Little Goffy

If an AFL player turns up to the Brownlow with their girlfriend, that's coming out? No? Because if an AFL Player turned up to the Brownlow with their boyfriend... So, shall we reword it - "So far, no AFL player has ever felt able to do normal (for an AFL player) relationship things with their partner." There are several gay AFL level footballers and that does included top quality players. There has been for twenty years just that I know of, and who knows how long before that. Ah, it must have been such fun to politely smile along to the 90s Footy Show. Anyway, the only connection to the thread is someone raising it as an example of how much pressure there is in the AFL community to not have any apparent 'vulnerabilities' and how that can lead to silently escalating stress for anyone who feels like they aren't keeping up. Not least, a senior coach of a club that is imploding at every level.

Essendon start negotiations by asking for Curnow. Carlton agree but ask for some loose change late draft picks, as they really value having a mature body in the midfield... I mean, really, Saad for Walsh, Curnow or McKay is like... well, it's like trying to trade a very handy mature player for a young potential superstar.

That's so strange and pointless I'm struggling to believe it. The only justification I can think of is some kind of religious need to play at least in part 'on the MCG'. Or maybe it is fine print in a contract somewhere that says all grand finals will be played on the MCG turf...

Sometimes when you love someone you have to let them do what's best for them, even if it means being apart.

Very much in the 'maybe a fresh start will sort him out' category of players. A trade to the dogs where he'd already know a few people courtesy of VFL time would seem like a good result. Dogs won't be too attached to their pick 12 given it'll be burned for Academy ugleharglebargle. Despite this being a relatively small trade it may end up waiting until our other small trades happen so we can bundle 23 and a bunch of other draft points value burners to get that 12. Everyone is a winner including Mitch.

Officially the most AFL games played without a final. Incredible that he nearly tipped 200 games given the substantial periods of indifferent form, but full credit to him for working his way through each dip and getting back to solid AFL standard. Demonstrated character despite terrible haircuts.

Love the way Jackson keeps upte enthusiasm whenever the ball is near, like an excited puppy. Love Pickett's energy. Love Rivers' composure. Not pretending tbey are instant stars but I have full confidence in their progress. To get a quality 'full career' player at any number in the draft is always good. To get three in one draft is magnificent. It will be fascinating to watch what Taylor does with the 2020 draft. We already had multiple late selections so would already have been looking at the speculative variety. And that's a big group now, especially local. If we don't have any major players traded in, I'd hazard a guess that we may even look to bundle pick 23 and some of the modest trade gains from our departing players and turn it into an additional mid-first round pick for 2021. Final picture; many late picks in 2020, fewer but better selections in 2021.

There's been a lot of talk about how much the Academy and Father-Son selections are going to mess with this draft, so I took a moment assemble a quick list just so the information is handy. (Will add in another post) But what has really struck me about this is how in particular the 5 NGA picks expected to go in the first round, and also the five more expected to go in the second round, will have a very strange warping effect on the draft, disadvantaging at some points but actually offering advantage at others. Example one - You have pick 20. By the time your selection comes around, five separate academy picks have been taken. the clubs with those academy options have burned through all their second round, third round and later picks to get the draft points and effectively jammed that value into the first round. Five additional selections have been made before the draft reaches your pick 20. You are, in effect, taking the 25th selected player in the draft. Example two - You have pick 55. For each one of those first round NGA selections, you get pushed back one because of the insertion, BUT for every pick ahead of 50 which a club 'burns' to get the draft points, you move one ahead in the order. If first-round NGA selections use an average of three other picks (above 55) to 'purchase', then that's fifteen selections gone. As the dust settles after +5 and -15 movement, your pick 55 is now going to be the 45th actual selection in the draft. The effect is of course much less for the NGA/FS players expected to go in the second round as they are more easily 'paid for' by the next available selection with maybe a top-up, but it will still see more picks consumed than selections actually taken. Put another way - A 2020 fourth round draft pick (55-72) is worth almost the same as a 'normal year' third round draft pick (37-54) in terms of how high up the pecking order you actually get to choose a player. A 2020 second round draft pick will be at least 5 draft selections lower in real value than a 'normal year' second round pick. So to get value this year, either get into the top half-dozen selections, ahead of the NGA picks, or bail out and try your hand in the fourth round which is actually the third round!

So, I wonder, do the top teams 'play on the edge' as a secret to their success, or is it more that top teams are given a soft ride by umpires and match review panel so they end up getting dirtier because they know they'll get away with it?

Trivia time. Zac Dawson was named, alongside Lenny Hayes,as St Kilda's "Player of the Finals' in 2010. He was also a pillar of the St Kilda 2009 finals run, as well as being highly regarded in finals at Fremantle, including "Player of the Finals' in 2014. That's Zac Dawson. The unco, dour, skinny, tall defender who 'never looked like it' and who nobody really rated even AFTER he was given these nods. I'm far from writing off Oscar McDonald and people really need to accept that the modern last-line-of-defence player is probably the hardest to judge from outside the club, especially on television. I've said before that I would accept it comfortably if he was traded, but I hate that people talk such rubbish about him, and I wouldn't be troubled at all if he stayed on our list.

Kids are cheap, even when they are good. The last 100-goal season in AFL was by a player who was still on a barely-above-average contract because even he and his management were surprised how quickly he dominated! That same player is now getting around a million a year and struggling to take the field! Contracts are always a chancy business and it's a shame there isn't a clearer, more performance-responsive way to lay them out while still giving players some security. The curse of the Melbourne Football Club has for some time included players who have had a couple of top season, committed to the club on long deals which may not even have been 'overs' given their performance, but then had their output slip significantly. Tom McDonald, Jake Melksham, James Harmes stand out recently, The peak for me was the early-mid 2000s when Travis Johnstone, Adem Yze, Shane Woewodin, Cameron Bruce, Brad Miller, and others all got contracts signed at their best form. It's not as if they all turned to junk - I have a lot of respect for these names - but they were all being paid at the fair rate for their best form, rather than the rate for the form they delivered consistently over the years. And the difficulties it caused are history.

Does anyone have a clip handy of the Cotchin sling-tackle-with-spear-action that can be played next to the Neal-Bullen 4-week suspension tackle? Seriously, we're tackling people by the ears now?

The thing about long contracts is, in any year you don't use you full cap you can push money forward to open up space in future. Carlton have been front-ending deals for a long time and the wake that has built up is significant. Also worth noting that many of the swarm of ex-GWS and other recyxled players would have been on lowish dollars with players hoping to turn their careers around, so the 'risk' for injuries and form problems was on the player. Think Caleb Marchbank - when he gets it together he's a genuine quality tall defender and if he'd been incumbent at a club they might be forced to pay on potential. As it is, he has to prove himself before the dollars come, and he has not proven himself. Put another way - Carlton have many not-quite-right players but they are being paid at that level, too. If you combine the years of front-loading and the many players on lower salaries, it's no surprise they've got cash to burn.

Mixed feelings but I'm leaning towards favorable based on character. He's always struck me as a relatively humble person, which is probably the most important trait of a football director, given how loose the mandate is and how easily it can become a 'let me tell you' role in every part of football operations. (See Glenn Archer) Of course, I'm not on Twitter so I could be missing some serious potatoes.

Got to love those hard leads, soft hands and long straight kicks. What is amazing is that only a couple of those marks were contested, he was just getting that much separation.

Yeah, I can't bring myself to have hard feelings. Got to let things go. At the time he left it was painful because it brought us all face to face with the questions of 'Do we really believe this club will turn around' and 'Why are we still with them ourselves?' I'd rather take it as a reminder to send a respectful nod to Nathan Jones than invest much effort in being bitter at James Frawley.

It's all very well saying Bombers will get over-compensated with picks, BUT, just I had hoped, their hubris and reluctance to rebuild means they are openly declaring that they want to get players back in return. Lol, probably think they'll end up with Curnow. Quite likely they'll also be trying to grab a superstar marquee la la la player (remember when the Demons were going to be turned around by a hail mary grab at Jonathan Brown? Or, perhaps most precisely relevant, the Judd trade) because that's the kind of decision clubs are pressured to make when impatient rich supporters poke their nose in and insist they know the answer. So relax, they might get two top ten picks, but then they'll probably trade them all for Jordon De Goey or Josh Kelly on a $6m / 5-year contract.

Based on corrections in this and other threads, and a quick check of an Albanian dictionary, I would like to confirm a crucial fact - It's Y'ze, not Yze.

The only thing better than watching them bottom out would be to watch them hover just on the edge of the bottom four and constantly trying to reload based on Hubris alone, only to burn draft picks and salary cap space for no greater benefit than to keep hovering on the edge of the bottom four.

Ah, Coq. Coq, Coq, Coq. 'No premiership means failure' and 'Success under John Northey' was a beauty. Got to also wonder what these 'many commentators' must think of the AFL Hall of Fame. Anyway. Back to Yze. We've established that he's a loser player unworthy of consideration as a coach. But tragically neither Steven Armstrong nor Chris Heffernan have put their hat in the ring. So we might have to just accept this guy, who not only is a loser but has a loser as a mentor. I mean, if that lumpy shortstack Clarko was any good we would've nailed the 1998 Premiership for sure. @Demonland I swear, the facepalm is helping but a good eyeroll reaction option would have been enough to stop me writing this rant! Just a little sarcasm button to press, that's all I need.

I had a little chuckle at the surprise headline revealing that development is key for a teenage key forward/ruck. While all those other young ruckmen are focusing on salmon farming or bocce. The purpose of the article is of course to remid us that the kid exists, so job done. I wonder how the 'Dogga' nickname came in? I like it because right from his first game, with the floppy hair and the mad enthusiasm and clearly needing to grow into his own body, I was comparing him to some kind of St Bernard puppy. ?

I'm only quoting this so the haters have to see it twice.

I think we all need to calm down and accept Coq au vin's point. Definitely no debate - Steven Armstrong is a better player than Adem Yze and anyone who disagrees needs to be able to demonstrate how they would solve all of the club's problems. Clearly we let the wrong player go to the Eagles. (Another mistake by Goodwin/Mahoney/Pert)

I rarely, rarely mute anyone because even cranky or unreliable people can sometimes contribute. So if it turns out that one day Coq au vin does say anything fun, informative or in any way not just a tent-fart, I'm relying on the community to quote it. Thanks in advance. Wait... where's the mute button gone? Did we lose it in the software update? Noooooo.

I always rated Brett Ratten right from when he had a great effect on our midfield waaaaay back in the day. Possibly even under Daniher! He has also clearly done great work getting St Kilda organised and focused and competitive, making the most of a list with few stars but I'd argue reasonably even quality with a short 'tail'. BUT Before starting at St Kilda he had a six year term as a senior coach, and for all that he clearly was a good coach it still took him five years to win his first final. His winning percentage over those six years was coincidentally almost exactly that of Goodwin's so far at Melbourne. So I would argue it is perfectly reasonable for Goodwin to have 2021 to prove he has learnt more about this coaching caper. I'd also say that based on our (and Simon's) known/apparent deficiencies, Adem Yze would be a sublimely well-matched assistant/sparring partner for Goodwin.