Tony Tea

The trouble with Smith is that, despite his pace and rocket fuelled leaps, he lacks the tricks to find space, make space, boss his own space, etc. He's a footy numpty. And then there's his injury prone landings and the soft cap, which rules out the involvement of Air Crash Investigation.

As usual over the last few years, we are fine when we have the game on our terms, but we struggle with opposition countermeasures. Are we prepared for contingencies? Do we have too many role players who work really hard, but lack natural ability? Then again, all would be fine if we could make more of out I50s. (Although I worry that we over-commit to defence at the expense of attack.)

I think the teams you mentioned are definitely the three biggest challenges. But I also reckon we could beat all three in a final.

Remember the rule: nothing you say on match day matters.

Can we win the flag from outside the Top 4? At this rate we won't make it. But if we win a couple of finals we'll give nightmares to whoever is still in the running.

Soft. Can't handle the heat.

Unfortunately we couldn't deal with the heat. Yet again.

Collingwood do what Clarko did to us last year in the draw - push up each line to pressure the Melbourne ball carriers. And since we are prone to fumble and miss targets under pressure, I hope we are across our tactics and can deal with the heat, as well as maintain intensity for the whole game. We couldn't on the QB. But at least May is playing this time.

I had automatically assumed Mundy was pushed. Be very surprised if that wasn't the case.

Zurharr could be a jet in a good side. Well worth a polite enquiry.

I'd have Kelly or Whitfield. They are both superb kicks and would complement our inside game with outside run.

Best we just shrug and concede it's business as usual and ignore it.

The fact that we have been off our food all year and had plenty more injuries than last year, but have still won lots of games, and have hardly ever been out of games, is enormously promising. We mightn't win it this year, but I wouldn't want to face us in a final; especially if we have some unplayed cards. I reckon our development jumped ahead of the curve in 2021, and we've come back to the field in line with development in 2022. 2023 and onwards looks good.

I give thanks to the Cats for putting their cards on the table in the H&A season. Would we do the same kick outs in a final?

Money quote. There's not a person in the Demons footy brains-trust who would not have expected most sides in the comp to come up with tactics to counter Melbourne. They only needed to look to what Clarko did in our draw last year to see that the Hawks pushed up to deny us space around the ball. (The Dogs would have kicked themselves after the GF.) And things like dart passes into our Back50 are bread and jam for sides who want to break up and spread out our zones. (Apparently our pressure is way down on last year, which has enabled opponents to pick us apart.) The key is: What are we going to do about it? We don't appear to have done a lot so far, but I live in hope we have something up our collective sleeve.

If we have been worked out "it’s a bad space to live in" according to Kingy. Whatever that means.

I'm broadly content to let spelling and grammar slide on a footy chat room - with the odd exception - just as long as we all agree that pretentious Dermott tries to sound intelligent by misusing big words, whose meanings completely elude him.

We tanked. Others tanked. It's just that we did it more flagrantly than the others. Same as peptides. Dons drugged. Others drugged. It's just that the Dons did it more flagrantly than others.

Every time I get pessimistic about Jackson and Brayshaw leaving, I always remember we've signed Petracca and Oliver for a decade and I instantly feel better.

I read that article last night, and quickly dismissed it as confetti when it became clear everyone is a good commentator, when in fact, the AFL is as poorly served for commentators as any sport in the world. In a word, our footy commentary is dreadful.

Try a proctologist.

Buddy was a Dees fan and even during his time at Hawthorn and Sydney he secretly barracked for Melbourne. Or so I heard.

At least the current North have provided competition for the "worst team since Fitzroy" title.

This is the reason I have kept my Demons reserved seat membership on top of my MCC membership.

I played for them too, and there were plenty of scraps in the club rooms in the early 90s.