Little Goffy

It really is a spectacular Sydney August day today. I had to move my feet along the couch by the window because they were starting to cook. Rainbow lorikeets staring in the window demanding attention. The occasional small dense cloud giving a little relief from the sun but nothing that would bring rain. The spring winds haven't kicked in yet.

My magical good luck charm wife will be coming along - looks like we got literally the last adjacent seats in the house, up in the goal umpires' reserve (top deck, partially obstructed, exposed!)

My only concern is that we are fairly close to the ledge and she has a habit of levitating when excited during games.

Only the second game of football I've been able to get to in person this season - the other was round 1!

West Coast putting up a fight to honor the final game of... their entire list except Oscar Allen and Jayden Hunt.

I have a feeling something awful will happen in the Brisbane v Saints game this afternoon.

Every other game today is either dreary beyond words or tainted beyond redemption.

We could be looking at the worst single day of home-away season football in the AFL era.

Keeping an eye on the ride ladder... erm... live ladder.

Late in the first quarter and we are currently getting pick 4! Woo hoo!

Harsh, Footywire, harsh.

Just because you drop seven players at the same time, including five of your best ten, doesn't mean you aren't taking the game seriously.

So I'm told.

Anyway, the changes were made before the betting odds were calculated, and that's what really matters.

[Censored] I hate the AFL Palace.

12 hours ago, In Harmes Way said:

You’d be happy then Goffy?

Very happy and I played it beautifully; switched off at half time.

1 minute ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Essendon are tough to watch.

 

Robotic and yet imprecise. A real shuffling zombie feeling.

Collingwood should already have put them down.

Am I the only person watching tonight for pretty much the sole reason of hoping Essendon finishes their season with more humiliation?

Maybe some unhinged rough tantrum football from Essendon late in the game to give Collingwood a few suspensions for finals would be good, too.

3 hours ago, Fanatique Demon said:

The carry on about them here, is just as bad as we’re saying about then. 

Yes, but they are the actual baddies!

Surely Yze takes over at Melbourne in 2027?

I have no doubt that Goodwin is all-in as a senior coach but I also think he's a sane and reasonable person, and I can't imagine any sane and reasonable person wanting to be a senior AFL coach for more than ten consecutive years.

#successionplan

#Roadto17

1 hour ago, Demon17 said:

Appropriating from the movies, As Morpheous in The Matrix says - The Swans are an artifical construct.   The AFL are the Bots running the Matrix.

 

Coincidentally, much of the Matrix was filmed in Sydney. E.g. the 'lady in red' training session is in front of the Martin Place fountain. I used to work directly opposite the street corner where Neo takes off from right at the end of the movie.

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Goodwin was right tho. McGuinness had no interest in getting the ball himself, which is why he has done such a good job shutting down players. At no point did Goodwin said he didn't do a good job, but it's much easier to tag when you don't care about winning possessions yourself, which was the point he was making.

The bottom line is, top clubs would never utilise this type of tagging role, because they would never risk playing 'a man down', they would rather just back their own systems in, while trying to limit the influence of the opposition's key players. 

Perfect summary.

If we'd brought in Simon Godfrey to put a hard tag on James Worpel or Connor Nash, it would have been game over for Hawthorn because that's 1/3rd of their clearances choked up.

BUT you won't win many games against top teams which have deep midfields by doing that. Your own clearances will be flawed by having a player not involved in the ball movement, and your opposition will find ways to work around the block, meaning you've just gone full Maginot Line. (In this scenario, Petracca is the Ardennes gap)

Another thing they are saying is '$50 for an obstructed view seat in the nose-bleeds ought to keep the riff-raff out.'

Fun fact - you can't actually see Sydney from the bridge.

1 hour ago, Katrina Dee Fan said:

Please, show Grundy the cafes in Sydney, then he'll see how [censored] they are, and he'll choose to stay.

1 hour ago, Dee Viney Intervention said:

They seriously are a deluded lot in Sydney then………..the coffee up there is [censored].

Coincidentally I had a truly superb coffee from a little place in Ashfield just yesterday. On the one hand it was a great moment of actually tasting the coffee and getting that really satisfying feeling... on the other hand... it made me realise how bland even the 'fancy' places tend to be here.

There was more difference between this excellent coffee and a 'normal' Sydney cafe coffee, than there is between a normal cafe coffee and my zero care instant coffee while staring at dirty dishes in the morning!

Anyway, if anyone travelling up feels like a non-CBD experience at a tiny local cafe, 'Ashfield Apothecery' genuinely cares about what it does.

Also, Sydney can get stuffed.

Doesn't Fritsch get a look in? That magnificent coif is certainly not just a simple brown.

The perfect way to start a 4-game winning streak, I say.

Looking forward to this one.

Extraordinary to think that Melksham has played the fifth most games out of all players from his draft, and is one of only 12 who have made it to the 200 game milestone. (Now including Gawn)

Not bad for a perennial whipping-boy. My Essendon-supporting ex hated him so passionately it made other pub patrons drop to awkward silences. 

Also strange to think back that we had our eye on him with 2009 pick 11, before Essendon took him at 10. I wonder how he would have gone instead of Gysberts?

32 minutes ago, Time to Deeliver said:

Looks like only single seats left or restricted viewing, left it too late 🤦🏼‍♂️

I saw that and thought there was an error on the website. Was going to ask about it, so thanks for sharing first!

Probably means I'll have to sit this one out; would be too miserable sitting alone!

A shame, there was even a possibility of rounding up a bunch of Vietnamese in-laws. If they could bring their video-call-to-grandad voice it would make the crowd sound like a solid 60,000.

That was excellent.

8 hours ago, layzie said:

Oh I've enjoyed it very much. I'm just tired of Freo.

Bring on a new team as you said, Essendon will do. We can make fun of Dodoro every week!

Yes please. Would love to have Dodoro drive some kind of obscene 'hard bargain' using their future first pick, based on the hubris that Essendon will climb the ladder in 2024, only to watch them bottom out completely and hand us a top-4 pick.

The only trouble is, I'm not sure there's much on Essendon's list we would be making a priority play for. So, all I can think of is the world's most arrogant pick-swap where Essendon think they've sold us pick 9 for a fortune and we get a specific player we've targeted.

A second pick inside the top-10 looks like a particularly good place to be in this draft.

Anyway, in 2024 I'll be looking forward to Fremantle pushing back into finals again. I think they've got the cattle, a great group of young players with good leaders amongst them.

Jackson will be worth the price they paid for him because in that team he'll be a crucial piece of the puzzle and a proverbial marquee player. For us, there's just not the salary cap space to keep someone who gives such a spectacle when on song!

Hmm... very loosely group by role / part of the field.

McDonald, Brown, Fritsch, Petty,

Dunstan, Jordan, Harmes,

Spargo, Woewodin

Grundy

Hibberd,

I think we've had our depth severely tested for tall/marking forwards, but other than that there's not a lot missing.

Right at this moment I think it is Melksham who has kept us in the hunt by giving us a contested target against all odds.

Melksham is basically the bioluminescent algae story from Apollo 13.

I looked at Marcus Bontempelli, the Western Bulldogs total, and the % that works out to.

In short, Bontempelli was one tenth of the Bulldogs team, for every on-field action except marks, rebound 50s and hit-outs.

Contested ball, loose ball, pressure acts, tackles, spoils, score involvements, goals, metres gained, clearances... everything.

I'm not sure I've ever seen an individual having to carry a team to this extent.

I'm going to say it is 50% coincidence (Pickett's lowest-rated games this season have been against Hawthorn, Richmond and St Kilda) and 50% that the best teams have tighter defensive systems and work hard to get back, reducing the opportunities for small forwards.

Obviously small forward is a very tough gig come finals time, but they can turn games with barely a touch.

Charlie Cameron had just five disposals in Brisbane's semi-final win over us last season but his three goals probably made the difference in the game because he frequently put our defensive structure out of place.

Anyway, Pickett has had some pockets of poor form and a few games where he has been almost invisible, but he's doing alright for current form with 11 goals and 7 goals assists in his previous 6 games.

He's also continuing to bring a ton of pressure, including midfielder-level tackle counts.

(Per game) He's behind only Fritsch for goals and behind only Petracca for goal assists, while this season every second disposal of Pickett's is a score involvement.

He's doing his job and doing it well.

I've lost patience with the Swans.

A club kept relevant solely by obscene draft concessions and wild free agency exploitation of what was always a rubbery cost-of-living-allowance, and now only playing finals because of an absolute howler of a goal umpiring decision.

It's not quite that I hate them... the feeling is like having the smell of badly burnt raisin toast lingering in your house for days.

But really... Heeney, Mills, Blakey, Campbell and Gulden... it would be hard to find a game this season where those five didn't earn at least half the Swan's coaches votes.

I want to see us going into finals with heads up and eyes on the prize, and I want Sydney going in with a reminder that they shouldn't be there.