Little Goffy

Can we take him as a category B rookie? Hasn't been on an AFL list for a few years, just St Kilda. (sorry, any excuse to work out some of the anger)

Getting special treatment, for what was clearly a knowing breach of the law, because you have a personal connection to a minister, is corruption. I'm irritated that this kind of thing is now so embedded in political culture that there is nobody left to kick up a stink, which just sinks it in even more until son enough it'll just be normal and we'll see what can be pushed to next. But aside from 'Gil's a regulation bog-standard establishment creep with no credentials to lead the AFL', which we all knew already, I agree this should be tucked over in the politics/other/whatever forum and ideally allowed to die.

I believe as part of the final arrangements the au pair was required to organise the Adelaide Crow's pre-season camp, making use of existing Departmental facilities on Nauru. Bruce Gibbs was quoted today saying "It is still better than playing for Carlton".

A bit awful that the article names and shares a photo of the au pair. But gee, isn't it nice to know the right people. Although I'm quite sure that everyone involved is totally blamesless and had no idea about the intricacies of actually having a right to work in Australia before recruiting someone to work in Australia. Not like those dastardly evil international students working more than the 20hr-week limit in order to make ends meet on their $13/hr. Some part of me just keeps noticing this whole 'two laws' thing going on.

Surely the only appropriage response would be to take up the 'walk' pose.

Spargo did smart things quickly under pressure, for finals I say in. The week off will do him a power of good. Also, he is the inheritor of Ian Ridley. Ridley - 166cm, 68kg, 66 games, 5 premierships. Add a centimeter and a kilo for each decade, which is about right on biological averages, and you get Spargo, aiming for his first premiership in game 19. Ha! Must keep him. Adds to the EPIC equation.

I thought the original post was a bit harsh and just trolling GWS, so I took a moment to dig around for a GWS forum myself. I googled, I followed leads, I even went to bigfooty and to reddit. Yikes. I mean, no real fans is one thing, but not even being able to get some cranky drunks complaining about umpiring or Melbourne weather being unfair, that's very weak indeed.

Icing Schmicing, bring more cake, moooorree caaake. Although, I'm willing to say that the pleasure of knocking Geelong out could be called icing.

His peak value will also be when he is a restricted free agent. So how about we all calm down and let this settle itself in time.

I think we should wait until we've seen how he coaches in a defending-a-premiership situation. We just can't know for sure until then.

It is important that the Pies finish top-4 so that two other clubs can have the pleasure of beating them in a final. I'll confess a bit of sympathy and even respect for their team and coaching group this season, making progress despite a pretty rough run with injury. But that doesn't change the club they represent, and it is important that the club as a whole suffers horribly. They are defintely stumbling into finals at the moment, but to say they don't deserve it is just sulky.

We will outmaneuver the inevitable heat death of the universe itself if it will give Oscar McDonald a little more time to develop into his body. And Colin Sylvia will also be there, getting ready for a good preseason.

Now that we've actually made the finals, I can say I am well pleased with Goodwin's consistent effort on continuous improvement even to the point of possibly sacrificing some current results for the sake of development, by giving different players a crack and trying players out in different roles. I would suggets that internally the club still sees itself in 'rebuild' mode and may continue to do so pretty much forever if this current culture can be sustained, no matter how good the september results!

There is great joy in watching two arrogant clubs which tried to bulk-buy their way into finals each taking turns at being thoroughly crapulent.

Wait, we took an 18-year old downhill skier as a Cat B rookie? Talk about thinking outside the square!

So let me clear this in my head, Essendon pantsing Port means that in the end, we didn't actually need to win a game to make the finals anyway? Well, I've had a dry chuckle about that. But, as my lovely other half so perfectly put it "Well, ok, but this way is much nicer".

And yet still nothing about pushing resources into the second tier and early development to increase depth of talent in the draft, from both young and mature sources. Sure, it would be fairer, improve the quality of the spectacle, nurture grass-roots support for the game and... Yeah, not this AFL HQ. A decisive reinvestment would cost almost as much as one NRL player making a fool of themselves.

What is definitely needed is more complexity.

I wonder if Petracca has a bit of the 'Travis Johnstone syndrome' (on-field only one hopes) of trying to do a bit more than he quite can. Johnstone of course spend his whole junior career being the best long kick anyone had seen and it definitely went to his head, and throughout his AFL career he would be mixing his beautiful kicks with kicks that were just never an option - centring the ball right in the middle of the ground to a complex mess. Nah, Trac's not that bad, but he definitely goes past his own limit once in a while. Still, the ambition and intent is always welcome and maybe it will translate into a desperate urge to develop his skills to the point he can really deliver the magic.

I think we all would agree with this. It is especially comforting and a good sign for the future that we are seeing growth from all angles, mature 'renovations', young kids passing expectations, and actual delivery on expectations as players hit that 22-24 year old range where they are supposed to be fully ready. An extra note, it has been quite something to see stints of VFL time have really positive effects on a few players. The obvious starter gun for that this year being Brayshaw. Seems like there is a good, confidence-building system in place.

Well, not a complete derailing. Dutton is a banana-bender after all. And much like this thread there is a vagues suspicion as to a question on his validity. One thing we do know, this thread will outlast whoever wins the grease wrestle on friday! Heh, it just occured to me, one of the joke measures of 'how long since the Demons made the finals?' is that there have been five changes of prime minister. Well, a tick over two weeks to go, we look likely to hit 6 and there's a real prospect of making it 7.

I blame Jack Watts for this thread.

Self-respect? Concern for reputation? Not wanting the responses to overheat the Demonland auto-censor?

On further thought, Chris Judd probably has a bit of an aversion to over-celebration having begun his career at a club which held Ben Cousins as its talismanic leader and captain, and then he moved to a club where the culture was dominated by Brendan Fevola. I still think he overreacted, but I'll accept that his thoughts are sincere and that his main thought is that the Demons are a prospect to hit the finals hard. Maybe he just hasn't had the doubt that the rest of the world has been throwing around? Could even be a fugazi thing.