Little Goffy

Eddie has helped other clubs in much the same way a neighbour helps clean up some of the filth they threw over your fence when they realise the rats are crawling back into their yard. Collingwood has been absolutely core to pushing the rationale that a club which generates revenue should get not only additional revenue generating opportunities (which actually diminishes rival's ability to bridge the gap... creating a vicious cycle of ever-increasing advantage that Marx would look at smugly) but also leverage that interest for favourable fixturing in a purely competitive sense. Nevermind that their ability and willingness to pay was a key driver of expansion/inflation pressures on club staffing. Here, indeed, is Marx's actual reaction to the spiraling disparity created by a limited oligopoly of clubs accumulating further advantage over their rivals through the power of political economy in a poorly regulated market;

Time for the quarterly reminder that the AFL is running down their asset while being loose with the income it is generating. I'd be interested in the exact financial comparisons for the layers of Australian football, put alongside a general look at what they generate for the game as a whole. Cost to operate vs... Participation. As kids, adults, parents, grandparents. Attendance, ticket sales and 'stadium services' revenue. Tangible sponsorship. From the local fish&chips and plumber through to the oil&slave empires of the Emirates. Reputation. The subtle factor in everything else. From trust in a fair fixture and umpiring to the prevalence of drugs and assaults to the assumption that going to the football will be a good time without spitting. I suspect the entire AFLW costs not much more to operate than one AFL club. On that same benchmark you could profoundly boost a bundle of VFL/State level clubs or truckloads of local clubs.

On-field, between potential losses to free agency, potential losses to Tasmania, and the consumption of a couple of drafts by Tasmania coming in, it will be a very hard time for any club entering the next few years already in bad shape. Off-field, for North things look even more taut with the potential to lose revenue from their Tasmania deal and the outright loss-making crowds to be expected if many of those games were in Melbourne (Adelaide, Port Adelaide and West Coast feature this season), plus an overall delicately balanced financial position. It doesn't seem realistic that they'll manage even 5 wins this season, making that five consecutive years where their results would qualify for the old fashioned priority pick threshold. By fluke of venues and because of the Tassie fixture they have averaged one win a season in Victoria in that time. It makes me worry. I'll keep my fingers crossed that their wave of kids develop together and become competitive soon enough to prevent a rolling exodus like the early days of Gold Coast, but with a much lower talent base. I fear North Melbourne's prospects to 2030 in the brutal realities of 'AFL Inc' are about as promising as South Asia's prospects to 2050 in the brutal realities of climate change.

My fault, I was sitting to close to the screen.

It seems to be a fashion this season to hammer people in the solar plexus for no reason. Kind of like how in advertising it is currently fashionable to try to be funny with 'Imagine if the other thing you did was as simple as spending money with us'. My point being, they both are tedious [censored] done by people who know they aren't ever going to be held to account for their shabbiness, and everything possible should be done to stamp both things out.

Would have to name them the Frost Giants. Anyway, those good crowds are influenced a bit by a general scarcity of top-level football. Supporters of fifteen* other clubs will get along to see a game even if they don't care much for the competing clubs on the day. *do you really think anyone in Canberra would support Gold Coast?

I'm pleased to see that hatred for Collingwood and Essendon passes the CCP censorship!

Credit to Wasilim Tagaloa (pardon the spelling - didn't catch it perfectly) for the national anthem tonight. Took me a moment to realise why it seemed different to most and then I realised; It was just a person with a well-trained clear bold voice singing the anthem. No silly trills or affectations, and a voice strong enough to carry that simplicity.

Saw that too, and especially liked it because it is part of a pattern. He likes people. Sometimes I get the feeling Clayton plays like the whole thing is a scratch match where everyone is a friend-of-a-friend, and he just enjoys being the best among friends. Also, Happy Birthday!

Lol, can confirm.

I've had enough of the Petty forward experiment. He is an outstanding tall defender and should be leading our next generation of tall defenders in the May/Lever succession plan. He's done some good things and had a couple of good games up forward, but is more likely to have nil impact than good impact when forward. Against Richmond he had more clangers than disposals. I've still got my fingers crossed for Fullarton but we really need to find a big competitive body with a 'nothing to lose' attitude in the mid-season draft.

I wonder if the D'oh is a subconscious reference to the Simpsons episode where Bart gets sent to military school? One of the last of the classic Simpson's era.

Demonland finally sees the day when someone shares a fetish creepier than even Uncle Bitter's contributions.

A touch under 19 hands and about 65 years in horse age. I have to share a quote I stumbled across while checking this; A horse reaching 20 years of age is considered “old”, but this depends very much on how long the horse has lived.

Similar scenario to Carlton's trade for Adam Cerra. We wouldn't want Davies-Uniacke if he was going to be the pivot of our midfield, but if we are adding him to complete a midfield mix then there's get real value. Cerra hasn't even lived up to the hype from the time he was traded (for pick 6) and he has still been a big part of Carlton's lift from a brittle list over-dependent on a handful of big names, to serious premiership contenders. Cripps, Walsh, Hewett (underrated), Cerra, ... Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Davies-Uniake. Free agent next year so I'd rather wait than pay the trade price, but if it we had to act now or see him go to St Kilda, I'd offer a respectable deal. Also young enough to keep the age profile of our list turning over just in case that gets a bit hairy when/if Tassie comes in.

Okay... so piecing it together... Greene clearly initiated his jump with intent to compete for the ball. He then stopped competing for the ball out of fear of collision. He chose to protect himself from that collision by ensuring that the initial contact was the least vulnerable part of his body impacting upon the most vulnerable part of his opponent. This action transferred the risk to his off-balance opponent and also greatly increased the risk to this opponent. It has been widely alleged that if he had not done this and instead chosen to make a soft contact without focusing his weight and momentum into a single point, both players would have been severely injured by fragments from a falling satellite, or something, I don't quite understand that part.

I love the detail that the ball actually bounces off Greene's shoulder. He has literally stopped going for the ball out of fear of impact, and then barrelled into the much more vulnerable opponent's head. He chose to bump instead of contest the ball. If that isn't a simple one for the MRO then they are in serious trouble.

Also, surely there must be a warehouse of unsold Demon Gnomes out there somewhere which can be bought as a job lot and place in every window and balcony in the area. Total Gnome dominance.

I've got relatives on Powlett Street! I'll notify them to keep an eye out for mistreated gnomes.

Player A - backing into a contest with eyes on the ball and not able to see player B. Player B - With full view of the incoming ball and player, missed the ball and drives shoulder into back of head of player A to 'protect himself'. There's spin, and then there's urinating into a fan.

Still not ready for the Jake Waterman 2025 free agency thread?

So far the results of this round have gone 100% according to the proportion of insufferable jerks who will tell you all about it on monday. So, cue up West Coast, Sydney, Geelong and Hawthorn. But the Blues overcoming their throwback 6-goal-againsr run and doing it in style is a bit of a story. Not much doubt in my mind that they're the main threat to our 2024 premiership. Aside from, you know, ourselves.

Well, earlier this quarter the radio commentary described a shot as 'caressing across the behind' so maybe touched is starting to mean something different. Oh, for [censored] sake. They just said Cox came from behind and reached around to grab the ball. Accurate call but also not appropriate call.

Unless there's a freak occurance in the West Coast v Fremantle game, we're looking at a round 6 ladder with five teams on one win or fewer. Played out over a season that would mean just three or four wins each by the end. I've been looking over past ladders to find an example of such a long 'tail' to the ladder. For a moment I thought 2020 (two teams with 3 wins, three teams with 5 wins) but of course that was Covid-restricted and there were only 17 games. Other than that, the weakest tails I've found are; 2018, with Carlton on two wins and three other clubs with 5 or 4. 2012 have a five-team tail, with the Giants and Suns doing their early-career tanking strategy, Melbourne close to their worst, and Port & the Dogs only managing 5 wins. Incredibly, one up from that pile of failure, 13th place on the ladder had ten wins, and it took 14 wins just to make the finals. This could be a very skewed season where clocking through the 'regulation' wins becomes very important for sorting the finals order when 16 wins might not even be top 4 finish, and an alarming share of the games are the proverbial '8-point' games. As it stands, 4-2 is barely enough to keep us in the 8, but considering the level of disruption and missing/underdone players going into the season, we've done well to be in that leading pack. We should thank Richmond for their effort against Sydney and politely but firmly ensure they don't do it against us next round!

To be fair, last season they started 4-1 then went 7-11. Looks like the fast start is a Brad Scott specially.