Little Goffy

If we crack in and have a red hot dip for 4 qtrs, we'll win by 50+. Essendon's secret weakness is the presence of an opponent!

Sorry to jump ahead because it looks like Deespicable is going to walk through the drafts chronologically (Thanks, looking forward to it @Deespicable ) I looked at this thread, then I looked at the 'Kozzie Pickett 100 games' thread, then I looked at the 2019 draft. Pickett is indeed the first of his draft to reach 100. Chasing breakaway includes Anderson (97) Serong (96) Rivers (93) Ash (93) and Jackson (91).

The list of small forwards who have been consistently delivering ~40 goals a season from just their second season woudl be a very short piece of paper. Come to think of it, there would be very few small forwards who reached 100 games at just barely 23yrs old. A testament to the fact he has continued to be dangerous and to make a contribution even when his form has been a bit off. I'm glad for him that he has put together a really nice run of form ready to celebrate his 100th with seven goals against the Buttersoft Bombers.

The clear group of youngest teams last round were North at 24 years 9 months, Gold coast at 24yr 11m, and Adelaide at 25 yrs. We came in at 25yrs 8 months average age against West Coast (lol we were younger than them). If it is Fullarton in for Gawn then we drop by 7yrs total, or about 4 months average over the team. Make that 12yrs difference if we try out one of the ruck kids. Realistically we could be putting out the fourth youngest team for the round. Go stealth rebuild, go!

I'm open to persuasion, and will note that just earlier today saw some stats of not merely his volume of running but the fact it is done at pace in both directions. If he's getting a job done then carry on, but I'll hold onto the feeling that he could be a bit more potent in general. It is a struggle seeing someone with proper Pantene commercial hair seem so flat and lacking bounce and volume.

There was an article on the AFL official site the other day about the Hawks recruiting 'win builders' or something. So glad the Hawks got smacked because the line up to kiss their bootstuds has been nauseating. Anyway, Vince was definitely one of those, while Tyson had that couple of years since the draft and in his first season with us provided an important volume of work - hell, he earned 11 Brownlow votes in one of the worst imaginable seasons. Salem was one of our most important players when a grand final was in the balance. My own verdict on 2013; It was a 'stop the bleeding' draft and did the job well.

I'm not going to say this too loudly, but I'm starting to think it is time to give Sparrow a spell at Casey. Started the season 'just adequate' but has slipped from that level as the season wore on. Hasn't got past 16 possessions in about 8 weeks, and hasn't had much impact when he does get it. Unless there's some potent defensive running and genius positioning going on - which I've seen no evidence of - then I think we can do better. I also think that Sparrow can and should take the opportunity to really dominate a few VFL clearance games and set himself to come back in with a much more assertive attitude ready for the late season and finals. Essendon's pretty nimble mids group would also suggest a little extra speed is a good idea, too. Maybe Sparrow out and Brown & Woewodin to share the sub minutes?

The Bombers-Collingwood game had a main theme which suggests how to beat them. It starts with; Don't let Jordan Ridley take 15 uncontested marks - he had just 3 contested possessions of any type for the game. Don't let Mason Redman run around doing whatever he wants - ZERO contested possessions and not even an intercept. Just generally, force Essendon to earn their possessions. Following are contested/uncontested disposal totals; Kelly (1/15), Perkins (1/12), Jones (3/14), Laverde (2/7), Greshem (2/13), Duursma (3/14), and it goes on. Just five players gathered more than 50% of the Bombers' contested possessions total. Overall that game was remarkably bruise free. Neither team managed 30% contested. Only the Port-Bulldogs game came close to that level. Force Essendon to fight for it, get up close and hassle, and they will break. Select a team accordingly. TL;DR - Essendon continue their 20-year tradition of football unsuitable for finals.

Very handy start to an AFL career. Certainly can't fault his consistency - aside from a few extra tackles his stats are almost identical from game one to game two!

Jake Melksham; No. 1 Ranked for Marks inside 50 per game season 2024. Equal No. 1 for goal assists. Equal 13th for goals. Equal 17th for Score Involvements. I'm just glad he got through the game when so clearly not ready. Hopefully he'll be better next week.

6. Rivers 5. Van Rooyen 4. McDonald (I've seen Moai look more flustered) 3. Melksham (2 goals, 2 goal assists, and the forward line was different with him out there) 2. Pickett (bonus for getting a run of good form going) 1. I can't split Fritsch, Langdon and Windsor. Game was most notable for the short thick 'tail' - even the statistically lower rated players mostly were getting their job done. Also notable was the relatively low presence of our normal inside mids Oliver, Viney and Sparrow.

Interesting parallel. Matthew Lloyd who played just 5 games in his first season (for 7 goals), and in his second season didn't play consecutive games in the firsts until round 19, where he established his place by startling everyone with 7 goals, before then only kicking another seven total from his remaining six games. Didn't really build anything interesting until his third season, from then he spent the next 12 seasons kicking 3 goals a game. That'll do for a Jeffo trajectory adjusted for forward line shrinkflation.

Please tell me that is set up as a shuttle service from Fed Square down to the G for kids.

You need to be more subtle about your agenda, otherwise people might think you're just a factional wrecker with a vendetta.

You're an hour early, the game is at 1.10!

Ah, such variety of species. The Paramatta Sneakerfooted Eshay, the Northern Rivers Gronk, the Burrowing SovCit, Queenslanders, the Memberberry Borer, the Tasmanian Shaknester, and last but not least one must of course mention the famous seasonal migrations of the Westralian FifoFly.

Nice work Kangaroos. Couple of those young guys are looking like an terrifying midfield mix. But for the moment, I'm just enjoying listening to the exhausted North fans having a crazy long post-game cheer together.

Port v Dogs is starting to carry the smell of our Freo game. Could be hard to gather themselves again this late in the season. Margin saved a bit by a generally flat third quarter. Naturally, the moment I decide I'll properly watch for a while.

Bit disappointed he seemed to put the cue in the rack after half time. Minute for minute that first half was reaching Kynan Brown levels.

Dyslexia is cruel for commentators. I have checked and he meant to say 'unspottable'.

Greetings, fellow traveller of the backroads of google! Moths are amazing and grossly underappreciated. Back living in Canberra I'd go wandering on the hills, sometimes at night, and one of the most vivid visual memories I have is coming back past the War Memorial and one side of it having a curtain of bogong moths on the bare wall. Must have been about 2m vertically and five or six wide. Every soft movement of wind causes the whole curtain to ripple and rustle and shift colours in the dimmed floodlights facing the building. A completely hypnotic moment.

It is interesting to note the evolution of the game. Not long ago the defensive forward was mostly about putting a clamp on opposition rebounding runners and skilled kickers. Heath Shaw, Kade Simpson, Nick Malceski, Bachar Houli - names that would be attached to statistics like metres gained, long kicks, disposal efficiency. These days you'd hardly ever see a defender take a running bounce! Now it is much more focused on the intercepting defenders and preventing them from completely killing off an attack and being able to rebound before the swarm gets back into defensive patterns. Perhaps it is a reflection of the general move to score goals by opportunism and harassment while keeping the ball in the forward line, which is still viable or necessary in this current period where really efficient third-man-up support has shifted the balance of power against all but the very best key forwards. Statistically a shift from marks inside 50 to tackles inside 50.

Love it when the autocensor means a post can be completely open to interpretation. But I 100% agree that Jake should get out there and kick whatever [censored] or whomever's [censored] needs kicking. Leave no [censored] unkicked, good sir!

My predicted last loss of the season is done, and now Melksham is back in. Coincidence? I think not. Melksham will go out the way Bowey came in.

I have to challenge the 'never heard a bad word' about Melksham. I've heard plenty. But almost entirely from Essendon supporters so it doesn't really count. Anyway, he is super professional with preparation and managing his body, and one of the best players in the game when it comes to getting the ball to dangerous people in dangerous places. He has been very active around the bench and coaches box, and is a thinking footballer. I expect he'll be a meaningful part of our glorious charge to finals and might even be playing against his old club (just to annoy me ex, to be sure) in a couple of weeks. Once he has the 2024 premiership medal around his neck, he'll be an interesting prospect for assistant coaching.