Little Goffy

Yes, indeed, and how are they reacting to the Fritsch speculation?

I feel like he's a player who will clock up a whole lot of '4ths'. 4th in a Rising Star award, a collection of 4ths in Best and Fairests, a 4th Premiership medal, all that kind of thing.

Joel Smith will have an important moment for sure. James Jordon will step up as a late-game sub and provide a valuable boost when a game is tight. Couple of smothers, maybe a run-down tackle on Pendlebury at a crucial moment that results in a 12-point end-to-end turnaround. I believe in small heroes.

From the footage it seems like the MRP got this one right enough as far as Weitering's brief incidental contact. Definitely not acceptable but short of a suspension I would have thought. Meanwhile... Toby Green had a player in an arm lock by the throat and was using that lock to drag and twist the player around after play had clearly stopped. So for me the real story here is the verification that the 'Toby Greene good guy transformation' is a full whitewash.

Just because they claim to be rebuilding but also didn't have a single player in the 22-under-22 team doesn't mean there is anything wrong with their drafting and development. Just ask dodo. Escape is survival! Basically Essendon club politics is a Resident Evil spin-off.

Melbourne to make everyone's spidey-senses tingle by smacking Collingwood. Carlton over Adelaide. St Kilda and GWS to continue in a state of unobserved probabalistic uncertainty with neither being fully eliminated until the semi-final when someone finally looks and the wavefunction collapses. #quantumtipping Brisbane over Port.

As much as he is a quality player now, I think getting Parish would clog our pipeline of development for younger players. At the same time, I don't think he'd be able to take on the physical load the way Viney exemplifies and Oliver and Petracca also do so well, so wouldn't even be contributing to that 'protection' factor either. So from my perspective, Parish doesn't offer enough 'value over the alternative' to justify stalling the process of giving Rivers more time in the middle, for example.

It has really been a twist in my gut ever since watching Melksham having to hobble his way across the field while play continued right around him despite three stoppages in that time. The sheer loneliness of it was horrible. I've been thinking about it and reached the conclusion that Jake Melksham's career would actually be a really interesting documentary. He's been intimately involved in two of the most dramatic stories of the least decade of football - the Essendon horror show and the Demon's return to power, full of characters who can be interviewed while Melksham's honest and direct style would provide a really good central thread.

Truly creepy space but if it works it works, I guess. If a xenomorph chestburster emerges from the cheersquad at least we'll know whose cryosleep was interfered with.

I think the key part is that on any given weekend about 1/3rd of the system in Sydney is closed for track repairs, with the replacement buses being a nightmare for the drivers because Sydney's roads are all designed to push people onto the tollways, and getting to and from each station in turn requires all kinds of winding and weaving, including three-point turns across intersections! Although, one thing that is definitely in Sydney train's favour is that I've never picked up that strange smell of barn hay that I get from Melbourne trains. I'm told it is related to a cleaning product they use, but it is especially common on the South-East lines.

It really is a spectacular Sydney August day today. I had to move my feet along the couch by the window because they were starting to cook. Rainbow lorikeets staring in the window demanding attention. The occasional small dense cloud giving a little relief from the sun but nothing that would bring rain. The spring winds haven't kicked in yet. My magical good luck charm wife will be coming along - looks like we got literally the last adjacent seats in the house, up in the goal umpires' reserve (top deck, partially obstructed, exposed!) My only concern is that we are fairly close to the ledge and she has a habit of levitating when excited during games. Only the second game of football I've been able to get to in person this season - the other was round 1!

West Coast putting up a fight to honor the final game of... their entire list except Oscar Allen and Jayden Hunt.

I have a feeling something awful will happen in the Brisbane v Saints game this afternoon. Every other game today is either dreary beyond words or tainted beyond redemption. We could be looking at the worst single day of home-away season football in the AFL era.

Keeping an eye on the ride ladder... erm... live ladder. Late in the first quarter and we are currently getting pick 4! Woo hoo!

Harsh, Footywire, harsh.

Just because you drop seven players at the same time, including five of your best ten, doesn't mean you aren't taking the game seriously. So I'm told. Anyway, the changes were made before the betting odds were calculated, and that's what really matters. [Censored] I hate the AFL Palace.

Very happy and I played it beautifully; switched off at half time.

Robotic and yet imprecise. A real shuffling zombie feeling. Collingwood should already have put them down.

Am I the only person watching tonight for pretty much the sole reason of hoping Essendon finishes their season with more humiliation? Maybe some unhinged rough tantrum football from Essendon late in the game to give Collingwood a few suspensions for finals would be good, too.

Yes, but they are the actual baddies!

Surely Yze takes over at Melbourne in 2027? I have no doubt that Goodwin is all-in as a senior coach but I also think he's a sane and reasonable person, and I can't imagine any sane and reasonable person wanting to be a senior AFL coach for more than ten consecutive years. #successionplan #Roadto17

Coincidentally, much of the Matrix was filmed in Sydney. E.g. the 'lady in red' training session is in front of the Martin Place fountain. I used to work directly opposite the street corner where Neo takes off from right at the end of the movie.

Perfect summary. If we'd brought in Simon Godfrey to put a hard tag on James Worpel or Connor Nash, it would have been game over for Hawthorn because that's 1/3rd of their clearances choked up. BUT you won't win many games against top teams which have deep midfields by doing that. Your own clearances will be flawed by having a player not involved in the ball movement, and your opposition will find ways to work around the block, meaning you've just gone full Maginot Line. (In this scenario, Petracca is the Ardennes gap)

Another thing they are saying is '$50 for an obstructed view seat in the nose-bleeds ought to keep the riff-raff out.' Fun fact - you can't actually see Sydney from the bridge.

Coincidentally I had a truly superb coffee from a little place in Ashfield just yesterday. On the one hand it was a great moment of actually tasting the coffee and getting that really satisfying feeling... on the other hand... it made me realise how bland even the 'fancy' places tend to be here. There was more difference between this excellent coffee and a 'normal' Sydney cafe coffee, than there is between a normal cafe coffee and my zero care instant coffee while staring at dirty dishes in the morning! Anyway, if anyone travelling up feels like a non-CBD experience at a tiny local cafe, 'Ashfield Apothecery' genuinely cares about what it does. Also, Sydney can get stuffed.