Little Goffy

Sad, but appropriate. It's going to be quite the challenge to keep some semblance of a viable fixture going. At ABSOLUTE BEST we will see routine removals of entire teams from competition for two rounds minimum on each occasion. On the other hand, the exceptional circumstances and not having to plan for crowds will make it a bit easier to improvise. I think already the planners would have to accept the idea that 22 full rounds worth of games is just a non-option, and aim for the best possible result of all teams playing each other once, but even that is a stretch. I expect we'll see the minimum possible amount of flying too. Sorry to be flippant for a moment, but I would guess all the fixture planners at AFL HQ right now are feeling a bit overheated, fatigued and running a serious headache.

I love a good 'Iraq war happened therefore Chinese live animal trade is fine' argument. FFS.

Dieter, your odious intimidation efforts are not helping anyone. I've put forward a pretty straightforward set of copiously verified facts with clear cause and effect relationships. - that the dismal animal welfare and workplace safety cultures and laws of many countries, but most particularly the globally integrated ones headlined by China, is a major factor in this, previous, and likely future novel contagions. - that the cover-up first response culture of many authoritarian countries, but most particularly the globally integrated ones headlined by China, is a major factor in virus' being enabled to spread beyond an initial outbreak. Failure to deal with the reality of the situation actually provides racists with a cloak to cover their vileness - based on your response any given racist can now say 'Look, the PC police won't even let us talk about the failings of a repressive totalitarian state.' I speak from a position of resentment on this because I have watched as this knee-jerk 'it's racist' reaction has provided a similar cloak to awful reactionaries across the world who have successfully branded things like human rights, free press, women's liberation, and so on as 'western/white conspiracies' sent to undermine the 'unity' of the 'natural order'. From Turkey to Indonesia to Sri Lanka, there's hardly a repressive government that hasn't claimed that, say, Amnesty International is actually just a front for white cultural imperialism. Dieter, your thoughtless aggression harms people I care about. Please take some time to reflect on the conspiracy theorist tones of your post I have quoted and whether that is really how you want to relate to the world.

Tom McDonald isn't a bad choice, when you consider just how much difference it would make to us if he plays this season at his best, compared to his lacklustre, sporadic 2019. One way to put it - without McDonald in at least pretty good form, even optimistic me wouldn't spare a moment to imagine a premiership his year. We need that role filled and he is the only player we've got who has shown he can do it well. Gawn is captain for very good reasons, though.

Trouble is, Australia's population is actually very heavily concentrated, with 10 of 25 million in just two cities and another five million in just three more. It doesn't even help Echuca or Tamworth much, because so much of our activity is concentrated in these huge hubs that all these other towns must keen interacting with them. It's not like, say, Germany where you've got dozens of cities of 100k, 200k, 500k population. (With the nod of course to the Ruhr super-metropolitan zone) In the end, it is all about personal habits. Wash your hands, sneeze into your elbow, semi-obsessively clean surfaces, try to avoid touching any 'contact points', avoid touching people in greetings, stay clear of medieval theocracies. One of the things driving people crazy is that there is nothing 'special' they can do to protect themselves or change the situation. Oh, also, if you can, see if you can work out a plan to support casual workers because they're going to spend the next 18 months being sent home every time they get a sniffle, and support payments are only available for people actually required to self-isolate for genuine COVID-19 exposure risks. At this stage, people pressed into a decision of 'take the chance and hope it is just a sniffle' versus 'fail to pay rent and be made homeless' are one of the highest medium and long term risk factors for Covid spread. It's it almost as if managing this kind of thing was part of the original rationale for the welfare state! So, let's all take a moment to be glad we don't live in the USA.

Covid-19 is just another of several zoonotic origin viruses that have spread within and from China specifically because of the hideous lack of basic hygiene, animal handling, animal welfare and workplace safety standards. They are far from alone in these issues but as a country with the logistical resources to incarcerate millions of people for being a 'suspect' ethnicity and to monitor the exact location, occupation and connections of any given person, the continued total failure to enforce standards in this trade is a choice made by the Chinese government. Similarly, the culture of Chinese officaldom in choosing to arrest and threaten the doctors who initially reported on and advised action on the outbreak was a key factor in the scale of the outbreak and is also a persistent characteristic of Chinese authority. There's no value in getting into blame but there is also no question that the particular features of Chinese government and the accepted norms of a neglected and exploited filthy underclass were major factors, as was the deep culture of utter disdain for animal welfare. Also, the reason Spanish Influenza is referred to as such is largely because Spain was one of the few countries which did not massively cover-up the scale of infection, so there were regular news reports of it's spread there while in UK, France, Germany, etc there was dramatic under-reporting and minimal coverage. Spain was not the origin point, did not have unusually high cases, and there was no feature of Spain which made it a greater vector of virus spread than anywhere else. So there is entirely zero similarity between the two.

A win puts us a game and good percentage clear inside that conference B finals group, and the only way we'd drop out would be if BOTH Carlton and Collingwood have a resurgence in the remaining rounds while we fall in a heap. We're in the old 'masters of our own destiny' situation again, and as such are obviously doomed. This week and next week against Fremantle.

It would seem that with our inside-50s still a bit wonky (unless Melksham or Bailey 'Coleman' Fritsch have it) it does make sense to have a tall target with that particular strength of following up immediately and instinctively when they haven't had a clean win of the ball. It is almost like Jackson comes from the other direction to most young key forwards - usually they are so used to being the overdeveloped gorilla clunking marks against the mostly regular-sized teenagers that they get a bit slack on the chasing and scrambling. Jackson hasn't had that particular kind of dominance so has never had the chance to become complacent. It'll be quite something to see, if he successfully puts on a bit more adult muscle and begins getting the contested marks as well... Okay, lid back on. I merely anticipate a respectable season playing a useful role where his particular strengths may help mitigate our greatest weakness.

Only thing I'll take from that is that Oliver is the only one in that spine who had anything like a good season in 2019. But if you look through their lists in the article, the numbers are all over the shop and clearly the weightings for positions are wonky at best. As always with Champion Data's public offerings, it is of very little real value. Like a headline without an article.

I just want to chip in to confirm that I also do not know anything about VanDenberg's foot, and I feel very strongly about that.

You've convinced me, I'll not buy thirty five thousand and one!

Never stop never stopping. With a character like Gawn to work with, you'd think we'd come up with something at least as intense and purposeful as the intro to Vikings or Black Sails.

I'm not buying, um, thirty five thousand memberships!

I assume it is also expected that casual workers who could at any moment have zero income for a month should be ready to stump up the extra cash so that the AFL clubs and their desperately underpaid players don't need to make sacrifices? Otherwise they just aren't committed enough, obviously. So many people love insisting that everyone else should have the same priorities as themselves.

Bloody socialists, ay? Here, get a sniffle and you're out of work for two weeks because no doctor will see you to conduct the test in case they catch your cold and the state health minister is mean to them.

I'm quite sure the world would be better off without Essendon. They add nothing and take so much. West Coast should be made to walk any time they play over here in the civilized world. Hawthorn I would wish to condemn to thirty years of not so much total failure as perpetual mediocrity. The curse of the levitating potato. Generally the rest I have either a grudging respect for or a polite indifference.

It's like Polly Farmer is on the match review panel.

May she never play in a game where Melbourne is beaten. That'll teach her!

Great to see Cunnigham gradually, gradually get more directly involved. I'm one of many who just feel like she could be really potent. Also good to see that she kept up the pressure efforts even when she was having a pretty poor start.

Seems that what is driving people really crazy is that the main things we each as individuals can do are all just the same things we keep being told every year ahead of regular flu season. Proper, regular, hand washing, coughing/sneezing into the crook of your elbow, keeping a little bit of distance from people who are ill, trying to minimise how much you share you workstation, pushing buttons/opening doors with your wrist or where practical, keeping the space arou you clean, espcially all those frequent-touch places, taking a bit of time off if you are sick (which kind of sucks for casuals who might not be able to pay rent, but I'm sure a sensible simple solution will be put in place to soften that blow without it becoming an ideological crapshow...). Also, try not to spit in each other's face for a while. I know, habits are hard to break. But seriously, if people just do the basics without waiting to find out if they specifically are at risk, it dramatically reduces the spread rate and dramatically increases the chances of being able to track and contain any given chain of illness. Also, try to reduce your contact with repressive totalitarian regimes or medieval theocracies. #lifetip

I'll always be nervous that we're about to inexplicably implode, but we definitely look like a much better side. Several of our players are standing out by doing the things they do that standout, like Newman's speed, Daisy's calm, Mithen's burrowing, Paxman's slicing through the mess. Even while one part of me is permanently nervous that it'll fall off, another part of me just keeps watching for that moment where we all click at the same time and just annihilate a despairing opponent, country footy style.

Also from memory, he did kick 40+ goals as a small forward that season.

Forgive me anyone else who has already brought this up, but the radio coverage of the game digressed a bit to discuss Tomlinson's numbers and the story that GWS used him on the 'non active wing', the theory being that his job was to limit the appeal/effectiveness of switching play. Hence, relatively low (sometimes very low) possession counts and probably also his keenness to change role/club. So, he racked up the disposals, took a lot of connecting and relieving marks, appears to have run well whenever he was out there. Having only had radio and not even any stats to reference except the 'high 70s efficiency' comments post-game on radio, I can't get an idea of how useful his disposal was - was he moving it along well enough? Actually going forward?

Oddly enough, radio is telling me that both Tomlinson and Langdon have 20-something disposals and both in the high 70s for efficiency. I'm only saying what I'm hearing - I have no eyes on the game myself unfortunately.

I may actually be able to convince about 15 Vietnamese cousins to buy that. Nice bold style. Good colours, hey.