Little Goffy

Frawley, Sylvia, Scully. At this rate we'll see Howe leave for more money and someone will give us a top-ten pick for him.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-08-21/five-talking-points-hawthorn-v-port-adelaide "As Wingard was chasing down a ball deep in the Power's forward line, Hodge appeared to catch the Power star high. And to add a wrinkle of complexity to the MRP's job, at the moment of impact Wingard was up against the behind post, with the force of Hodge's bump appearing to knock his head into the post." Remember, that is - "appeared to"... "catch" ... him "high". That's what we're calling a deliberate hip-slam to the back of the head made to an off-balance bent over player while not competing for the ball and requiring a change of momentum to make contact. One of the things most obvious in that gif is the way Hodge clearly set himself to the angle then pushed off from his left foot. In fact, watching the feet, you can see that he jumped into Wingard's head, rather than simply continuing to run. I would be interesting to hear someone argue that was his intended trajectory and Wingard being in the way was an accident, because if Wingard wasn't there, Hodge has just spontaneously changed direction in order to jump into the behind post. Maybe the Hawks are back to their [redacted] habits of old?

I've been looking at Hogan's stats (among others) and decided I'll try to keep my interest up during dead rubber season by cheering on a couple of personal achievement the monster can aim for. First up, he's chasing Tom Hawkins for most contested marks in a season. Currently just 3 behind - 42 to 45. He also needs to pick up five or six goals on a few players in a cluster at 44/45 goals, in order to finish the season in the top 10 goalkickers. Taking the Tom Hawkins comparison and running with it - they are serious hard to split. Some numbers in favour of Hogan, others favouring Hawkins. Main difference is that Hogan seems to spend more time away from goal up the ground. More inside 50s, fewer marks inside 50, that sort of thing. Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on Hawkins and a half-eye on the cluster of other forwards around that top-10 goals mark. Just to observe a little milestone in a big career. Add to all that - Hogan and Cripps are the clear outstanding pair in the running for the Rising Star award. Their comparative games on sunday might be the clincher! Obviously all the decision-makers eyes will be on that game.

Carlton is absolutely bona fide BROKEN. If we lose, it wont be informative about specific deficiencies, it wont guide us on the kinds of players we should be recruiting or the ways we should adjust our tactics. All it will do is give our season a neat piece of punctuation. For history's pages, our season summary reads either; Lose: "Melbourne 2015; a few surprise wins when they were up and their opponents had an off day, but nothing to suggest they are anything more than a perpetual cellar-dweller. Melbourne's wins and losses depend more on the motivation of their opponents than their own ability. Late in the season each of St Kilda, Essendon and Carlton knocked them over on effort alone, and the continuing fragility of the players was exposed by another season featuring 10 and 15 goal losses." Win: "Melbourne 2015; A mid-late season slump between their wins over Geelong and Collingwood cost them games they should have won and leaves the Demons only able to claim incremental improvement in 2015. However, 7 wins, including against some much higher rated opponents, has been enough to set them apart as the best of the group of teams which were not in contention for finals in 2015."

Both Melbourne and the Bulldogs have been blessed to have some seriously capable and driven women in their administration and boards, and they have played a key part in pointing out how it is actually a total no-brainer to invest in developing the playing side of women's participation in football. Think of the simple return on investment maths. The women's exhibition game curtain-raiser, including all of the planning, training, and so on, cost less than one star player to run, and outrated one of the 'main' AFL games. All that was needed was a voice prepared to say that confidently and firmly until it sank in, and we were lucky enough to be one of the first clubs with that voice.

Don't worry Daisycutter, I have plenty of tolerance for monoccular being sexist! I mean, its not like I am saying "football forum posts are only for non-sexist people, and frontline military service is only for curly-haired people with small knees". I likely would have just rolled my eyes and walked on except for the 'I'll probably be accused of being sexist' preamble. If someone is sexist, they need to accept that and not preemptively imply it is unreasonable (dare I say, 'overreacting', 'shrill' etc) for people to say they are sexist.

It is always a bit odd to see this kind of thing in writing, presumably written sincerely. "At the risk of being called misogynistic or sexist"... it is as if you don't understand yet that to say 'some things are for men only and some things are for women only', against all evidence to the contrary, is the very definition of sexist. Benefit of the doubt, I'll assume you aren't misogynistic. That you don't hate women, it is just that you only like them when they are sitting neatly in the box you have allocated to them. Personally, I'll take Daisy Pearce's opinion on women in football over yours.

Binman, politics is really very simple. In the end you can tell everything there is to know about someone based on which Jones they like; Alan or Tony. Choose your favourite windbag - the huff-and-puff or the seeping, low fizz. Although, even in this post there are nuances. I'm now permanently branded a chardonnay-sipping-socialist and/or bourgeois toff because of that semi-colon I used.

If people want to complain about it and challenge it through an established legal process, they'd better move fast before the 'anti-sabotage' laws come in. Or will those only apply at a Commonwealth level? I say this as a lover of due process, transparency and all that, rather than any particular desired outcome. As for the bunkum holiday, as much as it is irritating, it is far from the greatest alarm in the world. Surchage-on-a-teacup kind of thing.

What does it say, Stuie? Does it say "Ahhh, here's someone I can make vague, passive-aggressive condescending comments about"? Speaking of 'what does it say'... if I went through the list of your posts, what portion would be actual opinions or insights and what portion would be this kind of tedious baiting and condescension? What does it say about you that all you say is 'what does it say about you'?

Jake Niall's efforts in The Age are special; "I've been able to come up with a full five players who are definitely good. If I put them in a row I can call them a 'spine'. Essendon are going to be great!" For me, all his pathetic effort did was remind me of the desperate Carlton supporters a decade ago insisting that they had a spine ready to build a team around. A spine that included Whitnall and Livingston, if I recall correctly.

Oh Stuie... that's just embarrassing. Try, please, to be something more than just smugly superior all the bloody time.

As a general rule, public holidays are crap. A nice fat bonus through the year for anyone on a stable annual salary, and all perfectly convenient for anyone engaged in mainstream bunkum collective rituals. It's a pretty profound arrogance to think that everyone else has to take a day off to celebrate that thing that you care about. Hence the Easter football debate and general (but taboo) Christmas irritation. But this... well... it is empty of meaning to say the least. All that is left is a compulsory day off; a special day where the low paid get to go unpaid.

Little saying "I don't accept that we sacked the coach" is comedy gold. "I don't accept that we had a major undocumented injection program" "I don't accept that we did anything illegal" "I don't accept that we did anything dangerous and irresponsible regarding our player's health" "I don't accept that we've wasted millions of dollars defending indefensible positions in court" "I don't accept that the only reason we're not deemed criminals is that all evidence was destroyed" "I don't accept that we are now also a basket case on-field" "I don't accept that we need to sack anyone else from the board" and coming soon; "I don't accept that we are approaching a massive financial crisis, with no reserve funds left, gate takings imploding and sponsors leaving through the windows" Meanwhile, I found the rd 4 carlton-essendon highlights on youtube, and I just can't stop myself from pausing at 2:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZsXiWuZifw&noredirect=1 And like all of us, I'm bitterly disappointed about the loss to Essendon a few weeks ago. It's a strange feeling knowing that we will forever be the answer to the trivia question; "Which club did Essendon beat in it's last ever win?"

I wonder if the timing alongside the TV rights deal is more than just smoke? Opening the option of a friday night grand final for TV audiences? Trying to think of other rationales... hmm... - a long weekend with the grand final in it will encourage people to stay local for their little trips away, boosting Victorian tourism. - by facilitating a general friday night [censored]-up, as accompanies any decent holiday-for-no-reason, hangovers will reduce follow-up drinking and anti-social behaviour on the day. - the day off is aimed at giving emergency services a slower day, and households/business some time to erect barricades, in preparation for the possibility of Richmond losing to Hawthorn - a devastating mixing of bitter rage colliding with force against smug superiority that could leave whole suburbs unrecognisable. I'm also looking forward to Christians, out of respect for the day, agreeing not to engage in any shared prayer activities. Quid Pro Quo for Easter, of course.

Would love to see Tyson, Salem and Newton in against Carlton. Anything resembling a complete and dangerous midfield in red & blue will simply confuse any opponent and buy us some time while they adjust. Add the shock of players who'd rather kick than just handball in a circle to teammates under the same amount of pressure... well, it'll be a wonder if the poor blues can cope.

Pretty clear start for the 'all due respect, but just not AFL level' group. Only Spencer (and he's gone if we land any kind of ruckman by FA/trade) of that group I would rate better than 50/50 to be on the primary list next year, and only Toumpas might get a 're-rookie' slot of the rest. Then there's the layer of 'just barely adequate at AFL level' who need to be kept until some kind of development can be found'. Different people put different players in that group, usually a selection from; Garland, Lumumba, Dunn, Grimes, Pederson, Dawes, Howe, Watts. As we've seen, any one of them could turn around their form, and here's hoping they all do and the Demons are transformed in 2016. BUT if the team overall is improving, they are likely to slip further out, one by one. I think by the end of 2016 almost all of our list cloggers will either have improved or gone. Simon Goodwin will have a whole new set of list cloggers to work with! Yaaaaaaay!

I was unlucky (lucky?) enough to not be able to follow the game on sunday so when I saw he stats with Grimes having so few possessions I was worried about him. I've always valued him and really don't want to see him cut when there are several clear list cloggers to drop first. It was a great relief to know he'd got those numbers from just half a game, but also worrying that he was given the subs' vest. Our defence overall has been pretty 'ordinary' for the most part, this year. Often 'adequate' but certainly not inspiring. Dunn, Lumumba, Garland and Grimes have all just been plodding along. Very few exceptional games from any of them. So many plodders, all over the ground. We have to bring in players who can add a little chaos and danger. Its why I prefer Newton over Riley or Michie, for example. Thankfully there's a few players (E.g. Francis, Balic) around our point in the draft who fit the bill. But one gun won't change much when we need six.

Crowd at Ethiad on a saturday afternoon for Essendon - 25,914. That's with allegedly four times the supporters as Melbourne. I wonder how they'll be going after three more years of being 'cr4p to appalling'? What an interesting AFL scene it would be in Victoria with Carlton & Essendon in the cellar and Collingwood continuing to fade. Lol, the one thing we could be sure of, it would see 'equalisation measures' move way up the agenda.

If the Demons had a fundraiser to set up and properly resource a permanent women's team, I'd be chipping in my little bit for sure.

Been a good few weeks, all considered. We ended Collingwood's season, Trengove is running again at last, and Gawn has written a 3-year-long signature. In our hearts, we all know the contract was written in all caps. It is the only suitable way.

I'm strangely keen for this game. Rationally of course it is possible to point to round 8 and say 'of course it is possible'. But what I'm having fun thinking is "this is a great chance to win two in a row". By winning the 'second' of two in a row before the 'first', we can break the cycle. Similarly, this won't be the first time we win at Etihad, but the temporally reversed last of our run of Etihad wins which are yet to come. I was out in the sun a bit today.

He's had some erros, missed chances he should've taken and failed in a few 50/50s. He's not in the range of Betts or LeCras, BUT He has added an element of danger to our forward line that we haven't had for some years. Now, if an opposition defence screws up, there's a real chance they'll be punished. That affects the whole way a team plays. On track for his best year of AFL and hopefully this is the groundwork for another 5+ good years in the role. Considering what we gave up for him (basically nothing), he's a super bargain. Really happy with Garlett.

Zaharakis from Essedon has had a below-par season for him, is 'untainted' and is a zippy attacking player missing from our midfield. Other than him (and of course some kind of Daniher fantasy), can't say I'm interested in anything that might be coming from Essendon right now. Oh, fans. Any Essendon fans looking to step away for integrity reasons, I'd count that as a fair clean start.

Picket Fence is a little bit like Caroline Wilson. Bangs on so relentlessly, excessively and abrasively about one topic that it actually convinces people to avoid having the same opinion. Toumpas is struggling and may even be cut at the end of the season, which is very disappointing. He may also be 'saved' by the weak draft and the fact that we have four or five other players clearly finished at AFL level. Much like a couple of others of our current core 22.