Currently there is a prime example of where Trump has taken politics, to the very very bottom of the barrel!
At the moment there in the lead-up to a general election in India, voters are being bombarded with fake news, AI generated garbage, and all sorts of social media sh1zen. When the conventional mainstream media in India made an issue of it, exposing the fakery, the politicians refused to oppose it effectively ticking it off as a legitimate campaign tactic.
Trump willingness to allow foreign interference in the US elections, his open and active spread of disinformation, his blatant lies, is now setting the entire planet onto a course that can't possible end well.
What Trump does is a modern day equivalent of Mao's War on Sparrows!
Defending has been our problem this year but it's not our D50 group that are the cause.
I think even in the absence of Doc and Saad, the group including Weiters, McGovern, Newman, Boyd, Williams, Young, Cincotta, Cowan and Kemp have done OK.
Oddly, our problems in F50 are probably caused by the absence of Saad and Doc from our D50, and it gets compounded when Kemp or McGovern are out.
AFL is a game of opposites, if you are being scored against too easily, the problem is most likely a combination of Forwards and Mids, if you can't score the problem is most likely a mix of Halfbacks and Mids.
I think our biggest problem is that we've wasted periods of domination, quarters or halves where the opposition barely touched the footy yet we couldn't score. Not a single easy win despite kicking 5, 6 or 7 goals in a row, it's hurting us as the season grows longer. We let opponents back into the game too easily, when we should actually have our foot on the oppositions throat.
It's not really feasible to make conclusions about the absence of presence of SoJ or Martin unless the same analysis is done when they were available, and in context the circumstance is not the same season to season, so I doubt it holds much relevance.
Interesting that our current Top 3 are last years Top 3, Owies 3rd again, yet fans want Owies dropped. The thing we are missing so far this season are the other medium small forwards in Motlop and Martin who were 4th and 5th in 2023. In 2024 Cottrell and TDK are 4th and 5th.
I'm not sure the accuracy stats mean much, Charlie has quite a few goals from Joe the Goose type scores roving the back of the pack, I've already discussed that in another thread. Both Harry and Charlie have missed goals from almost point blank, and from shots near the point of the 50m, so the mix of who gets shots where would be important. The media hysteria colours fan perceptions, but I can't say Charlie is much more reliable than Harry in the moment.
The complete miss itself isn't a value stat, because it records no context.
Then a replacement for Pitto. Do we bring in Young to do some rucking or just go with Harry as backup and bring in someone else? There's not too many left in the VFL that I can think of to come in so maybe Cincotta stays in and Williams plays a bit more in the middle/forward?
Will be interesting if the rumours are true about TDK injured.
Is Weiters really a chance, would you risk doing a Munster and turning a slight tear into a season ending injury?
Some people seriously injured in flight overnight, while I feel sorry for the people killed or injured I suspect most of the injured ignored the airline guidelines.
I've probably already been around the globe a dozen times or more having racked up 500K miles two decades ago and stopped counting, it must be hundreds and hundreds of flights mostly international.
I've never been on the flight were they tell you don't bother with your seatbelt and leave your crap on the floor. Yet I see people do this every flight, worse they undo the belt and have a sleep. I can't say how many times I've seen clear air turbulence hit one of the flights I've been on, enough turbulence to send the staff and service carts heading towards the ceiling. The worst I've suffered is having the person next to me spill a coffee on my legs. Yet people continually ignore the warnings, people are stupid!
On one flight after such an event I had to berate a passenger who unloaded on a hostess for not serving when the seatbelt light came on, people are stupid and ignorant.
Like cigarette packet warnings, as cruel as it may be for some nervous flyers, the airlines should show a movie about what happens to make passengers realise how serious the recommendations are.
It's not just the offenders who get hurt, it's the people around them.
................. or a VFL unknown player I have warmed to Boyd and think he is in our best 22/23 and happy to give Austin a tick for his recruiting.
In fairness to Boyd he wasn't really an unknown, it was quite a surprise for some that he had slipped in the pecking order to become a MSD candidate, they had expected him to be picked up in the draft proper but for reasons we will never know clubs let him slide.
I suppose at the time he first nominated he was playing as a Wing / HFF, in the link man type role, and it was only his last season of VFL that he has settled into defence.
Criticism of Ollie is not about his tireless effort. He runs and runs and runs... but not enough comes from all that effort. Acres runs and runs all day as well, with considerable impact in games.
Ollie needs, like many others, to commit his body to tackling, his tackling efforts have been and are a liability... easily broken. The only reason I recommend dropping Ollie to the Magoos is so he can learn to add other strings to his bow.
The problem that Ollie and others like him have is the focus on weaknesses that the AFL brings, if you hesitate opponents see it and forever more know, they know where to stand and what to say to put doubts in your head, it's the sporting equivalent of a game of chicken and they know you've blinked before.
All AFL players have to continually improve their shortcomings, expect every opponent to know them, and if there is no improvement expect those deficits to be amplified week in week out.
However, i do know that Hollands (with Walsh and Cottrell) do more km's a match than everyone else in the team.
For me the only thing we need Ollie to polish up on is his disposal, making quicker decisions so he is not getting pegged with the footy, and hitting more targets. Even so his DE% isn't too bad, but once or twice a game he has a shocker that costs us on the turnover.
I'd love to see some Diesel sessions with some of our blokes to get the handball crisp and decisive.
I won't mentioned who my preferred out would be, it seems to be an emotional issue for some.
I think Boyd has a done a decent job in filling in for Saad and even Cincotta defensively but we miss that rebound and accurate kicking that Saad provides as it breaks up the play and those quick switches across ground often lead to thrusts forward where our big key forwards can be one out.
One thing I do know, he'll close the gaps and leave his own opponent to create the spoils.
Our D50 has been good in general, it's the run and unpredictable carry that I think we miss the most. Not surprising, the opposition have no idea of where Saad is heading, it looks like most of his team-mates struggle to know what he'll do as well!
Another thing, in Saad's absence McGovern has to cover more ground, and that seems to affect his ability to pick out targets like we know he can, which just compounds the problem of Saad missing on the rebound. Early in the season McGovern got to sit across the HBF, intercept and hit up targets on the F50, now he is all over the place.
We've talked through the foibles of just relying on the stats before, the AFL definition of things like pressure act or contest as used by Champion Data are so rubbery you often just have to be within 3 or 4 metres of the ball carrier. That's the main reason one rating system can give a player BoG while another often suggests they were mediocre.
He was terrible for much of the game but his last quarter was OK.
Williams offered way more effort, aggression and pressure than some of the others for most of the game, but when you have two or three around you offering nada you can be made look like a goose.
