Little Goffy

Oooh, that goal to Sharp was built on going end to end with multiple things not quite working but our players keeping at it and recovering the momentum.

That's one for the highlight reel not just for today but for the tone we are trying to set for the season.

Lol, and there goes Lever with the kick-in and hard run to receive the next kick at half back. Definitely a move to the midfield-wing on the cards.

Just now, Dee Vinci said:

I feel bad mocking the music.

it's a tribute to Jimmy Stynes.

It's sounds great.

What a nice idea

Good stuff.

I feel bad having a collective crush on the entire set of Irish dancers. Haven't felt like that since the staff at Gus' cafe in Canberra 15 years ago. But I still hope we kick about 30 more goals...

Petty under pressure does the uncomplicated, calm, correct thing and it goes well.

It's turning. We're right in this one.

Lever laying tackles and taking hits in the centre square wasn't on my bingo card.

Frustrating quarter overall, lots of good efforts and then some poor decisions and a little bit too much of the clever-cuteness.

Still, we are choosing to take it on and that matters more than any specific error.

Scores level.

2.12 in the firts half then 5.1 in the second.

Richmond providing another reminder that goalkicking is hugely between the ears.

Okay, here's something freaky. Am I right in thinking that Seth Campbell went from being the only Tiger to kick a goal in the first half to being the only Tiger to kick a behind in the second half?

That was an outstanding goal by Brisbane. Handballs forward and then the receivers janked backwards a couple of steps to gain space to line up their next handball and move bit by bit into the corridor. Little gain, little gain, even while probing for the breakthrough option.

Meanwhile, we're in front because we're willing to slash right across the ground, starting from the halfback hip and coming out at the half forward shoulder. Defenders don't quite know exactly where to be.

Brisbane are mostly relying on Demon blunders to score... I suspect that'll decide the game either way.

Ouch. Petty with the Hobbit movies level of bad idea poorly executed.

I don't care that he's a completely unrelated 195cm classic anglo boy, we must acquire every possible Pickett and one is available in the coming draft at roughly the ranges we're looking at having selections.

We'll never know if Bailey Laurie is a good player or not because he is clearly profoundly cursed.

It wasn't that bad a kick, but it swung way off. It wasn't that bad a handball, but it wasn't quite where Langford thought it was.

Ah well, back at it.

Lovely smart and fearless play for that goal!

Big test of the little one's powers today.

He's well prepared - been read to in two languages, big breakfast, ripped the tail off a paper fox and one ear off a paper bunny, had a good practice session at sticking his tongue out one side and tilting his head the other way, has finally managed to break the tracking wheel on my mouse, and knocked over a stack of blocks one at a time.

Only question left between now and game time is scones or gozleme?

Not wanting to cause offence to any ethnic minorities, I had one scone with jam and cream and another with cream and jam.

Wanting to cause offense, I considered having Greek haloumi in a Turkish gozleme, and calling it 'Smyrna remembers', but the scones won in the end.

11 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Tom Papley says hello.

Living up in Sydney, hating Tom Papley was a regular amusement for me until it was all ruined by a coincidental string of interviews and the like. Turns out that off field he's calm, well spoken and observant. There was even an instance of him successfully and tactfully getting Roaming Brian to jog on instead of bugging the Papley family.

So annoying, because on field he is so easy to dislike. His goal celebration face looks like he is taking a difficult [censored] while also having a [censored] and is calling a friend to tell them about it.

32 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

How do you feel about Turner being called "Disco" (Roach) and Langford being called "Bison" (Marsh)?

The point is that neither Turner nor Langford are really annoying and neither have smoke blown up their tiny backside every week by a queue of nuffy commentators!

Watson, with the added adjustment for playing for Hawthorn, is the most annoying player in the top-50 for goals per game.

Wait... correction... top 47. Stringer and Dangerfield are equal 48th.

I know, I too am shocked at Toby Greene's sudden drop in scoring.

The spooky thought that we fixed Essendon and broke Gold Coast.

Anyone else remember the good old days, as far back as the Daniher era, where teams were constantly changing their overall form, from good to bad or back again, after playing the Demons? Back when we were the top ranked Victorian side and the only ones deemed a credible finals threat?

Meanwhile, how embarrassing that a team which can field an entire starting 18 from the first round of the draft, with a triple-premiership coach in charge, is struggling to look like serious contenders?

Hopefully it is back to leaking talent in all directions for the Suns. Sorry, SUNS. Is ol' Humpy going to be a new Steven May?

4 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Clarry a lazy 37 possesions in a losing side, not bad for a King Discard!

Yep, that was a classic Clarry game and it would be petulant to try to pick at it. Even the usual things that people knock him for were well under control. Lots of contests, lots of ground gained and effective ball use and decisions.

Meanwhile, you can tell @picket fence is in a good mood with Jefferson named. He's still going hard on the Clarry commentary (Clarrentary?) but there's not a caps lock or triple exclamation mark in sight!

Didn't do GWS much good, but when Tom Green is back that one-two inside midfield hit might just work as the gravity around which the Giant's runners can spin.

Not a regular rat but the infamous Moose Rat, allegedly particularly dangerous in the early game!

Hot prediction - JVR will be given a near-tagging job on Harris Andrews.

Salem, McDonald and Melksham out at the same time with the players coming in ranging from 18 to 24 years old. Statistically our team taking the field will drop average age by more than a year!

Might actually be worth checking to see if we end up being the youngest team of the round, let's see-

Melbourne 25yrs, 2 months.

Richmond 24yrs 10 months.

West Coast 24yrs 4 months.

Oh, Carlton.

Really?

And seven goals, one behind?

Have confirmed this game is free-to-air in Sydney.

It will be a big test of our young, undefeated star.

3pm on a sunday is dangerously close to a nap time. Hopefully he'll be able to stay on the park for a full four quarters and get the Demon's the win.

If Littlest Goffy can get the team up again I will officially be contacting the club about a formal position.

Who is this 'Tied To' everyone is talking about, and can they hold down a key position spot?

But seriously...

It looks to me like this is a good draft to have two picks in the teens. All the talk is that the quality you'd need a top-10 pick in '25 to get will be there for the whole first round.

Couple of likely key defenders, another slightly undersized 'tall' defender, and an alleged unicorn 200cm utility. Definitely a good starting point for going shopping.

A proper 'all aspects' midfielder capable of doing everything well, even if they don't have a super standout feature, would be an appropriate target, too.

How about coaches?

We've got Fagan at the top and Yze and McQualter at the bottom.

Luke Beveridge played for us, but didn't coach for us. Does that still count?

If so, Alistair Clarkson comes in.

That would make five. A pretty solid effort.

First big test of Steven King's coaching.

I think the key challenge is to get the group of young guys together and reaffirm the essential efforts and habits required. Make very clear that if they hit the fundamentals as a group then their underlying talent will thrive and they have a real shot at playing regular finals very early in their career alongside some of the greats of the game.

Get them supporting and encouraging and expecting the best of each other and the gather round shemozzle is not a dead loss.

Well I for one thought the washed out pink uniforms against Sydney's red and whitwme, the tiny suburban ground with no undercover seating, the dreadfully inadequate stadium lights and very limited camera positions all made for an excellent saturday night spectacle between the two great nepo baby clubs.

Guuuut fuuuuul

I'm going to start a political party with the sole message of anti-shabbiness.

Hmm, how does final position work out with the 'wildcard' round thing?

Let's say Gold Coast lose to the winners of 9th/10th, does that make them officially 9th for draft purposes?

As in

Loser of wildcard horseballs round is ranked 10th. Winner is notionally 9th.

The team which finished 5th loses all their finals, including to this team notionally 9th?

So, even if Gold Coast finish 5th on the ladder, if they manage a solid pants-wetting in finals we could still be looking at the draft pick value of finishing 9th?

Feels like the Dogs have taken a hit to their top-4 credentials as strong as we have taken a hit to our top-8 credentials.

Sigh. If we'd just done the work, we'd be tidily up the ladder in a season which is looking wide open.

Bit troubling to see Hawthorn looking like they've got a bit of the Richmond attack going on - a couple of dependable key targets and a swarm of annoying and effective small and medium forwards. I'm just glad they don't have a gamebreaker on the level of Dustin Martin, and that the core of the team is in the mature 27-34yr old group. They did a lot of trading, and good value trading to be sure, to get themselves into a competitive position. They might steal a premiership in a season like this which seems pretty even at the top, but I can at least hope there's no prospect of a [censored] dynasty. You can definitely see why they went so hard after Merrett, and they'll probably chase every top-level free agent on the planet.

Fingers crossed they fall short and cook both their list and their salary cap in the process.

Looking at Sydney v Gold Coast result and with every passing round it seems more and more like 2026 is the year of the goal-kicking midfielder.

It'll be interesting to see which clubs can figure out how to mitigate the effect of the top grade attacking midfielders over the course of the season.

Last season Kysaiah Pickett cam about six disposals short of being the first player since Steve Johnsons to have 20 disposals and 2 goals a game at the same time.

This season right now Heeney, Bontempelli, and Petracca are on track for that double stat, while some 30 players listed as midfielders are on target for 20+ goals for the season, compared to just 12 last season.

I can imagine that as he develops and gains a bit of confidence and does the small non-negotiables better, Harvey Langford will become one of the hardest midfield weapons to contain. On the other hand, how does this evolution of the game affect the value of Zak Butters, who has apparently decided that goals just aren't a thing for him?