Little Goffy

I'm reminded of a regular lament of Carlton-supporting family members. Their perspective on why the club continued to stall for perhaps five years after it should have been solidly competitive was that the club at every level was 'hoping' for the right result. 'We hope McKay will kick straight today, because then we win', 'We hope all our stars will get a clean preseason together, because then we'll dominate, and of particular relevance here; 'We hope that the mass of second-hand players we've recruited will give us quality depth'. In our recent trade recruiting I'm seeing a lot of 'We hope this player will suddenly turn their career around'. We hope Schache can provide a physical presence for the first time in his career. We hope Billings will return to the form he briefly showed for two seasons five years ago. We hope Grundy and/or Gawn will be able to transform their game style to accommodate a second top-end ruck. We hope McAdam will go injury free, regain fitness and hopefully provide an undersized marking target which will hopefully mitigate our shortage of key forwards. We Hope Fullarton will discover a delayed-onset maturity and instinct to compete and use his 200cm effectively. It is very different from the known quantity expectations of May, Lever, Hibberd, Langdon, Melksham, Brown and even the less dramatic cases of Hunter, Tomlinson and Garlett. All of these players were traded for with the expectations of 'they will be who they are, and we will fit them into our system and that will get the result we want.' It doesn't mean they all worked, but every trade was a realistic fit for a need.

Petty was less expected is all that turns the dial for me. Tell you what, it's an interesting under-the-radar way for the club to affirm the coach has the support of the players.

Everyone is harsh on Mitch Brown because he could never live up to the Pederson-level expectations. It is a travesty of the game that Langdon doesn't have All-Australian status, and we may soon enough see all three of our 2019 draft picks score All-Australian selections. Pickett and Rivers are maturing steadily from a high start point, while Jackson is clearly the game's best combination... um... ruck/half-forward-flanker? Sam Frost is an OK tall defender but if Tomlinson were at Hawthorn he'd also be an AFL regular. Swings and roundabouts.

Feels odd seeing people recruiting aggressively to fill our half-back line! I think we're going okay for the lighter built types of players. Can't see anything stopping Brown being a regular at AFL next season. A little more strength and fitness and te time learning the roles will let him unleash that relentless terrier attitude very effectively. Then we just have to monitor the progress of Bowey, AMW, Howes and Woewodin. That's four potential and likely young smalls running around, with Howes as a mobile 191cm. I've absolutely got Tholstrup in our best 22 as I think every pre-season will add some real potency to him. I forget who mentioned he had a bit of Paul Chapman about him but gee it fits in every way except the hair. Sparrow does a job. I've said before that I expect more of him but he isn't 'failing' so much as not growing. The big uncertainty is what we do with the key positions - this time next season we could have all four of our remaining presidential draft picks (ex Jackson; Jefferson, Adams, Harrison, Van Buren) holding key positions, or just the two already out there. The ruck problem isn't an uncertainty - it is a 'requires action' item. I have long-term faith in Verral but the immediate problem has its own thread so I'll let it go. Without a single player traded out or de-listed ahead of their contract, and while keeping Melksham and McDonald, we're looking at six or seven list spots opening up. It's going to be a big draft and so will 2025.

I was super keen on Hayden McLean even as far back as pre-Grundy (and had then hoped we would get him back in the Grundy trade with Sydney) and while he clearly would have been ideal for our situation (goal a game, steady flow of contested marks, competes in ruck effectively) if they don't want to move, they don't want to move. I'm obsessed with the prospect of getting both De Konings in 2025 - Tom a free agent, Sam out of contract - and that would absolutely re-open our premiership window in one big swing. Unfortunately there aren't that many Hayden McLeans out there. Darcy Cameron can play forward but primarily rucks, and would be a mature presence to support Gawn both game by game and with management over a season. At 29 he would hopefully be around long enough for the next generation lead ruck to come through. Jake Riccardi is a respectable forward who chips in for the ruck, but only about as much as Van Rooyen and not as good a forward. If we're looking at the draft, we could take the Whitlock twins (allegedly ranked a mid first and late first round) which would at least give us another 4m on our list though neither are full-time rucks.

Interesting that he would sign a new deal when not in great form and has a clear exit option. One might almost think he has faith in the club and coach to support him and develop him to his full potential. Or at the very least he feels the club and coach have faith in him.

Yikes. You're telling me he's 198cm and has Petracca thighs? Clearly some kind of defective mutant who should be avoided until late in the draft by all other clubs.

Also unlikely to try to wipe out the populations of Sparrows.

In the Pickett screamer sense or in the 'melt your household pans in low-heat backyard kilns for use in industrial steel' sense? I was actually just thinking 'this would be a good game to secure mark and goal of the season. I suspect if we win it'll be because a few spectacular moments kept the scoreboard ticking over for us against the flow while our defense absorbed long periods of Freo time in forward half.

There's no drain on the gravy train.

Can we bring a banner, "Congratulations No.10 - Best Tank Ever" EDIT: Come to think of it, the Magpies could still drop into the bottom 4 below St kilda and Adelaide. In which case clearly they are tanking again to replace Pendles.

Maynard putting an elbow into the throat of an opponent and then diving for effect after a trivial contact. Got to credit his consistency.

It was actually Jack Viney who corrected the Cloudstrike global outage.

Just when we thought there couldn't be anything sweeter than Essendon having 9 goals in a row kicked against them, they come back, look in control, and finally choke in the last ten minutes. Not all art is beautiful, but it is still art.

My father-in-law has contributed a Vietnamese expression for the kind of defense these teams are offering; "soft as soaked noodles"

What do you get when an unstoppable force meets and immovable object? The opposite of this game.

AFL website: JONES SETS THE TONE WITH SWIFT DOUBLE I mean, it is kind of true - he set the tone in the sense that he's done nothing at all since then.

Yeah, you wouldn't mount that head on your wall. But still, think of it as we passed a hurdle requirement. Essendon routinely beat the weaker teams. Essendon routinely lose to the serious teams. Plus, looking at Essendon's fixture to come, they very realistically could drop out of the 8, so the win over them could be particularly valuable to make sure of that and we also get the credit for breaking their spirit.

Was Roy George part of an NGA or similar arrangement for us which now means something again thanks to someone prodding the knee of AFL HQ? If so, and with so many people quite excited about his potential, we might as well begin thinking of him as part of our development program already.

There used to be a food court in Canberra in between the Dept of Agriculture, the Attorney General's Department and the Dept of Environment. It was fine. Very normal. The fish and chip place tucked up the side of Treasury was always better if you could make the walk. My point? This Essendon crowd is managing such a limited murmur that it reminded me of that public service food court. It is like a bunch of small groups each making polite chat while munching their honey chicken with rice.

No matter how good a player is or isn't, my favourite feature will always be the strength of character it takes to grow and change. Pickett's growing maturity and game sense, Melksham's late-career 'patron saint of goal assists' shift, Tom McDonald's switch forward, then back, and finally the transition to having sheer calmness be his leading trait, and even Kade Chandler's relentless efforts to claw away and overcome his weaknesses. Looking a little further back, there's the excellent effort Nathan Jones went to, dropping weight and adding agility to extend his career and make himself a bit more versatile after a decade digging to the bottom of packs. But maybe Viney did the hardest thing - never mind overcoming rubbish injury runs - when he rebounded from being dropped from the co-captaincy by consciously adapting the way he interacted with and led his teammates. When you're as good as Viney is, and part of club nobility, it takes good character to be humble. Also, it is difficult to describe his literal and figurative hardness without resorting to memes. Touch wood we can see him play 300. There's no evident reason why not.

It appears even Microsoft is now focused on manufacturing bricks.

I am registered as an in-flight emotional support camel for tax purposes, so there is some pressure on to keep up appearances. To be fair, I've never done a pacific crossing and I'm also putting off a Europe trip until there's an available stopover location which isn't a major slave market or Perth.

There's some real 'optimist v pessimist' games to decide what is best for Melbourne. Geelong v Bulldogs Optimist says go Doggies, to clip Geelong back so we can pursue the top-4 or home final. Pessimist hopes Geelong pick off the dogs to keep them a step behind us in the scramble for the 8. Giants v Suns Optimist looks for the Giants to stumble and us to pass them, pessimist says GWS can keep it's slot so long as they suppress the chasing Suns. Hawks v Pies Pessimist says Hawks to win because their poor percentage means they are more likely to stay behind us. Optimist says Collingwood to win because it'll be so much fun for them to still be in contention right up until we crush their dreams in round 22. Sydney v Brisbane Pessimist doesn't really care about this one, but the optimist hopes Sydney wins and Errol Gulden gets suspended for 10 weeks. Fremantle v Melbourne The optimist thinks this one will be tricky but if we win it'll make the run home much easier and make all of our potential finals opponents a little nervous. The pessimist hopes we get thrashed so they can demand Goodwin be sacked.

Finals get more coverage, people are more interested, attendances are higher and ad revenue is higher. Obviously Solution. Cancel the Home & Away season and just have 22 more rounds of finals. Every one of which is a theme round.