Little Goffy

I see the clues and check in with my brain but all I hear is crickets.

Dewey-Decimal? Those annoying QR code things at cafes? A legitimised chain of command in time of declared war?

I'm trying to get my conspiracy theory hat to sit right but I can't quite get the angle. Seems to be some patterns to our recruiting; Often a some overlap with King's career, obviously. Frequent connections to AFL HQ. Some ex-Collingwood flavour. Made redundant from a recently started position during Covid. Coincidentally, not eligible for JobKeeper. There are also multiple coaches on our panel who have held senior coach or club management positions at the lower grades. That's hardly unusual but I like that it is pervasive and even turning up in our recruiters. Interesting that Shane Joules has worked with two of our other new arrivals, Ned Guy and Jared Rivers. Guy at HQ and Rivers at Collingwood 2017. Opposition analyst: Shane Joules VFL coach: Jared Rivers ANOTHER thing I find interesting is that Joules also has some cross experience. He could end up featuring on every thread on Demonland. 2023 - now Schools and Innovative Venue Growth Lead (Vic) @ AFL - Australian Football League 2022 - 2023 Recreation and Open Space Planner @ Nillumbik Shire Council 2021 - 2021 Sports Operations Coordinator @ Caulfield Grammar School

AFL website write-up afl.com.auBig names star in new behind-the-scenes docuseriesThe AFL will be shown to the world in a new docuseries on Prime VideoWell, okay. With a little luck it'll be okay and it could be interesting to see Gawn 'at work', rather than in an explicitly media-front context. I guess they picked a good season to document. Also, I think I may have found the problem in AFL HQ. Exhibit A "AFL Executive General Manager Customer, Commercial and Technology". I'm going to go with 'title inflation and fiefdom building' for $100, thanks. Exhibit B "Final Siren is an important asset as the AFL continues to grow its reach"

Great timing for a reappearance of this magnificent thread. 'Even Littler Goffy' has started solids this week and after Jackson Pollocking some sweet potato mash and then showing table-banging enthusiasm for rice porridge, pureed carrot and even 'boiled to hell' broccoli bits, it is time for his first sweet item. Enter the Banana. Updates as news breaks on this momentous occasion.

I own 2026. I have it all figured out except the coach and some of the players.

Thinking about it, I wouldn't be surprised if 2026 was a 'big push' kind of year for our list management. I could even see Taylor having an agreement with family to go maximum effort for the year and then retire or semi-retire. A major clearout has already been done. A new coach will have a season to assess the players and how the list overall stacks up against what he wants to build. At the end of the year multiple veterans will be out of contract as well as Chandler, Sparrow and Fristch from the mid-age range (Fritsch will never be old. It's the hair of Dorian Gray, y'know). A dozen young players with very wide variables of what they can become, from realistic expectation guns to later picks with high upsides. Two first round picks to work with and likely a mandate to trade into 2026 with reckless urgency. Several very interesting free agents to work on, and the salary cap space to approach them credibly. Tasmania about to blow a three year hole in all list management, everywhere. Go big in 2026 because after that sheer dumb luck will become a much bigger factor.

It does have an artist's signature in the bottom left. Hard to decipher, especially if the circle flourish incorporates extra letters. Nooyal?

So long as they get head circumference correct it is all fine. Nurse slipped with the measuring tape once and I spent 24hrs looking up infant microcephaly. Not entirely off topic there as I am curious about the 'lesser' or niche biometrics. Dustin Fletcher being the textbook case of playing taller on account of slightly disproportionate arm length letting him get spoils which non-mutants would not. There also used to be a theory about certain kinds of sinewy body, again with Fletcher an archetype, which were better at recovery and long term resilience. The biologist part of me wants to test if there's a correlation between how far apart the eyes are and which roles players tend to fill. Science says there should!

Surely there's a Mick Gordon remix of Palladio out there somewhere? That'll brown a few seats. Disclaimer: I'm very much in the 'enough with the stupid noise war' section of the crowd.

I do also wonder how often the heights are updated. Really came to my attention when I was doing the 'cursed 192cm' teaser team. AFLTables and Footy wire had just slightly different heights for various players, and sometimes Wikipedia disagreed with both. The AI auto response... well... As for weights, the only available source just says 'we are all beautiful just the way we are except Stacey from 8th grade who is a [censored] [censored], I can't wait for the reunion, I bet she's a total uggo now'.

Good news everyone! Clarry looks kind of frumpy in the bright orange GWS training bib! Definitely warrants poking this thread along. ;) I do appreciate the glorious grammatical clanger in the fantasy write-up section related to him; "...last two years at Melbourne weren't been memorable ones". The article did make me look at his recent fantasy form, and for all that it is meaningless, it does interest me that in 2025 he had only two individual games which came within 20% of his average fantasy/supercoach output for 2020-23. He's dropped from top-3 fantasy midfielder to the fringe of the top 50. afl.com.auGiants' Fantasy preview: Must-have defender, keep an eye...There are plenty of GWS players to consider as part of your 2026 Fantasy team

Yeah, Boweserpower, you absolutely did attack them personally. The share of population happy to just roll their eyes an keep walking at another round of 'no offence meant but your face looks like a witch cursed you' is shrinking every year. You'll also want to cut out the facetious and condescending 'appreciate the chat though' right after delivering yet another 'I hear that people think you suck' comment. Demonland worked hard to lift the standards and doesn't need people going around dropping pebbles in shoes.

@tilly18 has come through overnight for the third prize, which is to have your choice of current Demons (of those eligible for the rising star award) to come to your house and brush the cobwebs off. For a small additional fee your stuff will get too carried away a bit early and all left out on the field. And the answer to the teaser is, of course, obviously; All the players received a rising star nomination against the Demons. As for the dark times and good times? In 2012 an amazing four players earned their Rising Star nomination against us in a single season, with five more coming across '13 and '14. In contrast, in 2021 not a single opposition player earned a rising star nomination against us. And recalling a classic debate of the MFCSS academy - Aside from those particularly gruesome years, and oddly enough 2002-3 which saw seven nominations in two seasons, we've been mostly normal for the rate of rising star nominations against us, which statistically should be a bit over 1 per season. But where we do seem to have an irritating quirk is letting young players break open our defence, with a surprising host of forwards getting their nomination against us, even w Including, since 2020; Murphy Reid (eventual winner 2025), with 1 goal 2, and 8 score involvements. Well, at least we weren't the only ones with Reid, but... Ashton Moir, 4 goals, which is a third of his goal tally from 11 games. Jye Amiss, 3 goals, and three running bounces if you don't mind. Logan McDonald, 3 goals (of just 15 for the season) and 9 score involvements. Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, 5 goals of 18 for the season - for the rest of that season his numbers were Weidemanly. Izak Rankine, 3 goals 3 behinds, a quarter of his score for the season. Mitch Georgiades, 3 goals, with his other six games for the season tallying a total of five more. Justin McInerney, 2 goals, 2 goal assists and 2 contested marks. The first time he registered any of these stats.

You could massively and easily add to the value of this stat by having a cross-reference with how many games the relevant players played in 2025. For example; Billings: 172 games total, 1 game in 2025. Mihocek: 159 and 22. Still, even then, it isn't all that informative.

I've been away attending to 'baby in a Sydney heatwave' management issues, apologies for the delay. Baby seems content at this time! Let's be clear on one thing, the quiz is not related to Habsburg inbreeding or anyone else's. Time for an actually good clue. All these players have something in their trophy cabinet which connects them to the Melbourne Football Club. A few may have tossed it out to make room for other, much more impressive, tokens. No it is not the X series runner up trophy.

They forever crave the Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Steve Waugh successor. They continue to demand the form but cannot get the function.

A gorgeous cousin AND you can keep the inheritance safely in the family? Commendations for a very well-chosen name, Sequoia, for a family tree that is just a big straight line.

Second place has been claimed by @demon-4-life. Prize is full cover in the event that his home is damaged by players blowing the roof off.

Small beans, @Go Ds . You've got to clear the full A.E.I.O.U, the classic Habsburg dynasty latin motto which translates to 'Go big or marry your cousin'. (Full credit to Useless AFL Stats)

CONGRATULATIONS @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew for adjusting his reticle and pinpointing the answer. I hope he can rest easy now in the knowledge that his home is fully covered by Little Goffy Insurance Services, with as new replacement on all dwellings reduced to rubble by pre-season training. Terms and conditions apply. Sometimes at random. Offer excludes ironies such as houses trained down by clubs in rebuild mode. Meanwhile, @demon-4-life is stalking the same trail as Timothy Reddan-A'Blew followed. And it is time for a clue! Those who suffered the worst yet still paid attention to football will have learned the most! A fairweather fan who never knew pain would also never gain wisdom!

Cricket Australia rejecting spin? Now we've seen everything. (Just a little joke there, see what I did?) But seriously, not taking the chance to develop our spin bowling options will haunt us. There's going to be a series soon enough where pitches favour spin or simply the opposition batters get their eye in against pace and we'll having nothing else to give.

Let's play the 'media tasks which have been reduced to slop because executives think AI can make a judgement call and now even when a human does it they are expected to half-4rs3 it' game. May I add a resounding obscene gesture to this thread? It has taken me... 3 minutes to find the following; Round 2, 2021 - Oliver, Petracca and Pickett go 3-2-1 for brownlow votes, which might be a little harsh on Steele who was the Saints' leading goalkicker with 3, as well as easily leading their contested possession count with 14 of his total 25, and six tackles. How could any broadcaster overlook the opportunity to combine showing a new recruit with showing the very peak of the two stars who have just left? For a more recent runner up - Round 17, 2023 - Thirty-one disposals, 12 tackles and a goal. On a day where Petracca kicked four straight and Steven May got three brownlow votes!

As requested, I trawled through the options and have found perhaps the most "23rd-playerish" of all possible 23rd players. We all remember him affectionately but nobody is quite sure why - the great Kepler Bradley. Meanwhile, poor @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew has drawn a neat circle on the target but not the dot in the middle. Pretty sure the main purpose of these quizzes is a personally vendetta against his sanity. An early and probably useless clue is that there may be a bit of MFCSS history here. Indeed, my research for the team will throw a little light on the conjecture once the quiz is done.

B Darcy Byrne-Jones Dylan Grimes Andrew Mackie HB Josh Kelly Jarrad Waite Blake Acres C Marc Murphy Trent Cotchin Adam Cerra HF Adam Schneider Charlie Curnow Murphy Reid F Jack Darling Tom Hawkins Izak Rankine Fol Kurt Tippett Ollie Wines Darcy Parish Int Will Ashcroft Jye Amiss Brent Staker Zach Williams Coach: Sam Mitchell It is a new year with new beginnings for all. The perfect time to rake over old coals and wonder what could have been? No! Although many fit the category, this is not in fact a team of players that Melbourne coulda shoulda woulda had! It isn’t even a feline-themed team, despite the heavy supply of Cats, Tigers, Lions and presumably ‘Blues’ is referring to the adorable floofy domestic breed. A top of the table team for sure, with epic father-sons and some top pick guns, an all-time Rookie list special and also… um… Kurt Tippett? Oh well, you can’t win on every line. So, what does this high quality team from across the 21st century have in common? Answers in private messages only, of course. Winners get free insurance coverage for houses being trained down throughout January.