Little Goffy

Well, that was unfortunate. But, keen observers will recall that I have for a while had this game marked in as our last lost for the season. So, chin up, it's all good from here.

My neighbour's cat said something quite similar this morning, actually.

A persistent mantra in my head is the 2000 Qualifying final vs Carlton with the Green/Bruce combo. "...they need some marking forwards. Green has been the best of them! He's marked it again! Well, really, the only forward for them." "The pressure's starting to show. Bruce! Bruce! Can he kick a goal! He went quickly - and he kicks the goal! They're in it now!" "Knocked out of there by Leoncelli, across the goal face - Bruce! An unlikely hero! The rookie! The rookie!" "A pair of unlikely heroes embrace. Green and Bruce." Something I noticed when confirming that it was indeed the first season for both Bruce and Green was that in round 13 of 2000 we lost to Carlton by 98 points. So Freo had better watch out this year.

A debut every week since the bye and 8 players with less than 50 games, we're a whole year younger on average than our opponent, and our entire emergency list has 10 games experience between them. Stealthy...

Is that any way for a vassal to talk? Especially after they just gave us back the political prisoner. I just got a whisper of a thrill thinking about a giant infodump on the preposterous AUKUS negotiations. I can only hope there was, at some early point in submarine negotiations, a recorded conversation between Morrison, Johnson and Trump. Johnson: {burp} "What's long and hard and full of seamen?" Trump: "Hur hur hur, I'll tell that one to my daughter." Morrison: "I don't get it. I'd better ask my wife."

Moral of the story; The little boy saves the village from a flood but nobody ever comes to help him and he dies with his finger still in the hole. All that time the village thought he was a naughty boy who had run off, and they only realised he was a hero when it was too late. And that is why Belgium is Catholic.

Obviously would be of interest. Takes a steady flow of contested marks and doesn't go missing from games too much. Seems to be incrementally getting better at providing forward pressure. Probably his most impressive stat is score involvements which is not perfectly consistent but sometimes huge. He has even had a game with more score involvements than effective disposals, which is fun. I'd still be prioritising Lukosious, but you have stick your finger in every hole these days.

Gee, it was interesting noting first the borderline downfield free for the bump on Petty (I wouldn't have called it, but the umpires earlier had...) and then at the other end of that kick it is clear even in that grainy footage that Van Rooyen was bumped to ground by an opponent with no intention of entering the marking contest. I mean... am I forgetting the rules or is bumping someone to prevent them entering a marking contest when you have no intention of participating in the contest not normally a free? Good pickup on Liam Shiels effort there, and the comment on 'not caring what the opposition is doing - rolling the dice' sums up the necessary attitude quite well.

Yikes, I'd not heard of that before and had a look at the story. I am staggered there weren't riots.

Just quietly, has anyone else heard talk that Darcy Moore got pretty disturbed during a club event when a bunch of Collingwood supporters were gloating about the injury to Trac and playing a game of 'guess who' about which Melbourne player they'll cripple in round 22. The rest is entirely unknown and probably idle gossip, but I can verify the 'game' part exists because a client where my wife works thought it was funny enough to troll her with; "We got Brayshaw, now we got Petracca, maybe next game we'll do Gawn. Doesn't matter, not like you'll be playing finals." Real classy stuff taking advantage of people being professionally civil at work, too. Quintessential Collingwood.

Munchausen at the symposium; Munchausen: "This condition is one where the sufferer compulsively invents medical conditions in order to gain attention." The Symposium Attendees: "Yes, we see that."

Seems a natural progression from the old 'messiah complex' we had. Definitely something inflicted on our current Demon team. As well as shocking bad luck, of course. Off the top of my head, there's also been Collingwood 2010 "Youngest premiers ever goign to rule the world", the Essendon 1999-2000 team, the Carlton 'Baby Blues', and the terrifying prospect of the Bulldogs 2016 kids continuing for a decade together. Strange to think back on that Bulldog side and realise that more than half that side had their career-best season that year. Either it shows what an amazing job Beverige did mobilising a young and actually not outstanding team, or it suggests that he then squandered one of the great lists with an overbearing style that prevented players from growing further. Or both. The proverbial 'malady of victory'. I think Richmond are an interesting counter case. While they had some genuine champions in crucial positions, overall the side was not stacked with any kind of super-elite 'generation' of talent. Perhaps consciousness of that helped them focus on the need to work at the team things? 2000s Geelong, on the other hand, was both a golden generation and got a rocket up them early on when they slumped after 2004-5, which set their minds to the task. Makes my hair stand on end when I think that the three premierships in five years was actually a pretty disappointing result for that team!

That moment when you realise you are an actual 'do your own research' professional. Caveat; I am aware this is merely desktop-based meta-research, not actual research. Also the coffee I had while doing it was far too sweet which definitely affected productivity. Bleh. A sample of some of my reading is below, but here's the 'Things I learned' headlines; - Petracca's injury was as bad as a spleen injury gets, short of requiring removal. Most common discussed cases were grade 3, Petracca's was a grade 5, which is the maximum in the scale. - Even a total splenectomy does not mean the end of career or loss of performance for high-level athletes. - Spleen injuries often go unnoticed because they are frequently masked by the much more evident symptoms of much more common injuries such as rib fractures and general 'having your gut smashed around' symptoms. - Spleens heal. It is normal for spleen injury management (other than splenectomy) to aim for full return to health. - Follow-up imaging can confidently assess the level of healing and any ongoing risks, ensuring that return-to-play is not premature. - The initial treatment experience is often a real [censored]-chewer for the patient and loved ones, primarily due to infection control isolation, as well as persistent psychologically exhausting symptoms which can even include a physical sensation of 'my blood isn't right'. Random sample of readings; Young rugby union player with a grade 3 spleen injury - which seems to be the most common. Initial 3 months on light duties only, then another 3 months was added after a further scan showed imperfect healing progress. Eventually made full recovery and returned to representative football (well, Rugby Union). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42389949_High_Grade_splenic_rupture_in_an_elite_Rugby_Union_player A short case report from an awareness raising program for sports medics. A spleen injury that was not noticed or suspected at the time of incidence. Not a surgical intervention, which appears to be quite a common decision if the internal bleeding can be managed. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/researchday/2015/events/28/ Case study of a pair of grade 3 splenic lacerations, again, in Ice Hockey. Suggests that with appropriate regular re-imaging to verify the full healing of the spleen, return to play can be much sooner (2 months in these grade 3 cases) than current management assumptions. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231215796_Splenic_Lacerations_and_Return_to_Play_Case_Report_of_2_Professional_Hockey_Players A report from 2014 about the then uncertainty regarding spleen injury imaging and the like. 3 months light activity only, then gradual return to full activity. Incredibly, it even notes that "high level athletes may choose splenectomy for a faster return to play". I'm so glad we aren't American. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1941738114528468 Speaking of splenectomy; an article on top level Ice Hockey athletes' careers following spleen removal; https://www.denverpost.com/2011/01/17/loss-of-spleen-doesnt-stop-avs-hunwick-other-athletes/

Nathan Brown's exposed authenticity makes me a little emotional.

Curnow - quality gather and snap under pressure from almost 50 out, genuine good goal. McLuggage - successful seagull, good kick. Rivers - enters a contest at speed, breaks through a tackle while gathering the ball, slips past another tackle, fakes out yet another defender and then puts it home from right on the 50m while a fourth defender closes in. I mean, it was a top quality goal. Always nice to vote for your side when they are also the best objectively. I hope NAB enjoy attempting to contact me at [email protected].

I'm writing a book right now.

I've been waiting for comments to start berating him for appearing generally happy while not being in good form. Like he is somehow letting us down by not being miserable enough. So far we remain on this side of the sanity line on this, at least. I think we're all in the fog when it comes to what to expect of Clayton Oliver even for the rest of this season, let alone next year and the rest of his contract. It's frustrating and people are going to vent periodically.

HEATHEN! I CAST YE OUT! Tommy remains the only player in AFL history to kick a goal after the siren while seventeen men dry-humped ten metres to the left of the mark.

We should be quietly 'expressing interest' in every Carlton player who will be coming out of contract in the next couple of years. Not because I think we need any of Marchbank, Martin, Owies or Silvagni or even Cerra, but because both Weitering and De Koning come into free agent status at the end of 2025 and Carlton already have four of the AFL's highest paid players and have paid overs in salary to acquire a few others in recent years (Martin, Cerra leading that list) so the squeeze is on and it is the responsibility of every club to limit Carlton in every possible way! That said, the serious targets I'd want to sneak out of the Blues would be De Koning, Weitering (I'm constantly shocked he is still only 26) and on a lower scale I think Brodie Kemp is starting to show he's got a bright career ahead. More immediately, as much as Lukosius might be a little happier now he is actually playing in something resembling his best position again, I still think he would be interested in a move and that we should be interested in using him as a wide-patrol CHF to make our inside 50s a little less slimy.

For the forwards all we need to some honest competition and selflessness to come back in. Remembering that in one of the most dominant and high-scoring finals campaigns ever, our tall forwards were Brown and McDonald, who between them kicked 1 goal (of 13) against Brisbane, 3 goals (of 19) against Geelong, and 5 (of 21 - ha ha funny every time) against the Bulldogs. Just 8 out of 53 goals in the finals came from genuine tall target forwards. Meanwhile, Charlie Spargo got 4. All our forward line needs is some consistent contests to be offered by Van Rooyen and Petty, and for Fritsch to take some coloxyl and probiotics, and we are back in business there. Hmm, not sure 'all we need' was the right phrasing - it is a major task, but an achievable one.

Apologies for the extent this will be stating the obvious - I'm just trying to lay it out in one place. Our game under Roos-Goodwin has been built on; 1. Maintain a strong defensive effort all around the ground to restrict opposition scoring no matter the momentum of the game. 2. Keeping the scoreboard gradually ticking over even when we are under siege, using a clever and opportunistic forward line, more than because of any dominant target forwards. 3. Going hard when the momentum turns our way and sealing the game with runs of goals - particularly breaking out of clearances and contested play - whenever that chance arises. The concept is clear enough and won us a premiership. Helped more than a little by a terrific surge in morale that meant there was a lot more of 'item 3' going on during perhaps the most dominant finals series of the AFL era. Unfortunately; 1. Our defensive effort all around the ground is fatigued and for every hole that opens up it becomes mentally harder for the team to commit to the sustained maximum effort required. 2. Our forward line isn't keeping up a dangerous presence throughout games because too often the forwards are 'each and all' playing to be the goal-kickers rather than to be the creators of opportunities. 3. We currently don't have the potency in our midfield to no only win the ball but also have a decisive moment of dominance to get quality clearances - so there's minimal chance of ever really seizing momentum or intimidating the opposition midfield. So, a steadier flow of goals against us, very few goals kicked by us against the general momentum, and very few counter-punches to put games out of reach of the opposition. I'd argue that if we fix one of these problems, we'll claw our way into the 8 by season's end. Fix two and we'll be taken seriously as a competitor in finals. Of course, if we manage to fix all three then we are back into the serious contender category.

When I monitor the comments about Jefferson I can't help but think; Jye Amiss, who is within 1cm and 1kg of Jefferson, played 3 games in his first season and then in his second season played 22 games for 41 goals. I will continue to raise an eyebrow of optimism for our future tall forward combination of Van Rooyen and Jefferson.

Reasonable except for the part where we are the only club these rules seem to apply to... again.

Just dropped in on the Essendon West Coast game for a moment. Watched for 30 seconds - two throws, one marginal and one extremely obvious - from a centre clearance to seal the game with 5.45 to go in the last. Ah well. Back to not watching AFL.

Everyone knows Oliver is struggling at the moment and everyone is also terrified of being the one who plays him back into form because it would be a disaster for any opponent. Oliver regaining form would be like giving back the missing limb of a three-legged dog. We'd go sprinting just for the joy of it and there would be no restraining us.