Little Goffy

People forget that having really smooth skin and a nice tan make you look a bit skinnier than you are. Weideman is being brought in to fill a role, rather than be a star, and if he focuses on doing the team things then the he'll do fine and get a couple of opportunities by weight of numbers in that big wide Subiaco spaces. 3 goals, no behinds, and a couple of occasions of keeping the ball trapped in the forward line that ultimately results in a goal, is my tip. I just have a good feeling.

No contact between the senior coach and a star player, while the star player is in crisis, and you're planning to include the player in coaching duties... Either it is just not the truth (a West Coast coach lying? Shock!) or Gaff is surely gone.

Definitely, and I'm sure a few other clubs (North, for example) would jump at any chance to get him. But we can offer him 'the dream' as well as the cash! The more I think about it, the more I drool at the prospect of our half-back flanks being Hibberd and Lloyd, with Lever in between.

I have a bucketload of respect for Hannebery but surely he is not the role we need filled, when we already can't fit all our midfielders into our midfield, even with Viney out? If I were looking at grabbing a Swan surely a dependable hard-working team-oriented half-back who reads the play well and rebounds effectively, is 24 years old with 100 games under their belt and who is unhappy with their most recent contract offer and is originally from Victoria would be the prime choice? Not to mention, he was probably the proverbial 'difference' on Sunday, picking off our wayward inside-50s and calmy using the disposal. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-05-11/im-in-no-rush-swans-gun-puts-off-contract-talks#/ https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pg-sydney-swans--jake-lloyd

Yeah, bugger it, we're no good, trade veryone with currency, time for a rebuild.

Well, now it is all very simple. Win at least one game of the remainign two, we play finals, guaranteed. Lose both, we miss finals, guaranteed. If it is any comfort, I've been running the squiggle auto-tip over and over and so far none of the results have shown us dropping both games... on balance of probability, of course. The simulator doesn't account for Melbourne being Melbourne, though. I had really hoped we wouldn't have to think about rushing players back in, but right now it is every possible player 'in', which specifically means Melksham and Hibberd who between them can transform our half-forward and half-back lines. One win. Just one win.

Maybe we can all take a breath and reflect instead upon what a genius Neale Daniher is, and what an incredible achievement it was to have the Demons be contenders through a series of wild swings and chaos in the club's administration and a general failure to provide resources. Think of Neale Daniher. Feel a little better. Then maybe tip some coin to fight MND while you're at it.

Y'know, I had an odd thought after reading this. Carlton is on one win, with percentage roughly on a par with our lowest ebb under Neeld. But there's something in the 'shape' of that percentage that struck me. In 2013, Melbourne suffered 7 massive losses - with margins of 148, 94, 90, 95, 83, 122, and 95. In 2018, Carlton have so far only experienced 2, maybe three such losses, depending on your line: 86, 109, and 72. And it isn't a case of Carlton's super-low scoring influence the percentage, as 2013 Demons only managed an extra 5 points per game. So, it would seem that Carlton are just stodgily losing by boringly substantial margins every single week. I'm genuinely curious, what does that mean? Impact of 'the great draft thinning' for the new teams back then? A genuinely more even competition now? Carlton being held together a little by their half-dozen excellent veterans? Or are the Demons the only club left that is capable of dishing out a proper walloping?

Assuming neither GWS nor Melbourne bomb out in the next few weeks, surely GWS V Melbourne will be the final game of the home and away season. It could completely reshape the final 8 and would have the fans of as many as five or six clubs all watching riveted.

Oh hell. Oh hell. My brain just broke. I looked across some more fixtures and have to say it - There is a real possibility that at the end of the season there could be 6 teams on 14 wins, stretching from 3rd to 8th. A slim chance, but a chance. It is conceivable, just barely conceivable, than in round 23, the Demons and Giants will be playing for a top-4 spot for the winner and 9th for the loser. Now that it has been shown possible, I feel it is inevitable.

Allirghty, I got bored and restless about our prosepcts at the same time. So, by process of elimination, with 5 rounds to go - North, Essendon, Adelaide: we are 20% or more and 1 win ahead of them. To pass us, a team from this group would need to win two more games than us out of the remaining five. Two wins for us would put us out of all these team's reach, realisitically. Ok, whatever. Hawthorn and Geelong: Same wins, 10% margin. Long story short - we must at least match the win-loss results of whichever of these teams performs worse over the final five rounds. One of the three teams will miss finals. Geelong - have the Tigers, but also the Lions, Suns and Dockers all at home. Hawthorn - Dockers, Bombers and Saints, Sydney at the SCG. It could end up being hugely important that they play eachother in round 21. Geelong look home, they'd have three games they'd be confident of winning, and would gain certainty of a finals spot by beating Hawthorn. Tell y' what, a final 5 rounds with no travel and three home games against interstate teams... that's rosy. Hawthorn are a little shakier, with more credible opponents. Essendon may even fancy their chances at passing Hawthorn. It is conceivable that that could only win two, but we wouldn't want to be relying on that. A Fremantle win over Hawthorn on sunday means it could still be possible to finish in the 8 with just 12 wins. All other plausible variations on the final 5 rounds make 13 wins necessary.

Could effective long kicks cover the same position need as the speedy outsider? Noticed that a couple of our inside mids have found some power off their boot that was a bit unexpected (see for example Brayshaw's clearance that also cleared the pack and found Oliver). Vandenberg has a solid boot on him too. Any others currently out but who might be able to add to that unpredictibility? 'Long kick' doesn't seem to be something that gets covered much in draft talk, but maybe it is one of the tricks that this year's Jason Taylor specials will have? Who's got an eye on the draft this year?

Can we get David Neitz to say Ben Brown is going to Gold Coast on big money to replace Lynch?

Has anyone else become tired of 'GHMBA Stadium' yet? I've started slurring in in an attempt to make a sensisble sound, but all I've got so far is Goomba, as in the little mushroomy monster from Mario. So I'm convinced next week we are going to Goomba stadium. How could we possible lose, just have to jump on their heads.

Six weeks of 'finals' before we play finals. Can't think of a better way to prepare. With the number of 8-point games we have lined up, we should be in first with 100+ ladder points by the end of the season. Seriously, we'll be there if there's a reason for us to be there other than just a pat on the head. We'll be going down to Geelong to hunt a spot in the top 4, with the side benefit of putting ourselves 2 games and a mountain of percentage clear of a rival.

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?

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!

I'll be in again. Same name, different team name. Coach name: Chris Team name: Inflorescent Carcasses

Can anyone help me clear this up once and for all - Is Charlie Spargo in any way related to former board member, vice-president, acting president, acting CEO and Foundation Heroes organiser Peter Spargo?

Demons Top-4 Finish. Build on 'good' first 2/3rds of the year and then a win streak going into finals, a bit like 2000, actually. Multiple All-Australian selections in defence, with Lever, Hibberd and Jetta all making the 40-player squad. Describing our group of midfielders/forwards as "difficult to match up on" becomes one of the top cliches of the season. Hogan on the one hand proves himself the team player doing hard work to create links and disrupt defences, but on the other hand there are a few occassions, just here and there, where he takes personal control and smashes games off his own boot. Weidemann will be in and out of the team in bursts until late in the season when things will start to click. Wont set the world on fire but will be a competent tall forward. Our new recruits will mostly be at Casey (bold prediction I know) but a couple will get a really promising taste of AFL in their first year. "Melbourne's Depth is becoming amazing" will be another cliche we hear a lot. Non-MFC; Lever and Gibbs will be the 'recruits of the year' from trades, Port will continue to levitate in the 'also attended finals' category without really scaring anyone. Overall, the top end of the ladder hosts a set of really exciting teams and the dominant game style is shaped by rigorous defence combined with a scattering of stars that break games open. There are going to be a LOT of clubs just doing 'ok' without really mattering.

Not having first round picks fro a while, and having traded out a lot of early second round picks too, does feel a bit weird. But with Hibberd's effort and Melksham's improvement we seem to be getting good value for those picks. Lever's progress will be fascinating to watch but there's no doubt he was worth a first rounder plus a downgrade, just a question of whether the downgrade amount was too much. If we end up with 2 All-Australian defenders in our list thanks to trades, I wont complain about a shortage of draft picks. Especially when we seem to have a recruiting team with a talent for finding respectable late-pick players.

If we're comparing Lever to Rance, it is only fair to point out that Weidman is tracking about the same as Matthew Lloyd after the same number of games... we definitely should be anticipating a big round 1!

Is it just my impression or has this thread moved along at close to a post a minute? Incredible. Can a mod put a 'sticky' on the first page to update any actual news, just so nobody feels a need to slide through dozens of pages?

Taking a moment to confirm Redleg's background is law, not medicine. I mean, obviously you're thinking of the remarkably similar treatment for tinnitus.

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)