Little Goffy

Trouble with this being 'about the young fans' is that it isn't an optinoal extra special outfit for the kids, it is the required, compulsory, team uniform. "We are trying to increase our reach to kids, so all patrons at the MCG will be required to only consume Happy Meals and Kinder Surprises (except Jack Watts who will be given Wizz Fizz and then pilloried for it)" I don't know how to react to this news except with the traditional remedy of mockery and ridicule. We could play along and point out that (according to Marvel) Thor's homeworld was completely destroyed by a giant red Demon... Or... that the Bulldogs better watch out because if Gil snaps his fingers, half the clubs in Victoria will disappear and you can bet the Bulldogs will be found to be surplus... Or... that when the Avengers want to look serious they wear Melbourne guernseys... Or... a bunch of Demon supporters can turn up to our first game there wearing X-Men outfits... But really, a deafening, disinterested silence is probably the way to go. F' it. I dunno. The single instance itself is just too stupid to care more than being momentarily irritated.

Coincidentally, Jones' contract is up at the end of this year. I wonder how much of a paycut he'll be taking. I'd imagine the club will be big winners fromt he sun-costs-fallacy here, where Jones is absolutely determined to make good on all the sacrifices and hardship he's already been through, and as a result does the team thing even more intensely. Hmm, and I can't help wondering where we might find a reasonably young, say 22-23 year old, strong midfielder to replace Jones when he retires in a couple of years, y'know, post-premiership?

Jones must have had some seriously good mates at Melbourne!

Sigh. I hate the stupid off the ball bumps and sniping, but this was a 20-times-a-game shephard that just happend to hit awkwardly. I don't see how a near-stationary player turning their body to receive the contact of someone running right at them (even if the opponent was just running stupidly rather than intentionally) can be a suspension offence.

Damn that was a frustrating first three quarters. To totally dominate and get not much of anything in the first, and then get clawed away at for the rest, that's not what anyone is looking for. Too much trouble being decisive and making good connections once the packs form. And, yeah, the eternal goal accuracy problem. Really want to crush them in the final quarter, remind everyone that we deserve the finals spot.

Is it just a glitch on the afl site stats, or am I right observing that we have only used 23 players (including JKH who was gone early and Harmes who didn't make it to half time) while Brisbane have used all 26 possible under JLT rules? Frost, Petty and Wagner were all out there for Casey earlier, weren't they?

Coincidentally, I've just come across some old footage of the 1996 AFL draft camp. You can even see the standard vertical jump tests starting from 27.25. But meanwhile, seriously, we've got two gun midfielders swearing off sugar except for the energy drinks and lollies associated with games. I doubt they'd do much more than a couple of eccys once a year, on a non-training weekend in November. But the Ben Cousins, Chris Mainwaring legacy has to be that we all learn the lesson that drug use is compartentalised. You can be the consummate professional football player, lawyer, statutory urban planner, parliamentary staffer, or whatever, but switch into the different environment and the 'other normal' has a party. Most drug users and even many outright addicts are 'high functioning', able to get on with life more or less normally, so long as their cash flow keeps up. To toss them in a ditch the moment there's a slip, especially when you're subjecting an individual to significant extra scrutiny, is absurd, and the most likely effect is to immediately send the user into a rapid downward spiral. Just to be clear, I'm under no illusions about the damage drugs do and I think the current approach to drugs in society is an idiotic near-random mix of 'too soft' and 'too hard' right alongside eachother, with 'not enough resources' the loudest message everywhere. And I guess it wasn't just for fun that I linked to a Prodigy performance.

Hmm, what's the rest of their tall defender group like? Hurley, Hartley, Ambrose, Francis. Only Hartley is is a 'true' tall among them, at 198cm, after that you're down to 193cm. Whether Hooker misses outright or is simply underdone, it is looking like a good day for having Gawn and Preuss rotating forward. Bodes well for two towers on field together, given that their rucks are Bellchambers (respectable enough but hardly intimidating, anyone got news on his progress from shoulder surgery?) and Zach Clarke who hasn't played an AFL game for two years.

The ultimate plan - a night grand final, played in Sydney, so that people are leaving the stadium as the lock-out laws come into effect. Flippant yes, but also does kind of bring up one of the problems with a night grand final. No families get to be part of the after-game celebrations, which would start at 11pm. Even watching at home, it'll be "ok, that's done, time for bed kids'. Good luck a) getting the kids to sleep and b) building intergenerational passion.

Every year they wheel out the 'we will be making a decision about this' story. Every year they 'respond to feedback' and keep the day grand final 'for now'. The whole thing is an exercise in undermining the perceived continuity and legitimacy of the day grand final, by creating a sense that it is a year-by-year decision. Put this together with enough cherry-picking of daft online polls, and soon enough it'll feel normal that this is a debatable topic rather than the open-and-shut 'everyone who really cares either way, prefers day' reality. They have already made their decision, they are just working on the tactics to out-maneuver public opinion. It's a lot like the rigged 'pilot programs' and railroaded 'consultation processes' that governments keep using for thought-bubble projects they long ago decided they wanted no matter what the evidence tells them. Odious scumbags.

Perfect example what we've managed to assemble in our midfield. Has some outstanding attributes (kicking, vision, facial hair regeneration rate) but in no way is limited to that. It is a rare and valuable thing, to have a player be described as silk but also be described as someone it is unpleasant to be tackled by.

Well, now we have to grit out teeth and cheer for North, who have Adelaide NOW, and are also still to play Fremantle. We are basically one straight kick behind Adelaide on percentage, and well ahead of Freo. We will have our own bite at Adelaide in the final round, which could well decide which team plays finals. ... Still can't quite process the absurdity of there being a clear top-4, noticably a cut above the rest, but no matter what comes, only two of them will play finals. Next time Gil, get off the phone to the Minister and put some thought into football.

Anyone wondering about the 16 hour fast just needs to consider the times involved. Clearly it is all about ensuring Viney doesn't turn into a Gremlin.

This thread needs more depth to its OP. Anyway... Always good to be able to kick effectively over longer distances. Would be a good thing for Spargo to improve upon and since his kicking overall seems to be ok, rather than in need of total reconstructive retraining, you'd think that improvement would be possible over time. Most importantly, we have asmart coaching panel who will be able to use him effectively, and he is a smart player who will understand that limitation and fo the team thing. Who knows, maybe the little dose of humility that comes with having a weakness is a key ingredient in commiting to team ethos.

I wonder if he'll get a kick today? Doesn't matter the time of year, or even the opponent, I will always get a smile going to see Essendon being rolled.

1. Got married. Tiny ceremony by the harbour up here in Sydney. Then a little dinner by the sea with a small collection of close friends. 2. Got married, again. But correctly to the same person. This time in Vietnam, for the benefit and approval of the new side of my family which by my count is literally (and I use literally correctly) 30 times the size of my 'old' family. Officialy events occured in two different cities and on three separate days and involved three different outfits. Regretfully, I was unable to find a suitabl red-and-blue Ao Dai. Oh, yeah, and these events also blended into the Vietnamese new year, Tet. My third Tet in Vietnam but they never get simple, closest analogy would be if you ran a big traditional extended family Christmas together with a fairly committed effort at both the fun kids-version and the spiritual sides of easter, all at once. 3. Took a deep breath and sat quietly until the room stopped spinning. That took most of the rest of February.

Remember, the secret to success lies in making the game about anythng but the game.

It is only february and I'm already furious at the umpires.

Honestly I can't see how 'monkey see monkey do' has anything to do with a couple of guys arriving at an event? For that matter, been a while since that was any kind of a commonly used phrase. If you think it through, the only way someone could come up with 'Monkey see monkey do' as something to comment on that picture is if they were really, really searching for a way to insert monkey into a comment. I do wish the reaction had been a little more on the 'what a loser, how tedious, bugger off, you're not normal anymore you creep' tone, rather than the 'omg so hurtful' tone. Success in this comes when Indigenous people's feeling when this cr4p happens is 'I'm normal and welcome here, you're not, just bugger off you insect'.

If the AFL wanted to poach talent from other sports on an industrial scale, all they'd have to do is pay a respectable base wage and give the women's game proper fixturing and consistency. Considering half the top women players have strong (some even Olympic) background in other sports already, it is hardly a stretch to imagine an ever-growing accumulation. It is all just waiting for the choice to be made.

It's like the character selection from some kind of online role-playing game. "Here are four options, choose which kind of hero you would like to be"

So the service is great, expect that they keep giving first bite to the midfielders. Boom-tish. (Is everyone glad I'm back from holidays?)

Lists 6 midfielders including three rotating not-full-time mids (Salem, Nibbler, Petracca) but managed to overlook Harmes who played the final third of the season as a crucial part of our midfield mix... makes me hesitate a little when considering this evaluation. Reading the full article, a flag goes up for me in that he has continuously used the very amateur habit of running off half a dozen impressive names and using that as an alternative to real analysis. I think of it as the "Carlton supporter's list analysis" because for about the last decade, at any time, anyone supporting Carlton could have done that kind of 'analysis' and come away thinking 'yeah, we're really building'.

Aye and doesn't that new arrangement make having stars a whole lot more fun?

I for one am perfectly happy for Richmond to subsidize Demonland. Personally I find Richmond quite ignorable.