The heart beats true

Hawkins?

This is a horrible game of footy. All the highlights of a VFL practice match.

I like the way Jonathan Brown is just openly barracking for Brisbane. Doesn’t even pretend.

Today

All the Challenge kids with Essendon as they ran out was amazing. The kids looked so happy. It was fantastic.

Well in that case I love it.

No, but you do change it to accommodate the biggest financial investor in the game, and help protect their interests - eyeballs. It’s happening. Might not be next year, but I’d bet that by 2026 it’s happened.

I think they just stuffed up the photoshop file. Step away from the ledge.

The real question is ‘where does his mum want him to play?’ Too soon?

That’s a great point about the top 6. I say bring it in this year, right now. On the condition that Geelong finish 7th.

Hahahaha! Never mind me. Just stepping all over your punchlines.

I saw that and thought ‘Well you would say that Nathan, since you orchestrated the list management that forced them to implode’. It’s not actually that cut throat a business. The media like to present it as such because it helps their narrative. If everyone involved wants it to work, and is currently doing everything they can to make it work, then it’s simply a work in process - 12 games in. I can’t help but think all of this is just driving clicks for a Collingwood narrative about how they made ‘the right call’. Let’s just see come September. The big blokes thrive in finals contests, and I like our hand a lot more than theirs.

That week pre finals is a currently a stinker forced on us by Ross Lyon. Play some footy I say. The clubs 7-10th get more exposure to pressure, and it has no impact on the teams who deserve to really be there - in fact you could argue it makes their lives easier, and rewards them more.

I think he used to, but then he changed to Brisbane after Fitzroy died, because he likes a resurrection story.

AFL would be ecstatic with that. There’d be 250k fans across those games easily.

Incredible speed from stoppage in that first highlight. Looks like he came home from the carnival and realised he was a class above. I wouldn’t be worried about the go home factor with the Tassie boys. It’s the same reality as SA and WA players. Some do go home, but we have to back our system in to keep them here and happy. A lot of the work done with the top end talent is ensuring they have the competitive mindset. Competitive players don’t want to play in losing teams. I think it’s much harder to get talent out of an existing, winning system than it is to get it in to a new one.

I noticed this too with BT. It occurred to me that what we perceive as bias has more to do with commentators wanting a close, compelling game. We have been in front in almost all our games for 3 years, and gone in as favourites in 90% of them. I think maybe he’s just barracking for a competition (but I don’t love this way of thinking as it humanises commentators, and I much prefer just to outright dislike them).

Cats are the only animals to domesticate themselves. Subsequently they are always looking for a better option. They are the Tom Scully of the animal kingdom.

Given what we all had to endure from Tom Morris last year I’m still shocked anyone wants him on their payroll.

I know this might be unpopular but you have to admire the Brisbane cheer squad. I’d imagine a lot of them are from rusted on Fitzroy families who very begrudgingly came around, but they really make some noise when they are up and about. It might be because they see a lot of losses in Vic, but they really brought it on Friday. It’s interesting because in a way it helps make a really good argument for relocating another team away from Melbourne.

It’s all about the frames of reference isn’t it? He’s actually an incredibly talented footballer. To play 75 games of AFL footy you have to be. I know people who were extraordinary talented as juniors and were in National representative teams, who ended up on lists and never played a game. If he’s the kind of person who enjoys the process and the battle then it doesn’t really matter what the outside world thinks. If he’s the kind of person who is prone to view things through the prism of other people’s expectations, and evaluate himself against that, then that’s a really hard spot to be in. Interestingly this is true for all of us. You can always be a failure or a success. It’s how you frame it for yourself that defines it. The sad reality is that a lot of the criticism would come from people who actually don’t achieve much in life. Once you’ve climbed a mountain you usually have a lot of respect for the mountain itself, and the other climbers. It’s easy to sit in Basecamp and think ‘I could do that, and those climbers are all doing it wrong’.

Stringers been good tonight. He's playing, right?

The ladder looks about right to me. Geelong look to be a class above sides like the Dogs, Bombers and Saints, but haven't had been as consistent as the sides above - and are only 5th because they have the most difficult ground in the competition.

That’s usually a fine, but given the fixture it looks more like a week to me.

If you reckon the ruck position is overrated imagine what would happen to our game plan, largely built on contest and stoppage, if we had no ruck? It’s not just about the 2 players, it’s about the way we play. We set up to play this way based on a dominant ruck (Gawn), or at worst a ruck that can compete and change the way we look (Jackson). When Jackson left we backed in our system to stay the same and to make us competitive, and got the best replacement. We are 4th, even though we’ve missed our best stoppage (and most important) player the last 5 weeks. Theres so much upside to getting Brodie - to the consistency of our game style, extending Max’s career, and providing coverage. Also Brodie is a quality, knowledgeable footballer, and that offers us a lot behind closed doors.