Little Goffy

Premiership teddy bear. Premiership beanie. Premiership membership to Demonland. Premiership Netflix account. Premiership fridge magnet. Premiership double-glazing installed at a 50% discount. All better than the display of vanity that is a ring which tells people how great you are.

Inflation adjusted, very close match ;)

Everyone is talking about humble pie but I'm sure it was the my game night lazy pancake dinner that did the trick. Humble pancakes are what you eat when you never said Petty was a bust or anything like that, just that you thought he was more valuable and effective as a defender and it wasn't worth persisting with the forward experiment.

Correlation does not establish causation, and yet...

Ugh. Might as well just unplug the TV at midnight on thursday.

Looks like Fritsch should have that one sewn up, then. Rankine's goal was a good side-step disentanglement and burst of speed, but is mostly notable for reaffirming my nickname for him as 'Isaakermanis'. Uncomfortable resemblance. Don't want him playing for anyone else. Stengle's was also a first rate goal that would have messed with the silly 'expected score' charts for sure. That felt very important at the time and give the sickly feeling that things were going to just 'go right' for Geelong. Happy to give credit to him now that we have the win!

Watching the replay repeatedly you also grasp what a great moment Petty had there. Read it and reacted instantly then absolutely pounded the grass flat to make the distance to spoil that pass. A little cherry on top of a great (touch-wood) return to form.

Personally I loved watching Scott have a post-game sulk. Can't help thinking that Geelong fans must really, really hate us by now. I mean... really. We 'stole' their minor premiership, humiliated (Correction: abjectly humiliated) them in a preliminary final, and even plinked them out of the 2018 finals, and now we've busted their winning streak and possibly their whole fragile momentum. And on every occasion it was flu or some other tragedy. Can it please also be us who have finally cracked their shell of invulnerability and ended their era?

I think I peed a little when time stopped for Fritsch's goal. Speaking of whom; despite operating in a forward structure alongside some really struggling talls, and having a pretty patchy start to the season that I'm sure Fritsch himself would be disappointed with, he's now sitting on 21 goals 9 behinds, fourth in the Coleman medal behind only Curnow (25), Hogan (24) and McKay (22). Nice to see a few of our key players really look like themselves again, most visibly Oliver and Pickett. Petty rediscovered his energy which was a joy to see. Still an issue with a long 'tail' of players not really getting into the game as much as they ought to, but hey, we defeated the undefeated despite that, and it is mostly younger players who can find their way or be shuffled as the season reveals its secrets. 6-2 after eight rounds when I was mentally prepared for an even split by this point of the season. F'n'ay. Also, the pancakes were excellent and plentiful.

Officially going to be pancakes for dinner. Based on the theory that there is a finite amount of laziness in the world, I'm generously donating my personal allocation of diligence and motivation to Jacob Van Rooyen, to ensure his up the ground and back again and turning up everywhere to make life miserable for Tom Stewart. Anyway, I dislike Geelong. You kind of have to respect them, but I can't see any argument for liking them.

I wonder if Roule Galette is still any good? Been a long time since I've been able to get there. Tiny little creperie in a side lane coming off Flinders Lane, in between Swanston & Degraves. You can get a handy little takeaway crepe 'cone' and munch on the walk down to the 'G.

Intercept Marx?

Since we're mentioning Maynard again, quick reminder that he has gone four consecutive seasons of at least once hospitalising an opponent with a head injury. I'm 100% in the 'punish them on the scoreboard' group. But also... punish them by so much that when we're 40 points up with 10 minutes to go we can start an ironic 'Collingwood' chance just to make the fans lose their [Maynard]. Also, pretty sure Gawn can arrange for Alexa to play the Demon's song in every Collingwood supporter's home for a week.

Eddie has helped other clubs in much the same way a neighbour helps clean up some of the filth they threw over your fence when they realise the rats are crawling back into their yard. Collingwood has been absolutely core to pushing the rationale that a club which generates revenue should get not only additional revenue generating opportunities (which actually diminishes rival's ability to bridge the gap... creating a vicious cycle of ever-increasing advantage that Marx would look at smugly) but also leverage that interest for favourable fixturing in a purely competitive sense. Nevermind that their ability and willingness to pay was a key driver of expansion/inflation pressures on club staffing. Here, indeed, is Marx's actual reaction to the spiraling disparity created by a limited oligopoly of clubs accumulating further advantage over their rivals through the power of political economy in a poorly regulated market;

Time for the quarterly reminder that the AFL is running down their asset while being loose with the income it is generating. I'd be interested in the exact financial comparisons for the layers of Australian football, put alongside a general look at what they generate for the game as a whole. Cost to operate vs... Participation. As kids, adults, parents, grandparents. Attendance, ticket sales and 'stadium services' revenue. Tangible sponsorship. From the local fish&chips and plumber through to the oil&slave empires of the Emirates. Reputation. The subtle factor in everything else. From trust in a fair fixture and umpiring to the prevalence of drugs and assaults to the assumption that going to the football will be a good time without spitting. I suspect the entire AFLW costs not much more to operate than one AFL club. On that same benchmark you could profoundly boost a bundle of VFL/State level clubs or truckloads of local clubs.

On-field, between potential losses to free agency, potential losses to Tasmania, and the consumption of a couple of drafts by Tasmania coming in, it will be a very hard time for any club entering the next few years already in bad shape. Off-field, for North things look even more taut with the potential to lose revenue from their Tasmania deal and the outright loss-making crowds to be expected if many of those games were in Melbourne (Adelaide, Port Adelaide and West Coast feature this season), plus an overall delicately balanced financial position. It doesn't seem realistic that they'll manage even 5 wins this season, making that five consecutive years where their results would qualify for the old fashioned priority pick threshold. By fluke of venues and because of the Tassie fixture they have averaged one win a season in Victoria in that time. It makes me worry. I'll keep my fingers crossed that their wave of kids develop together and become competitive soon enough to prevent a rolling exodus like the early days of Gold Coast, but with a much lower talent base. I fear North Melbourne's prospects to 2030 in the brutal realities of 'AFL Inc' are about as promising as South Asia's prospects to 2050 in the brutal realities of climate change.

My fault, I was sitting to close to the screen.

It seems to be a fashion this season to hammer people in the solar plexus for no reason. Kind of like how in advertising it is currently fashionable to try to be funny with 'Imagine if the other thing you did was as simple as spending money with us'. My point being, they both are tedious [censored] done by people who know they aren't ever going to be held to account for their shabbiness, and everything possible should be done to stamp both things out.

Would have to name them the Frost Giants. Anyway, those good crowds are influenced a bit by a general scarcity of top-level football. Supporters of fifteen* other clubs will get along to see a game even if they don't care much for the competing clubs on the day. *do you really think anyone in Canberra would support Gold Coast?

I'm pleased to see that hatred for Collingwood and Essendon passes the CCP censorship!

Credit to Wasilim Tagaloa (pardon the spelling - didn't catch it perfectly) for the national anthem tonight. Took me a moment to realise why it seemed different to most and then I realised; It was just a person with a well-trained clear bold voice singing the anthem. No silly trills or affectations, and a voice strong enough to carry that simplicity.

Saw that too, and especially liked it because it is part of a pattern. He likes people. Sometimes I get the feeling Clayton plays like the whole thing is a scratch match where everyone is a friend-of-a-friend, and he just enjoys being the best among friends. Also, Happy Birthday!

Lol, can confirm.

I've had enough of the Petty forward experiment. He is an outstanding tall defender and should be leading our next generation of tall defenders in the May/Lever succession plan. He's done some good things and had a couple of good games up forward, but is more likely to have nil impact than good impact when forward. Against Richmond he had more clangers than disposals. I've still got my fingers crossed for Fullarton but we really need to find a big competitive body with a 'nothing to lose' attitude in the mid-season draft.

I wonder if the D'oh is a subconscious reference to the Simpsons episode where Bart gets sent to military school? One of the last of the classic Simpson's era.