Little Goffy

After such a potent start to the season, this is a game to go into with a real focus on a calmly professional effort. A mentality of 'get the job done every minute' even if we're nine goals up at half time. Especially as we need to be building that whole team commitment to defensive efforts given the injuries. Also, I very much want us to break records for the winning margin and see the Zanker-Hore-Harris-Bannan taller forward machine take over.

I agree but with one caveat... So far. I have the smallest glimmer of a feeling that his successor is already on our list.

That set of 75 games milestones gave me another of my happy-place moments where I just think 'Damn, we've got some top grade players'.

Jeebus Haristos, alleged journalists putting their own comments as 'quotes' heading an article is a premium grade peeve.

I voted No.

Gets a mention in the Champion data version of an All-Autralian discussion, too. Don't really care much for the Rising Star award, but I do have time for stoking the fires of 'Langford could be immense'. We can realistically expect to see him produce multiple BoGs next year, and then what? WINGSIf you're going to pick wingers, pick the right ones. This year, the battle for the two spots on the ground might be fought between six eligible players. According to the ratings, Collingwood duo Jack Crisp (12.9) and Steele Sidebottom (11.4) should be leading the way. Behind them are Brayden Fiorini (11.2), Ollie Dempsey (11.1), Bailey Williams (10.2) and first-year youngster Harvey Langford (10.1).

I have it on no authority that Mcvee is waiting for this thread to reach 1000 posts before announcing here. If all parties ever agree on anything, Demonland ceases to exist. No matter the difference of opinion, weight or alcohol consumptions, it is a bit rude to call Luke's mum a 'stumbling block'. Ghosty, I'm sure the reference to egg on your face was just about your daily effirt trying to create one regular egg by combining four others. I have one more theory; McVee's manager is letting things stew until media numpties get frothy enough to begin calling McVee a disgruntled 'young gun' or another 'Melbourne star' looking for the exit.

St Kilda are tossing around a lot of money to hold Nasiah and acquire TDK. It did put me in mind of this thread even before I saw these two comments next to each other. We may have put our salary cap on the line to secure a premiership, and have seen both the positive and negative of that, but St Kilda... well, as they say in the classics, there's no point [censored]ing your way to the middle. They've drafted very well since 2021ish - with a few still on the 'too young, wait and see, lots of potential' list of course. If they can complete their list while that wave of young talent comes through then they are onto something. But it looks to me like they are headed for the kind of path Carlton has spent the last decade on. Big stars here, big stars there, but also too much empty sky.

A perfectly reasonable option to consider. Got to be all about the young rucks with a bit of versatility right now, because obviously nobody is going to go full 50/50 split with Gawn until he decides to switch it up and get his 10th All-Australian selection as a CHB just for the lols. There's also one in the draft, but I've already forgotten the name. It would be terrific fun to have a multiple versatile ruck options who have followed that old development path of establishing a game in another position. Heath as Forward-ruck, K White as defender-ruck, and then Jackson comes back in as a roving midfield-ruck. Wheeee. I have decided not to be too serious about trade season until at least prelim finals.

I look forward to his future kids being in the Townsville Crocs academy and having to choose between them and the Melbourne f/s, and Demonland having a 700-page anxiety attack about it. By which I mean, he should always be welcome and I hope he is considered a part of the club forever.

Players like these two are a big bonus in the coaching soft cap era. Require close to no 'maintenance' (whereas a kid might absorb $100-200k worth of attention from coaches as they learn the professional habits and tactics) and also contribute their own experience and standard-setting to the group. Someone earlier in the thread questioned whether the decision should have been made before a new coach arrived - I'd argue any new coach would be thrilled to have as many mature heads around as possible, especially ones who have each seen their share of tumult and transitions.

I actually had someone break up with me because their horrible mother insisted, so I think I'm even closer to the pin on the Jackson feelings!

I already thought the AFL were being a bit too obvious and dodgy with their commercial favours to Essendon with the high profile fixtures, but rigging the Suns' game just so that next wednesday's match wouldn't be a total dead rubber is surely going too far.

I don't remember a specific Isandlwana reference in those mad novels but I do recall the Flashman and can see how it would play. Ahh, Flashman, who I do believe went on to become Rowley Birkin QC after retirement.

It's a shame that some of the more detailed stats like metres gained and score involvements don't got back a long way in the publicly available records like Footywire. Got a little bit of a Fyfe vibe and it would be great to compare. Langford is much better looking and has the bison shoulders and haircut, but many of the available stats are quite similar. One thing that sits nicely with a Fyfe comparison is the way Fyfe's second season worked out. Good games pretty much every week, but then mixed in with that were four BOG 3-vote brownlow games which were genuinely powerful. I can see that being Langford's early growth path; never slouching, and sometimes just putting together a totally dominant game foreshadowing more to come. Langford's style and toolset is as perfect for the current game as Fyfe's was for the 2010s. He's Goldilocks!

I think the particular issue has been poorly handled in the traditional way for large organisations with mostly performative motivations for taking a stand on genuine issues. It has been 20 years of 'meh' followed by roaring cannons. Ah well, as much as the heavy-handed stuff is irritating, the fact that the general populace is pretty solidly aligned with the core goal will mean it'll settle after a while. In a way, we're dealing with the final sliver of numb-nuts who maybe need to have 'consequences' thrown at them. I do worry, though, that there's a secondary politics within the game that just like with every other issue will shield certain clubs from being 'outed' because of their established connections and capacity to harass anyone who criticises. You know, like with salary cap breaches, on-field thuggery, [recreational droogs], [performance droogs], draft tampering, fixturing, promotional opportunities, institutional-scale and personal racism, sexism, beating the [censored] out of people, etc etc etc etc Collingwood definitely would know they are less likely to be pinged for similar behaviour than other clubs, ergo it is in their interest to have the rules be as punitive and reactive (and vague) as possible in all cricumstances. TLDR; The underlying goal of the penalty is valid and the issue will be largely historical within years, but the method of delivery is heavy-handed and symptomatic of a poorly functioning organisation. This is giving some people the opportunity to resent the principle and play into the 'Cult of d-head as victim.'

Dancing along that line between 'due diligence to ensure correct payment and prevent fraud' and 'deliberate obstruction of process and harassment of clients to apply pressure for a cheaper settlement'. Strange fact is, the amounts of money involved in the insurance payouts could rival the amounts of money in the sponsorship.

What did Roos call it? The 'veil of negativity'. I suspect it is a little more treatable than the impact of a decade of abject cellar-dwelling, but being so good and falling short against your own expectations has to be tough. We really Isandlwana'd it, and we're in need of a Rorke's Drift to reset.

Yikes, calm it down. You're not 'wrong', but you're not that right.

6 Gawn 5 Langford 4 May 3 Salem 2 Fritsch 1 Pickett Difficult one. Many were good, but many came in and out of the game or had some very visible clangers.

Bang lol bang lol bang lol? Geebus, Langford has got something. Gawn putting punctuation on his All Australian selection. Been good seeing Van Rooyen effect some contests.

It is a complicated question because when you consider players who might have been considering greener pastures or who the club might feel are at their plateau in the current environment, all of them might also get the same fresh kick from new coach and significant changes to the whole coaching panel. Of the younger players with at least a few seasons in the system already, all of McVee, Rivers, Sparrow, Van Rooyen and Petty would be reassessing both sides of the equation. I suspect (feeling only) that Turner, Bowey and Chandler would all feel pretty confident about their future at Melbourne both in the sense of making good personal progress and being valuable to the club. There's also a bunch of older players who really need to examine what they want from the final 2 to 5 years of their career. To me, Langdon and Fritsch just 'feel like' part of the club's personality now. Max kind of goes without saying, Viney is never going to get a better contract or be more appreciated anywhere else. Salem looks like the most likely to assess that his future is to provide the quality 'completion' to another list, rather than always falling a little short of the expectations here. His epic 2021 kind of put a weight on his shoulders where 'Salem, yeah, I guess he was alright today' feels like a disappointment every week. That leaves the tall defender veterans. I'd assume McDonald and May will see out there careers with us and that includes at least 2026. Lever... something hasn't been going right for him for a while. He's another who will be assessing what the effect of the new coach will be on his performance and role. If the new coach arrival insists that he has to adapt his role away from his 'preferred' game, then Lever might make the valid choice to find a club which needs his particular way. That's a long post and I've not mentioned either the twin elephants in the room or the mice, but I won't pretend to know how things will pan out with either set. I guess my list to watch most closely would be Salem, Lever and then the McVee-Rivers-Sparrow group. This will be an unpopular opinion but in purely ruthless list management terms all of them are replaceable.

All three could be quality players with valuable characteristics that can make our team much less predictable. This might be a more significant announcement than the low-profile would suggest.

Whatwhatsaywhat, I appreciate the exemplary restraint and civility you have brought to Demonland there. Nietaphart, surely you mean we have enough -old- backmen. Anyway, McGovern has performed to AFL standard sometimes. I think we're just about all agreed that is not a sufficient use of a list spot, especially if it obstructs the development path of the next generation of tall defenders coming through. For example, while he builds his body Kalani White will likely spend a lot of time at Casey mastering the positioning and rhythms of the intercepting defender. Given that McGovern is like a stockier, slower Lever there would be a clear jam of roles.

One of the alleged knocks on Buckley was that he didn't appreciate or connect very well with the flawed and second tier players. I'll speculate that one of the advantages for coaches like Clarkson, Sheedy, Fagan and Hardwick is that they understand the value of not only the not-perfect contributors, but also the stars and silky types who can do things they never could. I'd also argue Bruce understood it even in his playing days. Knew his limitations and knew which teammate to connect with. Although looking back the Daniher years were not wildly blessed with smooth operators or outright top rated players.