Little Goffy

That's the part that gives me goosebumps. Our forward line is functioning remarkably well considering that the traditional key target role is so understaffed. Even incremental progress from Van Rooyen and a steady advance in the Grawndy collaboration would be enough to make it a truly terrifying prospect for opposition defences.

My mum still hasn't got one so I just can't take these awards seriously. But Kate Roffey seems a pretty valid nominee, so full congratulations.

There's a lot more to be gained by a win than there is to be lost by a loss. Right now we are a team in the mix for the top 4 but yet to really hit impressive form overall. Win today and we have a win against the form team of the competition and become a top 4 team most likely to contend. Lose today and we are still a team in the mix for the top 4, with a lot working well but which needs to get its ducks in a row throughout the second half of the season.

Ahh, 7 of 9, I can't even remember which Star Trek it was but you have to respect the chutzpah of the producers to just overtly decide "We're going to have a main character who is a model, permanently wearing a tight bodysuit". Saved the franchise. Also, it is not possible to simultaneously know Greek history and the movie 300. You can switch between the two, but they cannot exist simultaneously. As for those coming four games, every one of those is also against a team which we want to see climbing juuuust up above Fremantle. Ideally we would see six or seven teams finish the season on eleven wins (or ten and a draw for Blues/Tigers) with Fremantle on ten. Because we don't want Fremantle to 'fail', we just want them as low on the ladder as realistically possible. 5th last with ten wins would be perfect, thanks.

Getting this thread back on topic.

Really encouraging that almost all of Freo's big names had good games but they still lost. I like them, overall, I really do. It is just on hold until roughly October.

Score level... between Liam Baker and the whole of Fremantle on the free kick count! 5 minutes left to find out if this thread is fun again!

Yikes, the Crows are really chasing it, though. Just ten more unanswered goals in the final term and they've got it.

Does anyone watching Brisbane more attentively than I am, have an opinion on Zac Bailey? Would've thought his speed, kicking andinside-50 effectiveness would be a useful addition to our midfield mix. My impression is that he currently gets used excessively on hff and in 'outside' roles, when his junior footy suggested he was quite happyy in the packs as well.

I heard Kynan Brown wrote the scripts for the final season of Game of Thrones.

Interesting one. I'll step up in defence of Bowey for a moment, though - the situation when he gets the ball is almost invariably one where we are being pressed, not when we are one the move ourselves. How many times as the moment Bowey gets the ball been the moment we can finally exhale as a surge of pressure is relieved because he has calmly done the sensible thing and spotted an open teammate who can take a mark and give us a few seconds to move without being grappled. His disposals are the living breathing opposite of the hospital handpass. Jake 'Eat your vegetables' Bowey. Or maybe 'apple a day'. Yeah, I'm going to call him 'Apple' from now on.

As you say, it is really just common sense speculation. The deal with Gold Coast certainly makes sense and having pick 8 and 9 in this draft looks like a terrific position. A little side question; will that notional pick 35 be good enough to get us Sam van Rooyen? 😉

Never in doubt. 😉 Now he just needs a quick 40 goals in the second half of the season and we'll have our fourth Rising Star winner. All talls, which is odd. Does this help his brother's draft prospects?

Look on the bright side, by dramatically reducing the number and severity of head knocks and concussions in the game, we greatly increase the prospects for future quality of football commentators. I wish I was kidding.

Just for a laugh Harmes should spend next Monday just following De Goey around, getting in his face and trying to interfere in everything he does.

Final quarter of Port/Hawthorn has the mood of a carcass being slung onto the hook to bleed out post-slaughter. Next up, Collingwood/West Coast. Basically pushing the whole pig directly into the bacon slicer. An afternoon of football.

We'll see how the round plays out. A lot of those disposals were pretty valuable! The rest of the stats favour him, too; 7 Marks, 2 contested, a bunch of score involvements, just shy of 90% disposal efficiency, two tackles inside 50 (behind only Pickett for either side) build a picture of a really effective game. It was an excellent tall forward effort in a game which did not favour tall forwards at all. Unless there's another kid who has a genuinely outstanding game, he'd be under serious consideration. But I think we all agree on what has us really excited. Structure. Even when Brown and McDonald were each mixing between good and just okay form, it was releasing maximum Fritsch. I think we went 20 wins, 1 loss in games where we had the three out there together.

Watching him getting more and more embarrassed and pleased in the post-match when Abbey Holmes kept saying things like 'shining star' and praising him over and over was just beautiful. 100% pure 'Aw shucks the pretty lady is saying such nice things about me in front of all these people'.

6 - Petracca has decided that it is his Brownlow now that Oliver has missed a couple of games!) 5 - Fritsch would have been our best, even over an epic Trac effort, if a couple of set shots had gone through. 4 - May did such an important job on Carlton's main weapon. 3 - Lever back to being Lever with 12 intercept possessions, a couple of goal-saving scrambles, and very few flaws. 2 - Brayshaw was low-key very good except for a couple of clangers which the usual suspects will fixate on. 1 - Gawn worked hard all day then turned in a true captain's final quarter which rallied the team.

It is a bit like predicting player's careers on draft night at the moment. I'm not sure I understand your point?

https://youtu.be/XOhZgAPn_CU Gil at the kitchen table.

In: A.Cincotta, Le.Young, J.Silvagni, Z.Fisher, L.O'Brien Honestly... a loss tonight would deeply test my belief in our seriousness for 2023. Also, we're not going to lose.

Now I'm worried this game is going to umpired by a man with a golden eyeball.

I recall almost word-for-word comments when it was Pittonet in, for something like his 7th game and first at Carlton. Gave a good rugged contest, was one of Carlton's best on the day, and set up his career. Okay, after checking I just need to take a moment to be amazed that I had that 7th and 1st exactly right. For the record, Gawn also had a bit of an on-field party that day and I don't think letting TWO top quality around-the-ground rucks run free will do Carlton any favours. I'm just reflecting on what has actually been a curious pattern of new rucks proving their attitude in games against Gawn.