Little Goffy

I'm half getting a bunch of them, like McLeod and Robinson both winning B&Fs after being traded/delisted, but not sure how Ford fits. Hall and Dunn not playing finals at their first club... and also they have each punched the other at least once... but don't know how Silvagni fits. Hudson and Mitchell were both WW2 bombers... but Robertson... drawing a blank. Yep, I'm useless. Back to work. Sigh.

Also was there on the day, and the two big things that were most clear were: - giving Collingwood lots of time to break away from and through congestion and kick cleanly to their talls who were presenting hard and in front. - failing to break away from and through congestion and then kicking loosely to our forwards who were either still trying to get to our forward line or giving half-intensity leads step-to-step or even behind their opponent. It all broke down very badly. I was interested in a few people suggesting that our scoring firepower isn't so much a problem because we've got a pretty good 'for' total overall. I think the trouble is the vulnerability of our forward line to severe droughts. Fristch, McDonald and Pickett are our leading goalkickers, combining for almost half our total goals, but all three of them can have very quiet games. On Monday each one of them had close to their worst individual game for the season. On Monday we kicked nine goals. Three from the ruckmen, 4 from the midfield/wingers, one from Nibbler and one from Fritsch. That'll won't cut it. But also... if we do get the forwards functioning consistently we will become truly terrifying.

It's a habit in my 'village' of family and friends to burn off some of the stain of a bad loss by watching some neutral football so a really disappointing loss like that without the 'plain digestive biscuits' to help settle the stomach is pretty rough. My poor wife was all but ready to call in sick she was feeling so bitter and annoyed post-game. Even as recently as a year ago she would be the one doing a bit of patient consoling and cheering up, but something has changed and now... she knows. Oh, she knows the pain of a true fan. I think this one upset her even more than the West Coast final because she wasn't so serious back then and there was the consolation that, well, it kind of made sense. She now deeply hates West Coast, Hawthorn and Collingwood. Didn't even need a particular reason to hate Hawthorn, it just happened by instinct. What a keeper.

Weideman did one good thing today and it created a goal. That was basically it for four quarters. Overall it was just plain bad. I am very patient with players in general and have a lot of sympathy for poor Serious Sam, but he can't be at AFL level right now and if something doesn't significantly change then he needs a new club at end of season.

If it's John Ralph he'll probably tell us how many centimeters apart the contractions are, and probably monitor the wrong woman. At least it would be better than Robbo... that scene doesn't bear thinking about.

Surely Yze is wise enough to know he would be taking on a career-damaging scenario of constant political crises, broken list, demoralised players and a severe shortage of on-field leaders? There hasn't been a "new coach to basket case club" prospect this bad since the very highly rated Mark Neeld took over at the Demons. Yze has a realistic prospect of being a very visible part of a drought-breaking premiership at the Demons, perhaps even this year as well as riding the peak of the next couple of years. Staying with the Demons will only boost his credentials and give him a better prospect of a better senior coaching position in future.

Fair points well stated.

Listening to people on this thread working out how to play the rules on movement restrictions makes me glad that myself, my wife and in particular the aged care home she works at are all fully vaccinated. Presumably the seating at the SCG is going to be in the same blocks method as they used at Giants Stadium so it'll be shoulder-to-shoulder. On a brighter note, I've been thrilled to see the Freeze MND beanies around Sydney this week. I wasn't even sure they'd were actually selling them at Coles/Bunnings and so forth but I got mine the other day and quickly had a few people ask if I could pick up some more for them. By the time I got back to the local shops this morning I was buying all but the last one in the display. I'm sharing the news because I'm sure a few people will be relieved to know that this event is getting some traction up here and the MND effort isn't facing as much of a failed event as we might have feared. Plus, the #positivelingers t-shirt sales have gone through the roof, which helps.

Yeah, I think salary cap tightness and a pretty good first 22 means we'll be looking to the draft for a while. Having a nice selection of possible replacements who can get opportunities as cover while also anticipating their future natural accession to the 22 is a nice place to be. Also an element of wanting to have kids in our system while we still have the mature leaders around to guide their development without being on the football department soft cap, rather than waiting until the leaders are gone and trying to develop culture from a whiteboard. Plus, we go pretty well at this drafting caper these days!

Wow, you're not wrong. That's awful stuff. You'd be disappointed to see that from a young tall forward starved all day in a team being thrashed late in the season, not an alleged gun in top team when the game is on the line against a likely finals opponent.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/collingwood-magpies/afl-2021-nathan-buckley-collingwood-coach-lost-the-players-at-magpies-harder-to-connect-player-unrest-latest-news/news-story/7568a6023e350148cedbdfd09fa85791 Also got to wonder what happened since monday, when Buckley was still openly stating his interest in continuing and was "...still as energized to get into the club and to embrace the next challenge, so we’ve got Melbourne on Monday, in a week’s time, they’re in some great form. I’m looking forward to this week of preparation to see what we can do against them."

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2021-nathan-buckley-collingwood-contract-coaching-deal-extension/news-story/f1e1eb096e88b6f4fee5d07b0e117a50 “The pressure clearly has been on Nathan Buckley and the team. I sit here tonight quite confident that he‘ll be coaching Collingwood in 2022,“ McClure said on Channel 9’s Footy Classified. Good get, Sam McLure.

Pies players with a full week to sit and think about it. Real possibility that a few veterans will be thinking 'Will it be me next?', and a few stars will be thinking 'Is this my fault for demanding so much money?', and a few young guns will be thinking 'Do I really want to be here with all this chaos?', and a few key players will be thinking, "How will this affect the character reference he gave the court?" It wouldn't take much for the players to be thinking about a lot of things other than their opponents by Monday. Switching my '186' tracker on. Of course, they might also weather the initial shock and have time to bounce back emotionally and set themselves for maximum effort. But even then, it won't be maximum effort with maximum organisation, so I'd expect the Pies to still only manage a respectable loss.

Here's hoping she gets back to being as outstanding as she was when she first wore the red and blue.

I'll definitely be turning my television upside down every second quarter.

From about the same era and could become topical if ol' Jonesy starts to fight his way back into the 22. Could do with a remake, too.

How many under-pressure coaches dealing with active discontent from members of the board would graciously welcome a) a still relatively young former premiership coach and b) an extremely promising 'next generation coming' coach into their panel? Everything I've seen lately is pointing to real humility and character. All the little stories add up to the feeling that Simon Goodwin thinks other people are important. So simple, so valuable.

If we're confident of his fitness then yes. He's always had the grit but over time he has become an unselfish and smart player and completes our inside mid group. This is a debate we would have had back before Brayshaw fully got his head around his role on the wing, but not now.

Do Walkley awards count? Also, yes, she has journalism qualifications and even did a proper cadetship. Any other people covering AFL who you need to know about?

Wouldn't mind seeing a few hundred giant heads of fans in the empty stadiums just to make things a bit fun. Maybe Nibbler's mum beaming down on everyone and giving blessings to all good Demons! :D Could be a raffle prize - "Be the giant head for round 17."

Struck Rich but left poor. Bad luck any way you look at it.

New German technology is now available for exactly that. It even allows sex-identification of the chicks in embryo so that the eggs with male chicks can be removed and allowed to addle so that later there's no need to, you know, shred a baby animal. Moral of the story: Rechnen dein küken und zelebrieren!

Last night's win nudges Goodwin's win-loss percentage up above both John Northey and Ivor Warne-Smith, making him Melbourne's 'winningest' coach since the great man himself. It'll take just a couple more wins to push Goodwin ahead of Jack McKenzie (1915, 15 games coached) and there would be only the three Demon premiership-winning coaches above him in our history. I'm keeping my lid on until Goodwin passes McKenzie, but after that I'll be going bonkers.

This thread inspired me to a closer look and I thought it would be nice to share that both Pickett (20) and Sparrow (21) just had their birthdays this week. Bummer with the lockdown but I hope they had fun anyway. Also, I'm a little worried about just how young we went in the mid-season draft...

For what it is worth, at the ground there wasn't a sense that we were out of it or being comprehensively beaten. It was clear enough that we were letting a few too many easy breakaways happen and that the Brisbane midfield was doing an excellent job getting speed away from stoppages, but it never felt like we were doomed and I am honestly surprised to find out that people were ranting and raving at any stage of the game. Goodwin had the team in a huddle until the absolute last moment before starting the third quarter and whatever they discussed, they came out much, much better organised and the rewards flowed immediately and beautifully. Pretty sure they weren't discussing Demonland's little trash-talk squad!