Little Goffy

From about the same era and could become topical if ol' Jonesy starts to fight his way back into the 22. Could do with a remake, too.

How many under-pressure coaches dealing with active discontent from members of the board would graciously welcome a) a still relatively young former premiership coach and b) an extremely promising 'next generation coming' coach into their panel? Everything I've seen lately is pointing to real humility and character. All the little stories add up to the feeling that Simon Goodwin thinks other people are important. So simple, so valuable.

If we're confident of his fitness then yes. He's always had the grit but over time he has become an unselfish and smart player and completes our inside mid group. This is a debate we would have had back before Brayshaw fully got his head around his role on the wing, but not now.

Do Walkley awards count? Also, yes, she has journalism qualifications and even did a proper cadetship. Any other people covering AFL who you need to know about?

Wouldn't mind seeing a few hundred giant heads of fans in the empty stadiums just to make things a bit fun. Maybe Nibbler's mum beaming down on everyone and giving blessings to all good Demons! :D Could be a raffle prize - "Be the giant head for round 17."

Struck Rich but left poor. Bad luck any way you look at it.

New German technology is now available for exactly that. It even allows sex-identification of the chicks in embryo so that the eggs with male chicks can be removed and allowed to addle so that later there's no need to, you know, shred a baby animal. Moral of the story: Rechnen dein küken und zelebrieren!

Last night's win nudges Goodwin's win-loss percentage up above both John Northey and Ivor Warne-Smith, making him Melbourne's 'winningest' coach since the great man himself. It'll take just a couple more wins to push Goodwin ahead of Jack McKenzie (1915, 15 games coached) and there would be only the three Demon premiership-winning coaches above him in our history. I'm keeping my lid on until Goodwin passes McKenzie, but after that I'll be going bonkers.

This thread inspired me to a closer look and I thought it would be nice to share that both Pickett (20) and Sparrow (21) just had their birthdays this week. Bummer with the lockdown but I hope they had fun anyway. Also, I'm a little worried about just how young we went in the mid-season draft...

For what it is worth, at the ground there wasn't a sense that we were out of it or being comprehensively beaten. It was clear enough that we were letting a few too many easy breakaways happen and that the Brisbane midfield was doing an excellent job getting speed away from stoppages, but it never felt like we were doomed and I am honestly surprised to find out that people were ranting and raving at any stage of the game. Goodwin had the team in a huddle until the absolute last moment before starting the third quarter and whatever they discussed, they came out much, much better organised and the rewards flowed immediately and beautifully. Pretty sure they weren't discussing Demonland's little trash-talk squad!

Nothing to worry about. Australia's Titans of Industry have been under performing for almost as long as Melbourne. Maybe the mood lift will help them actually get something done!

Couple of thoughts about that - Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice... because after it struck the first time, it ain't the same place no more. Top-8 teams are less likely to have return games against top-8 teams because the teams they beat are, obviously, a win down. Also, if you're in the top-8, you've only got 7 teams to pick from! As much as Melbourne have been said to be playing against themselves too often / there are two very different Melbourne sides! Finally, of course St Kilda play the top-8 again. Saints are practically the dividing line. You beat them, you'll be a top-8 team. You lose to them, no finals for you. Right now I'd argue that beating/losing to St Kilda is a more reliable indicator of whether you'll play finals than current ladder position.

Between Schwab and McNamee you can find analogies for everything that was wrong with the club back then. Schwab the technocrat Robert MacNamara wannabe who tried to interpret and manage human problems as boxes and lines, yet also indulged his own emotions in constant powerplays. McNamee, the mesiah-hunter, with dreams of being Melbourne's John the Baptist.

Ticketmaster had very few seats still available as of last night so it would seem to be close to a full house. We'll see what that really means once the storm front comes in and all the soft Sydneysiders wimp out!

It's going to be wet. It is going to be cold. Our seats won't be fully under cover and Giants Stadium gets it's own little wind swirl because of the open end. It'll be great. I'm a bit excited. The last time I was able to attend a Demon's game in person was 2016. Paul Roos was coach, and Jack Watts had a great game even though his shoe kept falling off. More than half the 22 out there tonight are 'new' since then. Also a bonus that I'm now part of a fully vaccinated household so won't be quite so disturbed by the shoulder-to-shoulder seating.

#positivespangers

For 192cm that frame does not look just 79kg to me. Unless it is just the broad cheeks fooling me, he looks pretty solid.

When people who believe they are entitled to preeminence regardless of their actual merit suddenly find that not only aren't they good enough but even the facade isn't holding anymore... BOOM. A swirling vortex of cognitive dissonance, vulnerable ego, and irrational grievances bases on unreasonable expectations going unmet. From a rival's perspective the best part is that no side in this is articulating any clear agenda or even an agenda for how to set an agenda. It is pure "I should be in charge, not you," which means that no matter who wins the power struggle the new leadership has taken on personal blame for anything that goes wrong for the near future, and the embittered rivals for that leadership will snipe any chance they get. And what a future they have in store. Salary cap is already so tight that they had to off-load clearly required players. They are hardly likely to be the dream destination for any free agents and they've not got much to offer at the trade table that has value to other clubs without also being crucial to what is left of Collingwood's own structure. Father-Son selection aside, with no top picks at this year's draft (current first selection is 37, because they so astutely acquired the Bulldog's second-round pick!) and a very week draft hand for the last five years (since 2014 when they took Moore and De Goey, their only high pick was Jaidyn Stephenson) their recovery isn't going to be coming from any surge in young talent. I'm kind of hoping that both Adelaide and Fremantle move up the ladder a bit just so that even the Pie's third-round selections go further down in value. Double-lols if Collingwood have so little trade value left they have to burn their 2022 picks just to cover the points-cost of getting Nick Daicos. I'd laugh till I hurt if GWS used their pick from Collingwood to bid for Daicos, too. So many things can go wrong for Collingwood in the next five months or so it is hard to keep up.

Out at the adorable little stadium in Western Sydney. I have a soft spot for it because of the time I was there when the fourth quarter had to be a delayed restart because lightning was hitting more or less the stadium itself. Could this actually be my first chance to get to a Demon's game in person in two years?

Playing the role expected of him. People might like him better if they convinced themselves he was a 202cm beanpole forward and adjusted expectations accordingly! I can only offer a gut feel for it but I think he actually works pretty hard with repeat runs and a lot of time moving at more than just a jog in order to work himself loose from opposition defences. Total goals kicked is one thing, but I would argue that some of those goals are specifically created by Fritsch's skill and on-field intelligence and we wouldn't be getting them from 'replacement player A'. Still in the top half-dozen of his draft and constantly on the verge of becoming a hugely important weapon. Adding just a shade more pursuit and pressure to his game would definitely round him out and make him a more complete player and greatly help his consistency. The example to follow would be Tom McDonald who had what seemed like a stinker on the stats sheet back in (round 3, I think?) but stayed intense and contributed in the ways you still can even when the play just isn't liking you that day. He actually finished that round as one of the AFL's leading pressure forwards.

It's an interesting one because it is clearly defence-first thinking but because May a pretty penetrating boot the play can get us moving reasonably well too. It's quite a luxury to have both Lever and May be very good long kicks who aren't afraid to use it. After fifteen years of us struggling terribly with kick-ins and just generally returning the ball across half-back I'm very happy with anything that works, but I'd hope the brains trust is already anticipating the need to bring in something extra for variety in case that plan A starts to get figured out by the opposition.

Oh no. Oh, no. I really did it, didn't I? First time in a long time I've impulse-posted a new thread and I am just biting my own backside all over.

There's a couple of areas we are having to experiment with anyway because it isn't quite working for us right now. Don't see much point tinkering with the rest which is operating so well. Not beyond the basic factor of selection pressure and demanding standards. Of course, thinking further I realise that those couple of areas are our forward line and our forward line!

I'd literally opened Demonland for the morning at the same time I saw the article so just shared what I came across while the irritation was still with me. Y'know, not everyone who posts about an annoying article is crying while they do it.

The strength of relationship between Goodwin and the players is visible on the boundary, during breaks and after the game. It is very moving at times to remember that most of them have been through at least a good dose of shared disappointment together and it hasn't divided them. Having a couple of the game's best backline leaders - on top of being a couple of the game's best tall defenders - makes a huge difference, too. Contrast perhaps with Weitering who is just as good a defender but I wouldn't give any time to the idea of a swap for Lever or May. The midfield seems to be embracing true collective leadership which is a monumental achievement. Our forward line doesn't look like it has the same kind of decisive organisers and leaders at this stage but personally I rate Tom McDonald as a positive influence on the people around him and the humble, responsible collaboration of the likes of Nibbler and Spargo starts to look like leadership in it's own way.