Little Goffy

Surely some of their ghosts have been laid to rest. Sandwiched in between the two finals losses was a nice easy hammering of a team that was in the actual worst run of form in the history of the game - the Eagles on a string of six games with an average losing margin over 75 points and none less than 50. Yes, even worse than any comparable period of the 2013 Demons!

Weird game to watch. I was really happy for Jackson to get that goal after a couple of pretty feeble non-contests. But I was much happier for Naughton to kick that goal from a soft free.

Speaking of Looneymoves and the NSW South Coast; fun fact time! The Bateman's Bay commercial fishing fleet delivers all its fish direct up to Sydney directly, and it is almost entirely just the recreation fishers who actually bring their fish in locally. That seems sensible enough given that Sydney is where the big market is, of course, but the punchline is that a solid share of the fish available retail in the South Coast has been transported back down there via road from the Sydney markets.

I only got to half-watch the Essendon game so I'm comforted by the reports of Gus still being the consummate team player. Normally I watch him pretty closely because I have a theory that he isn't actually very good at football, he just has powerful psychic abilities which make the play go just a little bit more our way whenever he is nearby. The fragments of game I watched featured the commentators banging on about Stringer being used to drag May away from his normal defensive 50 guardian role and allowing Essendon's other forwards a pretty open run at it with any of May or Lever or Gawn or even Hibberd at home to provide intercepts and third-man-up support. If that is a fair assessment then it seems Scott made a pretty sharp coaching move, identifying that we were three players down in a role and that the value of making that four was even greater than the value of Stringer lurking close to goal. Anyway, just to bring it back to the thread; it works seem that Gus was called upon once again to take up a responsibility that isn't his ideal role, and once again was able to use his psychic powers to remarkable effect.

For anyone a bit concerned that we haven't responded well to travel and to the week after travel, take a little comfort that our only long trip from Round 11 onwards is our NT game at Traeger Park. We play the Kangaroos in Tassie in round 21 and then in round 24 we finish the H&A season with a quick trip up to Sydney, with any concerns about that travel softened by the pre-finals week off. In fact, counting kilometers, we may already have travelled more in the first five rounds than what we have left for the rest of the season!

It'll be interesting to see how Harmes slots back in. I see a cycle with him. It starts where he goes in to 'do a job' - play a tight defensive role on a suitably dangerous opposition midfielder or half-back - and he has enough initiative to then burst off that position for a moment and get the bonus counter-attack. When it goes well the player he is shadowing keeps taking him to the right places to rack up disposals, and he looks like a potent midfielder overall. But then there's a game where there isn't really a suitable opponent, and on evident form you couldn't possibly drop him, so he play a more open role. Despite being given that freedom, his numbers and impact don't go up and often will go down. The experiment with him as a general midfielder carries on for a while with him being average as a mid but now not providing the shutdown value. His form dips, he maybe spends a round or two out, and then is called up to do his original job, and is excellent. Start the cycle again. I think the problem is that Harmes so often has moments that look like an excellent penetrating midfielder (All hail the GF breakaway pass!) that there is a constant temptation to try to turn him into one full-time. It simply isn't his best role. If we use him for his best role he's a lock in the 22 and will finish up a deeply respected 200+ game player. If we try to make him something he's not, even now he would be on the edge of selection competing against Jordon, Rivers, Sparrow and the even younger kids coming through.

We are the highest scoring team this season.

Actually, the accommodation providers love the single spike. The surge in demand enables them to price gouge with a plausible excuse of 'limited availability', even though actually there are still many rooms left available. A fascinating detailed study was done of accommodation associated with the Olympics - hotels running at less than usual room occupancy rates while charging several times as much as their normal prices. Spreading it over two weekends actually reduces the opportunity for a ruthless exploitative profit rake. And have no doubt, that is what this round is about. Airlines and accommodation getting a little fig leaf for a weekend of price gouging.

If only cringing was audible.

Woooork fiiiiniiiiiishrd EAAAAARLYYYY! Hold the door, here I come!

Ugh. Working in a secure environment until about 6.30. Not even phones. Boooooo. Add an extra yell for me, all right? I'll probably watch the game on replay anyway, so if it is a proper thriller please name the match thread 'Spoiler Alert'.

As reliable as the Sun going down / coming up / neither / both.

Funny that you say Lovett while I'm getting a bit of a James McDonald vibe. Could be another 50 games before he peaks and he won't ever seem flashy or be a game breaker, but he could deliver a long period of humble excellence. Would be very sad to lose him, and also I think it would be unfortunate from a list management perspective as it is these good citizen players that keep a team at a high level without burning up the salary cap.

Unflappable is how I like my stoppers. What a strange language we have assembled.

Let's be blunt. His shoulders and back are wrecked from carrying Freo's hopes and dreams for a decade. I hope he can make the hard choice to let go of 2023 and get his body right, then come back and play out a couple more years of good football. But it is hard to see how the risk could be worth it for a new club taking him at this point.

I just love the mental reversal in our current period of drafting. Instead of 'that player is rated No.1 /No 4, etc, therefore they are what we want', the attitude is 'we highly rate the following players and will do what it takes to get them even if that seems excessive'. It's Oliver, Lever, May, Bowey, and a whole lot of little draft point trades to get us to positions where we can make our own choices. Plus, we aren't trying to do everything in one draft. If we think the available value in a draft is used up as best it can, we're very happy to push things back to future picks so we can play our way in the next draft.

Fremantle will be fine soon enough, as will Jackson, provided the fans, coteries and board give them and him time. I fear that they will end up in the old Richmond situation of impatience killing all growth every time things don't immediately show progress. Consider how much difference it would make if they had Hogan running around their forward 50 now, instead of burning him off?

The old saying of a completely not famous physics teacher of yesteryear; "The trouble with a brick is it happens all at once". If someone threw a ping pong ball at you every couple of seconds for 120 minutes, you'd be annoyed. If someone threw the same weight of a single solid object at you in one go, you'd possibly be dead. Same principle applies to physical effort. Going at double the speed for half as long is a LOT more effort than a good walk. That's why the stats are often broken down into 'sprint efforts' and particularly things like repeat sprint efforts within a short space of time.

Maybe a while back there was a Gogh resemblance, but right now Clayton Oliver looks more likely to pillage Lindisfarne than any other person I've seen in real life.

No rush. It'll happen eventually and there's no need to pay his salary until he peaks and when we really need him. Out of contract in 2025 sounds about right. Nibbler, Harmes, Salem, Dunstan and Viney will all be around 30 by the end of 2025 so a bit of midfield time will open up. Petracca will have begun the shift to his 5-year career tail as primarily a terrifying forward, too. Pencil him in for our 2026 centre bounce combo alongside peak Oliver and Pickett. Fremantle will never forgive us.

I know it can happen to anyone but seeing Dustin Martin outbodied by Caleb Daniel it just great.

Okay, I'm being purely sadistic here but how about we aim to use our 2023 draft picks to take the best tall defender (Curtin, from Claremont) and best ruck (Edwards, Peel, and Freo Academy) just so we can watch Freo supporters implode? Handily, they're probably the two most suitable first round picks for us, anyway. I mean, recruiters always debate 'best available' vs 'needs', but I don't think there's enough consideration of merciless trolling as a draft strategy.

Is anyone else kind of uncomfortable with the thought that the Crows might soon be good again? It just doesn't sit right with me, like having someone standing outside your window. They seem to be okay for 'regular players' and with a bit of star power as Izakermanis and co mature, they might become a genuine problem.

If you're feeling a bit Browned off about all that, think of the future and it'll be Yze to feel all White again.

Closest I can think of would be a couple of Sydney academy picks when they were top of the ladder. Heeney (defaulted to 18) Mills (taken at 3, before Oliver). It sure worked our well for the Swans so here's hoping it keeps us growling along nicely.