Little Goffy

Disagree. Smith has never managed to be more than depth despite his athletic ability. His game in the semi-final was as a makeshift stay-at-home forward. He had 6 disposals, 3 of which were shots on goal, and he had no involvement in any other scoring. He was also basically unsighted in the final 50 minutes of play. His absence is not a factor in our structural problems.

Fortunately I think all of Freo, Giants, Dogs, Port and Suns are either overrated or will fade as the season goes on! And destiny simply demands we crush the 'Pies in the final round.

Anyone got the timestamp for the couple of Maynard incidents on the weekend? The spoil-punch to the face of an opponent, and the pinned face-gouging of Green? Maybe we should start a thread where people can just add to a directory. No other posts, just a catalogue of times Maynard has done things which would be 'looked at' by the MRO if, say, a Melbourne player or any Indigneous player did them.

I really should have added a whole bunch of caveats, yeah. That's why I only 'gently' disagree with the original statement. But people already get annoyed with my occasional posts which resemble a wall of text! I definitely agree that it is vital to have a structure and overall plan of movement which places as many players as possible in positions and roles which use their strengths and for recruitment to systematically cover that variety of roles. I think what I was reacting to in the original post was the feeling that in a given moment in the game a player should be thinking about feeding it to Rivers. If you're inside a stoppage jungle with three howling gibbons chewing on your leg, feed it to whoever is in a better position. Hopefully the structure will mean that player is Rivers or Salem or Bowey, and not Alistair Nicholson. Is anyone else anxious that our current team is going to end up like the Bulldogs from roughly the mid-90s to 2010? Some names which go into the history books and popular imagination for a generation, routine finals appearances, but always just a little short at the critical time? From 94 to 2010 they played 21 finals for just 6 wins, and only ever won a single final in any given season. Grim stuff.

Hrmm... I gently disagree. Not because I don't like Rivers having the ball, but because I don't like too much emphasis on 'player x should do this type of thing and player y should do that kind of thing'. In my mind it is the Terry Wallace syndrome. Excessive designation of roles leaving players mentally limited and trying to follow rules that are about who and 'what' they are, instead of the situation they are in. Ha, fun side note - I was just about to give a second example after Richmond under Wallace, and it was going to be the Bulldogs of the late 90s early 2000s.... under Terry Wallace. I'm comfortable with the name! Coincidentally, I think Sydney's greatest strength is the spread of mid-sized players who are ready to do whichever task falls to them at that moment of play. Obviously it is a little easier when you have an extra four top-5 draft picks courtesy of special consideration for the commercial need to bias an entire competition to serve its most fickle supporter base, but they still do it well.

First: Merge thread. I think there's be three of this exact thread already! :D Second: JVR is better than JUH. Third: Wouldn't mind having them both because I think they'd complement each other very well, but it would be awkward that to get him we would have to pay Ugle-Hagen double. Fourth: Ugle-Hagan isn't the player our structure needs most urgently.

Not gonna lie; Going through a football season thinking 'we should be on top of this' while the team stumbles around with all-too-familiar problems is agony.

I think Geelong will have to be content trying to steal Tom Sparrow off the Crows.

I find Roost and a few others play an important role to steadying my mood after a disappointing loss. It's like the steam coming out his ears is releasing pressure from inside my head as well. The extent to which I agree socially validates the frustration I'm also feeling. The extent to which I think Roost sometimes goes too far resets my thinking to argue the case for the positive. We're an ecosystem in here. The demonland terrarium!

Hypothetically, Sam Van Rooyen would be more likely as a replacement for McAdam if his hamstrings decide to completely pack it in. Or simply as a speculative mid-season draft selection for the future with no particular reference to our current pressing needs. Personally, I have an irrational level of hope in Fullarton. Maybe for no better reason than his best game so far was in a one point win over the Magpies. Petty back, JVR stable in his best role, and Fullarton being an effective back-up ruck... that would be a total transform our prospects. As for the other conversation in the thread; yep, if we're 3-3 after six rounds we're doing okay. We'll have played Port, Brisbane and Sydney - three teams clearly pursuing a top-4 finish. Crows and Bulldogs - two more teams realistically looking for finals. And Hawthorn - who are just [censored] who make everything worse wherever they go. I doubt there's a tougher first six rounds, particularly when you count that we play both Port and the Crows in Adelaide. The trade off is a much softer second half of our season. If we're sustaining a 50/50 win rate to mid-season with all our current negative factors, I suspect we'll be storming into the top four and scaring everyone on the approach to finals.

Aye, don't you be loosely mentioning the illiterate branch of the clan around here. My parents moved to Canberra in the 70s. My dad was a journo. Can you imagine how hard it was to book a taxi for 'Goff' to pick up from Parliament House late at night? Tough times, we thought we'd had enough, although we ploughed through the trough until the big fella was given his rough furlough. Ugh.

I feel like there's about five threads that can be merged on this. Also, we don't need an A-grader forward. We need a competitor who fits the role. Ideally a tall target forward who can also ruck effectively. Unfortunately they are well in demand even at 'good competitor' level! Hayden Mclean is not an A-grader but we would likely have won against Sydney if he had been playing for us. Darcy Cameron is another from the weekend who did a job, did it well, but nobody would say he is an 'A-grader'. Jack Lukosius might be a poor example given he could be on the cusp of being an A-grader and doesn't ruck much (much - his 3 hitouts on the weekend were the first of his career!), but given his ability on the one hand to take both contested and leading marks and on the other hand to use vision and good long kicks to pentetrate defences he would absolutely transform our forward line. Anyway, of all the realistically available forwards at the moment Harrison Petty is probably as good as any. So let's wait a few weeks (touch clogs) and ask again.

Nice of Goodwin to give Grundy at least a 4. Probably while muttering "You absolute [censored] [censored] [censored]"

Could this prove to be a transition as decisive and irreversible as the 'facial hair -> no facial hair' prime ministerial eras?

He'll be back in time for the late season surge. Will be missed horribly in the meantime. Climibng towards Neville Jetta levels of underrated, though quite a different player.

They've figured out that his natural kicking action works best at 120m.

I think we have found one 'positive' from the night. Please remember to self-isolate as much as possible, keep your fluids up and manage the symptoms. Do not return to your residential care home until you have been at least three days without symptoms.

Sydney has had the most humid [censored] summer I've ever experienced here. I doubt there's been five total days of the other 'brutal dry sun' type in the whole period from November to now. I've got one of those evaporative-fan cooler units sitting in a cupboard somewhere but there's just no point to it because the humidity is already so high all the 'cooler' can do is blow some additional moist air around. As for Max, it was really noticeable that he dropped off after McLean had been put on him for a solid spell in the 3rd while Grundy rested. McLean would have been the dream acquisition in the Grundy/Jordon trades to accompany Max and they used him with precise effect. He had just 4 kicks but every one of them was a shot on goal which tells you how little he was expected to get around the ground when stationed as a forward. Then fresh as daisies in the third, he goes onto Gawn and delivers maximum effort. Whether or not Gawn can keep up with the fresh opponent is irrelevant; that level of effort for a sustained period defeats the bodies natural short-term recovery and by the time it was done Grundy has two steps ahead of Gawn in every situation. By the stats McLean had a pretty basic fwd/ruck game; 5 disposals, 5 clangers (mostly from 4 frees against), 2 goals 2 behinds, ten hitouts. But it was one of the most important contributions on the field that night. As for why our players aren't stepping in about the roughing up of Gawn - we all know that it is the retaliator who gets pinged most of the time. Even moreso in this case where a strategy of niggling a target all game with constant minor incidents is acceptable under the rules, while any attempt to respond to a particular instance will be seen as an overreaction and likely penalised. It's the successful workplace harassment approach we all know so well.

Upsides; Well, Laurie, Chandler and Spargo have really made me appreciate the effectiveness of Melksham, and look forward to getting Pickett back and probably Woewodin, replacing two of these. I'd probable hold onto Spargo as the smartest and most energetic of tonight's three. McVee continues to grow. Howes looks like a serious player. Windsor is definitely promising. Salem looks like he's fit again. We're another week closer to Harry Petty's feet being okay (touch wood, ideally clogs) I'd say something positive about Jake Bowey being smart and hard, but I guess that depends on his shoulder.

6. Viney 5. Salem 4. Howes 3. Fritsch 2. Petracca 1. McVee

Besides, that is highly inefficient - results in only half the total volume of eligible offspring.

That it is time for dessert. Ooh, helpful thread. I should go buy something ready for dessert after the game.

I used to embarrass my much higher income brother because when he'd take me to some of Melbourne's elite restaurants I'd be asking for more bread every time a waiter was in sight. Premium bread with quality butter is my happy place. In these adventures, once upon a time I had some of the world's best bread with some of the world's best butter. You could tell. It was bliss.

Honestly, at a certain point even an AFL journalist has to earn some kind of credibility deficit.

So, really, on the basis of their shared "aggressive non-viral, transmittable parasitic cancer with lesions or lumps in and around the mouth," and their general demeanour, the natural rivals for the Tasmanian Devils would be...