Little Goffy

Hibberd notched up 8 clangers and 10 coaches votes.

"Poor old Richmond, again." I think it is the only official club name with punctuation.

For what it's worth, there's a 203cm ruck/forward from Victoria apparently tipped to go very high in the draft; Sam Hayes. I only know the chatter and forum posts about him, but the story goes he was coming through as a very promising ruckman but this year has been playing a lot more up forward and doing just as well there. We'd need to upgrade our pick, since we'll be starting with pick 18 or so () and he is tipped to be as high as top 5 if he continues on current form. The question of course is whether there's room in the forward line and ruck for Hogan, Weid, Hayes and Gawn. Anyway, I still just wish we could trade draft picks for specific corrections. Like, a 2nd round pick in exchange for giving Bugg some set shot accuracy.

I think it is important to remember that the sole purpose of Collingwood winning a flag in 2010 was to set up their run at holding the all-time record across all sports ever, for consecutive years of decline. They may well already hold the AFL record, after their string from 2010 - Premier Runner Up 4th 6th 11th 12th 12th (with one fewer win) And right now they sit in 13th. Also feel free to see a metaphor for Eddie McGuire's career.

The joy of the disposal efficiency topic is that is has enough grey area for everyone to be right. Defenders have good disposal efficiency -> good disposal efficiency is a benchmark for defenders everywhere anyway -> the efficiency is a product of the circumstances getting it (open spaces, marks, defenders outnumbering forwards) -> good disposal efficiency is a product of the work rate of players running to present options -> we shouldn't look at DE% anyway, clangers are more important... Round and round we can go. And we do! From what I've observed, the biggest 'whipping boys' for disposal among the Demons are the McDonald brothers and Dom Tyson, and the three of them share the feature of sometimes delivering really terrible clangers, the kind of totally unnecessary turnover which catches everyone by surprise and turns a rebound into a panic scramble. These clangers have a big impact and, more than anything else, are highly memorable. The couple of times a game that Tom McDonald mysteriously, absurdly, manages to kick directly to an opposition player on their own are the single factor preventing him from being an elite defender, but with them he is definitely not one. That's how much they matter and while I don't like the vitriol, the cause is reasonable.

It was interesting during the Collingwood game to see him running forward a lot, gaining great ground and space, but also being gradually pushed wider and wider, limiting his options for the inside 50 kick, both as far as having to kick around his body more and not facing the way he should be watching for targets. I wonder if it is as simple as Hunt is still adjusting to being up the ground, whereas in the past coming from from defence it was perferctly sensible to drift to the wings, as the ground opens up in front of you and it is the safer option as you rebound anyway. Whatever it takes to correct it, he'll be even more exciting once he can point his run to some slightly more direct paths.

This thread just gets better and better. Collingwood cheer squad were confused because they couldn't figure out which racist Watts was pointing out to security.

Melbourne v Western Bulldogs: Final Minutes - Round 21, 2005 Another Neale Daniher magic moment, one that I was happily reminded of today.

6. Jones 5. Petracca 4. Watts 3. Oliver 2. Oscar McDonald 1. Hunt Special note to the way a lot of our players had ordinary games, especially ordinary first halves, but kept working at it to make a contribution in the comeback. Clearest example would be Nibbler who absolutely stank it up early - he didn't come and save the day, but what he did do was work work work and go ok after half time.

A bit like when Chelsea Roffey broke into the umpiring ranks, you don't become 'the first' by being ordinary! Chelsea and Daisy both have that 'well-rounded motivated confident humble and empathetic person' that you find a lot in leaders who excel in areas not generally rewarded with status or wealth. I'm kind of hoping to have a daughter just so she can have inspirations like this. And Lise Meitner, just for variety.

Ouch. Every time I see it, just ouch.

I am well aware why the comparison was made. The 'industry expert' wanted to sound cool and get along with the kids these days. Presenting journalism as nothing more than 'preparing things to be broadcast' is at the heart of why newsmedia has gone to crap over the last 30 years or so. As I said, as an example, under these standards of 'journalism', there would still be a successfully concealed global network of child abusers within multiple churches. It's not a small issue and that is no 'childish' bit of overreaction to you putting me on the spot to declare what journalism is.

Throw in a few features like; seeking out multiple sources, finding 'silent' sources and convincing them to share, verifying with records, critically evaluating the credibility and motivates of other's communications, being aware of broader contexts and using them to shape what you produce, writing/producing effectively to make your audience aware of those contexts, identifying the most important information, blah blah blah., y'know. "I put a band-aid on my own booboo mummy, I'm a surgeon!" "I've got a potato, I'm a farmer!"

Not even remotely journalism. or at least, the journalism worth saving. If this was journalism, just for example, the churches would still be successfully running child abuse rings from Dublin to Boston to Ballarat.

I have a theory that Clementine Ford and Andrew Bolt are actually just different 'brand faces' for the same behind-the-scenes writer.

Big claims from the OP and will be interesting to see if they are borne out. Gotta at least respect that Goodwindees is being unequivocal, that those players are definitely gone. If true or even partly true it is an interesting side note on how well, or not, Sydney's famed culture is going to cope with a period of not getting to assume a place in the top 4 year on year. Looks like a few people aren't drinking the COLA-aid anymore. I'd be interested in Rohan, in that he is a rare type of player who could add an extra dimension to confuse our opposition. But I'm not going to do any pumping him up - a realistically useful player if at a realistic price, and that price would need to reflect that by 2018 he might not crack our 22.

Connolly complaining about Fairfax cutting staff to reduce costs is a bit like if Tippet complained about Sydney losing players to salary cap squeeze. Also like Tippet, it has been a loooooong time since Connolly offered anything that couldn't be replaced by a rookie. Unfortunately most in the 'footy media' are only relevant because they get invited to events, and only get that because their brand-company has built them up as some kind of mini-celebrity. Don't even get me started on the quality of 'journalism' in general. I get my news online, mostly from DW and a bit of BBC. Even the old ABC is slipping slipping slipping.

I did the ladder predictor 'on gut feeling' game by game and end up with us finishing in 5th, playing St Kilda (8th) in an elimination final. Which we will win after Fraser Gehrig gets crunched trying to run around Nathan Carrol. My result is clearly accurate because I've also got Richmond having a late season fade-out to finish 9th, on percentage.

I think Hemingway touched on the key to this whole junket; "there are an increasing number of millionaires and wealthy Indians". Seriously, if they've got hundreds of thousands to spare to 'entertain' our humble hard-working politicians all while giving them such helpful advice about mining regulations, surely there's a bit of coin to 'invest' in nurturing the integrity of our sporting codes. Oh, and one additional universal food tip for travelling and eating in countries without a refrigerated supply chain - go where it is busy. Most small stalls and the like buy their stock in the morning and close shop once they have sold it. And yes, that often means going local and cheap, you'll actually be safer that way!

You'd think someone would come up with a specialist mouthguard for people with awkward teeth structures, smashed noses or any other factor which makes mouthguards especially uncomfortable or impractical. Far as I can figure, there hasn't been much progress in mouthguard 'technology', ever!

The comedy continues - Melbourne (according to the AFL website) kicking at 29% efficency overall, after 40 or so kicks. Hibberd has 5 kicks at 100%. Meaning that Hibberd has just shy of half of all our effective kicks so far. You could say he's earning his trade price!

Bwaaaaa ha ha ha, a slow start and our opponents get the jump on us. The surprise is shaking me to my core.

Relax everyone, we've got this.

I'm just watching for the proverbial 157-point win 'statement game' that we never look back from.

Having a mashed-together system of the old trade process and now free agency is just a mess. It may be time for a kind of automated trade resolution that just acknowledges every player's right to move and every club's right to get fair value back. Trade value assigned according to old contract, new contract, and some simple performance bonus factors. Also weighted to make it easier for fringe players to move (Eg. trade value calculation begins after first $100k salary ignored) Some weighting of trades according to club resources (e.g. each $1m extra of footy dept spending adds 5% to that club's trade prices). A nod to the idea that loyalty and continuity still matter (salary cap relief for long-term retained players). A simple mechanism to give a small measure of privacy-through-confusion to player salaries (a +10% to -10% random weighting) And the missing piece - a way to convert/cash in draft picks without all those ridiculous "pick 11, 38 and 43 from club A for 22, 26 from club B and pick 7 from club C" deals.