Little Goffy
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Everything posted by Little Goffy
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So with our footy dept we'd probably do it even if we didn't really want the pair of top-10 selections! But seriously, yep, fully agreed we'll likely try for two in the top 10. There will be hilarious shenanigans with future picks for sure. -
I like tonight's game. Either Port lose and we become that little bit more secure in the top 4, or St Kilda lose and our pursuit of top-2 becomes a little easier. Football is a very different experience when you have faith in your own team continuing to be competent! Hmm, it would appear that my MFCSS is in remission.
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3 more years of post-goals hugs for the rest of the Demons.
Luke Davies-Uniacke out is pretty big. Leads the Kangaroos for Clearances, score involvements, contested possessions AND effective disposals (quite the pairing!) and is second for goal assists. In fact, North are yet to win a game this season without LDU getting 30+ disposals, 10+ clearances, 5+ tackles and a goal. He's their guy for both getting it and using it. We really have to seize this game as our opportunity to get our clearance work sorted out against an inside mid group so depleted that our second-choice group would expect to match them.
Fair point; Hibberd's 2017 season was a masterclass of the mid-sized defender. Mind you, even that was only an incremental step up from his time at Essendon where he was an extremely promising young player. 4th in Essendon B&F in 2013 and 2014, and 8th in the 2015 team slump (Year 'off' in 2016, of course). Remarkably only 6th in our B&F in his All-Australian season. I should refine my point to say that even when the numbers and the fanfare dropped away dramatically after that first spectacular season with us, he continued to be an immense contributor by doing a difficult job extremely well. I mean, the poor guy has spent years being the go-to match up for Charlie Cameron and I'd argue has done as well as anyone at that. Actually, I looked through some figures and the interesting stat that caught my attention is that CC averages just one mark inside 50 per game against us, and I think that would be substantially the Hibbo effect and the culture of defenders working for each other which Hibberd has so greatly contributed to.
Strangely enough, he played his 'best' football for Essendon, but he has played his 'most valuable' football for us. Could easily have retired at the end of any of the last four seasons and nobody would have thought it was too early. He's smart, persistent and role-focused. Those things don't decline with age.
Well, if he can find good parking near Hardware Lane he will at least have proven he's developed a bit of mongrel competitiveness! Personally, I'm setting my Schache expectations at; kicking a goal, getting a bundle of long-lead marks to help us link up as we move the ball, and having a really good view as Van Rooyen feasts on the 1-on-1 contests created by the faster ball movement and extra space created by Schache's unselfish team-oriented play.
See, it is different for the NRL. They have no soul to preserve.
This is great because we already know his little sister loves Angus Brayshaw.
I'm okay with Segway at pick 5 and Fanagle with 17. Would bring us a combination of sustained speed and craftiness. Hopefully one or both of Savvy and Wiley will still be available at our later selections. There are plenty of not-pick-one good examples of gun kids arriving and making a potent difference in a team breaking through for a premiership. Selwood (Pick 7) and Rioli (13) in their first seasons, and I'd even say that Bontempelli (4) fits in that category with his 36 brownlow votes and a premiership in his first 50 games! Then again, I'm the kind of person who gets irritated and avoids a movie is everyone is out there telling me how great it is. I'm profoundly hype-averse. Still, if we were able to end up with 4, 7 and 13... I might go in for a bit of hype myself.
Might be more interesting to see how we could leverage some other clubs desperation for pick 1 to boost our own position. E.g. Club A that holds pick 1 insists on getting premium picks back, and Club B has managed to accumulate a pile of other trade value but not the top pick being insisted on. Anyway, seems to me that it would have to be the Bulldogs in the hunt. Currently with picks 8 and 13 (Bris), likely to trade out players and to accept that they need to boost their young talent - Bailey Smith is their only midfielder of note under 27. The fit is good and the rebuild for the Dogs could be really helped given the development time of the talls they already have, with a gun midfielder or two acquired in 2023-25ish. Anyway, this thread made me go back and look at drafts. Discounting the too-soon and too-uncertain mess of 2021, I don't think there's a single draft where giving up (for example) a top-5 pick and a top-15 pick for the first selection works out favourably, let alone three early picks.
100% a beat-up. Only thing I'll add is that while I think having Petty as a swing option is valuable, he is clearly an outstanding defender and his persistence when the ball spills and things get chaotic is both elite for a tall defender and a priceless part of our defensive system. May is doing fine. Our talls are under pressure across the board because a couple of our forwards are struggling, but nobody is actually failing in their role. Our deeper issue is that opponents are catching on generally to the fact that a mad loose slap-happy bumbling pants-around-ankles scramble is the best way to get into our defensive 50. That can only be dealt with by getting our mids and flankers to properly dominate the corridor. Do that and our opponents will be relying on mad scrambles inside 50 and only close to the boundary, which frankly is just conceding they are beaten!
If a sideline signal is a picture of BT, it means 'Start wasting time'.
Take heart that this will have done more damage to Essendon than good for Collingwood. A net gain for civilization.
Let's all take a moment to appreciate the extensive footage of the crowd from this game. Allows us all to refresh our prejudices without actually having to interact with those people.
AFL players will also earn tens of millions of dollars each year in their contracts and merchandising deals, I presume?
Hang on a minute; who says we aren't the team we were in 2021. If anything on paper we are stronger. Our only relative deficiency since then is that our two main key forwards are in unreliable form, and that seems less concerning when you remember we are the highest scoring team in the competition this season. 2021 came together at just the right moment and there's no denying something magic happened, but we're going along just fine to give that magic another chance.
NEW ST KILDA COACH ACHIEVES BREAKTHROUGH RESULT OF SAME WIN LOSS RECORD AS PREVIOUS YEAR
Nothing good is going to happen if we just keep handing them the goal square, either! Yeesh.
Nothing good is going to happen if we just keep handing them the corridor.
