Everything posted by Little Goffy
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What they're saying down at Punt Road
WLLLWLWWWLLLLWWWLLLL A very streaky record against Richmond. I choose to believe the tide is turning. I think our two 'gun' tall defenders are steadily improving, I think our radically different forward line solution is literal centimeters from beginning to work properly, and I think our clearance effectiveness will be helped by playing together in consecutive weeks for the first time at AFL level since last season! In fact, I'm going to rest my thoughts on that - this will be the first time this season that the team has played together in consecutive weeks, and we've implemented a whole lot of changes that need to be worked through. Calling it not - incremental improvement for the next five weeks and then brutal unstoppable dominance after that.
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Goodwin is the right guy!
Mumford vs Nankervis Lycett/Vardy vs Grundy Jacobs v Nankervis Roughead/Boyd v Naismith/Tippet McEvoy v Naitanui Pike/Tippet v McEvoy/Hale Hale/Bailey v Sandilands Hale/Roughead vs Pike/Mumford Jolly v Ottens/West Jolly v McEvoy There is no definitive pattern there for what type of ruck 'wins premierships' or even tends to make it grand finals. Some of the winners there had dog days, others were among their teams best in a loss. My only concern with the ruck and with Gawn's contribution is that the communication is missing a beat and the hitouts which should be giving us great quality as well as quantity of clearances are instead giving us mixed results because players don't know where each other are going to be. On this particular matter, I'm willing to put some blame to the shutdown and not being able to train together, and I'm willing to watch the team play together and re-connect in the coming weeks. As for how this relates to the 'Goodwin boosting' thread... I would argue that this, and the dropped marks up forward, and the fact that we do not yet have a player with more than two contested marks for the season, are all things which Goodwin himself has only limited control over and our season is far too new and unclear at this point to be scratching at his scalp over a 3 point loss!
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Poor State of the Game
No cap is neeed for interchanges, just make it so they have to be done in a batch, all four switching at once. Boom. Not only do you have players out there for extended periods, and tactical use of resting forwards and players being held to position to minimize low-value running, and the fitness premium becomes about being able to sustain the effort in a way that will actually stand out (Robert Harvey style) instead of being managed to invisibility (87% Tog vs 83% what a star) , but also you add a whole new tactical element of who you 'deploy' in those batches. Bring all your left-footers out fresh and try to dominate their wing? Rotate your mids in pairs or groups, or have one super-fresh at each centre bounce? And think of it - the need for a bteak in play to allow the batch interchange would mean every time there was a goal the 'reset' would come with a meaningful tactical/structural change. I actually first thought of this as a joke suggestion but it is really growing on me.
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CLARKSON RATES US
Hmm, I recall the last time a highly respected premiership winning coach talked us up, they also nominated Goodwin as their successor! Conclusion - Goodwin is going to the Hawks.
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Question marks on Gold Coast
The key here is that all of their opponents since the shutdown have also been stuck on the Gold Coast.
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Bring back Jesse Hogan!!
Casboult is a very different beast to the unreliable, occasionally impressive forward-ruck of the past. He's been really good for Carlton this season and his one fairly poor game against us probably made the difference. Unfortunately he's also now over 30 and has only once in his career gone a season injury free. Plus, as I understand it he is pretty deep 'Blue'. In-form Hogan is, tragically, the type of player we could use. But so would be in-form Weideman or in-form Tom McDonald.
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Angus Brayshaw
Brayshaw was one of several 'senior' players I felt began to turn things around on the weekend. Still short of his best, just like Tmac, Lever, May and Hibberd, but there was enough from each of them to give realistic hope they are on their way back. I've had a lot of belief in Brayshaw for a long time and still feel like he could be a champion quality midfielder if he can stabilise his form at the higher end of his range. Our midfield strategy has for a long time been to assume dominance based on having the best ruck and tge best young ball winners in the game. It looks, and is, full of holes if we don't actually win that overwhelming load of clearances and contested posessions. It's also why our mids look like a bunch of front runners the moment things aren't favouring us. In form Brayshaw is a key piece of the puzzle. Having all of Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Harmes and Brayshaw on song together as the core of a midfield means we have A-graders ready at every bounce and throw-in for whole games. No other club could hope to keep up with that all day. It's why we got the regular six-goal surges and goal-centre-goal doubles in 2018.
- GAMEDAY: Rd 04 vs Geelong
- GAMEDAY: Rd 04 vs Geelong
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GAMEDAY: Rd 04 vs Geelong
Y'know, considering we're one fumbled mark (Fritsch) and a poster (Pickett) from even scores, it's interesting to note that was the WORST QUARTER EVER SACK EVERYONE. For that reason, when angry and frustrated during a game of football I try to restrict myself to only inarticulate grunts and wailing.
- GAMEDAY: Rd 04 vs Geelong
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NON MFC: Round 4
I'm glad I saw your comment, because I'd written it off and just flicked it on in time to catch the Butler and Bolton goals and for the first time this season outside watching Demons a game is holding my attention!
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NON MFC: Round 4
I just realised that today's games are like some kind of special championship event featuring all the teams where the only thing I care about is the particularly disliked teams losing! I checked the season guide and sure enough, the AFL have this marked in as 'shaudenfreude round'.
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NON MFC: Round 4
Starting to look like Charlie Dixon is the standout tall forward of the season, and by a significant margin. Although, horrifyingly, Ben King might be his main rival at present. Come on T.Mac, come on Weid, there's a loose All-Australian spot up for grabs for any tall forward who actually kicks goals this year!
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The Adam Saad Thread
Definitely should show interest just to annoy Essendon and put pressure on their salary cap. Funny that we have two ex-Essendon players but neither could actually tell us about him from personal contact, but we also have two ex-Suns (incl an ex-co-captain Sun) who might know him a bit. My level of interest in Saad will be entirely determined by how our little collection of smaller defender options make progress this year, although many of them are still listed on stats sites as forwards, it will be interesting to see how this season's experiments turn out. Other than that, a lot depends on salary caps, playing numbers, and the wild swirl of chaos we are all engulfed in at present.
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Brad Miller - GWS Forward line & Assistant Coach. Get him to Melbourne?
Ironically, he would probably be much more valuable on-field now than he was back in his playing time. He was never a true 'target' forward close to goals and whenever he found his best form it was as a long-leading link player, going into the wider spaces out from half-forward. With the increased 'tightness' of defense due to shorter quarters and fresher legs, the key forward targets are getting fewer opportunities to be one-on-one or find a space to lead into anywhere within 50m of goal, so a lot of the tall forwards this season are doing their best work by providing a steady point across half-forward or even further away, allowing the attack to calm itself and lower its eyes (in a double-sense) to pick out the shorter forwards who just keep running around until the defense gets dizzy. But, as noted, Miller has hid head screwed on in that astonishing way where being close to your kids is a top priority in life. Damn these new-age rubbish attitudes, eh?
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NON MFC: Round 4
At some point a couple of teams will get their heads straight and rise a whole level above the rest. Then we'll be watching 10-goal drubbings which are really 100+ point smashings, and just counting down the season to see which one sustains it through the finals. On the bright side, with so much of the results being even more between the ears than usual, it is possible for just about any team to suddenly start running hot and becoming a late contender.
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NON MFC: Round 4
5 season, or a bad haircut. Proven time and time again. Is Weideman prepared to really commit to his football career?
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NON MFC: Round 4
If Sydney brings that first quarter and we bring our first quarter, we'll stomp them next week. Stomp stomp stomp. Football would be fun again. I wonder, maybe we're secretly the hipster club? We smashed Adelaide to dust before everyone else started doing it, and maybe now we will smash Sydney to dust before it becomes fashionable, too. I'm just enjoying fantasy land over here, never mind me.
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What they're saying down at Kardinia Park
I'm feeling kind of chuffed that supporters of another team know our team so well ?
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Heritier Lumumba
You've got no issue with people pointing out a poor free kick, but heaven forbid anyone boo the umpires when the tally is 23-7?
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Mixing Positional Lines @ Training
Our positions lines are already mixed even when they aren't. And I mean that in the optimistic sense that we have a lot of players who could be shifted around a pinch.
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Ricciuto on Lever
I'm beginning to agree with Ricciuto on one point, we are paying too much to Lever. Really, he should be paying us for the opportunity to NOT play for Adelaide. Then again, it would appear that Ricciuto himself is right this moment paying a whole lot of people to not play for Adelaide up at Metricon.
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Ricciuto on Lever
It's interesting to note that the 2017 draft really dropped away after the first eight or so picks, with just a scattered pattern of talent after that. By the time you're out of the single-digit pics, the top talents are Kelly (24) Ryan (26) and Fritsch (31) and Worpel (45) Similar story in 2018 - From Liam Stocker on there is a serious drought of games played so far. The next four in the draft are yet to debut and the next 50 combined have played about that many games in total, with the exception of a little run from pick 54 to 56, which includes our very own Marty Hore. It is possible that Jason Taylor is a genius who simply noted 'actually, that pick isn't worth a whole lot' and put it on the table!
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Melbourne vs Essendon Postponed
Seriously? Their first thought was to make sure TV went along okay? I'd be livid if I was one of the clubs told to reschedule their day within 24hrs of the start of the match. Wait... I'm already livid.