Little Goffy

Very interesting situation for the Doggies at the moment. Need to pick up two wins to make the 8 (assuming Suns win their game-in-hand against Essendon) BUT Their percentage and the traffic jam in the 8 means they only need to do make that gain on any ONE team out of the Cats, Hawks, Suns, Giants, and Dockers. Geelong have a standard Geelong soft run into finals. Giants and Suns play each other, so one of them must drop 1. Freo has a challenging game against Brisbane, and also play the Dogs directly. Possible. But Hawthorn play Collingwood at the 'G, Crows in Adelaide, and Brisbane at the Gabba. That is the clear vulnerability. Also, I would consider tipping Hawthorn out of the 8 in round 23 a marginal silver lining for our tragic season.

A Daniel Cross type of recruitment. Career built on attitude and intelligence. If he plays 20 games in two seasons it would still be worth it. Could also be fun seeing Mihocek and Melksham find a telepathic link in a season together. I have the obvious hesitations but we definitely need strong characters around the club.

Lol. "I'm an executive and made a list therefore my anger is called action."

Love that this thread is being bumped from pre-premiership. Should I suddenly be feeling optimistic?

The element of panic was summarised by that very last play. Everyone bolted to get 'back' without actually moving to defend - to not be aware of their opponents, nevermind one of the in-form players of the game, is unmistakably a sign of feeling all eyes on themselves. Focusing on the task at hand should be a comfort to anyone in a stressful moment - that's what thousands of hours of training is supposed to ensure. Tell you what, my wife can't accelerate from a standing start much, but she sure as [censored] wouldn't go completely to water in a crisis like these million dollar ponies did. Edit: I suppose my point is that for whatever amount of time and for multiple reasons we've had a psychological detachment between happiness or contentment and actions of substance. Like the alienated worker doing enough to hold their job, but no longer motivated by the satisfaction of doing their job well.

I remember the assessment of Scott Morrisson as 'wanting the title of the job but not the actual job'. I suspect there's a whirlwind of personal rivalries and oneupmanship motivating a lot of what goes on at the 'leadership' levels of the club, which goes in a circle, or perhaps a see-saw, or perhaps a see-saw on a merry-go-round. Time for a wild analogy; During the constantly on again off again strife and civil wars of Greece, every time there was a change of government there would be a purge of the armed forces officers, and naturally those no unemployed and insulted officers would ally themselves with whichever they considered the most likely opposition to seize power back or next. The end result was that by the early-mid 20th century there were typically three available officers for every actual position. One holding the position and two straining to get back into it by first overthrowing the regime and secondly competing with the other displaced officers. Looks like Melbourne has something like that, and every person currently sating their vanity with the glory of being a VIP around the club is mirrored by others craving a return. As they say in the classics; "A position soundly reasoned must be held against opposition, but opinion held onto motivated by a feeling of opposition itself is the path to disaster." Vehement factional opposition to Goodwin has been visible since before the premiership. This awful moment will probably give that faction the final surge of influence to cause a spill. But short of another messianic Roos-Jackson style combination, I fear that no matter who comes into the club they will immediately face resentment and undermining from the 'purged officers', the wannabe VIPs who actually contribute so little, and thus the slow-burning civil war will continue.

To quote the great master; "There's only one way out of this, and it's together. Whole club hurting; every component. That's what we talked about. Head Down. Work hard. ... There you go."

The trouble is, when you start these things there is no controlling which way the wrecking ball swings. You can lose Dean Bailey and keep Cameron Schwab, for example.

Good opportunity for a new coach to start with a win.

Like drinking four cups of cold coffee with slightly overdue milk. I feel extremely agitated and not well at all. That game has added outright embarrassment and shame to the tone at the end of an already thoroughly disappointing season.

This final quarter has been really annoying.

I'm going to speculate that it is a case of the rest of the team being forced to take collective responsibility. Lever's value especially was always built on being able to pay the reward for the whole team's defensive pressure forcing loose kicks that he could swallow and rebound from. Allowed to play that role he was gold, but exposed 1-1 on the like of Hawkins or Walker is not a happy memory. If the team plays well then Lever is a multiplier, which should not be confused with a cherry on top, a downhill skier or a passenger. However, that factor does make me doubt whether he can be an effective captain when so much of his own value depends on the team effort. That and the occasional brain fart, of course.

Viney getting a sniff of tackle count records now.

I swear Fritsch cradled the opponent's neck to ensure the head was supported as he brought him to ground. Good dad vibes. And on today's form if you had to drop a baby out of a burning window, you'd want him to be the one waiting below.

Running Bounce. He might actually be able to do them but it is on record he swore an oath not to. Maybe for the memes in his final game in 2031.