Little Goffy

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.

It seems to me that all the injuries happen when the knee doesn't rise enough to actually be effective for getting a rise off someone anyway. Certainly the injuries to Petracca and Longergan that was the case. I do worry that the leap would risk being removed entirely, but I feel like there must be some level of detail that could remove the bulk of the remaining injuries of this type. On the other hand, it is such an instinctive motion that it could be very hard to retrain.

If Patrick Cripps wins the Brownlow this year, I propose the AFL reinstate his suspension in 2022 so that Lachie Neale can get the Brownlow he should have won. Then, they can correct the preposterous 2023 result to say Bontempelli gets that Brownlow, and hey presto, peace justice in the world. Neale has the Brownlow he deserved, Bontempilli gets the Brownlow he deserved, and Cripps gets a Brownlow that isn't tainted by the second most obvious and consequential political distortion of the tribunal since the Barry Hall hit was cleared.

Whats with everyone lining up to join the Hawthorn bathroom party this week?

What has it been, four years in the bottom four for Hawthorn? They've had their tails up for 8 weeks and I'm open to the idea that they really have turned a corner, BUT with their next six being Geelong (away), Freo, Collingwood, Crows (away), Giants (away) and Carlton, I think I'll wait at least that long before I start setting them as a perfect rebuild role model or imagining they are anywhere close to a flag. Christian Salem is a good player who sometimes brings out elite moments and elite games, and very very rarely has a stinker. We'd be wise to keep him and he's a realistic part of our coming premierships. Even from the most ruthless perspective, his value to us is far beyond his cost in salary cap space or potential draft picks. Maybe it is worth noting that Hawthorn would probably be one of the clubs interested if Salem did become available, given his overall consistency, ball-use, defensive effectiveness and calm head would be valuable in a young team. Maybe we could swap him for Sam Frost?

We really need to get ahead of the curve and start a sweepstakes for what the next shafting will be. After all, it'll help our relationship with AFL HQ if we're seen to be actively promoting spot gambling.

"Sauce, no onions"?

I'm guess approximately 1000 other people found themselves up against the same predicament and thought 'I'll get WalkingCivilWar to shove food into these faces for a couple of hours of quiet at least."

WOW. That is soccer level. If that isn't fined and publicly shamed then Melbourne may actually have a legal case to challenge May's fine. But hey, it was probably a 'football act'. Or football acting, maybe?

I was having a look at the run home and yikes what an epic winning streak we are about to have! Six of our remaining eight games will be proverbial 8-point games against other teams in the traffic jam, with only the Eagles and Dockers either definitely in or definitely out. Meanwhile, Magpies are basically done travelling for the season now. It is all MCG except for one game at the SCG. BUT with their faltering form and with a finish against the Blues, Swans, Lions and Demons, they may yet drop out of the 8 as fast as Maynard dropping for a free.

I didn't watch the game but now that Collingwood have lost it'll be funny to watch Maynard staging. Does anyone remember roughly what time of the game it was?