Little Goffy

Just so shameful. I could accept it as a ruthless exploitation of a rule and circumstances, but the sheer comedy act of the 'I'm a pelican' dance Dangerfield did, followed by the gloating smugness after. He could've at least had the decency to keep his head down. (not in the Selwood way). Meanwhile, I'll be properly angry again if Hawkins doesn't cop anything for the not-in-play, high-contact, deliberate hit to Fritsch. But the way things go, it'll be discarded by the MRP in less time than it actually takes to watch the footage.

Whaaaaat? Anything other than maximum focus on winning every game is madness. Lewis has had some less than stellar games this year but is overall a pretty good contributor who is in the current best 22, particularly with the injuries we have. Are people really already sooking their way out of trying for the rest of the year? More comfortable to fail if you just say 'oh, never mind, there was never a chance anyway'? I mean, I'm a pathetic loser myself in most things, but to wish it upon your football club is just bad form.

So I guess North wont be sneaking into the 8 on percentage. Meanwhile, has there ever been a round where I've wanted more upsets? Gold Coast, Carlton, Dogs, Brisbane. Setting up to be a thriller at the SCG. Come on you Sunnies! ?

Checks scores for Sydney v Gold Coast at quarter time. Yeeap. Checks scores for Sydney v Gold Coast halway through the third quarter. Whaaaaat?

I'd argue that all these players were drafted too high on the basis of having specific attributes, but lacked 'completeness' - their main strength was their only strength. Like we were recruiting for the second-string x-men. Possibly why I so love Angus Brayshaw. Is he the outright fastest, the strongest, the best kick, the best mark, the fittest? Nope. But he would each in turn beat every one of the players listed in the opening post in every category except the single feature those players were notable for.

I start to worry when the 'marketing gurus' begin to talk up a player's identity as a commodity. I'm not naive about it, but even a rich crop can only be harvested to a limit, before you begin to drain the soil.

Heheh, yes, I was thinking much the same: it was probably someone else's meeting but they didn't turn up and Nev had to run across the hall to get there.

I bet the actual document was placed on the wrong side of a table that should've been far to big for him to reach across, but somehow he still managed to get a fist to it. The world needs a more superlative term for the kind of rock-solid respect that Neville Jetta has so thoroughly earned.

Could effective long kicks cover the same position need as the speedy outsider? Noticed that a couple of our inside mids have found some power off their boot that was a bit unexpected (see for example Brayshaw's clearance that also cleared the pack and found Oliver). Vandenberg has a solid boot on him too. Any others currently out but who might be able to add to that unpredictibility? 'Long kick' doesn't seem to be something that gets covered much in draft talk, but maybe it is one of the tricks that this year's Jason Taylor specials will have? Who's got an eye on the draft this year?

My first thought was just a simple 'nope', it doesn't seem credible at all. Certainly from our perspective, where winning only two of the final 6 rounds would feel like failure almost regardless of final ladder position. But hmm, currently 4 teams on 9 (or 9 1/2) wins, two of those teams in the 8, two out of it. Look at it this way - if Geelong win 3 games to finish on twelve and preserve their percentage, then the chasers North and Hawthorn would have to win 4 games out of 6 to climb over them. Mind you, only one of them would need to do it, obviously. Oh it gets better. It's Catch-22 time! Beat Geelong, then it is less likely we'll need the thirteenth win, but more likely we'll have it. Lose to Geelong, then it becomes basically certain we'd need that 13th win, but much harder to get there. Saturday night is just getting bigger and bigger. I swear I just saw my MFCSS physically manifest as a dark shadow along the back of the couch.

Can we get David Neitz to say Ben Brown is going to Gold Coast on big money to replace Lynch?

Well, the squggle auto-tipper has us grinding out way through the final six rounds with games against 5 fellow finalists, then hosting a home eliminatino final against geelong, then most likely playing Sydney in Sydney and West Coast in Perth for the the chance to play Richmond at the 'G. I'm just comforted to know we are set for the official all time most epic premiership run in AFL history.

Has anyone else become tired of 'GHMBA Stadium' yet? I've started slurring in in an attempt to make a sensisble sound, but all I've got so far is Goomba, as in the little mushroomy monster from Mario. So I'm convinced next week we are going to Goomba stadium. How could we possible lose, just have to jump on their heads.

Six weeks of 'finals' before we play finals. Can't think of a better way to prepare. With the number of 8-point games we have lined up, we should be in first with 100+ ladder points by the end of the season. Seriously, we'll be there if there's a reason for us to be there other than just a pat on the head. We'll be going down to Geelong to hunt a spot in the top 4, with the side benefit of putting ourselves 2 games and a mountain of percentage clear of a rival.

For anyone pulling out their hair over being higher ranked in quarters won than in ladder position, just remember that we won every quarter for almost four games in a row without a blemish. On the ladder you still only get one win for that, same as any team that won three quarters or even just won two but by a little more than their opponents won their two. It's a bit like in elections where the overall vote balance doesn't match the seat balance and final winner - three wins at 51% is better than two at 80% and one loss at 49%!

If we assembled a team just from our players taken after pick 30, it would surpass that group. What a spectacular turnaround. In fact - I'll back my words, here's the rival squad - Spargo (29) and Fritsch (31) Hannan (46) and T. Smith (R. 25) Wagner (R. 6) and J Smith (R. 41) Neal-Bullen (40) Stretch (42) O.McD (53) and Vandenberg (R. 2) Hunt (57) and Harmes (R. 2)

Important thing to remember is that at this moment, and for many years now, Melbourne supporters are the most likely of any club's supporters to take out a membership or to actually turn up to games. And that has held out even through some very... less-than-fun... times. To my mind the crucial thing to hold onto through any good times that do come, is the culture that says you're not just there for the fun, you're attached as a part of the club's community. You could even just call it standing up for the best of the classic values of Australian Football.

When Petracca is on fire, debating where he should play is a bit like debaing which seat an elephant gets at the cinema. Anywhere it wants and as many as it needs, who is going to argue? The way I see it, the challenge is how to get the most out of Petracca when he is merely human, and that isn't clear to me. Put another way - When you can take contested marks, sidestep, burst run, throw off tackles, and have inspired awareness of your surroundings, you're good anywhere. But if you're just not quite doing all of those things, you're not great anywhere. Of course, it'd be ridiculous to make him tag, not least because that would in turn expose what remains his one definite weakness, his running endurance. He needs one of those 'home truths' conversations where he gets sat down and told directly 'you can be amazing, but right now we can't trust you to sustain it, that's why you're neither a main starting midfielder or an established forward'. Then see how he responds.

Only 4 years? He's clearly gone.

Don't see Simon Goodwin laughin and looking that genuinely relaxed much. Don't see Demon's coaches in general doing that much in my time! Clearly we're doomed. Or about to break a record. Or something. Full moon, too.

Chris Dawes Cameron Pederson Mitch Clark Jeffrey Garlett Dom Tyson Chris Heffernan Harley Balic Thomas Bugg Patrick McKenna

The tests will come, at some point a team will match us or beat us in the contested posessions and keep enough pressure on us that the fast sabre-strikes into forward 50 break down almost as often as they get through, or slows us down enough that a disciplined defence gets back to force us a little wider to take shots from 35-50m instead of 0-15m. Then we'll know if we are ready to win finals. Remembering that even the super-Geelong team broke down at times, when the goals didn't flow, and the opposition rushed a bunch of tactical behinds... in a grand final. Hopefully the team holds onto a mentality of every week being a new test, a new chance to prove themselves to a different challenge, whether that means beating up a weaker opponent, barely clawing over the line against a strong opponent, bouncing back again from a slip-up, or simply to make a statement to fans with a shattering of Collingwood on Queen's Birthday. This weekend's special challenges - beating up and out-of-form but stil occasionally potent opposition, aiming for the consecutive quarters record, and just for good measure let's see if we can hunt the '600 points in 4 games' mark. Haa ha ha ha ha what am I talking about, what is this team? Freakshow.

Sigh. Guess we better suit up for another 25 goals.

It is interesting that people are celebrating his inside mid contribution when he has also been just so brilliant once the play spreads a bit. Most of his posessions against Adelaide were listed as uncontested, but you wouldn't say they were generally loose or soft posessions. He is looking like a master of an aspect of the game that we've had a weakness in - getting to the right spot at the right distance from the pack, anticipating the movement in order to receive the ball and then have time to do something useful with it. Clayton Oliver now has a target as good as his aim!

Also now only 8 games (I think) from playing his 100th as Captain. I can imagine him being thrilled to his bones by the idea that he could have his career best season and still not make top-3 in the best and fairest.