Little Goffy

I feel a tax return splurge coming on...

If I recall correctly - 2000 - Grand final, obviously. A dog of a day, but wasn't it fun getting there? Slaughtering North and tripping Carlton along the way. 2004 - Llyod takes a shameful dive to get himself a double-goal, tipping the momentum and the game to Essendon in the Elimination Final. Troy Broadbridge's last game. 2005 - Rnd 1, Troy Broadbridge memorial match, the teams walk onto the field together through one banner. The Demons deliver a beautiful game and a big win. 2005 - Rnd 22, victory over Essendon confirmed by a corkscrew bouncing goal from Robbo, to slip into finals after an amazing three game fightback at the end of an up-down, emotional season. 2007 - Neale Daniher's last game as coach. David Neitz took the field with a broken, well, everything, really. A thriller to the last horrible moment, with a Scott Lucas goal, leaving Nathan Brown, who had been pinged for dragging it under, distraught and hammering the turf with his fists. 2009 - Liam Jurrah makes his debut for the Demons. 2010 - ??? This should be interesting...

Is there anything better than feeling like the club has listened to you on something, anything at all? Actually, I rate being part of the money raising for Jurrah's Jumper/Mt Theo Youth Program, and more recently for MS support, as about as good as it gets for a footy community. But being listened to by the club, a fine close second, I'd say.

The way I read it, Rivers is a great person to have on our list because the weaker the defence gets (if injuries or form drops hit) the more valuable his 'traditional' role of the cut-out defensive mark and excellent reader of the play becomes. Basically, he'd be more useful and happier in a crisis! More generally, he's got something, that kid. What we can hope for is that by the end of this contract he'll be as good as he might originally have been now, accounting for the massive lost time and disruption. Also... WOOOOOOO!!! Demons want to be Demons.

Brad Miller is among the better shots at goal when he's in his range and at a decent angle. Rest of th time he dishes off, which is the appropriate team thing to do and helps make his own accuracy look better! His set shot accuracy and overall work-ethic are two things that aren't generally questioned. But he just has so, so little impact, so often. He's kicked ten goals, three behinds from his six games this year. He's also averaging less than ten disposals, the majority of which are handballs, less than five marks, and just a tick over a tackle a game. We were all querying his usefulness at the end of last year (to put it mildly) and he is now having clearly his worst year since he was a teenager, way back in 2003. Oh crap, sorry, turned it into a Miller commentary. DO NOT RESPOND. NO, DO NOT RESPOND. THAT MEANS YOU! IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT NOBODY RESPONDS TO THIS COMMENT OR WE'LL BE HERE TIL OCTOBER.

I have a dedicated theory that the thing that affects disposal efficiency the most is the player(s) who get the ball NEXT, more than the one who has it at the time. As a team, we completely failed to handle the tight zone Adelaide put together - just like we rarely look good coming in from a kick-in. It's as if the players get hypnotised by having the opposition just standing on their stations, and we're so used to having to think about how to respond to their attack in our back half that we haven't got a rythm to hit back. So often we're left without a strong option to kick to - we haven't figured out how to create a favourable pack like a 3-on-2. It's as if it slipped through and we don't actually have an assistant coach handling that aspect.

He's a must-keep-if-at-all-possible player, for my books. Looks like it is possible. Plays with poise and skill and shows all the onfield values you'd ever want.

7 / 5 Competitive games / not so great games. We let ourselves down in the 'winnable' games against North and West Coast at the 'G, and were unlucky against Collingwood and the Bulldogs. My thoughts on 'where we're at' are based on what and who stands between us and finals, or at the least a push further up the ladder? Group 1 - We can realistically hope to pass ALL these teams with a moderate improvement in the second half of the year. All are 0.5 wins ahead of us now. Currently in 12th place, fading in and out and flaky as ever with a percentage of 81, Port Adelaide. See also Round 21. Currently in 11th place, with the wheels seeming to fall off the moment stars aren't available, Brisbane. See also Round 19. Currently in 10th place, and playing like 10th spot was invented with them in mind, Essendon. See also Round 15. Group 2 - We want two of these teams to drop under us - all are 2.5 games ahead of us now. In 9th spot, North Melbourne. Credit where it is due, North have found something and are making a good fight of it this year... again. See also Round 22... for a game we can dream will be a corker to decide the last spot in the 8. In 8th spot, Hawthorn. The mojo looks alive again, but with six of the current top 8 left to play against... See also Round 20. In 7th Spot, Carlton. We don't play Carlton again this season, but they might just stuff themselves without our help at this rate. Wouldn't want to bank on them falling out of the 8, but stranger things have happened when a team gets ahead of itself then disrupted by missing stars. In 6th Spot, Sydney. To an extent, a photo negative of Hawthorn. WWWWWLLLLWW. Also play six of the top eight, plus Richmond and Melbourne at the 'G and Brisbane at the Gabba. Have not beaten any current top 8 side. Another form drop and they could be cooked geese more than Swans. See also Round 17. This list suggests we'll play 6x 8 point games! The others are Richmond and Adelaide from the bottom of the ladder and St Kilda and Freo (Subi) from the top. 7 out of our first 12 games were good, leading into the split round. 7 out of 10 and the slightest sliver of luck for the remainder of the season is all it will take to push into the 8 in 2010.

Next Captain! Well, he certainly has a bit of James McDonald work ethic about him. Every step up for the kind of players who deserve respect is a good thing for the whole club. Let's not forget that this is a young man who was given the choice to be promoted to the senior list at the end of last year, but agreed to stay on the rookie list to allow for an extra pick in the main draft instead of rookie draft. Club Man. TICK.

A Bruce - Morton comparison doesn't sit well with me. After being a relatively patient mostly defender of Bruce for a long time, I'm just beginning to think he's done. Early in the game against Collingwood I felt like I was watching his career end - so many of his traditional handballs to a teammate who is just about to be tackled, so many dinky little 50/50 passes. If I were making a comparison on who should be a negating but sometimes dangerous forward, I'd compare Bruce and Dunn. And I'd have Dunn ahead. He offered a strong controlling effort and still looks more dangerous attacking than Bruce. I've got a lot of time for Cameron Bruce, I love re-watching the 2000 Qualifying final and he bobs up in highlights right over the last ten years. In future I'll resist the urge to comment on it because it is unfair to slap a guy when he's not terrible, just not delivering anything great. This is probably his last season (or contract period), footy sucks sometimes but I hope he's in the team and playing his guts out in Round 22 against the Kangaroos, to slip us into the finals for a big farewell. Just on that, does anyone else share the little flicker of a dream that the storyline will run to round 22 with the Demons and Kangaroos fighting for the final spot in the 8, and everything on the line for both teams, with Brent Harvey and Cameron Bruce matched up on eachother looking for one last pre-retirement final.

Our 'real' forward line is currently off the field or still on training wheels. This is a temporary situation. Moving Garland around from a position he is demonstrably solid in to a position he didn't look comfortable in in his handful of games there at AFL level is a long term decision. Never make long term decisions for short term problems.

I have an idea... pay about $500,000 a year to recruit the top Rugby League Umpire... That oughta work wonders. Imagine, all the other codes' officials suddenly are looking to switch, and the top ones come over for the top money. Couldn't possibly go wrong.

Low impact cardio for sure, yeah. So his heart and lungs wont have been asleep all this time. Who knows, maybe he'll have done a Jamar and spent his injured time learning all about his position. Injury list has him three weeks away. Which is so, so much shorter than 12.

Essendon seems to be the hovering potato club again this year. Not a contender, not down, just meh. I'm looking forward to our game against them, with a little luck it'll still be the proverbial '8 point game' and a look at the fixture and injury lists would suggest that Jurrah will be back right on time for the big home game at the 'G against them, too.

heh heh, I guess he figured phantom drafts just would be fun when it goes... player a - pick x - Gold Coast player b - pick y - Gold Coast and so forth... then next year player a - pick x - Western Sydney player b - pick y - Western Sydney I mean, seriously, where is the fun in picking apart a top then based on diffferent club's needs, if more than half the top ten is is all one club?

Interesting choice had to be made, trade for Seaby/Mumford or aim to draft Gawn/Fitzpatrick. In the end we got both Gawn and Fitz. Our long term ruck stocks look alright. But yes, right now we are very heavily reliant on Jamar, and he has given everything he has and done well for us. Unfortunately, the 'current second tier' of rucks look like where we'll be opening up spots on our list in the coming draft... Other thing we need to find/develop/see emerge is a small defender/tagger capable of shutting out and pissing off players like Brent Harvey, Milne, Ballantyne, Davey and so on. That guy that every supporter of every other team just thinks is a [censored]. That's the main thing we need on our list.

Phew. Who'd haev thought, back when Sylvia was drafted all those years ago and people said he had more talent in his big toe than some people have at all, they actually meant his talent was literally fixed into his big toe? After a difficult slump, with circulation now restored to the critical area he should fire up a few more 30+ disposal 5 goal games for us

There's no question that Gold Coast and West Sydney have a superb run at the drafts - basically six or seven year's worth of drafting in one hit. Other clubs have had the consolation of experimenting with year after year of late picks and rookie list selections to top up their list, so at least there is that. But a whole team full of first round picks, plus a few established stars poached through the salary cap concession, plus a few depth players selected in their PSD priority picks, plus bonus players switching from Rugby League... Basically, it is going to be up to the Melbourne Football Club to hold firm and represent history and the sport against the new commercial entities. It's club vs franchise and we're the good guys.

But to give the other side of the thread some thought - Richmond and Melbourne both hit gold in the middle of the first round of 2006. There's probably only three players more valuable than them in that draft - Boak, Selwood and Gibbs, with Kurt Tippett being a possible until each time he actually takes to the field! That draft also netted us Petterd at 30 and Garland at 46. - DRAFT WINNERS 2006 - Tell you what though, if we had one win for the season, were scoring 8 goals a game, and six of them were from Watts... Woop de doo. Bailey wouldn't last half the season. Which reminds me, isn't the whole Riewoldt family fairly linked up to Queensland... man, that'd kill Richmond right there. In fact, that is so horrible to think about that I'm going to purge it from my mind. Imagine the last ten years of Richmond without Matthew Richardson. Oh hell, don't. Oh, it's ugly. I've seen the abyss.

Right now it's honestly hard to imagine a future where we haven't come out well ahead in that deal. And for the record, my opinoin at the time was that it was unfortunate and a shame to lose someone who was so apparently commited to the club, but would be a win-win for everyone. I guess I was half right about the win-win. Wow, thinking back on it - he had all the limitation of Luke Ball without the stirling record. Only a little younger, even more injury-limited, even slower. I wonder if us getting 11 for Mclean had a hand in the Saints expecting more for Ball? That'd be a good bit of comedy.

Probably too late now but Lauren Jackson on a HFF, with a couple of preseasons to shift into AFL shape. 192cm agile as hell, good endurance, disciplined trainer and natural leader. Even more marketable than Naitanui, too!

Good that Mclean is out. Let's us focus on Gysberts and how the whole thing was a win-win but we won more. Also doesn't dim our dignity by pathetic booing.

The way I see it, we keep ourselves 'thereabouts' for the bulk of the season and then aim to finish off with four in a row to storm into the finals with the full team sorted out, back together and with several weeks of match fitness behind them. We finish with Richmond, Hawthorn Port (aami) North Melbourne It is do-able. Hell, we could be knocking three other teams out of our way in the last three rounds. That is how I see the fairytale, anyway.

Cale did look taller, and did look like it was his first game back from injury. Wonaeamirri didn't look taller than I remembered but also looked like he was in his first game back after only a brief VFL stint following over a year off. Jetta... didn't look taller AND didn't look like he'd had any time away at all. So many quality tackles! So many young players and so many players coming back to AFL level in those conditions - we all saw the effects tonight. All three of those guys will be fitter next week, provided recovery is done well. From the top end to the erm... bottom end. Skilled Stadium next week to find out if we're genuine contenders for the 2010 premiership.

Poor Miller. 5 goals, no love. At least he's set himself to stick around a bit longer. Deep down, we all want him to tear it up, but we're snarky because we can't let him under our guard for fear he'll let us down again!