Little Goffy

Could face some stiff competition for a spot after Daicos was declared Collingwood's 'Spearhead' in practice match reports. Snorts aside, I do wish Membrey well. Realistic shot at being Collingwood's leading goalkicker. And for the sake of football he has an important job to do to make sure Collingwood don't bottom out enough to get any more top picks until Tassie blows up the draft. Fun fact, Collingwood are now substantially older than even Geelong, with a staggering 20 players with more than 100 games experience and likely to be included most weeks meaning that their on-field age is going to be even older than their list average. Daicos and McCreary are the only Magpies under 24 with a solid claim on best 22 spots.

They are taking the long term approach of getting all his persistent soft tissue injuries done early so he can have a clean run at the final 8 years of his contract.

Hmm, been digging around for video. Seems to be pretty good at knowing where to be. Can kick the ball a loooong way with reasonable accuracy. The obvious limitation which gets mentioned anywhere is a lack of top speed, but he isn't too bad at those first few steps and he knows his limitation and the need to act fast. I'm perfectly happy for West Coast to have made yet another blunder here. Speaking of which... Are West Coast screwed? I don't mean, 'have a difficult rebuild', but just compeltely knotted? Their top 4 disposal winner in 2024 were Kelly, Yeo, Duggan and McGovern, and then it's Harley Reid, Witherden (who they delisted) and our old boy Hunt. Similar story for other mid stats like tackles, clearances, metres gained - either old, Reid, or delisted. Their goalkickers were Darling (ret), Cripps (32), Waterman (26) and injury-prone Allen (25, Restricted Free Agent) Intercepts? 1%ers? McGovern and Tom Cole left. I don't see the natural improvement and can't see how the three 27-year-old smalls - Graham, Baker and the seagull Owies - will change their situation a whole lot. It might suit McQualter's style and maybe on occasion they'll get momentum in a game and earn a 'plucky' win against the odds, but it won't turn things around sustainably. It appears fate has handed Jai a new football life.

I mean... isn't this the pre-season summary for these teams every season?

Alas, they're all in the Louvre.

Maybe it is in the wrong location, but if people don't like it they can just not look at it.

Could we at least move this to the 'other topics' category so it doesn't keep getting bumped to the top of the main page?

Finn Callaghan was the only GWS player under 30 to get more than 20 touches a game last season. He's a capable, mostly outside, tall midfielder with a good long kick. That is valuable, but not $1m/year valuable, and certainly not anything like what St Kilda were offering. I feel like this quote describing St Kilda's multi-million-dollar scattergun could be added to the hypocrisy thread - “The Saints are unashamedly ambitious. It doesn’t mean they’re short sighted, they want to improve their list, they want to bring in talent, Callaghan fits that bill because he’s from Bayside, he’s durable, they liked him from the moment he was drafted. “Where they go next is anyone’s guess, but they’re not going to die wondering. If you’ve got the money to spend, then that’s what you need to do to pry players out of clubs.” If it were us, the story would be about pathetic desperation, loose with salary cap space, disrespecting our current players, and being a club which players have universally rejected.

100% I need a template for making Brayshaw's helmet.

Horrible stuff. I find ACLs particularly unpleasant because there seems to be so little to be done to prevent them and they have no context to help players get their heads around it. Not even a 'soft tissue injuries will turn up more as you get older' or 'it is a product of your bash and crash style'. Plus, properly rehabilitating an ACL takes all kind of disciple and specific effort, so you don't even get to have a calm convalescence. Doesn't help the mood that AMW is such an enthusiastic character. Poo-on-a-stick.

My Blue-supporting brother made a special effort to avoid gloating about all our issues in 2024 as a football karma consideration. To his full credit, he didn't even gloat about not gloating. So I'm doubly conscious that ' VNightCityLegend' is inviting all kinds of karma bus, and we should collectively admonish him to ensure the trouble only heads to Tottenham. Carlton's supporter base has always had a healthy flavour of superstition and they must be right on edge at the moment after losing Newman, now Jagga, and the major scares to Walsh and Curnow. I suspect Carlton would have seriously considered Jagga even if he'd done the knee before the draft, and he's still got a long and likely shining career ahead of him, but there is something really unpleasant about seeing a kid take a hit like that. All the best to him.

I'm looking forward to when they turn the responses into the basis for an entire article on how 'Petracca considered most likely to leave Demons' etc. etc. Love 'how many goals will random medium-quality small forward kick in 2025' question. The whole survey is 'we have instructions from marketing to keep the following conversations going'.

Or the Kmart/Target small appliances and kitchenware brand, Anko.

Sydney culture. Don't turn up, just watch on TV. If not constantly stimulated, flick channels. It is the same reason that when big musical acts tour Australia they do one or two concerts in Sydney and two to four in Melbourne. The AFL marketing dept is desperately anxious about keeping people stimulated at Sydney/Brisbane games and unfortunately haven't grasped that constant noise isn't the ideal outreach facilitator for other markets. Same principle as the hyperactive vacuous commentary making constant over-excited noise. And also the constant gifting of advantages for Sydney, GWS and Collingwood, whose soft fan bases go completely to water if not told they will definitely win the premiership next week. Also, NRL games averaged just barely 20,000 attendences per game and their boosters are announcing that they've set an INCREDIBLE record. E.g. "An astonishing 212,725 spectators attended games in Round 26 of the NRL season, setting a new single-round crowd record". So, yeah, NRL is small fry propped up by outrageous levels of poker machines and a Sydney-dominated media and marketing industry.

They called us a powerhouse! Woo hoo! We're in! I thought "The departures of chief executive Gary Pert and president Kate Roffey also didn’t help stabilising efforts." was a strange thing to say. At best you could describe it as an end to destabilisation - beating the termites by replacing the wood with concrete. Less generously you could say "efforts to destabilise the club reached fruition with the departure of Kate Roffey and Gary Pert, and have now concluded". I wonder what they mean by 'dual-threat' about Nibbler? Maybe they are trying to invent a new way to say two-way runner? I also wonder who this Jake Bowers character is? Has anyone else noticed that 'Viney & Co" is now a rock-solid idiom in the AFL media? As in, media will get comments from Gawn, from May, from Goodwin, from Petracca, and from Viney & Co. Who is this mysterious "& Co"? Seems like a clear nickname waiting for the right person to attach to.

The suspensions were actually additional penalties imposed when the AFL HQ discovered those players already had a long record of dressing up as unimportant people, which the AFL finds offensive. This is also why the AFL issued a blanket three week suspension to the entire VFL.

They didn't even know we'd picked up Asura Andhaka as a cat B rookie.

Not really a list to be taken seriously, but I did raise an eyebrow at the mention fo Fritsch being our leading goalkicker for five years. That includes 2020 when he was not a full time forward, and only played 16 games for a total of 22 goals. He just barely missed in 2019, behind Petracca and Jayden Hunt, which is weird. That got me thinking about our forward line and goalkickers for 2025. I can certainly picture van Rooyen kicking 40+ this season and being our first classic tall forward leading goal scorer since McDonald & Hogan went 1-2 in 2018 . It'll be very interesting to see how the game plan and personnel changes (Petty going back, more Disco time, Jefferson coming in, and don't underestimate Melksham's return with fitness) affect who is kicking the goals and who is giving the classic CHF and third tall connecting leads. Troy Chaplin, in his first season in charge of the forwards, has a really complex puzzle to work with and surely a comprehensive mandate to follow his own initiative. From a personal ambition point of view it much me thrilling - imagine being the defensive coach that crafted the 2021 Demon defence-first premiership, and the forward coach that powered the club's resurgence with a more aggressive style from 2025 onwards?

There's something strange and impressive about some of his tackles. It is like the opponent goes docile, just accepting 'yep, I'm tackled, oh well'. If footy doesn't work out he could earn just as much as a shearer with that skill... does he have quick hands?

Putting two things together Pickett appears to have a lot of respect for the Melbourne Football Club and also for the principle of signing a contract. He also doesn't seem distraught at the idea of being in Melbourne, but has clear reasons to want to move to WA. That he seems to be quite fixed on Fremantle is awkward, though West Coast could be entering a phase resembling Melbourne 2010s but with a lot more [redacted]. You can understand a young and exceptional player not wanting to burn away their career there. But, if Pickett respects the MFC and the principal of contracts, then his de facto nomination of Fremantle has basically put the onus on Fremantle to offer a respectable, appropriate trade. Pickett knows that if Freo don't ante up, Melbourne won't deal. So, honestly, I'm not too anxious. Either Pickett stays or we will get a reasonable exchange. I'll be sad to see him go but I won't be feeling betrayed and I don't think it'll wreck our prospects.

Am I the only one amused seeing 'C: Sharp'? If he consistently plays on the wing that must offer a nickname. Piano? It does look like that wing position is one we will have to develop over the season, giving a few players regular rotations through and seeing what works. I would have Jefferson in the firsts, probably at the expense of Billings who I just feel burned by - I would need to have evidence of a turnaround before I included him.

Yep, out your mouth and direct into your wallet! Works even better than the old 'Three Mars Bar and a hammer' method.

Haven't seen a thread for other team's practice games (uh, 'match simulations'?), so posting here. So, Naughton's hit on Redman, how many weeks? Went past the ball, and as you can see below the ball was behind him and below him before making contact. Obviously eyes off the ball unless he can literally see out his [censored]. Left the ground, tucked the shoulder and made contact to Redman's head with enough force to spin him a full 360 before he landed. So, will this be adjudicated according to the Maynard ruleset or the Pickett ruleset?