Little Goffy

Still haven't figured out how to argue they've been ruined by Kate Roffey / Simon Goodwin / wokeness.

Should be be having a quiet word with Wines? We could use the additional hard body in the middle and I'm sure it would cheer up Jack Viney, too.

I'm not sure which annoys me more; people having fantasies about fixing Gus or people having fantasies that Gus will fix us.

Draft now (Smilie and both Whitlocks) into free agency 2025 (Brayshaw and both De Konings) into premiership 2026-2028. Somehow I'm still sustaining a small sliver of optimism

I'm so angry. The worst cycle of feelings there is - horror, anger, hopelessness. The last is the one that continues to erode my love of the game. The sense that there just isn't any point trying to make things right. It is wrapped up in all the incompetencies, injustices and favouritism that sloshes around in the AFL system.

Parker's best was epic but I wouldn't see him as fixing any particular problem just now or, obviously, for our 2027-8 premiership double.

Sigh. Well that's [censored].

Well, it's now pretty much confirmed that someone in the club is leaking the exact conversations which are most important to have in private if we are to create any real reform momentum, all in an effort to undermine the leadership figures in preparation for a coup. Better to be lords over ruins, for some. I wish someone would shine a light on these rats, and follow up with a blowtorch. And for those who revel in turning everything that ever goes wrong into an excuse to rage at the club and to make effigies of our leaders, time to decide if you want to turn our club into a revolving door of shabby ego politics, or to make a more constructive effort.

Just a quick note for the injury debate; Every Melbourne player who has been in a recent all-Australian shortlist; Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Fritsch, Viney, May, Lever and Salem. Major in-season disruption for Salem, May, Petracca, Gawn and Lever and of course Brayshaw. Nevermind Oliver's shot pre-season. Meanwhile Every Collingwood player who has been in a recent all-Australian shortlist; Pendlebury, Moore, Daicos, Daicos, Quaynor, Crisp, Maynard, Sidebottom, Howe, De Goey. So, the entire Magpie core has missed about five games plus De Goey. Nevermind that three of those players are older than any player at Melbourne. So, yes, the injury factor is clearly significant. As far as I'm concerned, if you're pretending otherwise then you are just looking for excuses to bag the club.

Bizarrely, this weekend's results mean that mathematically we can still make finals. Would obviously need to win both games and for at least three of the four - Essendon, Carlton, Hawthorn and Footscray - to lose both games. Of course, we are also a mathematical chance to drop into the bottom 4 if we lose both, St Kilda win one and the Crows win both remaining games.

If Luke Jackson was anything like a top 5 player in the AFL, Freo would be on a four-game winning streak and closing on the minor premiership, instead of having just lost to Essendon and Geelong. Very good layer in a valuable role. Annoyingly, in the whole AFL we would probably be the club which would most benefit from his type, but that's how the cookie burns. It would not be quite accurate, but still reasonable, to say that we ended up with Windsor and Tholstrup as the trade exchange after an enormous series of pickswap shenanigans. Both look like proper players. My summary of the impact of Jackson leaving would be that it 'flattened the curve', denying us a super-dominant peak but getting us back into the pointy end of the draft and with a fair wad of salary cap to work with, too. It may have cost us the 2023 premiership but may also earn us the 2026 premiership thanks to both draft and trade opportunities created.

An curious smokey would be for Nibbler to be a James McDonald style humble captain, with a strong vice-captaincy and leadership group (unlike what McDonald had to manage with), including Gawn, Viney, Lever, Petracca. It's an outside thought I had on the same moment I realised Nibbler is a likely 300-gamer and appears to be continuously, incrementally, improving over time. He can neatly hand over the captaincy after our 2027 premiership, by which time a couple of our current young players will have developed and proven their credentials.

Eh, recruit a tall defender and move Lever to be an intercepting HFF.

Tonight is the ultimate test of my mother-in-law's Pho. Can it be victory Pho? Is it comfort Pho? Will it help us reach the phonals? Will it improve our kicking pho goal? Will Jephoson be a late inclusion?

I'm not yet ready to face life post Captain Max, but I a little bit looking forward to the couple of years he gets to be the grumpy old ruckman no longer restrained by the dignity of the title. I can imagine him quite literally narrating the free kicks he should be getting.

I've reached that calm moment where I accept that the team is depleted and the season is not going to end in triumph. I'll be watching for the small things; little glimpses of talent from the kids which build anticipation for the future, simple moments of football beauty, and surges of sustained pressure and effort which might not last quite long enough but do affirm that we still know how. And in that state of mind, we'll probably win and then I'll have to think 'mathematical possibilities' for the final two rounds like 2005 all over again.

If I were a football journalist / professional stirrer. I'd be trawling over a compilation of those 'last two minutes' clips the AFL site produces after tight games. See how many times there's been a debatable umpiring decision that nudged Collingwood over the line and send the result to Macrae with an invoice for "1 premiership cup." We can at least say that Goodwin doesn't sulk.

It's what they annoyingly used to do. 😁 Bring out the hurdy gurdy and end the debate forever.

Cranky's posts are in front of a payall. You have to pay to have a barrier put up.

He is also clearly mad. I mean, multiple drafts selecting talls based on sharing a name with US President's, and now he's switched to obscure typesof cheese. Completely bonkers, I say.

Lukosious omitted is interesting. I guess Hardwick is making sure he's fresh for preseason and our forward line's 2025 resurgence.

I always thought it was 'chips, wine and a pide loaf' in reference to random hangover leftovers. The whole song has a 'hangover and go again' vibe anyway. But back to President Jeffo; I have taken a lot of comfort from your enthusiasm about him, not just because of the slithera-dodging dedicated observation but also recalling your profound exasperation of yesteryears when we drafted a whole string of very lightly built kids who collectively got shoved out of the way. So when a lightly built and not especially mongrelly young tall gets a nod from PF, I reckon there's reason for optimism.

Wait; you stole a spoon from a novelty kitchen shop? Why tell us that? Keeping the standards high. As high as mount Kosciuszko. (I'm sure even when written, you felt a churning in your stomach knowing that it was inevitably mispronounced in my head)

Coaches gave him instructions and drills to learn to run 20m without tackling someone as it gets awkward in the office.

Ed Langdon is an exceptional player and awesome dude.