Little Goffy

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

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the-russian-is-coming-20100506-ugv3.html Jamar's 198-centimetre frame is not tall for a ruckman but White said his former teammate overcame this with tactics. ''The key about rucking with Russian was that he's left-handed, so opposition ruckmen had to change their angles,'' White said. ''He has got a really good leap for his height but I think it's his timing [that has improved], that's what I've been noticing. He's also obviously doing his homework on the opposition ruckmen because he's getting opposition ruckmen into positions they don't like.'' That seems like a very relevant endorsement from the history books. ;) I did some digging. Jamar is half Italian, half Dutch, and 'Russian' was entirely a joke name. Depending on who you ask it is either because he looked like another ruckman who was Russian, or he just looked like he was Russian, or he has a [censored] the size of Russia.

I propose a compromise. Hawthorn beat Essendon, but only after things get very ugly and a few serious incidents reduce Essendon's bench. Two or three key Hawks get suspended (Sicily, obviously) and it is just the 'exciting''up and coming' 'carefree' kids who come up against Carlton the next week. The mature Carlton side with it's immensely strong key position stocks put on a clinic and Hawthorn miraculously drop out of the 8 despite having played an extra game. Patrick Cripps punches Ginnivan and is given a two week suspension, ruling him out of the Brownlow. In this scenario neither Essendon or Carlton are happy, but the Hawks really, really suffer. Best outcome. Wow, this round of football is packed with games of the least possible interest to me. Adelaide St Kilda? Bulldogs North? Gold Coast v West Coast? Even Essendon and Hawthorn I wouldn't worry about watching so much as just wanting to know the injuries and suspensions pile up.

Interesting that the game was so close when we were in full stumbles mode, with Petracca gone, Oliver lacking impact, the forward line sputtering, and our second-tier runners ranging from Billings to Woewodin were not very effective and Windsor had his worst game for the year before copping an ankle injury near the end. Meanwhile GWS were at their peak, in the middle of a seven-game winning streak which only ended when they got the jitters for finals. #straightsets #sackKingsley Might be worth noting that their three clearance winners, with more than the rest of the team combined, were Greene (test), Peatling (Adelaide) and Briggs (concussion) so it could be a very different midfield battle this time around. Odd stat of the day; Metres gained. In Round Null, Collingwood had a very, very high 5,990 metres gained for the game, while GWS had a frankly ridonkulous 6,600. In July last year, we managed 5,200 against GWS' 5,530 - more than a kilometre less gained! Some of that will be because of the high tally of behinds for the game, but it shows a pretty clear picture that Collingwood were not able to close down GWS' preferred game, and obviously paid the price. No surprises that our game also featured a much higher (eyeballing it, about 20% difference) ratio of contested possessions. Obviously the area supporters worry about the most is our entry and effectiveness in the forward line. It is particularly concerning after, in Round Meh against Collingwood, Sam Taylor had 12 intercept possessions, 13 marks including 4 contested, and a disposal efficiency above 90%. I'd honestly say we should just put a tall tagger on him. A learning experience for Turner or maybe we swing Petty forward for that specific task. (I'm joking. I'm joking. Seriously, I'm joking. No, put the knife down, I was just having a wind-up.)

I've often wondered at the origins of that music. Thank you for setting me on the path to confirming it is 'Frolic', by Luciano Michelini, and aside from, apparently, an obscure bank commercial, it owes all it's public use to Larry David getting it stuck in his head. I can see a future where Jackson rucks the forward half of the ground, Gawn rucks the back half, and they switch at the centre bounces as the tactical situation requires. Would cut Gawn's running load by about a third and let him do his terrific deter-intercept-spoil work behind the ball, helping our defence immensely. Ah, it's all fun and games, of course. Also, if Jackson is on ~$800k per year I would guess that is because his contract was heavily front ended, which would just add another hilarious spice to Fremantle's situation. (For the record, the whole switch-back seems unlikely to me, but not zero chance)

With no disrespect to the great one, I'm going to suggest this thread be merged with the other fifteen near-identical threads.

681 × 383680 × 940 There is only one mission remaining for Trac's management.

What a strange thing to say.

I mean, credit to Bedford for not only blowing up Daicos, but also getting under the skin of the opposition coach. Ken Hinkley must be wondering how many instagram followers it takes to be allowed to sledge with impunity. The way his incident played out you'd think Ginnivan was a 10 year old waiting for a school bus when Hinkley threw a smoothie at his from a passing car. Hawks ate the embodiment of big mouthed thin skinned little privileged [censored].

That's two absolute gun talls, one of whom routinely pushes up the ground to provide defensive cover, plus Kemp is more of a Hibberd type and can swing all over the ground. De Koning is a ruck who can move forward at any time and Pittonet is an expert at forcing a heavy wrestling and bullocking load from opposition rucks. Put more simply, the number of talls you use looks very different when it includes two contenders for the Coleman Medal.

In a recent light interview Goodwin was asked who the best two players he'd played with were, and said Ricciuto and McLeod. So, clearly, that's who Langford and Lindsay should be compared to. 🤪

Quick recap. Collingwood have traded their 2025 first round pick to Gold Coast. If they're cooked, they're very, very cooked.