Go the Biff

McKenna killed us. No-one went near him !!!!

He found some form before a season ending injury in 2019. I think people are jumping off a bit prematurely. Yes Round 1 was not great but we've been bemoaning our forward entries in that game for the last 3 months so to a degree he was a victim of our ineptitude. Thought he started ok last week but Weitering got on top of him as the game progressed. The same Weitering that gave Tiger Tom Lynch a bath back in Round 1. Young man is a gun defender. Hopefully he gets Hooker this week & runs him ragged. Starting deep & working the 50

Agreed. I think we're out of balance. Would rather Smith out for Lockhart to help combat the Essendon small forwards. Hannan out for Weid (or Jackson). We risk he aerial domination that the Eagles defence had against us without another tall target Hurley, Hooker & Francis will have a field day unless we either a) hit up targets lace out or b) roll the bloody pill along the ground Gutsy and correct move omitting Jones. Didn't think they'd do that

No they didn't. They won a tender against joint ventures from other SANFL clubs. The licence became available because Fitzroy merged with Brisbane Agree on the true football club bit

Personally couldn't give a toss about the jumper issue but from a contractual perspective, I can see McGuire's point. I also reckon that Kochie forgets it was Port Power admitted to the AFL, not Port Magpies. On the issue of the footballs though, I'm surprised to find myself in full agreement with Eddie

Essendon run with a very small forward line. I can't see a matchup for Smith unless you want play him on Stringer. We will need to shut down Tippa - he's very much their talisman. They've also got Devon Smith, Zaka & Townsend running around. Not sure if Fantasia is due back from injury. On that basis I'd recall Hibbo for Smith. If not Pig then Lockhart. Up the other end they are pretty tall. Hurley, Hooker, Ridley & Francis who plays above his height & has great hands overhead. I'd bring back Weid & retain Jackson (at this stage. I'm still mulling over this). Leave TMac in to start deep & run Hooker up & down the ground. He won't keep up. I can't find a spot for Jones. Pickett in - should be at Melksham's expense but ANB will likely make way. Which I'm ok with. Melksham has more runs on the board but the ice under him grows thinner. Gawn may well be the most influential player on the ground. Bellchambers does little outside the ruck contest so Max should easily account for him around the ground & cause some havoc with his marking. Clearances will be king. They might be fast on the outside but that doesn't help much if you haven't got the footy

In a way that's the case. There is a bit of transitioning going on which was reflected in the selections this week. I believe our backline is already copping a makeover & is likely to end the season or start next season with : Lever May Lockhart Salem Petty Rivers so a few old warriors & a some NQR's will be outside the 22. Hibbo has already been overtaken, sadly I suspect Nev will be as well, Smith just won't make the grade & OMac wil be surplus. Plus Lewis from 2019 gorrn as well. It's a fair turnover

Spot on. Really rate Weitering. I was hoping we could coax him out of Carlton when he had injury issues and was being played all over the park. Young fella was a Demon fan too. Will be one of the premier defenders in the comp for the next 8 - 10 years. Great hands, reads the ball in flight beautifully, smart use of his body & has a bloody big tank as well. I also think we need Weid in the team with TMac. One of them must start deep forward & lead from the square, not from 40 out. They can share that role between them in games, in quarters. Additionally Fritsch is not a KPF's backside & if we persist with that approach we'll ruin another promising career. He should be playing a role like Gunston when Gunston was at his peak. Jack, not Norman

I was initially against this. Thought it would be like the old slo-mo replay World of Sport crowd noises on loop. But from what I saw of the NRL coverage it was well done. Not invasive but enough to fill in a lot of the "dead air"

No-one's asking him to. He's set the rules for his state & the AFL are abiding by them while working to restart the competition. He's the one biatching & moaning. Let's do a hypothetical. St Kilda & Melbourne relocate to a WA hub, serving the 14 day quarantine. The AFL arranges the fixture accordingly & Saints, Demons, Dockers & Eagles play each other in 3 rounds. But the covid-19 situation hasn't changed sufficiently for the WA health authorities to consider re-opening their borders. What happens then ? Other teams can't come in because they'll need to do 14 day quarantine.

Dude's an idiot. Hubs aren't the issue. It's border closure. Specifically the border he closed & keeps closed despite their comparatively low incidence of covid cases. FMD. We've actually had a bi-partisan "all hands on deck" approach to this pandemic. Then old mate farkface in the West decides to indulge in a cheap shot point scoring exercise. Clearly he hasn't covered himself in glory here

Dean could have been anything but for that knee injury. Johnno moved to the back pocket when he returned from ripping his hamstring off the bone

These young fellers do a decent job. If you're looking for Demon content to fill in your hours in iso, you could do worse than this Robbo Cale Morton Check it out

Agreed. Leigh Matthews himself has reflected that the 'Pies were not necessarily the best team that year. But that they played their best footy at the right time of the year. In my view our biggest missed opportunity

Wasn't Max (like Jimmy) in No. 37 before he got 11 ?

Which was why they were seen as ripe for the picking. They had on-field assets and some off field but hubris had become endemic. Mismanagement and extravagance undid all their gains in the '80's. Enter Ian Dicker. The assessment of Don Scott by @TGR is correct. He saw the merger for what it really was - a takeover of HFC - and he displayed so brilliantly with his graphic demo of the jumper. The assessment of Kennett's contribution is overplayed. He sailed smooth seas long after Ian Dicker had calmed the storm and set the ship on course. Without Ian Dicker I doubt there'd have been a HFC for Kennett to play with

There's been a benefit to having no spectators on course. Despite the technical difficulties of having to phone a friend Bruce & Skyping Corey Brown & Katie Mallyon, the coverage of the Sydney autumn carnival is much improved. It's all about the horses & racing. No poxy fashions on the field flogging clobber that no-one would ever wear. No airhead "celebrities" spending their 15 of fame being interviewed by wannabe weathergirls. All about horses & the sport. Bloody marvellous

Weird watching Sydney's biggest raceday of the year in front of 2 men & a dog

Bingo. That's my understanding.

So did they give us Langdon & Tomlinson ?

Jeez I hope not. McGovern, Barrass & co will have a field day taking intercept marks, contested & otherwise. That's why I'd have picked Weid over Brown. Weid may not catch as many as we'd like but he does contest in packs. Brown relies on his running & lead up play & has never been a contested marking forward. We'll need smart running patterns inside F50 and blokes looking for and hitting up targets coming forward. I also agree with @CHF that we are short a rotation or two in the midfield. I'm expecting Harmes will have to go in there

Both have improved by the week. Hope we got their signatures before they hit the airport

I admire the effort & running power of ANB but he's a right-footed Simon Godfrey. If we want to be a better footy team we need to get better with the ball. Not sure Spargo is the answer but I do think he has a good footy brain. Whether he's physically up to it is my question. So Dazzler, do you think in the short term Jones could be reinvented in the ANB role ? He has much cleaner hands, is a better decision maker & is a goal scoring threat from anywhere around 50

I largely agree with this. There's quite a few points to discuss but as I am a lazy Karmichael when it comes to posting, I'll just deal with one. There's a significant proportion of tackles which would have been penalised as too high or in the back a decade or two ago. Especially when "third man" tacklers get involved. Every game you see blokes getting their heads wrapped up in a tackle but no free given. Penalise bad tackles rather than waiting and effectively making a "safe" non decision and going the ball-up option would remove a lot of the repeat stoppages that mar the game. Repeat stoppages draw more players to the contest area and you end up with a situation closely resembling that stupid game where one man tries to push two men's heads up three men's bums. It's not adding new rules that the game needs, it's just correct application on the existing rules. As an aside I watched some of the 1996 "merger match" the other night (a "classic" game on Kayo). The footy was fast, frantic, skilled, tough and to my mind a far better "product" than what's currently on offer

He was terrific the year before when playing mainly as a small defender at Casey. That's when I started wondering if Nev's apprentice was ready & waiting for us