Little Goffy

Personally I'm really looking forward to his 2020. Has carried a weight on his shoulders for better part of a decade and has never had an 'easy' time. Not least among his burdens is the role at lightning rod the the kind of embittered snark-addicts that can post foul-spirited comments upon hearing of one of the great stalwarts of the club stepping down as captain. Nobody who shows that kind of basic disrespect to a club leader should be permitted to ever complain about club culture again. I hope a properly honored 300-game milestone is in order for Jones, as he refreshes himself making a solid contribution in a resurgent team.

And a Brendan Fevola. And a Luke Livingstone. And for that matter Chris Yarran. Daniel Connors. Can't help wondering what Willie Rioli's issues at the worst possible moment were? Or the baggage for and around Sam Murray and a few known others at Collingwood in 2018. And many of these guys are much less 'problematic' than Martin. My main point being that in recent decades many more games, finals and premierships have been lost because of the damage, than have been won because of the talent, of [censored]s. Good on Richmond for keeping a super talent in line enough off the field to deliver his best on the field. But they 'lost' some four or five young men along the way, some of which appear to be permanently wrecked human beings. How fine a line... how sublte and complex are the increments, from Dustin Martin to Ben Cousins to Brendan Fevola to Harley Bennell to Colin Syvia. That is five of the most talent players of the last quarter-century and five very different but stories any one of which could have interchanged with another.

It is so terrible, and it feels like it happens almost every year! On the bright side, only nine clubs have seen a premiership this century, so it isn't as if we are alone.

I've you're loking for something to monitor for - this remains GWS lowest score ever. Curiously, their other lowest isn't in their early days but in fact from this season, and just a few weeks ago! 4.5.29 is the mark. Imagine... lowest ever score... in your first grand final.

Trivia of the day - even before his first disposal just now, Finlay was doing better than Mumford for meters gained. Finlayson had zero disposals for 5 meters gained. Curious. Mumford has not only metaphorically but literally taken his team backwards today.

In the battle between draft concessions and free agency, I'm going to go with my heart and say "Well, at least Richmond are an actual football club that has some kind of meaning, and at least they actually had to persevere through real adversity to get to the top". I cannot get even a little excited about a GWS win. It quite simply would be bad for football. I'm already dry-retching at the headlines about the big turnouts and 'Giants army coming to training'.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the Malthouse coaching academy was all the rage...

Just have to take a moment to laugh at the people implying that Richmond's recovery from being ninthmond doesn't compare to us because of all our draft and recruiting misses. For I believe a six year run Richmond's recruiting was so poor that only the same fifteen or so players appeared in their top ten B&F. Let's me see if I can find my old notes - - - there we go, six years, 2011 to 2015 inclusive. Five players appeared in all six, and another two appeared in five of the six, missing the full set only because of injury. It was a club held together by a core that mature together and were good enough to keep the team at least competitive most of the time. But success came at a rush with just two, maybe three years of good recruiting that came just in time. Dustin Martin is the youngest of that group at 28. So, realistically, the Richmond experience might be comparable to ours if we keep a stable top-10 in place for another four years of averageness and then put on a surge. I don't feel like we are going to follow the same pattern. Personally I'm looking for a kind of Geelong scenario, with our 2019 being their 2003. That would be acceptable!

If it turns out that Frost goes then Tomlinson becomes much more valuable to us, and he also would be absolutely sure of having a role. If the end result is a simple switcheroo with the bonus of getting trade value from the Hawks, I'm quite happy with the prospect.

Can we have a special unique, bizarre thread where people only post actual news or at least rumours of substance. Give this thread three pages and people will be talking about how the McDonald's are disgruntled and want out and Tom only played badly this season because he was put of by Mahoney eyebrows.

Yikes. Run. Run fast.

You'd reckon GWS would love to get a pick ahead of anyone bidding for Green, and just as happy to dispose of those first rounds picks for a collection of 'points picks' later in the draft. Yikes, GWS could realistically have three picks in the early teens range, with their existing two, plus Coniglio compensation. I wonder, in fantasy worlds, could we get all three? Pick 2(3) out, pick 20(21) out, and some later points-picks thrown in. GWS Gets a top draftee and then can safely use their academy points to get Green, effectively finishing with two top-6 picks. Meanwhile, we go from pick 2(3) and 20 to picks 11,12,15. Obviously, since (with no real insight excpet the chatter) I'm reckoning this draft seems pretty even for the first round with lots of suitable options for us, I think this would be a spectacular move. Also puts us in a great place for live pick trading on the night if we want a little boost by throwing in next years third rounder etc. I should probabyl mention I'm not sold on Melbourne attending the Hill, Langdon etc auction.

One of the players who helped nudge my wife into enjoying football. Both the 'fun' things he did in play and the moments of cheekiness he provided. Really glad we had him these last few years, one of those small wins that help a club grow. Plus, we got to be in the 'have ex-Carlton players kicked more goals than Carlton this week?' game.

Well, that settles it, I'm now officially on the 'trade down and trade up' campaign. Ideal result would be something like picks 8 and 12 instead of 3 and 21. I wonder if Carlton might be interested in getting pick 3 just to annoy the Crows?

Speaking of unnacceptable and unbelievable: The Blues had to sack their coach after poor performances in the first-half of the year, with the club reaching the amount of wins many expected by the end season. But with just two wins from xxx rounds, the writing was on the wall for Bolton who had to be shown the door. Someone got paid to write this. The first sentence makes no sense. The second forgot to actually include the only fact in it, which just highlights that the rest of it is just two cliches run together. Yes, people make mistakes when writing. In an email to a friend, or even a post on a hallowed footy forum, but to spit this out when it is supposed to be your job is just an insult to the thousands of us who would very enthusiastically take the job and do it properly. Actually, I've read back over the whole Carlton section and it is just packed full of high-school level errors. Unncessarily repeating terms twice in a sentence, wacky mixed use of past & present tense, some near-random punctuation. It even misses some key football observations about the Blues, like the younger Curnow having very mixed form and then being injured Tom McDonald style just as he had his one superb game for the season. Carlton will be desperate for improvement from their young very-high draft picks like Petrevski-Seton (pick 6) Lochie O'Brien (10) and Dow (3) who are all still just ok, because the Blues have a surprising number of important players close to 30. Carlton only won one game of the 7 they played without Kruezer, and with Casblout and Phillips, there's no ruck alternative under 28. Murphy, Simpson, and Thomas provided priceless class in a team which struggled for efficency, and Ed Curnow remains the Blues No.2 for tackles, clearances and contested posessions. There you go, a spontaneous five minute typing-speed rant just provided more insight into Carlton's prospects than whichever of the 'Staff Writers' banged that together for Foxfooty. Give me the job. Rant Over.

Ahh, but you see, we've twisted the system and have created an opening here. Every club was looking to improve in 2019, but we broke with convention. Now, everyone else has to try to improve all over again, while all we have to do is look to get back to where we already were!

If he was what we needed, he'd be a good acquisition. Here's me with the deep insights, but you all know what I mean so why go into more detail?

I don't see the value - I'm not at all convinced he will deliver more than whichever turns out best of our little collection of 'junior' options. For example, neither of Lochkart or Dunkley have even had an AFL pre-season, let alone an interrupted one. I'd rather see a kid get chances than an unreliable (both form and injury) 30-year-old cling on. Plus, need space for Viney to play forward pocket.

Bookmark it. Basically, the Trent Croad trades all over again. Or even better, the Chris Tarrant trades.

At the price he'd require (in trade and cash), and with the obvious risks involved, and with his goalkicking accuracy a bit iffy, nope. Restricted free agent next year, that might make things interesting if the injury situation starts to look less chronic. Every reason to wait and see, no reason to chase now.

Knows how to run, and run with the ball, and kick the ball in the right general direction. Yes please. Well spotted Demon3.

Pick 2 slides back onto the table. This is going to be a really annoying (or really glorious) trade period.

He's going alright for a 19 year old effectively taken as the next-to-last selection in the rookie draft and who didn't get a preseason. I think it is a bit early to say this particular piece of the sky is falling.

If I'm not mistaken, part of Anderson's appeal is that he is also a highly effective De Goey style forward/half forward? And can play a bit outside the contest as well? Might be more precise to say that if the Demons take Anderson, Spargo will be on the move to Freo! Flippant, for sure, but realistically, if we can't find a place for a gun kid ahead of or by shuffling around Stretch, Wagner, Wagner, Spargo, Neal-Bullen, Baker, the retired Lewis, Hannan, Hunt, T. Smith and Garlett, then clearly we are a lock for the 2020 premiership. Another way to look at it, is when playing forward Anderson gives us everything we like (and very little of what we don't) about all three of Neal-Bullen, Hannan, and Tim Smith. Except in one body. With better disposal. Of course, I also like having Petracca in attack, and am very interesting in seeing Viney spend time as a hunter-killer inside 50, so my overall picture has a lot of room for the likes of Anderson to rotate midfield-forward.

I am shocked and appalled that our proud club is not only using a chalk blackboard (so not up with modern football) but also wasting it with juvenile noughts and crosses games. Where is the professionalism? #sackthemall Seriously though, good luck to Lewis. Meanwhile, on the same day Melbourne have been nominated as one of the clubs interested in Jordan Roughead in a forward coaching role... coincidence? Well, yes, probably. but you can see the phone call; "Hey Rough, I've been playing up forward here for a few weeks and they are a real mess. Structure gone, no confidence, can't do set shots. But, there's a bunch of actually pretty good players and I reckon you could whip them into shape in no time. Easy first gig? I'll send you my notes..."