Little Goffy

My theory; in the absence of an assistant coach with a talent for tactical overview of a game (e.g. Yze, McQualter), but with a really strong set of line coaches with great rapport with players, Goodwin's time is most valuable in the box and he needs to clock that time to improve his ability to see and make tactical changes. That said, he'll be coming down to the boundary for emphasis when necessary, no doubt. And to check how people are reacting and replying to his instructions.

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'.