Deemania since 56

Also disappointing that Harmes ain't there at the home ground. We need his intercepts and buoyant energy - plus his unexpected forward scoring and feeds.

Who else other than Cochin can we recall using this technique?

TMac will have to retire, soon. Same with the Melk. Gawny is getting on in years, Hibberd is, as well. Even May and BB are pushing a great deal out of their Weet Bix. The font of human kindness and cash does actually have a starting date in the near future; at that moment, we could be offering Jackson more than the Eagles ever would. He's a home-boy and the MFC has provided him with security and far more than just a roof over his head. He won't be tempted, elsewhere.

That would be the way to go! As for Gus, he is just about our best playmaker, wherever he is on the ground. He adapts to circumstances in a minute or two, starts to dominate by acute interpretation and reading of the game, goes for it by covering distances and selecting the 'right' feed to the 'right' player in the 'right' position. Too valuable to let slip away from our team. He's proven himself over and over again. A great Clubman, too.

Efficient ... GCS can also be enriched by what the NT offers in terms of talented footballers, who will gain a good deal from training at the AFL level. There are some really talented footy exponents up there to augment the GCS team (who most probably have to re-name themselves but keep the jumper) as we all could acknowledge.

Tend to agree, provided he brings his best game and a real desire to pop a few through the big sticks. A little 200th game 'mongrel' would help his cause, as well. He has the experience to add to our team - not be carried by the team.

Carlton did have some questionable assistance with games from the umpires; this is not to say that they do not have good personnel to manage well under such pleasant conditions. When the going gets tough, I'd expect them - as a full team with isolated talent - to fall by the wayside - and this will not be terribly far in the future.

It is a noun, not transferable to direct verbal modification. Such usage is an embuggerance. As for covid, it is perhaps embuggering our fine players 🙂

A quaint, common little term to describe several thousand minor contradictions to the ideal flows of life and times. There are other descriptors, there are other alternatives; however, this little gem takes me back to the early 1960s when my barber cut my hair a little too short (for the fashions of the field, in those days), leading him to a lexicon of unutterable words in paltry platitudes of apology. 'Embuggerance' as a word, a condition, a state of being leaning to the negative was particularly striking for me and difficult to forget; thus, I began to use it regularly - and so did my susceptible friends. Glad you liked it, chook - thought it might have been edited away for want of a more tasteful alternative but heedless, I took the risk.

The likelihood of covid cases during the week is a major embuggerance to the team, most unsettling, quite unavoidable. It will really test our depth.

Now that would be interesting and very likely to succeed

Feathers, and all.

That has to be some kind of admission of guilt from Weightman?

It has been a wonderful improvement - a sense of belonging to the team - a role to play and to perform that role really well, consistently, confidently, without hesitation. Petty has blossomed within his opportunities. In the words of my father, '...we will get some more if it keeps up...', regarding his current form.

It is a very good point Mono. It would also add diversity to our 'straighter' goal shooting; that diversity might also lead to opposition backs separating, attempting to cover whilst not being in a situation where prediction helps their cause to spoil Demon forwards. It makes better use of our smaller fleet and their skills, not just potential big fellas marking the ball prior to a set shot.

I get canned for it, but bystanding is his main fault - he is brilliantly fed by our forward thrusts but does not lead to better opportunities often enough. He is a beautiful kick for goal but poor on clean possessions that he could win far more frequently to establish a positive trademark.

Our kickling to the pocket is repetitive yet it has proven to be good value and effective so far this season. However, it is quite predicatable now, for the opposition. The talls would benefit from leading to spaces simultaneously, allowing the smalls to gap fill pockets and side-occupy central opposition defences.

Surely not?

He's going to be another Jackson - everything, including consistency - points in that direction but he will be a gun forward in that process.

No doubt about the longer-term effects of officialdom - we are moving to a position of late-adolescence towards adulthood in this regard - and it ain't pleasant for the fee-paying spectators, the players and the evenness of our competition. Righteous time wasters and showmen on the ego run.

There are similarities but I regard our depth as powerfully unique - and a real fortress of continued, pack-leading performances across the season - certainly to finish top two.

Isn't it reprehensible that our game - through the snot goblins - has been reduced to this?

Sure does add to their inconsistencies and so extremely negatively in anticipated, reliable umpiring.

Green came in an actually was rather quiet in form and contribution relative to his past efforts. What did surprise was the form - improving after the early first quarter start - and contribution of Preuss for the GWS team. Big bloke, big reach, big entrance to a melee or two, big reading of the play and the drop of the ball. Across the game, big Preuss earned an assessment as one of the best on the ground for GWS. Good on him, as it, too, has taken some time (of which most of us are familiar).

It seems as though the MFC is no longer wishing to be contacted by members - or return requests to call - but instead, have created virtual firewalls of non-communicative pathways and do not answer the phones within the stated working hours, any day of the week. This is quite intolerable for those who are living outside Melbourne itself. The new Mobile Ticketing for Members is a sham, as well. It fails across its pathways of engagement, meeting dead-ends constructed to avoid Member requests or queries. Has anyone else had this difficulty - I ask because this is the first time that I have been 'brick-walled' by any 'automated' digital platform - it would be interesting to see when (and if) the processes are ameliorated and refined as the benefits of Membership of the MFC are waning rapidly?