Monbon

No-one's talking about 'nice'. I'm talking about a game that has been forced bit by bit to rescue itself from a very violent history. Just as the Dippers, Leigh Mathews and Don Scotts and Dermies, and other fundamental violent on-field criminals have been weeded out - mainly because the VFL/AFL could no longer afford the monetary repercussions - it's also time to remove the other legalized acts of violence and thuggery to protect those who simply want to play a sport called AFL. Just about every other code has removed the risk to life, limb and organs, when will the AFL follow suit????? Or maybe, you just like sticking your knees into another human being who happens to play for an opposing 'sporting team'?

To me that's the definition of thuggery. You're saying it's okay to use your knee as an offensive weapon. ...

I recall when my father - a soccer player who played in a German POW side against the Poms in front of King Farooq, the Poms won because the referee was a Pom - was coming to terms with Aussie Rules. He taught himself to jump, mark, and kick everything but a drop kick. Anyhow, one thing he could never understand or come to terms with is precisely the 'part of the game' that badly injured Petracca. He could never understand how kneeing someone in any part of the back to 'take a mark' could be part of any sport. He put it down to the DNA of British ancestry, where anything goes as long as you 'win'.

It has been a totally topsy-turvy season for most of last year's finalists. Sydney is the only team that has played consistent footy. Collingwood is struggling, Geelong lost by a huge margin against the Suns, then another three in a row, and Brisbane is in nowhere land, so take heart Demon fans - we are not Robinson Crusoes. Yes, we have been hamstrung by losing Brayshaw and Smith - when oh when will that suspension be clarified - and Brown, Hunter, Billing, Macadam and Fullarton have not shaped up, and neither has the injury-prone Petty. The woes extend to Casey which has hardly been able to field a full-strength team due to Emergencies being sent interstate etc and a lack of available Listed players, but in the meantime, Melbourne has played some good footy this year as well. I haven't read most of the Woe is We stuff that has been posted: I simply note that there is a tendency among Demonlanders to always see any cup or glass as less than half full. I also note that many here among you first stone casters, to coin a biblical phrase, seem to know much more about footy than anyone currently employed either as a coach or recruiter at the MFC. As they also say, life, and a season, is many days. Have faith and if things get awrier, then as they say in the navy, Sailor Vee...

It has been a totally topsy-turvy season for most of last year's finalists. Sydney is the only team that has played consistent footy. Collingwood is struggling, Geelong lost by a huge margin against the Suns, then another three in a row, and Brisbane is in nowhere land, so take heart Demon fans - we are not Robinson Crusoes. Yes, we have been hamstrung by losing Brayshaw and Smith - when oh when will that suspension be clarified - and Brown, Hunter, Billing, Macadam and Fullarton have not shaped up, and neither has the injury-prone Petty. The woes extend to Casey which has hardly been able to field a full-strength team due to Emergencies being sent interstate etc and a lack of available Listed players, but in the meantime, Melbourne has played some good footy this year as well. I haven't read most of the Woe is We stuff that has been posted: I simply note that there is a tendency among Demonlanders to always see any cup or glass as less than half full. I also note that many here among you first stone casters, to coin a biblical phrase, seem to know much more about footy than anyone currently employed either as a coach or recruiter at the MFC. As they also say, life, and a season, is many days. Have faith and if things get awrier, then as they say in the navy, Sailor Vee...

Did. Before the Coburg game I'd made 39 against Preston, holed out when my mother appeared on the verandah of our house in Selwyn Street - home ground was Selwyn Park - to let me know I had to come home for my cousin's wedding. I'd made over 360 runs in the under 16's the year before - and opened the bowling - including top scores in both the Semi and Grand Finals, and because my Second 11 captain hated my guts, I batted at 9 or 10. I recall that a dude who'd made 41 runs for the season in the under 16's that same year - I made 41 not out in the second innings of the Semi - made a score in the 3rds and when Il Capitano put the batting order up against Williamstown, he was number 4 and I was number 10. He made SFA, I made 14 Not out...I quit. The next year I rang Wildsmith the Coach of the club who did like me, when I heard they were short of players and said I'll come back if I play as a batsman. I top-scored in the first match as an opener in the seconds - my normal position - and spent the rest of pre Christmas in the Firsts.

Played sub-district cricket there: got given out LBW and the bowler approached me after the game during 'drinks' and said,' Hey, sorry, that was a [censored] decision by the umpire...' The next week - it was second 11 - my captain demoted me to number 9. I asked why he said, 'You had your chance last week'....

I used to face his grandad in the nets at Sunshine Cricket Club when he was a long tall gangly Leggie and I don't think I ever got a bat to ball - I was 14... I am so proud of this connection regarding the wee little piglet whose name starts with M... The irony is, of course, the wee little piglet who tried to kill a certain Mister Brayshaw in a footy match got a 'well done' slap on the lobotomy from his teammates for attempted murder, and Darcy will probably get 10 weeks on the insistence of the RSPCA for harming a member of the animal species.

6: Gawn 5: McDonald 4: Viney 3: Tomlinson 2: Petracca 1: Salem

Or, How an elephant got into my pajamas I'll never know. (Groucho Marx.)

Pity I hate him...

This is THE appalling one: just as the replay proves May touched it, the fri..ing umpire is bouncing the ball in the centre.

How original...

I learned to hate dogs when I was a postie; especially shepherds of the Germanic variety. in late 2019 our daughter 'made' us acquire a 'Family Dog', a Swiss White Shepherd. They are the most beautiful dogs in de whirl...

I used to deliver his mail in hawthorn: he was a copper.

Korney Cain nominated his six best or most important, whatever, players of the round and guess what, there's no Lever or May. Tsk tsk...

Watched the replay today. These are random observations: That Melbourne backline: Wow. Geelong are a very talented side. They would have destroyed any other side on yesterday's showing. Felt sorry for the likes of Chandler in that in the first quarter, he was there and applying pressure and getting hold of a few. There are games like this, where the play passes over your head, or ends up always on the other wing or side. Stats at the end of the game don't reflect your actual worth. Chandler gave 100% all night - as did all the others. To back this up, I thought Van R and Turner did their 'job' last night, though Stat-wise, their contributions look minimal. Billing looks out of sorts. I feel for him. The bottom line is that Cameron etc kicked straight in the last quarter...Then again, had we kicked straight in the third quarter, game over. We played some good, strong footy - as did Geelong. In the end, our defenders beat Geelong. WTF was Scott talking about???? I loved Pickett's game, ditto Fritsch and Petty. I've learned to not criticize players' performances. They are busting a gut to win. And to those who always find fault or look at the downside, I wonder how many games they've played.

6: Lever 5: Gawn 4: May 3: McDonald 2: Langdon 1: Windsor

I avoid both like I avoid untermenschen who reckon Brayshaw ran into poor Maynard.

Funny, I never, ever watched them.

Nein, mein herr, mensch as a Yiddish term has been around long before the Balfour Declaration. And, just for the record, nobody hates US so-called 'Cultural Imperialism' and everything it stands for more than me.

Ya, however, on the other hand, as the dialogue goes, when three Jewish people get together, and you get four opinions - it's one of the things I love about - it's not all about the Sch part of Scheißkerl. There are also, shall we call them the fallow periods, or when one wishes to recite the Lord's Prayer - a great example of Tautology, mind you - 'Give us this day our daily that word beginning with sch' When it happens, finally, after 4 or 5 days, is when I have the Damascus Moments, a la Saul of Tarsus, and I believe in de Lord!

Thank you for your birthday wishes. I agree with you 150% about the Cripps incident. I'll bet my bottom dollar that Clarrie had a difficult time growing up, that he was picked on. I recall an ex North player whose Beechworth winery I represented, telling me that Clarrie was 'Trouble' when Melbourne recruited him. Now, let's just say, because of where I came from in July 1956 when we landed at Port Melbourne on the good ship Fairsea, I got picked on. These incidents beyond one's control stay with you for the rest of your life. At the time it's happening, you are forced to 'deal with the real' and make the best of it. I'm not relating this as a sob story, I am trying to make a point that as survivors of those 'facts of life', people like Clarrie choose to behave with true compassion for the rest of their lives, something I recognize, because I chose to take this option as well. In other words, it taught me about the true meaning of, I am you and you are me.

He came from the wild west of Colac region so he was either a German of a Wend or a Sorb. You could just call yourself a mensch if you originate from that part of Europe.