The Taciturn Demon

80s/90s-style banner snark. Love it.

Wrong about one thing, wrong about everything. Got it.

I think our bailing efforts have sped up and we're not sinking quite as fast as we were. My concern is that even if we got all the water out of the hull and patched up the holes (which I doubt very much), the vessel still isn't in particularly good shape. I love optimism - I come to Demonland in part to read about hope for the future - but I wonder if the optimists are a touch too focused on how good Langford, Lindsay and Windsor look, and too nonchalantly overlooking how shallow the list is. We've had players spectacularly out of form for weeks on end and there is a very large group of players either doing very little at Casey or putting up decent stats but not being considered. That either points to outrageous stubbornness from the people responsible for selection (I'm sure there's a bit of that) or a whole heap of players not capable of doing it at AFL level. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when the vast majority of supporters agree with Goodwin et al that Melksham is an immediate inclusion under every circumstance, you know your list is still a way off. I didn't think this was a finals team at the start of the year. I don't think it's a finals team now.

That was brief.

Maybe I'm completely blinded by nuffie glasses, but I'd expect if Pickett for Jackson was the start, we'd also want quite a buit more in addition.

Yep. I agree. If Jackson was an extremely strong contested mark and capable of kicking 1.5 a game as a resting forward, this would be super exciting. It's great that Jackson may want to return (although this is Seven West Media, so enormous grain of salt), and very handy that we once again have an obvious Gawn replacement, but I'm not thinking net positive at the moment.

Taking out where they want to be (which I concede is a big thing to take out), Kozzie every single time.

Ah. Interesting. Thanks.

Thanks DZ. It may well have been in the post-half time huddle, so that makes sense. Appreciate the reply.

Interested to hear what regular Casey watchers think of Brown this season. Got a senior game very early last year (as sub) but then seems to have been ignored ever since. Is he just not showing much at the moment?

Sorry if this has been covered already but at (I think) three quarter time I noticed Judd McVee standing away from the final huddle. He was given encouraging pats from one or two trainers and when he joined the huddle he seemed doubled-over the whole time. Anyone know what happened there? Illness maybe?

Damn. What a pity. I think he's very close to our most important player. With May, Oliver and Petracca not the players they were only a few years ago, he's just about our best player (behind Max) as well.

GOOD LORD!

Fremantle have snuck over the line against Sydney at home, had a three-goal win against the Bont-less Dogs at home, comfortably beaten Richmond and lost the rest. Their injury list is long, but Hayden Young is the only huge out. (That might be hard on O'Meara but not on Walters or Fyfe.) They've won one final and played in one finals series as they've assembled this list. (One final in nine years, actually). Is that list, seemingly considered excellent by a lot of people (not least of all their own supporters), actually pretty [censored]?

Fox barely a step up from Zero Hanger.

An excellent sentiment that applies to so much more than mental health. Well said.

It's a massive list.

I think you're right. For a very long time I've thought Petty was the ideal replacement, Turner being a good (and probably more physically robust) replacement for Lever eventually. If Petty still has a desire to return to South Australia that throws a spanner in the works.

I come to Demonland for the footy goss. I stay for the poetry.

It's a complete disaster. They've pillaged and ruined a once-great competition while also failing to turn it into a fit-for-purpose, reserves-style second tier comp. Talk about worst of both worlds.

He has. Not quite at the Adelaide and Brisbane level, but still very strong. And if he was responsible for the Pick 2 for Mithen trade... that's bordering on magic.

Not generally a fan of the colour TV away strip, but this version is a cracker. Both are great, but there's something about that Argentina blue...

He chooses Melksham as if he's some James McDonald-esque ultra-consistent team player.

As painted concrete tends to do.

I think this is a good point. Until we find someone who does the ANB role even 75 percent as well as him, others need to fill the gaps But I still err on this side of this: I think as supporters - or maybe this is just a Demonland thing - we happily wave away the enormous, glaring limitations of some while homing in on and becoming obsessed with the obvious limitations of others. I'd love Fritsch to become Tom Atkins with his tackling. I'd love Charlie Spargo to get 20 every week. I'd love Ed Langdon to learn how to handball. I'd love Tom Fullarton to go full early-2012 Mitch Clark. I'd love Jake Lever to be like Matthew Scarlett one on one. None of these things are ever going to happen. And as others have said, when you kick the ball as poorly into the forward 50 as we do (and have for years), a bloke who can make something out of not very much is absolutely gold.