Little Goffy

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.

No medical concerns there, just a bout of random capitalisation replaced ellipsis. Happens on a cycle. That all makes sense given the spleen's key role in infection control, but a pretty horrible situation to be isolated like that. Plus, Petracca has often talked up his classic Italian family style so I suspect their first instinct in a crisis is to gather around and be energetic. Sympathy to all and glad the worst moment is over.

I guess the main point of interest is to see that Ricky Nixon still has some pull at 'AFL House'. When you know where the bodies are buried, who cares how 'disgraced' you are?

I started watching the stream on Kayo and I now think that the club made a very good choice not to attend. Serious risk of death by boredom and a thousand cuts of cliches. Utterly soporific.

'Culture'.

The most talked about moment of the North-Collingwood game, in the final minute, doesn't make it into the AFL highlights package. History is being erased like a bushranger dragging branches over their tracks.

Pretty impressive that a single Maynard bump can take a couple of million off a rival club's future salary cap. I think we can all see the missing piece of the puzzle is any application of culpability. Best solution I can think of is to create a fund which is supplied by a system of fines for clubs based on the frequency of injuries inflicted on opponents and on dangerous behvaiours. It also adds an element in between 'nothing to see here' and 'weeks of suspension' for the relatively minor dangerous acts on field.

'Players lose more games than umpires' is a magical moment of moral gymnastics. Is that your benchmark? You'll only be worried when umpires are deciding more games than players? Or did you just recite a distracting line without actually considering what the words meant? As for 'All this bagging will end up with kids not taking it up' - talk about cliche number one of cover-up culture. If we don't 'bag' the serious and obvious defects in the management of the AFL level game, what would be left worth taking up? Do you really think the game of Australian football cannot survive valid and clear criticism of official mismanagement? Do you really think it can survive widespread disillusionment in honest competitiveness or fair and competent adjudication? When loyalty drifts towards the regime before the nation, the regime will consume the nation.

So, area by area, our players currently (let's say roughly the last month at least) down on form. Defence: McVee, Howes, (Lever), Midfield: Viney, Oliver, Sparrow, Langdon, Windsor Forward: Fritsch, Petty, Chandler, Pickett (his extra midfield time has traded one goal a game for one clearance a game) Bench: McAdam, Billings, Hunter, Brown. Outright that's half of our best-22 spread evenly from our top 6 to our bottom 6. Not drawing any conclusions. Just staring into the darkness of being a temporarily mid-table side.

Yeah, why aren't we talking about how "Collingwood shouldn't have put themselves in a position where only umpiring errors could win them the game"?

Pfft. We're two games out of the top 4. Eight game winning streak to finish the season, including wins over Essendon, Port, Freo, Bulldogs and finally Collingwood to steal their top-4 spot. Refresh from the bye round, a nothing-to-lose reset of the midfield and forward line, and get on out there.

Is that a summary of the article, or the club at this moment?

It's all right, he was under pressure!

Hmm, we have a 'proud' tradition of mid-season excrement regardless of how the overall season goes. 2000 - rounds 11-13 culminating in a 98 point loss to Carlton, (who we dealt with handily in the Qualifying final, so watch out Freo!) 2003 - rounds 9-12 were when we pooped our season. 2004 - bizarre 72 point loss to the Saints in the middle of a very strong run. In the end a very strong season was blown in the final four rounds. 2005 - after an epic top of the table challenge of ladder leaders West Coast in round 13, a clearly mentally exhausted side lost the next two games by more than 10 goals, and didn't gather itself together again until the final few desperate rounds. Hiatus from competitive football. 2018 - 8 wins, 3 losses at round 11, and on record-breaking run for consecutive quarters won... then all of a sudden we were still 8 wins but with 6 losses at round 15. Got it back together but missed out on top 4 by one game. 2020 - does it still count as 'mid-season' if the games are in June/July but they are rounds 4 to 9? We went 2w 4l in that period while the rest of the season was 7w 4l. Missed finals by one game. Mm hmm. 2021 - only four losses for the season, and three of them came in a 3-3 period from round 10 to 16. 2022 - ten wins in a row, then three consecutive losses round 11 to 13. 2023 - seven losses total for the season, of which four came in a 2w 4l run from round 10 to 16. It is definitely a quirk in our history and absolutely a feature of Simon Goodwin's coaching term. 25 Home & away losses in total for the seasons 2020-2023. 14 of them came in the mid-winter period, leaving just 11 for the remaining two-thirds or more of the seasons. Even tighter if your go 2021-23; 10 mid-winter losses of 17 total losses. Remarkable stuff.

Despite the breathless tone of the numpty media potato, there's nothing in this but a giggle. Reminds me of David Rodan's greatest moment where he broke clear from a half-forward pack and banged a long goal from 50... in the wrong direction. It was inevitable that he would become a goal umpire, really. Maybe he is just waiting for the day someone else does it while he is between the sticks? Still, we all know that this 'story' getting the breathless treatment is just symptom of AFL political economy.

Unfortunately he has shown nothing of interest and not shown much interest either. The Billings disappointment, McAdam injury/disappointment, and Hunter injury/decline are three clear reasons our attempt to improve our movement forward has made so little progress. Doesn't excuse the overall failure of team vision but it is definitely a hole that was filled with more hole.

I guess the club knew there was no winning in a snarling match against the combination of Collingwood, the AFL executive, and Channel 7 'Australia's official home for abusers, war criminals and sex pests'. I mean, Brian Taylor actually asked "Do you think those boos for Maynard might be related to the Bradshaw incident?" [censored] I'm slowly falling out of love with football. It struck me over the long weekend that I was only ever dipping in to check on games, catch a few headlines, see if there was anything of particular note. I used to settle in for multiple games a week (multitasking of course), monitor all kinds of stats, play Supercoach (spent a solid chunk of one season inside the top 1000), knew the expectations of at least 30 of that season's draft picks, and could have made a reasonable go of naming a best 22 for most clubs. As of now, I couldn't give you the top 10 from the last draft or for most clubs. I'm Melbourne, now, and that's all I am when it comes to Australian Football.

It's an interesting side note that earlier this season one of the young East African players (I've forgotten the name) was copping all kinds of [censored] comments about how he 'didn't understand the game' and would get someone injured with his totally unacceptable habit of having the knee out directly into the backs of opponents as he went up for spoils and marks. I present to the jury, son of two-time Brownlow medallist, co-captain of Carey Grammar, premiership captain of the Oakleigh under-18s, 2-time all-Australian centre-half-back, Collingwood Captain and all-round 'good bloke' with 163 games' expertience, Darcy Moore. Guess it wasn't a Sudan problem.

You know that's normal, right? Sydney finished their win over Geelong with 5 players without a tackle, and another five with only one for the game. Hawthorn had 4 players with zero, and another 6 with just 1. Today's game has been flawed by missed shots on goal, defence pulled out of its comfort zone, a scattering of bad turnovers in bad places, some iffy umpiring as always and a star player hurt, but it has been a legit effort.

I've got that sick feeling, like a primary school flashback of the times I was punished for the times I hit back at bullies who had never being punished for hitting me. This all ties into the deepest, visceral, instinctive sense of injustice. I'm seething. But I'm so proud that - purely by luck of family inheritance - I'm part of a club which actually has a bit of honour.

Quick note to confirm that we did indeed break Geelong and should get the credit for finally ending their era. Geelong before the game against the Demons - 7 wins, zero losses. Geelong since the game against the Demons - 5 losses, one win, in which they were challenged seriously by last place. We should get a medal for our services to football.

Time to burn off the parasite which expects to be thanked. Collingwood is a blight on the game. We are the honourable competitor. Winning means something and we have everything we need to make it happen.

Just because Angus had football taken away from him by concussion doesn't mean he wants to spend his time being a 'concussion ambassador'. Maybe he's always wanted to learn the cello. Or be a travel show host.

Start practicing the 'No Reid, no Eagles' taunt because it is going to be fresh and current for 15 years. Like having Judd but no Cousins, Kerr, Fletcher or Chick. Lol. The ultimate winning culture midfield.

"We absolutely hyperbolated them." Bookmark it now.