At the break of Gawn

We have the worst defence in the league. It’s not just the personnel it’s the structures. Every time Geelong goes forward it’s like a sunny day with a dry ball.

Haha whoops. That was the only reason I could think of

The AFL want to showcase the AFLW grand final.

I'm worried that Saturday's performance has held quite a few back from re-signing.

Didn't Sydney go 0-6 and still make the finals a couple of years ago? I'm not too worried yet.

Eagles also looked underdone against the Lions. I’m not sure how interrupted their pre-season was, but it was obviously shorter like ours, but you would normally expect them to beat Brisbane. Like us, they started like a house on fire before the cracks started to appear.

Yep, I went the early crow and thought Eagles were going to dominate after the first qtr, but as you said, after qtr time the Eagles looked really slow under done. With the Pies losing, Richmond anything but convincing, Eagles losing and us also losing, there's a clear correlation between shorter pre-seasons (and hence less prep) and round 1 performances.

WCE has the shortest pre-season out of anyone and yet still pantsing Brisbane at the Gabba who pantsed us in the JLT. Not sure how long this short pre-season excuse is going to work for us.

One of Max’s trademarks last year was playing a loose man in defence sort of role to great effect after the centre bounce. I didn’t really notice this watching the game live, but if Preuss comes in, then surely that will help Max clunk a few.

I think the loss of Hogan is going to be noticed a fair bit this year. Tmac is a very straight up and down forward with out any sort of tricks, and I feel Weideman is the same. They don’t have the forward nous to create goals when they don’t mark the ball. I think people were too overawed with Weid’s 1-2 good finals games that they forgot the body of his work. Joel smith might provide something dynamic when he returns to assist with those two tall forwards.

I'm tipping Ryder will have a tough time tomorrow with it being 31 degrees while wearing that giant stackhat on his head. Surely he won't be clunking them with it also obstructing his vision slightly.

Watts will play half back. Played there both JLT games. Ryder and Marshall will be their talls.

100% - some turn to alcohol to diminish the uncomfortable feelings that anxiety brings up, and some get caught in the trap to think that this is the only way to deal with them. Hence, I understand when Peter Bell says Jesse’s anxiety problem can lead him to making poor choices on alcohol consumption. I hope that Jesse can find the right way to manage his anxiety without the use of alcohol.

If I recall correctly, by the time finals came round last year we actually went back to a more traditional 6-6-6 structure, and no more silly centre bounce setups. Thus, we should be well adjusted to this set up.

Have seen on Instagram that Viney is doing an intermittent fasting diet. Essentially he fasts between 8pm at night to 12pm the next day. He’s claimed it’s helped him lose a bit more weight (without losing muscle) and his training hasn’t been affected. Will be interesting to see if he continues it during the season. Also said that “Personally, I think alcohol plays no role in an athlete’s diet”.

Has anyone had their membership pack delivered yet? I upgraded to Demon Seat plus in mid October and haven’t received a thing.

That’s the worst of the lot, but Richmond are in the same boat.

I’m not too worried about that. Isn’t he still in a moon boot? What’s the point of being out on the track?

You realise he was an Adelaide supporter as a kid? Even I would have worn a freo scarf to that game rather than barrack for Hawthorn.

Such an amazing game to be at. It was good to see so many Demons fans show up. To beat Thursday night’s attendance is outstanding! Can’t wait to watch the pre-match, match and post-match on Fox tomorrow that I IQed.

It’ll probably still be short of the vitriol you threw at Jack Watts over the years.

I’d still prefer Macca running the defensive coach role over Chaplin. He was a spud of a player and has zero runs on the board as a coach.

It says on the MFC website that Macca is a player development coach but according to the article he also shares with defensive line coach role? Makes it even worse that we have two defensive coaches and yet it’s a complete shambles at the moment.

Maybe Goodwin thinks Macca down there will get the message across to the players but Macca didn’t want to go? (Being optimistic here) Tom Morris is a Dees fan and hosts that inside Melbourne podcast, but not sure how good his sources are regarding the reason.

I like Hogan but he doesn't have the athletic leap of someone like a Joe Danniher, Ben Brown or Tom Lynch. Hogan is more of your classic FF/CHF mould like Jonathon Brown. I have no doubt he's still going to be a star but he's not going to be in the same category as the aforementioned 3.