Little Goffy

Oh dear me. It's the 'Zero-sum game' interpretation of football scoring.

Take a closer look at Adelaide, Fremantle, and North Melbourne. The stats are up and down and sometimes half a ladder from the club's position. I'm not even going to bother picking it apart much further.

This is just another example of a top draft pick failing to deliver on promise. From what I hear, he wasn't even seeded. There's a rumour that there was some kind of corruption; he had to pay to get in!

I'm having a vision... it is a little cloudy but I think I see a... white... straight... middle-aged... middle-income... male. I can't quite decide who is being more ridiculous - the 'should be belittled, abused, pushed and punched' from Biffen or the 'no policeman has ever been disrespectful to me' and 'treating people like you however they deem it necessary' from Autocol. Actually, it's not so fine a line, the 'punch' tips the balance. Clearly that's just moron talk, and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of conflict with police. On the other hand, there really are a whole lot of police who are bluntly racist, wilfully escalate situations by doing the complete opposite of their training, get their jollies detaining people who look 'different' (or have dark skin - no howls please, just a fact, deal with it), set off on cowboy high-speed chases through busy areas directly against the instructions of despatch, and, my personal favourite, repeatedly tasering people who are already prone, handcuffed, and quiet. Plus, let's not forget the significant simmering corruption that keeps rolling into the spotlight, seems like one state at a time.

If we were planning to throw Stretch into the onballers from day 1, then I'd be worried. But Roos has shown over and over that he is firmly against rushing kids, and he also is clear on core expectations to meet before being considered 'AFL ready'. Plenty of light builds are very effective players, and in particular, there is an element of attitude and physical approach that no amount of kilos can cover for - Jordie McKenzie was laying half a dozen tackles a game for two years in a row before he even broke 80kg.

Try to focus on the 'MFC got rid of Jacko' part, you'll feel a little better.

By 'a little while' you mean about four years ago?

Actually, it is a bit of an issue if he was doing any significant weights on his own. Let's just say a dumb off-season accident is not how I'd want to see the club throw away half a million dollars of salary. but I'm going to assume he wasn't there for bench pressing so there is no issue. On the other hand, player's have re-done a knee injury getting into a shower, and broken their thumb taking off a training shirt.

Champion Data suffers from the same problem any statistical service in the public space suffers from. Statistics can be useful (very useful) for answering very specific, carefully worded questions, but they fall in a heap when you try to make a generalised assessment. See also Naplan, PISA, Aboriginal health indicators, official crime rates, and my personal favourite; Gross Domestic Product. Don't use them. Really. Please That last one, well, [censored], the guy who developed the concept said 'this is only a general curiosity and in no way should be used as a proxy for the measuring of national development, human happiness or prosperity'. What I'm saying is, it isn't Champion Data's fault that people keep wanting to use them for writing inane 'let's start an argument so we get click-throughs' articles.

Yes it was going to be hard, but wow they really have made a mess of it early. Made it some kind of novelty act and the Giant's first two (Three? Four?) years in the game have been the stuff of comedy. Jobe Watson's embarrassed shrug to the travelling Essendon fans when he missed the goal that would have put them 100 points in front sums up the year for Western Sydney. Possibly also with the side note that you could clearly hear each fan letting him know how 'bitterly disappointed' they were. But, their stadium, if I recall correctly, is 100% club owned. Boutique-sized and not a bad set-up, they could be turning a tidy profit there with 15-25,000 crowds. Long term they should be helped out by the simple superiority of AFL over that hideous moron-ball thing they do in NSW.

Good to see he's a professional. On a scale of 1 to Robert Harvey I rate it at 'affirming nod'. Not exciting, just pleasant. I also must give an affirming nod to "Most people don't think Buddy did his hammy" as being one the finest pieces of diplomatic language I've seen in a while. Well done Moonshadow.

I'd be pretty upset if the Great Southern Stand collapsed, too.

When you put that list up, suddenly it is clear we aren't going to be short of delistings to keep us active in the draft!

Both are promising players with features we need. Contracts probably not that inflated, likely that both of them were putting the chance to prove themselves and get a bit of security, ahead of any chunk of extra dollars. Neither of them are list-cloggers. Astute and respectable decisions, I reckon.

The whole merchandise arrangement is terrible. 'Buried under 100 tons of concrete in a lightless, silent cave with no parking and zero walk-past'. Who said 'that'd be perfect for a retail outlet'? It's a joke. Literally a joke - become a running gag to go 'ooh here comes the Demon shop' when driving along Brunton Ave, partly because even if you know it's there it is hard to spot. If each fan bought one extra major purchase, once every 20 years, it would cover the cost of relocating the shop to somewhere with actual retail merit, and with enough space to properly stock the floor. Sigh. Should be below the level of the CEO - someone within the club structure should be pushing that change. I wonder if in the past they got pushback from higher level people who 'thought it was a good bit of tradition to have it at the MCG'.

To add some more - Roos is being paid for his reputation, to boost ours. Roos is being paid to identify and develop our next long term senior coach. Roos is being paid to get a coherent and effective coaching group in place now.

Up - Trengove, Watts, Gawn Down - Dunn, and choose two from the set of players who are all at that special crossroads of doom; Bail, Nicholson, Strauss, Blease, Evans.

The more the rules get tweaked to maximise fatigue injuries and reduce the effective skills of running players, the more useful it is to have big targets up forward. As the cliche goes, the talls don't get any shorter. Plus, the more the premium on 'distance run' increases, the more midfielders benefit from saving their legs by firing the long kick, hopefully to advantage. I think we have a particular advantage in that all of Clark, Hogan and Dawes appear to have a top work ethic for second efforts and claiming the spill - something that will be even more valuable late in games when opposition midfielders get slower and slower to run back to defence. We may even see a tactic where a huge part of the ground is left open for, in effect, two CHFs and a FF. Constantly ready to offer long leads, swivel around and kick it quickly to the 'other CHF' who either shoots or plinks it to the FF.

Yep, we won in a big way with losing Scully. Superbly lucky really. The only sour point is the tone of it all; the blatant lying, the exceptionally dodgy son-father deal, and the whole nonsense circus that the establishment of GWS was and still is.

Viney not only eats, trains, and talks like a captain, but he has the genetic lineage of a captain. By which of course I am referring to him having Garry Lyon's eyebrows.

You're wrong. Justin Koschitzke.

Jones, Grimes, Clark, Garland, Frawley, Dawes. Our leadership group criteria are "everyone from the age of twenty-four to twenty-six and a half, who has played 50 games. Except Lynden Dunn. Poor Dunny. Can we have six captains? Two forward, to back, two mid?

Pulling out of being lined up by Dipper seems about as 'soft' as jumping over someone's leg stuck out going for a trip. Survival around cheats. Yes, of course they sook and try to act like you're the weak one, when you don't just stand there letting them smack you.

Roost It letting us all know that he reckons he has sweatier b***s than Toumpas. With a side of telling the rest of us 'he knows how good all our players are'. A late entry for 'keyboard warrior' post of the year?

Paul Roos?