Mel Bourne

I’m not going to buck the trend here. I absolutely loathe the songs after goals. But I’ll go a step further and say that I believe they’re actually a serious problem. During the prelim last year, one thing I found bewildering was how quiet the Demons fans were throughout the match. I was firmly of the opinion that the PA-spew after each goal was sapping the onus out of the supporters to make the required noise, which gives the players that extra charge. Once all the music/SFX malarkey died down, it just left a strangely muted crowd who’s literal thunder had been stolen. From a purely-tactical position, it’s a disadvantage, and a f****ng annoying one at that. While on the topic, the club has persisted using the intro to “Enter Sandman” while they players are warming up. It just plays on a loop. Bit lame, but whatever, it’s fine. Except the freakin’ loop sounds like it was cut by somebody who works in the marketing department. Every eight bars it just jarringly-lurches back to the start again on the completely-wrong beat. It does my head in. @WalkingCivilWarYou might have the connections to get this message through, but I’ll happily provide the club with a better version of this if they want it. Nobody will probably care but me, but it’ll be a massive personal victory.

Well for a start, you’d have to ask several million people. But as somebody who has personally lost more people to drugs than I care to count, I am not exactly of the opinion that the War On Drugs was ever fighting on their behalf. The majority of people I’ve known who died from overdose or prolonged usage had a troubled past (invariably involving violence or other forms of abuse at a young age). For them, drugs provided relief and periods of time when their lives weren’t fraught, fearful or any other form of “unbearable” (yes, this was of course a ‘band-aid’ solution, but have you not noticed how ineffective modern society has been in providing an alternative?). The War On Drugs saw and continues to see and treat people like these as the enemy. It has always sought to vilify the drug-user, rather than view them as the group it was trying to help. The prisons are clogged with drug-users, while the ones doing the most damage are not only roaming free, but occasionally doing so with the assistance of the US government (there are countless substantiated accounts of the CIA giving green lights to Sinaloan, Panamanian, Venezuelan and Afghan drug operations in exchange for information, kickbacks and the like). No, I can’t speak for all of the people you mention. Not one individual ever could. But if they were to all know the truth behind the War On Drugs, I strongly suspect that most would feel horrifically betrayed by it. A single case in point: in the late nineties I had four friends die from heroin overdose. These four were what is known as “dabblers” - very occasional users. They led productive, respectable and respectful lives (you’d be surprised how many do). They died because the purity of the heroin that was coming to Australia suddenly went rapidly up. They took their regular hit and were dead within minutes. That’s the black market for you. And while there is a “war” against it, that’s what the drug industry will continue to be until the world boils. So what, eliminate the need for drugs entirely? Well, it seems to me that until you eliminate stress, poverty, violence, depression, corruption and a whole lot of other undesirable aspects of daily life that drive many to seek refuge in the only place they can find it, it ain’t gonna happen.

The War On Drugs was and will continue to be an epic failure, so I’m not sure why the people you mention would have a problem with it being discontinued, unless they have a penchant for wasting taxpayer money (the USA alone has spent over one trillion dollars on this “war” so far with nothing to show for it) and lining the pockets of drug cartels and militant groups. Drugs - be they medically/societally approved or otherwise - are here to stay. So the only way to combat the negative aspects of this are to look deeply into why people take them, and try to address those issues.

I had no idea how many wowsers were on Demonland.

A few kgs? From his face? I had no idea his face was that fat.

A high-functioning forward line, with accurate and confident delivery to said forward line.

The very same. They hold the Guinness World Record for the highest score in an official game of Australian Rules football when they defeated Primrose in 1992. 100 - 34 - 634 Primrose somehow scored 18 points. I’ve often tried to imagine how that even happened, and what that match must have looked like.

24 goals in one game. Did he play for the Campbells Creek Magpies? (bonus point for anybody who gets that joke).

Yeah, this aligns very much with my take on Nibbler. There’s no questioning his commitment, passion and athleticism. Needs to balance out that heart and soul with a bit more brain.

It’s hard to define what a ‘breakout year’ constitutes, exactly. Just being largely improved? Cementing your place in the top 22 for the next few seasons? Or is it “getting the whole league talking” kinda territory? Kysaiah Pickett is on the precipice of genuine AFL stardom, but his inconsistency is the one thing keeping him from taking the leap. Hoping he starts stitching matches together, then we’ll see a spectacular breakout. Along with Sparrow, Rivers, Petty and Bowey you have a list of players all with a premiership to their name and all 22 years of age or younger. It’s genuinely exciting to think that all five players could have huge years in ‘23.

Take some comfort from Leonard Cohen… “You start off irresistible. And, then you become resistible. And then you become transparent – not exactly invisible but as if you are seen through old plastic. Then you actually do become invisible. And then — and this is the most amazing transformation — you become repulsive. But that’s not the end of the story. After repulsive then you become cute – and that’s where I am.”

I always return to “Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)”. It’s got such a dark, subterranean mood throughout, and just drops you into their world. It’s the “Exile On Main St” of hip-hop.

Ok at some point this thread’s name needs to be changed to “Demonland Record Corner”.

Wow! What was the project?

I produce records for a living and to hear somebody say that The Beatles are "uninteresting" is like a scientist being told that Galileo was a bit "samey".