Little Goffy

Seems that what is driving people really crazy is that the main things we each as individuals can do are all just the same things we keep being told every year ahead of regular flu season. Proper, regular, hand washing, coughing/sneezing into the crook of your elbow, keeping a little bit of distance from people who are ill, trying to minimise how much you share you workstation, pushing buttons/opening doors with your wrist or where practical, keeping the space arou you clean, espcially all those frequent-touch places, taking a bit of time off if you are sick (which kind of sucks for casuals who might not be able to pay rent, but I'm sure a sensible simple solution will be put in place to soften that blow without it becoming an ideological crapshow...). Also, try not to spit in each other's face for a while. I know, habits are hard to break. But seriously, if people just do the basics without waiting to find out if they specifically are at risk, it dramatically reduces the spread rate and dramatically increases the chances of being able to track and contain any given chain of illness. Also, try to reduce your contact with repressive totalitarian regimes or medieval theocracies. #lifetip

I'll always be nervous that we're about to inexplicably implode, but we definitely look like a much better side. Several of our players are standing out by doing the things they do that standout, like Newman's speed, Daisy's calm, Mithen's burrowing, Paxman's slicing through the mess. Even while one part of me is permanently nervous that it'll fall off, another part of me just keeps watching for that moment where we all click at the same time and just annihilate a despairing opponent, country footy style.

Also from memory, he did kick 40+ goals as a small forward that season.

Forgive me anyone else who has already brought this up, but the radio coverage of the game digressed a bit to discuss Tomlinson's numbers and the story that GWS used him on the 'non active wing', the theory being that his job was to limit the appeal/effectiveness of switching play. Hence, relatively low (sometimes very low) possession counts and probably also his keenness to change role/club. So, he racked up the disposals, took a lot of connecting and relieving marks, appears to have run well whenever he was out there. Having only had radio and not even any stats to reference except the 'high 70s efficiency' comments post-game on radio, I can't get an idea of how useful his disposal was - was he moving it along well enough? Actually going forward?

Oddly enough, radio is telling me that both Tomlinson and Langdon have 20-something disposals and both in the high 70s for efficiency. I'm only saying what I'm hearing - I have no eyes on the game myself unfortunately.

I may actually be able to convince about 15 Vietnamese cousins to buy that. Nice bold style. Good colours, hey.

I'd be interested in seeing the club's detailed data on any changes to Jones' body shape, training focus and the like. On the one hand I'm quite sure I'm just feeding my confirmation bias but it has seemed to me like Jones has lost a bit of weight and is looking a bit leaner. Obviously that suits a more outside and diverse role, and may even be influenced by decisions on managing the neck tightness he had been experiencing. I think 2020 is Jones' one last shot at adapting himself to new roles, and sure it might not work out, BUT he has the shot left to take. As for 'needs to make way for a developing kid', you have to balance that against the value of having him around helping kids develop. There's no value in going full Schwab, as we all know. It is risk/reward and there are cases both ways, but whatever comes of it I think we can at least say it wasn't an idiotic decision or something motivated purely by sentiment. Plus, sentiment matters. Dumping Jones after THAT season would have left a bad taste in the mouth for everyone connected. He deserves at least to be the wise old man getting some satisfaction seeing the club smashing all rivals to pieces in 2020 and knowing he can be proud of his part for the rest of his life. ?

Sack Goodwin.

Honestly, it's one of thos debates where no resolution is possible. So, perfect for online discussion and even better for clickbait articles! Those in the 'Viney is cooked' corner can easily point to his poorer periods under an injury cloud, lacking the zip that made his previous aggression effective, and the fact that that he is apparently only an on-baller in a team that is apparently stacked for on-ballers. Those in the 'Viney can deliver' camp, all you have to do is point to his pre-injury capabilities as a crunching forward with both break-away and pursuit speed and initiative, highly alertness and habit of pressure. Personally, looking at it from an 'either way' perspective, It is not disaster if Viney only recovers to the point of being a solid foot soldier in the midfield - it is important to remember our gun midfielders are still relatively young, with Brayshaw, Petracca and Harmes and Salem all 24 and Oliver still, astonishingly, only 22. It's really important to have depth of hard workers and hard bodies over the course of a long season so Viney can still make a valuable contirubiton even if he doesn't get back to his best. On the other hand, top-level Jack Viney that those with any kind of memory will recall is a freak'n gun footballer. He also gets a lot more involved in scoring, forward pressure, even throwing int he occasional contested mark. Long story short, fit Viney gets a lot more involved int he game all over the ground and while still definitely an onballer he is much less one dimension than his recent problems have forced him to be.

How to confuse Demonlanders, in one sentence.

Olympics, even numbered years, and leap years. Our main performance determinants. I'm slightly surprised Feb 29th wasn't cancelled over coronavirus fears.

That's just Darren Jarman standing up.

Third quarter wa slooking pretty desultory until Pearce took a bounce in defence, got it to Paxman who got it to Scott who got it to Hore. Daisy and Paxman in particular just sometimes look like they are playing a different game. Shame the shot was touched but that piece of play seems to have settled us and we're reclaiming control of the game again.

Hore is only slightly under sized at 190cm. He's also, dare I say it, smarter than Frost. I don't mind a May / Lever / Hore set up for the tall defenders. Thing to remember - our game plan relies on having smart mobile defenders who can read play, press up, support eachother and cover the right spaces. NOT any kind of one to one minding of opposition forwards. It is part of why we are/were so horribly exposed when the system breaks down and particularly when we aren't spreading well in the midfield to cover rebounds and keep pressure on. I enjoyed or should I just say 'was entertained by' Frostball and respect the player himself, but he was not a cog in the particular machine we are trying to build.

He did what the club asked him to do. The club has done what he asked them to do. The results, so far, look scarily good. It must be a pretty beautiful feeling for all involved right now.

I see your point and I don't intend my comment as a slight on Vandenberg. It is just a fact that if the team is in form then it is likely we will be absolutely stacked for midfielders and half forwards and he'll have some work to do to establish himself. In the midfield we look like now having Viney, Petracca, Brayshaw and Oliver as full time strong bodies, with presumably Salem, Harmes and a couple of others rolling through. For the mid-sized forwards we've got Melksham and Fritsch basically locked in and a whole collection of other 'possibles' who Vandenberg will be competing with. The addition of Langdon and Tomlinson has tightened the 22 quite a bit as well. Vandenberg's physicality sets him apart and I think he is AFL quality, but if the team is up and about in general then, no, he is not a walk-up start for our best-22. Give him a season to find his best, though he may well play more and more as the season progresses and I'm sure there's a part of the coaching panel planning to time his peak for september as the positive side-effect of managing his loads early in the season.

I expected Vanderberg to still be coming along so cautiously that he wouldn't even play this weekend, so for him to be out there doing a few of the exact things that make us appreciate him as a player was a great moment. Best scenario in my mind is the team in general finding form and Vandenberg needing to really press for AFL selection. As it always should be. But in his case it is particularly nice knowing that even were he to be in and out a bit as depth he would a) appreciate the opportunities fully, b) see it as part of making progress and c) be that rare thing, a depth player who opponents actually have to think about in their planning and playing.

Yep. Yep. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yep. I've been in Sydney for years now and the thought had crossed my mind that the only way to get a good place to watch AFL would be to run it myself. So, kudos to you for doing it and I'll surely see you there!

Hmm. If you have a mostly mortgaged house and two kids you end up with peraphs $10m debt and 52 kids. So, win the bet and your prize is basically "Melbourne football club 2009".

I claim the exception AND I claim points for grasping the general issue before commenting. It would be surprising to see a significant link, but on the other hand, in that way that sports medicine sometimes does, a good bit of epidemiology here could lead to a fascinating addition to a chronically understudied aspect of human bodies.

OMG so racist.

It goes without saying that Daisy is the true champion of the league she helped create. Elise O'Dea will just become unstoppable as the benefits of professional level conditioning and preparation have their effect. I do feel a little sad that O'Dea couldn't get any of that, say, ten years ago. But my gut says she'll be around for a while yet to reap the benefits. May even play out the later years of her career as a difficult forward. But what I can't shake is the regular feeling that Karen Paxman is just that much more poised and fluent than most of what goes on around her. That collect and snap for goal sums it up - with the general skill levels still needing years to consolidate it could well have gone astray whether with finding the handle on it or get it cleanly to boot in a rush. But with Paxman, I never really doubted her kick would go through and I don't think she did either. I really enjoy the women's game because it's in red and blue, it has real meaning away from the grounds, and the variability of individual quality means the better players do stand out. But what I'm really, really looking forward to is AFLW in about 2025. We'll start to see players who were the first to really believe that AFL could be their path, back when they were 15 or 13. Girls who would have been able to say to trainers and friends and that uncle who played seven games for the Bears or whatever, "Hey, I want to be good at this, genuinely good. How about we head to the park and work on my ball drop/marking/etc." And as of now, compared to even five years ago, they're about a hundred times more likely to get a "Yeah, sure." I wholly expect Daisy to guide us to a premiership or two as a player and then do a few years of development before returning for a full Norm Smith and coaching us to another half dozen.

Well, this all seems to be going according to plan. Just scrape our way through the first few rounds until we get some match fitness into our underdone players and get Lauren Pearce & co back. On a side note, it does seem to be an AFL tradition to in some way make a mess of the women's fixture/ladder. I love that after the roud one win we were out of the 'conference' qualifying line, while the team we beat managed to be inside their conference qualifying group. But the quirks of the fixture means it would be very valuable to pile on a few more goals late in this game and try to bury the Bulldogs, particularly given their first game percentage surge. It's a genuine 8-point game and in a short season percentage is much more likely to play a part breaking deadlocks.

Lol. AFL Accountant: Hmm, our total revenue is not growing as much as our wild expectations and we might not be able to fund everything to the full extent that is anticipated by our stakeholders. AFL Execs: I'm pretty sure that is a problem to do with funding the women's league. AFL Accountant: Well, actually, the entire women's league is less expensive than... AFL Execs: Now now, don't get excitable. AFL Accountant: ...Karmichael Hunt... AFL Execs: Shush now, bigger picture, you know? AFL Accountant: ...Shanghai... AFL Execs: No, no, we have this covered. AFL MEDIA: "Excessive costs of women's game to be covered by cuts to male player's salaries." Personally, I'm just surprised they AFL HQ didn't also blame the lack of funding for grassroots football on the AFLW.

Among the worst things you can face when you're dealing with anxiety and mood types of mental illness is losing your best support (dad dying), getting false 'support' from the people you think you should be able to turn to and who you set yourself to rely on (my impression of Freo's behaviour) and having strangers constantly speculating and catastrophising about your whole career and life going off the rails (various media and randoms). Poor guy needs to spend three years playing local footy and working on a farm. Not to give himself time so much as to give everyone else time to calm down. Ideally at Todd Viney's farm, come to think of it.