Little Goffy

The facial hair makes him look about ten years older. Is that the source of his new maturity? Should he be going the full Gawn beard? Should the whole midfield? That would be a terrifying sight at a center bounce.

My gut response is good on Gawn for not 'acting like a club in 17th place'. But also, storm in a peanut.

Presumably it's related to the MND Big Freeze colours?

I'll take the defence of '94, the forward line of 2000, and the midfield of 2018. Yes, that means two David Neitzes. But does anyone see that as a flaw?

I would have thought brown paper bags for the Blues. GWS can just be a bunch of empty suits, because we all know that's where their real support is coming from...

Well, obviously Collingwood have to go with cardboard to be true to their heritage, but what would be the appropriate materials for the other clubs?

Yes, we all know forward 50 entries are being addressed. The question is 'Addressed to whom?'

The trouble with curative advice from 'my great uncle who had that' is that, well, your great uncle still had it, so how good can his treatment be? I suggest asking random people 'Have you ever had this unpleasant infection I've got?' until you strike a winner.

Travis Johnstone got us pick 14. Can we really blame the trade for the choice?

50,000 tablets and laptops with attached speakers. Each one supporting a video or audio call from a supporter. Membership gets you access to a designated link/device for all home games. Ticket prices get you individual games. Crowd noise solved. Supporters involved. Money spun from straw. Make it happen.

It has always been my impression that the Melbourne Football Club just never quite lifted the standards of professionalism, resources and organisation as other clubs did. Not that we went backwards so much as everyone else was going forwards a little bit faster. Eventually that led to a wider and wider gap, and the very fact of that gap made it harder and harder to motivate a whole club to unify their effort. Complacency and 'traditionalist' culture, combined with chronic shortage of income, meant that any innovations (some of which were already a decade or more old at other clubs) were adopted piecemeal, tokenistically, and temporarily, rather than being permanently included in the way the club expected to operate. An obvious psychological trap at the club is the pattern of 'we got there, everything is okay, time to relax.' We reach a point of looking alright, then go no further. In particularly wilting under the pressure when we discover that actually, no, they wont leave us alone now, we have to keep going every bloody week! We've turned it around to some extent, but given that false dawns are our specialty, we are all watching and waiting.

I wonder how much of Ticketek's operations are in 3-shift hot-desk call centres with shared phones/headsets? Completely impossible to operate at the moment, never mind whether particular business units are based in Philippines on India. The early refund for the overseas guests might have been possible because there were specific laws insisting on 'no travel', while many other booking types may be in a legal and policy grey area for refunds vs credit vs get stuffed. Plus, Ticketek have always been prone to bursts of shoddiness. Don't lose your booking number and receipts!

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that Petracca has not slacked off too much from his preseason.

There was one exception on the day which just emphasized the shame of the others. Jordie McKenzie. Respect.

That 16 minute quarter issue would suggest the best plan is not so much to have a relief ruckman as to just reduce the amout of cross-field running the primary ruckman has to go through. So, I can see the value in having a ruck-ish forward up there to just bang the thing around when a clean tap is rare anyway with so much congestion Plus there's less value to having them do their tall target thing when the ball has already been up forward long enough to see a stoppage. If the ball is up there long enough for the primary ruckman to get to the stoppage without busting a gut, then great. But otherwise, saving a ruckman a dozen 80m runs in a game could be the difference at a few late-game stoppages or getting into position for the classic match winning mark.

If the players aren't one the track at 12.01 I'll be bitterly disappointed.

I checked my list of 'Things victims of stalking and harassment really really want.' Couldn't find 'Lots of attention from strangers especially on the internet' anywhere.

There is complexity in your point that I appreciate. Personally I have a very complex relationship with police. My work has actually involved a huge volume of distant yet detailed observation of the mostly more boring side of the endless slog that police generally manage to work their way through with high professionalism. Hell, I can vouch that police even manage to be courteous and professional to some truly awful people. On the other hand, I think where our different complex points are getting tangled is that I am also aware of levels of unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour within police that cannot be pointed to as a collection of isolated incidents that might anger individuals who have personal bad experiences, but as patterns of behavior within organisational culture which continue to be protected by some senior networks within that culture. Similarly, on the one hand I am the kind of person who doesn't hesitate to call police and to stick around and monitor situations like 'crazy guy outside mall' or 'brawl brewing up on street near seedy pub'. On the other hand, I personally would not feel safe in police custody and would be highly concerned for the well-being of a great many of my friends if they were taken into custody for any reason, however minor, incidental or erroneous. Importantly, from an observed, sustained pattern, I can have a fair and reasonable concern that many people I know could not be sure of their rights or dignity while in police hands. One particular example comes to mind - in my work I've heard a number of times people raising a moan about the 'Do you identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?' question. The issue is of course the perception that Indigenous people are being offered special treatment. But a deep thinking session about why the question is asked that way brings the realisation - people are asked specifically if they are Indigenous in order to protect the dignity of police. Imagine if the question was made race-neutral. It would read, "Do you identify as belonging to a category of people who can, based on extensive evidence, family and personal experience, reasonably be in fear of mistreatment while in custody and during the law enforcement process?' Anyway, while I was just joking about Queensland, I really don't think Vic Police is the worst, despite the recent shameful papering over of the unwarranted raid + arm shattering incident. A bit of the old 'if they run, then they must be the enemy' (Full Metal Jacket, I think?) Probably New South Wales has the poorest reputation at present, what with all the stripping children and stuff. That was policy, not one-off incidents. It was an unambiguous policy of harassing attendees at music festivals because, you know, 'those people'. BUT, for all that, by way of olive branch, there's no denying that there is a layer of people who act like the police are some kind of irredeemable fascist jackboot force, and many of that mob are horrendously pretentious juveniles or straight-up low-lifes. I do see your point there and can at least respect that you are primarily expressing your irritation at that useless attitude.

Ahh, I see what you did there. Very clever. A bit of the old 'tell us all your secrets and be judged, or I'll just assume you have secrets and judge you anyway' routine. A lot of police have done a lot of 'questionable' things and there are still aspects of warped culture and corruption that keep festering and refuse to die. Australia's generally, are among the best in the world these days but still have plenty of rot in them, whether it is corruption, bigotry, or such vain-glorious creepiness as this particular instance. And there's still an awful lot of people who have vivid, sometimes very recent memories driving their mistrust of police. It's not so simple that you can just say 'did you get stiched up or are you a P.O.S?' That's not a mature way to go about things at all.

It's really only ridiculous because of Queensland. And I wont bite at the other silliness.

Forgive me, I need to mention Neale Daniher's final game. Ripper of a game against Essendon but the taste of ash lingered a long time after that one.

I've got recollections of a really annoying Sydney fan at the SCG late in a game against the Swans where we had been solidly in font and then Sydney just blew us apart in the last. This fan just kept yelling 'Ten goal quarter' in Boganese. Not a good loss.

There is absolutely no doubt that Nathan Jones is slimming down for his new, more outside, role.

I enver really got to see much of them playing, but Stephen Tingay's recipe for a chicken cacciatore in the Trevor Barker memorial cookbook (I forget the name of the book - it might just be 'AFL cookbook') was a real winner and very easy. Also quite forgiving of lazy cooks like me with a tendency to wander off and do other things.

Poor guy retired for health reasons then watched on as the entire playing group gets to not play and still get most of their pay! No wonder he wants back in. Seriously this guy can't take a trick. Not even eligible for JobKeeper.