Little Goffy

Surely the lack of pressure up forward against the bulldogs points to an opportunity for Harmes to prove himself up there. Has the fitness to keep chasing, knows how to tag and tackle, tall enough to cause trouble for any given opponent, and has shown he can counterattack and kick a goal. He's nowhere near his most effective where he is at the moment and our small forwards truly shamed themselves on the weekend.

I'm finally feeling it. I'm suddenly really wound up for what I expect will be a ripper game as a spectacle and a hugely important one for both teams. Strangely, I have an uncanny feeling like Melbourne are just supposed to win today. I've got no doubt. It is weird, weird, weird.

Geebus, Bruce is like a nine year old commentating. Three seconds behind everything going on, can't see the actual play unfolding so gets randomly excited about things that aren't actually happening and then asks the question 'Wouldn't that have been great to see?' Seriously, he's turning into a 'did you see me mum' level commentator.

Whatever is best for Hogan, even if that means a move still in Perth to replace Kennedy. I think we can agree there's little point to fantasizing about Hogan the player if Hogan the human is suffering.

Carlton are more of a threat to spots in the 8, but I still think they'll win tonight. Probably by 8/10ths of one point. Obviously Demons going to slap the Doggies down and go a game and 25% ahead of them. Port will despatch Hawthorn because Port wins change nothing and Hawthorn losses bring happiness to little orphan kids everywhere. Essendon will upset Richmond just because lols and that would put us ahead of Richmond. Also, it will be hilarious watching the Bombers finish just outside the eight year after year after year and constantly saying 'but we beat some good teams so really we're the best'. Fremantle may or may not beat the legless one-winged Swans. They ought to, but they are still Fremantle. Adelaide vs Geelong is nobody's business. Lions will reinforce the question mark on St Kilda's credibility in finals. West Coast will, on the one hand, help our buffer in the eight, on the other hand probably lock us out of the top 4. Collingwood will somehow manage to bugger it up against North and find themselves just barely in the 8.

Is it possible that Richmond have finally gone properly ahead of themselves? Would be hilarious if they now dropped a couple of their upcoming games, whether it's Freo or Essendon for the upsets or just some good solid failures against the eagles and cats. Their top 4 ambitions already look shaky, any slip-up and it's an elimination final. Wouldn't mind earning first shot at them, too.

I especially like how it is a completely different process to get the broadcast details and the game details, and you can't have them open at the same time or go from one to the other directly. #intuitive #gooddesign #humancentreddesign #definitelynotheaduparsedesign Also, as someone who can't watch that many games directly and enjoys playing with the stats to get an idea of what is going on in a game, I love the non-smooth horizontal scrolling and lack of heading-field retention in the player statistics. I'm nitpicking, but hey, it's the only way we'll cover everything. Ooh, ooh, and I love how every freak'n week there's a new ever-so-related video with the fearless leader telling us how much he has the feels for

Bulldogs, Kangaroos and Magpies together make up at least half the 'top 4 finishes' for free kick differential each year since 2015 (inclusive). So that's three clubs claiming a 'top spot' almost every year while the remaining 15 clubs average a spot every ten years. Three of those six season (including this year) ALL THREE of those clubs have finished in the top 4 for free kick differential, and over the same period NOT ONE of those clubs has ever finished outside the top 8 for free kick differential. Personally, I can't figure out a conspiracy theory that would include the Dogs, North and Collingwood, but the result is there to see! As for the Eagles - the last time they finished outside the top 8 for free kick favour was 2004, with ninth. From that year they then managed ten consecutive years in the top four, but, interestingly, they've not been getting such a spectacular run in the last few years. Still better than normal, but not so spectacular.

It has been very gracious of our opponents these last few weeks to arrange for their rucks to also be injured or sore while Gawn has been recovering. Much appreciated.

Got to dream bigger, F'N'D!

It's been a true joy these last few weeks to see Jones really clearly enjoying football. He's had that generous smile like a parent seeing their kids having fun with something the parent loved as a kid. I for one am really counting the run to 300 for Jones - trying not to get too sentimental and have a realistic assessment that he is earning his spot each week. But... there is that little sneaking thought of Jones playing his 300th in a winning Grand Final. That would be satisfactory.

Seems odd to me, the fuss made about Collingwood's 4 games in 14 days. It was also our fourth game in 16 days and fifth game in 20 days.

Ah, no, no, no. It's a whole different format, don't you reckon, Biff? Gus, Oliver, Viney and Pettraca are all having fun out there in the middle, wouldn't you say? It's a big win for the club, do you think? They remind you a bit of the old days of Brisbane, don't they? This new fab four could be the next Voss, Lappin, Black and Akermanis, couldn't they?

That Naughton kid goes all right. Big job for May, I assume. Hmm, Crows still right in it approaching half time, maybe they aren't so bad... ? Immediately after I typed that, they completed the joke for me by sending a handball halfway between two players who were only a couple of metres away from each other anyway, and both had opponents right on them, at the CHB line. We'll be going in as the predators again next weekend against the Dogs.

It was a huge win for the club to see all of Gus, Viney, Oliver and Petracca having fun together in the middle. It's not quite the Voss, Lappin, Black and Akermanis fab four.. or... is it?

Considering we're one win behind the pace, and have a win in hand, and have a relatively soft draw remaining because our early season opponents included the entire top 4, you'd have to give us a chance. A second chance would be handy in this weird season, but if we're there it will be because we sustained top form that deserves it. Play like a top 4 team, finish top 4.

Bit of that going around...

Could be. That argument rolled on for years. And years. And years. No-one really understand why it kept getting renewed.

For the last four days every time someone said Preuss my brain went 'former North player, now a back-up only here, can't get a game, but expect to get a good effort from him' and gave me the result 'Pederson'. All this time I've been wondering 'why do people think Pederson can out-body Grundy?' I was also really shocked to discover the ol' Pedo is just 25. Meanwhile, I've been looking over the teams sheets and it seems to me Collingwood have an amazing number of players in that 189-192cm height range, across all lines. The Bate-Dunn-Newton black hole of yesteryear. It is as if they are just trying to bring in a army of Pendlebury-clones, but it just isn't working. Would have loved to see Jackson out there, mostly up forward, because he's got a significant height advantage over most oft heir defenders and a massive agility advantage over Moore. Thinking of that, don't be surprised if Preuss spends a lot of time plonked forward to force them to put Moore on him, while McDonald goes to ruck-tagging Grundy and Weideman gets given maximum space to lead out while Fritsch does his long-pocket leads. They've got nobody who can handle Pickett, too. John Noble? Uh oh. I've got that feeling. That feeling like we are going to crush them. Major MFCSS Danger.

Wrong thread Garbo.

I think you'll find that reacting to all critiques of contemporary political economy as if they are an endorsement of socialism is, quite precisely, a straw man argument.

It's a bit like the South Asian farmer. One failed monsoon, you just barely get barely. Two failed monsoons, you go into debt just to eat and have to borrow for seed stock for the next season. Three failed monsoons, your children die. Personally I'm an optimist about vaccines by 2021, and so long as a reasonable effort is made to not balls everything up until then, first-tranche vaccine targeting can do a lot to contain risk by innoculating major vulnerable and vector populations like transport, retail, crowded facility/factory workers, educators and the all-important health and personal service sectors. For what it is worth, I monitor vaccine news very closely and the progress is legitimate. Don't know what the borsch is going on in Russia though.

Sadly, even without such scammers, pets are one of those areas you really need to investigate before you buy. But never mind, if you can hold out a little longer, just a couple of months from now the rescue shelters will have a great supply. Ugh, this whole subject area riles me.

The comparison to Hipwood is laughable. Wallace is doing the Wallace thing and just reacting to whatever happens to be hot that week. Hipwood just played one of his regulation two outstanding games for the season. Look back, it's like clockwork - two huge games a year and then maybe two more 'pretty good' games and a bunch of flashy meh. It will be interesting to see if he gets a second big one in the 2020 shortened fixture. 1/3rd of Hipwood's goals in 2020 were on Saturday and Weideman still has him beaten for goals per game, among a host of other stats. If we made the comparison on Friday Hipwood would look like nothing worth mentioning. I'm perfectly comfortable with the club's decision to focus on priming Weideman to be consistently outstanding as a true key forward, rather than letting him amble along without responsibility and ending up a perpetual third tall or some kind of utility - which is where Watts becomes relevant to the discussion. I think it very much relates to Petracca in the sense that the club has really pushed them to be the very best version of himself and not become complacent with just being very good.

I think Tomc playing as a ruck/forward 'tagger' is an interesting experiment with positive results in the one attempt so far. I'd cheerfully let him go at it a second time and definitely wouldn't risk Gawn if there's any doubt. Plus, Gawn has shown in the past that he can use time 'out' to think through his game and target improvements. If he comes back better at targeting his taps then he will actually be close to ruckman perfection. Personally I think the team let Gawn down a little by not putting away Adelaide early so he could be rested in the second half. But such is life when it's all on the line.