Little Goffy

Harry McKay would cost too much for someone who we couldn't have confidence in. Already contracted to 2030. Complex injury history. Lots of form variability overall, including his kicking at goal which drifts from exemplary to comedic and back twice a season. 27 years old and he's only ever cracked 50 goals in one season, compared to Ben Brown for example, who had kicked 60 goals in three consecutive season before injury put him on the outer at North and he came to us to pinch-hit for a premiership. I'd place more optimism in getting Van Rooyen back to form and lifting Jefferson's confidence. Oh dear, I just checked and McKay is listed as 'knee, 4 to 6'. The curse must be averted, we must not take him, for his own good.

The inability to google something before demanding answers and a pound of flesh is something of a clue.

Starts a thread demanding to see management.

It would seem that ever since he made the secret agreement to come back to Melbourne, it has really lifted his mood and form.

For the benefit of Essendon fans I think the table should be cut to just the last 20 years, instead of being tweaked just to include their 2000 premiership. So just looking at H&A tallies we would be; Deleting 21 wins for year 2000, then 17, 12, 13 and 12 to through to 2004. We can restart the tally from 2005. Making it 274 - 75 = 199, with zero premierships and zero finals wins. From 2005 on, Essendon have only seven more H&A wins than us, despite us going through realistically the darkest period of any still-living club. Plus, we have won six finals including a premiership. It was obvious that the original author of the chart had skewed it to make Essendon look better, or relevant, so I just had to burn it.

Sometimes I wonder if other clubs experience the same degree of recognisable factors or moments where things turned. Some critical factor that went wrong and had a disproportionate or decisive effect on our season. I'm thinking back as far as 2006 and the two losses to abject misery Carlton - remembering they had only 1 win and a draw that season except for beating us both times. Even splitting the wins would have been enough to put us in the top 4. Was it two goals in the final 42 seconds which St Kilda kicked to beat us and cost us finals. One key pattern is dropping our heads when we feel destiny has been taken out of our hands. The marker for that one for me is when Lloyd took a dive and earned a double-goal in the 2004 elimination final. We were still in front, we had just kicked seven goals in a quarter, but it was like our blood went cold.

I thought there'd be more discussion of this here. Glancing at his responsibilities, which include vague portfolios touching umpiring, mystery operations, ball-tracking technology and other things, you'd have to say his time at the palace hasn't been a success. I do wonder to what extent it is his own failures and to what extent he was simply handed the [censored] bags to carry. If there's any possibility he'll get cranky and spill on all the trash going on at AFLHQ, I'd be keen. Could Demonland invite him for the 'great historic podcast which brings down the regime'?

Right. Time to let a bee out of my bonnet. Tom McCarthy. Just shy of his 25th birthday, taken in the mid-season draft. Close to nil salary and almost as little 'investment' in his development by the AFL system over the years. Had an actual real-person job until about four weeks ago. 31 disposals, at 93% efficiency, NINE intercepts, just short of 600m gained. Clearly BoG for his side and possibly for the game. So my question, with additional reference to other second-tier upgrades as well as top-performing kids, is... What is the $20-30m a year, per club, of player salaries and football department budget actually getting?

Well, that game simplifies things. From here on, any niggle of significance and the player gets rested. Anyone not fit gets to take some time to do a mid-season pre-season, and spots in the 22 have to be skewed to commitment to the best methods even ahead of talent. Of course, the trouble with that is it will result in more blowouts and excessive use of caps lock in footy forums. We can only hope the club is mature enough to push through that and keep the focus on 2026.

I mean... 'unrealistic attempt but he touched it' it is a cool call, too. The trouble is, the umpiring gets inside our heads. A few decisions go against us and we stop believing we control our own destiny. Incredibly, has been a problem since as far back as the Daniher years.

Gee umpire, that was a big call.

Yeeeep, that one got me cranky. It was as if he thought just moving through the same space was enough, without any need to put the clamp on or make body-on-body impact. So many fumbles and slips and misses like that this quarter. Feels like we're getting 20% off the best from almost the whole team. Between that and the commentators it hardly looks like it has been a 3 goal to 1 quarter.

Fair point and true, but in the grand scheme of things to come back and bite us, a flag will have do to!

Omen watch - Port's dopey little fireworks blew smoke directly down the Port Adelaide race and into the rooms. Strong chance it'll set off their sinuses and inflame their sniffles. The Port Adelaide song played the second verse. Nothing good can come of that.

Hmm, 'get smashed and surely Hinkley gets the sack', makes me wonder if we should take the foot off the throat once we're about 4 goals up, just to keep Port middling for another few seasons. Of course, taking the foot off the throat once we're four goals up is what we do all the time anyway, so no problem, Hinkley lives another day.

Proudly flying the flag is no 'wee indulgence'! @Dee in a Kilt I salute you!

You've inspired me. Explaining the scoring system; "Dis a goal, and disapoint" Also "I've go next to a goal, but also next to nothing" It'll be a great night in the AFL corporate box. Legal vs Operations, decided by the umpiring committee.

There is no point to having the Essendon football club in the Australian Football League. For everything we might enjoy hating them for, we already have their spiritual mirror Carlton, who provide much more amusing nonsense and dysfunction along the way and whose fans at least have a soul so we know they are hurting. You could almost have a schadenfreude scale; How much to you enjoy/what margin does it take to really savour X team losing? Hawks I would feel some contentment whenever their fans were forced to sit through a final quarter with no real prospect of winning. Collingwood I would want to see them really get found out before I cared, but, yeah, I would enjoy that. Essendon... I would need Essendon to lose by at least 100 before it felt anything at all. They're someone else's cardboard box on the shared stairs. Of zero interest in itself, just a minor obstacle you wish someone would get rid of.

We actually engaged in a kind of time warp where we got Steven May's best four years in exchange for Jesse Hogan's worst four. Full credit to Hogan, he's currently on target (so very, very on target, and for the second consecutive year) to kick more goals this season than he did for the entirely of his unhappy and injured 2019-2022 period. Remember that Freo traded him to GWS for pick 54. Like so many stories of football success, GWS presence in the finals is built on Fremantle's failure to engage with a top-talent player and having to trade them away for peanuts.

"Straight kicks in or straight sets out."

Looks like GWS either didn't get the memo, or are the only club which did! 8 goals straight to half time, against 8.10 by Brisbane. Annoying because GWS slipping is kind of our last gate into the finals, so it would be helpful if they kicked a little more sloppily. Cadman and Hogan with 3 each, I suspect we have another exhibit for the 'let forwards be forwards' campaign.

One must recall that Picket Fence is a professional revolutionary dedicated to the global overthrow of Goodwinist regimes, and all intermediate happiness is merely a barrier to the one true happiness of a Goodwinless nirvana.

Personally I think it is cool that they are having a traditional round where the football is only on the actual weekend.

I instinctively like him, think he can develop into a solid versatile defender. Unlikely to be a superstar but neither are a great many players who build 200-game careers and are part of important moments.

Surely Petty back, May forward.