Little Goffy

Strangely long quarter, considering only 3 goals kicked. Is something wrong with Hannan? Not a touch, tackle, 1%, anything? Glad Weideman got a little involved right at the end of the quarter. Any little boost to the confidence for a kid with a tough gig is important.

There were too Ajaxes (Ajaxs? Ajaxi?) in The Iliad. Couple of Burly Brutes, Ajax the Greater was physically the mightiest of the Achaeans. Ajax the Lesser was really only 'lesser' next to Ajax the Greater. Sucks to be him, I guess. Bit like being Alexander the Pretty Good. Also, I support Whispering Jack's sentiment - I've had an embarrassing kick around or two on quiet afternoons at Brunswick Street Oval and it really is quite picturesque. And you can always visit the little bourgeois-ironic shopping nearby. (Oh, I'm so poor, all I can afford is this old desk lamp from the 80s which I paid $40 for. #bargainhuntwins #authentic)

I don't mean to be smug, but, could this be a case of our commitment to the women's game already paying off richly? And on game related matters, does anyone have a record of how we perform after new sponsor signings? Hopefully better than against teams who have just had their coach sacked, and better than in games we are widely expected to win!

I think one key difference between 2010/2011 and now is that nobody is really saying 'that player is going to be great because he went at pick 4'. Instead we are saying 'that player I've been watching closely all season is a competitive beast with great vision/amazing hands/terrific speed'. And I haven't heard anyone say that we would've won these recent lost games if only Angus Brayshaw was on the park. Another thing there is a lot more of lately is acknowledgement of limitations. For example We (the group-think collective) aren't afraid to critisize Viney, despite him being the symbol of our new generation and all that jazz. There's no cult of youth, reckless discarding of high-performing veterans, or assumption thay everythign will be ok. People want wins now, they want performance now, and they are judging the team on what they are delivering now. And that still applies even when people are then forgiving of individuals. Hell, there are people already accepting that Weideman might only be ok, who only gave up on Lucas Cook's triumphant return in about 2016!

When your forward line has an average games (or games-at-club) tally of about 25, it would actually be pretty impressive if one of them had 100 goals to their name! But it does put into perspective some of our problems with converting inside-50s into good scoring opportunities. That extra edge of experience, confidence and game sense can make all the difference close to goal, where you just need a couple of things in a row to go right and where every step of advantage is a big deal. A good veteran key position player, at either end of the ground, is very hard to replace. Just ask the queue of players the Demons tried to turn into a successor for Neitz. I want more success now, I feel like we are underperforming right now, but any time I look at the list my mind goes to what should be a 6-8 year period where we don't have to think too hard about how we will replace this or that essential role, and can watch as maturity grows, especially in the habitually slow-burning key position roles.

There were a lot of occasions when we would handball our way into just enough space from a clearance to get the kick off, but the kick would just be a dumb 'get it out of here' slash resulting in a turnover. I have a feeling that the heavy training emphasis on the close-handballing movement, while getting some obvious results improving that area of our game, is currently suffering the side-effect that we aren't naturally making the mental switch to spotting and thinking through targets 30 or 40 meters away. We'll see how it progresses. After all, Roos came in and trained one aspect at a time for three years, trying to get the proverbial ducks in a row.

Was muttering and cursing about our situation and found myself looking for comparisons to help 'process' it all. In 2015, GWS were sitting 7 wins 4 losses in round 11. Then they lost Mumford and finished the year with just 4 more wins, all against bottom 5 teams. Missing out on the 8 by a couple of games in a very uneven year. We started 2017 with two wins, and since losing Gawn during the game against Geelong have had just 1 win from the last 5 games, with the margins of three of those games adding up to just 3 goals total. So, my questions are - If Gawn had been available, would we be sitting 6-1 and about to face Adelaide in an outright top-of-the-table contest? When we get Gawn back, for say the last 6-8 rounds, what kind of position would be acceptable/viable for a late charge to finals? Despite our last few rounds of disappointment, do people still hold that this team could have a meaningful impact in finals once we have our full squad back together, with the return of Smith, Vandenberg, Brayshaw and Gawn?

There's a selection merry-go-round going on which i starting to annoy me. I can see some of the logic, in that we are exposing a series of young players to AFL level, and they are getting their chance to either prove themselves or be moved on at end of season. But I worry that it has a smell of not taking each game as a desperately needed four points, and that could rub off on the playing group. Anyway, this week, based on the 'Professor Goodwin's roving microscope' program, I would reckon Kennedy-Harris is on the way out, Bugg is VFL Hannan should be given a rest and allowed to develop his game, but has definite promise. The team needs to do more to help Salem get involved, especially since our key weakness from clearances has been dumb and blind kicking. Vince, despite good numbers, is not having much impact and action needs to be taken, even dropping him in favour of Stretch would suit me. Melksham needs to spend some time in the VFL until he realises that to make it now, he needs to be actually better than he was at Essendon, not just maintain that level. Tackling would be a good start. Frost is developing nicely in just the way many close observers predicted/hoped. Gawn is a legit champion and his absence is as big for us as Mumford's absence was for GWS a couple of years ago. So... I guess we are at least learning something on Goodwin's "Journey".

Surely you mean the curse of Nick Smith? Not as comprehensive as the curse of Norm Smith, but for the first-round-pick tall forwards it hits, it can be horrible.

The general theme across all games of all clubs for the year is that losses will be based on giving away strings of goals. It has certainly been the basis of all of our losses. Anyway, our percentage holds ok. There's nothing wrong that a 7-game late-season winning streak into the finals wouldn't fix. Tell you what though, being 21 points off equal first on the ladder is a proper s-- sandwich. That's less than 3 points per ladder position missed.

That's about as decisive a rebuke as it gets, in as few words as possible without just swearing insults. I'm glad most of the posts in the thread are affirmations of Andy Moir being a decent hardworking footballer. And I'm glad my only contribution was to suggest a more appropriate 'relative to pay packet / hype' award. And Mick, I'm also pretty sure I'm glad that I never stuffed up a game of football through laziness or selfishness with you as coach! (As much as it might have been a learning experience)

Oooh, I like this thread because it gives me another chance to bring out my broken record about 'value' for trades and players. The obvious example is Hawthorn getting the likes of Frawley, Gibson, Hale, and Gunston. Even Burgoyne was a little slice off being 'big fish'. But all were legitimate players who were taken when a bit off their best and found or rediscovered their best form once they moved to Hawthorn. And all were chosen because they filled a specific need. Something I've been fascinated by over the last decade or so is the way many of the top teams rise in two 'waves'. First wave is typically a surge of young talent which gets them into contention (or in Hawthorn's case, and arguably the Bulldogs, sneaks them a much earlier than expected flag), and then there is a period of adjusting, working out the remaining gaps to create a fully functional team without a key weakness that can be exploited by quality finals opponents. All of Geelong, Hawthorn, St Kilda, Port and Collingwood have been through that first and second peak process. Even Brisbane dropped out of the top four, back to just 12 wins, before then surging again for the three-peat. Presuming that the Dogs' surprise win kind of emulates what happened with the Hawks, it is going to be a very interesting next few years to see how the three clubs stocked with lethal young guns (Dogs, GWS, Demons) are going to evolve.

In the end, it's not about having a formal panel, it's about whether the senior coach and the coaching and list management group have a fair measure humility, mutual respect and the bait of listening to eachother's opinions. For what it's worth, Moving Lyden Dunn on was a right call in my opinion. I don't think he can sustain a key defender position, I don't particularly like him as a rebounder or even handling kick-ins, and I think he's not wise enough to play as a mobile or intercepting defender. If Oscar makes it as a key defender, then hurrah. If he doesn't, that still doesn't mean letting Dunn go was a mistake. And all the best to Dunny, may he happily continue with a creditable AFL career. Despite the limitations I mentioned above, he's no spud.

Oooh, isn't Bruest normally the really accurate one? Kicked wide there!

The lack of forethought and any kind of long-term plan is what bugs me the most. I accept that the second team in Sydney at least can be a good long term 'asset' for the game, but that should have been recognised 20 years ago. It should also have been recognised at least 20 years ago that AFL wasn't going to dominate Sydney unless they built up a really strong second-tier competition and the material and social connections that any football club or code needs to become a part of a city. As for channel seven dropping to three games instead of four, I'd argue that supports the case against the expansion, more than for it. The quality of talent and thus the game is diluted, the proportion of games with no practical (ladder) importance and no emotional meaning for any given club's fans just keeps growing. And having an extra game or two every week that involves those soullesss re-animated monstrosities assembled from the hacked-off limbs of other other clubs isn't helping. "The acronym team is in the Grand Final! YAYYYYY! There will be lots of seats left for neutral observers! Again!" Did nobody else notice that Sydney still has basically only mid-table membership numbers and attendences, despite over a decade of borderline AFL-mandated success? Let's see how that goes with just a couple of bad years. Is the AFL really going to try to bank on a business model that requires that the soft-4rsed fairweather-fan teams are constantly aroudn the top of the ladder?

Has given me (and I would guess a lot of us) some of my favourite pure football moments. All those times when he has won or split a contest he had no right to, and then gone right at the next one. Should be too slow to have got there, should be too short to make the spoil, should be too small to bring the opponent down, should be too unskilled to be reliable with the ball. Neville Jetta has something truly elite inside his skull.

I'm expecting something a bit like Matthew Lloyd's 1996 from Weed this year. A bunch of mostly 'meh', dropped repeatedly, and maybe one massive impressive game to give us all a bit of confidence for the future. There's no denying that his last couple of AFL games were a bit... underwhelming. In difficult circumstances for a young key forward, for sure.

Straight swap for Melksham. If the Swans try to play hardball about it, we can throw in Lamumba.

And imagine if the AFL had decided that the $20m a year could have been better invested in grass-roots and second-tier football, women's football, outback football, and so on. The quality of the game would lift dramatically and AFL would be part of the pulse of every community! Hell, that much investment in development, they could probably field an extra team with the improved playing stocks. Just say'n.

Ha, funny, he's playing game when he should be suspended, and is going to be suspended.

He looks like a daggy, scrawny 14 year old. Will he be able t ruck without it, is the question? Will it be woven into a new AFL-approved headband for Jayden Hunt?

There have been times in life when I've been really, really awfully anxious. And there have been times when I've been enduringly, unshakeably unhappy. But [censored] I'm glad I've never had a condition which made me feel that way no matter how the rest of my life was actually going. Full respect to you and anyone else carry this with them, whether they want to share or not.

There must be something appropriate that has been used during the Stynes tributes.

He's still not having a great impact, and still far too many clangers. But he is definitely improving game by game. As it stands, he is legitimately holding his place in the team, and has the credible prospect of improvement. As others have said, he needs to improve his kicking and the 'vision thing'. At the moment he's not cutting any holes in the opposition, and sometimes does tear a hole in us! But it'd be an odd day when a footy department cuts a player who is improving.

Just as well Lewis comes back this week... ... There's a punchline here... ... ... He's our most experienced ruck. Hitouts: Lewis, 444. Pederson, 196. Watts 137.