Deemania since 56

Hotel at the Adelaide Oval, booked for three nights, stayed one night under protest. Rubbish rooms, rubbish food, rubbish elevators, rubbish receptionist training/development. Great location. Grossly expensive. 200 ml orange juice, propriety brand from the supermarkets - $9.50 - for example. Supermarket price: $1.20 .Here endeth the complaint as it was repetitive - right across the board. Function rooms, empty. Bars and dining rooms, empty. Hotel itself, almost empty. Never again...

It is difficult to forget Ross Dillon. He really was a great forward who sprang from nowhere on the field once we straightened him out by snatching him from South Australia. Combined with Greg Parke (the most consistent mark in a very ordinary team), we had some terrific opportunities yet could not muster winning scores - even though these two tended to dominate the play week in and week out. The two of them really cemented my enthusiasm for the Mighty Dees, as well. As for Liam, we needed to take better care of him as a playing member of the Melbourne Football Club - it may well have assisted him to become the longer-term champion he deserved to be - by golly, he had some skills; it would have been wonderful to see him do it all across a 5-year career (at least) to assist a strengthening team hit the bigtime, earlier. I think we all dreamed that of/for Liam.

Brett Bailey was quite a champion and highly versatile.

As the snow wafted down in the gaslights of the town in fairyland reality, as a young man, I had a very romantic night in Heidelberg and a fabulous breakfast the next morning. Hence, fond memories of my own '...student prince...' experience and Germany, in general, several times.

Fully agree - it was a beauty. It was also protected by TMac in the goal square at the goal line, the epitome of teamwork at its best. That kick nailed it - destroyed the Doggies' backs (who thought that it was covered for a tapped point score).

A fairer go (represented by r-e-s-p-e-c-t) from the AFL, the umpires and most of the selected football commentators. Then, the rest will look after itself - coz we are the greatest!

That moment was footy brilliance. More to come, no doubt.

I really like his upsides, and there are a few of these. In particular, I really like his shots for goal - lengthy, straight as an arrow, great ball spin and wind controls at work, combined with forward leading and position protection against opponents. He also has a bit of height to compete for the marks and taps. Then he has such great pace, take-off, with agile directional variations. I like the lad, more rounded than his dad earlier on, hope he can be navigated into our team.

There is a very great deal to like / love about Max, both as a footballer, a champion at that, and as s bloke who was prepared to put in the hard yards for a few years to be better than initial forecasts and promise. As a Captain of a footy club, he is excelling; as a player he is now (in his category of play - the ruck), beyond legend status in real time. The fans, the team, the coaches all love him and the bias of footy 'experts' such as commentators just have to grin and bear it. His talents are his vanguards for all to see and feel. In the meantime, every time, Max just goes about his business with modesty, composure and humility. His mother and father must be extremely proud of the man that they have created and nurtured. Onyer, Max. There will never be another Max Gawn.

HOW ABOUT TRACCA - BASKETBALL FIRST.

Nicely minimised and fully agree. In the chase for brevity, did you omit/leave out Geelong?

Don't forget Ray Carr's 11-goal effort, just once.

Rather have a Tassy team in the comp than GC Suns.

Yep, 'Hibbs has been a very useful player but is starting to slow a little and his kicking is just a bit short of that previous penetrating/target-bound skillset. He has much to teach. inspire and influence our junior players, including evidence of how to play 'tall' against bigger forwards (perhaps at Casey) at this stage of his 'second' career since joining the Dees from Essendrug. He is a vocal and committed driver at training sessions, highly motivating and courageous. It might be time come next season to replace his noted drive in the AFL team should the sunset in his skills be at hand.

Be great to have him onboard with the Mighty Dees - his presence would heal any rift that may have existed with his Dad on departure - more importantly, he may be a really good footballer (from all accounts) just like his old man, Shane, and we could do with some more of that, surely? As an absolute last resort, he'd be a terrific chewy-packet opener for quarter and three-quarter time breaks within the huddle.

It would be good to see Daw have an intrepid fling into promising contention for a couple of slots in the AFL team.

At the time, both 'slip-aways' to the Saints instead of the Demons were great reliefs. We got the chocolates, as a consequence; and, it was pretty obvious that the Sainter recruiters had virtually no idea with player selections or assessments.

Smith and his recruitment to the Demons - had it occurred - would have been a retrograde step into ' ... wonder if he'll perform this week for four quarters ...' territory.

Tough as nails. Imagine what his effects on a game might be without being bashed every five minutes with umpires not intervening. Same for Big Max.

That is confirmed; a sure way to prevent nasty ball drops.

Tim Lane for me, with assistance from Drew Morphett.

There shall be no rest for most minor transgressions to be re-lived, reviewed, re-rehearsed, re-visited and recompensed with more practice, practice and practice to absolutely iron-out such unrewarding efforts. We shall achieve a GF demolition job next season as occasional mediocrity is inexcuseable. Such 'misses' are evidence that there was something wrong with our linkages at these moments; someone can always be in a better position, maximising (forgive the pun) the certainty of a 6-pointer. Still, across the game, the effort and earned benefits were pretty damn good!

Yes, Danny did it, as well later in the fixtures.

Agreed. Gus, once was - and it was not too long ago - a great shot at goal (on the run) but his GF effort(s) was terrific. As for BT's comments, we are left wondering why we bother to listen to his commentary, at all. Yes, he was a good forward; I still remember his sprint at Rodney the Grinter with the intent of flattening him. Grinter merely bent down and tossed him over the top of a neck hold, flat on his back onto the ground. Embarassing for BT and he had a very quiet day as a cosequence. That is the kind of onfield judgment (and less-than-desirable input to commentary these days) that BT exhibits. Anyway, Gus is a champ, a cool dude, a clever footballer and it's great to see him 'coming back' albeit 'out-of-position'' (coz he's one of the few with the talent to so do. Carna Dees.

Yep, they would still be firing, taking the un-takeables, splitting the big sticks with everything they aimed at, no matter the distance.