Little Goffy

I've finally stopped procrastinating and got stuck into Orwell's 'Down and out in Paris and London.' Truly special. That art of observing reality and presenting it to the reader thoughtfully with only limited judgement of what is being described is sorely missed in our world of 'aggressive reputation management'. Y'know, Orwell did some sports reporting for the papers, back in his day.

I genuinely thought Tom McDonald would be out until mid-season or maybe never return, so that spoil was a particular joy.

I genuinely thought Ben Brown would be out until mid-season or maybe never return, so that goal was a particular joy. Meanwhile, in-form Chandler is as good as any small forward in the game. Smooth out his slumps and he is an absolute gun.

Household ritual: Celebrating: "Nibbler gets a goal?" Genuine concern: "Who is going to hug him?"

I've only got radio and stats to watch here, so maybe I am missing something? 7 disposals, 3 marks, 4 clearances, 2 intercepts, 2 rebound 50s, 3 score involvements, 130m gained at 85% DE seems like a pretty good first quarter for a ruck.

It is one record that should actually be marked with implicit honour in our history. Half our 1941 premiership team was at war by the time the 1942 season got underway. Melbourne was led on to the field by RAAF air ace Squadron Leader Keith "Bluey" Truscott, DFC and Bar. Truscott unfurled Melbourne's 1941 premiership flag and, very obviously lacking match condition, played an average game, kicking a single goal in his team's 79-point loss, which proved the last of his fifty career senior games.

Taking a moment to appreciate North making Collingwood's start look even worse.

Okay, but are these pots and kettle half empty or half full? Apparently that is crucial to knowing if you are management material.

This is consecutive game 216 for Crisp, so it would take this season and one more to pass Stynes.

Fingers crossed the open-goal-run-out-the-back is the psychological breaking point for this game and Sydney can get the six or seven goal margin their performance deserves.

Just trimming off a little to add to the 50m.

Must've confused the hell out of Maynard to see something change direction in mid-flight.

Collingwood are still in this game on pure 'luck'.

I missed it - what time of the quarter was it?

How, in all that is censored, was Maynard not pinged for walking the ball back over the goalline then. On the tape it'll be the rushed behind at the 15 minute mark. He was one the behind line, wanted to go out, walked a few steps across and no Swan player came to him, and then he has walked back over the goal line with the ball. Free kick any day. It's exactly what the rule is for.

Laurie, Schache and Spargo out doesn't raise anyone's eyebrow, and Bowey of course is injured. Tomlinson I can't quite agree with it. Searching for the panel's perspective all I can think of is that they looked at the various tall opponents they might put Tomlinson on; Ugle-Hagan - too mobile Lobb - too big. Naughton - too strong English - too big, too strong and too mobile But how that translates into Hore and McDonald, I don't know. Still, I'm thrilled for Hore and between him and McVee I expect we'll see a tribute match to each half of Michael Hibberd's career!

They make you thirsty?

Bwa ha, excellent. First saw them in the club context during the 'lockdown life' videos during Covid. Clearly a key ingredient for our success. Perfectly respectable snack, too. Ready to have your mind blown? In my home we eat them with chopsticks - no greasy fingers. #multicultural Regular crisps are both too clumpy and too loose for that to be practical, but harvest snaps it works a charm and is particularly suited to the deep bag design. Okay, my ad is over, can I have some influencer perks now?

Would have been better to say 'a loud crowd is good, but we don't want to end up like that bunch of screeching nuffies'. Did anyone else notice the crowd at the Collingwood-Giants game in the final quarter? F'ing beeeeyoootiful. Not a Collingwood jumper in sight. I was just thinking to myself this morning that there are a lot of Magpie fans but they are actually as soft as tepid butter. Public bragging and private begging, it is the Collingwood way. It is time we all understood what that club's hierarchy has for decades; put your foot on them and they will squib.

Disagree. Smith has never managed to be more than depth despite his athletic ability. His game in the semi-final was as a makeshift stay-at-home forward. He had 6 disposals, 3 of which were shots on goal, and he had no involvement in any other scoring. He was also basically unsighted in the final 50 minutes of play. His absence is not a factor in our structural problems.

Fortunately I think all of Freo, Giants, Dogs, Port and Suns are either overrated or will fade as the season goes on! And destiny simply demands we crush the 'Pies in the final round.

Anyone got the timestamp for the couple of Maynard incidents on the weekend? The spoil-punch to the face of an opponent, and the pinned face-gouging of Green? Maybe we should start a thread where people can just add to a directory. No other posts, just a catalogue of times Maynard has done things which would be 'looked at' by the MRO if, say, a Melbourne player or any Indigneous player did them.

I really should have added a whole bunch of caveats, yeah. That's why I only 'gently' disagree with the original statement. But people already get annoyed with my occasional posts which resemble a wall of text! I definitely agree that it is vital to have a structure and overall plan of movement which places as many players as possible in positions and roles which use their strengths and for recruitment to systematically cover that variety of roles. I think what I was reacting to in the original post was the feeling that in a given moment in the game a player should be thinking about feeding it to Rivers. If you're inside a stoppage jungle with three howling gibbons chewing on your leg, feed it to whoever is in a better position. Hopefully the structure will mean that player is Rivers or Salem or Bowey, and not Alistair Nicholson. Is anyone else anxious that our current team is going to end up like the Bulldogs from roughly the mid-90s to 2010? Some names which go into the history books and popular imagination for a generation, routine finals appearances, but always just a little short at the critical time? From 94 to 2010 they played 21 finals for just 6 wins, and only ever won a single final in any given season. Grim stuff.

Hrmm... I gently disagree. Not because I don't like Rivers having the ball, but because I don't like too much emphasis on 'player x should do this type of thing and player y should do that kind of thing'. In my mind it is the Terry Wallace syndrome. Excessive designation of roles leaving players mentally limited and trying to follow rules that are about who and 'what' they are, instead of the situation they are in. Ha, fun side note - I was just about to give a second example after Richmond under Wallace, and it was going to be the Bulldogs of the late 90s early 2000s.... under Terry Wallace. I'm comfortable with the name! Coincidentally, I think Sydney's greatest strength is the spread of mid-sized players who are ready to do whichever task falls to them at that moment of play. Obviously it is a little easier when you have an extra four top-5 draft picks courtesy of special consideration for the commercial need to bias an entire competition to serve its most fickle supporter base, but they still do it well.

First: Merge thread. I think there's be three of this exact thread already! :D Second: JVR is better than JUH. Third: Wouldn't mind having them both because I think they'd complement each other very well, but it would be awkward that to get him we would have to pay Ugle-Hagen double. Fourth: Ugle-Hagan isn't the player our structure needs most urgently.