Little Goffy

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!

AI will really kick in as a genuinely useful thing when it begins to be used to support 'mutual best outcome' estimation in things like trade week. Not so much that it is cleverer or philosophically deep, but an AI would have the capacity to look at all clubs objectives simultaneously without getting a ripping headache, and without personally caring which club looked like they were 'doing best'. Actually, that second part is an aspect of why Melbourne have pick-traded so effectively in the last few years - caring a lot less about who 'won' and just being interested in 'did we gain?' Okay, I'll come clean - there's a thing my older brother (Yes, that would be, 'Big Goffy') was involved in and it is freak'n awesome. You'll need your nerd hat on: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/cicero-ai-negotiates-persuades-and-cooperates-with-people/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=cicero&utm_content=video

Still a long way short of New Caledonian Crows, but competing on even terms with the Collingwood Cheer Squad.

Did Tom Mcdonald have a great season in 2022, even before he was injured? Not really. Did we lose a game in 2022 while Tom McDonald was in the team? No. Just eyeballing it, "Tom McDonald vs No McDonald" there's about a four goal per game difference in our for/against in 2022. It hopefully matters a little less in 2023 with Van Rooyen matching him for height, size and blondness and Grundy being an extra tall around the ground (the old 'value over replacement' equation a little less dramatic), but McDonald is a top quality structural player who we do well to remind each other of. If anyone knows where to dig, I'd love to see what his "pressure acts / team acts" ratings were like, as well.

I guess logically it goes "if B then A." Maybe crazy stripes just deter bitey things? There was a fashion in surfing for a while to add all kinds of stripes on boards and wetsuits as a way to confuse sharks. Then there's all those interwar-era navies that gave it a try, presumably to deter giant octopuses. Octopi. Giantopuses.