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My mail is that Angus is going well. Would not have been right for a prelim, possibly not even a granny but tests have all gone well and he is definitely keen to play on. Playing lots of golf. Good news.

We need to get rid of this irrelevant rubbish on Saturday, so that we can move on to Trade and then Draft periods.

@goodwindees strikes again https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/sydney-swans-co-captain-callum-mills-suffers-bad-off-season-injury-as-mad-monday-celebrations-go-horribly-wrong-c-12023911

two nuffies talking rubbish they openly admit they have no idea what we're doing which, i suspect, is just the way that tim lamb likes it; we don't leak

Big game this Thursday for Kate Hore and her Demon Queens. I know there is a ‘AFL Womens League’ board but I don’t want to talk about that - I want to talk about the Melbourne Demons on the Melbourne Demons board. The dominant, amazing, and humble team that deserves eternal hellfire and idol devotion. Also, no one goes to that board and there wasn’t even a match thread…

Wouldn't require any change to game plan - just keep bombing it in!

WAFL Colts GF Zane Zakostelsky- clear best on ground dominated in the ruck and with his follow up work at ground level. Commentators were a little disengenuous saying he was dominating due to Livingstone being out, but he actually towelled Livingstone up 2 weeks ago in the semi final. Turned over a few kicks and will take time at AFL level Dan Curtin - played mostly midfield before dropping back into the backline late in the fourth. Good game without being outstanding. Took some key marks and prominent around the stoppages in the 3rd when Claremont took total control. Copped significant treatment from Perth players at every opportunity throughout the day Cody Angove - very good early, playing high up the ground and getting involved in transition. Showed how dangerous he is around goal with snap on the run in the second- one to watch next year Hamish Davis best forward on the ground used his endurance to present all day and to good for Cameron Hall. Kicked 3 and very important in the 4th with his leading patterns and 1v2 wins when Perth were pushing head Seb Ballard - really solid effort as medium defender. Big bodied player who took several marks and set up rebound from Claremont defensive 50 Kai Dehaviland - strong in and under performance around the stoppages and also some poise with ball in hand when playing forward to set up tea mates Bailey Banfield - another contested mid who won hardball and was clean with his ball use. Hit Davis with a beautiful kick on the move to set up a goal Elijah Scoble - Perths best took several intercept marks, hit the contest hard to spoil after leaving his direct opponent. Probably a 3rd tall at next level if drafted but did his chances no harm on Sunday Aidan O’Driscoll - on fire early kicking the first two goals of the game with the second being one on the run where he showed his explosive pace and skill to kick a snap at full pace. Doesn’t play accountable footy but with that pace, foot skills and ability to impact the scoreboard should get picked up Jake Watson- found a fair bit of footy as he has all year with his reading of the play. Not as big an impact as normal but was important when Perth threw caution to the wind and he pushed forward more from half back Oscar Hine-Baston - had his hands full and probably lowered his colours to Angove but showed some glimpses with running handball receives of the line breaking ability he has

Sad to see the vitriol directed at Neale online. Like he made the umpires give him votes. Really pathetic.

There'll be a relevance spike if Collingwood loses tragically.

Don’t even joke about that. The only way we’d let him walk from a 7 year contract is if we were given picks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Even then we’d probably ask for 11 too.

Have you been texting SEN @Nudge 😀

Did some numbers on votes vs top 8 sides some interesting outcomes Neale 14 votes in 10 games Bont 9 in 10 Daicos 6 in 9 that he played (polled in just 2 games) Trac 12 in 10 Bont given dogs lost a lot vs top 8 that’s not bad for him but Daicos really loads up vs the weaker teams and really stuggled vs top 8 sides while Neale played better vs top 8. Might be something to keep an eye on in the grand final.

Off-topic I know, but honestly it would be so awesome and so appreciated if more Dees fans could come onboard for the girls. Even if you’ve never paid much attention to the W comp you should consider it. Now’s the best time, too. This team is an absolute joy to watch. They’re in scintillating form and the vibe at matches is always good. There’s six H&A rounds remaining, even if you just attend only one, that’d be great. And for those who don’t have W membership, a ticket is only $10.

Manifesting Naughton to the dees

He can play 2nd tall defender while Petty kicks 60 goals next year

That's always been Harmsy's problem though. The gap between his best and his worst is huge. Both in game and in season. Just on ability alone there's not much he can't do. He can take a hanger, can pass lace out to a lead, can explode from a stoppage, can kick goals. On ability he's pretty much got it all. But then he'll also handball to a team mate's feet, miss a target by a mile, go missing for large parts of a game, get caught with the ball etc etc For me he's been the most frustrating player due to his output not matching his capacity. If he leaves I'll wish him well. If he stays I'll also wish him well and hope he has a year where he consistently delivers at the high end of his capabilities. No matter what, he's a Demon premiership hero and I'll never forget that pass to Fritta.

Won’t be a ruckman at AFL level will likely be a KPD project player

i can't see us willingly let harmes walk along with jj we are light on for midfield depth as it is, let alone senior bodies inside mids in 2024: petracca viney brayshaw oliver sparrow woewodin even if you add rivers that's not a lot of depth

Neale is an outstanding footballer and any team would love him, but 2023 was not a Brownlow-worthy year. He is now a dual Brownlow winner, which puts him in the category of Ablett jnr, Fyffe, and Robert Harvey. Sorry, he is just not in the same class as those three. I cannot understand how Cripps got 22 votes (and I am not a Cripps hater), he just did not have that good a year. Gulden not getting 3 votes in the Dees v Sydney game is a farce. I am really glad that Gulden and Noah Anderson piled on the votes late in the vote count, nearly embarrassing the AFL and the gushing commentary of channel 7. They were given little air play, and no dramatic pausing by Gil until the producers realised "sh*t, we'd better do something to show some respect to these two, they might win it!". Interesting that some backmen finally got some vote recognition, but still not enough. Gawn - 7 votes. Is he too tall for the umps to notice? I actually feel sorry for Nick Daicos. All that media hype and brown-nosing, they wouldn't leave the poor kid alone. And he had to sit there with the camera up his nose knowing that someone would likely overtake him. Channel 7 ought to be flogged and burnt for the way they over exposed him. And lastly, I feel very sorry for Bont and Trac. Great footballers, great people, who don't catch the umpires eyes sometimes when they are matchwinners. Not sure how this works. Bont should have romped in this year over Daicos, with the others a step behind.

Good on Jack for receiving 24 votes, every one of them well-deserved. Interestingly, he wasn’t invited to attend last night. Gussy was but he blew it off and Jack went in his place.

Lachie Neale. I watch a lot of Lions games and he had a good year but not a Brownlow year. The umps mustn’t know any other lions players. Maybe McCluggage (3 votes) is too hard to spell or it’s too early for Ashcroft. Dunkley (4 votes) had some great games but didn’t poll well by comparison. It’s bizarre. ps. Neale didn’t make All Australian. They must be poor judges of footy.

It's been the best medicine watching the women over the last few weeks. They're playing fantastic footy and their skills are better and better every year. What a team.

They can't umpire properly so getting the votes right be impossible.

He is a lovely humble guy and I don’t think he deserves the wave of anger that he’s going to cop now. He didn’t do anything wrong and he didn’t ask for the votes or the win. He will now get caught up in this conversation that he’s an unworthy winner and frankly I think he agrees. Hope it’s not a distraction come Saturday. A Norm Smith will shut people up pretty quickly.

If you will it he will come ... Can't hurt to put it out there and dream ...

The story is actually about Thom Hawkers, the famous street food seller who Simon Goodwin met on an end of season trip to Thailand. Definitely worth a 2-year contract. What other club can offer unlimited pineapple fried rice and pad thai to prospective new players?

(Not real btw)

I'm not sure it's even a rumour. I'm just putting it out to the universe. Has only worked once in nearly 47 years for me. Thought I might try something smaller.

(from the 'Red Fox' by Ben Collins.....) After defeating Collingwood in the 1955 GF the team sang the following: " Hugh McPherson also changed the lyrics of Collingwood theme song, Good Old Collingwood forever. 'When I sang this to Noel McMahon', McPherson recalled, ' he loved it and soon had every Demon singing it". The altered words were: Good Old Collingwood if ever they knew how to play the game Side by side they fell together To the might of the Demons fame Hear the barrackers a 'squealing Like their barrackers do For the Premierships a cakewalk For the good old Red and Blue

Taj made his debut this year. I liked the signs in the limited opportunities. Taj has some run and skills and smarts to make a very good player. Probably an outside mid/wing running player. Hopefully they give him more chances in 2024.

Anybody else notice this last night?

Midfielders award adjudicated by amateurs. Rapidly losing relevancy

We’re a biased lot, aren’t we? 😀 We criticise the votes on the one hand, saying umpires don’t know what they’re doing. Then we use the votes as evidence that Viney should have been AA and that he’s better than Parish. (Of course he is, but our arguments would fail year 11 critical thinking - if there’s still such a thing.)

Rivers real stiff not to get any votes.

Would have been Nicky D but for his dicky knee.

Seems Trac and Bont are destined to never win one despite being the best players every year and influencing games more than their peers. Both got robbed of clear votes tonight. Trac getting no votes in the final game was stupid. Getting 1 vote for his game against the Saints was stupid. The umpires are stupid. I’m [censored] sick of them. The umpires have determined the outcome of games this year and legitimately shaped the entire finals series. It’s beyond pathetic and as someone who’s attending 100s of live games since the 1980s, I’m thiiiiiiis close to giving up on the sport because of their [censored] incompetence and the rules being so vague etc. Stuff this

Heard a few whispers but do not have a lot of faith in the veracity of said rumours. I do like that there is little or no leaks coming out of the club these days. We know that Deakin Smith is gone...... Dunstan retired..... Hibberd retired...... Jordon 99% out the door as a RFA.... Grundy 80% out the door traded to Sydney? but I think the club would not mind if a deal cannot be done and he stays for another season. For what it is worth unfounded whispers..... Harmes is looking at options but I have heard that there is a deal available for him if he stays. Chandler or Spargo may be on the table depending on the offer. Brown and Tmac I have heard that one of the two will retire with the other staying on the list. both have been mentioned as staying and both have been mentioned as retiring. No idea which way this will play out. Tomlinson will be getting more games next year as the third leg of the main defensive tall trio. As for drafting and trading...... More whispers. No real news on possible forwards. We are talking to a few players with regard to this year and trade period next year. seems hard to get a clear idea of who they might be and the chances of getting them. I did hear that we might be going a little left field for a possible solution in looking at a kpp, not necessarily a recognized forward, to cover the position should JVR of Petty go down. I heard that we will try for Reid but will not sell the house to get him. We have spent a good deal of time talking with him and his agent. I think we will be taking a longer term view of this situation. Not really a lot out there from what I have heard.

We have the best midfield in the game, we need a replacement for May, and more forward power/x factor and finishing forward of centre. I'm sure we'll target some mid replacements, but Harmes, JJ and Dunstan going isn't exactly a big hole given Gus is playing on. If we had three top 10 picks, that'd be different, but instead, we need to be more strategic about the most pressing needs here. We would hope Rivers and maybe even McVee and Bowey move into the midfield next year and then we have Howes coming in to replace them at half back/wing, so unless we have huge injuries which we'd never be able to cover sufficiently no matter who we add to our list, IMV, we're better going for improving areas we're not already elite in. With Petty forward, the second tall defender is no longer very good, we're relying on a questionable Tomlinson, an undersized Turner and a developing Adams. A key back that can play now is undoubtedly a key area of need and within 2 years, May will be gone, so we'll be left with Lever and that's it. Secondly, with McAdam on his way, we add him to Petty, JVR, Fritta, Kozzy. ANB will likely be in that forward mix too, so there's a spot there for another x factor forward. Chandler is okay, but he's not quick enough, nor does he have enough x factor IMO, so there's another area I'd be targeting list wise. A player to partner Kozzy and tag team out of stoppage and deep forward. If we could somehow land another top 10 pick, I'd love Watson. But the midfield as it stands is Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Sparrow, Brayshaw and likely Rivers and potentially McVee and Bowey. I'd much prefer we target a FA for our midfield in 2-3 years, and get either end of the ground sorted in the meantime. Each to their own though.

Allowing gambling into the game was the beginning of the end.

And who could blame him.

He was actually quite self deprecating about it.

I may be wrong, but I'm not sure anyone could officiate a match well AND analyse the game to identify the best players on the ground. Umpiring AFL would be an incredibly difficult thing to do. I'm sure the last thing they're thinking about is how well players played or how impactful they were. I would rather a panel of expert analysts assigning the votes (and I don't mean media types like BT 😂).

How about the BT Brownlow medal? All votes awarded by BT during his roaming Brian segment. If BT didn't commentate the game, it's probably not worth awarding votes because it obviously isn't a BLOCKBUSTER! Has a nice ring to it. He could compare the whole night and highlights could all be him commentating passages of play. It could have you on the edge of your seat as BT often gets players names wrong. Channel 7 knows footy better than we do.

Wouldn't it just be better if the umpires only have one task to do? They do a [censored] house job of umpiring, what makes anyone think they deserve to decide the brownlow?

Oliver only 6 from his ten games he was Fav before he was injured, Melbourne Brownlow Medal club votes Name Votes Christian Petracca 26 Jack Viney 24 Max Gawn 7 Clayton Oliver 6 Bailey Fritsch 4 Angus Brayshaw 4 Steven May 3 Lachie Hunter 3 Kysaiah Pickett 2 Jacob van Rooyen 2 Kade Chandler 2 Harrison Petty 2 Jake Melksham 2 Ben Brown 1 Christian Salem 1

How did Neale get 3 votes in round 6 with 20 possessions while Cameron kicks 7.2 and gets 2 votes, Josh Kelly had 41 touches and coniglio 38, a certain ump must have had cash on Neale a fair way out how else do you explain that

On appeal he’ll get that up to 27.

Viney with 24 votes. Should have been AA.