Little Goffy

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.

Watch the minute of play at about 8 minutes(of play) from the end. The run-down tackle on Membrey in the goal-square, followed by an end to end goal for GWS. Story of the day. Collingwood will make noises about fatigue (lol) and their kicking (their own fault - failure to get to good positions or create space and time for clean shots) but in the end GWS have been too fast, too skillful, and too energetic. Could have been even worse but a couple of GWS tall forwards got the jitters with a few marks they should have taken.

Callum Brown with two goals, 1 behind, and one Maynard in the face. Good day out.

Yeah, it's lovely in Sydney today. Gentle breeze, not hot, and the humidity is in the clouds, not sticking to everything at ground level. Getting a little bit of Weideman vibes. Almost feels like Cadman's 2024 would be what we would have seen from Weideman if he'd had a full season in the firsts to learn the level. U suppose the key similarity is the lack of high impact moments to compensate for the long periods uninvolved. He actually looks like he's been lightly seared on both sides to lock in the flavour. Big fake tan sponsorship about to drop at Collingwood.

Well, you know how there used to be a theory that some of the bigger dinosaurs had a second brain located in their [censored]? Sadly it got demoted (a bit like Pluto) for being too small and non-functional. Speaking of... always nice to see Maynard having a stinker. Especially liked him copping an accidental bump from a teammate because he'd thrown himself down trying to draw a fake free.

I'm always happy when Bedford does something good. That was a nice classic long popped-up-for-a-contest kick there. He's just in that space, like James Jordon, where he kind of had to leave us for the sake of his career so it would be petulant to hate him, and he has been good enough to deserve having that career, but not so great that I feel bitter that we lost them or fear it will come back to bite us.

Nah, I choose to believe that Collingwood are just disappearing into a hole. Now, we're not a fast team by any means, but at least we often work hard to cover important space and we've got a few kids coming up with a bit of speed. Collingwood are in danger of being ripped open by some of the fast-attacking teams like GWS and Hawthorn. But, also, yes, round 1 v GWS is going to be a big test to start the season because they are clearly a dangerous unit capable of attacking in ways which bypass our best defensive traits.

"On second thought, let us not go to Camelot, for 'tis a silly place." Feels like Jon Ralph is just condensing the usual process of making a new claim every week so that at the end of the year he can load up all the ones which turned out. Not very good for generating new click-throughs - he'll have to write a whole new article now. Anyone else remember Rene Rivkin? Turns out he was the prototype for the modern football journalist. As for the actual Pickett situation, I'm less and less concerned. Two-year future pick trading improves the prospects for a fair deal, and we would also be able to extract some value even from lesser picks to cash in for Kalani White. Still hope he stays, but confident it'll work out okay for us if he feels the need to go.

My read of the game was that both sides had long 'tails' of players who didn't contribute a whole lot. Sydney has the factor of missing a couple of absolutely top players and a couple more best-22. Hawthorn missing a couple but their overall injury might even be the shortest in the league right now. It wasn't an especially tightly played game for the most part. Certainly not 'finals like' in round 1! Interestingly, neither team which took the field last night were particularly young. It'll be interesting to see how they progress over the season - will they find growth in their depth or will sore veterans and overworked kids fall away badly later in the year. My mental note for both these teams is something like 'At some point the eventual premiers will need to overcome a challenge from these teams, but they are not, in themselves, premiership contenders.'

Or they could hold it in Geelong. No Collingwood.

Feel like Hawthorn got a reprieve there with the change of weather. If a team works hard defensively and earns a turnover, Hawthorn can be exposed on the rebound if you go hard right away. Nick Blakey telling the story with 6 intercepts and almost 700m gained at 3/4 time, and a lot of both those stats were built after the Swans began to get their harassment act together.

True poetry and much appreciated.

Last two games between Sydney and Hawthorn, Sydney won by ~70 and ~50 points, if I recall correctly. It seems at this stage that Hawthorn strategy of wearing their most Brisbane-like possible away strip, for zero apparent reason, is successfully spooking the Swans. I wonder how being dressed as Mr Hanky will play on their socials?

I'm just keeping a mental log. Think of each tedious repetition of the company lines as another tick on the countdown to bloody revolution. Honestly, Sydney this last week has been significantly different weather every 6 hours. Not whimsically so like Melbourne weather, but in deep mood swings that settle and then swing around all over. I think you're missing a 'was', unfortunately.

I was going to ask if you were taking the... but then, clearly you would be avoiding such things at present.