Little Goffy

Well, Oliver is still on target to have the most career Brownlow votes of anyone ever, so that's okay.

Tom Hickey literally won the game for the Swans, both through total weight of contribution and through crucial late-game marks.

Yes, but the question is: Is that worth a whole chicken with potato and gravy? I heard the current club is willing to pay for the stuffing. Huge if true.

Fun fact: Thanks to the SCG expansions and upgrades over the last 25 years, there were nearly as many people there to see this 1 point win as there are were for Locketts point after the siren!

There's nothing more Anglo-Saxon than actually being from north Germany. 🤪

On my way home from the Swans - Pies game. Hilarious. A good time was had by all. The Sydney crowd is a different beast to what it was evenfice years ago. Glorious voice. The duelling & duetting slow chants were magnificently efforts of mutual irritation. Up in the top of the stand where I was, the building was actually shaking from people jumping up and down to the Swans song. Again, good time had by all.

A bit of acorny joke, there.

Let's just all agree that it is remarkable that Daisy expressed a considered and thoughtful opinion on the matter. Puts her in a very small bracket! The monarchy is an ethnic symbol par excellence. Elizabeth II was the Notre Dame (see what I did there?) of Britishness, the Parthenon of Englishness. I can accept that it is a sensitive moment for anyone whose identity is wrapped up in what is a pretty incredible and complex ethnic history and legacy. Exploitation and resistance, empire and liberation, privilege and working class pride, stuffy conservatism and unprecedented social diversity all in a single tradition. Some of the 'hot-takes' denigrating Britishness via the Queen have been plain idiotic and, frankly, racist. BUT I think it is a fairly straightforward thing to understand that for most indigenous Australian's, there's no real way to spin the idea that during 'Indigenous round' you can insert a ritual of devotion and deference to someone who, symbolically, we must all swear loyalty to for no reason other than her supposedly superior bloodline. And it's not as if there is a shortage of such ritual obeisance going on.

I hope this puts the matter to rest.

On type he is what we are looking for, in so far as he happily hits packs, jumps into them, snarls around inside them and all that fun stuff that stops opponents from getting nice clean intercept marks and rebounds. Obviously there is a question on pure quality though. Ticking along at one goal a game isn't hugely inspiring. Is 195cm tall enough these days? The question is, do we need a tall target who is top-shelf, or do we need one who plays the role that will bring our small forwards and pressure game to full effect? We'd be able to offer him better career prospects than GWS has, given our needs, and he has shown interest in a return to Victoria in the past. So the perennial question is; What would it take to get him and would he be worth it?

Channel 7's recruitment process to replace Wayne Carey is pretty intense. But, seriously, this all sucks. For most of us it is like looking through the wrong end of a telescope and getting a tiny glimpse into a terribly damaged community. Hearts ache and it seems beyond resolution even when viewed dispassionately. I'm glad we as a club and supporters had our previous brief look into Yuendemu and got to see moments of joy and enthusiasm there. Maybe it is the hardest place in Australia to live well, but some people still do.

We've grabbed a 'significant' player in all but one trade period going as far back as Lewis and Hibberd in 2016. The only exception is our premiership year. We certainly aren't as active in the pre-trade noise as other clubs but I'd argue we've done just fine in the actual trade/free agency stakes.

They can chase him all they like but they won't catch him. https://www.afl.com.au/news/801505/match-report-melbourne-v-port-adelaide

Well, based on this article maybe he would read the first quarter of each page really, really well, and then just skim the rest.

Coincidentally, I'm about to complete the research stage for a book gathering the insights of 2,500 years of strategic writing and sifting it for useful principles for Australian Football. So, if they do decide to get some book learn'n done, I'm available. Nope, I'm not even kidding.

I can see it now. Trade out your first round pick for some salary space and some 'points' picks. Recruit a top 5 quality player under father-son or some other priority, using the points picks. Recruit a free agent with the spare salary cap space. See also; club established in the top 8 or top 4 is able to continually trade out their first pick for salary cap space which lets them continually recruit free agents who don't cost draft picks, are willing to take less pay for the chance at finals, and place minimal demand on the football dept soft cap. The 'feeder club' cycle would be complete.

I want Melbourne to be known as the premiership vuvuzela club by the end of 2023.

My gut says that if Jackson goes we will try to go to draft night with one top-10 pick and also be in a position to live-trade to secure a specific player we like. Most of the live trading is pre-agreed thresholds, like 'If the player you want is still available at our pick 12, but the player we were hoping for isn't and our other options might still be available at a later pick, we are willing to trade our 12 for your 17 and 32' and a thousand other variations. It is 4d chess on a timer and will one day be a job for AI. Heh, I can see it now; every club plugs in their priorities and the AI just calculates all the best trades so that everyone gets the most possible value out of the draft.

Not only sacked him as coach but would have desisted him as a forward as well.

You know a thread is bad when people aren't even bothering to facepalm it.

I hate that the umpiring, particularly early in the final quarter, has left me so angry. I try to avoid being crabby about umpiring. I'm fully aware that we lost it for ourselves with so many little moments of uncertainty and hesitation and a collection of dopey errors. But early in the 4th it looked like we were pulling it back together and I really felt like a serious run of soft, weak or accumulating 50/50 calls one way really robbed us. Such is life. I'm really glad I've had the Kharkiv breakthrough to cheer me up and give perspective.

Brayshaw copped a knock to the balls within the first minute. Seems to happen at least once every week. Should seriously consider a couple more helmets.

No Joe Daniher is a major boost for Brisbane. No, I'm serious. In ten games he's kicked 13 goals against us and 5 of those were in round 15, 2015. Genuine concern that this will stimulate the Lions to lower their eyes properly and look for the small options. Applying pressure all over the ground just became 'more than 100%' important.

For all those worried, the Queen's Birthday holiday is in honour of Queen Victoria and shall be unaffected.

Honestly, by first stirring up media attention and making himself the front runner, then rejecting the entire process, Ross Lyon has actually confirmed that he is the perfect fit for Essendon. But it does look like Hird will get the job. After all, who better to return them to winning finals than the man who was their captain the last time they won a final?