Little Goffy

Be assured the tone is just a bit of light-hearted processing of MFCSS.

Then 3 degrees down per quarter! For eight months of the year in Canberra as soon as the sun goes down the temperature rapidly shifts until it reaches equilibrium with the void of space. I miss it so much. How people sleep up here in Sydney when the air is sweating on you like it just came out of a burger kitchen is a mystery I'll never grasp.

This is our classic danger game. Warning one: We've had a couple of wins, people are beginning to think 'Oh, we should maybe take the Demons seriously, let's all take a closer look at them this weekend.' Warning two: For the first time this season we are playing an opponent who is definitely rated below us. Warning three: We've begun to congratulate ourselves for our pressure and discipline. Warning four: The week after this game comes the 'real test' against an allegedly vulnerable allegedly top team. Quite frankly, anything other than a flat performance and disappointing loss would mean we have made serious steps up in maturity. Warning five: Just getting the job done could be seen as doing enough. My tip - Demons by eight goals and a little April in Canberra hypothermia. Come to think of it, a football game at Manuka Oval was where I first really appreciated the power of piercing wind and sleet.

I'm quoting to reply just so you have visible responses from someone who isn't being a jerk about it! I have a lot of faith in Fritsch and believe he is at least in part sacrificing his personal game for the sake of team structure. It's a running joke in my household about Fritsch getting a mark and it being 'out on his spot', barely inside 50 and at that awkward angle just a bit wider than the 50m markings. On the weekend we were even tut-tutting at Petracca who took a couple of marks 'on Fritsch's spot' - Petracca also missed those shots, for the record. But faith and fun aside, those misses are very irritating. It is quite noticeable that Fritsch has bursts of behind in games that would otherwise be marking him as absolutely first-rate. For relatively recent form, there was a 1.3 on the weekend, and in 2020 a 1.4, 2.4 and 3.4. Late in 2019 during his generally outstanding return to forward duties there was also a 1.4. Fact is, some of those goals were also gimmes (which he earned by smart hard running) from the goalsquare. IF Fritsch manages to line up those spots from 'The Fritsch spot' then he becomes an terrific weapon that will force any defence in the game to cover him while leaving gaps for Brown, Weid, McDonald and anyone else we let roam into the hot zone. But if he doesn't, then we really have to think about using him more explicitly as an inside-50 deliverer. He's smart and a good enough field kick to be effective at it. I'm happy to see the club persevere with him for a while as I do believe he's playing a role that isn't easy, but will revisit at the end of the season because if things haven't (literally!) straightened up by then, maybe a fresh start in a new plan is the way to go.

St Kilda v Melbourne 9 Christian Salem (MELB) 9 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 5 Max Gawn (MELB) 3 Kysaiah Pickett (MELB) 2 Christian Petracca (MELB) 1 Jack Steele (STK) 1 Adam Tomlinson (MELB) Salem well-loved this week, as he ought to be. I'm kind of weird I think, in how much I enjoy picking apart the coaches votes. Curious that one coach gave Pickett 3 votes and the other gave none. Also kind of interesting that in a pretty competitive game there was just one vote in the 30 for a St Kilda player. Since this is a player rating kind of thread, I'll just throw in that our Mr Oliver is currently 3rd for disposals, 1st for contested possessions, 4th for clearances, and those above him in each category aren't the same. Other nice individual stats, some of which surprised me a little - James Jordon equal 4th for tackles inside 50 (and there are 5 Demons inside the top 30) AND equal 4th for tackles total. Steven May equal 4th for kicks, equal 9th rebound 50s, and 12th for meters gained, and is one of only 4 players who still have 100% time on ground. Jake Lever 2nd for contested marks! Bailey Fritsch is No. 1 for marks inside 50. (But probably way down the list for marks inside 45!) Ed Langdon has clocked on for 97% time on ground, the only non-key-position player even remotely up there. Kysaiah Pickett equal 6th for bounces.

I thought his tap work was looking a bit more effective at times on the weekend. Not all game, but definitely beginning to line it up nicely. It is something that he's had as a strength in the past so it is quite realistic to hope it will return soon, at which point Gawn becomes the philosophical Conceptual Ideal of an AFL ruckman. Coming up against a string of young and inexperienced rucks has been an interesting quirk to start the season but these guys should not be dismissed too lightly. Hell, making a debut or near-debut against Gawn seems to be a right of passage it happens so often. I feel like the club is using Gawn and Jackson in an interesting split based as much on risk-reward as anything else. Where calmness and reliable dominance is needed, they send Gawn. Where a bit of wild potential might break things up a bit in our favour or even lift the team but there's no huge disaster for an 'almost great' moment, that's where you'll find Jackson. Obviously that puts Jackson mostly on or forward of the ball. I like it. It means Jackson can be given a licence to just go for it, do his thing while developing and without risking over-programming him and sapping that brilliant energy and initiative that he brings. I do see similarities between Jackson and Pickett and I wonder if the club has been looking to the same development philosophy with both? Sorry to digress from Gawn, but it is at least very relevant to how the club decides to use him.

He's right until he's wrong and then he moves on to being right about something else so he's only ever wrong for a moment.

It's an interesting one - if I'm recalling correct the actual total of inside 50s was about the same for both teams. Our attacks were 'breaking down', so to speak, at the very last kick, the actual shot. St Kilda's attacks were breaking down one step before that. With Giants, Cats, Tigers being three of our next four games, I don't expect we'll be beating up any teams just yet (unless Hawthorn stumble) but if we have earned a bit of a steel edge over that period we might just do some absolutely horrible mauling later in the season if our radar comes in against an opponent we dominate in general play. But those fish are yet to be caught. I'm trying so hard to be 'one week at a time' I'm even avoiding thinking about how much I hate the Cats. Not easy.

I think you are both right - even if LJ didn't do anything especially magic himself, the complete change in the style of ruckman was effective at disorganising the St Kilda stoppages. Meanwhile Gawn going forward definitely disrupted the St Kilda defence. It's a double-bamboozlement!

I'm just irritated that the Canberra game is at 6pm. First - why would you schedule a game in Canberra in March for dusk? Temperatures will drop 3 degrees a quarter! Second - anyone traveling to Canberra from Sydney (let alone further away) will have to line up accommodation overnight unless they want to be pushing past midnight to get home and it is entirely impossible without your own car. Ah well, I guess they just figured it would be a game for Canberra locals to go to with not much capacity beyond that given the Covid limitations.

Fingers crossed that his last quarter gives him a little bit of a confidence boost. I still don't see him as a winger but he does seem to be getting gradually better at being in useful spots where teammates will actually send the ball his way.

That was a little bit emotional. So many players going well or at least being worthy of their spot after long periods of real doubt. I abstained from the 'votes' thread because after a few obvious ones like Oliver and Salem (what a terrific, composed game) I just wanted to share out a whole lot of 1-votes for all the players who simply did their job.

Has any player had a higher ratio of marks inside 50 where they then had to take the kick from outside 50? He's got a tough gig, but still... maybe he could have a quiet word with Plugga after the game?

Tomlinson is the weakest tall defender in our current best-22 and also one of the best tall defenders we've had in 20 years. Weird.

Took the satisfaction of watching the final quarter. Ahh, excellent. Meanwhile, another fierce game from the little monster. I know Lily Mithen is short, but didn't realise she was overcoming this much of a disadvantage.

Gary Rohan out for two weeks. I wonder which Geelong player will be suspended next week?

I've been occupied and away from any real communication all day today. What did I miss? Good game? Oh fuuuuuuuuuu

Didn't stop Hawkins trying for a little bit of cheating with that 50m interference!

Knew about it because when they took over BMIHMS (BIHIMSBHIMSBMSHIBH? That lot - where my wife had been studying) we did some digging to figure out who they were and to make sure her degree hadn't suddenly become worthless.

Very handy partnership. Oddly enough, I know a bit about Torrens because quite recently they acquired the specialist university (Blue Mountains International Hotel School) that my wife did her Masters' Degree at. Couple of things of interest; * They are actively expanding through acquisitions of highly rated specialist providers (such as BMIHS mentioned above) with the goal of having a top status as an industry and professional oriented tertiary educator. * Many of their partners within the 'Torrens family' have very large international student proportions based on the somewhat lower fee bracket for industry-targeted degrees compared to, for example, Melbourne Uni or Sydney Uni prestige degrees. We may actually just have set up a partnership with a potential big expander once international student numbers begin to grow again post vaccine (touch wood) because they had the deep pockets to survive the crisis while a lot of the actually crappy providers (Jim and Denise's Australian Hospitality Degrees Ltd.) have packed it in.

Even a quick look at Richmond's 2020 Best and Fairest makes your point unequivocally. 2020 Jack Dyer Medal top 20 1st – Jayden Short, 53 votes 2nd – Dustin Martin, 50 3rd – Nick Vlastuin, 49 4th – Shai Bolton, 44 5th – Kamdyn McIntosh, 43 6th – Liam Baker, 42 7th – Dylan Grimes, 41 8th – Noah Balta, 40 9th – Kane Lambert, 39 10th – Trent Cotchin, 37 Other notes on that - a lot of little guys, very few full-time midfielders, but most of all, hard workers. Wouldn't be complaining if one of Bowey or Laurie become our Short. That's more or less what they were drafted for.

I guess the choice is either have a system like QR codes or pass laws making it compulsory for private companies to provide to government the personal details and transaction records of their customers. No, wait, I don't guess. That's it. That's the choice. Hooray for QR codes!

2017, which is also the last time we won in roud one at all. Prior to that you have to go back to 2005. Record in first two rounds between 2006-2016 (inclusive) = 2 wins, 1 draw, 17 losses. Coincidentally, St Kilda featured in 2017 pair of wins as well as ending the 3-game winning run to start 2015 when I believe it was Brent Guerra drove Cameron Bruce's shoulder into the ground at the first bounce with a late spear tackle that would get you about 14 weeks suspension now and was clearly done on coaches instructions. Hard to believe but Bruce was the absolute in-form player of the AFL at the start of 2005, and we were the in-form team. 53 goals in three games. Mind blowing Oh, I'm fired up for the game now.

Interesting that St Kilda have not only more tall forwards but also more genuinely speedy small forwards/half-forwards. It is going to be a fair bit harder to cover them all and I'm kind of glad May, Lever and Tomlinson got last week to build a bit of confidence. Specific players that concern me are Membrey and Billings. Particularly Billings. I don't think Hunt has the right kind of 'zip' to be in defence against the likes of Hill, Butler and Lonie. (I'm making a precision technical distinction here between 'zip' and 'dash'.) Could he by tried out as some kind of wing tagger on Billings? I'm not going to suggest using up Langdon on such a negative role and I don't think we've got anyone else who could do it. Hunt would not be able to match Billings but could at least limit him to something less than 20 uncontested possessions, and just once in a while Billings won't cover Hunt defensively and we'll all get to see Jayden doing his favourite long gallop and massive kick. Viney in for Harmes is the clear change, but we must, simply must, bring in some kind of cover for the fast, small options St Kilda will be able to use to avoid the long kicks to Lever and May. I don't know who that can be or whether we should consider moving a current half-forward/mid to a tagger role (Nibbler on Gresham?) just to provide some interruptions and slow things down a little.

Be positive - one of those clubs will finish the game deeply miserable, while the other will be given false hope and fail to address their deficiencies. Personally, I think Carlton do false hope and failure to address deficiencies much more enthusiastically than Collingwood. Plus, Collingwood are back on their long slow slide while Carlton really could be a menace in finals over the next few years... if... they stay humble enough to work on their problems instead of getting to finals and then sacking their coach because some other 'star' coach insisted he could take the (actually quite deficient) list to a premiership. So; misery for Collingwood and complacency for Carlton is definitely the best result.