Neil Crompton

I must be missing something (probably just dumb), but i cannot see how the 666 rule is going to change things too much at all. At the centre bounce, aren't there still only 8 players in the square? And won't the wings still run in as they used to? possibly from the rear of the square now, as the extra man back used to do? If this hasn't changed, where will the impact be, at least in the square? Also, i don't see how a man-on-man forward and backline at the bounce will cause crowding. Can someone smarter than me please explain this?

Sorry, just the on-line discussion that occurred following your last reply, and my posting of your response.

This is a significant change in Demonland thinking since April 2018 - where it seemed every man and his dog was calling for his head (with a few notable exceptions like Moony and wiseblood). So if we have a slow start this year, or a significantly bad loss, I hope we can all keep some perspective and remember last year. Our time to shine will be September. There will be some slippage along the way, but as long as we keep building to peak come Spring, i will be a happy man.

since the "publicity" have subscriber memberships increased from the 280 previously quoted?

Attitude? I would have thought excitement that, after about 5 months, out team is playing football again! Finally something to watch, and something concrete to base our analysis on. It’s going to be a special year, so excitement is the attitude i’m taking.

Won a “premiership”

Prediction for Port. Jack Watts to be in top 5 in B&F this year.

Sorry CF. I might be wrong but I can’t think of too many big men (194+) in our squad that are better than him “below their knees”.

Hi Andrew - this site is a great initiative, happy to help keep it going. By the way, how many Demonlanders are there, and how many are actually subscribers?

For someone who has come from a basketball background and who has only played 11 AFL games, i think Joel Smith is doing extremely well. Both his skill level and his "footy smarts" should come with more experience. If these elements come along to the same level as his defensive skills and his athleticism, I think he could end up a gun mid field player one day.

FMD, i put $100 on demons to win 2019 premiership yesterday - and you come out with a comment like that today! Now i have to try and get my money back.

Nice piece of work ProDee. The only selection I'd question at this early stage is Hunt - as much as I'd like for him to be there, he may have to earn his spot again. Joel Smith i think will get a gig before him initially - not sure what position though.

On the basis of an earlier post, I'd like to see the MFC make a stand and boycott this competition on the basis that one of the teams has been picked solely on the basis of race, while none of the other teams have. In this day and age of inclusion and racial tolerance, we should not be seen to be promoting race as a point of difference. I am really strongly opposed to this concept. If it had been a state of origin basis, as others have said, then ok - it would still be a [censored], but ok.

In this enlightened day and age, where “inclusion” and racial tolerance is supposed to be the norm, why is the AFL engineering a competition where one team is solely based on race and none of the other teams are? Either all teams are based on ethnic background, or none are. How do the AFL expect to cut out racial taunts from spectators at games, when it’s the AFL who are promoting race as a point of difference with idiotic competitions like this? Just another example of how poorly run and how out of touch our AFL leaders are.

Didn’t think they’d be allowed in the lodge

Haha. This from a man pretending to be a woman.

Totally agree TPF39. I only wish I knew about this site when I was an expat. Spent about 7 years in the AFL wasteland of the Middle East. The time difference mostly meant you couldn’t watch live, and even if you could the internet was [censored]; the weekends being Friday and Saturday meant Sunday games were out, and the min 48 hour working week didn’t leave much time or energy for replays. But a demon blog site would have been great. Gratefully back in Aus now.

We are paying C’wood to use Gosch’s?

Freaky up until 2018. All good things come to an end. 2019 is the year of the red and blue.

Does anyone know how many Demonlanders we have?

You may be right. I’m not going to argue the point simply because I don’t know. I’d just be surprised if that were true. Anyway, merry Christmas.

Of course not Redleg. I just wouldn’t have expected such an emphatic statement to have come from Goodwin, given the straight shooter he is, if the opposite were true. If there were other issues, I would have expected rumours to that effect to have emerged long before the trade period. While there has always been rumours about him going back to WA, I’ve certainly never heard of any other issues. Clubs are generally not good at keeping secrets on behaviour issues for long periods.

I have no “inside info” at all to base my comments on, yet I can fully understand from Godwin’s perspective that if Hogan could not commit long term to the MFC, then he had to go. However to insinuate that there were other reasons for trading him would fly in the face of comments Goodwin made before the trade period that “ Jesse loves Melbourne and Melbourne loves Jesse. He’s going nowhere”. I just don’t think Goodwin is the type of guy to not call a spade a spade. But like I said, I don’t have any inside info to back this up. whatever the story really is, and despite the fact that he is playing for Freo, I hope he is now content and is able to reach the full potential of his abilities - just not against us.

If Jetta were injured I'd like to see Nathan Jones given a chance back there. I think he could last a bit longer at the club in that role.

In the dying seconds of the last quarter of the 2019 grand final, Nev leaves his man, races down field, steamrolls Dusty, picks up the ball and nails a snap from the forward flank to put us in front for the first time - and then the siren sounds.