Little Goffy

Is it possible to have a death-ride for pure joy? I've gone from dreaming that in the very final round we climb over them and take their spot in the top 4, to dreaming that we'll be ending their last-ditch effort to get into the 8. Ideally by a big margin so we can watch their spoiled sulky fans leaving the game early to end the season and we can have the 'G to ourselves for a glorious 20 minutes of singing.

TOP MARKS TO THE DEMON SUPPORTER On camera with 8 minutes of play to go (roughly the 19 minute mark) giving a berserk hand-slamming clap for the Saints.

I skipped the half-time break, I assume this is roughly what I missed? EDIT: Or maybe this version?

Yeah, that one's on me. Put him on the field in my supercoach side this week.

Yeah, that whole conversation based on spin notes was, at best, in poor taste.

Moment of clarity; A reason behind the level of schadenfreude attention going to Collingwood's early stumbles is not because we can't resist talking about them, but because the situation is opening the possibility that we soon might not have to talk about them. Lurking in the back of our minds must be that Collingwood have a very old list and even outside their B&F top 10 (which included only Daicos, Daicos and Quaynor under 27yrs) they have important veteran players who were crucial to their premiership - Howe, Hoskin-Elliot, Cameron, Cox, Sidebottom, Elliot and even poor old Dan McStay. I for one am excited by the possibility of an extended decline of the Collingwood football club.

We could solve the bye problem by merging North and Hawthorn and sending them to Tasmania. The bounty of father-son selections would be enough to keep Tassie competitive for decades without actually diminishing the draft pool for the rest of the competition, and keeping it all in the family would also be culturally appropriate to Tasmania.

Not a particularly creative set of names. And now I've gone on the internet looking up creative nicknames and will have nightmares tonight. Keep it simple. Keep. It. Simple.

Definitely the Academy working as intended there.

Full credit to him but it is kind of annoying that Bobby Hill's two best games are the difference between Collingwood's entire McRae era being a failure or not. I would be well pleased to see that arrogant parasite-on-a-throne club drain away to the gutter it crawled out of. There are already credible rumours of rifts within the club and when the paint starts to scratch off you can bet we'll get another look at all the unresolved racism, sexism and drug issues their clout enabled them to suppress without resolving. Holy [censored], I really do hate Collingwood.

Fortunately Gold Coast have just stocked up with Ethan Read and Jed Walter to go with their existing bundle of Mac Andrew, Ben King, Jack Lukosius, and Charlie Ballard. That's a lot of quality tall timber aged 18-24, never mind the veterans! Clearly Kalani will be much better served coming to the Demons where he will be an appreciated and valuable contributor to an early-career premiership.

Most of our current top players will be retired or close to it by 2028 (or whenever Tasmania actually enters the competition). At the moment our younger-end players seems to be a large swell of quality without many obvious super stars of the future. That could be a problem if we don't unearth any young guns in the next few drafts or Free Agent periods, but it also makes our future list quite resilient to losing individual players. We are likely to have a massive chunk of salary cap space available as soon as the end of this season and certainly over the next few years. I wonder... would recruiting top-end free agents between now and 2028 actually insulate us from Tassie impacts? It would seem anyone who changes club right before Tassie comes in would not be thinking so much of making another switch just a couple of seasons later. Perhaps that is the path to ensuring our wave of respectable, capable draftees are still supported by the star power which takes teams from competitive to dominant? It'll all be fine when we pick up Andrew Brayshaw, Luke Davies-Uniake, both De Konigs, Oscar Allen, and Jacob Weitering in a single free agency period! #megaraid A little side note; the linked article in the original post was for a Bloomberg report about Australia not meeting its 2030 climate targets. I can see how 'things which have been promised for decades but seem to always slip further away' could get that and a Tassie team mixed.

Spud's game. Presumably Angus will be there with Danielle. Maynard will be on field. Most of the time I'm not very interested in St Kilda but thursday night I'll be one-eyed.

Another difference between a bung knee and a head injury retirement is that at players routinely return to the game with all kinds of knee injuries and even repeated major injuries to the knee. It is also largely possible to go on to a normal healthy life (with a caveat for possible pain) with a knee injury. A head injury like the one which Brayshaw must now retire in order to avoid would be like a leg injury which left the player permanently unable to walk. Bonus point - leg injuries happen in often innocuous ways and are almost never the result of preventable dangerous or malicious play, whereas many head injuries are a product of a deliberate, reckless or negligent act by an opponent. Brayshaw is retiring because of a significantly preventable unsafe work environment.

Clearly the club reads Demonland to set priorities and was greatly alarmed by our collective ambivalence about the social media and publicity efforts. Correct me if I'm wrong, but she had this near-exact role with us before? During the glory days of Gibbo and peak Gus'n'Gawny? I had a quick look at her profile - she's seen premierships at three different clubs, and two of those came within a year of that club recruiting her. I'll never underestimate the power of social media again!

Just watched the Sicily incident. That is their captain, eh? That is bizaroo numpty level stuff. The squat pose - I don't think I've ever seen someone do that on a football field - to then come up with clear intent to upend his target, and then the obnoxious [censored] kick to someone as they are falling. The idea that he shouldn't be suspended is just arrogance from Hawthorn. Maybe it is inspired by all the times Mitchell got away with kneeing people? Natural justice would be if Sicily had got his foot trapped under his falling victim and missed 8 weeks with a wrenched ankle. I hope we break them so badly that they are having visible arguments on field about who was supposed to be covering who, and the whole club loses faith in the rebuild. Petracca to kick 5.

The only thing I took from the crowds on the weekend was that for the second week in a row the stands were empty for the final quarter of a Collingwood game. They were outta there like the police had shown up with a search warrant. Pathetic soft as butter club.

What is this 'suspended for making contact with his head' business with Rosas? And why didn't it apply to Maynard pushing his head into Viney's face?

6. Gawn - just quietly grinding out three Brownlow votes against an All-Australian opponent with a monster for backup. 5. Billings - bonus points for how important it could be for our season if he has rediscovered this level of form. His best game since 2021. 4. Petracca - Continuously involved the way a star should be. 3. Oliver - Continuously involved the way a star should be. 2. May - not all of his kicks were long up the left! Also a generally terrific tall defender I'm told. 1. Chandler - bonus point for how different 'good' Chandler is compared to 'slump' Chandler.

Oooh, cutting them apart in the last. Very satisfying. Kicking a big score while Fritsch is having a poor day is also a very good sign.

Was right in the middle of thinking 'Hmm, Pickett has been fine but a bit quiet for a lot of the game but seems busy in this last quarter'. And then I actually did some kind of witch cackle. Glad I'm not in a public place.

I've finally stopped procrastinating and got stuck into Orwell's 'Down and out in Paris and London.' Truly special. That art of observing reality and presenting it to the reader thoughtfully with only limited judgement of what is being described is sorely missed in our world of 'aggressive reputation management'. Y'know, Orwell did some sports reporting for the papers, back in his day.

I genuinely thought Tom McDonald would be out until mid-season or maybe never return, so that spoil was a particular joy.

I genuinely thought Ben Brown would be out until mid-season or maybe never return, so that goal was a particular joy. Meanwhile, in-form Chandler is as good as any small forward in the game. Smooth out his slumps and he is an absolute gun.

Household ritual: Celebrating: "Nibbler gets a goal?" Genuine concern: "Who is going to hug him?"