Monbon

So Jackson is a better ruckman that Gawn this year: it seems to me that clowns and men with limited mental capacity rule the world these days.

5 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

That would change the game so much I would prefer to stick with the current rules and system, flaws and all. 

More than an eternity. Noah predates Jerusalem...which, if it had existed at that time, would have been underwater, anyway. 

Is that the Noel the Angels did sing when Santa Klaus delivers my electric train set to the wrong address every friggin year?

What a season this has been. Topsies and Turvies, periods where bottom sides have seriously challenged Top sides, the many close calls, the many askew outcomes.

Looking at the Demons until Round 22, the biggest losing margin was against Essendon in Round 5 - 27 points, the second worst 15 points against Geelong at the Fortified Monte Cassino once called Kardinia park where I was called for chucking in a Sub District Seconds match in 1967, the others by less than 11 points.

The sides which have beaten us by less than a goal include Carlton and GWS when we scored 5.15 and Port Adelaide in the rain in their home fixture.

We have played side which have played exceptionally well on their days - Sunday's game against the Hawks was such a game - but we have managed to hold on and 'Overcome'. 

By the way, it seems to me that the Hawks are not far away from rapid rise up the ladder.

I'm glad Geelong have been found out as a bunch of Geriatrics who got very lucky in 2022.

We'll see what happens in Sydney on Sunday. Bring on David Schwartz...

.

6: Lever

5: Rivers

4: Melksham

3:Viney

2: Langdon

1: ANB.

Sorry, May...

1 hour ago, Stiff Arm said:

I can see with my own 4 eyes, he's definitely HOLDING THE BALL': SEE....

The Adelaide Fiasco is a bloody disgrace to the game called AFL. That two weeks in a row, teams can lose because of serious mistakes by either the goal umpire, or the so-called 'Replay' system, in Adelaide's case costing it engagement in a Finals Series is a catastrophic blight - as though there ain't enough already - on everything the AFL stands for. 

And then, for the CEO of this Fantasyland called AFL, to admit a serious mistake had been made and offer no redress to the victim of what can only be called an atrocity, makes me shake my head and ask myself, Why bother following a game which is so loaded with injustice.

Think about it: 

A. How often do the E Colli Wobblers play interstate?

B. Ditto Geelong.

C. The irrationality of the Fixtures, rational only from economic points of view.

D. The fact that Fixtures are NOT based on fairness in that the Draw is staggered; in other words, in each season, each team should either play the same team twice, and if that extends the number of games, the gaps between matches, so bloody well be it. 

E. The irrationality and inconsistency of the outcome of Match Reviews regarding 'Reportable' offences.

D. The changing of the rules, almost as regular as The Changing of The Guard.

E. The fact that 4 umpires is like having 4 Pontuis Pilates, all with different backgrounds, affiliations, viewpoints and whistle capacity.

D. How a boundary umpire can stand next to a ball blatantly  out of bounds, visible to a whole effing arena apart from the umpire's myopia, and for play to be allowed to continue?

E. How certain teams are allowed to throw the ball instead of 'handpassing' when there are so-called Laws forbidding the practice?

F. How come there is a set of rules which an umpire can either overlook or ignore if and when it suits them? All bloody 4 of them!

I could go on...

On 8/18/2023 at 1:22 PM, whatwhat say what said:

starting following footy in 84 or so, so i am more than a little similar to you...

B: Alan Johnson - Steven May - Jake Lever
HB: Brett Lovett - David Neitz - Aaron Davey
C: Robbie Flower - Christian Petracca - Steven Tingay
HF: Garry Lyon - David Schwarz - Kozi Pickett
F: Bayley Fritsch - Alan Jakovich - Jeff Farmer
Foll: Max Gawn - Clayton Oliver - Jack Viney
I/c: Nathan Jones - Jim Stynes - Todd Viney - Adem Yze
Sub: Brad Green
Emerg: Steve Febey - James McDonald - Jeff White

Davey HBF?????

No way: he replaces Fritsch and in comes Febey as HBF.

3 hours ago, Deespicable said:

Love the concept and yes it's hard for most Demonlander youngsters to pass comments on some of the club greats and I only feel comfortable going back to 1972 as my series nearly two years ago outlined -

The snub of Brett Lovett is extraordinary, although I suspect he will be listed among the midfielders. He shouldn't be because he made a name for himself as a defender and had been at the club for four years before he was switched into more midfield roles, usually as a classy negater.

Angus Brayshaw by contrast began as a mid, played as a wingman in our flag-winning season, and has only now had two years as a defender, albeit with more than a handful of games back in the middle recently and a handful last year as well.

The snub of Danny Hughes is also a bit farcicial - he was fullback in our second most successful era since 1964. He was tough, a thumping kick - a real meat and potatoes player that as has been mentioned, spanked Brian Taylor at Collingwood several times. But a few have forgotten that he was a tad slow, you may recall that John Northey was so worried about him playing on Jason Dunstall in the 1988 grand final that he reconfigured our entire line-up - sending wingman Stephen Stretch to play on him initially.

But Danny is still right up there in our best 10 defenders of all-time I reckon - although I think now Steven May has played enough games for us to say that he qualifies as our greatest ever full back.

Another amazing snub is Don Williams, who my father always told me was the best defender he'd seen and the real key in our Norm Smith era with his pace, marking and kicking. Maybe whoever came up with this list is so old and grumpy that they still didn't like the fact that he headed to Perth in 1960.

Tony Sullivan would be a bit miffed too I reckon - he was dour, but ever reliable as were Barry Bourke and Frank Davis, not to mention Laurie Fowler who had treechunk legs but was tough as they come and won best-and-fairests in an era when Robbie was overlooked most times because he was injured for part of the season.

Alan Johnson spent his first five injury-riddled season as a wingman, but once he moved to back pocket he changed the prototype because of his dash and skill so I am comfortable with that classification and he is a walk-up start for our back six. By contrast Graeme Yeats really only became a star in 1987 when he was moved to the wing.

Jake Lever might go past Gary Hardeman in the next two years, but so far his superb 2021 has only been interspersed with the occasional amazing intercept marking games. Gary was a wonky kick, but he was a fast, marking back in the 70s, just behind Peter Knights in the overall scheme of best CHB in the league in his era. So Hardeman still gets the nod, but I am happy to review this in two years time.

No-one here would have seen Don Cordner play, but all reports from back then have him playing primarily in the ruck and his quality clearly was supreme - he won a Brownlow Medal after all. But as with our centenary team, it's hard to get him a spot as a ruckman because that's possible our strongest position - Gawn, Stynes, White, Strawb to name but a few.

So clearly the panellists who chose these names wanted to get him in somewhere, as they did in the Centenary team.

The record of Noel McMahon (captain in flag years of 55 and 56) and Tassie Johnson also are impressive and both are worth of consideration on that fact alone.

But for me, I'd be happy with the following back six:

B: Johnson, May, Wight

HB: B.Lovett, Hardeman, Williams

But I reckon Tassie and Noel McMahon probably deserve gigs more based on records and as a result I'd leave out Wight and make Brett Lovett one of my interchange choices. 

  

Love your post: especially the Don Williams, Fowler, Tas Johnson and Sullivan bits.

I also understand Fowler played a lot of his Melbourne games as a centreman?

Brian Roet, Tony Anderson, Beckwith, Leahy, Lovett, S.Febey, Case, Thorogood, etc. Whoever came up with the names on this List is obviously from another planet.

What happened? No show for over a fortnight now. Not that it was always interesting....

6: Viney

5: Gawn

4: Pickett

3: Hunter

2: Petracca

1: Rivers

40 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

I had a big luncheon at the Cosmo in Trentham with disgraced Demonlander Biffen.

Of course , ! had to pay - FMD !

Not sure how I got back to The Manor but I've put a shiltoad on the dogs .

Und, vass has happened to Biffen I miss his bulldust, it equalled mine. Send him my regards, he'll remember me - we played cricket against each other one day at Elsternwick park - he played in the same team as Pierre Mitchell!

A great game of footy. Richmond are a good team.

Some thoughts:

Our Mister Jones is a very boring commentator. I also got annoyed when he said there was nothing in it' when 3 Richmond players manhandled Gawn as JVR was about to take his kick - the last bump in particular was totally unnecessary.. 

Richmond played with more aggression than Melbourne.

I think our weak links at the moment are Jordon, Woewodin, amd Harmes. Woewodin will improve, but the other two are limited.

Tomlinson was a liability on the day. Surely Smith is the man.

Pickett's first quarter when he started in the centre was great. The bottom line is that when Melbourne play as well down the corridors as they did yesterday, players like Chandler and Pickett, out on the edge of the paddock, can't be so effective because the ball is always flying over them. 

Salem, McVee and Bowey and Rivers are such good defenders.

Brayshaw was great.

Landon and Hunter have been two great acquisitions.

Bring on Clayton O.

Great games from Lever and May.

Isn't Dusty a great footballer?

4 minutes ago, Swooper1987 said:

Just picked up another 10 coaches votes as well.  That makes him the highest polling ruck so far this year - now 7 ahead of English!

I'm worried about his left eye. He certainly got bashed around again. Great game. 

6: gawn

5: petty

4: petracca

3: Viney

2: Melksham

1: Rivers.

37 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

5 votes for ANB is egregious. Eight of his 22 possessions were turnovers.

Do better.

Sacre Bleu: you do better. Week in, week out he's on the front line where mistakes are made. He's not Dustin Martin, he's ANB who busts his guts for the MFC.

This is mot meant as disparagement of either, however, I saw some footage on You Tube tonight where Kelvin kicked his 15th!!!! goal at the Whitten Oval back in whenever, and we all recall Ben Brown's great feats as a Roo Forward. The bottom line, is that though both played great games for the Demons - BB kicked 3 in the '21 Grand Final - and much as I respect and loved them both as human beings, we 'scored' them when both were at the injury-prone twilight of their good times. I have nothing but respect for both, and empathize with the expectations we placed on both.  I hope Kelvin is doing as well as he deserves to be, and I wish the heartfelt same to BB when he retires, presumably at the end of 2023.

23 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Not impressed by what JVR has done this year?

Sunday's game was probably his best. He ricked well when Gawn took a break and he took a few contested marks. The lad will be good....

JVR showed more signs on Sunday than he has for weeks: he's more valuable than Brown.

I'd prefer Melksham to Spargo, much as I love Spargo: he's simply one small too many at the moment. 

The really unlucky Miss Out would be Tomlinson. He hasn't played a bad game, played more good ones than Petty.

Then again, these are decisions good teams are forced to make when it counts.

6: Viney

5: Pickett

4: Gawn

3: Langdon

2: Rivers

1: Chan

5 hours ago, Demonland said:

Tracc still holds a huge lead. Jack Viney has overhauled Clarrie to take second place.

Progressive Demonland Player of the Year 2023

199. Christian Petracca 
141. Jack Viney 
127. Clayton Oliver 
72. Max Gawn 
65. Steven May 
61. Angus Brayshaw 
50. Trent Rivers 
48. Jake Lever 
45. Lachie Hunter
43. Christian Salem 
40. Brodie Grundy 
37. Kysaiah Pickett 
27. Jake Bowey 
26. Ed Langdon 
25. Tom Sparrow 
23. Judd McVee
19. Bayley Fritsch 
18. Kade Chandler
9. Ben Brown
8. Charlie Spargo  
7. Jake Melksham  Alex Neal-Bullen 
6. Jacob van Rooyen 
5. Tom McDonald
4. Michael Hibberd 
3. James Jordon Adam Tomlinson
1. Harry Petty 
 

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

We saw the return of Danger Zone™ where Melbourne totally take the foot off the gas when a 30 point margin is reached.

Concerning.

As their coach Mr Nicks pointed out post game, they thought they had our measure for much of the game: in other words, it's not always about feet and gas, it usually involves the level of commitment and competence of the opposition. We won a tightly contested game. As we did last week, as most good sides do. The other factor is that in the games we've lost the margins were shall we say rather slim...

26 minutes ago, Smokey said:

I can confirm this. I was born in Adelaide and last night I was looking for my phone for a good 2 minutes while holding it. 

I've done that looking for my glasses...yes, and phone. I think it depends also on what part of Adelaide...

11 hours ago, daisycutter said:

on their day they look really good .... on another day they look so meh

their supporters ... perennially meh

Yes, Crows are all about meh meh meh - possibly because too many are of German descent and don't know how to spell ME. ( Hopefully, the same doesn't apply to you. You certainly don't look German...)