bother with. When we had footy cancelled for months in 2020 it really reminded me how much I love having it there during winter. Even then with its return I didn't have to fanatically consume every minute of it or the 'analysis'. But thank God it exists. These days I'm trying to wind back more and more the amount I watch. There are other things I enjoy doing with my time and I'd be surprised if anyone reading this who don't also. We can't do much about the favouritism or witch hunts. But gradually I'm not just watching/listening to AFL stuff just cos it's there. Especially football media is there for the ratings and money (with some ethics tempering all that). We're engaging to be entertained and informed. Our goals and theirs arent necessarily the same. Honestly if we're really not getting enough enjoyment or (accurate) info from the daily footy media circus why not find other diversions, especially nowadays with so many things we can watch/do? Its really not going to matter if you miss some eps of Footy Classified, On the Couch or mornings with SEN

Marginally. Don't give the bird to a cop that's just given you a ticket; don't condone your 6yo giving Great Aunt Myrtle the bird. It's probably better players don't do the gesture. But it's low on the scale of misdemeanors.

I quite like most of that. But while we're hypothesizing the stats may well be long in whether one can get both heavier AND sprint faster.