Little Goffy

Excellent. I was terribly disappointed with the last quarter or so of our women's season after such an incredible early dominance, but I still look to the next season with us being the most likely side to take another premiership. Knowing we have some absolute top shelf players and characters stable in our leadership is immensely valuable.

This is in danger of becoming the new 'death ride' thread. To date, Reid's career at the Eagles has been week one hamstring awareness and week two heavily iced corked thigh. I think it is time someone return the off-brand voodoo doll they ordered from Temu.

If anything goes wrong with McDonald or Brown would an early retirement be an option which would open a mid-season draft slot for Sam Van?

Reflecting on Jordon's role at Sydney - he'll be a reliable presence in a midfield that already has quite a bit of flair and power. In a way it is the exact reverse of his scenario at Melbourne where he was 'just another' solid midfield player in a team that was in need of some dynamism. That perspective has been shown in our recruiting and drafting choices, too.

Mooney did at least take the ground, long enough to be hip-and-shouldered by Koutafides and sold a dummy by Silvagni. Brushed shoulders with the greats, he did. Oh, and gave away a free kick. So, technically, you could say Jordon had a better game than Mooney. Heh, there's a funny coincidence; both Byron and Kysaiah Pickett played in an early-career premiership alongside a player who got no disposals in the game. Also coincidental - Pickett's 2-kick 2-handball game in the winning 2004 prelim final is exactly the same as Pickett's 2-kick 2-handball stats from the winning 2021 grand final. Now, a better coincidence would be 'winning a Norm Smith medal in a win over the reigning premiers after your club has been knocked out of finals two seasons in a row despite top-4 finishes.'

We've got an odd demographic chart at the moment - we only have two each of 23yr and 22yr olds (Chandler, Sparrow, Pickett and Rivers, so all inside our best 22 for season 2023). Younger than that and to be noticed you have to be an immediate early-career star, of which there would only be two or three entering the game each year.

Youtube recommendations clearly caused by following this thread took me to an amateur solo alto saxophone cover of the Pet Shop Boys song 'It's a sin' with no backing sound, performed in a student-looking bedroom. Absolutely nothing about it worked. A low point in my musical journey and I will hold this against you all for a long time.

Things like this are so exasperating I just shrug and keep an eye open for the starter pistol of proletarian revolution. Now that'd be an entertaining Olympic event! How would you keep score, though?

Koltyn Tholstrop about to bring us in a new platinum sponsor:

Hamstring ungoodness. Anyway, it is probably career ending, for both him and the entire West Coast Eagles football club.

I've found over the years that in some ways economics is eerily similar to certain earth sciences and their management - the issue is not so much about 'more vs less' as about 'best place and time'. If the cold is in the fridge and the heat is in the oven, all is well. Actually, probably the main thing the two areas have in common is the sheer prevalence of analogies.

The old 'everybody put your money in the bank and pay for the privilege, because mattresses are spontaneously combusting' routine.

That's my favourite part. In balance sheet terms, our debt is currently earning us a profit because the 'real' value of the dollars we will eventually have to repay is going down by more than the interest we are paying on the amount! It's like "2020 Dollars" are a foreign currency that is tanking compared to the value of 2023... 2024... 2030 dollars. Unfortunately, one think I think everyone in the thread is agreed on is that right now no government wants to be seen throwing new money around loosely without a very clear result to ribbon-cut.

Interesting to see this kind of political strategy appearing on football forums. It's kind of like sealioning... maybe could be called 'wolf-crying'. THERE'S A WOLF! No, there isn't. THERE'S A WOLF! No, there isn't. THERE'S A WOLF! No, there isn't. THERE'S A WOLF! No, there isn't. THERE'S A WOLF! No, there isn't. WELL, IF THERE'S NO WOLF, EXPLAIN WHY EVERYBODY IS TALKING ABOUT WOLVES? WOLF COVER UP! WE KNOW THE TRUTH! THERE'S A WOLF!

First point; no, they are reporting to end of financial year 2022. Second point; what is your point? I mean, are you arguing that the Stage 3 tax cuts are the reason it might be difficult for AFL-level football clubs to lobby for venue funding?

https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/CG_DEBT_GDP@GDD/CHN/FRA/DEU/ITA/JPN/GBR/USA/AUS In Australia's case it is not so much eyeballs as just balls-balls.

McQualter recruited as an experienced assistant coach known for a dynamic, unpredictable attacking set up which makes the most of medium-sized players. McAdam, Billings, Windsor and Tholstrup added to the list. The 'less talk, show me the change' part of me is pleased.

That place is going to be a real head-scratcher for archeologists a thousand years from now. "It appears to be some sort of temple, where each of the priests is allocated a farm in the surrounding countryside. Every four years dignitaries from the nearby metropolis travelled here to deliver tribute. We still cannot determine the basis for this worship as there is absolutely nothing of note in the area. All other local structures have long since rotted or rusted; only this approximately elliptical edifice of titanium and gold alloy remains."

There is a particular wave front at Esperance allegedly famous among surfers, and known as 'the cyclops'. Between that home town detail and the sunnies and being a bit of a beast, I think we might have a name.

I was genuinely halfway through a cut-and-paste of the same fragments. Although... there was that magical game when we smashed Sydney late in 2010, which has been made infamous by the 'Bruce McAveny and Denis Commetti exclusive footage' youtube clip.

2028, also the year Andrew Brayshaw claims his second premiership with the Demons (and Angus his fourth) after moving in a free agency deal because Fremantle didn't have any cap space left after burning it all on Jackson.

There's some weird use of parameters in those stats, and it completely misguides about what is going on. The most glaring is 'Games played before exit' including only players who have already finished at AFL Level, meaning that for the incredibly successful 2015 draft where all but one player from the first round is still active at AFL level, that one player (Kieran Lovell) is the entire stat with his 2 games in three seasons before being delisted. Similarly, comparing 'how many seasons before delisted' for a recent draft which will only have early-cut players in the sample with a draft where players have had time to play out full careers is just silly. I'm going to indulge the 2015 draft tangent: B: Burton B McKay Himmelberg HB: Mills Weitering D Rioli C: Fiorini Parish Kennedy HF: Gresham C Curnow Milera F: Hipwood H Mckay Ah Chee, FOLL: (M Flynn) Oliver Hopper Doedee, Weideman, Schache, Francis, Cunningham, Matthew Flynn wasn't taken in the first round but was a GWS academy selection and the first ruck taken in that draft, so I've thrown him in to complete the starting 18 for aesthetic reasons. 2015 was, by a solid margin, the best first round draft ever. The only other first round even in the conversation would be 2005. Anyway... sloppy use of statistics irritates me. [rant over]

Tim English. Restricted Free Agent 2024. Suspect we'll be offering either one of them the entire salary cap space opened up by the retirements of Brown, McDonald and Melksham and then quite a bit more, on a long-term contract. Of course, it might depend on how well they think they can share the ruck and forward duties with Gawn! 💥🤣 Onto a milk crate, presumably.

An interesting feature of this draf is just how many clubs were in the 'also attended' category, with very little going on. Only half a dozen clubs did anything that I think was a 'winning move' or would have a major impact on their club. Adelaide needed and wanted Curtin and got him at a reasonable price. I think GWS will be happy to have grabbed their preferred bolter and then still selected Leake all the way down at 17, but I don't think either will have a particularl dramatic impact. Gold Coast are just doing Scrooge McDuck dives into drafts these days. We're all very lucky that club has been a hot mess for a decade. Hopefully Hardwick does a full Malthouse, overcooking the stew and alienating the young players. It is the moral responsibility of all other AFL clubs to probe Gold Coast players with offers that cumulatively squeeze the Suns salary cap. For Melbourne, Windsor and Tholstrup will over time transform the way we go inside 50 - I have an uncanny confidence in that. Hopefully sooner than later but they will certainly be a part of our 2028 changing-of-the-guard premiership which opens our renewed window. I'm a little anxious about our tall defender succession plan but other than that we probably targeted our biggest immediate weakness and surely between McAdam, Billings, Windsor and Tholstrup we've transformed our options forward of centre. North must be thrilled to have their captain in place ready for when they move to Tassie. That's good planning. (I'm out of symparthy after the amount of bonus picks they've been handed for their wilful self-destruction). But seriously, I think they now have 5 mids taken in the top 4 picks, plus Simpkin, and I'm not counting Duursma. One thing that is really noticable is how little draft impact there is for West Coast. To be fair, they went for bulk in 2021 and 2022 and put a lot of games into their first year players in 2023, but young ruck Bailey Williams is their only existing clearance winner under 28 years. Reid will be expected to be their best midfielder in his first season, and after that it will only get harder!

My question would be about the Demons habit of following up on players they studied from previous drafts, and if there are any players he particularly wishes we'd been able to recruit this year and might monitor in coming years? Also, there's a free-agency bounty coming through in the next few years, ranging from two big rucks in 2024 (English, Darcy) through to a swarm of mids (Brayshaw, Rayner, McGrath, LDU, Worpel), and even Oscar Allen. How is our salary cap position looking - do we have the realistic option of making a play for some of those top-level and still young restricted free agents? Also... ruck depth...