Little Goffy

North being allowed to play dead for a week to gain an advantage off the field, with the side-effect that their opponent is disadvantaged when they play against eachother the very next week. What could possibly go wrong. Tell you what, Richmond fans will not be very joyous anyway if they get knocked out of the first week of finals for a third year in a row. Last year it was over after 20 minutes, against Port, and the year before that Carlton (who should never have been there) kicked six goals to two in the final quarter after being behind all day. There will be very ugly scenes if North, with all their cherry ripe players, finish hard and come back from behind to steal the win in the final quarter after being beaten all day. Wise North supporters would have an exit plan to get out before the siren unleashes hell. Throw in the mooted transport strike as the crowds are leaving and there could be an actual football riot. How does that play out for 'preserving the reputation of the game'?

See also Jason Akermanis. Brownlow medallist, critical part of triple-premiership era. Champion of the game. Would love a player of his type on our list. But he's an absolute [censored].

No denying Vickery is playing a breakout game against a determined opponent in the crucial stages of a major crunch match tonight. Hmm, might have to edit that sentence for accuracy. Just remove a few excess words and here we go - - a breakout game - against a determined opponent - in the crucial stages - of a major crunch match So that leaves; "No denying Vickery is playing ... tonight"

http://www.troll.me/meme/troll-why-u-so-stupid

Figured I should watch it before I judged... At first I was just ready to drum my fingers at the usual statements that began to wear thin quite a few years ago. But there is something very sincere about him. Little phrases like "losses that take you to a dark place" aren't quite normal and suggest that the thought really belongs to himself, not an automatic blather. Maybe I'm just in a good mood now because of the highlights shown in the video.

Comedians all of us. We've got em Rioliing in the aisles.

In North's case they could be seen as doing a little more than just resting players to be fresh - they have a specific fixturing advantage to be gained by losing, and have taken actions which make it almost certain that they will lose. They've done it overtly and blatantly, much as Hawthorn, Collingwood and Carlton all overtly and blatantly tanked back when it was socially acceptable, before captain impulse-into-obsession Demetriou decided to spend two years beating a dead issue up 'so that it can be put behind us'. (Wow, that guy was a walking oxymoron!) Point is, what's acceptable comes down to mood. And the mood right now is 'Whatever'. there have been so many dead rubbers and one-sided pointless games this season that nobody is going to get too worked up about a couple more.

That new cap of 90 is on stupid rule variations and arbitrary unannounced interpretations, right?

It's a fine and important point. When I saw the thread title I just thought 'sour grapes thread', but when looked at from the position that our penalties and humiliation came because of conversations had about the desirability of not winning, there's something that sticks. What chance a few Freo players or coaches have read Titus O'Reiley's article 'Boss gives half of staff week off, sends rest to Adelaide', and made it a little running joke? Calling the players who do get sent over 'the Punishment Battallion'. What are the chances that the property steward and travel planner at North started asking about what might needed for the potential trip to Adelaide, and there were a few jokes about 'oh, I don't think you'll need to worry about that'. It's a funny thing, but Richmond have now been the 'victim' of an opponent tanking several times. I think each of Collingwood, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Carlton and now North have 'failed to fully compete' against Richmond. Coincidentally, Richmond are the only club of the 5-game-line era (other than Melbourne following the Kreuzer Cup) which have missed out on a top priority pick by just 1 game. I'm sure it is just a statistical blip and that tanking was not a normal occurrance...

There was always a sense with Petterd that he could become a really dangerous player, something creative. I'm glad he got a few years of AFL football in, after ejecting from the Demons. Enough to at least prove he wasn't a dud, that he just had a couple of weaknesses that stopped him really building a major career.

Jason Akermanis thinks Jason Akermanis would be a great coach. Roos hasn't met my expectations and has disappointed me with the evasiveness and foolish snark at the supporters, but I'm pretty confident he's a good coach. At least I don't think he's going to Malthouse us! I wonder what TGR thinks of bringing in Aker as a coach? Would certainly help balance out the 'introvert' issue he's obsessed with.

I'm disappointed as I have huge respect for the guy and he has been an excellent contributor in his two years with us. I can't imagine he will have much bitterness to the club though, given he got two more years with us than the Bulldogs would allow him, and he has had his path to coaching smoothed. Really hope he stays on. Playing assistant coach at Scorps / Demon's development coach?

Interesting. He's younger (24), taller (190cm) and lighter (82kg) than I thought he was. Numbers are very similar to in-form Dom Tyson - Lots of tackles, lots of clearances. All-round good on 1%ers, rebound 50s and inside 50 stats for a general-purpose midfielder. Most impressively, he's been super-consistent season by season for five years already. Definitely worth investigating. Obviously wouldn't give pick 5, but our second pick plus a player of moderate value (can't think of any right now... ) would seem a reasonable trade for a want-away.

McLean, Syliva, Moloney, and Read all came into the club about the same time and... ah gee, it really is sarcasm week for me. Something about hardening us up and getting the big results, dominating stoppages and all that. Yep. Super. As for the Dockers and West Coast mobs,... who knows. More sunlight means more muscle growth? More time at the beach means more motivation to get ripped and show off? We'll see what happens to the Gold Coast kids in the next couple of years.

Indeed! And being a respectful mob, I don't think there will be many gatecrashing the party on sunday!

This Roos guy is brilliant, to identify so early on that here is still a fair bit of list turnover left to be done. Presumably the point of the article is really just to soften the supporters up as the club gets ready to move on some familiar faces. I wonder Howe soon we'll find out which high profile players are headed for the Dawes.

Ha ha, Scully has been one of the top contributors to our development in the last five years, bringing us our best player! He is almost emblematic of The Sarcasm Cup.

Tragically, I wont be able to make it to the 'G... erm... sorry.. Etihad, for our final erm.. 'home' game of the season, against traditional rival Greater Western Health Service Statistical District. I've gritted my teeth and pushed through these last few ignominious rounds but now there's the hard fact that we are done, this nothing game is all that is left for the Demons in 2015. There's no time to recover dignity or salvage the season if we cop another casual thumping. And let's be honest, a win would be pretty hollow, against another team which has clearly packed up for the season. Jesse Hogan has slipped out of the race to lead the league in contested marks, as well as now being out of reach of making top-10 goalkickers, so even the silly little stats watching is over. There doesn't seem to be any prospects of a final-round farewell for any of our departing players, either, as they just haven't sustained the form to warrant selection. Is anyone planning on going? I was thinking the best thing to do with this game would be turn up with smiley-face masks and banners. Ugh, I'm just disgusted.

Honestly, we can make six delistings without affecting the pool we are drawing our match-day 22 from. It's a comforting though that our list is surely not going to go backwards in the off-season! I'm of the 'Howe looks gone' opinion and would be happy if we were able to package him either with our second round pick (23ish) to gain an extra pick in about the middle of the first round, or even with our third round pick to get an extra one at the start of round 2. E.g. Howe and 3rd rounder to the Gold Coast (one rumoured destination) for their start of 2nd round pick. Giving us something like 5, 20 and 25. Then a big gap to late in the draft where we can speculate wildly, which is fine because all the phantom drafts and commentary seem to be saying 'throw a blanket over everything after pick 40, anyone's guess'. I'd love for us to get Francis (5) and Hibberd (20/25) and in the process seal up our defensive stocks alongside McDonald (The Mcdonalds?) for a decade. Particularly as they are both rated for their composure and skill by foot. I'm sure that will horrify the many who (for clearly good reasons) want us to urgently prioritise midfielders. I have two reasons - First, we have so many prospective midfielders who for youth or injury reasons couldn't be expected to be big contributors this year. Trengove and Petracca most obviously. Then each of Salem, Vandenberg, Neal-Bullen, Stetch, Harmes, Newton and Kent. That's serious scope for improvement from 9 young midfielder, discounting any expectations of growth from Brayshaw or a return to form from Tyson. Second, 2016 Free agency! Rich, Sidebottom, Pendlebury, Ziebell, Hartlett, and Hannebery all come into Free Agency, as well as a handful of worthy veterans. I for one would not blink at offering 5-year, 750k/year contracts to both Sidebtoom and Hannebery, for a start. But when it comes to mobile tall defenders capable of really defending and then rebounding with poise, we're pretty shot at the moment. The adequate-at-best options we've got are getting old, and there's little future prospect to be found already on on our list.

Some might argue that 20-year-olds are better served by being allowed to concentrate on developing their game, than are 200-game veteran 27 year olds. Some might suggest that selecting 20/21 year old captains doesn't have a great recent track record. Some might argue [censored] the [censored] off with your sniping at Jones for having a few bad games in a poor season. Still clearly an excellent player who does not shirk and is a genuine role model for professionalism, commitment and culture.

Clearly it should be Oscar McDonald.

I'm going to try for sarcasm instead of just simple negativity. From the after-match press conference; "Melbourne are learning lessons from the top teams. In particular, they've seen at first hand that the top teams only need to make an effort for about 40 minutes a game".

Can anyone tell me what happened to Nathan Jones? Stats are saying 5 disposals, 5 clangers, and 0% effective?

Hey, I just got home, how's things going? Oh. Don't worry auto-mods, I'll just write [censored] myself. I gather Freo chirped along happily to a ten goal to nothing lead then put the cue in the rack? Still, we may yet break through a couple of the benchmarks for positivity! 1. Get a goal each quarter. Ok, nope. 2. Lose by less than ten goals. On target provided Freo keep napping for the last quarter. 3. Score seven goals. Nearly there! 4. Goal accuracy over 40%. On target! Hey, that's a possible three out of four benchmarks! Gotta be positive about that, yeah?

I guess the club rated him higher than pick 88 in a weak draft. (I say that just to help anyone who feels like slagging off about him can get a little perspective and calm down a bit.) Good to see that the club wont throw out all their eggs in one basket with the bathwater before the chickens have hatched. (I say that because I'm secretly auditioning to be on a footy TV discussion panel)