Little Goffy

We should all be glad that the draw gets harder - last season and now this season we routinely struggle against teams lower rated than us. We've played well against every opponent this year except the ones we expected to beat! Last season something like a quarter of all wins by the bottom six were wins over us. But we also won almost as many games against the top-12 as the rest of the bottom-6 combined. Its whacky. But I'd rather that strange pattern than the record of Collingwood, who last year only beat the bottom end and nobody else, and now are being exposed this year.

Commence the austromancy! And the spatilomancy! If this gets any worse, it'll become geloscopy. Let's do it in diagrams - Hogan's expectations -------------> contract! <-------------- Club's expectations If you have information to provide about either of these factors, talk on! Otherwise. Shh.

Wow Hemmers, you're in an interesting headspace if you're going to go on a rage spiral anytime a conversation starts about 'hey, I do a thing, does anyone else do this thing'?

By half time the MCC will be delivering babies over the bar and the Great Southern Stand will be awash with burst pancreas. It'll be like 2005 all over again.

We win this game and almost certainly go into the 8, with a realistic chance of staying there. Lose and we'll continue lurking just out of the 8, with a realistic chance of staying there. Oooh, I'm a little fired up for this one.

Gawn is right there in the background between Viney and Hogan.

I think Rodney Eade makes a good case for a sub rule... for coaches. Poor Gold Coast. Terrible to see a club with such a proud history making so many poor decisions.

Son of a teacher, was a longtime spouse of a teacher, big chunk of friends are teachers. Enrolled in secondary teaching... but they all warned me off it in time, for which I'm thankful. Also did a lot of time in education stats for federal government. They really are as bad as the stereotype up there, not a deep breath worth of pedagogical knowledge among them, and the bureaucracy really needs to leave teachers the ____ alone.

An unexceptional but effective key position defender and a ruck-relief/backup ruck are the only real gaps in our list at the moment. Touch wood on kids continuing their development and all that. We have midfielders and flankers in abundance now. Quite the shock - I think there's a bit of cognitive dissonance going around. If we could trade in the next Cam Pederson, or draft the next Marcus Adams, we'd be laughing. Of course, by this time next year Weidemann could push Pederson out of the forward line, and O.M could be our missing 'true tall' defender. Leaving Pederson as the hardworking floating tall defender who also pinches in the ruck.

I'm really bitter that we wont get to see Goldstein v Gawn again during the Home & Away season. It's a bonus incentive to make the 8. I'm picturing a semi-final, after we've won our elimination final and they've lost an away qualifying final. A reprise of the Demons-Kangaroos game from a few rounds ago, in a final (ideally with final scores reversed) would be one for the history books.

It is one of those impossible questions, for us anyway. Even as far back as the good old days; in 2006 we managed to cost ourselves a top-4 finish by losing to Carlton twice - we were an outright majority of their wins for the season! But don't worry, anyone we don't beat this year, we'll sort out next year.

I do believe there's another bundle of academy kids to come through in the top-10, too, so our draft opt-out could be even better than that. Plus, we may in turn look to get back into the better end of the draft by trading mid-range picks to be 'cashed in' for the academy bids. Work'n tha system, yo.

Brett Ratten for midfield. Adem Yze for kicking.

This week we play the Dogs to go ahead of them, and maybe even replace them in the 8, dragging them out. We're in this position despite one shock loss and one disappointing loss. And our overall form is 'trending up'. We are the predator lurking at the edge of the herd, waiting to chase down whichever one falls lame or gets old. And if we get a run on, it wont even matter if there's a lame one, we'll take them down anyway. I'm ok with this as our 2016 scenario.

With Weidman presumably coming through the system for a few appearances this year and hopefully regularly from next year, I am really glad that Pederson is versatile enough to also make a home down back (where we really need dependable talls) and chipping in at the ruck contests. I really hope he continues to be a solid contributor for enough season to make his 100 games (needs 42 more), and would love him to get to 100 in Red & Blue (another 16). This season and two or three more, is that a reasonable hope for a 29yr old, versatile, late-blooming tall?

Gibbs, Murphy, Kreuzer, Cripps, Simpson, Curnow, Kerridge, Thomas. Plus Casboult was accurate. Their top-end is very good, but then they've got 6-8 players on the field at AFL level who maybe just shouldn't be out there. It is the quiet test of whether a team is a real contender - do the supports list off a bunch of great players as if they are the answer? Richmond supporters, Collingwood supporters, Carlton Supporters... there's a pattern. Bolton has the cream performing and the rest at least working hard, so Carlton at least can claim to have the cultural 'rebuild' under way.

Getting the impression that maybe our depth is a bit better than Carlton's?

Is it greedy for us to be hoping that Weideman could really be as good as he is looking like he might be?

Plus, you'd think Harmes would be in the mix for a nomination this round, 26 disposals, 3 goals, 5 tackles. Not many kids gonna top that, and Clearance Allover has already been nominated. It'll be an interesting Rising Star season, with those two, Mills, Weitering, Daniel, Parish, and a great many other young players having a real presence. I think there's a fun (for us) contrast brewing between Petracca and Oliver - both looking seriously potent but with quite different 'outstanding' areas. Brad Johnson v Scott West? So glad we don't have to choose! Oh, and for the trivia question - the only player with experience of positive win-loss at Melbourne was Lynden Dunn. Who missed yesterday!

That game was a mad crazy party for kids. 18 - Oliver 19 - Stretch 20 - Petracca, Harmes 21 - Hunt, Hogan, Wagner 22 - Viney, Kennedy, Tyson, Kent. Eleven players on the field under 23 years old. And meanwhile, waiting injured, there's Salem, Brayshaw, ANB, O.Mac and the draftees. It doesn't mean a dynasty is starting, it doesn't mean all our problems are solved, I'm not getting ahead of myself, the lid is on, some of these kids wont sustain the standard long term, we're still getting a huge contribution from veterans like Jones and Vince, Pederson and... Garland? Lumumba?

Did you know - before this season there was only one player who drafted onto Melbourne's current list who has ever experienced a positive win/loss balance after 5 games or more? So, guessing time. Who is that lucky player, now being joined by Clayton Oliver?

Been a lot of that coming into the club lately. We were practically blondeless during the dark times. Is this a thing? Could it be like the way the Geelong superteam was wall-to-wall blue eyes?

It makes me really happy to see Pederson kick a couple of goals close together. It's like a Clydesdale winning a sprint. I hope he gets extra carrots and salt-lick in the barn this week.

Clayton Oliver. 16 disposals. Ten of them contested. All handballs. 15 of them found a target. Who does he think he is, Scott West?

I noticed something uncanny about the score worm from the Richmond - Hawthorn game. If you use the start of 'time on' as the equivalent of the start of finals, there is a direct correlation between the four quarters of this game, and Richmond's most recent four seasons. So, expect a mid season revival/stabilisation of sorts, followed by a total collapse by about round 19.