Demonland

While McDonald isn’t currently experiencing any major issues, his condition will be monitored in the lead up to Round 7 and a call will be made on his fitness later in the week.

Well overdue.

Sadly in many cases this is untrue. There have been many instances on Facebook where people using their real names with open profiles that provide names and photos of family, friends, work colleagues and places of business have brazenly racially vilify indigenous players. Providing social media platforms 100 point checks might slow it down but it would also lower the amount of users using those platforms as there is already growing trust issues with what social media platforms do with our private information. The social media platforms don't want to cut their noses off to spite their faces and as has already been mentioned above hate sells.

The abhorrent comment appeared under content the AFL themselves posted. I'm not sure how long the comment was up there for but even if the AFL saw the comment there is nothing they could do about it on that platform (Twitter in this case) except report it and wait for Twitter to do something, if anything, about it.

Welcome.

We have a profanity filter on Demonland but people still find ways around it. In this instance used a short form of Aborigine which is derogatory but the sentiment would have been just as offensive if he had used the word Aborigine. Twitter doesn't censor swear words and they certainly don't censor derogatory terms. I know that pages on Facebook have different level of filters to filter out swear words. I'm not sure how it works for local derogatory terms or even if it includes the word used here. Having said that users can always use the creative way to get around the filters on those platforms. If you ever get a warning from mods here about using creative ways to get around the profanity filter just remember that it is there for a reason.

Unfortunately in this case the comment was posted on the AFL Twitter under the video of Harley's goal. The AFL can block a Twitter account from viewing their posts while that account is logged in but they cannot themselves remove the offending post. They can report the post to Twitter but social media companies can be slow to respond and certainly in these cases way to slow. On Facebook & Instagram the AFL page has a little more control and can delete posts or hide them from view and also ban the offender from their page. The offender and the post can be reported to Facebook but apparently Facebook is even worse with dealing with this and most times you will get a very generic reply saying that it doesn't go against their policies and here are some other things you can do if it offends you. Not very helpful. The ability to hide posts gives them more control but they have to be vigilant and it can slip through the cracks on a busy footy weekend and most likely someone will take a screenshot and post it elsewhere and it's out there for all to see.

If you don’t want to get sunburnt, you follow the Sunsmart rules. Melbourne took the advice and with their season on the line, avoided getting burnt by the Gold Coast Suns, with a gripping 17 point win. It was a match that could have gone either way, with the sides within a kick of each other for all but the final minutes of the final quarter. Melbourne had stretched the lead earlier in the game to 18 points, but that quickly evaporated to a neck and neck race to the finish. Finally, Christian Petracca put the game beyond doubt with a 55m goal after a strong contested mark. The icing was provided by Harley Bennell after the siren to record his first major for the club, and hopefully to end his long injury riddled time away from the game. In the week before the match there were multiple questions raised about how the Demons were playing, and to the coach’s credit, in this game, those concerns were addressed. A tighter defensive structure up the ground, Max Gawn rucking in the defensive part of the ground, composure with kicking into the forward 50, more than one tall forward, and match day moves to counter the opposition were all visible ... and they worked! The value of two talls in the forward line was highlighted in the first minutes of the game when Tom McDonald was forced from the game with an eye injury. That left the Demons solely with Sam Weidemann up front as the target. What would have been the situation were he not there? We can only wait for the medical reports, but the TV vision showed a scratch to the side of the eye, and hopefully nothing more, although it was reported that he had trouble seeing after the incident. Weidemann contributed with two goals, although he was beaten on the day by a combination of Collins and Ballard, who picked off anything that came into the forward line in the air. Tellingly, Weidemanns second goal came after Steven May was moved forward in the final quarter, and took the heat away at a critical time of the game. Hopefully, the small forward line theory has now been shelved. In the middle Max Gawn simply “owned” Witts both in the ruck and around the ground. With his positioning in defence, he took eight telling marks including four contested. Witts in previous games had been a problem for Max with his extra height, so for Max to be able to provide the mids with more opportunities in a tight game was decisive. Jack Viney was back to his bullocking best, while Clayton Oliver contributed with his not unusual 24 touches, but this time with 14 kicks and 10 handball - it’s usually the other way around! Petracca was the star of the mids providing similar bullocking in the packs and only let himself down with his wayward kicking during the match. Importantly, this week the mids contributed three or four goals, something that has been absent in previous matches in 2020. The forward line performed well enough considering the loss of TMac, although questions must still remain about the contribution of Melksham who disappears for long periods and fails to provide any real defensive efforts, especially compared with the work of Pickett, Hannan and Fritsch, while seeming to give away 50m penalties on an all too regular basis. Down back May held the team together, and the much vaunted Ben King only bothered the goal umpire once for the game. Unfortunately, in his return game, Neville Jetta came up against debutee Izak Rankine, who put on a display of his sublime skills to score three goals, and probably could have got more in his first game for the Suns. Jake Lever was back to his intercepting best with six marks and Michael Hibberd provided those telling possessions when all was otherwise lost. Oscar McDonald showed why he is needed in the defensive team, as he just turns up at critical times and is the safety backstop to May and Lever. His presence just releases Lever, in particular, to do his thing, and more importantly, he doesn’t interfere with the others work. Jay Lockhart had a busy but indifferent game, but only four touches is inadequate to keep a spot in the side. Finally, with everything on the line in the last quarter, the tide was turned by the combined efforts of Gawn, Viney and vandenBerg. VDB in particular, just erupted to provide the strength and the ability to win contests at critical times. Furthermore, he seemed to have got some speed back in his legs, as he made up ground that would have been beyond him up to now. May we seem more of his best in the coming weeks. Then the man we had all been waiting for, Harley Bennell, came back into the side and showed his true value. While he only scored that one goal after the siren, he had six score involvements during the game in which he played over 80% time. His vision and skills in tight situations were telling and he could be the feel good story for the club and the competition in 2020. This was the win that the club needed. Without it 2020 would be a virtual write-off and more pressure would have been put on coach and club in the coming week/weeks. Now the media can concentrate on Adelaide or next week’s opponent in Hawthorn instead. But we cannot afford to walk away from a winning formula. Those minor on-ground changes mooted in the previous week, all worked. So let’s see the “keep it simple” scenario maintained in the next match, or we will be burnt again. MELBOURNE 2.1.13 6.5.41 8.8.56 12.8.80 GOLD COAST SUNS 3.2.20 5.4.34 8.5.53 9.9.63 GOALS Melbourne Fritsch Petracca Weideman 2 Bennell Hannan Harmes Hibberd Melksham Salem Gold Coast Suns Rankine 3 Ellis 2 Ainsworth Fiorini King Weller Melbourne Gawn Viney Petracca Oliver vandenBerg May Langdon Gold Coast Suns Miller Ballard Rankine Collins Greenwood Lukosius INJURIES Melbourne Tom McDonald (right eye) Gold Coast Suns Holman (ribs) REPORTS Melbourne Nil Gold Coast Suns Nil VENUE Giants Stadium

Please attempt to keep this serious issue on topic and for it not to devolve into personal attacks on posters. My beef with Saty stems from there needing to be a clear distinction between racism (and other isms) and criticism & discussions on forums like this relating to the performance of the club both on and off the field. Racism (and other isms) are simply not tolerated here. This also includes libelous comments aimed at public figures. I take pride in our moderation team to ensure that any such comments are dealt with swiftly. We are very proactive in this regard and deal with offenders appropriately. When it comes to critiques of the club on and off the field we allow people discuss the issues and give their opinions and prefer that any criticism be constructive. We discourage the playing of the man and not the ball and of course outright personal attacks on the character of public figures is not acceptable either. At times, particularly when emotions are high, anonymous posters can get stuck into each other when their opinions, right or wrong, differ. Obviously we discourage this behaviour too and attempt to moderate it as best we can but these type of arguments cannot in any way be equated to what Harley and other indigenous people go through publicly. I don't bring this up for here for discussion as this is not the issue we are discussing. Please attempt to keep on topic. This is a serious social issue and we should be calling out abhorrent behaviour wherever we see it.

Don't your dare equate the unacceptable and abhorrent racial abuse leveled at indigenous people & people of colour to the names that you have been called. Many times you have baited posters on here and you have been given a lot more protection than others. I have discussed this with you privately and yet you continually take a swipes at me and the mods. Please don't let this thread get derailed by inserting yourself into a serious issue which has nothing to do with you. Demonland.com strongly condemns racism in all its forms. Comments like the one on the AFL's Twitter would have been dealt with promptly and the poster immediately banned.

Maxy Gawn and Track are the front runners:- 60. Max Gawn 50. Christian Petracca 42. Jack Viney 32. Clayton Oliver 24. Steven May 19. Michael Hibberd 17. Ed Langdon 12. Angus Brayshaw 10. Oscar McDonald 7. James Harmes 6. Mitch Hannan Jake Lever Trent Rivers 5. Kysaiah Pickett Adam Tomlinson 4. Tom McDonald Christian Salem 3. Jayden Hunt 2. Jay Lockhart

Terrible call from Huddo. Totally misread the situation. Pot calling kettle black considering his Bruce-esque salivation whenever the first gamer went near the ball. Credit to Garry for correcting why it was such an emotional moment.

I knew we were a certainty when you called into the podcast. Keep Tuesday night free. We’re waiting for your call. Hopefully my internet connection is a lot more solid this week.

Don't celebrate yet Dees.

Your votes for today's game please - 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Few massive tackles from AVB.

Tracc and Oliver with chewy on the boot tonight.

Hannan has been an important inclusion back into the team this year.