Little Goffy

I'm comfortable with our age mix. A number of the older players have successors and even credible improvements coming through already, and the 2xfirst and 2xsecond round picks in next year's allegedly strong draft will allow for some targeted decisions. Clearly our age pothole is at the very tall end of our team. Except for untested young guys, our rucks and key forwards are all past or near 30. That's my only real concern and why I was keen on a Barnett/Keeler collection this draft. But I'm not at panic stations.

What I like is that if Fremantle do well next season, that's fine, we're okay, all is as expected. But on the other hand, there's a real shot at the kind of draft booster that nudges 'very good' list into 'terrifying'. I'm trying to feel a little sorry for having such negative attitudes to another club, but really... nah. Bring on Failmanlte!

Taken as a rookie, but I predict he will be escalated quickly.

So many one-touch marks where he has also met the ball at full stretch and timing. That's definitely one of those deep-rooted traits that are very difficult to develop once you're already an adult. Good cloth and our defence program seems to be pretty good at tailoring it.

He is clearly better than Cadman already. Mile ahead.

So, now we do a quick trade to jump into the early picks tomorrow and grab Barnett & Keeler, added to Jefferson and our new rookie Faris-White, and we'll have a solid 8m draft.

Melbourne: We rate getting a top 5 pick so highly that we would offer up two first round picks and a downgrade from 13 to 22 just to get one. North, Godl Coast and Essendon; Yeah, we would want more than that. Sydney: Yes, we agree. After all, that is about what we gave up in total for Braeden Campbell, Callum Mills and Isaac Heeney. AFLHQ: We are so good at this.

Ooh ooh, I've got it! They all called in sick for their day jobs today. Except Daisy. She's probably already delivered three babies and a successful fetal-alcohol-syndrome intervention.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out Earth has been up on stumps on some derro alien's galactic front lawn for the last twenty years.

Might go the way of the pre-game stretch routine. Long been shown that a proper warm up and mild working through of different parts of the body is the way to go, not the specific 'stretch-out' processes that used to be so standard. Stretching as a targeted activity is supposed to be done as a 'lifestyle' every day to continuously build and maintain the baseline of flexibility. Looks like something similar with the cold-water and ice bath therapies. A good way to stimulate blood flow and over time develop a better circulation at the fine capillaries, but not as a direct response to specific damage. Maybe the reason stretching and cold water treatment is still emphasized in these 'targeted' spaces is because otherwise we'd all have to admit we just can't be buggered doing a 30 minute stretch session every morning followed by a cold shower. Like some kind of 'Anna McNulty meets Wim Hof' nightmare.

That was pretty intense and I'm particularly pleased that Daisy got to kick the sealer. Defence held up brilliantly ont he strictly defensive side but had some trouble breaking out of the ring at 50-70m. That's a team thing. Similarly, we struggled to put it to any kind of forward or space favouring a forward for a long time. Bannan had a game of 'almosts' and relatively little real impact. A couple of extra steps here, a slightly cleaner break from a contest there, and she would have ended the game in our favour multiple times. Must have been very frustrating and I'd be hoping she is setting herself for a mighty grand final. Plenty to like. North are like a custom-built counter to the way we'd like to play and they kept the intensity up very well. Good test, time for the grand final!

Is upwood related to updog?

First two kicks at AFL level were goals. It was a bizarre one with Weideman as no articles or Wikipedia mention it, because he had about a dozen handballs in between his first and second kick and the second was late in the game. I only realised when I noticed Weideman had just two kicks total in his first game, so they must both have been goals otherwise another umpire would have to be arrested.

Award-winning at reserves level while playing for Demons? Oh, premierships at reserves level? Waaaaaiiiit..... I've got it but will leave it for others to guess/figure as well. That's amazing. I would've thought there would be barely three players in the whole league who have that in common, let alone three who each spent most of their career playing at reserves level.

BBO: "More PM insults than early 90s Australia."