Little Goffy

I would bet Elegt is thinking of Carlton's long kicks down the wing. When the Blues were up, it was that extra 30-50m gained with retained disposal that turned all the pressure back onto us and gave Carlton the breathing space to not feel flustered by our pressure. I don't know how much that is a lack of the right personnel, but I expect it was very much a matter of inadequate run and, dare I say it, poor tactical responsiveness. I'm not a Goodwin basher, but letting Carlton keep doing that was a mistake that nearly cost us the game.

Relax, they were following Covid guidelines of keeping two arms lengths apart. On that basis Gawn couldn't fit in the room.

Stringer was present around the ground a bit more last season, but almost like a mirror of Petracca's times, 60/40 vs 40/60 forward/midfield. However, Petracca is thoroughly reinvented for 2020 and in the meantime, Stringer has had 16 disposals this season, only 7 of them have been effective, and 5 of those effective ones have been goals! More than half his marks have been inside 50, and incredibly, 15 of his 16 disposals have been either shots on goal or inside 50s! So Stringer is definitely a full-time forward now. Think of him as what we would have if Petracca never bothered to get fit

Both Essendon and Sydney spent a lot of time patiently working the ball across the flank looking for that next neat kick forward to open up. They also both looked easily rattled once those neat kicks weren't available. I think the dominance and harassment we displayed in the first quarter could be even more effective against either of these two teams. Also, Carlton's game relied on the quality vision and kicking of Simpson, Murphy, et al directed to their tall forwards on long leads to the wing to create connections. I don't think Essendon or Sydney can rely on the same connection quality on either count. But for all that, if I were a Melbourne coach I'd still spent this week sweating over how to handle Essendon's fleet of smalls and medium players up forward.

Would have been fun to see him do a couple of really decisive magical things, but he got through the game fine and maybe it is the best thing for the psychological 'journey' to not be turning up and having a blinder straight away. If anyone should have (and probably does have) their mind on the long road, it is Harley Bennell. If plays 10% more game time and is 10% more effective over each of the next three rounds, we'll be laughing.

So, I've been watching a fair bit of football over the weekend, and I've got GWS/North running in the background now. Honestly, there's been weird results and disjointed performances all over the place. What if Carlton were actually pretty good? I mean, once they found their range, the long kicks and leads on the wings were pretty well organised. Meanwhile, we managed to turn on the most dominant single quarter of football for the whole round. I dunno, in the light of day, I'm far from thinking the sky is falling in. It'll take weeks for a real pattern to emerge to performances whether that is individual or team. Several of our allegedly better players had pretty poor days, but right now our ledger stands 1/1 in round 2.

This is true, but there were also multiple goals given away because our defenders either all went for the same contest (several times I saw three go up, and the record I saw was five at one, it made me dizzy) and nobody was on hand to deal with the spill. I think our whole system of defense gets disordered without O.Mac because both May (a smart, roving, bold CHB) and Lever (a prolific intercepting third tall defender) are being shuffled into more directly accountable roles that don't suit them quite as well, and they end up second guessing. If we had Oscar out there, not only would the 'up vs down at the contest' decisions have been that little bit clearer, but we also would have had Lever and May both much more free to read the play and cut off or split some of the numerous marks at HF and wing that McGovern, Casboult and McKay did take. So, structurally, by allowing other players to play to their strengths, Oscar's presence could have profoundly change the momentum of the game. And it would be completely invisible because the change would take the form of someone else taking a saving mark 50m away, or someone else knowing that predictable dour ol' Oscar will definitely go the spoil so I'll be ready to protect the spill out the back or collect and rebound from the front. Both May and Lever had pretty poor days. Lever with just 3 marks and May with... none. There's a reason we were continuously under the pump when Carlton lifted - we just had no moments of clean control of the ball in defense. Hence the series of wobbly rebounds and inability to make the crucial counter-attack goals that regain momentum. The other defenders on our list are also intercept-leaning rather than close-checking (Hibberd, Smith) or simply small, or just very young. You don't need a star at fullback, but you do need a fullback at fullback.

I'm going to say it. We really missed O'Mac.

Shades of the big surge mid 2018. All about sustaining it.

Until the crowds are actually allowed back in (even by the 1/4 rule), I would argue for authenticity's sake the fake crowd noise should be replaced by forum-pose notification beeps. Bennell kicks a goal 'bloit, bloit, bloit, bloit, bloit, bloit'. Would provide a very easy-to-follow baseline for your formulas, too. Just need to do a bit of coding to separate 'self-flagellation' as a data point unrelated to BBO, and you've got yourself a tracking algorithm.

Not too upset about ANB coming in, if he does his job and helps lock down on some of Carlton's rebound from defence. Will still be missing Pickett though. Seems to me we have an enormous amount of mid sized running players going out there today. On the one hand that worries me with players pushed to roles that aren't their best (eg. The Harmes at hbf controversy), on the other hand we should have the legs to sustain two-way effort all game. I also feel like we've got a much better depth of 'players of interest', players who can individually have a real inpact on the game. Pittonet may be 'strong and aggressive' but he's got little chance of physically disrupting Gawn on his own, when Gawn is so much fitter yet still stronger. In general, the blue's physical strength drops away dramatically in every part of the ground after just a couple of beasts. Cripps then Curnow then ??? in the midfield. Their defence looks like a great place for a young, agile tall with great reaction instincts like LJ because they won't be able to monster him and they don't collectively have the agility to keep up with his enthuastic puppy approach to loose balls. I'll be watching closely for what may become the Jackson trademark up forward - splitting a contest then grabbing his own crumbs. Big chance for the Demons to do something noteworthy today. (Mfcss kicks in.... now)

Even before Jeff raised his diseased perineum into the wind again this week, there were few non-MFC things in football I enjoyed more than Hawthorn losing by ten goals plus.

He should be careful what he wishes for, Hawthorn are on the edge of an age cliff the likes of which hasn't been seen since Demons 2007. Then again, maybe that's why he is saying three years. If he can see to it that some clubs are killed off soon, the Hawks can feed on the carcasses.

I did, even though I like Spargo and haven't given up on him. My MFCSS had already kicked in and assumed player 2 was Bennell. That emotional ride would have been too much. In fact, I had developed second-stage MFCSS within five minutes, imagining Bennell being devastated to miss his 're-debut', going out drinking, and doing his calf trying to run from a booze bus. Totally implausible, pure MFCSS at its finest.

I did find it interesting that the small/medium forwards and 'zippy' players of both sides had a bit of a rough night. Rioli, Pickett, Castagna, Higgins, Lambert and Bolton for Richmond had varying levels of individual influence but were mostly pretty insignificant considering that is almost a third of the team. Josh Thomas and Jamie Elliott were minimal for Collingwood, though Callum Brown at least got involved in some scoring. Also notable, more than half of Collingwood's players laid one or no tackles. Shortened game and all, but yikes. Final gut feeling - at least for a couple of rounds there will be a serious gap between the main contributors and the less diligent and mentally prepared players. Getting the most out of the 'weaker half' of the 22 could be a very big deal until people remember the rhythms of playing. Leaders and highly motivated players will matter a lot. There could also be some monstrous early blow-outs whenever a team clicks into full gear and the opponent is still mentally running around their back yard.

Waleed Aly has to maintain a difficult balance. I find it fascinating how he manages to routinely irritate 'conservatives' while never quite really, really angering them, and also keep himself within the protective embrace of 'progressives' while never quite being really loved by them. Students of intersectionality could have a field day examining the complexity of Muslim, amateur rocker, Australian, host of a news-related evening light chat show, upper middle class Richmond supporter. And that might not seem like a relevant comment in a Lumumba thread, but actually it speaks volumes of the balancing act that Lumumba eventually didn't manage to sustain. On the other hand, he did manage a decade of high performance at Collingwood before the relationship really broke down. It's not as if he was psychologically unable to pull his head in and focus on football.

You missed 'John Farnham comeback tour' and 'iSnack 3.0'.

Two picks in the top three of the draft, making their debut for the Demons. For some reason that is making me have, like, all feelings and stuff, like, you know.

Looking at the names in that outlier group, I'm comfortable with the company he is keeping. He's not a bad kick, generally, so nothing wrong with picking up three or four more kicks a game and becoming the undisputed best midfielder in the game.

The other exciting thing about this story is that my wonderful spouse, who has many excellent qualities but cannot count 'high level of interest in football' among them, knew about this before I did and made a point of bringing it up. Proof of true love, I say.

Ah hell, I opened this thread. Now I have to go wash my brain out with hydrochloroquinine.

The thought occured to me that ALL players are going to be a significantly higher risk of soft tissue and joint injury upon return from the stand down. The European football zones tbat have restarted were reporting in the range of double or triple the usual injury rate. In a sense, every player should be preparing with as much caution as Bennell. In fact, others should probably be turning to him to ask about his preparation. I'm also as happy as ever to have Burgess on board in a season which could be defined by injury. Come to think of it, given we can expect triple the injury rate for the first few rounds back, I'd argue that the restart is not the time to be 'trying out kids', given that the chances are likely to come quickly anyway. I'll also be pretty glad for our good solid bodies in the midfield and the depth provided by the Hb/hf types who would already be expected to rotate there anyway. Especially with the reserve options we have to slide into small/medium forward roles if we do need to rob that line to feed the meat grinder in the middle. Meanwhile, Jackson's versatility could pay off fast. But back to Bennell - I think he'll very quickly fit our needs in this weird season even more than he would have anyway.

To this day, no Thesaurus can handle 'Chicxulub'.

Didn't save them from extirpation, though.

We can combine this thread with the 'no booing or shouting' threat and have an 'artificial booing and shouting' plan for the football. It limits the spitting and wheezing problem, at least. Personally, the real fun starts when the artificial crowd noise generator has its logarithms hacked. Subtly at first, but then gradually escalating into madness.