bush demon

7 across clue: Plausible deniability, 'lookaway handball' etc. What magicians call misdirection.

I see we went 13-0 in fact. My (narrow) argument is we had three very close wins up to round 7 (in 1956), including an eight point win, but this year no one has got closer than about 24 points. 1956 is a very good portent and a key year in demon history! On your other point I think it is The Eagles and Port we have to worry about most to measure our true worth. In any event it is a magnificent season and we still have an enviable list despite injuries.

I have gone back through AFL.com records and I am pretty sure this is our all-time best start to a season ( as at this round) if we consider winning margins. What that means later in the season, who knows. May come down to injuries and our ability to stand up in SA and WA.

Brian "there's nothing in that" Taylor, Channel 7's correct-elbow etiquette correspondent.

Kind of like when Doug and Dinsdale Piranha had to nail Vince's head to the floor. Smashing blokes, those Dinsdales:

Despair not. The media is giving a balanced EARLY SEASON take on the mighty Dees. It's fair to say this in round 6. We could keep winning, and then fall over through injuries or hubris, or both. I somehow suspect not. Long time Demon sufferers like me can probably sniff there's something in the air but we will all have to suffer coming victories - and occasiinal losses - with a continuing measure of self doubt, that's probably how it should be. But at the ground Saturday night the extended cries of MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE echoing through the half-full stadium suggest something is building, we know not what. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/apr/26/also-rans-and-whipping-boys-no-more-but-melbourne-managing-expectation?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Match of the century: 16th v 17th. AFL Brown paper package handouts today 2pm to 5pm for participating clubs.

That's fair comment. I did think he looked a bit underdone the last couple of times I saw him play.

How's that guy Kane Cornes on Kayo saying that Mrlbourne haven't done anything yet and Richmond will have long memories, all because a Melbourne player pointed at the scoreboard during the melee. At 3-3 Richmond need to think about winning games so they can challenge at the pointy end. Dees are entitled to their moment of glory.

But who wants to play an interstate preliminary final... we have been smashed in the past ie 1994 and 2018.

But who wants to play an interstate preliminary final... we have been smashed in the past ie 1994 and 2018.

Lot of misses. must be the conditions.

Can someone identify the (Melbourne) players here? I see Darrel Baldock with the pill being chased by Don Williams and possibly Ross Smith in the background and Big bad Carl on the left.

Any mathematician will tell you the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

It's funny how we mark our lives with these things. FWIW The Saints trajectory never really took off like it should have, and was marked also with its own tragedy. Getting overrun by The Dons in the '65 GF, getting run down by the Hawks in '71 and failing to win any premierships in all the years following Barry Breen's miraculous point. GO DEES.

When did the Roman empire collapse? Hard to say, because hordes of barbarians had been knocking on the door for centuries. When did the mighty demon empire collapse? In this game. Melbourne lost their aura of invincibility that Saturday, and never got it back: From the Archives, 1965: Melbourne’s armour pierced by Saints Tonight we can be the barbarians, and go 6-0. Go Dees.

i think we smashed carlton the week before our fall. ironic, since it was the big match-off ronald dale v norm smith.

Why is every Tory supporter of this admittedly posh club denigrating 'greenies'? Haven't you ever heard of the green green grass of home.

Gerry Gee, a suspicious character possibly a poison dwarf?

Our family went overseas for all of 1965. Come back in 1966 and no Barass, no Tarax show and no Dees.

Not to mention Ian Cooper taking big speccies on the backs of our players when Saints went wild in the 3rd quarter.

Damn, we were beaten by Collingwood after sitting 5-0. Len Thompson slit us up. I always thought that was about 8th round. So we can win next weekend and go back into a time portal.

I think you'll find we were about 8-0 in 1971 under Tiddles Ridley. In a fact I'm going to look it up now.

Weed = 7 as stay home forward. That translates as one more week for BB, and Weed promoted next week.

OMG Toby Bedford moves well. AFL bound.