Little Goffy

Nathan Brown's exposed authenticity makes me a little emotional.

Curnow - quality gather and snap under pressure from almost 50 out, genuine good goal. McLuggage - successful seagull, good kick. Rivers - enters a contest at speed, breaks through a tackle while gathering the ball, slips past another tackle, fakes out yet another defender and then puts it home from right on the 50m while a fourth defender closes in. I mean, it was a top quality goal. Always nice to vote for your side when they are also the best objectively. I hope NAB enjoy attempting to contact me at [email protected].

I'm writing a book right now.

I've been waiting for comments to start berating him for appearing generally happy while not being in good form. Like he is somehow letting us down by not being miserable enough. So far we remain on this side of the sanity line on this, at least. I think we're all in the fog when it comes to what to expect of Clayton Oliver even for the rest of this season, let alone next year and the rest of his contract. It's frustrating and people are going to vent periodically.

HEATHEN! I CAST YE OUT! Tommy remains the only player in AFL history to kick a goal after the siren while seventeen men dry-humped ten metres to the left of the mark.

We should be quietly 'expressing interest' in every Carlton player who will be coming out of contract in the next couple of years. Not because I think we need any of Marchbank, Martin, Owies or Silvagni or even Cerra, but because both Weitering and De Koning come into free agent status at the end of 2025 and Carlton already have four of the AFL's highest paid players and have paid overs in salary to acquire a few others in recent years (Martin, Cerra leading that list) so the squeeze is on and it is the responsibility of every club to limit Carlton in every possible way! That said, the serious targets I'd want to sneak out of the Blues would be De Koning, Weitering (I'm constantly shocked he is still only 26) and on a lower scale I think Brodie Kemp is starting to show he's got a bright career ahead. More immediately, as much as Lukosius might be a little happier now he is actually playing in something resembling his best position again, I still think he would be interested in a move and that we should be interested in using him as a wide-patrol CHF to make our inside 50s a little less slimy.

For the forwards all we need to some honest competition and selflessness to come back in. Remembering that in one of the most dominant and high-scoring finals campaigns ever, our tall forwards were Brown and McDonald, who between them kicked 1 goal (of 13) against Brisbane, 3 goals (of 19) against Geelong, and 5 (of 21 - ha ha funny every time) against the Bulldogs. Just 8 out of 53 goals in the finals came from genuine tall target forwards. Meanwhile, Charlie Spargo got 4. All our forward line needs is some consistent contests to be offered by Van Rooyen and Petty, and for Fritsch to take some coloxyl and probiotics, and we are back in business there. Hmm, not sure 'all we need' was the right phrasing - it is a major task, but an achievable one.

Apologies for the extent this will be stating the obvious - I'm just trying to lay it out in one place. Our game under Roos-Goodwin has been built on; 1. Maintain a strong defensive effort all around the ground to restrict opposition scoring no matter the momentum of the game. 2. Keeping the scoreboard gradually ticking over even when we are under siege, using a clever and opportunistic forward line, more than because of any dominant target forwards. 3. Going hard when the momentum turns our way and sealing the game with runs of goals - particularly breaking out of clearances and contested play - whenever that chance arises. The concept is clear enough and won us a premiership. Helped more than a little by a terrific surge in morale that meant there was a lot more of 'item 3' going on during perhaps the most dominant finals series of the AFL era. Unfortunately; 1. Our defensive effort all around the ground is fatigued and for every hole that opens up it becomes mentally harder for the team to commit to the sustained maximum effort required. 2. Our forward line isn't keeping up a dangerous presence throughout games because too often the forwards are 'each and all' playing to be the goal-kickers rather than to be the creators of opportunities. 3. We currently don't have the potency in our midfield to no only win the ball but also have a decisive moment of dominance to get quality clearances - so there's minimal chance of ever really seizing momentum or intimidating the opposition midfield. So, a steadier flow of goals against us, very few goals kicked by us against the general momentum, and very few counter-punches to put games out of reach of the opposition. I'd argue that if we fix one of these problems, we'll claw our way into the 8 by season's end. Fix two and we'll be taken seriously as a competitor in finals. Of course, if we manage to fix all three then we are back into the serious contender category.

When I monitor the comments about Jefferson I can't help but think; Jye Amiss, who is within 1cm and 1kg of Jefferson, played 3 games in his first season and then in his second season played 22 games for 41 goals. I will continue to raise an eyebrow of optimism for our future tall forward combination of Van Rooyen and Jefferson.

Reasonable except for the part where we are the only club these rules seem to apply to... again.

Just dropped in on the Essendon West Coast game for a moment. Watched for 30 seconds - two throws, one marginal and one extremely obvious - from a centre clearance to seal the game with 5.45 to go in the last. Ah well. Back to not watching AFL.

Everyone knows Oliver is struggling at the moment and everyone is also terrified of being the one who plays him back into form because it would be a disaster for any opponent. Oliver regaining form would be like giving back the missing limb of a three-legged dog. We'd go sprinting just for the joy of it and there would be no restraining us.

I'm a little anxious about this one. I had the Brisbane game penciled in as probably our last loss for this season but with the lack of resilience of so many on here it would be good to get the win and ease the distracting jungle-drums.

May I ask where people got the 'VFL 10 disposals a game' figure from? The source was not reality. https://vfl.aflmstats.com/player/Kynan_Brown And for the other thing people were sulking about; players making their debut as sub is completely normal. Kynan wasn't even the only debut-sub player that day. Anyway, Brown looked like a nervous excited kid the whole time, but I'm glad his son quickly found his focus! 😁

And the supercoach award goes to Kynan Brown - 1 kick, 1 tackle, 21 supercoach points. Must be some kind of record for 'impact adjusted value', and it is a fair reflection.

Just for a laugh after the results so far this round it is possible that a reasonable win tonight could be worth as much as six spots on the ladder and likely five. Going ahead of Geelong, Port, Footscray, Brisbane, one of the Dockers or Suns, and if things get really bloody, Western Sydney. Wild times.

Scoreline flattering Geelong significantly. Carlton letting a few very cheap goals against the flow. Still, this game is knocking about 6 points off Geelong's percentage and putting them in a very precarious position. So glad that it was us who broke their souls in round 8 and left them with just 1 win (against Richmond) since. Amusing side note to the game - it looks to me like a De Koning is the best player on the ground for both sides. Looking forward to grabbing them both when they come out of contract together at the end of 2025. #successionplan

Ha ha, funny joke. (I hope)

To help us through the pre-game tension, a quick trip to the great rivals of the 1830s; "... a still more extraordinary case was the flight of the 97th semi-brigade - fifteen hundred strong - at the siege of Genoa, before a mere platoon of cavalry. Two days afterward these same men took Fort Dramond by one of the most vigorous assaults mentioned in modern history." Jomini, 1838 "Until the battle is finally concluded, all successes in partial combats are only decisions in suspense, which by the capital decision may not only be destroyed but changed into their opposite. ... Troops are never in better spirits for fighting than when they have to wipe out a stain." Clausewitz, 1832

Oh yay a conspiracy theorist.

Surely if Goodwin was thinking of moving to Adelaide (the city) at the end of 2025, there would have been succession discussions with Yze and he never would have taken the poisoned chalice Richmond job?

Musing on this good news based entirely on a couple of pre-draft clips and reports from Casey-watchers - am I on the correct planet when I feel like Kynan might gradually fill a very similar role (positionally and 'attitudinally' to Nibbler? Can never have too many honest workers who produce the occasional outstanding game in amongst a consistent team-oriented body of work.

Turns out Goody's fiance is Harry Petty's mum.

Round 23 at 'People First Stadium' (WTF is that?) against the Suns - they will already be in 'yay we're going to be in finals' mode and some kind of idiotic pre-game hype-stink will damage the turf and wreck someone's ankle for our finals campaign. Or maybe just a firework fixture will topple and go off, launching a barrage of rockets directly down the race into our rooms. The game will not be delayed for us, but later we'll be fined for allowing players to take the field with smoke inhalation symptoms. A new rule will be introduced.

I'll probably have to delete this later to make room for other image sharing, but, for now, behold the glory! The above is a genuine sign encountered at a Sydney hotel.