Little Goffy

What me? Overthink something? Forsooth, twas meant in the spirit of much being ado about nothing. Had an interesting conversation recently with my non-European English-second-language partner, all prompted by the question 'Wait, if he is a prince, how come he is also a Duke?'. I may have, somewhere in there, explained the Treaty of Westphalia. So mockingly irritated by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex doen't even scrape the surface of overthinking for me!

Ha! To be sure, Monarchy is the ultimate fulfilment of the expression 'politics is personal'. Although, not exactly 'etat c'est moi' territory here. Is there a sliding scale from 'sun king' to 'novelty show'?

Back in the day, had the pleasure of a quick chat with Dean Bailey at my old habit cafe in Canberra. Was quite startling to see him and maybe four of our coaches, lounging and relaxed as if they had always been regulars. Maybe that was the old slope-backed chairs with the metal base that always made people slide forward in their seat whether they meant to or not. I had only meant to shake hands and wish him luck, but he was quite friendly and seemed to enjoy being welcomed. Had really memorable eyes that always looked interested and ready to laugh.

Even so, surely a tie would have been more appropriate! ?

At the very least we should make enquiries and kick up rumours every single year for the rest of his career. At best we get a gun player, at worst we push up Freo's salary cap and give the Brayshaw family a little extra cash.

I wish football clubs would stay out of politics, eh.

As much as I am impressed by Hogan and think he will give something extremely valuable to Freo, I don't think we'll miss him structurally a whole lot. May coming in means Gawn drifts forward more than back, which has been shown to be good for clunking a goal a game. The rest is easy to picture. We're looking at having a dynamic, unpredictable and intimidating forward line. Speculatively, the 'compulsory 6' at centre boucnes might look like; F: Hannan Weideman Preuss/Gawn HF: Petracca McDonald Melksham with Spargo, Vandenberg, Fritsch, and Neal-Bullen all ready to roll through. There's a good dose of contested marking, marking on a lead, goalsneaking, bullocking and forward-50 pressure in that. Not weak in any area at all. I think we'll have no trouble being the highest scoring team in the game again in 2019, and we'll do it while also having a fair bit stingier defence. All is well. No tears here.

It's a shame Lever will miss a bit at the start of the season, otherwise we'd be spruiking for 4 separate All-Australian prospects in our defence in 2019. Lever. May. Jetta. Hibberd. Meanwhile, when do we play Fremantle? Because you'd bank as a certainty that Hogan and May will line up on eachother. We've got nobody else who could match up on the likes of Hogan. Which I daresay is right on the whole point of why we got May.

Brayden Preuss right now...

Save it for the AFL broadcast tonight. Everyone is refusing to get their [censored] sorted until then.

I just figured it out - Jessie Hogan is allergic to finals. That's why he is pretending his foot is injured and that's why he wanted an 8-year contract with Fremantle. It all makes sense now.

Looks like we wont make it to 400. Meanwhile, I wonder... all this talk of how the whole of trade period and every other deal is being held up by Freo... even trades that don't seem to involve Freo a whole lot like the Beams and Shiel trades... Have we just quietly been working behind the scenes to shift the story and put pressure on Freo to pull their tiny finger out?

I must've missed the resolution of the Wingard / Burton kerfuffle.

You've just gone for the ultimate shoot-the-moon. Immense kudos if it makes the crater. Hell, I'm giving credit just for trying.

Once someone has expressed a desire to play for Fremantle under Lyon, does 'right mind' really bear consideration?

See, now that seems sensible enough. Doomed.

I had a reliable auditory hallucination that one of the issues other clubs perceive as a problem with Hogan is that he allegedly wanted to go to Fremantle. List managers and coaches just not prepared to take the risk trying to manage something they just can't understand. Rumours are he's had this condition for years and it has been interfering with his focus, but it has only become a serious problem recently. Please help raise awareness: Wanting to go to Fremantle, together we can find a cure.

Hogan is in the situation of someone who for years has never quite been able to let go of an ex, with that ex constantly trying to convince you to leave your partner. Finally you have the heart-to-heart with your partner, the 'I love you but I can't let go of my ex and I need to see this through' and then the ex says 'oh, no, not really, I was just saying that, I don't actually want to be with you for real, too much responsibility'. Now Hogan is left where? In the situation of begging his ex to take him, going back to his old partner who still loves him, or trying to start out all over again with someone else? Whatever the case, it is hard to imagine any of Hogan's family being happy about this. The harder Freo have pushed in the past, the more Hogan's family will be angry about the bizarre behaviour now.

Sitting out a year is the Fremantle way of playing football. Sylvia, McCarthy, Bennell... Lyon...

Hogan is not a free agent of any kind next year, he's just a dude without a contract. As has been explained on this thread about once every 7 pages.

One of the key reasons many biscuits really have lost favour and texture in the last 10-15 years is the replacement of proper butter or vegetable oils with cheaper palm oil. Best part is, palm oil can still be labeled as 'vegetable' oil. Which is funny anyway because the oil is from a fruit. That dull feeling in your mouth is basically the taste of dead orang-utans mixed with the tears of child labourers. Mmmmm-mmmm. Also, I hear Fremantle are now also offering a direct trade of their 500g of palm oil for our 1kg of full-cream butter. But who would even buy a biscuit from those dodgy buggers?

Hmm, I wonder if Hogan might just be thinking to himself 'hey, self, seems like every year there is a top player desperate to leave Fremantle, and they seem like a serious basket case on field, and seems like they routinely stuff prospective players around because their ego wont let them get sensible deals done... maybe Freo aren't going to be the best environment for me to become the best player and person I can be?'

Yep, there needs to be a general reform of the trade system. I've got ideas but I'll spare you all a rant!

Eh, well, 'bourgeois' doesn't cut it these days. Just picture that little layer of people who by 'virtue' of their status and connections manage to be above the full set of law, common sense, executive accountability, and so forth. Our Gil is most certainly in there, on all counts, it seems. It is a tight club, and very much personal invitation only. And very much able to be inherited. It also conforms to De Tocqueville's classic thesis about the privilege of a redundant aristocracy being a key driver of social unrest. Consider the possibilty that the absence of women and migrants in top executive roles (both public and private) is less about the 'women and migrant categories' being excluded and more about 'absolutely everyone' being excluded. Think I'm kidding or exaggerating? Here's a wikipedia entry that could just as easily be title 'what does inherited super-privelege look like in Australia today'. McLachlan grew up on his family farm 'Rosebank', located in Mount Pleasant, South Australia. His parents are Angus, a former first class cricketer, and Sylvia.[1][3] He is the eldest of four brothers: Hamish, Will and Banjo.[1] His uncle, Ian McLachlan, was an Australian government Minister for Defence, and was long term President (up to 2014) of the South Australian Cricket Association. After completing secondary school as a boarder at St Peter's College, Adelaide,[1] he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Adelaide in 1995 and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at the University of Melbourne in 1996, where he was a resident at Trinity College. He later completed the Senior Executive Program at Stanford University.[1] He is married to Laura Blythe, who was a fellow resident at Trinity College and is the daughter of former Spotless Chairman, Brian Blythe