Little Goffy

What's going on in the Geelong - Freo game? Not free-to-air where I am, and I just flicked through stats and noticed 15 hit-outs already - on target for about 150 for the game! Is that that much of a slog down there?

Pick 4 is, objectively, the best draft pick this century. In fact, the unsuccessful pick 4s are almost entirely limited to Barry Prendergast selections! Actually, on further investigation pick 5 may actually have pick 4 just slightly beaten thanks to the incredibly early run of McVeigh, Franklin and Pendlebury, and overall consistency with almost no 'misses', and those misses are GWS anyway. So I'll be able to remain calm if Freo put in a little bit of a late season spark and somehow climb to 5th-last! We should try to trade up to get both 4 and 5 because I don't think there's ever been a draft without at least one of them going on to be absolute pinnacle-level champions.

If there's non-alcoholic whiskey, why aren't there alcoholic bananas yet? Come on, Science, we're relying on you!

McKay is a gun but we don't need the super premium option. We need a job done and it can be done by someone on less than half the salary McKay claims and about a quarter of the trade value. Our draft hand this year (which I suspect will once again be partially played into next year) is the key to turning a peak into a dynasty and it would take a truly exceptional opportunity to convince me that tossing it in would be worth it.

That scene with the crowd of boofheads at the race (10:30) enrages me every time. A bunch of them where smiling and enjoying themselves - genuinely just revelling in the chance to form a pack to be abusive to a stranger. In contrast, it is interesting and a little bit beautiful to see genuine hard-nut Viney at this level of also being a genuine clear thinker about the importance of managing your emotional balance.

So, can I be first to declare the opening of Colliwobble season? Bit early this year, but climate change is messing up all of these natural cycles.

Personally I'd like to congratulate Carlton for finidng a way to make BT go quiet for a while. Barely a peep out of him. You can feel the other commentators being made uncomfortable, too.

Fremantle's part in this trade is starting to look like a Russian 'goodwill gesture' rout.

You'd have James Bartel and 'a zippier Simon Black', as per the original product labels! I think Scully was limited a bit in ways nobody picked up pre-drafting, but Trengove was the real tragedy of both development failure and career-crippling injury. But this thread keeps making me anxious because I simply cannot see the basis for burning multiple good draft picks just to turn pick ~4 into pick 1. I'm just going to repeat over and over - I'd much rather a second bite at the cherry, such as pushing our pick 15 a bit higher by packaging it with later picks or pick swaps.

For the first time, I'm getting a feeling like the women's team might get on a roll this coming season and really hand out some thumpings. No idea why I didn't feel it before - it is the rational assessment of how awesome we are - but maybe it is just the realisation that our new captain is my favourite kind of high-impact high-entertainment player with loads of initiative. But only because AFL doesn't have goalies. I'll always be loyal to goalies!

Google search results for 'feeling well loose': Looks like Richmond are in for a rough day.

I'm guessing it is a bit like Nibbler. Say 'Matt Jefferson' repeatedly and fast enough and it garbles to majeffeon, which doesn't sound like any word except magician.

My level of interest would depend mostly on how much Watson can roll through the midfield providing an agile, speedy point of difference, and partly on whether Chandler's return to form against the Crows is something that is going to hold. Remembering that in the first 8 rounds he kicked 14 goals and earned 10 goal assists, if that is going to be Chandler's future then between him and Pickett we are in no need of any additional dangerous smalls! I think our list is in more need of the bigger-bodied forward-mids offered by the likes of Duursma and Caddy, as a point of difference and as another way to ensure at least a contest happens when we dump it forward. Plus, I still like the thought of the super-succession plan if Daniel Curtin can come in to to learn from the masters before they retire. I feel that players like him are genuinely rare.

To be fair, it took Hardwick seven years to get his first finals win, after going zero-from-one in three consecutive seasons and then dropping back out of the 8 for 2016. Coincidentally, that marks a near-exact halfway point in his career, which, double-coincidentally (co-coindicentally?) is also near-exactly the number of games Goodwin has coached so far. hm, odd that Hardwick retired 9 games from the 300. You'd think they could have used him at least as a sub for a while.

Hmm, it is hard to judge. And by how much does the 'best list' increase your chances of a premiership each year compared to second, third, fourth, best list? Bontempelli, Liberatore, Treloar, and Macrae being rucked to by English is a midfield that keeps pace with ours. Having Naughton and Ugle-Hagan would turn us into an unstoppable killing machine. The three Baileys and Caleb Daniel are a great running set. Really the only area where we definitely have a better list than the Bulldogs is in defence, which includes multiple players with around 50 games or even fewer. I'd argue that Sydney have seriously underperformed given the extraordinary block of talent they have accumulated. Those two teams aren't even in the top 4. Unlike our impending draft pick! Bwa ha! I got your best list right here, buddy! (Saying that to the rest of the league, not you personally) Lol, having four picks in the first two rounds make me a little giddy sometimes.

His overall win-loss record is slightly ahead of Clarkson and Hardwick. Nothing to be sniffed at. The club has been explicit with the goal of making the top-4 consistently to give ourselves the best chance each year of seizing the moment. That's what they are doing and I love that we can be top four while still being a bit rough at the edges mid-season. Of additional significance, I think, is that Goodwin has the best finals win-loss record of any current AFL coach. He was exactly equal with Hardwick, but with Hardwick officially retired that sets Goodwin as the best-performing finals coach in the AFL. Now, three quick finals wins in a row this year, and Goodwin can surpass Norm Smith's win rate. Albert Chadwick might be a little harder to catch at 80%!

6. Viney - exemplary midfielder 5. Brayshaw - fully transitioned into well-rounded midfielder 4. Gawn - Gawned 3. Chandler - possibly a game we'll look back on as a 'moment' in his career. 2. Pickett - welcome back! Looked scary strong at times 1. Nibbler - earns a point for responding to my criticism! 🤣 Many good contributors. A 15minute lapse timed with a 15 minute freakshow from Adelaide undermines how excellent we were.

He's clearly great but pick 4-5 and two other first rounders for one kid? Have we lost our minds? Did we suddenly become Fremantle? Anyway, the way we work, we'll probably end up holing the magic early pick, then trading our own first, Freo's second and next season's first for North's first next season. It's the old Jason Taylor 'make the trades so confusing nobody is sure who came out ahead' routine.

'Now would be a great time for Franklin to settle the Swans' I thought to myself. Any further psychic power requests let me know in DMs.

It's funny, I'm sure I've seen Ben Keays do a great job against us as some kind of particularly annoying tag & retaliation player, but based on Adelaide supporters' comments he'll spend the day two metres behind Rivers and thinking he's done his job. Interesting that Crow supporters haven't noted how much time Petracca is spending up forward. If they're anxious about Crouch and Sloan being left in the dust by Petracca and Viney, they'll be crying when they realise they've been picked as the bunny team for Pickett to spend a chunk of time in the middle to find form!

Wow, Geelong really delivering on Scott's 'Brilliant' 'new' 'strategy' of 'getting inside the heads of opponents' by 'announcing themselves as contenders'. Maybe I should move that particular breath of sarcasm to the Damien Barrett thread, but wow, Geelong must have had yet another bout of the whole team being sick the night before.

Proud and successful except for when they tanked to set up their dynasty, yes! Meanwhile, they are going all right against Richmond, to keep our dream alive of Freo slipping to third last. Fremantle have all of Swans, Cats, Lions and Power to deal with, with only the Eagles a should-win. Unfortunately Hawthorn also have a bit of a tough run. If they fail today against the Tigers, there's no realistic prospect of them moving up. But then, in round 24, Hawks and Freo face off directly. The death ride may yet come down to the wire! It may even be percentage against the direct opponent in the last game of the season!

Being a premiership fullback would help Tomlinson's trade value for sure! 🤪

So, who is this Likely and what position does he play?

I'd love an update on how Crows fans are going now that Rory Laird's shoulder has become too worn out from carrying the team.