Tim

Saturday is the 40th anniversary of Leigh Matthews giving Neville Bruns a busted jaw behind the play. Amazing vision on YouTube; Matthews himself ends up staggering off the field with a bloodied face and helped by trainers after the subsequent melée. Apparently it was 20yo Steve Hocking who took on the role of equalizer. Lethal was charged by police, deregistered as a player for 4 weeks by the then VFL, but still managed to get amongst the goals in his final 9 games, including bags of 6 and 4.

Yeah, the draw was at the Cattery; it was the day that Tom Lonergan copped the kidney injury, and the year after we beat them by a point when Robbo went nuts. So, our only wins at Porkbarrell Park this century were that one, Max’s breakout game in 2015, and Max’s hero game in 2021. At least they were memorable wins to go with all the bad stuff (incl. 186). In fact they are our only wins there since 1988 (3 from 26 attempts).

Thanks Ghosty, but for those decrying the soccer work at our flush runs, you forgot to mention that when our boys came out, in the spirit of cross-code harmony they left a bag of Sherrins with the Victory mob, who did a session of kick to kick - they didn’t touch the round balls. There was a lot of across the body kicking on display - expect some heavy checkside action in their next outing. 🏉 (Weak attempt at humour alert - just joshin’….😉)

The general criminal law has its own version of outcome-based results. If you shove someone in the street and they stagger and recover their balance there will be different consequences for the pusher compared to if the pushed person falls over, hits their head and has a serious or fatal injury. And I reckon that’s the way it should be, as outcomes do matter in terms of extent of penalty. Moore was concussed, iirc.

Melksham - good defensive efforts

25.9 - a day out on the accuracy front on the scoresheet. 10 of the 12 goalkickers are still plying their trade in the AFL 7 years down the track, and 14 of the 22 in the whole team (should be 15, as Gus played as well). With hindsight that’s a good metric for why we had such a strong performance from 2021-2024. And for the record, 3 votes J. Melksham - the same bloke who received 8 coaches votes at his last start, 7 years on. I looked at the stat sheet for the game, and the weirdest thing was that player C. Oliver had 26 disposals without taking a mark - the only player on the field to not do so. Strange. Even Pat Kerr, playing in his only ever game, took 2 marks among his 7 possessions.

Yep, our last quarter score sheets add up to 14.21 to 44.22. (Fwiw, I think you’ve overestimated our score by 1.1 in the 5th game.) By my calculation that’s a percentage of 29.4% for the collective last quarters over 9 games - a significant body of work. While it’s shocking enough as a stat in its own rite, the big imbalance in accuracy between us and our opponents disclosed in that stat also indicates that they are having a lot better looks at goal than we are. That suggests they really are running over the top of us and having shots from much better positions/under less pressure.

Whole team - unusually fumbly day Lindsay - liked his work JVR - OK when rucking

Hmmm…we must have been watching the same game but saw things very differently. Spargs’s work in the last two (after a long layoff) is evidence as to why the FD likes him.

Lest we forget…. What about the most significant CEO we’ve had in decades, Peter Jackson?

He’s quick enough. Spargo - why coaches lovehim

Juddy’s 8 week old golden retriever puppy joining in the activities this morning. Very happy in her work.

Because? (Just wondering whether you had any insights into his performance there.)

It must be a tough gig being on the ball as a God 24/7! 😉

I can see your point, A, but it would be a major inversion of what they do at Captain’s Run if he plays after not being with the senior group this morning.

And a great result at that!

On the credit side for Kade the match committee must see something as they voted him 8th in last year’s B&F.

Nathan Buckley said he was in his top 10 of hardest players to play against, and built like a whippet. He’s one of 45 former players (for us) in the Hall of Fame, so not sure relevance of Team of Century reference, leaving aside the salient comment from @Gator on that anyway. Absolute fave of mine, have a signed photo of him on the wall leading the team out. Star of our club. Well done, and well deserved, Junior!

At the Boxing Day Test I was sitting near Hassa’s cousin and premiership teammate Len, who was sitting next to multiple premiership teammate Bryan Kenneally. Father and son premiership player Kenny Emselle thereabouts also. All looking in good nick.

One of our greats. The North footage would seem to be from 1967 where we won by 3 points at the ‘G, with Peter Smth running around in the #4 jumper previously made famous by his father - the coach that day. The Collingwood one would be from 1968 at Victoria Park, again where we won. Greg Parke visible in the footage in his first season - kicked 4 straight. At 1.27 the Geelong player who attempts to kill Hassa with a head high is good old Sam Newman.

Interesting video. Scrappy affair - boy, the standard of play improved considerably over the years. Particularly liked the easy “brown cows” saunter onto the field by both teams at the start, including the bloke with his hands behind his back. Corporate branding hadn’t taken hold, with Carlton players seeming to have four different types of jumper among the team and South players having the sash going either way, as per photo below.

Also won a Brownlow Medal, the same Chicken Smallhorn.

Like night follows day, Dew follows Frost, I guess.

That is a complete mis-take of what happened I would suggest. To put it another way, if messing up an interview were the one reason only that she left then we really do have a problem at board level.

Two small observations from the footage about kicking. Amazed to see at one point in the video John Townsend at about CHF going to the city end, wheeling out of a tackle and under pressure doing a drop kick with his left foot to move the ball forward. And how about Brian Dixon in the lead up to the famous Crompton goal at the end? Collingwood full back kicks off after a behind, goes to a pack and marked by Dixon (well done!). His “give it everything” kick then goes all of 30 metres to a contest where Crompton is still at least 30 metres out when he snaps the winner. Thank heavens for his tish-house kicking skills in that instance!