Little Goffy

Loved the old comment about the potential angst if we finished a season near the bottom but had no draft pick to show for it after trading the future pick to Port. I'm death riding Collingwood on my mighty horse Schadenfreude.

Point by point - Careless Conduct, Medium Impact, High Contact Correct, harsh, and debatable. Not pleased but I feel like AJ is going to need a week off anyway after the amount of bodywork he did in his first game. He'll be back fresh and ready to contribute against the plethora of talls at Gold Coast. Edit: And Brown should also be copping a fine for simulation. That was embarrassing for football.

This is one of those zombie myths that just keeps coming back. As is the 'pathetic supporters' myth. Is there such a thing as self-gaslighting? I guess it would be described as a kind of internalised abuse. To emphasise both points, I present to you the Essendon football club. Allegedly three times as many supporters in total, has been given a sustained soft run of the fixture both commercially and competitively, and frankly absurd levels of positive media for four consecutive years. Sitting on 10 wins, 5 losses and a draw, and having just beaten Collingwood, their final seven games of the season were as pathetic for supporters as they were for the team. Crows at home, friday night 36k. Saints at home, saturday afternoon, must-win game, 39k. Dockers at home, in the dour sunday late slot, but a proverbial 8-point game, 34k. Suns at home, saturday night, another chance to knock out a final-8 rival, and with the season on the line following the win over Freo, 29k. Swans at home, friday night but a bit of a dead rubber, 34k And finally, just for laughs, Brisbane at the Gabba got just 300 more people attending than Brisbane v GWS a couple of weeks earlier. I'm pretty sure I'm only sharing all that so we can savour Essendon's sustained inadequacy. Anyway, to reiterate the fundamental truth that has been verified continuously for 20 years in the war on the zombie myth; Melbourne supporters are the most likely of any club's fan base to convert that support into both Memberships and attendances.

An annoying downside to Melbourne putting itself into the early first round through trade and natural position in the last couple of seasons is that I'm aware of the potential of a bunch of those young North kids. It's nothing like the GWS list but there's enough talent in there that if they all happen to have their tails up on the same day, they can be very powerful. In a way, it is the perfect game for emphasizing the importance of doing the basics, the defensive efforts, and the general team things correctly, because getting those things right would definitely be enough to get the win. We're only in danger if we start acting like we're not in danger. The Isandlwana principle.

I'm a bit late to the votes party but this seemed to be the place to gloat about Xavier Lindsay being only marginally less impactful than Dan Houston, for a saving of about $500k and probably an additional draft pick.

I'm really curious about what happened to Gawn in the final quarter? There was a 15 minute spell where AJ was taking all the ruck contests and Gawn simply wasn't on the ground. There was some early talk by the commentators about getting a bang on the nose but not a peep about Gawn's extended absence while they were going on and on about Callghan having an obviously scheduled rest. Can anyone enlighten me? Had his nose opened up and they could get him on because of the blood rule, maybe? Solid chance it tipped the game - he was the best on ground even though he missed that chunk of time and could surely have influenced some of the crucial ruck contests where we had only AJ available.

Honestly do you only come on here to bring the tone down? That was an intense game with a lot to consider against the early apparent most likely grand final opponent. One-sided festivals of sourness aren't called for.

We really deserved to win that. Ah well. Many little things to be annoyed about, far more reason to have some enthusiasm for the season. Ah well. We miss out on the four points. My two main observations; We're not out of the picture for the 2025 premiership. We're also seeing the core group of our locked-in fated-to-be 2028 premiership.

At one point I actually started calling out "Oh, come on, be more lucky!" Football is back. Seeing Petracca, Oliver and Bowey looking energetic and involved has warmed my heart almost as much as seeing so many kids putting in respectable first-up efforts. Even Aidan Johnson, who is almost statless, is putting himself in there and doing some bodywork that could prove very important as Gawn starts to overwhelm Keeffe late in the game. Its a very tight game. I'd argue we are behind by exactly as much as one 'blowing out of cobwebs' for a first game of the season. Toby Greene still a cheat, so some things don't change. Comments that Viney looks sore does suggest a natural sub option for Langford to come in and hit hard.

17 seconds and poor old Picket Fence already needs to change his undies. Wow!

It has been 20 years since Geelong had fewer than ten wins in a season, and they've only missed finals three times in that period. With that sustained success to build a following, 25k to open the season on a pleasant day against another serious team at a custom-built boutique modern stadium with no free-to-air option competing is pretty weak.

Just hitting 28 degrees at 9am up in Sydney, and it is another of those days where the sun pierces your bones. The in-laws arrive in about 30 minutes. Oh, please, holy Demon powers, transport me to a chilly, sodden and windy MCG for an afternoon.

Bailey Scott going well and among the best for his side, but Bailey Dale brought laser sights and his own motorbike today. Bailey Williams nothing to be thrilled about on the day. But that just shows that while not every Bailey is a champion, every champion is a Bailey.

Bailey Dale adding to Zac Bailey and Bailey Smith as contenders for BoG in each of their games. I think that's every game which has a Bailey playing, has a Bailey as BoG. And 'ours' has the cool spelling. Better keep an eye on Fritta.

Quick note, with 5 games to play, the probably of Richmond finishing the round in 9th spot is 50/50, and close to 100% if Melbourne beat GWS. The natural balance of the galaxy rest in our hands.

https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_stats_team.html?comp=afl&season=2021 Yep, even in the premiership season we were right down the bottom for share of scores coming from kick-ins. The long kick to Gawn was always a 'safety' option which suited our defense-first strategy and to gain ground and at least a stoppage 60-70m away from defensive goals. Evidently it did that job very well - the number 1 rating might refer to score differential from kick-ins, because being scored against from a kick-in is a much bigger issue than whether you go end-to-end - but it has not at all been an attacking strategy in the Goodwin era. And, personally, I'm okay with that. It is just a case of playing the percentages, especially when you've got the likes of Gawn leaning on the scales for you.

Sydney with the early lead is interesting, and Brisbane seemed to lack concentration. But the weather up here today is very Sydney - one of those 'temperature overall is hot, but having the sun on you directly is brutal' - so this will be yet another game which comes down to cramps and fitness and how well systems hold up once players can't consistently get to their positions. Will be very interesting to see if Sydney are a bit fresher from the longer preseason after finishing 2024 a week earlier than Brisbane.

Alas, Jackson indicated he wanted to play in Freo's first flag, so a trade is off the table. There isn't even a table for it to be on. I'm not sure the tree has even been planted yet for the wood to make the table. It is possible the table could be made out of a lab-grown wood that hasn't even been invented yet.

In my public service days I was accuses of loitering with interns.

#humblebrag ;)

Van Rooyen and Jefferson both on the field puts me in mind of Fritsch's performance in the magical period late in '21 when we had both Ben Brown and Tom Mcdonald in solid form as tall forward targets. Fritsch kicked 28 goals in 10 games. He also kicked another 9 goals in the 3 games Brown was available earlier in the season. 37 goals in 13 games 'with', 21 goals in 11 games 'without'. Also 15 tackles inside 50 compared to 8, so even his defensive efforts lifted. Some kids just thrive when given structure ;)

I'm not sure I've seen a home-and-away game where a team performed so far below what should have realistically been expected of them. Sloppy, selfish, and soft efforts all over the ground from the Blues. And sending Cripps to break-even in the ruck when the game was in the balance has got to be one of the great coaching brain fades. Credit to Yze and the kids, they hassled, hassled, hassled and caused a visible level of panic. Deserved the win.

I wonder just how many years of his life will Mark Jamar spend sitting on the bench watching a White run around on the field?

Only Geelong can deliver the third-party deals to recruit the former, and only Essendon has the 'resources' to create the latter. Personally I would prefer to imagine he is doing everything flawlessly already and is at his ceiling. Because if he is at the 'Gary Ablett Jr before 2007' stage of his career and performing at the level he is now, the prospect of how he goes when he not only has the preseasons accumulated to let his body deliver on his play style, and also the professionalism fully clicks in, is apocalyptic. At this stage he looks like being solidly West Coast's no 1 player in his second season. He will likely lead the club for disposals, contested possessions, clearances, tackles, in50s, and bounces, and be in the top few for metres gained, score involvements and tackles inside 50.

Yes, it is early in the season for this kind of talk, but Starcevich I think should have a thread just to remind us to monitor his progress through the season and develop a clear picture. It is possible he'll be interested, possible he'll be reasonably priced, possible Brisbane will have other salary cap priorities, and possible he would add an extra set of fast legs to our team, and in particular be someone capable of closing down an opposition small-medium forward, which is a particular deficiency of ours ever since Neville Jetta retired. Some links to get it started - including a draft profile which has proven remarkably precise relative to how Starcevich's career has panned out so far; Rookie Me draft profile Puts Contract talks on hold More about contract talks being paused amicably. Starcevich's Journey to 100 Stats