Little Goffy

This has turned into an absolutely decisive show of relative class while we also let Richmond have very little easy progress. It would have been a truly horrifying margin without the pretty embarrassing umpire assistance.

Daniel Bradshaw vs Demons from 2005 on; 9, 8, 6, 4, 4. He was a good forward, for sure, but that's ridiculous for footy in the late 2000s.

Joke umpiring for sure in that first half. Bit of unsteady play cost us, too. Feel like Goldrick was emblematic of our play that quarter - some great movement, good pressure, but there were fumbles that cost us good attacks or gave Richmond too much of a chance. Having said that, I feel like a few of our better players haven't been sighted a lot so far. Also... holding the ball or 'holding' calls... high tackle or pinged... yeah, awful umpiring that easily balanced the breeze.

Frederick is like our women's team version of Bradshaw. Ah well.

Kane Corncerned. It's his schtick, it's no big deal. We don't notice what must be a dozen times a week he makes the same kind of comment about other clubs and nobody much is going to notice his comments about us. If he were a business, he would be turnover volume oriented rather than strong margins oriented.

The trouble with Champion Data's "Eliteness" system is that they overdo the targeting of the stats they use for each position and as a result make some eyebrow raising conclusions. It is always "Elite in this set of statistics which we select as being the relevant ones for this particular position." It's the elite ratings process that Groucho Marx would come up with; "I'm the best 38-year old, mustached, 5 foot 6 inch, cross-eyed, one leg shorter than the other right fielder in baseball history."

Brown has played 22 games a season for 5 consecutive seasons until 2020. His injury history includes nothing chronic or serious. Let's see what the doctor's say on thursday.

Since we're making comparisons with Lynch, I assume everyonerecalls that in his final season with Gold Coast - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-02/tom-lynch-confirms-he-wants-to-play-at-richmond-in-2019/10328624 "The Suns full-forward played the opening six rounds of the season before a knee injury sidelined him until round 11. His return only lasted a month before he reaggravated the injury and later opted for season-ending surgery."

Crucial point. A lot of people hear the term and imagine something wilfully hostile or an official policy of discrimination, but as you say, systemic racism is much more about the subtle side of things. Most of all it is about the environments that allow racism to carry on without any push-back and where there is a higher price to pay for raising an issue than causing it. For example... if someone raises an issue of racism and the next thing that happens is every possible real or imagined flaw in their character or failure in their past is raised. A systemically racist environment creates the circumstances where people who would otherwise be bystanders, or even people who feel personally committed against racism, can end up doing the dirty work for racists. Consider ol' Eddie (social justice champion, just ask him) and the King Kong comments. Goodes says, "Comparisons to monkeys and slurs about being a monkey are actually quite hurtful because I and my people have suffered terribly on the basis of being seen as somehow separate and lesser humans, and monkey slurs have been a tangible part of that." Eddie says, "Hur hur hur, you should be cast as King Kong, bit of a cary-on, it's all a jolly good laugh, isn't it." "Oh, also, I'm not racist, that wasn't racist, I'm just really tired, you know." "I have contacted the Sydney Swans to explain the situation to Adam Goodes personally."

Definitely a dud trade. Is there a way we can untangle it and get Preuss back?

Presumably this is early enough for Hawthorn to replace him on the list? Or is there a salary cap payout issue where he has to stay on for the year? The important thing is that Hawthorn are still relying on a pretty old best-22 and they have a very thin talent pool with not much to show for the last four or five drafts. Only genuine long-term Hawthorn failure is good enough for me.

Quite bizarre to step up for a press conference you are only having because something you were keeping hidden is now out, and to be acting as if this is all an orchestrated announcement by the club about how they are now going to lead the competition in change. What he's doing amounts to claiming that "The whole AFL culture is like this but it is actually only Collingwood that has confronted it and we should be applauded for our courage and now seen as leaders in this area." Wait... that's not 'what it amounts to', that's almost a word for word of what he's saying. Slimy #$%$#%. I'm tired of the Eddie love that somehow survives. He's been bad for football in every way.

It's funny for as long as everyone is sure they don't really mean it. For example, you can insult Waleed Aly all you like as long as it is about Richmond supporter stereotypes!

Behrendt's stupid slur against Bess Price came at a particularly low moment for the Indigenous community, and particularly the NT one. The 'Intervention' had just commenced and the bitterness over it was palpable and there was a painful divide in the Indigenous community. On the one hand, people such as Price (coincidentally, from Yuendumu which we all recognise) were coming from a perspective of desperate need for major action to change the violence and abuse in many remote communities. On the other hand there were many Indigenous people who saw a very familiar pattern where those communities had been left to rot, excluded, and not even provided the most basic services all Australians expect, and then when the inevitable crisis came the intervention stepped in and said, "You Aboriginal people can't take care of yourselves, so we're taking control." Many of these communities had been the front line of the Stolen Generations and the 'orphanage' system which proceeded along much the same lines, so the horror was palpable. Then, on the particular show that prompted Behrendt's tweet, Price made a bunch of pretty obnoxious comments basically saying various other Aboriginal people weren't really Aboriginal, and just stooges for chardonnay-sipping socialists etc etc. It was all pretty ignominious. I'm not really defending Behrendt's tweet because at the same time that it is understandable to be emotional and impulsively angry in that moment, it is also even more important to restrain it. In general, she is a recognised expert in the field, a highly qualified and experienced lawyer, and also only one of two people handling the review. Also, Collingwood picked her. The important point here is; the legitimacy of the report is not diminished by one crappy tweet made by one of its authors nine years ago. Let that one go.

Two down, three to go.

My interpretation of the pieces that are being reported on is that it might not be fair to say that Collingwood are more racist than other clubs, but that as a club they aren't really making an effort to not be racist. On the other hand, they've made so much effort to 'manage the image' and yet the image has still had a stink about it for years. That seems like a lot of smoke to be coming out of a blocked chimney. Hmm. It's an incremental thing, but any organisation where the balance turns more to protecting the outward appearances than resolving the substance will slowly hollow out and become brittle. Soviet Union, Catholic Church, Collingwood Football Club, The Marvel Cinematic Universe, my ex's mother. Some will break, some will genuinely reform, and some will be powerful and connected enough to go through a period of 'performance contrition' and make just a few cosmetic changes before returning to their old ways.

Does player sponsorship work like shares? Because this good stock is going up.

I was a bit annoyed by the high profile departures last year but I'm feeling much more relaxed now I've had some time seeing Hore, both Pearces, the mouth Mithen and our perennial 'any moment now' key forward Cunningham running around. It's just a great feeling to see Demons in action. Also, Paxman's initial's are actually "C R," because I swear every time she's mentioned it's "Composure Required... Paxman" and then the play moves 40m in our favour.

Hopefully our midfield depth, plus his relative security in the 22, will prevent anyone from feeling any need to rush his recovery process. I mean, what's the point of having a deep midfield if you can't use it to make sure everyone is managing their fitness and preparation to the best possible level.

Anyone know broadcast details? AFL site? TV? Kayo?

I believe technically we can still get Oscar back as a pre-season supplementary... (Ducks for cover)

Pretty surw Gonna Vom plays for Essendon. But back to the thread; I'm really pleased to hearthat Brown still has his lovely long straight kick. Part of his appeal is that you don't need to get the ball in really close to goal to realistically expect a goal from him. That's why he also often is is allowed enough space to give a birst lead, gain a few steps ahead of his opponent and then meet the ball at the top of his long-armed 200cm height, leaving defenders with nothing they can do except chop at his arms from behind. Which is why he gets a lot of goals from free kicks. It was true when he was at North and it'll still be true when he's with us. There's Youtube videos of 'every goal by Brown' and its unmistakable that most of those free kick goals epuld have been mark goals anyway. Sorry, rant over. Other thought; it wluld be a sublime kind of MFCSS to imagine that now we've recruited multiple other potential small forwards, Spargo came good and we were left with a traffic jam of high draft picks struggling to find a role. ?

It just occurred to me that surely a more entertaining comparison would be with his uncle. More similar body and style to a young Byron than to Cyril. For the record, Byron only broke through for one game in his first season. His second was good and his third was outstanding, with his effectiveness is highlight by 11 Brownlow votes. The dream of course if for Kozzie to emulate Byron's peak three years with 40 goals a season and a Norm Smith Medal. If Lewis want's to make an interesting exercise of the comparisons he should get his mate Shaun Burgoyne in to do some work with Kozzie and then offer a first-hand comparison of all three - Byron, Cyril and Kysaiah.

Excellent! Paxman's poise improves the whole game.

In the spirit of looking for new and inspiring I'll set aside the likes of Petracca, Gawn and May and focus on players who can have a big difference between current and possible. Headlining that would be McDonald, Brayshaw, Harmes, Melksham and Lever, who have all already shown they can be much better than their recent form. Credit to Lever though for showing very good signs of working his way back to it. But the ones that would bring me real joy to see lift their game - Brayshaw - I believe that an in-form Brayshaw is an uncannily effective midfielder, especially when play is not quite at a stoppage but still in chaos. I'm convinced he has great, intuitive situational awareness once the ball is in hand but isn't so great at working into the correct positions. Put him in as a true center midfielder and let the play naturally come to and through him. Fritsch - The best of Fritsch is the best of medium marking forwards playing at the time and going back some years too. A dangerous forward in his own right who also makes the priceless contribution of wisdom in drawing defenders away from the other forwards. Pickett - I love the way he plays and the more impact he is having on a game the more fun everyone will be having. Weidemann - The forward line's beleaguered garrison. No wonder he looks so serious. The poor guy is weidely underrated and with a little help from Brown I'd be really hoping his effort will see more rewards. Langdon - Yep, he's been excellent. And there are not many things I like better in football than a player who succeeds with humility, hard work that is also smart use of that effort. Would only take a little slice extra to become a huge player, AA wingman and all that jazz.