Go Ds

Umm reading through this whole thread and seeing so many names mentioned I'm a little surprised to not see Kolt mentioned at all. Where will he play?

I have to work at being optimistic. I'm not even sure I really am. I'd just rather savour the good Dees moments and try as much as possible to shrug off the bad. Sport should provide joy more than misery. (BTW I've had over 40 years - 45 - of following our ups and downs. Admittedly there were a lot of ups from '87 to '94 along the way. But anyway I know I'm not the only optimistic supporter of 30+ years.) Anyway, peace -we're on the same side.

I don't think you're being aggressive or I'm being defensive. It's just a slight difference of opinion. Except when injured Gawn keeps making the All-Australian team and while May probably won't be AA this year I bet a lot of teams would love him in their backline. Also he played the GF on one leg. Age stops every player eventually but no reason why both can't be major players at least for another year or two. And could not the likes of Windsor, Roo, Langford, an improving Rivers etc make up for those who left? You said Swans and Pies changed a lot (which I'd be happy for your to elaborate on... some reasons are obvious). Can't our changes also have us playing close to our 21 standard? Anyway our predictions will likely count for nothing and either of us could be way off. I wouldn't have tipped Dog, Tiges (in 17), Eagles, Demons or Cats in recent flag years NOR the premiership hangovers plus myriad other team fortunes recently. The great thing about footy is that Lions, Dees and Roos supporters at this moment can all believe they will win the flag and they at least can't be proven wrong. Pre-season is all hope, hope, hope!

She did go into a lot of horror films after E.T., which critics tend to downplay. :)

And why have we left ours? We have most the GF side plus it looks like we've topped up well in the last couple of years plus some of young GF players can still improve. Also Sydney went within a bee's whisker of back-to-back flags 6 years earlier while Collingwood went from a 4 or 5 goal-lead to a tiny loss in the GF then 5 years after they atoned. Were they both "entering"?

I'm only relaying what the guy said. It's still amusing given Gawn may now be in our best ever players.

We've all heard and read so many predictions and similar. For better or worse while it's lovely to hear how good our team or individual players or coach or culture or whatever is there is only one thing that matters....results! I don't care if some thought we were the 2nd best team in 2018 or tipped us for the flag in the subsequently horrible season after or said Melbourne was really only the 6th best team in 2021 (or the nonsense that it was a 'Covid Cup'). Let the media and general public or even Goody after each game say whatever; I just want to see us win as many games as possible and hopefully again surprise the whole football world, just 4 years after the droughtbreaker.

Collingwood '23 Richmond 17 Sydney 12 geelong 07 ............

I really feel like there'll be considerable improvement this year - good young (improving) players, some luck with injuries, better pre-seasons/fitness. Surely we make the 8 and maybe even win the whole thing. But sport is so unpredictable. There'll be plenty of moments where teams' fortunes/expectations will change this season - same as in every other. Cliched as it is I'll be taking it one week at a time.

Yep, spicy pizza and maybe teams can provide some old tubes of Deep Heat to really make it feel like 'Demonland'. 😂

What did you ask the chat GPT? Literally "who will win the 2025 AFL premiership?"?

I met a guy who was friends with Max at primary school. He said back then he was a very ordinary footballer.

Who knows? But people tend to write players off too quickly. If McAdam is fitter or Billings either realises this is his last chance or something else clicks for him they will be more valuable.

Yes, it is a great name. I know you're not at fault.

Ok. It's just nice to read posts without having to chase things up. Sure, you mention something like the Western Oval in '87 or the Cordnors and some people will know about these and some won't - and that's fine. But a vaguely obscure nickname for a main player is a little silly.

I realised seconds after posting. :) But I doubt I'll be the only one wondering for now. (If he gets referred to as The Duke in the media that'll change.)

Please add The Duke beside Windsor's name. I just realised 'post-post' that that's who it refers to, and I saw it on here months ago too.

I won't, I guess. Who is he?

Please, no. Clarry's problems were bad enough last year without him being stuck at a typewriter with broken ankles.

It's all good. My brain immediately guessed you meant Lindsay (though I quickly confirmed with Google the blurred memory of the name Xavier Francis being famous.) I sure hope XL ends up with a better nickname than X. There must be something at least those initials could lead to (e.g. Jumbo - xtra large, Spreadsheet - Excel or Gunner or Rose - Axl Rose) Then again most nicknames end up being uninspired such as Smithy or Bluey. BTW love your work. I wait patiently for the next podcast.

I honestly don't know what would be accurate, DJ. There are plenty of games where within minutes you can see if one (or both) teams are on or whether all your expectations need to be thrown out the window. I think most seasons start the same way (though that may change a bit as the seasons just about start before Woollies sell hot cross buns and teams need to pace themselves even more) I won't bother with this guy's other YouTube predictions for this year.

Yes and no. Once i saw names such as Chin and Lingers pretty quickly they were lodged in my memory AND I am used to them. But I can also understand a new fan getting on here and giving up on posts (and possibly this site?) if they keep wondering who is being referred to. Anyway it's a first-world problem - it was a slight nuisance at the time and was never gonna stop me visiting here from then on. (And it's very hard to go at people giving their time for free.)

Yep. Most teams' supporters would have a feel on whether their team will improve, or not, in the new season. But trying to predict the top 8 (or every team's fortune) can only end in tears. It's almost become a given that each year 3 or 4 teams will take the place of some of the previous year's finalists. On top of that we've just seen two defending premiers drop out and plenty of teams jump way up the ladder in a single bound. I'll still ponder each pre-season on how our team will go. But you may as well as try and predict the weather for New York some day a few decades away for all the good it'll do.

There was a lot of talk but I'm not sure it signifies that much. I noticed the guy thought we lost by 7 points in Round 3 to Port (which we won, of course). Did he make any other errors? A bit like 'forgetting to carry the 1' in maths it wouldn't take much for this analysis to be quite inaccurate.

Yes, STAFF call him Chin. I just don't have any involvement with staff. On TV he's just Chandler. Obviously there's plenty of things you'd expect almost any Melbourne fan to know. But sometimes it's easy to forget some things aren't. BTW I found this. All it needs is the new recruits to be added. I think someone called Xavier Lindsay 'Francis' (which again I had to work out). I can only guess the rest.