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I was just watching a couple of videos of a young guy named Jon on the “The Melbourne Football Club, The Mighty Demons” Facebook page, who had received among other things, a gift and best wishes from Demonland. That was one of the most touching things I’ve seen in a long while and is something we all need during these dark times. Good on you Andy, you’re a good man!!

Hawks president Jeff Kennett has proudly revealed they have the war chest to survive 2020 and told struggling clubs to lift their game. I'm not sure what pride there is in raking money in from gambling and depriving your membership of four home games a year for a big cheque from the Tasmanian government. It might have been more appropriate if he'd told struggling clubs to lift their gaming.

PROPOSED HUBS DEEMED ‘IMMORAL’ As the AFL grapples to contrive a 2020 season, Fox Footy’s AFL 360 host Gerard Whateley has weighed into the debate around teams being segregated into potential hubs. While the proposal could be key to the season’s completion, and indeed its integrity, Whateley told SEN it was at odds with the pace of the world. “The mega quarantine hubs carry the conceit that sport is somehow immune from a global pandemic and separate from what the community is being asked to do,” Whateley said. “I said yesterday, and I’m absolutely resolute on this now, that proposition is unreasonable, it is inappropriate and it would be desperate. “You wouldn’t have to go too far to conclude that it is also immoral. “I don’t believe for a single second that the AFL administration would take our community down that path. “I might ultimately be proven wrong, but I don’t believe for a second that is where we will end up. “No matter how twitchy we are for sport, now is a time where we’re going to have to wait.”

Jordan Lewis lifts the lid on ‘brutal’ SAS camp that broke players and sparked a revolt

Nothing about 2020 makes sense. Someone ate a bat in China and now I can’t watch football.

That is one very passionate supporter. Good on him! We'll done Andy, too.

nice one andy. we already knew you were a good man, this thoughtful act just reinforced it.

2020 is GONE

They could play with masks, gowns and gloves. You know it makes sense.

This talk of setting up a completion in an out of the way venue is a total load of c... Can you imagine 18 teams and staff in one place, isolated from their wives and kids (you could have 18 teams, staff wives and kids surely). Expect that no one is infected or that no one would go troppo... I'll tell you what it is. It's just throwing things out there to keep the AFL in the news. The media run with it because they've run out of things to report and a lot of their jobs must now be on the line. It's not going to happen and if per chance it does, it would be a absolute disaster.

Yeah nah, that article is cherry picking at it's finest. Opinion is one thing, facts are another. Can we please stop comparing it to the flu? We don't know the case/ fatality rate, but no-one is pretending that we do. What we do know with absolute certainty is that allowing the virus to spread unchecked will result in a lot of preventable deaths. Yes the mortality rate is low for young, healthy people. But if you're talking about millions of potential infections, a low mortality rate is still a disturbingly high number of deaths. That's not hysteria, that's just maths. Right now, we've really got 2 choices. Option 1: stay in lockdown and hope for the best. Option 2: relax restrictions, watch the number of cases increase exponentially, then say "Oh [censored], we shouldn't have done that!", and then go back to lockdown, now with overflowing hospitals and morgues. If we get to choose between the New York and South Korea options, why on earth would you choose New York?

So clearly panic has reached people, you only need to look at supermarket shelves and the crazy cues on the news to see it's getting a bit bonkers out there. So if we are forced into lockdown and there's no footy to keep us busy (I won't say happy because that's not what being a Dees fan is about!), let's go through my top 5 Demons related viewing options and I'm keen to hear what others might have. 1. Every Heart Beats True: The Jim Stynes Story Starting with a sad one, this doco is beautiful as it is devastating. Such a loved figure for us Dees fans, this documentary gave us a deeper insight into this beautiful human being. RIP Jimmy 2. Dynamic Demons: 2000 review VHS If you've still got a VHS player maybe it's time to dust it off and relive the last season we made it to the last dance. While Essendon were just such a brutally good team on that day and our boys had clearly given everything they had leading into it, the season itself was so good to watch! 3. Hell and Back: 2020 Pre-season Doco If you haven't watched this yet, get on board! I was sceptical of it when they first released the news they would be doing it, I immediately thought it was going to be all fluff and no substance but credit to the club and the makers they really did a great job. I'd be keen for them to extend the thing leading into the first round following the no fans at the ground announcement and Casey becoming the base of operations. 4. Hotter than Hell: 1998 review VHS Get the VHS player out again and relive The Reverend's first season as coach. I remember this as the first year I went from fan to passionate demon for life, seeing the combination for Farmer, Schwartz, Neitz, and Lyon in the forward line, while Woewodin doing his amazing running goal vs Port, and of course the Wizard's incredible mark against Richmond (how did it not win MOTY?). 5. Full match vs Geelong 2018 Elimination final So much fun to watch us beat the cats after they managed to somehow get the chocolates against us in the H&A season, the sound of the Dees fans overpowering the pussycats gives me happy chills. Remind yourself why you should have hope for 2020.

It has to be Lyon as he is the only player on the list that to lift himself above others and impose himself on a game through talent and sheer will and win it. Lots of talent on the list but that is what separates Lyon from the others and the type of player we have missed, as the others often only have cameo's.

Neitz, Stynes, then Lyon

The season's done and dusted.

And here are the replay's of the 3 other G1's from Randwick last Saturday ...

Well the racing continues and I'm on board. Oddly enough, the lack of crowds doesn't really make any difference. So there's some big racing coming up over the next 2 Saturday's at Randwick. My highlight from last Saturday was the commanding performance by 'Nature Strip' ... and for the first time Gator marked the horse away from his top pick (he rated the horse 4th) haha. I wasn't on Nature Strip either but nevertheless, the horse beat a crack field and did it easily. Just stay away when the horse runs first up ... 2nd up and onwards, get on.

This is just the AFL flying kites

In breaking news: children have been ordered to stay at least 1.5m away from George Pell

not really, only anecdotal claims that player x said assistant coach y helped him with his z which doesn't in itself justify 10 full time highly paid assistant coaches let alone all the other specialist roles there has been this obsession in recent years (decades) about getting the extra 1% or even .1% advantage which is an inevitable consequence of increased professionalism, but somewhere along the way basic and natural football skills took a back seat

sorry to hear that wwsw

We could just cut the middle man here and go straight for human sacrifice.

He is in the team listed above by Bucket List.

I absolutely agree with you - we can't live like this forever. At some point, in the absence of a vaccine, we might be faced with some brutal decisions about the death toll we are willing to tolerate in order to resume some sense of normality with our lives. There may come a time when those conversations need to be had. My problem with the article wasn't for suggesting those things. Those decisions have enormous ramifications - they need to be based on good science and not misguided ideology. My problem with the article was that it used extremely selective 'facts' to suit a predetermined ideological agenda. For example: - "It's just the flu" (simply not true - it's demonstrably far worse, and far more contagious) - On asymptomatic cases: "A disease that doesn't make you ill? Terrifying." (That's a major reason why it spreads so easily) - "We lost 20 people to the disease in March. We lost 13,000 to other ailments, but let's not worry about them." (The reason the death toll is currently so low is precisely because of the draconian social distancing measures) - "The data is fundamentally flawed... If we don't know how many have been infected, we don't know the mortality rate" (Literally no-one is pretending that we do know the exact mortality rate. The number of fatalities is also a gross underestimate, because in many places the official figures are limited to deaths in hospitals, and other countries are almost certainly deliberately under-reporting) - "If 1 in 1,200 dies, 99% of them already gravely ill, it's not so frightening" (OK, now you're just pulling numbers out of your [censored]) End rant

Especially if they trade out future 1st rounders for injury prone 'stars' like they have with Wingard and Omeara

How we ever let Kevin Dyson go I'll never know!!? hard nosed midfielder with a touch of class and a thumping kick.

If only it were this simple. We will need to make hard calls soon. if we relax restrictions it will lead to some people dying but we can't stay like this forever and how long with a vaccine take? I'm glad we are so isolated in Australia, we should be able to manage this (with some damage caused) over time. Staying in lockdown all year is not the answer in my opinion

Can't get through the paywall....

Not really the idea I had in mind......

It's now getting beyond stupid...

Allowing an unstoppable virus like this to spread unchecked would also lead to the collapse of the economy.

Very sad news - was my favourite player from when I as a little fella with my Dad in the later part of the 60's - hence my Avatar. Ran around with No: 11 on my jumper. Been some bloody great 11's since then! Condolences to the Anderson clan.

To be fair, Gonzo's summary of the article is more or less spot on. All media is biased to some degree, but the anti-science bile spewed out by the Murdoch press is, generally speaking, disturbingly predictable.

wow, what an ideologue you are, gonzo. you can belittle an opinion without even reading it. exactly what's wrong with political discourse in this country

Didn't even have to read it, saw it was a Murdoch rag and new what the gist would be - " all this government spending is unsustainable, we have to think about the economy!! So what if a few old people die, they're almost dead anyway and will help the issue of funding the aged pension" Something like that

Have the Rugolo brothers been mentioned, Frank and Joe? Short careers at the end of the last century if I remember correctly. The Rugolo family had/have a large panel beating business on Mt Alexander Road Ascot Vale.

Journeyman a worker or sports player who is reliable but not outstanding,. "a solid journeyman professional"

And thank Christ for that Moon. Even embraced by ScoMo and his mates. Even The Donald. Not a peep from the usual media bottom lickers. Funny how we have half the population who now think that welfare is well.....fair, now they are in the queue or may be. Suddenly free trade can be seen for what it is and protectionism does not look so bad. Economic growth is one thing but humanity is another. If we do not have a society that cares for one another, we do not have a society. Great to hear the AFL and clubs talking as one and supporting the unchanged state of the Clubs.

I will never forget that moment - ballot got me Level 2 seats in the pocket. Unbelievable feeling!

MELBOURNE FANS, BREATHE IT IN! (Not the Corona virus, don’t breathe that in)

Is there any evidence that more assistant coaches is better?

well, that's me done in the footy industry then have worked at club level for port adelaide, for telstra network, then fox sports over the last decade and a half made redundant today, along with a plethora or others covid-19 has been a helluva blow to the industry

I know someone (brother of a good mate) who's a "young healthy" person. He got it. From his telling, I wouldn't' wish it upon anyone. He speaks of disconnecting his oxygen and hauling himself off his hospital bed in an attempt to write a goodbye letter to his young daughters after his doctor refused to give him a guarantee that he would make it.