Little Goffy

As you say, it is really just common sense speculation. The deal with Gold Coast certainly makes sense and having pick 8 and 9 in this draft looks like a terrific position. A little side question; will that notional pick 35 be good enough to get us Sam van Rooyen? 😉

Never in doubt. 😉 Now he just needs a quick 40 goals in the second half of the season and we'll have our fourth Rising Star winner. All talls, which is odd. Does this help his brother's draft prospects?

Look on the bright side, by dramatically reducing the number and severity of head knocks and concussions in the game, we greatly increase the prospects for future quality of football commentators. I wish I was kidding.

Just for a laugh Harmes should spend next Monday just following De Goey around, getting in his face and trying to interfere in everything he does.

Final quarter of Port/Hawthorn has the mood of a carcass being slung onto the hook to bleed out post-slaughter. Next up, Collingwood/West Coast. Basically pushing the whole pig directly into the bacon slicer. An afternoon of football.

We'll see how the round plays out. A lot of those disposals were pretty valuable! The rest of the stats favour him, too; 7 Marks, 2 contested, a bunch of score involvements, just shy of 90% disposal efficiency, two tackles inside 50 (behind only Pickett for either side) build a picture of a really effective game. It was an excellent tall forward effort in a game which did not favour tall forwards at all. Unless there's another kid who has a genuinely outstanding game, he'd be under serious consideration. But I think we all agree on what has us really excited. Structure. Even when Brown and McDonald were each mixing between good and just okay form, it was releasing maximum Fritsch. I think we went 20 wins, 1 loss in games where we had the three out there together.

Watching him getting more and more embarrassed and pleased in the post-match when Abbey Holmes kept saying things like 'shining star' and praising him over and over was just beautiful. 100% pure 'Aw shucks the pretty lady is saying such nice things about me in front of all these people'.

6 - Petracca has decided that it is his Brownlow now that Oliver has missed a couple of games!) 5 - Fritsch would have been our best, even over an epic Trac effort, if a couple of set shots had gone through. 4 - May did such an important job on Carlton's main weapon. 3 - Lever back to being Lever with 12 intercept possessions, a couple of goal-saving scrambles, and very few flaws. 2 - Brayshaw was low-key very good except for a couple of clangers which the usual suspects will fixate on. 1 - Gawn worked hard all day then turned in a true captain's final quarter which rallied the team.

It is a bit like predicting player's careers on draft night at the moment. I'm not sure I understand your point?

https://youtu.be/XOhZgAPn_CU Gil at the kitchen table.

In: A.Cincotta, Le.Young, J.Silvagni, Z.Fisher, L.O'Brien Honestly... a loss tonight would deeply test my belief in our seriousness for 2023. Also, we're not going to lose.

Now I'm worried this game is going to umpired by a man with a golden eyeball.

I recall almost word-for-word comments when it was Pittonet in, for something like his 7th game and first at Carlton. Gave a good rugged contest, was one of Carlton's best on the day, and set up his career. Okay, after checking I just need to take a moment to be amazed that I had that 7th and 1st exactly right. For the record, Gawn also had a bit of an on-field party that day and I don't think letting TWO top quality around-the-ground rucks run free will do Carlton any favours. I'm just reflecting on what has actually been a curious pattern of new rucks proving their attitude in games against Gawn.

Fingers crossed because Tomlinson playing well (at the standard we did see from him for a good run before the injury) would make a huge difference to our options for organising our talls. Smith we all just want to see a good effort and effective team play and let the poor [affectionately censored] get a solid block of games into him. I don't mind these changes. It feels a little bit like 'not minding' a 10% rent increase because everyone else seems to be getting charged 30% more... but it is bearable.

I was looking at those tallies and thinking it was a weird one - very little agreement between coaches.

I for one am concerned that our drafting strategy is now too focused on whether players share a name with a former President of the USA. It is almost compulsory if you are over 195cm. Jefferson, Adams (x2), Jackson, Van Buren, and even two Harrisons if you're willing to stretch. So, I guess we'll be taking Darcy Wilson with our first selection, given he's the only eligible player in the 2023 group.

If you don't count ten games we won, our last two seasons are looking pretty average. Love it.

Just add them to the reasons for staging a proletarian revolution. There are two reasons to implement transparent, consistent policies and absolutely minimise the influence of executive decision-makers on active issues. 1. People are stupid and arrogant and become more so the more apparent power they have. 2. Within a few years it will be possible to generate completely undetectable fake recordings and videos of anyone you want to blackmail.

I understand the point a few people have raised that it is his life and his decision to make, but at a certain level the game is bigger than the player. The principle of setting an example to kids also comes into it. McCartin clearly has a severe risk of further injury which could be on an utterly catastrophic scale. He's basically playing with an unhealed injury which clearly can be re-injured and worsened with the slightest unlucky bump. It isn't an example to set for kids. It isn't fair on the league which would cop millions of dollars of lost revenue from the horror impact of what's looking like a near-inevitable major brain injury if he keeps playing. It isn't fair on the people who care and support him - just because you know you'll be helped doesn't mean you should take massive risks that will have lifelong impact everyone who loves you. It isn't fair on the random player who happens to be tackling or taking a contested mark at the moment that some incidental glancing blow causes McCartin to permanently lose major motor functions.

Well, his win-loss rate in both the home & away season and in finals is a little better than Alistair Clarkson's, so let's give him another 230 games to see how he goes. Gonna suggest Clarkson had a pretty good list to work with, too.

I love it. Watching other people going into complete toys-out-of-the-cot tantrum mode reminds me to let it go. It is so distasteful it adds an intuitive repulsion to the rational choice to remain calm. My only concern is that with that waft of hysterical farting around, sensible points might be overlooked.

Jason Horne-Francis is an interesting example because it is starting to look like might be genuine step up compared to even the rest of his first-round peers in the 2021 draft. (Discounting Nick Daicos as a Father-son) On the other hand, the 2023 draft is allegedly a very strong draft. If it is going to play out anything like, say, the 2019 draft, or 2013, or 2015, then we absolutely want as many bites at the first round as we can get. I'm just too burned by the fact that very rarely is the best player in a draft taken at number 1 - arguably not since Nick Riewoldt - and they are no more likely to be in the top rated handful than any other pick in the top 5. In fact, picks 4 and 5 each have a better 'superstar' strike rate than 1! Anyway, with the luxury of having the AFL's most effective and efficient drafting team. Since Taylor came on board (counting drafts from 2013 onwards) our entire list of 'misses' from the first two rounds is Weideman (9) and depending on how things pan out with the kids, Laurie (22) and Rosman (34). That's in ten years. So, I'm putting my opinion together from three facts; Pick 1 players don't have an outstanding record even from those seriously hyped. The 2023 draft is generally believed to have very high quality right through the first round. Our recruiting team is exceptionally good at identifying the genuine quality players available and even targeting them with pick upgrades.

Alopecia. They are ultra-preventative scans.

Lovely relaxing island a bit to the south of Richmond where he can take it easy, recharge his ambition while building local connections, you know, just in case something comes up in a few years' time.

Hardly seems fair that Harley Reid should be punished.