Fanatique Demon

Not going to list the many ways this virus is affecting me and my family, nor going to make any political comments. However, I am grateful to have a comfortable home, enough to eat and some footy to watch. Most generations have suffered far more than mine. Time to act as a real community, starting right here.

Can't access this HS article.

Could be, DC. To distinguish between school clubs, then the word would be independent, not professional

Surely the word "professional" isn't part of our claim to fame. No way it was a professional club from its beginnings.

And who says winning with an asterisk in 2020 means we couldn't win again in 2021, 2022, etc? GO FOR IT!

Hore... and then he gives away a free kick. I am not surprised by club's lack of support for Hore. He isn't up to it. If in doubt, watch his games from last year again and see how many mistakes he made.

If Salem really has glandular fever, he won't play.

I agree Mickey. (But I think the saying goes, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating".)

So we'd make the 8 if the game was 5 per side?

It was actually 30 seconds. It just felt like 3 minutes.

Brown before Weid, please. And I can't understand the knock on Oscar or the praise for Hore.

Ah, thank you!

Thanks, but I'm none the wiser. I'm French and living in France so it might be something I missed somewhere.

I don't understand the Kent Kingsley reference. Anyone?

The only certainty I know is that it's "shoo-in" not shoe in.

Gawn

Yes, watching them was a form of torture. I did it for a couple of reasons. First, I was ill and stuck in bed for a few days so I had the time. Second, I wanted to see the games without the emotion that comes when watching them live. I found that we were a long way off it. Yes, injuries to key players and the interrupted pre-season were key factors in our failure. But be Yong that... we were beaten over the back too often, just like we were in the early games of 2018. (How they hadn't fixed that over the last pre-season is a mystery to me.) Frost was not the great backman many consider. That Hore is miles away from being an AFL player. That Oliver was great at getting the ball but terrible disposing of it with short handballs to teammates who were under pressure. That Brayshaw seemed disinterested. That Jones often looked past it. That we quickly ran out of steam. That the midfield didn't run. That most of our new boys, Sparrow, Lockhart, Dunkley need to improve enormously to have an impact. That Weideman (when he played) just doesn't get the ball enough. That Gawn and Petracca were great after a slow start to the season. I could go on, but you might have stopped reading by now. If we were, say, 20% off the pace last year, and other teams improve 5% on 2019, we'll need to improve by at least 25% to succeed in 2020. Here's hoping.

I recently watched all of last year's Melbourne games again. That was painful. I came away thinking that it's going to take a lot more than we're doing or have done to turn it around. Are we the only ones who recruited a couple of players from other clubs? Or took quality young players from the draft? Other clubs have done the same or better. Sure, we should be fitter this year and hopefully have fewer injuries, but other clubs won't have stood still. I really want to believe we'll perform, but we will just have to wait and see. As for the video, why reinforce failure? Because unless we do return from hell, that's all it will be doing.

Oliver Harmes Petracca Gawn

Jetta Harmes Viney Gawn

Geoff Leak was an Essendon player. The Geelong Flyer was Bob Davis, i think.

Oops, should that be Hore?

Can't see Hoare in best 22. Recently watched 2019 game replays and saw him give away too many free kicks and goals. He would need to improve dramatically. Right now, I'm thinking that if we need one of Oscar and Hoare, I'm going with Oscar.

The aim was to hear others' opinions on whether we really have a decent list. If we can't find players on our list who'd get a game in the top teams, what hope do we have? As for already answering my own question, no, I don't think just Max and Clarrie would make the other teams. Now, I'm trying to put this politely... Maybe it's not so much a case of answering my own question as someone else not understanding its intent.

In 2019 we had one All Australian. In fact, Max Gawn was the only Demon in the squad of 40. Max (22) and Clayton Oliver (23) were our only two players in the AFL Fantasy top 50. Champion Data says we have one elite player (easy to guess), six above average and 12 average players. So just thinking about the quality of our list, who do we have that would be in the best 22 of 2019's Preliminary Finalists? That is, which Melbourne plays would actually get a game at Richmond, GWS, Geelong or Colllingwood, assuming injury-free lists? Maybe you want to submit a team showing where Melbourne players would fit into those Prelim Finals teams.