Little Goffy

Have flown both short and medium (connecting) flights on Vietnam Airlines, always pleasant, and got some good help and patience from ground crew during a minor crisis when Noi Bai airport passport control computer systems crashed just as I was about to go through. So there at least is a partner airline I can respect. But regardless, China Southern is indeed a growing airline of significant size, so, yay for having another solid sponsor. Plus, the announcement will encourage others, of course. Edit: Mind you; 4 years... that's a long layover.

So sad. Bailey always seemed to have a twinkle in his eye even at the hardest times.

Herald Sun today ran a story about how Hogan is going to lead our forward line for round 1. I'm pretty sure this is all their fault.

Also, yes, Watts has been training as a midfielder, has been mentally preparing as a midfielder, and like every player who anyone has spoken to, he has been vocal about the comfort of knowing there is one game plan, it will be consistent, and he knows his role in it. So I'd be both surprised and disappointed to see this confidence-led player muddled around and sent forward before he has even played a single AFL game in the midfield. I daresay so would he! Watts can and does (occasionally) take, pack marks. Not generally 'bash and crash' ones, more a case of once in a while he is simply the one who reads it best, takes a step at the right moment, and ends up with the ball. But let's just say they are 'not a major feature of his game'.

I'm quite comfortable having one less tall forward if it means having the extra running player to pad out the midfield while it gets a grip on the game plan and gradually irons out the errors. Especially if there's the possibility of simply overhwleming the grossly understrength St Kilda midfield, and means being able to better push back to cover the space that Riewoldt needs to run into in order to be his most effective. Howe is clearly a valuable presence as a mobile medium forward with bonus contested marking skills. I'm sure a lot of people will be nervous about a forward line led by young Fitzpatrick, and 'troubled' by the presence of Pederson anywhere near the field. But one thing I'll say in favour of both of them is that they make an effort to follow the forward structures, they lead hard and they make an effort to get out of the way of other forwards. If a midfield is really dominant, then it doesn't take a 'winning' forward to create shots on goal, it just takes a hard-working one. Especially with our new hero JKH out there to tidy things up! Ah - a quick disclaimer; I'm under no illusions about Pederson and I'm aware that when playing in defence Pederson had real trouble with exactly the things I've just praised him for as a forward. Thankfully, we can reasonably hope we'll never have to watch that spectacle again! Pederson will surely be a mix of depth forward at AFL and a regular forward at VFL for the remainder of his career.

In true spirit of the term in office, practically every media outlet had already received a leak about the announcement before it was made.

Over his career Dunn has been a just-barely-adequate AFL footballer, his record of often dropping back to VFL level even when a 'good' 22 couldn't be filled kind of confirms that decisively. He's also had some visibly good games and plenty of visibly terrible games. Also individual quarters within games, and individual acts within quarters. Seems to be showing improvement this pre-season, which is clearly just doing everyone's head in. But, on a positive, looks like he is filling Sylvia's role as far as the intensity and style of debate about him goes.

I love that the Essendon players 'allegedly' used Vitamin D and over-the-counter vitamin supplements. I wonder how many of the items on the beat-up list at the bottom of the Hun's article are just as innocuous. 24 hours ago I was quite comfortable with an 'Essendon can get stuffed' position, but after this round of irresponsible gutter press, yet another, I'm leaning towards being more protective of the players. Sigh.

Wait... is that... no, it couldn't be.

Solely to annoy people, I'm going to suggest that our forward line is really missing the hard working and intelligent unrewarded leads of Cam Pederson, which opened up a functioning forward structure. Yep.

Geelong got a serious and slightly scary run on, it seemed like it was all their way for a lot of that quarter. BUT we still managed to peg a few goals and keep the scoreline (flatteringly) under control. What would that have looked like 6 months ago? I'm on the edge of my seat for the next quarter...

There's nothing more negative in a match commentary than constant griping about umpires. It is the talk of people preparing themselves to avoid facing disappointment. Please stop.

This is good news in a practical sense but mixed new psychologically. My concern is that there have been a number of occasions where the talk before a game was 'they have lots of injuries so we have a chance this week', after which we got resoundingly smashed. Even amongst a run of more adequate form. Could just be confirmation bias, of course. On paper, we know will have an overall superior midfield, trouble is, they have some individual midfielders out there who can turn the balance all on their own. So, wary to the last moment.

Hmm, looks to me like Niall had an honest perspective on the Demon's being a dysfunctional club in the late 90s early 2000s, but his writing gave the impression of painting the Demon's late-2000s hideous malaise as being a permanent condition. That's plainly unreasonable and demeaning.

Unless someone was trying to produce a deliberate flop as part of a dodgy accounting scheme... But seriously, there's still a lot of fresh material out there just as uncomfortably on the edge of 'horrendous' as there ever was in Mel Brooks' time... wait... hang on... The Producers was remade in 2005 and feature A-list stars. And it was definitely still skirting the line.

From the day he was recruited it looked like Clark's mission was to cover the key forward position until a kid developed into it and then move into the ruck position once Jamar retired, to cover it until one of our young ruck possibles developed into that role. Presumably then swinging between the two like a champion with a licence to kill. Certainly, barring a major form return from Jamar or an excellent lift from an injury-free Gawn, it seems the ruck is where Clark is needed most. But he has been so good as a forward (when available) that it'd be hard to ask him to move away from that. Plus, I'm sure the details of different injury risks in ruck vs forward would be considered thoroughly. I don't see Fitzpatrick as a full-time ruck but his presence would certainly be helpful if we were relying on Gawn for the main load. And surely Max King can't be expected to take on the major portion of AFL ruck duties. We have enough chronically injured talls already. So, IF Jamar returns to form, then Jamar. But that seems like a big if right now. IF Gawn builds some confidence from playing a strong of games, and starts to deliver throughout games, then I believe he has the most overall potential of our ruck group. IF all else fails, Spencer definitely has a go, but to me he just doesn't quite reach AFL expectations at the moment. Another of our 'too good for VFL, not quite there for AFL'. IF Spencer doesn't work out for whatever reason, then it might be time to put Clark back in the ruck. That's my ruck view for 2014. In 5 years? I'm still optimistic about Max Gawn, other than that it looks like draft or trade, whic is obviously too speculative.

Yeah, bit early, but hey. Frawley, Garland, Jones and Clark would seem to be the ones with a 'credible starting position'. Grimes might deliver the quality but doesn't have the runs on the board that AA selectors seem to like.

Delightful, thanks for that. I'm still quite sure of the archaic usage of a similar expression in 19th century France (history's bon mot factory) but the Peter Principle as you've quoted would definitely be the path that made it an expression in my family and various circles - 'promoted to their level of incompetence' gets wheeled out a lot about school 'leaders'. :D

For what it's worth, I find myself wanting to mock both sides of the 'they're just characters we can't all be robots' and 'they are undesirable elements who should be purged'. In football and society.

The gameplan under Roos, as executed successfully against Richmond in pre-season game 1, could not have been delivered with the arrogance of Sylvia and Moloney dominating our midfield culture. all those patient breaks, giving up space for time, controlling the ball... every chain would have been broken for the 'hero play' busting forward with limited vision. We would've been thrashed in a game loaded with turnovers. Nevermind their skill levels and ability as footballers, that's the end of my concerns about losing them.

At his best he's been the kind of player that slots in as third or fourth midfielder in the strong midfields. Low-20s posessions, close to a goal a game, lays a good number of tackles (considering his widely perceived lack of defensive effort). But I'm not sure, having said that, he has the attitude to fit into a 'midfield machine'. And let's face it, a top midfield is based on roles, support, awareness of each other, all of those things. I wonder if he'll get a bit 'lost' in a midfield structure where he has to follow rules that don't suit the way he has always liked to play. (Still talking about Sylvia here, not Moloney, I feel like I need to point this out! )

Damn these robots objecting to murder and drug running and sex slavery. It's political correctness gone mad, I tell ya! I mean, whatever they want to do in their private lives is their own business... wait... no... I think we've found a line that might be crossed here. But also, 'allegedly', of course. Except for Martin, who flaunts his association with major crime figures in the very specifically public space of football. Hrm...

Depends on whether it is the first 'team signed jumper' of the new and glorious era. That could make it pretty valuable in a few years time. Appreciating asset, hold on to it for now.

I used to work in the public service. that kind of dysfunction was business as usual in each department I worked in, and the nature of 'must follow legislation as passed by parliament, until new legislation is passed by parliament' is the embodiment of top-level paralysis. I completely agree with the comment that there can be very capable, and even passionate, people at middle level who either leave or become 'problem staff' (selective compliance, minimum possible work, all that jazz) or leave at first opportunity. The top levels are ultimately responsible for whether serious staff can really get things done, and the damage bad executive leadership can do in a pretty short space of time is incredible to watch. There's a brilliant expression dating back a couple of hundred years, French, maybe Talleyrand (such an interesting crook himself), saying 'people continue to be promoted until they reach a level at which they fail, and then they stay there'. Anyway, the point? I have a lot of sympathy for the players, coaching panels, and club staff who might have been dragging their heels these last few years, even unconsciously. But at the same time... you can't drag your heels and expect to be an AFL player for very long.