Little Goffy

For what it is worth, a $1m 'ordinary' portfolio of housing assets purchased in 1997 without improvement would by now have appreciated in price by even more than our mate Fred's little mansion. The relationship between Australian housing prices and the differential access to and pricing of finance based on explicitly 'class' benchmarks enabling existing property owners to increase their paper assets, gain profit based on speculation in a tax-favoured environment while displacing all risk to tenants and to government is a textbook case study of 19th century theories of accelerating division of worker and owner into mutually hostile groups in an unfettered market system. Hence, I made a little joke about proletarian revolution. Also, calm your farm. Saying you're not a class driven person while going into thin-skinned snappy mode at an imagined slight upon your honour as a tall poppy is not very dignified.

Last sold for 1.3m in 1997. 25 years, 9 million dollars... so that's more than a full-time minimum wage 'earned' every year since buying it. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Fred Oldfield, but the general case for proletarian revolution is mounting. Anyway, surely at that price he is more 'dyed in the silk' than the mere wool.

Sometimes I wonder if Australian football has been slightly protected from some of the worst attitudes of humanity precisely because it isn't a world game. It is already confirmed, again, that a solid block of the 'supporters' who invaded the pitch and attacked players are known to be part of ultra-nationalist groups. It has for a long time been a crippling problem for soccer in Australia where this type of 'supporter' creates boundaries rather than bridges; locking out new support because they lack authenticity rather than welcome newcomers. Not to mention, the grand old Chelsea tradition of getting hammered at the game then going out bashing Pakis for the night. Hashtag patriot. Then, of course, there's that global worst-of-masculinity that is the soccer hooligan feeling entitled to go on idiotic rampage to 'defend the honour of their nation' after... what, an unclear but probably valid free kick? So you go trash an f'ing patisserie? Set fire to a gozleme stand? Wreak a terrible vengeance upon bus stops? Actually, that made me think of a focusing of some people's comments about low scoring being a pressure cooker; that low scoring and the very high impact of free kicks in certain positions creates a critical moment of contention. If you're a thin-skinned insufferable entitled agro [censored] then those moments will completely send you tilted.

HA! Playing football against Jack Viney was too rough so I took up UFC.

I have had a vision of Jason Taylor turn up on draft night with a big bowl of soup.

I'm comfortable with our age mix. A number of the older players have successors and even credible improvements coming through already, and the 2xfirst and 2xsecond round picks in next year's allegedly strong draft will allow for some targeted decisions. Clearly our age pothole is at the very tall end of our team. Except for untested young guys, our rucks and key forwards are all past or near 30. That's my only real concern and why I was keen on a Barnett/Keeler collection this draft. But I'm not at panic stations.

What I like is that if Fremantle do well next season, that's fine, we're okay, all is as expected. But on the other hand, there's a real shot at the kind of draft booster that nudges 'very good' list into 'terrifying'. I'm trying to feel a little sorry for having such negative attitudes to another club, but really... nah. Bring on Failmanlte!

Taken as a rookie, but I predict he will be escalated quickly.

So many one-touch marks where he has also met the ball at full stretch and timing. That's definitely one of those deep-rooted traits that are very difficult to develop once you're already an adult. Good cloth and our defence program seems to be pretty good at tailoring it.

He is clearly better than Cadman already. Mile ahead.

So, now we do a quick trade to jump into the early picks tomorrow and grab Barnett & Keeler, added to Jefferson and our new rookie Faris-White, and we'll have a solid 8m draft.

Melbourne: We rate getting a top 5 pick so highly that we would offer up two first round picks and a downgrade from 13 to 22 just to get one. North, Godl Coast and Essendon; Yeah, we would want more than that. Sydney: Yes, we agree. After all, that is about what we gave up in total for Braeden Campbell, Callum Mills and Isaac Heeney. AFLHQ: We are so good at this.

Ooh ooh, I've got it! They all called in sick for their day jobs today. Except Daisy. She's probably already delivered three babies and a successful fetal-alcohol-syndrome intervention.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out Earth has been up on stumps on some derro alien's galactic front lawn for the last twenty years.

Might go the way of the pre-game stretch routine. Long been shown that a proper warm up and mild working through of different parts of the body is the way to go, not the specific 'stretch-out' processes that used to be so standard. Stretching as a targeted activity is supposed to be done as a 'lifestyle' every day to continuously build and maintain the baseline of flexibility. Looks like something similar with the cold-water and ice bath therapies. A good way to stimulate blood flow and over time develop a better circulation at the fine capillaries, but not as a direct response to specific damage. Maybe the reason stretching and cold water treatment is still emphasized in these 'targeted' spaces is because otherwise we'd all have to admit we just can't be buggered doing a 30 minute stretch session every morning followed by a cold shower. Like some kind of 'Anna McNulty meets Wim Hof' nightmare.

That was pretty intense and I'm particularly pleased that Daisy got to kick the sealer. Defence held up brilliantly ont he strictly defensive side but had some trouble breaking out of the ring at 50-70m. That's a team thing. Similarly, we struggled to put it to any kind of forward or space favouring a forward for a long time. Bannan had a game of 'almosts' and relatively little real impact. A couple of extra steps here, a slightly cleaner break from a contest there, and she would have ended the game in our favour multiple times. Must have been very frustrating and I'd be hoping she is setting herself for a mighty grand final. Plenty to like. North are like a custom-built counter to the way we'd like to play and they kept the intensity up very well. Good test, time for the grand final!

Is upwood related to updog?

First two kicks at AFL level were goals. It was a bizarre one with Weideman as no articles or Wikipedia mention it, because he had about a dozen handballs in between his first and second kick and the second was late in the game. I only realised when I noticed Weideman had just two kicks total in his first game, so they must both have been goals otherwise another umpire would have to be arrested.

Award-winning at reserves level while playing for Demons? Oh, premierships at reserves level? Waaaaaiiiit..... I've got it but will leave it for others to guess/figure as well. That's amazing. I would've thought there would be barely three players in the whole league who have that in common, let alone three who each spent most of their career playing at reserves level.

BBO: "More PM insults than early 90s Australia."

Spot betting. Intentionally designed to cultivate addiction. Might as well have also been designed to cultivate corruption.

Got to acknowledge the AFL leadership for their one true skill. Finding out ways to make stakeholders pay for something that was previously a public good. Now every year the states can get into a bidding war. I'm glad Gil isn't in charge of the electricity grid or we'd be paying to lean on a street post by now.

I'm a fan. Obviously only speaking based on various profiles and highlights but if you show me a super-mobile tall who can still stick marks and who has a clean long kick I'll always be interested. Also a good time to start developing the rucks and ruck-support players of the future, when they can grow under the supervision of basically the two smartest rucks in the game.

Or scratches his itch.

Our women's team seems to be always on the cusp of being absolutely unstoppable and having a great time while doing it. A breakthrough premiership could really be the first of many. I also think Alyssa Bannan is in the same 'moment' as an individual player; she is right on the edge of being the outright superstar of the women's game and also making everything around her feel more fun. Ugh, the anticipation is killing me. Damn I want that deeply deserved premiership.