gutsroy
Brownlow Medallist
They say all good things must come to an end.
Sometimes, mercifully, some s**t ones do, too.
A number of us who have been clinging on to metaphorical SC life support and suffering the indignity of having our bedpans emptied and clackers wiped by an overworked and underpaid nurse were put out of our misery on the weekend as our bold charges to sneak into the back end of the eight of our cashies were not to be.
That also might be the reason why the rd 20 trades thread has a touch of the tumbleweeds about it…
For many, it will have been the DEF line which turned off the life support as the four horsemen of the shitpocalypse - Luke ‘Angel of Death’ Ryan (48 after pinging the string), Wayne ‘The Stain’ Milera (40 of the most diabolically apathetic and unskilled points in SC history), Griffin ‘Not Quite D6-Worthy After All’ Logue (42, but to be fair Griffbot wasn’t playing in a role conducive to scoring and the Dogs were so clean moving the ball forward that the Dockers defenders were basically traffic cones) and Jack ‘Pretty ******* Un-‘Crisp (67, watching him miss 35cm handball after handball and panic like a bunny in the headlights was like watching a bunch of confused individuals make passionate love to a doorknob) got their Philip Nitschke on and delivered the lethal injection.
Zac Williams also underwhelmed, struggling to adapt to the pace of the game in the midfield and finishing up on 70. Lachie Whitfield also failed to engage Chols and Cholettes of those who stumped up the moolah for him, his 90 well below expectations.
For others, it may have been some underperformers on other lines. Matt ‘Ouch’ Crouch continued his downward trend with a 77. Josh Dunkley put in a rare poorer one by his lofty standards on 88, which is OK but will have hurt owners who slapped the C on him after passing on Brodie Grundy’s respectable 117 on Friday.
Jeremy Cameron (who slammed the road train in reverse after the main break to somehow manage to go from 71 at HT to 68 at the final siren) and Zac Merrett (88, a golden opportunity to post a big score gone begging) will have left owners disappointed and have been frustrating to own in general, despite their overall output on the season being respectable.
Christian Salem (who some will have shunted Thighs Hurn for recently) scraped together a 72 , Tom Stewart posted a subdued 74, Jack Ziebell a rage-inducing 70 and Ben Cunnington another sub-ton, his 85 amongst the better performances for North but not worthy of the big bikkies many will have coughed up for him as a POD.
Yeah, nah, don't care if you ton up this week, Whitters, you're dead to me, campaigner.
As attention slowly turns to 2020 planning, revolution is afoot as the natives rise up and throw off the shackles of oppression, daring to open a new planning thread, the old one apparently having been put on ice until this year has run its course and the finals have been run and won…
Benno and the mod squad engaged in a fruitful intellectual discourse over the merits of a preseason planning thread
… and those still mounting a charge for the podium in overall (of which there are many – shine on you crazy diamonds and go for gold! Who me? Jealous? Not at all, don’t know where you’d get that idea from…) or even just trying to overtake a few carcasses and limp into the top 5-10k continue to fight the good fight and rage against the dying of the light.
Nah, why would you say that? I'm happy as Larry to be praying I crack top 10k while you stallions are all storming the ramparts of the top 100. Not jealous at all. Not one bit. campaigners.
So why so late and what about the player reviews?
I will put a few up, but at this stage of the year, plans and options are highly situational and it's difficult to cover all the different angles (there are legitimately 20-odd ways to play the Lukey Ryan situation alone).
If you’re in a must-win league final and feel you have the upper hand apart from one unique, you might just look to POD-match to reduce the chance of being caught out by your opponent.
If you’re in a cut-throat elimination final and you’re dependent on a Hail Mary as it stands, you might throw caution to the wind and bring in a couple of high-ceiling PODs, hoping that they might provide the FIRESTARTER ™ (Derwayne Roberts, 2015, all rights reserved) and propel you to a Bradbury-like come from behind triumph:
If you’re in the hunt for a high overall finish, you’re likely to deploy or hold trades depending on cover considerations and with many sides at the top being similar in composition, you’re likely hoping that you can steal a march via looped E’s and captaincy choices which set you apart from the peloton. In cases like that, it can work in your favour when a popular VC option fails to fire, setting the cat amongst the pigeons in the scramble for an alternative C as a few poor souls panic, lose their mind and captain Gussy Brayshaw.
Even if you don’t have much left to play for, having been knocked out of finals and with a top finish in overall no longer on the cards, you can still try to maximize your score and make the best of a bad situation. Make that bunch of *knuckles, half of whom will be lodged firmly on your never again list by now, into the sexiest, E-deploying-est, loopholing-est, oppo bamboozling-est, downright sexiest bunch of gimps on the planet. All that chariot of yours needs is an oil change, it’ll be purring like a kitten in no time.
We can be heroes, if just for one day. even the sun shines on a dog's arse some days. (Actually, pretty much all days, I'd argue, but I digress.) We can be heroes.
Except for Kate O'Halloran. You know it's time to take yourself out of the game when you make big Garry Lyon look like a paragon of virtue and restraint. Never attack the Lone Wolf...
... and if you do, do your fact-checking first. And when you're pulled up, front-foot it, acknowledge your mistake. And don't pretend you only found out the next day, that's bullshit.
I think there’s something in that for all of us.
I thank for your time, wish you all the best for your finals campaigns or plotting your path to glory in 2020.
Sometimes, mercifully, some s**t ones do, too.
A number of us who have been clinging on to metaphorical SC life support and suffering the indignity of having our bedpans emptied and clackers wiped by an overworked and underpaid nurse were put out of our misery on the weekend as our bold charges to sneak into the back end of the eight of our cashies were not to be.
That also might be the reason why the rd 20 trades thread has a touch of the tumbleweeds about it…
For many, it will have been the DEF line which turned off the life support as the four horsemen of the shitpocalypse - Luke ‘Angel of Death’ Ryan (48 after pinging the string), Wayne ‘The Stain’ Milera (40 of the most diabolically apathetic and unskilled points in SC history), Griffin ‘Not Quite D6-Worthy After All’ Logue (42, but to be fair Griffbot wasn’t playing in a role conducive to scoring and the Dogs were so clean moving the ball forward that the Dockers defenders were basically traffic cones) and Jack ‘Pretty ******* Un-‘Crisp (67, watching him miss 35cm handball after handball and panic like a bunny in the headlights was like watching a bunch of confused individuals make passionate love to a doorknob) got their Philip Nitschke on and delivered the lethal injection.
Zac Williams also underwhelmed, struggling to adapt to the pace of the game in the midfield and finishing up on 70. Lachie Whitfield also failed to engage Chols and Cholettes of those who stumped up the moolah for him, his 90 well below expectations.
For others, it may have been some underperformers on other lines. Matt ‘Ouch’ Crouch continued his downward trend with a 77. Josh Dunkley put in a rare poorer one by his lofty standards on 88, which is OK but will have hurt owners who slapped the C on him after passing on Brodie Grundy’s respectable 117 on Friday.
Jeremy Cameron (who slammed the road train in reverse after the main break to somehow manage to go from 71 at HT to 68 at the final siren) and Zac Merrett (88, a golden opportunity to post a big score gone begging) will have left owners disappointed and have been frustrating to own in general, despite their overall output on the season being respectable.
Christian Salem (who some will have shunted Thighs Hurn for recently) scraped together a 72 , Tom Stewart posted a subdued 74, Jack Ziebell a rage-inducing 70 and Ben Cunnington another sub-ton, his 85 amongst the better performances for North but not worthy of the big bikkies many will have coughed up for him as a POD.
Yeah, nah, don't care if you ton up this week, Whitters, you're dead to me, campaigner.
As attention slowly turns to 2020 planning, revolution is afoot as the natives rise up and throw off the shackles of oppression, daring to open a new planning thread, the old one apparently having been put on ice until this year has run its course and the finals have been run and won…
Benno and the mod squad engaged in a fruitful intellectual discourse over the merits of a preseason planning thread
… and those still mounting a charge for the podium in overall (of which there are many – shine on you crazy diamonds and go for gold! Who me? Jealous? Not at all, don’t know where you’d get that idea from…) or even just trying to overtake a few carcasses and limp into the top 5-10k continue to fight the good fight and rage against the dying of the light.
Nah, why would you say that? I'm happy as Larry to be praying I crack top 10k while you stallions are all storming the ramparts of the top 100. Not jealous at all. Not one bit. campaigners.
So why so late and what about the player reviews?
I will put a few up, but at this stage of the year, plans and options are highly situational and it's difficult to cover all the different angles (there are legitimately 20-odd ways to play the Lukey Ryan situation alone).
If you’re in a must-win league final and feel you have the upper hand apart from one unique, you might just look to POD-match to reduce the chance of being caught out by your opponent.
If you’re in a cut-throat elimination final and you’re dependent on a Hail Mary as it stands, you might throw caution to the wind and bring in a couple of high-ceiling PODs, hoping that they might provide the FIRESTARTER ™ (Derwayne Roberts, 2015, all rights reserved) and propel you to a Bradbury-like come from behind triumph:
If you’re in the hunt for a high overall finish, you’re likely to deploy or hold trades depending on cover considerations and with many sides at the top being similar in composition, you’re likely hoping that you can steal a march via looped E’s and captaincy choices which set you apart from the peloton. In cases like that, it can work in your favour when a popular VC option fails to fire, setting the cat amongst the pigeons in the scramble for an alternative C as a few poor souls panic, lose their mind and captain Gussy Brayshaw.
Even if you don’t have much left to play for, having been knocked out of finals and with a top finish in overall no longer on the cards, you can still try to maximize your score and make the best of a bad situation. Make that bunch of *knuckles, half of whom will be lodged firmly on your never again list by now, into the sexiest, E-deploying-est, loopholing-est, oppo bamboozling-est, downright sexiest bunch of gimps on the planet. All that chariot of yours needs is an oil change, it’ll be purring like a kitten in no time.
We can be heroes, if just for one day. even the sun shines on a dog's arse some days. (Actually, pretty much all days, I'd argue, but I digress.) We can be heroes.
Except for Kate O'Halloran. You know it's time to take yourself out of the game when you make big Garry Lyon look like a paragon of virtue and restraint. Never attack the Lone Wolf...
... and if you do, do your fact-checking first. And when you're pulled up, front-foot it, acknowledge your mistake. And don't pretend you only found out the next day, that's bullshit.
I think there’s something in that for all of us.
I thank for your time, wish you all the best for your finals campaigns or plotting your path to glory in 2020.
Last edited by a moderator:
..... a great board contributor
