Little Goffy

If the pre-game for Gold Coast was 'what they are saying at the bank' does that mean this week against Hawthorn it has to be 'what they are saying at the tank'?

I really hope Dunstall and Brereton are commentating the day we 187 the Hawks. For the Suns game it really was obvious that a decision had been made to go into 'sell the game to wavering Suns supporters' mode. I would guess that decision was made pre-game out of fear that it would be a hope-destroying blowout, and the market research is telling AFL HQ that the Suns' support base is becoming very tepid. That's what happens when arrogant execs turn thought bubbles into $200m money furnaces and try to cover the problem by pressuring zero-integrity media to help 'manage the optics'.

Just one more... I think the margin will be... wafer thin.

Also now the 'most winningest' current player with >50 games, so he can't be all bad!

Well, looking on the bright side, we've now had a game where our issues couldn't be covered over by the hyper-accurate goal kicking run. Lots of learnings, yo. I for one am glad we asked the question of whether Petty could deliver consistently as a forward, and it is probably useful to be able to swing him there in the future, but he makes so much difference to our defence and not a lot of difference to our forward line. Lesson learned.

Pretty sure the flawed effort agains the Suns was because we had our minds already on the Hawks game. Well, no. But, more seriously, we'll be wanting to prove a point as a team and I think a lot of players will be looking to prove a point individually that they belong in their roles. Deep down I want to see us beat Hawthorn by a combined margin of 200 points over our two games against them this season. I don't really mind if that is by a few goals this time and 35 next time, any configuration will do. Something about the arrogance of how cheerfully they admit that they are tanking fills me with hatred.

Ooooh, the umpiring has taken a REAL turn against us now.

Wow, that holding the ball call against Hunter is just an incredible howler.

Does anyone know if the GWS board has a 'death riding Richmond' thread? Because they would be crying with laughter at Richmond poaching Taranto and Hopper for 'one last tilt', at the cost of two okay first round picks and now what is looking more and more like pick 3, or at best 4.

If someone says 'speedy hard-nut' about a player, my thoughts immediately go to the small defender role. I think it is one of our few deficiencies not yet invested in through kids coming through. So, the obvious question I have for the draft watchers; do you think Kynan Brown's attributes shown as a mid and forward can translate into the tough small defender we need. It might also be a much easier path to cracking the 22, considering the potency and depth of our mids and small forwards.

There's an interesting interaction to it. On the one hand, there is no factor more important to the success of a senior coach than being taken seriously and instructions followed, and nothing more important to the culture of a club than preventing little sniping undermining and minimising of leaders. On the other hand, our pathetic football media has very little offer except the 'latest controversial hot-take designed to get a shocked reaction'. The "Are you about to lose your job?" question, which was asked clearly for no reason other than to get a talking point out of Hardwick being annoyed, is a textbook example. I instinctively don't like Hardwick but even I can see that he was not the problem in that interaction.

Ahh, clever, but it's no use, Mr Redleg. there's just more rip. It's rips all the way down.

I think it depends on whether you're swimming with or against the considerable rip.

I've got 101 jokes ready to go about supporter numbers, players family's turning up, Tasmanians being able to support their old club and the Tassie team easily by using one head each... there's a lot of low hanging fruit down there, literally. But. I'm actually really happy that Tasmania is getting an AFL club. I'll probably make our games into a regular excuse to make a trip down. Even 5,000 people doing that each home game and it works out to tens of millions of dollars worth of extra visitors for Tasmania each year on that point alone. It'll work out.

Main interest tonight is for Cripps and Neale to both miss Brownlow votes. Ideally they can tag eachother out of the game? GWS simply must tag Bontempelli and would be helpful if Geelong put a stopper on Jordan Dawson, too. These clear standout individual players who will get the major share of their teams' votes are the rivals that worry me most. I think I've honestly taken on Fremantle's draft picks and the historic Oliver-Petracca tie for the Brownlow as the main points of interest for all non-Demon games. Fun Fact: While thinking about this I poked around at a few websites which are running Brownlow Medal predictors (EPSN, AFLratings) and the only one which displayed the betting odds was, of course, AFL.com.au

Chandler, Pickett, Van Rooyen happily waving from the other end. 'We've each kicked at least one goal every game!' Could be an interesting sideshow with the forward lines. One side is almost without 'official' small forwards, the other side is almost without 'official' tall forwards.

The trouble is, they have been known to suddenly cash in all their unused performance in a single game, like an elastic band snapping back. Suddenly they've got five contested marks and seven shots on goal etc etc. Discount brand of Jake Stringer's career.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=749356151908132 "You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?"

Thinking ahead just a little, but does anyone get the feeling Salem might not be an automatic inclusion once fit? Pretty tight competition in the roles he might slide into. Certainly there's a case for giving him time to rediscover form at Casey, but it does feel a bit weird that we could be looking at a Casey team with multiple mature premiership players in it, plus Dunstan, Melksham and Smith!

When did the title change to Carrara? Guys, we can't keep switching the 'at' venue every time their car GPS changes suburb.

"No Bye for Tassie: AFL returns to 18 teams after Hawthorn sent to Ukraine."

Sam Mitchell is a genius. Nobody else can see the brilliance of his thinking. I, for one, applaud the innovation of coming into a winnable game and 'resting' your leading goalkicker. This also means that this is the first game since 2008 where Hawthorn haven't fielded any premiership players. Official end of an era.

I attended a wedding in Vietnam and during the after-ceremony festivities multiple people asked my girlfriend (now wife) for help translating their proposed introductions to various daughters. My friend who was getting married did NOT step in to clear things up.

I have this gut feeling that the strategy of banging it long to King (impressive as he is) or Mr Loquacious isn't going to hold up against us. Their only true crumber is Ainsworth, who is fine but he's not Pickett or Chandler and I'd pick Nibbler ahead of him, too. A couple of their midfielders occasionally pop up for a couple of goals, but the overall scoring power is very weak. As I see it, there are just four players we need to put special attention to and we'd reduce the Suns to running in mud. King, Anderson, Witts, and Lukosius. The rest deserve normal AFL respect but these four are the key to the Suns being dangerous.

No no no, silly, you're thinking the Legalise Cannabis Party. Remembering dreams is surprisingly easy to train for. Keep a notebook by the bed. Before you settle to sleep, look at it, think about it, and even say out loud a few times 'I will write my dreams down in the morning'. Then in the morning even if you have only the vaguest fog of a few images, write those down. In as little as a week you will be remembering dreams in astonishing detail. I did this as an exercise in a psychology course and by week three was remembering five dreams every morning with enough clarity to make notes on all of them. The good news is that when you stop the habit you also stop remembering the dream. It's a pretty wild rabbit hole you might not want to stay down!