Little Goffy

Very hard to say anything new at this point. I'm inclined to let the solid slice of people who were genuinely under some misconceptions about Goodes' own behaviour have their own quiet moment, rather than shout at them to 'change themselves' according to any set prescription. I just wish there were better ways to cut the ties that allow the true-filth racists and just plain all-round-bstards to subtly drag other people along. In the end, perhaps the most racist thing done to Adam Goodes was the effort made to slander and misrepresent him in order to rile people up against him.

I've said before, but I'll throw it in again now that a few pages have passed; my main reason for thinking that Jones should kep going (aside from sentiment, or the fact that he is still putting in some pretty good games) is that he is a player who is capable of recognising his weaknesses and working on them, and adjusting his game. Put another way, Nathan Jones is quite able to recognise that 'The 2019 version of me is unlikely to contribute much in 2020 with another year in my body' and then follow that up with meaningful thought on what the 2020 version of himself should be. Could be interesting, for example, to see how much weight he is able to strip off in favour of better running and agility.

Interesting to notice that during his set shots he had a distinct look of calm, untroubled concentration, but watching his goals from general play there are a few moments just before he takes the shot where his whole face and body language seems to be saying something between 'hur hur here we go' and 'watch this mum!'. Inspired by this, I say start Petracca from the goalsquare for a whole game and tell him to take a shot whenever he gets it, and not worry too much about chasing once it is out of his area. Worth it for the fun alone.

Personally, I think it'll be a nice run, part of finishing off the year with six consecutive wins.

Ironically, they could reduce tackling by actually paying holding-the-ball and incorrect disposal more reliably. If the penalty is there for being caught, then players and coaches will work harder to avoid it. More evasive tactics, less barging into tackles trying to mindlessly break through, more effort to get the ball to the outside of a pack rather than current acceptance of just having another ball up on the spot, and so on Meanwhile, tackling remains every bit as much a part of the game and also becomes even more of a spectacle. We can get through this round of HQ neurosis without wrecking the game, I swear.

Oh no. No. No no no no no no. Ah hell. Oh, this is no good at all, not at all. This will not do. You know who we really need, the extra tall forward who can float aroud the ground, uses the ball well, and who is currently out of contract and probably unhappy with the way his current club hung him out to dry in the pre-season, and is a Victorian boy currently at an interstate club. Forgive me. Ahhh I can't even type it. Jack Watts.

Our midfield is built to bustle, getting an ugly ball forward, never mind the details. Unfortunately the credible rotation has shrunk with Vince and Tyson gone, Jones necessarily finding a new role, and Lewis obviously playing less and less time around the middle. So the rotation of decent inside mids that we do have is getting tired, and we don't have the depth to let them shift around to spare them from constantly swimming inside the washing machine. Naturally, they can't afford to diversify to do anything more than their core job of bashing it forward, they don't have the legs to run defensively and they don't have the freshness (physically or mentally) to be clean in their ball use. Injuries on the half-lines (esp. Hibbered and Melksham) compound the issue and the call-ups from Casey haven't delivered the necessary standard. Capping off the point, the allegedly lazy fatty Petracca is second only to Oscar McDonald for time-on-ground this season, at over 88%, because we are desperately trying to keep those core mids rotated to the bench while he smoothes his fatgiue up forward. It is all the old 'too much for too few', and we've had to limit our play to what we can do, instead of what we'd like to do. Meanwhile, our forward line, currently almost entirely injured, has also been almost entirely out of form. The fringe players we had up there providing some diversity last year combined for 3+ goals a game in 2018, but are either not on the field or far down in output this year. For example, 2018 to 2019 goal-per game numbers for players in roughly the same role - Hannan from 1.5 to 0.7 Nibbler from 1.1 to 0.4 Spargo from 0.8 to 0.3 You can play around all you like with the mess of Garlett, Vanders, Kent, Hunt, Fristch and so forth, with injuries and positions changing all over the place, but there's not a lot of useful insight there because there's been so much change. I guess the main insight is simply that there has been so much change and disruption. And clearly, whatever way you mix it, Weideman and Smith are not currently a rival for Hogan's 2018 contribution. Not even combined! Tom McDonald has been not even half as effective as a forward as he was in 2018. Just as he was showing a pattern of improvement he got injured, so, yeah, life sucks. But it is also notable that in the scattered few games where he did perform well, we mostly won. In fact, his five best games for the season are also our five wins. His numbers in those 5 games are uncannily similar to his 2018 stats, most notably averaging 2.8 goals. Tom McDonald kicked 14 of his 18 goals this season in Melbourne's five wins. I'd argue that McDonald is second only to Gawn as our most important player, and he has had an absolutely pestilent year with injury, form, and more injury.

All our mids are up-and-down in effectiveness, which to me speaks of youth (obviously) but also fitness and the old problem of doing the small things right consistently. As others have already pointed out, there is also a problem where players aren't alert to what to do 'next, next, next', there tends to be a half-moment of idleness in between actions, instead of a natural flow of activity. The other thing missing is situational awareness, the intuitive (yet somewhat trainable) understanding of where everyone around you is now and is about to be in a moment. For both these things the current example would be the poise of Pendlebury, with the pinnacle I've ever seen being of course James Hird as a player. Just google that final quarter vs West Coast to see example after example of zero hesitation and incredible awareness. Dare I say... if only we could bottle some of that. Haaa ha ha haaaaa. I'm going to make a few people here vomit by suggesting we bring in Hird as a specialist coach. In football terms it absolutely makes sense but the publicity would be something awful. Or, the ultimate redemption character arc. Less vomitoriously, in the legendary words of a cliche gap-toothed grey-faced and completely plastered Collingwood supporter; 'Bwett Watten! Bwett Watten! Bwett Watten!'.

Does anyone else get the feeling like we've been playing a kind of inside-out 'whack-a-mole' with our midfield's form this season? For any given game, one or two might be up and a few others down, but very rarely do we see the whole midfield group performing effectively together. Which I find particularly interesting because the midfield is where we've had the least injury damage and seen (statistically) the least drop-away this season. Definitely applies to all the young mids, even Oliver has had some lesser games though they are harder to pick out in hindsight because his raw numbers kept churning over. Meanwhile the co-captains have been the most inconsistent of the lot. Funnily enough, Petracca has progressed from one of our least reliable to one of our most reliable. Of course, compounding all of that is the weak form of the 'second layer' like Nibbler, Stretch and Lewis, who might normally at least keep the machine churning over with work rate or a wise head, but just aren't. Umm... I was supposed to imagine the gains... ummm... Our forward line has been outright eliminated by injury, our defence has been shredded and chewed by injury and is only now being spat back out onto the field, and our midfield has struggled to all find form at the same time. So... uh... It is easy to see how much better things could be next year? ?

Finally, today we can now resolve the debate about whether it is the midfield or the forward line that is the problem. Because today we have no actual full-time forwards named.

Fact is, I often look to deep mismatch games like that with an edge of hope, looking for someone to replace the 186 misery. Would you believe I put myself through watching the 'highlights' on youtube the other day? Quite the experience, and here we are with Adelaide kicking a goal every three minutes and it still isn't enough to compete with that dark dark moment. Never forget. Always seek revenge. Against everyone. Like Captain Colostomy. Meanwhile, we all have to rely on Port and the Crows to keep Essenscum out of finals. How odious.

I wonder if ever any club has actually managed to go an entire season with an average of 1/3rd of their list injured? Could be in record-breaking territory. Remembering that we had already passed the average total missed games for a season before the halfway point.

Jones is a player who has adapted and improved his game in response to changing circumstances or evident deficiencies a number of times over his career, I wouldn't put it past him to use the coming preseason to really target particular points of his game to improve what he can offer in a new role. With a clear plan over the preseason, I'd back him to still be of real, best-22 value next season. Certainly I think it would be a mistake to ditch him ealry, when he clearly wants to keep going and clearly is the type to accept a realistic appraisal of what it will take for him to be appearing at AFL level once the team is back in form.

Not sure any more than the basics is needed - Melbourne wins tally 2007 to 2015 - 5, 3, 4, 8, 8, 4, 2, 4 7, Gold Coast 2011 to 2018 - 3, 3, 8, 10, 4, 6, 6, 4 If you want you can trim it for the first couple of years of Gold Coast being a new club, and for Melbourne's final year in the period (the 7 wins) being considered part of our bold new dawn. The grand total of our official draft assistance over the period was Sam Blease and Jack Trengove. But setting the actual season results aside, does anyone really think it is a lack of draft picks that has been limiting Gold Coast's performance? To paraphrase Tony Cochrane "I don't think there would be any fair minded person who would say that nine years at the bottom isn't time to give a genuine kick to the head of those responsible".

It was interesting to hear Goodwin talking after the match yesterday about how the club has had a specific development plan in place for Preuss, focusing on developing his ruck craft and marking ability with maximum minutes at Casey. He also seemed quite pleased (I swear there was a glint in his eye) when discussing the prospect of Preuss and Gawn playing together during the remainder of the season. It would seem that with McDonald now out for the rest of the season, circumstances have forced the club's hand and we'll be getting a taste of the two-tower effort from here on. Given Preuss seemed to do pretty well on sunday, and while he isn't fast or brilliant he does seem to at least have the priceless quality of initiative, I'd be very keen to see him settle into the seniors. Then again, I do have the imaginary bygone notion of having the 'spare' ruck parked in the goalsquare and barely being expected to run around, just sitting there making the opposition anxious. Done well it would allow very high time-on-ground for both of them while (in my opinion) forcing the opposition tactics to respond.

There's not much better for a young player than to put together a string of consistently good games. Since about round 8 he has been at least respectable in every game. Good signs.

Things I'm not looking forward to - Gold Coast in Round 23, playing the Giants who will not want to flirt with form at all going into the finals. I've seen enough of the Giants to know that once they get a roll on, they wont take it easy the way Richmond did. The 186 line is facing very credible threat.

Collingwood's 18 free kicks in a half seems a little bit high... (checks season stats) Almost precisely double the norm.

People are worrying too much. We will finish 14th this year, ergo, we must beat Carlton. How do I I know we will finish 14th? History! 1998 - 4th, winning two finals. 1999 - 14th 2002 - 6th, winning one final, 2003 - 14th 2006 - 7th, winning one final, 2007 - 14th On only one occasion in 25 seasons (including 2019) will the Melbourne Demons have won a final and then not finished 14th the season after. That would be 2000, where we finished 3rd, made the grand final, and the next year finished... 11th. But that hardly defeats the theory. Win a final. Finish 14th. It is the Melbourne way.

I find this figure funny because the all-time record holders, Andrew McLeod and Tyson Edwards, frick'n HATE eachother. Here's a bonus funny quirk - Of current player the record holders for most games together are Kade Simpson & Marc Murphy. They are also the ONLY two one-club players in the top 30 list for 'most teammates' over their career. Obviously, all the others have the extra teammates from being at more than one club. But seriously, churn Calrton churn churn churn. Oooh, full of quirks today - When Nathan Jones retires, obviously that ends the run with Tom McDonald. But immediately upon that happening, our club's longest run of being teammates will go to Tom McDonald and our other captain. Aaaaand of our young guns who might end up player out a career together... Christian Petracca and Clayon oliver have played together for every game bar one of the last three years, and in their mutual debut season of 2016 they played 9 together out of totals of 13 (oliver) and 17 (Petracca. So, Oliver has only played without Petracca in 5 out of 73 games. While Petracca has only missed being with Oliver in 9 out of 76 games. Future record breakers, just needs another ten years.

St Kilda were supposed to be an absolute basket case from the day before he arrived until the day after forever, it was seen as a task on par with the Melbourne rebuild, with the only saving grace being the presence of Riewoldt and Montagna. He managed close to a 50% winning rate for most of the seasons he has been there. Clearly he's got something working , but that something wasn't a good list! Meanwhile, even though Brett Ratten is clearly St Kilda's best option, he wont get the job because he is notorious for being honest and forthright about the condition of the list and the immediate future prospects of the club. (that is pretty much why he got sacked at Carlton, the coterie lords didn't like his 'negativity' and Malthouse said 'yes of course you are about to win a premiership').

I agree with the sentiment of the OP, and I think we've also seen those surges in matches where Petracca seems to just want to be involved in everything and want to make things happen. Not necessarily bash and crash, but real creative dare, willingness to be the one that takes responsibility. And then, when his heart rate steadies and he has time to think too much, even the goal posts intimidate him!

How about... 'His statisitcs are low and we would like him to be having more impact on games, but he is working very hard, getting to contests and not rarely being decisively beaten. He could at any moment have a really impressive breakout game (like the 2018 final) and if that form then sticks, we're talking about a seriously quality player.' In the meantime, let's just celebrate that his contract will be cheaper for now.

Well, there are 'superfood' brands that push it, but they annoy me just by calling themselves superfood brands. 'Green banana flour' is the most directly relevant search term. I can't offer much more than wikipedia, which does also have a whole collection of links at the bottom which seem up to date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_flour Meanwhile, in other banana news, the nanny/police state is coming for our little yellow friends! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-26/how-anti-terror-rules-shut-down-banana-festival-street-parade/11245390

Ha ha, thank you. But I'm sure it has been noticed that I still couldn't quite resist the need to say at least something about the topic. Mea Culpa. We are all miserable sinners on the internet.