Little Goffy

Well, I guess the paleo diet is certainly an improvement on the David Boon diet. It was always made pretty clear that players were not going onto any 'strict' version of the diet. The basics of it are hardly revolutionary - eat foods rich in complex nutrients, avoid bulk-produced/refined/depleted foods. Once you modify it to include more carbohydrates (as the players were advised), it is barely distinguishable from 'eat good quality food'. The Paleo diet is a fad presentation of mostly basic nutrition with a few added bits of 'dramatic' change just to feed into some people's need to manufacture a sense of rigid control and 'achievement'. In contrast, the 'bonus' things that have also been promoted by the paleo chef guy are mostly total cr4p and quackery, some even being properly harmful. It's a lot like Oprah, really. Mostly just banalities dressed up as if they are special, but pretty troubling around the edges. The other question of course is, which paleo diet to eat? Are tomatoes, potatoes and maize out? Carrots took a while to get away from Afghanistan. Should we be eating guinea pigs, bonobos or just dogs? Is it avocado in and oranges out, or the other way around. Y'know, it's almost as if the human capacity for omnivore diets is a defining feature of our success as a species. Possibly there was also some kind of thing we learnt to do that completely changed our relationship with food and set us on an unprecedented developmental path...

The loss of Mitch Clark was damaging because he was, and is still, exactly the kind of player we could use - tall forward capable of roaming the ground, and also relieving effectively in the ruck. So be it. By the same token, Howe is exactly the kind of player we have no need for at all. If we get Freeman, there's a chance he'll be a perfect addition to our one-paced midfield. We'll probably come out ahead even if he barely plays a game for two years then gets delisted. We'll have saved, what, $250k a year? I know at least one other "J.H." I'd much rather have that money available for.

I don't much care about the Carlisle trade in itself, I don't see him as being a value fit for us, but... wow, it all stinks. - St Kilda are clearly dreaming, and so obviously that it is embarrassing. They want him, but don't rate him worth any picks. Has their list management been taken over by forum posters? - Carlisle crapping on his club is just another round of poor form from players (not that Essendon warrant any loyalty from their players), and a failure of the AFL to adapt trading to accommodate everyone transparently. - Hawthorn being able to target such a quality player under their salary cap raises real questions about whether the salary cap is still very effective, given the 'value' of non-salary benefits different clubs can offer. Seriously, how much can someone on 500k really care about an extra 100k? It becomes money for money's sake.

Frankly, right now I just want to get that git off our list and make him someone else's problem. Can we trade him to GC on the understanding that he'll chuck such a sook-fit that they'll want to get rid of him and on-trade him right away?

They were heady days in 2009. Sylvia, Morton, Jones, Mclean and Grimes all clocked 20+ disposals a game and looked like the core of a well balanced young midfield, with Clint Bartram considered one of the best young taggers around. Watts was still an unknown and exciting forward prospect, Jurrah was sending everyone cross-eyed, and Petterd was shaping as the ideal medium forward. Even Bate looked dangerous and capable. Rivers and Frawley were standing up as the kind of tall defenders who can win premierships - which they have both done, oddly enough. And when those videos were made, we were on our way to the draft with 4 picks in the first round. We finished the next season with 8 wins, one draw, and a percentage of 94.5. It really wasn't crazy to believe in a great future in October 2009. Seriously Django has the pain of recent season just been so much that you've suppressed the trauma of watching golden promises turn to ash? We weren't crazy, we were robbed.

I smirked. A real Peter Costello level smirk. I felt bad after. No.

Fair point. Maybe we're not trading because what we've got is better than what they've got. Eerie.

A whole surge of videos like that were made by some quite skilled amateurs, during the surge of optimism in 2009. This first one will break you heart for the irony of the hope and the players who feature. The second one is more precisely what you are talking about - the weaving of history into present. The third is similar to the second but a little more upbeat. Melbourne Football Club - Dog Days Are Over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fyap0IWMIg Melbourne Football Club - I and Love and You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcJR_FBpjTk Melbourne Football Club - Fly One Time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZegpPlNaG0If I recall correctly, the author of a few of these (on youtube as MFCNOW) impressed the club so much that he was given a number 31 jumper signed by Barassi specifically for the occasion. So, if there's anyone out there keen to make a fresh one, get to it!

The sheer volume of smaller trades, combined with the total non-surprise of the big trades, the continuous reporting of non-events as if they are major, and the fact that most of it is between who-cares clubs, are probably what has you feeling droopy.

Not a whole lot of gain for GWS, but I guess it is worth them doing it. Meanwhile, to the spuds saying we should compare Melksham to pick 8, you did read the part about Essendon giving TWO picks, right? So at the very least the comparison should be - Melksham. v Half of whatever Essendon manage to get with/for pick 8. Eh, if they're doing it, I guess its a smart move by Essendon. But not half the heist of Scully, Tyson, Hogan or Viney, all of which involved some 'creative diplomacy' with GWS, so I'm not crying.

The moment a thread mentions "Prestia is a certainty" I decide silly season is open and anyone can have a go. So... Pick 6 and Howe for Sidebottom? (Just because it would be hilarious) In other madness, I wonder if the possible Carlisle-Hawthorn trade would squeeze a decent player out due to salary cap? We'd be doing well if we grabbed one of the Hawks speedy sabres.

It's just as well we're about to be one of the top clubs, eh.

Their pouting will reach across the Nullabor if in next year's finals West Coast plays Geelong (plausible) and Selwood, who they got 37(?) for, locks down Redden who they paid pick 17 for.

I'm picturing a wonderful 'Where's Wally' kind of image of every single AFL player at end of season running around in every direction trying to assemble at the club they think is going to do best the next year. Maybe players could form sub-club-clubs, where eight or nine players get together and offer their services collectively. "Wanna buy a premiership, we got one, right here." You would also of course need to end the draft, and have 18 year-olds being signed to their club of choice based on salary, facilities, and sales pitch skill. Your proposal is a lot like the 'shock therapy' introduction of a market economy in Russia. "Just do it all at once, sink or swim" they said. Much like in Russia, it would result in a decline in overall population as hundreds of thousands of old people die lonely quiet deaths in winters without any heating, while the entire huge state asset base, royalty rights and mining leases are carved up by whoever has the best connections at the time. And there would be an inevitable oligarchy at the top which would dominate all new changes and use their leverage to consolidate their advantages, reducing the entire free market experiment to a sham run by corruption and cronyism within a decade. At first I thought the analogy was a little bit of a stretch, but actually... yup. (Except for the mass death, but that's a Russian tradition.)

Player movement with the option of using a transparent, consistent trade arbitration system would clean up an awful lot of the mess. Of course, at the moment it is very hard to advocate for anything centrally administered given the current governance culture of the AFL. Basic principles - Players should be allowed to leave a club; they are not the property of a club just because they were drafted. Clubs losing players should get 'draft/list value' equivalent compensation to allow them to balance players lost with replacements. Clubs gaining players must be made to pay a 'draft/list value' cost to prevent the creation of a super-incentive to recruit from other clubs rather than drafting kids. The only really tricky part is how to set the 'cost' of a transfer. Clearly, it is insufficient to just say salary = value. * One option is to add a premium based on the destination club's football department expenditure. Remembering that the rich-poor club gap in footy dept budgets can exceed $100k per player. * Another modifier which might be used is the number of recent draftees at a club; committing every club to having an investment in developing new AFL talent. If you're not developing new talent then you pay an additional premium to bring it in from somewhere else. This would implicitly and gently increase free agency costs for teams which already have a large group of mature players, while also easing the costs for teams going through a draft-based rebuild. It is a direct counter to the 'feeder-club' concerns of free agency. * Retention should be rewarded, for both player and club. Its good for the game and the fans to be able to build enduring connections and confidence. The old veterans list structure was a bit clunky and arbitrary, but an incremental salary cap bonus rewarding players for career service with a club would be a nice small incentive. Maybe for every year beyond eight that a player is with a club, 5% of their salary is exempt from salary cap. Drafted at 18, by the time you're 30/31 a quarter of your salary is a free bonus for club and player. This both encourages retention AND extends careers. Good for everyone!

I don't know if it is fair to call someone who can be among the bests in a semi-final with David Mundy and Luke McPharlin alternating on him 'very very ordinary'. Brad Miller, we remember! You're more than just the sum of your appealingly smoothed head-shape.

Is someone who keeps demanding to be the center of attention really a 'leader'? Isn't that kind of 'leadership' implicated as why Brisbane keep leaking young players? If leadership means a massive ego and expecting the team to plan around your game, then sure, no thanks to that. If leadership means understanding the plan and working to it, being able to explain and reinforce it to your teammates, being able to build their confidence and knowledge of what they need to do, strengthening the bond and candor between teammates, and taking responsibility for both what you need to do and what you have failed to do, then yep, gimme a leader in every position. Cameron Ling, Jude Bolton, Lenny Hayes, James McDonald, Robert Murphy, Darren Glass, Chris Grant, and dare I say it, even Paul Roos. I don't think a team with the likes of them would have too much difficulty working together.

Kids cost more than veterans as they need more coaching to learn team rules, professionalism, recovery, training techniques (such as not injuring yourself doing lifts), diet management etc etc etc etc etc. #averageisthedevilsstatistic

Interesting. I'm the exact opposite. In a weak draft I'd want the 'extra pick' option rather than the 'earlier pick' option. It's a bit like a couple of years ago with the Tyson-Salem bonus. Looking at that draft it seemed like there was a cluster of good players from about pick 5 to 12, then a drop away. This time, it seems that first big drop-away is early and significant, and after that there's just a whole bunch of players who would normally be though of as second rounders. I guess what I'm saying is, the 'value peak' of the Salem draft was the 5-12 cluster, and the 'value peak' of this draft looks like being 20-30. I also acknowledge that all may sound like total gibberish.

Kiyosaki? Robert Kiyosaki, the self-help get-rich snake-oil man? Oh goody, the plan for Toumpas now is to max out all his credit sources and fling his money at random short-return investments? Forbes magazine added a lovely subtitle to his most famous work. "Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Bankrupt dad." To quote from an article there: The tips ran the gamut from ridiculous to illegal and downright hurtful and included advocating for insider trading, arguing for the purchase of multiple real estate properties with little or no money down and telling followers they could purchase stocks on margin via unfunded brokerage accounts. His only successful 'business' is selling self-help seminars and books to the gullible, but most leave happy because now they have some rhetoric to help them feel smug and look down on those worse off, how they are clearly just 'risk-averse' and 'stuck in a comfort zone'. Please, let's not let that man's garbage start infecting our players. They'll start undermining eachother's game just to open up more salary cap room for themselves. Young players 'strategically' making the showers run cold so that rivals for a spot in the 22 miss a week to illness. And most certainly, performance enhancing drugs.

Indeed. This season Howe was expected to play a disciplined team role, work hard and make a real difference to games instead of adding a bit of colour. In direct contrast to those saying Howe has been 'limited' by Melbourne's complacent culture, I'd argue that he is leaving precisely because that culture is changing and he isn't liking it. I'd be amused if he ended up at Hawthorn. Would be a Colin Sylvia repeat. Where does he fit into their roles of; Ball winner: nope Ball user: nope Marking target: sporadically and spectacularly, but nope Goalkicker: nope Intercepting defender: kinda, sorta, but nope Shut-down defender: nope When you consider that the entire Hawthorn football club best 22 can show at least two of those characteristics to an exceptional standard, where is Howe supposed to fit in?

Why isn't Pendlebury in there? I heard he was a Melbourne supporter growing up, and Pies will want to trade him before his contract expi... Never mind. Why isn't Cyril Rioli in there? He's a really great player who would go really well in our midfield, so would surely jump at the opportunity to really stand out... Never mind. Why isn't... Anyway, is my point made? Who the hell stars a 'status as we enter trade week' thread by including players who are at best unlikely? Wacky. Can we have a rule about closing new threads that instantly contradict their own stated reason for existing?

Ok, so, by every account O'Meara is not a real trade prospect, and it is probably better to wait and see how his recovery goes next season before trying to grab him. Next rumour.

Something about rumours spreading like measles?

I don't hate Howe, I think he's a decent AFL player with room to improve, and I'd be fine with him playing on with us. But it does look like we'll get good value in compensation, if he does go. And the he, or he through his manager, has handled it all makes me feel there is no need to feel any sense of attachment or loyalty. I just hope it all gets resolved quickly and we can move on to more interesting trades, knowing what we have to offer.