Little Goffy

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.

Even the content of the article makes clear the Demons weren't given a choice in the matter and were appealing it to the last moment. So why the headline that makes it sound like the Demons actively disrespected Indigenous Australians and people are outraged? AFL FANS FURIOUS OVER DEMONS INDIGENOUS GUERNSEY NOT BEING WORN The article has been edited a bit in the time since I first noticed it but the stupidity is still strong. You can see why no-one at the ABC wanted to put their byline on it. Perhaps a Saturday morning intern looking to get some social justice credits in the bank and not too concerned about actual social justice issues?

Just dropping a couple of old youtube videos into the thread for anyone needing a bit of pre-game amping up. Also had the passing thought that is was about this time of year way back in 2005 the last time Melbourne was involved in a top of the table clash - a ripper of a game which West Coast clawed a win by 15 points. After that game we stumbled badly late in an emotional year. It took a one point win down the highway in Geelong to give us a sniff and what followed was the most thrilling game of football I've ever attend. Round 21 against the Bulldogs with everything on the line for both teams. Sometimes I look up this second video and just skip to the last 8 minutes or so to ride that emotional wave when the crowd goes nuts hearing that Hawthorn had pulled in front of Geelong.

Well on television the pre-game coverage starts around 7 anyway, so if we move the actual game to 7.10 but keep the same timeslot we have successfully eliminated about half an hour of the 'I think I'm a comedian slash bogan wedding MC from the 80s' show.

Not sure where to put this but has anyone else seen the picture of Plowman/O'meara on the AFL website? https://www.afl.com.au/news/620720/the-verdict-is-in-tribunal-makes-plowman-call-after-marathon-hearing I mean, really, that's disturbing. Somebody explain how this: Became this:

Geezus, MFCSS is still potent.

Give it a couple more days and the AFL will be saying that it should have been a free against Spargo for insufficient intent to keep it in. ?

We're not far away from having a game a week decided by a terrible umpiring decision in the last minute. As fans of the game we should be demand a massive increase in resources for umpiring - my initial expectation just to get the ball rolling would be a doubling. We should also be demanding a culture change from executives who tinker at random or put the 'rule of the week' pressure on which makes umpiring so much more difficult than it should be. But that is of course fantasy.

Seems odd to be second guessing a decision which actually earned us a shot on goal from beside the goal post. Even if we didn't actually get awarded it.

Laurie, Bowey and Rosman are still unknown quantities and we've had a problem from a list planning perspective for quite some time - lots of our young guys on the fringe have been delayed and disrupted by injury such that we can't get a clear picture of what they can be. It is possible we already have what we need on our list: A determined and smart small defender with respectable kicking seems a high priority. And as much as our half-forward hunting pack is fun, we do need a replacement for what 'Good Melksham' gave us for a while or we simply won't get enough of that time in forward half turned into actual goals.

You'd hope for both Salem and Viney in, which makes a real difference to our whole operations. I'm a Fritsch fan but that's too many stinkers recently to ignore. If he's not going to do the work required of a medium forward then I'd rather have a genuine tall forward in for him instead. Melksham was good for a quarter but barely sighted once the sun went down. Sadly, Jetta didn't do enough to be at AFL level. Out: Fritsch, Melksham, Jetta, In: Brown, Viney, Salem. That's a big difference.

My wife yelled and banged tables then went to a dark room for a few minutes. Then came out, checked the fixture on her phone and has marked Round 22, August 14th for revenge.

Very good interview. Really thoughtful reflections on football life. Nibbler certainly doesn't speak like a fringe player, that is for sure! Nice to get a bit of a plug in for CoinJar at the end as well.