Little Goffy

10 minutes ago, 58er said:

No we have May Lever Tmac and Hore or Petty. 

Four of those have played in a premiership team and 2 are All Australian. I’ll take them any day  before Pierce who is a  good player in his own right but not as decorated as our elite team defence. 

That's the key - if the whole team is willing to run hard and often sacrifice their own stats just to force the opposition into more predictable attack flows, our defenders are all highly capable of reading the play and getting to where they need to be.

I'd rate all of May, Lever, McVee, Rivers, Bowey, McDonald, Petty, Tomlinson and even Hore and the kid Howes as above the league average when it comes to anticipating where they need to be defensively. It is built into our defender's way of being.

The Tao of the Demon defender is to know one's place in a deeper story.

1 hour ago, Jeremy said:

Scans for the rest of the year tom Morris said

I propose the collection to be auctioned off at the Best and Fairest. Quite an artistic piece, really. Turn them into a photobook; each one with match details and a highlight photo on the opposite page of the magic hands at play.

Can they get a premiership cup into one of those scanners?

Howes, Windsor and Woewodin are eligible and currently playing at the level, and we've got another eight players eligible waiting for their chance.

That's actually a pretty long list of kids whether you cut it by 'playing at AFL level already' or by simple total numbers.

I did some poking around other club's lists to confirm. For example, our coming opponent Adelaide is yet to have an eligible kid play a game this season. Neither has Carlton, Collingwood, Port and probably a few other teams but I think the point is made.

At this point only North have a stronger complement of Rising Star eligible players.

6. Nibbler. Best mid of either side on the day, when probably 5 or 6 of the top mids in the game were on the field. Makes me so happy.

5. Gawn. All day all day.

4. Lever. Maybe should be higher because he took on so much responsibility and out of his comfort zone.

3. Langdon. Vintage Positive Lingers. Yes, created chance, but even more he took an edge of the Port space.

2. Ben Brown. Career not over! WOO HOO! Let's goooooo!

1. Rivers. Loved the way he responded to the free kick - looked like three major 'moments' in that last five minutes.

Some seriously slippery midfielders at Port.

Better get our heads settled quickly.

Seriously, I'm already checking for score updates even though I've got the game on screen in front of me.

It appears I am a bit hyped up for this one.

5 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

The saints [censored] that up !

Traditional demands it.

What St Kilda does in a game, Essendon does over a season.

I know everyone else is irritated by an Essendon win for their own reasons, but I have to live with the knowledge of just how insatiably [censored] by bomber ex is right now. Many years pass but some memories stay. 🤣

So glad there's a Demons game coming up to keep my mind off it!

6 hours ago, BigFez said:

Does anyone know our recent record without May in the side?  I have a mate who always tells me "No May no Melbourne" and has loaded up on Port.  I want to know if there's any truth to it.

2023 - he missed two games, for one win, one loss

2022 - he missed two games, both losses, and we also lost the game he was subbed out of.

2021 - he missed two games, both were wins, and we also won both games he was subbed out.

Long story short, if we win without May we win in September!

2 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Where does “crom” come from? 

It was originally a typo by an overly-excited Adelaide fan on a forum maaaaany years ago. The mocking snowballed and was helped along by Conan the Barbarian's deity being Crom.

At seven goals a game, not sure too many Crom fans will be getting too excited just at the moment. Will be interesting to see how the showdown goes between Port's leaky defence and Crom's inability to score.

Well, the battle to be our end of 2025 free agent ruck recruit remains interesting;

Xerri; 13 disposals at 84%, 32 hitouts, 8 tackles, 10 clearances, but only 24 metres gained.

De Konig; 13 disposals at 84%, 31 hitous, 5 tackles, 4 clearances, 1 goal assist, 6 score involvements

At this stage I'd give it to Xerri given that a lot of the difference can be attributed to a ruck free kick differential of 8 in De Konig's favour, and as a Melbourne player he would not get that kind of service.

Honestly, from what I can piece together without live coverage (ahhhh, Sydney life), it is a little embarrassing for Carlton to only be four/five goals up.

I stand by my theory that Carlton continue to be in weak form to start the season and that has been balanced by very, very good personal form from Harry McKay. 3 goals and 4 contested marks in each game, and already 3 goals and 3 contested marks to half time against North.

Voss and the Carlton planners would be absolutely thrilled to be clocking wins. That said... every Carlton opponent so far has remained winless this season. The Blues would want to get things working properly before they come up against opponents that aren't either in mental disarray, managing an awkward rebuild, or outright led by teenagers.

Like many, I can't get to the 200 in Adelaide so I will have to wait for the 300.

Considering he appears to be climbing back to career-best form and consistency, I feel confident. It is only 4 seasons.

Just choose your meme, really.

Starting from the 2017 draft, I don't think there's been any club which has been more 'pick value efficient' in their drafting for even one draft in that time. Maybe 2020 - we only had three picks including Laurie himself. It has been an incredible run that clearly requires both good drafting and good development programs.

It doesn't automatically mean Laurie will join the trend, but it is enough for me to think our development team has a plan for how to get the most out of Laurie.

Something I find interesting is that he has only ever played one full game and was only on the ground for 64% of that one. Clearly there's still a question mark on his ability to run out whole games.

Could the whole situation be as simple as the club believes he needs another preseason or two in order to fulfill his potential?

Just going to nod to the fact that Jack Viney is superbly committed to fair play while also being so damn hard. He isn't into the behind-the-play sniping or any of the rubbish stuff, he is just pure hardness.

I do wish that promo voice-over guy would take some Coloxyl, though. It's just hrrrnnnnghh rrrgh nnnnnnngh from him every time.

I'll be raising an eyebrow to see if Geelong will carry on their decade-long tradition of making seemingly random last minute changes, given the present 'optics' of it.

I neither infer nor imply anything, just find it amusing.

Hugh McCluggage is only 26 and would be a very handy acquisition without the draft cost.

I guess Andrew McGrath as well but for some reason he just doesn't excite me.

Next year is the big one for our needs, with De Konig and Xerri available as peak-age rucks and a few high quality tall defenders also around. Fingers crossed the right ones stay open. Oh, and of course, Andrew Brayshaw.

2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

 

In conclusion, Tom Morris and WCW are possibly the same person 😂

Mods, sure this warrants a 1-week ban at least.

We can't have people on here saying such horrible things about each other.

What if some kids saw it and thought it was okay to go around calling people Tom Morris in the playground?

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

We’ll smack both these teams 

That is one very full half empty glass from Roost! :D :D

Love to see it.

Everyone who kicks a goal gets a hug from Nibbler, but who hugs Nibbler when he kicks a goal?

Oops, time to re-watch the 3rd Quarter highlights, this time for the magic power-up Nibbler hug on the goal-line after Sparrow's goal. In hindsight that hug was the moment we secured the premiership.

8:14 in the following. Do you need an excuse, really?

Trying to find info on any evolution in the Port Adelaide gamestyle,

Seems like Wines it taking more stoppages and spending less time forward which is hardly surprising or radical.

Marshall is taking a ton of marks (10 and 9) and creating many more goal assists than previous seasons, but both Marshall and Dixon have barely 50/50 goal accuracy. Maybe playing further out and taking their marks and set shots from further out?

Then again, maybe their forward stats are just skewed by the bizarre game against the Eagles. Finlayson 0.4, Dixon 3.3, Marshall 0.3, Bergman 0.3. Could and probably should have been a 100 point win despite letting West Coast score 70.

Which brings up the next point - West Coast 70 and Richmond scoring 92 despite both games being dominated by Port suggests that Port are pretty leaky defensively, and all that despite no tall forward scoring more than one goal against them.

Hard to get much of a read on them other than that, with just two games to look at and against what is basically the second-last and third-last teams (with only Collingwood below).

Did I mention only Collingwood is below then. Because Collingwood is last - clearly 0-3 is lower than 0-2.

Just recapping, Collingwood; the worst.

35 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Played round one the weekend against Eastern Rangers and only registered had 6 disposals for the whole game.

Well, that's six more than Petty had in the VFL before coming in!

No, but seriously, the kid is just doing the right thing by the club and staying under the radar.

Or maybe it is loading?

12 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

AFL would be delighted I'm sure that 8 of the top 10 players from interstate clubs.

But, wait, the TV clubs have all had an extra round to earn votes in early.

It is almost as if the main point of round zero was to push selected clubs to the top of the apparent ladder. Hrrrmm....

Lol.

Based on coaches votes, the three best players in the Australian Football league were all top-pick selections taken under special concession rules for the Television-Zone clubs.

Heeney; bid at pick 2, taken with pick 18 - a discrepancy so dramatic that the points system was introduced.

Green; points-based matched bid inside the top 10, using leftover junk draft picks after the Giants had already used pick 4.

Rowell; bonus No.1 pick given to Gold Coast because of how rubbish they chose to be. (Concessions given also included three other top-20 picks spread over the 2019-20 drafts)