Little Goffy

Sometimes you just gotta trust an old geezer's instincts. That arricle is a really nice bit of personal, human reflection and I'd be quite happy to see five of them a week.

Clearly someone at the club has heard of the curse of 4-2-6. All of our talls are listed as three to five weeks. afl.com.auIn the mix: Who could play for your club in R2?Who's struggling, who's a test, check out the players from your list who are a little sore Not sure this will fool the footy gods. Hopefully it doesn't provoke them. I still think we need to get all our previously cursed key forwards together for a formal ceremony to expunge this terrible blight on our club. Hmm, who would we need to call; Luke Molan, pick 9 in the 2001 super-draft but crippled by injury, most spectacularly including a single incident that saw him concussed, break an arm/shoulder AND do an ACL. Nick Smith, pick 15, 2002, the original '426', listed as a medium term injury for almost his entire time on an AFL list. Liam Jurrah, who never got to play a full season due to a string of major injuries (shoulder reco, wrist, leg) and whose final injury was indeed a 'four to six week' setback which he never came back to football from. Does Lucas Cook count? Had some niggles, stuck behind a glut at VFL level (Geebus, Fevola? I'd forgotten that), apparently was mentally shattered by 'hard man Neeld'. Mitch Clarke. All of 15 games with us. Injury and depression, then a temporary retirement and brief return before re-retiring. Jesse Hogan. I don't think he even played a VFL game in what should have been his debut season of 2014 because of 'stress reactions' in his back. But the horror run came later, with his father dying of cancer and then Hogan himself had testicular cancer. Missed our 2018 finals run with a navicular crack, after which he went home to Fremantle and was formally diagnosed with clinical anxiety. Sam Weideman. After a slow start he finally began to really show something with an impressive end to 2018 while Hogan was out. Then in 2019 he was hit by a calf injury and in his return VFL game collided with a teammate and needed season ending surgery. A leg stress fracture ruined his early 2021 before he was finally traded out to nowhere in particular at the end of the year. Tim Smith. Mature age recruit on the list for three years but due to injury never played more than three consecutive games. Daniel Turner. Demonwiki is so matter-of-fact. No games in debut season because of Covid shutdown. Foot injury in pre-season practice match in 2022, then a facial fracture and concussion on debut. Looked promising in pre-season in 2024 but a hip injury kept him out until round 7. Should be glad to be safely back in the forward line. Matt Jefferson and Luker Kentfield - both current 'three to five' weeks after looking promising in the pre-season. Aidan Johson and Kalani White - footy gods got a bulk discount on 'three to five' to start the season. Honorable mention to Harrison Petty for kicking six goals in a game and then two more in the first half the next week, before being injured, and then never quite making it work as a forward again.

I'm going not quite cold but tepid on Butters. He is a very good player but not a structural need. We should be circling like vultures over any unhappy youngish key defenders not getting a game or simply not liking their role. Moneyballl is a thoroughly overworked cliche but Butters is not worth, say, $500,000 more than your typical $700,000 midfielder, and certainly not that much more than a $700k key defender would be worth to us. On the other hand... getting a top calibre player without giving up the draft picks is highly valuable, so if somehow Port decide to not match whichever bid comes then it is a very different picture. For example what would the cash/salary cap space value of three first round picks be? Hypothetically, if you could just trade salary cap space directly to acquire another club's first pick, what price would you set.

I can proudly report that my 8-month old selected the classy 2016 'shield and monograph' members scarf from the selection offered. So glad his skipped the 2011 one decisively. Wife has her 2021 scarf, with a similar simple embkem, she knows what's good. I'm emotionally attached to my original 2000 scarf with the slightly goofy 'vampire with flame' emblem from the Daniher era.

I think Jack (and relevant coaches) will be watching our midfield with great interest and using his current 'lowest activity' time to figure out a really precise comeback plan, very likely giving him a mid-year preseason to focus on the burst speed and fast hunting. I could see him being a forward line stoppage specialist and a horses-for-similar-horses match on opposition beasts. Hmm, he's unlikely to be back by round 12 in time to tag Oliver, unless we meet the Giants in finals. Hee hee. Probably not a good match up for Petracca, but really nobody is, that's the whole point of Petracca. You just gotta bug him enough that he kicked it out on the full.

Half time spelling competition for shillelagh, shillegha, shileya... Landlord-whacking-stick. Dear me, I'd love to have a proper landlord-whacking-stick. I can feel a St Patrick's Day tradition starting...

From what I've seen the open style is very much in fashion and the rules favour it too with fewer boundary stoppages and the boundary-hugging tentative advance now coming with its own new risk. I suspect that many defensive units will have to reassess what they can really protect. Instead of a full arc resembling the 50m line, pinching the edges a bit to create a more elliptical shape (a bit like the ball come to think of it). It might mean giving away a few extra shots out wide, and will also backfire sometimes if the opposition can get their sharpest ball users into that space and then delivering a final piercing kick, but all up lets say it gives away 2 goals 4 behinds, but prevents four goals two behinds, thats a big win.

I suspect I'm not the only one who has watched that goal a couple of times. What I've loved on close inspection is how deliberate it was. Not a simple case of 'I go fast, I go sideways too, watch me go!' but a genuine anticipation of what the defenders were going to do, and a dash into space that actually didn't exist until the defenders kept going to where Latrelle suddenly wasn't.

Mihocek was also constantly in for the posr-goal celebrations. I haven't seen that level of consistent investment in other's goals since Nibbler, who should have a season hug tally trophy named after him. Mihocek and Steele are looking like big wins for character and culture whole also so far proving more than handy in actual play.

@Ghostwriter Welfare check on Ghosty, you alright? Didn't accidentally bite through a Red Bull in the final quarter? All okay? I for one had a good time watching that game. Like, vintage good time. A good time in a way I haven't since before the darkness. It was a game that deserved a Dennis Cometti commentary.

Jarrod Witts' around-the-ground contribution is not even half that of Gawn's, and I don't think he is a true rival for the AA Ruck spot, but at half time Witts is on target for >100 total hitouts after the first two rounds. I mean, rucking against Blicavs last week and Flynn this week isn't exactly top shelf, but... still... With just six goals in the second quarter, looks like Gold Coast have eased off a bit and '186' will not be threatened today, but on the other hand there's travel, there's a young team potentially dropping their heads, and there's the alleged round zero conditioning advantage. Not as if Hardwick is likely to go soft - certainly not when he is trying to turn a brilliant but mentally soft team into ruthless killers.

Harry Sharp; 51% time on ground, 6 score involvements. I think this could be the start of a beautiful player-coach relationship. Latrelle 59% I would have expected but it is interesting to see Rivers only had 58% time on.

Harry Sharp; 51% time on ground, 6 score involvements. I think this could be the start of a beautiful player-coach relationship. Latrelle 59% I would have expected but it is interesting to see Rivers only had 58% time on.

Harsh on Tholstrup. Worked very very hard and took a lot of responsibility to limit a dangerous opponent. Unfortunate that when he got it things rarely worked his way, including a few just plain clangers. On the other hand, 8 score involvements and 360 metres gained is no potato. I think Tholstrup and Chandler actually sum up our game, despite neither of them being outstanding. Both continued to persevere and maintain their effort after some bad moments. In Tholstrup's case that resulted in a total 'body of work' which deserves credit, and in Chandler's case it resulted in some really good moments late in the game which were important to the result.

Just a little brainfart to finish the half, oh well.

Vintage Petty in the last line of defence. Still super rusty but that was a glimpse of the gritty second efforts that made everyone love him a couple of years ago.

Van Rooyen now 8th in the Coleman race with a game and a half in hand. OH DAMN YOU GOALPOST, I HOPE A DOG [CENSORED] ON YOU FOR EVERY MORNING WALK FOR A YEAR.

Lindsay just had the defender's equivalent of shave the post on the way through. Got up, timed it, connected with the ball, but didn't quite knock it enough to stop Wilson collecting it on the second grab. I'm gonna say it, though, this has been a fun half of footy. After a half of football Van Rooyen is the leading goalkicker of those without a second game. Which presumably means by the end of the second half he will have caught up. Noticing Tholstrup working really hard to get up and down the ground. Hasn't always gone well for him when he has been on the spot (such as that behind) but his head is in the right mode.

Latrelle Pickett also bringing good advice on how to make friends. That's hilarious, do it again!

Geebus, Mihocek, if you want to make friends, then "Looking for the team first option, not seeing it so kicking a nice goal under pressure" is a good way to start!

After all these years of structure structure structure in defence it is a bit hair-raising not quite knowing who is supposed to be doing what in a given situation. Bit of a feeling that the defenders are having a bit of the same feeling. Also, no way in hell that was a free against Lever then.

You are mistaking quantity for quality. Collingwood have very poor attendance rates 'per fan' and drop away more than any other club in poor seasons. There's just a whole lot of the little buggers. That's what happens when you share condoms.

There would have to be ten players at the Dogs I'd barely know on a team sheet - some I'd only know because they have a fun sounding name. But they appear to be doing their jobs and giving the big names the freedom to absolutely crush Western Sydney. If this is what Bontempelli is going to look like every week with a team which doesn't need to be carried, then we should all be afraid. Meanwhile it would appear that Oliver is going to join Stringer in the 'yeah, I'm great, but just once a month' club.

I raised an eyebrow at that one, too. "Look, Bayley, we know you've kicked 14 goals in your last four games, and even your defensive efforts have been going well since Brown and McDonald have both been available and the structure is all set, but what we desperately need right now is to find a spark, an avenue to goal of some sort, to capitalise on our plan to have our midfield guns all fresh in the 3rd quarter to seize momentum, so we're taking you out and bringing in a tagger." Personally I'm hoping Fritta sticks around Gunston style and gets to be football's first boyishly fresh-faced grizzled veteran.

They have a thread reflecting on the shining contract extensions of the likes of Henry Slattery and David Myers way back, and then this beautiful effort; who have we got that can’t string 3 games together at the moment? "Essendon."