Little Goffy

Essendon's percentage dropping by more 15 and going back down under 100, and likely dropping out of the eight, is always a welcome part of any round of football. It's a note on the sheet abotu how long scoring this season has been, too. Our percentage may look pretty rough at 87% but that is still only a 40 point margin. Geelong's spot on the ladder is largely the product of their one good smashing... of Hawthorn. Looking forward to us taking out turn!

Apologies for piggy-backing on your excellent contribution - I'll just toss in a micro-example that I've kept for myself as a kind of touchstone. Amongst the general mess of abuse I (we all?) cop at random times in life, I have actually been quite viciously and even menacingly racially abused on a train. Thing is - it was by an obviously crazy person and I could walk away in full confidence that it was a freak occurance and that if things had spiraled out of control I would have all manner of institutions backing me up and could realistically assume the sympathy and assistance of the next person I meet the moment I'm clear of the scene. And in that thought lies the difference. The clarification for me was about having the humility to recognise that even though that was seriously alarming and unpleasant, the depth of it is nothing like what people have to navigate when they can't be confident of that institutional and social support. I'm of the 'unlikely to eliminate racism in my lifetime' perspective, but I see the goal of reconciliation (as the most pressing example) as being to reach the point where the experience of racism for Indigenous Australians is much the same as mine. "That was a crazy person, and that was upsetting, but I don't really have to think about it any more now that the moment is over."

Maybe even Captain Hindsight-based-on-speculation-about-worst-case-scenario? If Pickett progreses the way he looks like he will and Melbourne lift themselves up once they have had some time playing together at full speed, and the 2020 draft proves to be a total lottery with no exposed form to judge on, then the trade for the Pickett-Pick was one of the most brilliant ever made.

If we were on the the HS pet clubs, all those failed inside 50s would be called 'shots on goal that were controversially touched before going through'. Innovation in journalism award in the bag.

Alas, I do believe he managed 1.6 and and oof or two against us once upon a time. Bank on that being his new normal if he came here. Confirmed- round 6, 2017. 13 marks including 4 contested and 4 inside fifty, for 1 goal 6 behinds, his personal worst accuracy even before noting the outright misses. He was at his absolute best that day in every way except one. It was beautiful football - Possibly the greatest football moment ever provided by an Essendon player because it also made Essendon supporters miserable.

I'm just going to quietly nudge in here - that I've always believed in Oscar, in a realistic way, going back years. Gooooo team Oscar!

He's not in great form right now but it is all far from the first time he's been at a crossroads. It's wait and see for me, and definitely no career eulogy required just yet.

Since we're talking a bit about the wonderful world of mega-companies and online communication - anyone else remember back in the dawn of the internet, when AOL was found to knowingly not be closing child abuse video sharing networks because, hey, they were paying huge subscription fees for all that data. Set the tone of the internet to this day, unfortunately, and the legacy lives on strong.

Tom's eye will be fine provided he didn't watch the Sydney-Richmond game. I've actually had my eyeball given a good scratch once when a freak'n lunatic magpie lark (pee-wee) decided my face was it's enemy. Didn't feel much, went ahead to attend a uni lecture, but started noticing people were giving me funny looks. Went to wash it out in the bathrooms and after one double-take glance in the mirror I sprinted down the the medical centre where they jumped me right ahead of the queue - basically I had an outer eye completely layered with blood, deep pure red everywhere that should be white, and bulging. I shouldn't say sprinted - I actually moved with haste but not so much exertion because I honestly was worried my eyeball would burst if my pulse lifted. Strangely, it never affected my vision, I didn't feel much pain, and was completely fine in a couple of days. I had to get a bunch of booster shots on account of the rabid pee-wee - I don't know if the same applies to Gold Coast players.

It's an intriguing closely matched see-saw arm wrestle of a tussle. Sydney won the second quarter by a goal, Richmond won the third quarter by a goal, and now Sydney are winning the final quarter by a goal! I think we should be impressed by the Tiger's discipline to not put the cue in the rack after been a full twelve point in front at quarter time. If you run out of Frank Zappa, my wife is currently watching a Korean celebrity/reality TV show where they compete to invent new dishes for kids - the winning recipe idea gets an official launch with proceeds going to charity. Each episode of 'Funstaurant' is about 40 minutes, I think, so you can catch a goal in the game, watch the show, and be back in time for the next goal.

I've got it on TV while I get sunday-stuff done at home, just heard the commentators say at half time 'every score this game has been from a turnover'. If that is 1st vs 7th, we're definitely in with a shot this year!

We'll never completely get rid of [censored] like that but we can reach a point where everyone else knows that that kind of behaviour puts the people who do it on the outside. Noting the 'trolling' comments - yep, there's a fair chance this same person makes fat girl jokes at parties and thinks mussie-wuzzie is a hilarious way to refer to a colleague. I'm looking forward to the day where nobody in society is left with any doubt about it being 'Just that troll guy over there who is a jerk who nobody likes', and there are no lingering worries about your HR manager or football coach or doctor. We're going to get there because every year more and more people are sick of it. Just look at Demonland compared to ten or even five years ago. Even when people are irritated by the regular bursts of 'political correctness going mad' that happen, the same people are also much, much more accepting of the changing line of what is decent and acceptable. Harley had a good game, his skills made a difference to the result, and he finished the game surrounded by teammates thrilled to share his personal moment of joy. The drip-stain champion on the internet defines the moment only as much as society lets him, and that amount is becoming less every day.

I think there's a glitch on the AFL site. I keep opening the 'live games' tab and the Giants v Power game comes up. At least as a courtesy to the rest of us they could rename it 'currently occurring' because 'live' implies some kind of pulse and volition. Meanwhile, only two other games to wait on and we're a good chance of being the highest scoring team of the round. If the results of those two games go right we'll be out of the bottom four despite having a game in hand.

Right, it is the day after and the sun is shining. OMac did really well and definitely improved Lever/May's role, not to mention helped limit the damage a few times when those two 'higher risk play' types um... 'incurred their risk'. Weideman I am just thrilled for. Don't no why I feel like the kid is such a good human, but I do. Couple of valuable goals, filled his role very well, and just to mess with everyone's heads, he now is the club leader for contested marks and goals per game! Goodwin, to me, seemed a fair bit more animated and involved, as if he's finally given himself permission to do more than just 'trust in the plan'. Maybe he sat down and read some Sun Tzu and finally realised that a plan is not a strategy! It was good to see and perhaps it marks a moment of development. Fingers crossed.

The Demons in the crowd did a great job and should be given their share of credit for the win. The radio online was picking up their hollering and howling all game, and it set a tone. Having Goodwin down on the bench being animated and giving constant instructions late in the last quarter was a moment on par with finding out that the Easter Island heads have bodies.

Must have read the article during the week about how he was our best 'mid' going inside 50. Just trying to take the pressure off teammates. Captain's clangers.

Pre-game, the AFL website clearly saw something they liked about our Weideman.

I actually fully agree; I've seriously respected Ratten ever since he got the best out of our midfield waaaaaay back in a past era, and with a Carlton-supporting brother I'm very aware of how much he got out of a Blue's unit that was not as good as (ahem) Malthouse convinced the Blue's board it was. I would have preferred Ratten as the Roos successor and I think St Kilda are over-achieving with him at the helm at the moment. Although, I must confess I have long believed St Kilda has been right on the edge of being a total basket case and that Richardson did well to get even the couple of respectable seasons out of him that he did. Stagnated for 18 months is about as neat a summary of Goodwin/Melbourne as you can get. I hope I didn't come across as mocking the original comment - I was just having a laugh and enjoying the spectacle of what a fickle and unpredictable game our game can be, at it's best.

So did Fremantle, it seems. And I must say, Ratten is so overrated. We should be trying to recruit this Justin Longmuir guy. OMG how long was he available for and we missed him? {cuts wrists}

Going back to the Hawks game for a moment - their team out there for 3 goals in a game had an average age of 27 - more than a year older even than the team Collingwood sent out, and the Pies themselves are one of the oldest teams running around at present. I'm already dreaming of a win over Gold Coast followed by a thumping of Hawthorn to declare our return. I really hate Hawthorn. I really do.

Theory - Goodwin's ambition is to create a team so used to playing on and operating under massive amounts of self-inflicted pressure that they eventually start operating naturally at that level and become a completely unstoppable force - a level of tempo up to compare with going VFL to AFL, and then proceed to win a string of premierships to rival the Great One himself. I mean, that run in mid 2018 - if that is a taste of what the 'Goodwin plan working' looks like, I'm okay with that... If...

Wherever is left? But seriously, anywhere with an appropriate sized playing field and a secure health situation will be acceptable. If some fluke brings the situation to one where a crowd is possible then wherever can offer the best atmosphere, NOT necessarily the largest numbers. It'll be corporates and raffle winners and few others and they'll be going bananas after 14 days quarantine. Come to think of it, they might need to plan for that for any clubs playing finals. What a travel package that would be.

Jetta and Oscar completely change our defensive set-up, releasing May and Lever to be much more counter-attacking and in particular it should benefit Lever who can now be the smart interceptor and third-man up he is best at, without crapping his shorts all day about what hole is opening up behind him. In Jetta's case, I think his presence as a proper responsible adult will help things enormously. Weideman in will help T Mac operate with at least a little less than a 100% blanket on him, and doubles the chance of a tall person being under the fall of the ball from one of our random kicks forward. Bennell in is just an obvious one, even before what apparently was a very busy and effective scratch match effort. As far as I can see it, all four changes improve out structure and the outs, while being a little tough on a couple, are not diminishing our structure at all. I approve of these decisions, now I wait...

It is something that has been observed in the past, but also, a general rise in professionalism and leadership/culture is also quite common in the long term after a fairly short bleary-eyed period!

Am I mistaken - the trade was 2019 picks 26 and 50, plus 2020 first rounder, for pick 8 (which eventually became Pickett) The trade was sensible at the time and the 2020 draft is a total pot-luck mess. Also, we're just a few rounds in to the weirdest season ever. Yep, it's kick the Demons week, that's all to this story.