Hellfire Dub

Someone has drunk too many Bevos QBD. The only reason Bevo should be taking over is if this cold snap deepens sharply and our Demon Hell has frozen over.

Did Preuss ever play in a match alongside Big Maxy?

Because we are consistently doing the "learnings"

Related to the article and not the author: At one of the games earlier this year before the bad losses, I was so frustrated at what I was seeing I resorted to shouting out from the stand "Max can't do it all on his own". That's how it felt for a lot of the game. He'd pop up in Defence and then moments later he was marking up the field. That level of effort was nowhere near uniform and in contrast to the rest of the team Max's powerful performance looked like Demonic possession . It was really frustrating for us fans to watch him battling so bravely and it wasn't the only game he'd have felt like that. I'm not sure if being a Demon fan is a toxic relationship, but it is really frustrating. We're all seeking perfection in our football club, so that's only destined to drive us mad. This preseason and Season so far with Gus, Smith, Clarry, injuries, losses, confused game plan and players have been far from perfect. It's really important in the short term that we arrest that slide in performance before it becomes really damaging. There are longer term frustrations too that are probably more corrosive to culture. I think the biggest of these is the enduring failure to secure a proper home base within a reasonable distance from the MCG. I say this as someone who loves the club and wishes for the best. If I was a player choosing between clubs I wouldn't be attracted by the prospect of commuting daily to a far flung outer suburb like Casey with occasional days at AAMI and a lovely oval with no facilities beside a busy highway at Gosch's. I think getting the home base sorted is key to the club's long term identity and pride.

I wrote this in the post game thread last night, but it really belongs in this thread instead.

It's so painful to see us kick 6:15 and that hateful team kick 14:5. Poor old Petty with twelve touches and zero score. We've carried him for weeks for some reason I can't fathom and effectively been a man down all game. It's starting to look like cruelty. Then you have Billings, Chandler, Laurie all 0.0. and Turner 0.1. I think our coaches think they're tactical geniuses who can do stuff that's never historically worked for anyone else and somehow make it work for us. The Grundy thing was wishful thinking, but the recurring effort to turn alright full backs into key forwards is just bizarre. Why do we persist with the forward coaching setup that is clearly not delivering? Many of our players are poor kicks but great competitors so why suddenly try to have them avoid all contest and force them to play some over elaborate version of the beautiful game? All around the field we keep kicking or handpassing the ball to opposition players and killing ourselves with demoralising turnover goals. The past couple of years we just needed to stop butchering the ball out of midfield and bombing it long to outnumbered contests. I thought we could keep most of the rest of the game and just lower our eyes to players who should be making leads - like natural forwards would do instinctively unlike converts from full back. I don't rate Longmuir as a coach and think he often looks out of his depth but then I look at the humiliation he engineered for us last week. What does that say about our coach. I was never convinced about the merits of our coach, but I think he's an absolute liability since Yze went. 22 and 23 were hard years watching us play, even during the games we won, but there's no tactical nous or in-game strategic responses. I wish we'd elevated Yze (or someone else) instead, because SG was a known quantity and apart from the flag I always felt he underperformed. At the moment we're not even competitive we're embarassing. I'm a fair person and don't like having a go at the man, but as a competitor you have to hope he'd be honest enough to admit he's not doing a great job, or that he's not going about it the right way. I'm pessimistic about the rest of the season and future years under him. At least if the coaching situation changed we could try to restore some spirit and pride in the team and play some enjoyable competitive football, rather than repeating the same mistakes. I fear there will be an exodus of players through retirement and frustration. From my background playing Gaelic Football, Rugby and even over 35s over here I feel like some players are lacking team spirit and pride right now. I'm not sure the cause and I know they're professionals and it's a small community, but I think we're too soft and gentlemanly. Stuff like the unnecessary friendliness to the Scumbag with the Skunk haircut doesn't sit well with me, nor does the failure to stick up for Max clearly getting belted. And before people have crack at me I am a redleg and go to almost every home and Marvel based game subject to occasional young family circumstances. I really want us to improve and turn it around because honestly apart from a flag I watched on my couch in the company of some friends on skype screens there has been a lot of frustration in recent years, such as 2019 (I know injuries etc,) Straight sets and now West Coast, Freo Collingwood and I'm dreading what we'll dish up next. Those losses and almost games were tolerable when we were being competitive, but that's hardly how I'd describe our recent form. Sigh.

Ah right so did you purchase their memberships through the club? The kids memberships for ours came through auskick and the local team so I haven't seen a way to link them to my Demons membership

Yes, same for me. The screen was flickering and I ended up deleting and reinstalling the app and resetting the thicket b@$[censored]$ password. It's really frustrating that it doesn't properly link to Ticketmaster. I've also never figured out a way to simultaneously buy extra tickets for friends or family in the same bay or one close by? Has anyone else got kids with junior membership through auskick etc where they get a club membership and access to some games? I've no idea how to add their profiles to mine or redeem their tickets and have to sneak them under the turnstiles. We're at the mercy of the gate attendants instead of being legitimate entrants. I'd appreciate any guidance please

Hi Rab and PStD, I'm from Ballyroan, in Rathfarnham, Dublin. So I know the Hellfire Club and Massey's wood really well as we used to mountain bike up there after school and on hikes with the family and scouts. Later on we used to drink cans up there and even made student movies there. I grew up around the corner from Stynesie and passed his house on the way to school each day. I went to the same school and played for the same club in Ballyboden too. We got a half day off school when Jim came to our assembly with his Brownlow medal. At the time we had no real idea what a Brownlow was, but we knew it was important. Our experience of aussies was as rugby legends whipping all opponents and massive tanned athletes bashing the heads off our innocent Gaelic football heroes in the compromise rules series! Those games were great and we loved the high standard of the visitors and the tough contests and to see an all star national team playing international opponents. Australia seemed really good at all sports in the 80s and 90s so if he won a medal here by beating locals he must have been really good. The teachers told us he was voted best and fairest in the league so we felt really proud and inspired that someone from our school and neighborhood could go so far away and achieve that. He was back again with his brother Brian in 95 when Dublin won the All Ireland final. There was another raucous assembly in secondary school where Brian and the team passed the cup around what became a mosh pit of teenage boys. Amidst the chaos he shouted into the mic asking who thought we should celebrate with a half day? It went absolutely crazy and then he told us all to just go home so we did and it was like a mini prison riot! It was brilliant! I moved here in 2012 and have been following the Dees since those darker days. I left Gaelic football and rugby behind over there and took up over 35s AFL masters over here. I've been a Dees member for 7 years and this year will be my first year as a Redleg member. I really enjoy this forum (mostly lurking) and the podcast. As for the training ground I wish we could have a base by the MCG. I'm not sure what happened to the talk of AAMI after the women's World cup though? Although it would also really suit me professionally, I know that Fisherman's bend is under huge pressure from competing commercial interests and sports. That location would be great but I don't think it can happen as the land prices went crazy with the ad hoc rezoning. Caulfield seems a bit further away geographically, but it's probably good for the team and the rest of the club with enough space for facilities and parking and near transport. It's not that far compared to Casey so plenty of supporters could get there a few times of year for events. The Casey situation seems mad to be so far from town and the MCG. That's a big commute for lots of players and staff so it would be really great to get a proper modern elite facility at Caulfield. I'm hopeful this can become a reality. Positives are that there is plentiful green space and it is a location designed to facilitate large sporting events. It seems like a good idea in principle.

This is one of the wittiest and best written posts I've read on Demonland. Thanks for making me laugh out loud!