Little Goffy

It is a well established psychological fact that happiness recalibrates to where you are. Perceived or even anticipated movement from your current condition, for better or worse, will drive happiness more than your actual current condition.

For example, many Demons found 2022-2023 excruciating because it felt like not only a disappointment but had the anticipation of ground giving way under us.

The emotional baggage of so many disappointments made it all the harder to maintain a unified club. All you have to do is think back to the messiah complex we had as a club - only some great talisman could get us in line and we craved it everywhere and resented all who failed to deliver.

MFCSS is real, but just by being able to name it we have made great therapeutic steps. Our new coach doesn't have to be Paul Roos come to save us, he just has to be capable and committed. Harvey Langford might yet be the best player of his generation, but he doesn't 'have to' be. We're able to imagine ourselves functioning even if he is just very good. Max Gawn being the greatest ruck of all time is a joy to savour, not a necessity to cling to.

We're a different fan base now. Same people, but changed. We're a different club.

Most of all we're a lot less fatalistic. We've restored something of an internal locus of control.

Lol, half the planet thought May was a chance to be moved on or want to move on. It's been media babble for over a month.

What I'm really curious about is whether waiting on May's exit was a factor in McVee delaying...

That's a brutal theory on just how sharp some club divisions might be.

Obviously it would be Essendon except they have their memories erased at the end of each season.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what you just saw was a freak anomaly caused by aliens using the MCG lights to guide their spacecraft. Essendon were great. Essendon always has been great. Essendon will be great again next season. And Kevin Sheedy is definitely sane."

I love that a thread like this comes up seemingly every year or even more often.

Clearly the legend is passed around and the 'young folk' get curious.

I love that none of the 'old folk' ever get tired of retelling the story of a player who went beyond excellence into some form of art.

I must admit I'll be just a little sad if we go into the draft already knowing every choice we'll make.

Where is the joy of speculating about random obscure picks?

Very simple make or break scenario for him. Ace the preseason, gain a step and a little extra strength, put it to work.

He has on-field initiative and is smart enough, but it's no use falling 10% short every contest and moment.

A really good preseason, though, and he'll be better than just depth.

8 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

watson on sen this morning said that we are keen on matthew scarlett as the assistant defensive coach

A quick scan around confirmed that Scarlett worked alongside King at the Dogs, specifically in the 'development of young defenders', not a primary line coach. I actually think that exact role would be a great pickup in itself, even if Scarlett wasn't interested in anything more intense, because we must surely be looking to develop our next wave of defenders with each of May, Lever, and Mcdonald all getting on a bit or a lot.

Most recent info I can find about Scarlett is that he basically hanging out at the Barwon Seagulls making himself useful any way he feels like! Most recent AFL-level article is about him deciding it was time to take a break from coaching and the AFL world for a while, in 2021;

geelongcats.com.au

I'm sure Adams, Howes, Turner and the incoming White would all be thrilled at the chance to improve their game under perhaps the most effective and versatile tall defender in the AFL era. It is basically between Scarlett and Silvagni (Senior, Junior. I mean, junior to senior but senior to junior. You know the one.) for best full back in living memory and Scarlett's counter-attack makes him more suited to the present game.

I am talking myself into a froth about the possibility of getting him.

I googled 'how to fit an additional assistant coach under the soft cap' and 'Mihocek on a two year contract' was the first seven results.

Our forward line needs brains, our wave of new coaches will need supporting voices on every line. At the very least, 2026 is about completely resetting our culture and we can't go hard enough at that, and Mihocek brings a whole lot of good attitude and smart play.

Even if he hits the age wall, he will still be very useful at Casey because he can help guide and develop our young forwards without actually competing with them for the same spot on the field.

On 14/09/2025 at 11:00, Lucifers Hero said:

Look below my avatar, Salem and Hunt are still favourites!

Luker is all yours❣️

Went on a dating show. They asked her type and she said "Half back flanks with good metres gained. Open to trying midfield for the right person."

Hi, I've been contemplating the assistant coaching possibilities on the train and decided to attempt to build an information base about who is actually out there.

There's an article or two which basically just says every third assistant in the league is a senior-coach-in-waiting, and if you have the patience to scroll through then wikipedia's list of current afl team squads included the full sets of coaches. There's also a page on Whirpool (that's still around eh?) which is about a year out of date but has many relevant names to digest.

I just thought it would be helpful for anyone else having the same musings, to be able to 'see the whole board', as they say in chess

https://www.zerohanger.com/the-afls-next-wave-of-senior-coaches-which-assistants-are-ready-to-take-the-next-step-at-your-club-157211/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_AFL_team_squads

https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/afl_coaches

1 hour ago, Tony Tea said:

Very well thought of as a coach, but will probably white-out "Coach at Melbourne for 2024 and 2025" from his CV.

"What are these two years missing in your work history?"

"Oh, uh, I was in prison. Yep, that's it."

1 hour ago, Wells 11 said:

we’ e got a stack of people leaving and no one in the door yet!

Please allow passengers to alight from the train before boarding.

But seriously, what an intriguing moment. The little murmur implying that his potential assistants would have been a point in his favour does make me sit up a little.

There's been a lot of quality people around him, throughout his career.

We have many very young players on our list now, as well as several mature age recruits and budget recycled players. It didn't get us the depth of AFL quality we were hoping for but it also would have been pretty light for salary cap.

I think that scenario pretty quickly balances the impact of our set of very highly paid players, which is really just Petracca, Oliver and Pickett. An upside of their very long contracts is that we can also plan ahead a bit; quite possible we did some front loading already by 2021 as that would have been before many of our players became 'premium'.

I'm comfortable with our overall list strategy of trying to target/hold crucial players and roles at whatever it costs, and then look to fill out that best 25 with optimistic transfers and picks.

Just a shame we lost our touch after the run of players like Hibberd and Langdon who contributed so much at very modest trade and salary costs.

In the later half of 2024 Flanders bagged 12 Brownlow votes in as many games, but the difference I find interesting is from round 16 when he clearly changed roles and thrived. He went from a 'rebound 50s' to an 'inside 50s' player.

From that point on he had more than one goal AND more than one goal assist per game, with about 30 disposals and half a dozen clearances every game as well. He broke double figures for score involvements three times, including 11 against us when his entire side only had 18 scores.

I've convinced myself, after initial doubts. He is certainly an AFL-grade player and Lord knows, as presumably does King, that we need more attacking dynamism.

5 minutes ago, bing181 said:

"The Dees will keep multiple assistants on board in the changeover and King “doesn’t want to tip everything out”.

Do we even have multiple assistants left to not tip out?

I'm not sure who the commentator 'Bec' is but based on her voice and our goalkicking, she had a few drinks with our forward line pre-game.

grumlbe grumble

When it comes to our women's team, I want to see crushings, not slugged out evenly matched fights.

I want Jack Reacher from the series not the movies.

It did my head in looking back to investigate the theory that all these players won their first final.

Poor Matty Whelan missed 2000 and 02 die to late season injury, then copped the 2004 elimination final robbery by Essendon and the awful cats elimination final in 2005.

Finally got a win against the Saints in 2006, but was injured during the game and missed the semifinal.

Matty Whelan is many good things; tough, smart, handsome, skilled and charismatic. But he is definitely not lucky!

As they say at quiz primary school;

"Blurter blurter pants on squirter."

3 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Same for me.

The Crows have been boring, inefficient and lifeless for both games this finals season. Little run, little dare, little intensity. I don't reckon the Hawks can win the flag, but they are playing with a confidence and intensity that reminds me of the Dees in 21.

I would feel more comfortable if you said Demons '18.

9 minutes ago, Willmoy1947 said:

Maggot power have already been told who wins this game. It will be Hawthorn. Reason....AFL have decided that Adelaide's behaviour, one player not playing has brought the AFL into disrepute, and punishment must be served and the maggot mates are doing just that.

I think you might be going a conspiracy theory too far there.

I've had to abandon about five theories that each covered about 80% of the group, so not contributing except the sound of my own brain fizzing out.

I'd forgotten how much I missed/ dud not miss these!

One day I'll get one, and it'll be something ridiculous Ike they all did an internship at a sponsor.

6 minutes ago, layzie said:

"Was Buckley the wrong guy?"

Ooooh but wait till Buckley's Tasmania starts crushing all before it.

'We missed the chance...' etc etc.

We're going to need a dedicated thread just for horror gifs and random Demon King comments.

Is this the beginning of the end for the no-ts-no-bs thread? How much overt silliness can one footy forum retain?

I for one would like to thank the club for giving my brother the opportunity to send me 'evil clown face' gifs with no context.

I mean, the obvious moral of the story is "Don't coach Essendon."