Little Goffy

Actual Magpies are smarter, friendlier, and better looking that football magpies. And not a liability to Australian football, either.

The magpies at my Mum's place became very friendly after being fed for a while. They would bring new babies to visit and be introduced, and would happily sit on your knee for a chat - hoping the chat would become food, of course. Mum stopped feeding them years ago but they still visit to help with the gardening. "Oh, you don't want that grub you just dug up? Okay, I will clear it for you."

Fantastically intelligent birds. My old uni did a study where they got biology students to wear costume masks and go around campus mildly annoying the magpies and crows. Months later the poor students wore them again and just walked around harmlessly, and every magpie and crow on campus was harassing them. Not only did the birds remember them, but they had been able to communicate a description of the masked villians to other birds who had never actually seen them or been harassed.

So perhaps @Timothy Reddan-A'Blew resemble @Ethan Tremblay and is being targeted in a tragic case of mistaken revenge?

Bonus fun fact - there are recognisable differences in the markings of Victorian and NSW magpies. NSW has a lot less white, especially across the back and shoulders. And magpies have regional dialects for their songs.

Our midfield wasn't functioning when it had two modern greats in there. Concerned people wondered aloud if a first time assistant in the midfield coach role who was famed for a now unfashionable style was part of the problem.

Hardly a cause for recriminations.

When psychologists talk about people being responsible for how they respond to circumstances, what they mean is that this thread could have been about how great it is to see a champion of the club appearing to be successfully driving confidence and energy with a young midfield group.

So here's the thing about our leaky defence -

Against Brisbane we gave up five goals directly from unnecessary turnovers.

I don't think I'd be pushing it to say that a lot of the scoring against us this season has come directly from clumsy, inexperienced or simply poor communication turnovers.

Add to that an awful lot of ground given away because instead of going 30m further forward things got bogged in contests, loose ball chases or stoppages.

Cleaner play, more familiarity with teammates styles and the rhythm of the plan, and simply more experience should all take a slice off that turnover or bogged ball element.

That also greatly reduced the total amount of two-way surging we need to do, which means when we do have to rush back, we can keep up better with our opponents.

Anyway, it is hilarious and stupid that any headline could say 'threat to the top 10' and not much better to claim that specialist proprietary data unlocks the insight that there might be a reason to monitor a team which recently knocked off the reigning premiers and before that the ladder leaders.

If that is 2026 plus three more years, then he is well within range of the additional 130 goals he needs to pass Gary Lyon and Russell Robertson and become a top-3 all-time goalkicker for the Demons.

Being in the company of David Neitz and Norm Smith has to have an appeal!

With Pickett moving more to the midfield and slowing to a 'mere' one goal a game after punching out 40 goals a season almost from debut, that podium placing might hold for a long time.

See also, Gypsy woman, re: 2028.

1 hour ago, Demongirl35 said:

Ah-MUUUUUUUUU

Just saw we can say Mooooose, Roooooo and Ah-Muuuuuuuuu

All in one game :)

On behalf of my 9-month old, I endorse the direction this is going and make a special request to find a 'abuuwa' and a 'yiggigidy jig jig'.

5 hours ago, hardtack said:

Weird! I wonder if they have bugs installed in my apartment, as my son and I were discussing precisely that, just yesterday evening!

Anyone want their fortune told? Mates’ rates!

Are you familiar the with Soviet joke about the guy talking to the power socket?

When I hear '3D graphics' I still think of those little 'hologram' cards which would change between two images as you viewed it from different angles.

So now I want one of those but, say with a Pickett (Pick either) zagging and throwing off defenders, or the Gawn tackle, of course.

And I know that the tackle wouldn't have done the job fully if Steele hadn't been there to follow up, but that's why it is a team game and Gawn doing the awesome thing made the decisive result possible, okay?

Gawn was still very good but was not in our very top few, and we got the win over a quality opponent playing well.

The future we can hope for in 2027-28.

Love watching multiple players growing into genuine maturity.

Chandler was showing signs last year but now it is noticeable that he responds to intense situations with higher intensity of his own. That's a top-shelf character trait. He has also incrementally improved everything about his game, year on year.

Pickett going in a really good direction as a team leader as well as individual player, too.

I can't see a clear standout as Gawn successor but, hey, 'The Greatest' doesn't happen every week.

What are Richmond's forwards like? Do we need the tall stocks in defence?

I mean, yikes, their leading scorer is Sam Lalor.

Their other goal-kicking midfielders, Taranto, is expected to miss. Rhyan Mansell, medium forward, also 'TBC' with a foot injury.

Lynch is out for a couple more weeks.

Lefau, 195cm, kicked four against the Giants but is more noted for tackling, in so far as he lays as many tackles as he gets disposals.

Fawcett, 197cm, has kicked a couple of goals per game but also struggles for general impact and... what the jeebus hoistus happened against North? 1 disposal which was a turnover, and a free kick against, in 80% time on ground?

Significantly, neither of these forwards create any opportunities for others. They are end-of-chain only.

After that there is Steely Green and Seth Campbell at around 180cm and Jack Ross at 187cm, and you are pretty much done for Richmond's scoring avenues.

Turner and Lever as genuine tall defenders with Howes and Taylor providing 190cm+ support should be structurally appropriate. Richmond's reliance on medium forwards might also point to having Jai Culley spend time running back to provide over-sized cover for them while also being tall enough to interfere with the two Richmond talls.

Lindsay an appropriate in for extra run on a five-day break.

Tholstrup spending a day with Lalor whether mid or in our defensive 50 would be an interesting challenge, which I'd personally want to see played as a 'keep him honest but don't hesitate to counter-attack' rather than a strict tag.

For once the match day thread made me have a think.

People were going off about Windsor's tackling and then shortly afterwards Windsor laid a really good effective tackle on an opponent who realistically could have slipped away.

But then later in the game he had two more very weak tackle efforts - lacking the body-to-body intent.

So we know he CAN lay a good tackle, but he hasn't been able to set it as his default behaviour.

Frustrating for now but I'm not too worried longer term.

Okay everyone, you know it is coming and I'll try to be brief, but...

EVEN LITTLER GOFFY REMAINS UNDEFEATED!!!

Demons are 4 from 4 in games my now 9-month old has watched any part of.

I'm always a fan of the hard workers who get a special game in, the players coming out of slumps, and those outperforming expectations.

6 - Langford, filled a role beautifully and by the end of the game the Brisbane defenders were panicking about him lurking behind them (hence the stupid bump out)

5 - Tholstrup, good golly. 9 intercepts, 90

4 - Ed Langdon, vintage Happy E, despite or perhaps because he was given a bit of extra responsibility defensively.

3 - Chandler, Kept getting better as the game went on and really worked himself into a matchwinner by the final quarter.

2 - J Van Rooyen, worked hard, played a team game and really earned his goals.

1 - Max Gawn, not his greatest game, but still... plus, I have to award a point for a stationary ruckman being able to tackle a full-sprint Ashcroft in a likely goal-and-game-saving moment.

Annoyed I can't also slip in Turner; ten intercepts and 100% disposal efficiency is about all you can ask of a tall defender in a high scoring game.

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.