Little Goffy

Truly wild. Half the team didn't get ratings that high across the whole game, and that includes players who had a pretty respectable day. Another single quarter rating I find interesting is Langford's. He didn't look like he was having a great time of it but his actual rating would put him in our best six if extrapolated to a whole game.

Charlie Spargo, Daniel Turner, Bailey Laurie, Jed Adams, Taj Woewodin Well, the good thing about playing on sunday is we have a bit more time to debate the who and why and all scrape each others' ankles like we love to do! I wonder if we're aiming to mock North by fielding a younger team than them? Currently (including extended benches) our average age is just 2 months older than theirs, and games played just 0.7 higher! The right combos (e.g. if they play with Pink, Teakle, Stephens and Tucker) and we really will be the younger side.

The quarter-by-quarter breakdown of player stats has me concerned about the performance of some of our leaders late in the game. I've already noted that Gawn simply wasn't on the field for a large chunk of the last, but each of Petracca, Lever and Viney fell away badly in the last, and Oliver also didn't stand up. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Match Max Gawn 4.7 6.2 6.9 1.4 19.2 Christian Petracca 3.3 9.8 2.1 1.5 16.8 Jake Lever 3.6 2.5 5.6 1.5 13.1 Jack Viney 5.5 3.1 0.5 −2.8 6.2 Clayton Oliver 2.2 0.8 4.4 1.4 8.9 In a team with so many kids, it is so important that we get good contributions from the leaders when the game is hot, especially as the siren approaches. A bit harsh of me, perhaps, given that three of them were in our highest five rated for the game, but it is part of a veteran's job to rise to the moment.

On that much and probably more we are in general agreement. On the one hand, we obstructed GWS' rebound a lot better than Collingwood did (not a high bar, just mentioning to make fun of the 'Pies), and I suspect a few other clubs will struggle. On the other hand, if we want to be premiers then taking the momentum out of rebounds is going to be critical and there's clearly space for improvement. I suspect there's a bit of missing Nibbler to it, while we get the 'settings' right for the roles of Chandler, Sharp, Henderson and Sparrow. The way I see it, two more weeks for these guys to sort out who will stay or who will go when Pickett becomes available. Meanwhile, Van Rooyen and Jefferson are a project which simply must be made to work. Fritsch... may actually be in danger of a spell at Casey if he can't either make himself dangerous or build harassment into his game. There's an awful of variability to figure out.

I can see why that impression holds for many, but I disagree, and please here me out! :D Put your thoughts back to 2018, when we went berserk with scoring, easily topping the 'points for' ladder. In fact, no club has scored more in a season since! There's no debating that Hogan was at the time an absolute gun tall forward, and has returned to that status late in his career. But the support around him was; Tom McDonald who is a very respectable player who had a excellent year, Jake Melksham who I love but it would be excessive to pretend he is the realm of say Breust or Green, Alex Neal-Bullen who we all know the strengths and limitations of, Petracca bobbing up impressively for almost a goal a game, and about half a season each from Mitch Hannan and Jeff Garlett. Even with Hogan, that is not a superstar forward lineup. When we lost Hogan, there was just no way an attack-first method was going to get us a premiership. Acquiring May as a non-similar replacement proved to be a masterstroke, and getting Ben Brown in as a role-player was an injury burden risk which worked well enough to get us a premiership. I suspect both losing Jackson and the disappointing Grundy season further limited our options for having tall marking targets up forward capable of capitalising on our brute-force method of getting the ball forward. Consider that just one or two contested marks taken up forward each game would have transformed our results in all three seasons of 21-22-23. We clearly have prioritised the search for tall forward options, with Hogan, Weideman, Jackson, Van Rooyen and Jefferson all being high draft selections. Two of those players left and one of them never quite got it together. Now I'm sure the club is waiting through gritted teeth to see if Van Rooyen and Jefferson can mature soon enough to give us the marking options we need. In the meantime, our forward line has been very much discount brand, relying on hard workers and our only consistent goal-kickers being the undersized marking Fritsch and the young small forward star Pickett. For all that, we were in the top-6 for scoring for all of those three seasons. So, I think our relative lack of potency up forward has had a lot more to do with the available talent than with a failure of coaching. Reiterating; add one or two forward line contested marks a game, and even just a couple more good contests to bring the ball down, and our results for 21-22-23 look very, very different. If Van Rooyen and Jefferson can get a good show up and running this season, we're right back in business as an attacking power.

There's a difference between saying 'it would be good if more people turned up' and saying Demon supporters are pathetic. If someone were particularly agitated about it and had a constructive mindset, they might start a thread to discuss what the obstacles are for people who want to attend but find it difficult, or they might volunteer with the club to do some interviewing of supporters to really find out what would be a practical help or encouragement. But this thread opened with someone basically having a tantrum and throwing insults, and its so obviously counter-productive thst I'm not sure they even really care about improving crowd numbers so long as they get to act superior.

There is a passing resemblance to Kade Simpson, except Xavier Lindsey has started his career with the same number of disposals as Simpson got total from his first 8 games. Greatness isn't always instant, but maybe in this case excellence is. Pretty good mix of contested efforts and tackles, as well, for a guy who weighs less than I did before Covid blimped me.

Voss could reasonably stake his job on the Blues coming out hard against Hawthorn. Curnow is a big in but it would not matter two squirts if Carlton brought the mental state they brought to the Richmond game. It feels bizarre to say so, but I'd be looking at thursday as a 50/50 game with a solid prospect of outright biffo for flavour. There's an unpleasant sensation that this season could see multiple clubs either fall horribly short of their aspirations and go into crisis that way, and multiple other clubs simple fall horribly. Each of Fremantle, Port, Carlton and Collingwood could be exposed badly this season and find themselves faceplanting into a closing window. Essendon, Gold Coast, North and Adelaide are all working under a significant pressure to show overdue progress. St Kilda would be looking at West Coast like the Ghost of Christmas Future. West Coast have Lions at the Gabba, Freo at home, then GWS in Sydney to start their season. My gut feels like I swallowed an avocado whole when I think about that scenario too much. Or perhaps it is simply the Ghost of Christmas Past, haunting me. Strange side note - how will Gold Coasts 1 game on, 1 game off start to the season affect their performance for round 3?

Should have had the president come down. There will always be time for one more mention that he tried out with Manchester United.

Loved the old comment about the potential angst if we finished a season near the bottom but had no draft pick to show for it after trading the future pick to Port. I'm death riding Collingwood on my mighty horse Schadenfreude.

Point by point - Careless Conduct, Medium Impact, High Contact Correct, harsh, and debatable. Not pleased but I feel like AJ is going to need a week off anyway after the amount of bodywork he did in his first game. He'll be back fresh and ready to contribute against the plethora of talls at Gold Coast. Edit: And Brown should also be copping a fine for simulation. That was embarrassing for football.

This is one of those zombie myths that just keeps coming back. As is the 'pathetic supporters' myth. Is there such a thing as self-gaslighting? I guess it would be described as a kind of internalised abuse. To emphasise both points, I present to you the Essendon football club. Allegedly three times as many supporters in total, has been given a sustained soft run of the fixture both commercially and competitively, and frankly absurd levels of positive media for four consecutive years. Sitting on 10 wins, 5 losses and a draw, and having just beaten Collingwood, their final seven games of the season were as pathetic for supporters as they were for the team. Crows at home, friday night 36k. Saints at home, saturday afternoon, must-win game, 39k. Dockers at home, in the dour sunday late slot, but a proverbial 8-point game, 34k. Suns at home, saturday night, another chance to knock out a final-8 rival, and with the season on the line following the win over Freo, 29k. Swans at home, friday night but a bit of a dead rubber, 34k And finally, just for laughs, Brisbane at the Gabba got just 300 more people attending than Brisbane v GWS a couple of weeks earlier. I'm pretty sure I'm only sharing all that so we can savour Essendon's sustained inadequacy. Anyway, to reiterate the fundamental truth that has been verified continuously for 20 years in the war on the zombie myth; Melbourne supporters are the most likely of any club's fan base to convert that support into both Memberships and attendances.

An annoying downside to Melbourne putting itself into the early first round through trade and natural position in the last couple of seasons is that I'm aware of the potential of a bunch of those young North kids. It's nothing like the GWS list but there's enough talent in there that if they all happen to have their tails up on the same day, they can be very powerful. In a way, it is the perfect game for emphasizing the importance of doing the basics, the defensive efforts, and the general team things correctly, because getting those things right would definitely be enough to get the win. We're only in danger if we start acting like we're not in danger. The Isandlwana principle.

I'm a bit late to the votes party but this seemed to be the place to gloat about Xavier Lindsay being only marginally less impactful than Dan Houston, for a saving of about $500k and probably an additional draft pick.

I'm really curious about what happened to Gawn in the final quarter? There was a 15 minute spell where AJ was taking all the ruck contests and Gawn simply wasn't on the ground. There was some early talk by the commentators about getting a bang on the nose but not a peep about Gawn's extended absence while they were going on and on about Callghan having an obviously scheduled rest. Can anyone enlighten me? Had his nose opened up and they could get him on because of the blood rule, maybe? Solid chance it tipped the game - he was the best on ground even though he missed that chunk of time and could surely have influenced some of the crucial ruck contests where we had only AJ available.

Honestly do you only come on here to bring the tone down? That was an intense game with a lot to consider against the early apparent most likely grand final opponent. One-sided festivals of sourness aren't called for.

We really deserved to win that. Ah well. Many little things to be annoyed about, far more reason to have some enthusiasm for the season. Ah well. We miss out on the four points. My two main observations; We're not out of the picture for the 2025 premiership. We're also seeing the core group of our locked-in fated-to-be 2028 premiership.

At one point I actually started calling out "Oh, come on, be more lucky!" Football is back. Seeing Petracca, Oliver and Bowey looking energetic and involved has warmed my heart almost as much as seeing so many kids putting in respectable first-up efforts. Even Aidan Johnson, who is almost statless, is putting himself in there and doing some bodywork that could prove very important as Gawn starts to overwhelm Keeffe late in the game. Its a very tight game. I'd argue we are behind by exactly as much as one 'blowing out of cobwebs' for a first game of the season. Toby Greene still a cheat, so some things don't change. Comments that Viney looks sore does suggest a natural sub option for Langford to come in and hit hard.

17 seconds and poor old Picket Fence already needs to change his undies. Wow!

It has been 20 years since Geelong had fewer than ten wins in a season, and they've only missed finals three times in that period. With that sustained success to build a following, 25k to open the season on a pleasant day against another serious team at a custom-built boutique modern stadium with no free-to-air option competing is pretty weak.

Just hitting 28 degrees at 9am up in Sydney, and it is another of those days where the sun pierces your bones. The in-laws arrive in about 30 minutes. Oh, please, holy Demon powers, transport me to a chilly, sodden and windy MCG for an afternoon.

Bailey Scott going well and among the best for his side, but Bailey Dale brought laser sights and his own motorbike today. Bailey Williams nothing to be thrilled about on the day. But that just shows that while not every Bailey is a champion, every champion is a Bailey.

Bailey Dale adding to Zac Bailey and Bailey Smith as contenders for BoG in each of their games. I think that's every game which has a Bailey playing, has a Bailey as BoG. And 'ours' has the cool spelling. Better keep an eye on Fritta.

Quick note, with 5 games to play, the probably of Richmond finishing the round in 9th spot is 50/50, and close to 100% if Melbourne beat GWS. The natural balance of the galaxy rest in our hands.

https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_stats_team.html?comp=afl&season=2021 Yep, even in the premiership season we were right down the bottom for share of scores coming from kick-ins. The long kick to Gawn was always a 'safety' option which suited our defense-first strategy and to gain ground and at least a stoppage 60-70m away from defensive goals. Evidently it did that job very well - the number 1 rating might refer to score differential from kick-ins, because being scored against from a kick-in is a much bigger issue than whether you go end-to-end - but it has not at all been an attacking strategy in the Goodwin era. And, personally, I'm okay with that. It is just a case of playing the percentages, especially when you've got the likes of Gawn leaning on the scales for you.