Little Goffy

Well, between Fogarty and Constable, either Geelong are wiser than everyone else or they've not been paying attention to detail.

Complacent comschmacent, pfft. Going into the draft I would've said the only real deficiencies in our list as far as 'roles' go was having a bit more spark going into attack from the midfield and a bit more speed and unpredictability in general. Fritsch, Spargo and Baker are clearly a collective match for exactly that hope. With Petty, I am very happy to add another competent tall defender to the mix - despite us having a few and despite the fact I am on the optimist's side with Oscar McDonald, it is still an area I don't have huge confidence in. Aside from bringing in a ready-made mature ruck support, I don't know if we could've targeted out needs much better.

MFCSS innoculation time - Fremantle's long-term planning to get Jesse Hogan takes a big step, taking Angus Brayshaw's brother at pick 2 with a view to trading him to us as part of a package in 2020.

I double checked it, yep. Not only did he kick a goal in every game from round 12 on, but he kicked 2 goals or 3 goals three times each! 21 goals in 12 games is a pretty handy contribution!

And the traditional "Great mark for his size" means "can't play midfield and too short to be a forward". "A great trainer" means "can't actually play". "Not at all worried about the go-home factor" means "we hope we can get a better pick for him in about two years".

I heard he was going to star as the lead in a remake of 'Robin Hood: Men in tights'. That'll hurt us.

I'm gonna guess that our list team will go for speed and unpredictability, backing their system to smooth out some (yes, significant) issues. None of these kids will be expected to be holding down a best 22 spot right away, that's for sure. Not really in a particular order, here are my utter guesses/wishes. Charlie Spargo Adam Sambono Jack Petrucelle Bailey Fritch, Frisht, Fritters, Fished, Fish'nChips. And, as a bonus, if Spargo doesn't slide far enough then the group moves up a slot and we get Hamish Brayshaw late.

Better transport infrastructure between the CBD and South-East, as well as linking the different parts of the south east.

It's gonna be our boys then fresh air, I tell ya, fresh air! Plus, we bid on Heeney, so really he's ours too.

Well, if anyone needs cheering up, just look forward to doing the 2014 'redraft' in a couple more years, which will have Isaac Heeney and three Demons in the top 3, then fresh air.

Recruiting manager 2008 to 2011. Over the four years, recruited 6 players who have played 100+ games or are still playing now. 38 draft picks in total, of which 3 were picks taken at the absolute start of the draft, and a further 5 were in the top-20. I'd suggest, speculatively, that the only recruiting record worse than that over a similar period is Richmond's 2000-2004 effort. Although that did produce Newman, Rodan, Shultz, Tuck, Foley and Deldio, so maybe the two efforts are about even. But yeah, this opens up the 'nature/nurture' debate about recruiting or development. How many players really could have developed well in the circumstances, would any recruiter have been on a hiding to nothing, all that. Funny though, with the other example being Richmond pre-Cameron, Craig Cameron has had a career of people reflecting later that 'at least he wasn't bad as that one'!

It might have been seriously extensive. Maybe it was 'totes full-on'. Anyway, we have different opinions. You think Cameron laid the groundwork for Richmond's later success, I think he didn't achieve much more than treading water. We've each given our reasons. I don't hate the guy, and I do recognise that he was severely under-resourced in his role while with us (like all Demon things not so long ago) and right now I feel like if I keep pushing my point of view it'll just come across as some kind of vendetta against him. So, deep breath and moving on.

You keep mentioning 'club politics a minefield' but seem to have missed that there may have been just a little bit of personal showboating and foot-in-the-door-for-glory talk from Gary March when he so proudly noted that Cameron's (and March's) era was what set up the glory now. Seriously, do you have any actual evidence to support the claim of Craig Cameron's tenure at Richmond being the groundwork for their premiership success? I've presented the alternate position, and supported it by noting that there was limited list development, and minimal results progress, and that the surge to success occurred only after Richmond engaged in a serious review which the club and players openly acknowledge had a major transformative effect. So far all you've offered to support your claim of a 'brilliant job' by Cameron is that five years after he left a premiership was achieved by a list which was about 80% built before or after his tenure, under the direction of an almost entirely new coaching panel, supervised by a significantly changed board and club executive.

September 12, 2016 Richmond statement 10 week comprehensive review by external consultant. New General Manager of Football (Neil Balme, no less). Major restructure and increased status of recruiting and list management section. Two assistant coaches sacked (Ross Smith - defence. Greg Mellor - forward) Senior Development Coach Mark Williams sacked Replaced the head of strength and conditioning. Also worth noting they traded out one of their best players and Vice-captain, Brett Deledio. Three years of token appearances and failures in finals, then an abject flop in 2016, with most of their best players being 25+ already and close to no variation or new appearances in the B&F boards for the last 5 years. I ask, if that is Melbourne's situation in 2020, would it seem maybe just a bit like a genuine crisis?

I find the 'scoffed at us because of Houli and Grigg' comment especially funny because those two represent close to a quarter of all recruiting gains made by Richmond in those five years. The rest being Martin, Ellis, Grimes and Conca. The scoffing may have had something more to do with also recruiting Addam Maric, Graham Polak, Ricky Petterd, Tom Hislop, Brad Miller, Sam Lonergan, Jordan McMahon, Mitch Morton, Chris Knights, Troy Chaplin, Aaron Edwards, Adam Thompson and Ben Cousins. As for the quoted 'the first to open up my eyes to a five-to-eight-year plan around list management'... um... wow. Terry Wallace has really been revised out of the history of that football club, eh? Can't blame them for wanting to do that. But that statement is just plain absurd and if it got past your goalkeeper, you've got troubles. As far as list development goes, the 2014 draft, on its own, contributed almost as much to Richmond's premiership squad as the entire five years under Cameron's leadership. As for the development of club culture, can nobody else recall that at the end of 2016 Richmond was in crisis, and undertook a total review and overhaul of their coaching panel, all areas of football operations, and made an explicit commitment to consciously, deliberately change the culture? That whole 'we took a good hard look at ourselves and the club has a completely different feel to it this year' line that we've heard hundreds of times all the way through 2017. If you really want to get your football opinions from a padded press release, ok, but don't come telling me I'm ignorant or not bothering to check my facts when I know full well what I'm working with. Richmond's list, football operations and culture stagnated during the period Craig Cameron was there.

Craig Cameron at Demons - Did we have any good drafts except 1999? Sustained poor recruiting for several years saw us drop off a cliff when the older players (Yze, Neitz, White, etc) faded or retired by 2007. It is quite true, the only reason he has any credit is because of the Prendergast debacle in the following years. Craig Cameron at Richmond - Joined end of 2007, and stayed until after the 2012 recruiting period. Recruiting managed to add barely 1 lasting player a season and the club stagnated overall, held together for those years and the next few by an older core, including 8 players who took 70% of all top-10 B&F placings from 2012 to 2015. Richmond's turnaround only began in any meaningful sense at least two years after Cameron left, with the big boost to depth provided by their 2014 draft. Craig Cameron at GWS - Well, it is really only 2016. Some might say that Caleb Marchbank, Jack Steele and Will Hoskin-Elliot were a bit much to give up for some academy points. But there's not much to take from one season, is there? Overall, you;d have to say that the word to describe Craig Cameron's tenure anywhere is just 'stagnant'.

What, no vacuum cleaner joke? No 'only popular at Christmas'? I guess you can't do everyone in one sitting. I'm a bit confused though - are the clues just to the name only, or about the player's characteristics? Anyway here's one answer of each type. 7 - David Rodan 8 - Steven Armstrong

Why do I detect a hint of hostiliy or sarcasm here? I mean, the obvious answer is 'all of it' since all the pop-gurus and advice columns and indeed the many wholly legitimate practitioners of mindfulness guidance are ultimately drawing on the hard work of researchers nobody has heard of. Next up someone will be asking 'What have all your peer reviewed friends ever contributed to dental care? I get my toothpaste from the guy at the Coles checkout'. I just hope I've not accidentally walked into some kind of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment silliness.

Um... 'first to introduce the term neuroplasticity'... by about -50 years. I've got no problem really with people re-packaging science into digestible material which is useful for informing anyone, but it is mildly annoying when there's a pretense that the work is original, instead of recognising that it is a handy synopsis of literally decades of research, debate, peer review and adjustment. Y'know, all those 'dry' books by people with only 'book knowledge' and not the marketing nous that makes any particular brand of mindfulness a success... Mindfulness is useful and there's value in any exercise or routine which helps people to be aware of what is going on in their own mind and why they feel the way they do, and to be aware that they can deliberately influence those reactions. Thank you, science.

I'd want to add a nod to Russell Robertson's 2005. Kicked 73.30 for the season and was absolutely decisive in our last gasp push back into finals. Round 20 - kicked 7 goals in our1 point win over the Cats Round 21 - kicked 6 goals in our 4 point win over the Dogs Round 22 - kicked 4 goals in the 10 point win over the Bombers. That he didn't get an All-Australian position that year (because they opted for a spare ruck in the forward pocket) is an enduring travesty. I would actually say it was the moment that the AA selectors' credibility jumped the shark. Anyway, a lot of other names that I sifted through were just 'highly respectable seasons' like Brad Green and Aaron Davey in 2010, or Yze and Johnstone who really looked like something special in 2002. Other than that, it hasn't been so much about individual seasons as about consistency, the obvious models being James McDonald and Nathan Jones. Tell y' what, it's a funny feeling, to look back over these great efforts of the past and realise we could be sitting on something that looks like a bunch of it all happening at once. Touch wood. A lot.

I'm in a mood for speed this draft season. But... There's multiple speedy youngsters in this draft at a few different sizes and roles, and with more 'upside' as far as actually having a real impact with that speed. Surpised Hartung hasn't retired from the neck strains of watching the ball go right back over his head. Though, the soreness would explain why he only manages 4 contested possessions and just over a tackle a game. A young Isaac Smith, he ain't.

His best was pretty handy but I'm not sold on his usefulness to us. I'm very keen to see how Hannan in particular develops. Bobbed in and out of it this year, with some pretty flat periods and even a few stinkers, but if a bit more experience and confidence sees him staying involved more throughout games then I think he could be a real highlight. Just the extra 10% game time will make a difference. Overall, our like the way our forward line is coming together. A couple of marking talls that have to be taken seriously, a bit of variety and unpredictability with Garlett and Hannan, and then a really good collection of midfielders who can play well up forward, obviously led by Petracca and now even has Balic added to the possibilities. On a very low dollar contract and on the understanding that he may well play most of his time at Casey, I'd join the 'why not' line for Crameri, but I've got no real motivation for us to get him.

To be an effective AFL player you need to reach a good standard for both. Throw in pure physical fitness as a third category. Hell, you could even divide that the same way, into stamina/durability versus athletic ability. If you were trying to build a metric for 'player value' based on skill v toughness, you wouldn't just add them and compare, you would multiply the two together to get your result. (Caveat - I fully understand that trying to put standardised metrics on this stuff is absurd, I am just using it to illustrate the relationship) For example; Fred Keiserkopf is highly skilled (8/10) but a bit of a damp newspaper (2/10), 8x2 = 16. Geoff McAverageish is just ok at everything, with 5/5 for both, 5x5 = 25. So you put McAverageish on the field because his effectiveness overall is a half-again Keiserkopf. But you might still draft Keiserkopf in the hope that you can push that toughness up a bit, because even 3x8 puts him at around the same value. Of course, the most recent big example of a coach trying to recruit and organise their team in separate 'streams' of toughness and skill is Terry Wallace at Richmond. That produced a string of highly skilled and quick draft picks who were never forced to develop their toughness and thus never made it as effective AFL players, and a progression of tough-nut players who could win the ball but frankly there wasn't much point them having it. I think Goodwin &co have learnt the first part of that lesson, but I still have doubts about the second part.

Wrecker, I get that you're trying to paint me as racist. It is not a very nice thing to do. You asked for an explanation and I gave a fairly clear summary of how the situation arose that most developing countries / ex-colony countries have embraced 'traditional values' as an act of seeking continuity with their own heritage, rather than embrace the revolutions of the 'western' tradition which were given such a hypocritical edge by the facts of empire. Nothing I've said is controversial or speculative. It is basic stuff. Level 1 history and anthropology. If, in your mind, that is 'the kind of warped argument I come to expect from leftists' then I might have to start respecting the left a bit more than I usually do. I've accepted that there's simply no prospect of an honest conversation when it comes to you, so I'll be muting you. If you want to keep trolling at me, well, whatever makes you feel big, no trouble for me. If you're looking for a role model when you decide to grow up a bit, I'd suggest ProDee. I think many of his actual opinions roughly align with yours, the difference being that he's generally not a jerk about it. Plus he often has interesting things to say about football, so I can't mute him even if he was a proper git.

https://www.weekendnotes.com/cherry-farms-victoria/