Little Goffy

[puts on anthropologist hat] [reconsiders writing some kind of massive essay] [takes off anthropologist hat] You're welcome. No, seriously, I think I deserve some credit here. You all know I'm perfectly capable of producing a feckering wall of text.

Fun tax fact; the ATO has a scheme which applies to certain professions such as farmers or professional athletes where they can smooth any unusual or windfall income across several years or even offset their tax obligations from a good year by matching it with losses from a poor year. Originally intended to help with the boom-bust and drought cycle for farmers, and for potentially one-off windfalls for athletes, such as prize money. I'm not sure exactly how it applies to athletes in this situation where a contacted income just happens to fluctuate due to backending, but I'd be confident it does because otherwise players would be unlikely to accept big spikes of salary like that. This just reminded me; can anyone remember in more detail the story about Koutafides? As I recall, he agreed to multiple rounds of backending his contract in order to allow Carlton to manage its salary cap mess of the early 2000s. In the end, in his final seasons he was paid an astronomical amount and some people were acting like the salary cap problem was his fault; that he was the overpayed and underperforming star. Bad business, that. Best avoided.

I'm so glad for the Brad Scott news; First, it basically ensures Essendon won't really go anywhere. Second, since I don't like Brad Scott, I won't have to feel bad when the Bomber 'faithful' start papercutting him to death for not turning the club around by next tuesday and also not being James Hird. Third, the overlap of the combined umpire-decision-reaction-faces from Essendon supporters and from Brad Scott will likely create sonic-boom like waves. Fourth, as well as wanting to hold onto him, I am just relieved for Adem Yze because being a new first-time coach at Essendon in 2023 would have been a deplorable experience. The only downside is that now the AFLHQ has to pick another clown who wants to prove their can do credentials by implementing a bunch of daft proposals. Reminds me of the public service stories about Heads of Deptartment in the smaller states - they are there to add things to their resume, no matter how dumb and discredited the initiative, with the sole purpose of smoothing their promotion to a bigger department in a bigger state or at Federal level. True story - this is why the ACT's education system is a mess despite appearing to have absolutely every circumstance working in its favour. There you go, football mirrors government again.

For the Demons now it is all about deciding whether we want to be great or just really good. Got to go hard all game, not just dominate the early game then cruise once we are looking secure.

Fremantle: Gives 13 + salary cap space, gets Jackson Melbourne: Gives Jackson, gets 7, 13, Bowes. Gold Coast: Gives 7 and Bowes to Melbourne, salary cap problem is moved on to Freo. 7, 13 and Bowes for Jackson looks pretty suitable to me. Fremantle must, surely, have salary cap space given Mundy's retirement, the overall age range of their list, the years of sucking and the multiple mature players being moved out this trade period.

I answered 'yes'.

Hey, just checking, we're only running this thread to see if Tom Browne starts reporting it, right? If so, mods delete this post and let's play on.

Kane Cornes just finished running across the country and is already starting a new exhausting marathon. You can disagree with his hot takes but there's no doubting his stamina.

Ah, the Rhodesia Solution!

Last time Geelong won a premiership, James Podsiadly was their leading goalkicker for the season. He was stretchered off midway through the second term of the Grand Final.

Well, looking back over the Grand Final winning teams, they've EITHER got a pair of outstanding key position forwards OR they've got solid key forwards who provide a contest and must be watched and in that process they open opportunities for other types and 'shapes' of players to really hit hard. You can compare the Riewoldt-only Richmond with the Riewoldt+Lynch Richmond, or the 2022 Hawkins+Cameron Geelong against the 2007 Mooney+'Young' Hawkins Geelong. If your key talls are able to play their role and you've got some dangerous other forwards and mids (Eg. Chapman & Stevie J, or Fritsch & Pickett), then there's no need at all to have superstar key position players out there, and the draft selections and salary cap could be better used. Side note, the teams other than Geelong with the 'best' (most goals) pairs of key forwards are Carlton (the last two Coleman medallists, no less) Richmond (Reiwoldt & Lynch) West Coast (Kennedy & Darling) Gold Coast (Chol and Casboult) Adelaide (Walker & Fogarty) Hawthorn (Lewis and Gunston) St Kilda (King and Membrey) It predicts nothing. In fact, the 'two good targets' teams are almost perfectly evenly spread across the ladder.

Tradition must be upheld.

On the pace so far.

As anticipated, I'm spending the first quarter loading a wagon for Vietnam. At this point I'm genuinely more interested in the unmasking of our resident 'Baldesarri', WalkingCivilWar, than I am in the game.

I'm genuinely debating with myself; "Watch this grand final or use the time to go shopping for vitamins and supplements with my wife, ready for her visit to overseas family."

Another good solid win. Would have liked to see the scoring push on int he second half as that has been a weak point for the season so far, but hard to judge it given the weather and also hard to really complain about such a clear win. I really, really don't want Melbourne to be 'second best' for another season though, so I'd like to see ti all click into place and some absolute thrashings handed out.

That was quick. Any other requests?

Tayla Harris might be about to break some records.

1. Charlie Spargo has a breakout season and is talked about as the next Brent Harvey. 2. Jacob Van Rooyen is mispronounced by a commentator during a huge pack mark... Rooyening the moment. 3. Christian Petracca will get the most Brownlow votes but will not be eligible due to suspension for bumping Patrick Cripps.

If we take Grundy, I can see a scenario where Gawn spends a great big chunk of time in defensive intercept positions and as the relief long kick when we are coming out of our own defence, while Grundy spends a large amount of time in the center (where his 360-degree awareness and handiness in chaotic play will be of most value) or providing another tall link in the chain along the wing and half forward. For both of them it means a ton less running. It also would mean our emergency escape bomb kicks would at least reach a realistic contest every time. I really like the thought of a less tired Gawn competing for marks. Could break contested mark records! With the roles mostly divided like that and neither of them having to cover so much ground just to reach contests, both would be playing close to 100% game time, allowing for some extra rotations for the running and grunting players. The idea continues to grow on me.

I'm still very skeptical about getting Grundy. Less than I was, but only as far as I am willing to be persuaded if the evidence is presented. Let's see what we know about him. - First and foremost, a ruckman, with at least 30+ hitouts a game for the last eight seasons and even managing 42/game in his 23-brownlow-vote season 2019. Historically, he has played very high game time for a ruck - with the obvious post-injury caveat now. - Is a proven finals performer. Has been in the top handful of contributors in every final he has played in, including some monstrous hit-out numbers. 25 disposals (20 contested), 73 hitouts and 10 clearances in a prelim is just ridonkulous. - Almost as many kicks as handballs, and gets more contested than uncontested possessions. Gets a reasonable number of clearances and ranges between 15-20 possessions per game. Funny to recall that once upon a time 'amazing agility for a big man' and 'like having an extra midfielder' were comments that would get a young ruck described as being 'Brodie Grundy like'. It was even applied to Jackson! - Averages one contested mark per game, so can do it but isn't prolific. Also fine but not outstanding for total marks. - Is NOT an intercept marker and has fairly low counts for rebound 50s, so has not been used a whole lot to help out in defence. Related to this, Something I really want to see is a 'heat map' of where Grundy typically plays his football. - His 2022 was going very well until the injury. His knee injury was a PCL, not an ACL, and the only reason he didn't play again this season was because of an unrelated ankle injury which has been declared 'not persisent in nature'. So on the injury count he is all clear as much as anyone can be. Will do a full pre-season. Okay, that's what stood out to me. Not going to add any conclusions.

AFL is exclusively conracted to Virgin. Qantas kept losing McLuggage. Ahhhh.... there it is, they figured out a way they could make someone pay for it. Like Tasmania, the new 'Sure, you can have an AFL team if you build us a billion dollars worth of facilities.'

Seems almost the exact scenario imagined when North was given the 'must trade' supplemental picks. Structurally important, mature, good player who is currently only missing out on AFL level games because he is stuck behind three of the best tall defenders taking the field anywhere.

Strange package. Might be enough to dislodge some best-22 types, I suppose. I'm not suggesting specifically Harmes, but that type of player who is regularly best-22, rarely best-6, and positionally is fairly easy for the source club to cover. Might also end up being the grease that makes a bunch of other trades happen, shifting notes to make Rankine and Jackson and so on possible. The two extra list spots will probably put North in the market for a couple more mid-range draft picks, too. Overall, it is kind of meh.

Well that has 'Karl Amon, Unrestricted Free Agent' written all over it.