Little Goffy

Is it possible that he waited a couple of weeks so it didn't crowd Jones' 300th celebrations? Because that would be pure class.

The paint on the laundry ceiling of my apartment is already peeling off in large flakes despite allegedly having been redone before we moved in. Clearly an inferior brand of non-Melbourne-sponsoring paint. You'd never get such failure from our esteemed friends at Haymes Paint!

The collection of things going unexpectedly right is beginning to make the hairs on the back of my neck quiver. Just need to do a couple of quick checks - Centre for Near Earth Object Studies I'll keep everyone updated.

Seems like every week is a new test of our legitimacy. Cope without two key forwards? Check. Out-compete the reigning premiers? Check. Get our act together against the presumptive wooden spooners? Check. Manage a new disruption to our forward line, midfield and defence at the same time? It's the disruptions like this and the inevitable stumbles of a long season that make the early winning streak so valuable. Of course, much better than covering a stumble is covering a stumble and still winning to go three games clear of the opponent in 4th place.

Sometimes they go on income.

I'm just glad he had enough time to prove he can play the role, earn respect and be confident of his place in the team upon return. But that's a small mercy. What a Hawthorn-flavoured sandwich.

Since Selwood, Dan Hannebery, Daniel Rich, Dyson Heppell, Daniel Talia, Callum Mills and Jayden Stephenson have all played finals in their Rising Star winning year. So a team with a Rising Star winner is more likely to be playing finals that year than not. Some place-getters might want to mention their early success too!

If that earns a suspension Dusty might as well not come back from New Zealand.

I'm getting set up for the game on Kayo and their 'past classic' on the suggested playlist is the 1996 North over Melbourne by 113. Boooooooo. Kill. Kill. Kill.

If people learned to try that before calling the helpdesk we would be living in a different world! To get back on the thread; has anyone tried turning Fremantle off and back on again?

With Ben Brown finally coming in I'm having a happy moment remembering how worried so many people were that our season would be over by now. Some people were even getting aggressive at anyone who stayed positive after the loss to the Dogs in the pre-season. Keep the run going, Demons - you could actually change personalities!

It's fine. Jones himself is probably much more interested in being as fresh as possible to give him a chance for the late season. Fairytales don't climax with an early winter win over the presumptive wooden spoon team. We also still have some kinks to work out and partnerships to fine tune if we're really going to challenge in September and Jones is the most 'known quantity' of known quantities.

Did I see it correctly that there were only 24,000 at the Collingwood-Gold Coast triumph today? Top deck of the MCG looked closed whenever it appeared on camera, so I'd believe it. But... where do they go?

Thinking of all the poor Collingwood fans really suffering through this... and for the first time ever I'm beginning to like the Suns!

I'm much more excited about our defensive combination than I am about whether any given one of them outperforms Rance. Of course, that can't be said without also nodding to the fact that Lever showed magnificent leadership keeping our defense confident and organised after May went down. Also worth noting that if not for the stats hole created by Tom Hawkins elbow, May's numbers would be just as good. Hold this Lever-May-Tomlinson set of tall defenders together and in form and they will go down in history alongside the likes of the Scarlett-Harley-Taylor trio. But that is ambition, not yet reality. Ambition definitely worth having, though.

Huh? Weird. Entirely unsuited to any need we have.

Goodwin's 46 losses and 43 wins put him just a couple of wins short of passing Northey and Ivor Warne-Smith. A little jump above that to get there, but it is all premiership coaches. Just adding an extra thought about successions; there is a neat link from Jones to playing in Neitz's 300th to Neitz playing with Jim Stynes at his peak and Stynes playing with Robert Flower. Is it ridiculous to then connect Flower playing with Stan Alves (the man with the unluckiest timing in football) who just briefly played with several of the greats of the greatest era, but it seems the chain breaks there because really, it should be Barassi. It should be Barassi.

Maybe Port Melbourne?

It is interesting that Viney's winning percentage is almost as low as Jones'. It makes sense after a moment - Viney missed that couple of nearly competitive years under Bailey where we got the 8-9 wins a season, but was on deck from 2013 so got to participate in some of our worst. Also missed a bunch of wins in 2018 through injury. This is as good a moment as any to note how much he has been exemplifying the team-first approach this year. Not having flashy games but playing an accouable role that releases Oliver and Petracca to do more. He's the Tomlinson of our midfield! ?

When I saw "Dracy Fritsch from Coldstream" I really thought it was some kind of celebrity band endorsement.

As well as being effective in his role, Alex Neal-Bullen is making football a bit more fun. Sometimes it's the little things I like. Whenever anyone kicks a goal you can bet that one of the first people to get to them to celebrate will be Nibbler. I'm also a permanent fan of: - players regaining form after a slump. - non-'star' players making a contribution above their price. - team-focused hard workers being rewarded with moments of personal glory.

The game against North is a case of the many versus the few. North have one genuinely effective clearance winner (Cunnginton), one genuinely effective rebounding defender (Ziebell) and only one or two serious performers in any other area, too. A few specific changes aren't going to decide the matter. If we are going in with 22 contributors again then the rest is details.

Last 20 games: Melbourne 2 wins North Melbourne 18 wins We have a few of these ledgers to square but North have been our worst record during our darkest times with a 17-loss run.

Ah, that classic larrikin humour. So glad it is able to survive despite all this political correctness.

Richmond's first goalless quarter this season. (and since round 15 last year)