Mazer Rackham

This must be what it's like to be a big club. Are we becoming a big club? A tall poppy? If so then I welcome attempts to cut us down. We must be doing something right. GO DEMONS!!

At least minnows like Italy and Holland will have a chance to show their wares on the world stage.

Disappointing but not that surprising. After the first two games it was clear we have a major weakness in scoring. Only two in 3 games and both from penalties. And the most conceded goals by a far shot. Also, Peru are higher in the FIFA rankings than Denmark. Now we're into the hands of Graham Arnold which does not inspire. Two things are now obvious. Bert is a better coach than Ange. Bert had us looking dangerous. Compare that to qualifying where we stumbled and bumbled and managed to leave it to the last leg of the last tie over 4 years to lock it in. Other thing is, we need a striker and how! Fozzy on SBS is crapping on about how we could have and should have done better, we had plenty more to give, etc. How Ange had us on track but then we make this dramatic change (Bert) for the last part of the tournament, why oh why? Foz ... where were the goals going to come from? And if Ange was in charge would we have even looked like scoring at all? France already through were not going to try hard against Denmark. And Denmark's only incentive -- knowing a win or draw would see them through -- was to stop France scoring. So no surprises there. Back to the drawing board.

If I recall, nearly all the big trees there are elms, ie introduced, not native. I believe most councils grant permits for felling them more readily than for natives. Because natives good, foreign bad. So our deal is, for each elm chopped, we plant TWO natives. Also free bike parking for councillors, free car parking for recalcitrant planet hating polluting car driving councillors, a wombat sanctuary and a ban on plastic bags.

I remember when we would start looking to the draft after round 1. It's good being a real club again.

Good point. And in one way, it makes bugger-all difference. I think the key of this is that we are football nomads and have had to beg and scrape for a training ground somewhere, anywhere. From our days at the Junction oval, to days where we literally had nowhere to train, to now at Gosch's ... and how long before Eddie gets an idea that CFC needs office space at the square stadium and the CFC women need somewhere to train .... like Gosch's .... I'm exaggerating but not much. Eddie has pulled strings to expand CFC's land grab before. If I understand it, this new Yarra Park thing, if it gets off the ground, will be OUR office, OUR oval, no-one else's, no one will have a claim to it, it will be a HOME rather than a temporary facility where we are liable to moved on like street beggars at the drop of a hat. The players in fact might not notice any difference at all, the spectators hardly any, but the club will have a HOME. A social club? Other facilities to help raise $$$. All round it's very attractive. I can understand why people who don't barrack for the MIGHTY DEMONS might be able to find negatives ... some may even be justified! ... but for the MFC it's very attractive.

Thank you. I thought so too. Golfers live and die by distance judgement and are pretty good at it. It can be learned.

Yes and yes. They should ref to the rule book and there should be no consideration of their contribution to the "entertainment" of the game. (Weekly crowds averaging over 25K per game would indicate that there might be an inherent entertainment factor anyway?) And who thinks Clarko wouldn't be trying a bit of reverse influencing as his club gets first drop on new rules (and how to hustle them)? OK, I think I've spotted the deliberate error, do I get a prize?

The umps don't know the distances. They don't train for it. At a game, count the bands of grass across the ground inside 50. Gives you a clue as to how far 10m is. Usually the bands are between 9m and 12m across. Then watch how many short kicks, paid as marks, don't go as far as one band of grass. The umps are at ground level and don't get to see the grass as clearly as we can from the stands. But they can train to judge distance. Ask any good golfer.

Because they are becoming used to the outrageous randomness of the refereeing. There were a number of whistles blown where no player on either side knew what the free was for. Also several times their players ran into the "protected zone" which suddenly didn't exist any more. They also seemed to have plenty of time to dispose of the ball after a mark or free. Nothing gets done about it because the AFL don't care. They've shown it by their (non) actions time and time again. To their mind it does not harm the game. 40,000 people showed up didn't they? So it's a minor issue if an issue at all. The best thing that could have happened is EFC thrashing WCE in the face of a hugely lop sided free kick count. Takes away every excuse about winning team must have played the ball not the man, etc etc. A shame it was on Friday night, which by Mon AM is practically ancient history to the media duds. Maybe it will have some traction over coming weeks. But nothing will really happen to fix this, even the bullsh*t random decisions and non-decisions in every game every week, until there is root and branch reform of the umpires department. Every incoming umps director buys into this fantasy of "interpretation" which exists only in AFL level football and in no other sport. It seems no umps director is familiar with the actual written rules and works off a version that exists only in their heads. (Examples: Gieschen and Buddy's "natural arc"; Schwab and his "attacking third of the ground" after the Dusty Martin/GWS non-50 metre non-decision early in 2017. There are others.) I don't believe the umps are biased or cheats. They are like untrained workers on a dangerous work site. With poor training and a lack of interest from the bosses, of course accidents will happen. In the AFL situation, where the umps are part time, are working off poorly written rules, overseen by someone who does not know those rules, and are given tacit encouragement not to enforce those rules (eg how many of the players touching umps were reported even though that is in the rules as a reportable offence, no ifs buts or maybes), and in fact seem to be encouraged to buddy up to players and even coach them in their responsibilities ... what hope have they got? It's a recipe for poor refereeing, and that's what we get, and the AFL clearly couldn't care less.

Bert has made a very sudden change to the way we play. Remember the stodgy wins on the way to qualifying, and embarrassing draws & losses? Now we look really quite dangerous. It's just our lack of finishing letting us down. When we compare the one touch, BANG! finishing of the best nations ... the ones who will go deep in this tournament ... to our touch, stop, look around, ah sh*t ... pass backwards efforts ... nearly always our men around the box take that one step too many and give the defenders the time they need to clog it up. In terms of what Aussie fans will accept, I think most understand we'll always struggle to compete with Brazil, Germany, Spain, etc. I think most want us to simply punch above our weight and claim a few prize scalps. Give us something to be proud of, where we can pack the bars all night long. But that means going deep into the tournament and not limping into the 32 and then going home after 3 plucky but unfulfilling matches. Put another way, we don't expect to win the cup, but nor do we expect to simply make up the numbers. Verily, there are none so blind as those who will not see. Has he stopped to consider who owns the club? (Hint: Gulf businessmen.) Also that there are 8 British players in the squad of 27? Compare with cellar dwellers West Brom, owned by Chinese, 12/20 locals. Down to the next level ... EFL Championship (second division in the old money) ... Aston Villa: Chinese, 12/24 ... Wolverhampton: Chinese, 14/35. Down again to EFL League Two ("3rd division") ... mid-table Doncaster Rovers: British, 23/29. Basically you aren't going anywhere without the money to buy foreign players. (There are a small handful of British-only owners in the EPL but it doesn't need saying that they are fabulously wealthy.) By the way! My statistic about our last 5 goals being from Jedinak was wrong. I trusted another web site that should know better rather than look it up. Turns out he scored our last 2 (up to 4 now in this cup), before that it was Timmy with 2 and before that, shared between Kruse, Leckie, etc.

Well, bummer. Now our fate is out of our own hands. Even if we manage to beat Peru who will not be any pushover. Turns out our last 5 goals in international comp (not counting friendlies) are all by Jedinak from penalties. Our fire power around the box is very limited. In AFL terms we generate plenty of inside 50s but do not convert any of them. We are in heaps here and need to throw it around a bit. Start Arzani for some X factor. Play Timmy for as many minutes as he can handle. Have to get on the scoreboard and pile on the pressure. And then hope ...

Correct. The council's imagined paradise of a car-free CBD would involve people parking "near" the city and them tramming it or bussing it or walking. A car park there might seem attractive, in that anything to do with cars can seem in any way attractive to them. The car-free CBD (which we are told will gain financially from all these pedestrians, but somehow not suffer from lack of vehicles bringing in punters) is all well and good except for the inconvenience of King St being the only north-south artery in cooee. A 30 kph limit would not impact much given that it's rarely possible to do more than that anyway. And car-free completely? Only someone detached from reality could even consider it. King, Exhibition, Lonsdale, LaTrobe, even Flinders are all ways of people getting from A to B who would otherwise have no intention of going in the CBD. (Swanston too once upon a time, until they made a mall out of the wrong street. Elizabeth St is the natural mall and cul de sac, not the windswept wasteland of Swanston.)

It's okay. If any mobsters about town are MFC supporters, he will soon come to understand the benefits.

You'll never guess what happened when we used to train on the Junction Oval. Spoiler: it ended in tears. One reason why we left there to find a home for us, a special place, a place where we could belong.

Someone's taking a hell of a screamer

Yes, the drive through service is terrible. I've found it a lot easier to get out of the car and walk in.

History buffs! The East Melbourne cricket ground was closer to the CBD than this proposed site. It was at the SW corner of Wellington Parade South and Brunton Ave. Now housing. Another way to work out where it was, is if you can imagine in a straightish line, roughly equal distances apart, Punt Rd oval, MCG, East Melb cricket ground. Here be photo of an actual game. The houses in the background are on Brunton Ave (Jolimont Rd). The crowd there would nowadays be standing on the north bound lanes of Brunton Ave. The double storey houses are still there to this very day. Behind them (in the distance, not visible) is the MCG. Pic itself was taken in 1896. The last match played in the VFA before 8 clubs broke away to form the VFL.

HEY FELLAS! Post-queens birthday special offer. If you drive and Demonland and smash your car, but still get the post out, we'll pay your panel beaters fees! Up to fifty bucks! Terms and conditions apply and Demonland responsibly.

Demonland responsibly!

Guy doesn't have perspectives. Or policy positions. Or even a philosophy. He is a policy vacuum who fills the space with whatever seems like a good vote grabber.

I don't recall mentioning my personal opinion of the merits or otherwise of bicycles vs cars. I am hammering on councils' over zealous condemnation of cars.

"Two wheels good, four wheels bad" That's all you need to know to understand most decisions made. In fact you are now you are qualified to be a local councillor.

"Dear local councillors, If you put this facility in place, no one will EVER AGAIN be able to park on the land used for it. In fact, the bigger the facility, the more cars & more drivers you will punish! Yours, MFC"

Wouldn't trouble me at all to see Trengove tear it up against us. (Provided we win, of course.)