Little Goffy

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.

Just recapping. 18 consecutive quarters won brings us to second all time behind only the incredible Geelong of 2010. They managed 21 in a row. So, A clean sweep against the Dogs and we will hold the outright record. Something to aim for, but if we fall short then that's ok, we just have to try for it again! And again! And Again! Bwaa ha ha ha haaaaaa. It's a nice change from adding to the records for most consecutive lost quarters. 17 in 2007-2008, 16 in 2012-13, and 15 in 2011. Thank you, St Kilda and GWS for keeping us safe from ever holding the overall record. Just emphasizes that a new era really has begun.

Was noticably excellent even way back in her first media appearances. I vividly remember the contrast between her and Katie Brennan, and it kind of sums up Daisy's strengths - Brennan wasn't sure what she wanted to say, didn't say it clearly, and then didn't know when to stop. Daisy is just 'here's the information, stated clearly, you know hat to do with it'. That'd be her day job background showing through, I'd say. You don't waffle around during a birth.

He allocates the same amount of orgasmic straining to each team, so he has to ration it out for our goals.

Currently the two best contested posession teams in the game. The side with the highest 'for' total against the side with the second lowest 'against'. Playing to be a game and percentage clear inside the top 4, with the loser of the game become that 'nearest chaser' for the top 4 spot! I've had a remarkable flash of memory. Round 9 2006. Top of the ladder clash against West Coast, in Perth. We pushed them all the way in a ripper of a game that was only decided late in the final quarter. West Coast went on to win the premiership while Melbourne managed an elimination final win. Crucially, Melbourne finished one win outisde the top 4, after blowing two games in the same season against a Carlton team that only managed the priority-pick-approrpiate 4 wins for the whole year. This season, we've dropped the hammer on the bottom teams and particularly the Blues. We have a forward line to rival the Neitz-Yze-Robertson-Davey combo we were running in 2006, and the rest of our 22 has both quality and depth that the Daniher era could only dream of. The more I look back, the more I think Daniher was a genius. I'd actually see a win today as a kind of 'chapter change'. The tangible and umistakable start of a new era. I'm also expecting a terrific game.

I have mixed feeling about that. If someone puts you on a conveyor belt with a meat grinder at the end, then starts a routine of turning up the speed then giving you a little push each time you're just about to fall off the end, how grateful should you be? The transition to a modern commercialised game was necessary, but decades of AFL administrators approached it in a short-sighted, reactive way that was extremely oriented to advantage the big clubs while neglecting not only the smaller AFL-level clubs but also the overall strength of lower-level competitions, sapping the depth of talent in the game just as that depth of available professionals became more and more important. Melbourne's administrators weren't up to the challenge, but the severity of the challenge was a product of the AFL's 'decision-making process' being to have a beer with the clique of high-profile leaders of 'power' clubs. Maybe a pre-condtion of being considered for a priority pick should be that all Carlton supporters commit to never making the joke about having 16.4 premierships because they owned 20% of North in the 90s. Five years from now, will the AFL be telling St Kilda, Footscray or North 'oh sorry we can't afford to bail you out' after dribbling away literally hundreds of millions of dollars directly on the botched GWS/Gold Coast expansion, and imposing further hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for the other clubs playing games against these two cardboard towers? Again, I accept that expansion was necessary, but it must be acknowledge the whole thing was botched, and once again in a way that most disadvantages the smallest and 'politically' weakest clubs.

Agreed, the 'dark days' were over once we had two season each with better win tallies than we previous would've managed in three seasons combined. Now we're looking to make the good times roll in. The really, really good times.

Remembering of course that Melbourne's grand total priority pick 'haul' was pick 1 and pick 18. That's for a period of 9 years with a total of 45 wins. That's just 5 wins a year despite including the brief false dawn of the two 8-win seasons. So all but one of Carlton's recent seasons (2014, 4 wins) has been better than our average result over 9 years. But we all know this, and we all know that the notion that Carlton can't attract players is a fallacy given that half their list is recycled high draft picks. We also know they blatantly tanked and never got held to account for it, so they can get stuffed anyway. One final extra note - Brisbane have had a much worse run of results over the last five years anyway, and a lot of that can be put to player retention problems. Should the fact that their team is actually having a proper crack at it and not being quite so embarrassingly flaccid count against them, when percentage earned by trying to play games out is even now the only thing putting them ahead of Carlton? Jake Niall definitely gets a goose of the week award.

He should go to their huddle pre game and tell them who better be up for it.

Please Adelaide, please, invest as much effort and thought into a grudge against Lever as you possibly can. Also, please, Adelaide, be sure to give Terry Wallace a follow-up call and take in as much of his advice as your possibly can about all aspects of the game. I wonder how it affects things that Walker, the prime sulker who blew this all up pretty much on his own, won't be there. I wonder how many other players at Adelaide actually completely understand the whole thing and have no hard feelings at all, and are a bit embarrassed about the silly fuss?

You made me double check and yep, you're quite right. Wow. Things look worse and worse for Carlton the closer you look. Like one of those evil mind-control hypnotic spirals. And now there's a story surfacing that Murphy was pushed to play too early despite awareness of the foot problem not being cleared... And they are off to Geelong this weekend... could there be a shake at 186?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that none of our players or coaches have come out to heap any extra public humiliation on Carlton, it hasn't been turned into a running joke, and it really seems like the club has moved on. Probably because we've got work to do and aren't already banking our premierships. After all, it is up to us, the rancorous grubby plebs on the sidelines, to do the mocking! One thing that puts a bit of sting in Carlton's situation is that because they brought in so many recycled players with a few years already in the system, they aren't actually all that young as a side. I'd estimate that their best 22 is barely younger than ours, and even then only because of our veteran imports Lewis and Vince. Their mature recycled players currently playing all or most games include - Jones 27, Wright 28, Lamb 25, Mullet 26, O'Shea 26, Plowman 23, Kerridge 25. It may have been necessary given Carlton's list hole post-Malthouse, but there's a definite erosion of any sense of being a young team full of bright talent with great potential, when most of their team on the field have already reached maturity as AFL players.

On the bright side, the sets get completely destroyed in pretty much every Marvel movie ever made.

Did you hear the board sacked Norm Smith, and then had to reinstate him a week later after an internal revolt? Club has never been the same.

That's been my growing thought, too - players don't get to decide when an umpire needs protection. In this case the player was interfering with an umpire while the umpire was approaching a situation that required umpire attention. A loose scuffle like the one going on then is obviously a top candidate for fines, suspensions and free kicks to be handed out. So it wasn't really just a touch, it was genuinely obstructing an umpire from doing their duties.

We have three losses, to 1st, 3rd and 5th. That kind of suggests we are in the right spot on the ladder. But I still feel like there's more to be gained. Despite our three recent wins being against out of form teams, there have been genuine signs that we are functioning better structurally. If this 'soft' period has given us a chance to play ourselves into form, then hurrah and carry on! The real danger is that the team will start getting thirsty for a bit of bathwater...

That list has a tall forward, a tall back, a ruck, and five midfielders. And of the midfielers, no two are alike. I can't bring myself to speculate on any given one of them being 'the best', because I'm just so thrilled to have such a strong group coming through, and it will be the unpredictable and dynamic unit they form that gets me jumping around.

"What did you say about my son?"

Priceless for anyone looking to assemble highlights packages. "And now, by popular demand, every Clayton Oliver handball of the 2018 season"... this could take a while. Might want to do a kind of 4-part split screen to get through them. Hmm, I just looked up the record to see if Oliver was a chance to crack it. He actual holds it, at 482, which is just 2 ahead of Mithell and Crouch who also both set in 2017. So, I guess the challenge is to crack 500. What's that... about 23 a game? (not counting finals). Totally possible.

Oliver's handball volume doesn't bother me at all because he is also a perfectly acceptable kick, and most importantly, he isn't afraid to kick when the moment calls for it. His handballs are a great strength, and usually that comes with a caveat about using handball because the kicking is weak. It just doesn't apply in this case. This is not a Mark Jamar situation!

I dislike paying big money for players unless they are really, really structurally useful. There's definitely an argument for Gaff to provide the blade in a midfield full of hammers, but I'm not convinced it is completely necessary, not to the level of cash it would take to prevent Wet Toast from matching. And we simply don't have the draft picks to make the trade happen. On another level, all talk of having separate 'inside' and 'outside' midfield responsibilities always makes me nervous, remembering how that mindset so profoundly shaped Terry Wallace's Richmond. Isn't our team mantra something about flexibility?

He was ok, a contributor to a midfield that was on top for most of the game. I wouldn't say he was great today and people are certainly right that he tries to do more, or more impressive, things than he is really capable of at the moment. His clangers are happening between his ears and I can't help wondering if he's still a little haunted by, on the one hand, being one of the first Giant 'rejects', and on the other hand that amazing finish to a season he had in his first (or second?) season with us.

Seeing Brayshaw so involved and playing smart football the way he does was a real pleasure in an overall very enjoyable afternoon. I'd love to say I told you so but I have to be honest and say I am always taking the sides of players who I think are being written off unfairly and I doubt I've got a high % in my favour over the years... but hey, this year it seems to be working out for me!

To quote from an old favourite show of mine: "Tim Watson's only crime is being Tim Watson. It is also his punishment." As other's pointed out, he barracked for the Saints today and will go home disappointed. And that is the pattern of his life for more about a decade now.