Little Goffy

Machiavelli tells a wonderful story of an Italian prince who conquered a new territory, essentially adding a city-state to his realm. To establish order and root out the corruption that was his pretext for an 'invited' conquest, he sent an absolute hardened b-stard to overzealously crush everyone who was even vaguely suspected. When the locals started arcing up about things going to far, the Prince used this agent as a scapegoat, and arranged to have him assassinated, body cut in half and dumped in the middle of the town square, thereby both 'satisfying and stupefying' the populace, because they got what they wanted but... Mio Dio! Quello è selvaggio! Now, that is how you stab someone in the back. Also an example of a surprising historical fact; you're much more likely to be stabbed in the back/assassinated/betrayed and so forth by someone more senior to you who fears your ambition, than by someone beneath you trying to climb. Of course, this is all in the old days before the invention of the banana smoothie brought peace to the world.

Can we get YoPro to sponsor that thread?

Ah, monseir Daisycutter, surely one more little compliment cannot hurt? We all know that this flattery is wafer thin.

Your gracious acceptance of the limitations of this social context has only reaffirmed your dignity and stature as a leader.

Looks to me like there are about a dozen players competing for the last few of uncertain spots in the team, almost all of them mid-sized types ranging from mature Hibberd, Harmes, Nibbler and Dunstan to younger Rivers, Jordon, Sparrow, Bowey and the so far untested kids like Woey and Laurie. Actually, there's an interesting hypothetical contest of some very similar players. Hibberd, Harmes, Dunstan, Melksham, Neal-Bullen, v Rivers, Jordon, Sparrow, Spargo, Bowey,

Much more impressive.

I fear people don't realise that the correct pronunciation of WalkingCivilWar is "Waenci'ghour".

I'll take "Things Lachie Hunter does." for $400, please! (actually, I guess that is what McQueen has already done)

I guess it is competition in the sense that there is a position to be won and bidding is open.

Not much exciting on offer. Would monitor Ben McKay for a possible switch to the forward line. He's an ideal age, is all-round good enough for AFL level and the key fact is he gets up and takes contested marks on a regular basis. Would also be a totally acceptable option if May or Petty weren't available in defence for any amount of time.

But, seriously, we already have Fremantle's first and second round picks for 2023, don't we? They've got some later exchanged picks from North but are basically out of the top-20 picks. Getting Liam Henry to the Demons is certainly worth considering. Not delivered much yet but the Freo goalkicking group includes Frederick, Walters & Schultz who combined for about 90 goals between them, as well as plenty of other lighter-bodied speedy types rotating through. Given that I'm convinced a dedicated fast small defender is something we should be looking for anyway, the suggestion that he could make the positional switch seems sound to me. He's also a pretty good run-and-bounce option to give us another way out of our half-back swamp.

Dribble?!

I believe that official 'AFL' premierships should only be recognised from the period beginning with the Australia's declaration of war in WW2 until the first deployment of Australian combat forces to the US war in Vietnam.

Without even checking it, we all know that May's putt went long to the left.

Ooh can we have some more? 😄 I think what this situation is really missing is Mick Malthouse's opinion.

Coincidentally, Tyson managed 11 Brownlow votes in his first season with us, while Dunstan got 11 in his final season with St Kilda. Just noticed that in his nine seasons Tyson only played every game once, while Dunstan has NEVER played a full season. Bizarrely, he played between 15 to 19 games in six season in a row. Never forget; for a brief moment Dom Tyson was a goal-kicking midfielder in a team which didn't even have a goal-kicking forward.

Of course he does!

'Budding subbies' got through the Demonland censorship system better than most of those puts.

I think the Tigers are finally going into a sustained slide. Must be respected on any given game day, and might have a surge of form at some point, but I don't think they have the completeness in their team to be a consistent winner. Bulldogs look like they'll be suffering from Carlton Syndrome (TM) for a while; easy enough to identify several really high quality players so they look potent at a glance, but sorely deficient in both type and quality as you get down the list. Similar to Richmond; any given game it could come together and with their stars performing and the depth finding their energy, they could have very, very good days or even months, but it isn't a recipe for a strong end-of-season tally. Fremantle had 19 players play 20 or more games last season - a normal pattern would be around a dozen. That astonishing number includes Logue, Acres and Lobb. Their depth is unknown, though at least they do have Amiss and Erasmus as young early-draft selections to attach some hope for. On the other hand, Travis Colyer, the player you get if Spargo has already plateaued and spends another ten years in the system anyway, played 18 games, so their depth can't be that great. I'd say Freo aare 50/50 to either finish top 4 or miss the 8 completely. My gut says miss the 8 completely.

This is one of those little background worries for me. Thankfully not one I expect to see intensify for years. I feel like we have some of the best vice-captains and leaders from within the group which any club could hope for. On a level with peak Geelong or Hawthorn. Standards are set, communicated, demonstrated and enforced right through the team. Light shines into every corner. So, with all that, why am I worried? I just get this feeling like no specific individual after Gawn is quite the full match for a captaincy. All these great leaders we have, their styles and personalities support each other and that may be disturbed if one is made Captain. If I had to pick one, I'd say Brayshaw is most likely to be able to consciously reshape his behaviour to suit the role. That's the key feature; that conscious choice to change, the humility and will to become what is needed is what made Gawn the outstanding captain he is. And, pardon my misty eyes here, it is explicitly the legacy of Jim Stynes and the practises of the Reach foundation

I always thought it was called a croquet lawn. That's what my French friends, Madame and Monsieur Croque, insisted anyway. But they were hardly the athletic type.

The trouble is, ours actually hit the target.

I was looking for an appropriate reply to this and somehow I now am aware that there is such a thing as a 'sexy Alien xenomorph' halloween costume.

See, this is why I always make sure I send smoochy-face emojis in groups of prime numbers, so there can be no doubt that they were individually crafted rather than copy-pasted. She'll count, she'll count, and one day she will accuse! Not specifically this instance; I have never sent bulk smoochy-face emojis to WalkingCivilWar. That I know of.

I'm really glad we snagged a premiership before she retired. I feel like it is important just to be sure that nobody, ever, gets the impression that there was anyone greater than her in the first decade of AFL-level women's football. Hoping to see more commentary from her and I'm sure a terrific book is coming along soon!