Demonised

I favour getting rid of prior opportunity all together. At the moment, it gives carte blanche for players to take the ball, simply clutch it to their chest and accept the tackle, knowing that they'll get a ball up and can reset. Forget it. If you're tackled, you immediately have to get rid of the ball correctly - or make a legitimate attempt. This will keep the ball moving, open things up, reduce the number of ball ups. Yes, if you take the ball and are immediately tackled well by someone you didn't see coming, you're pinged - unless you punch or kick it away. Good enough for me.

The laws of the game only talk about 'correct disposal', nothing about the ball hitting the ground. Who knows what umpires think, but since most of them are apparently mindreaders and know what players' intentions are, I bet some could convince themselves that a dropkick was what the player was trying to do all along ...

The official rules of the game here. Read and scratch your head in puzzlement.

Played for ten years in the Amateurs through the eighties, a local side, the same one that Peter Norman (Mexico City Olympic Silver medallist) played at, although he was before my time. One premiership, one runners-up, a couple of B&Fs (one in the seniors, one in the reserves). Saw lots of good players, had a great time. I still dream football dreams.

Verily.

Is Dunn done? I accept that he's a fine kick, but he's now losing one on ones - something that was a strength of his a few years ago. And his approach to marking ... Sad if this is so, and it would leave our backline very wobbly.

Can't see Dunn going forward. His approach to marking has me seriously worried.

Two observations: 1. Centre bounces, Max was getting his hand to the ball, but we had few clean takeaways. Saints had more. 2. We had very little of last week's fast spread or switching. I blame cramped Etihad to some - but not all - extent.

Mmm ... apple pie ...

Disagree with this. A hundred times we see someone running with the flight of the ball (eyes on ball or not) crashing into the player trying to mark and a free kick is paid, whether the spoil is made or not. But not this time.

I've watched the last few seconds of the game again and again and I can't see how Billy Stretch didn't get a free for the front on spoil .

A Demonland discussion with actual statistics and evidence? Have I stumbled into an alternative dimension?

Ugly win is win.

Many wishes for speedy recovery. BTW, the title of this thread shows how to do it so as not to cause heart attacks among Demonland faithful. Well played, sir, well played.

Footy is coming.

My favourite line of DC when a player (Libber?) was bleeding from a cut over his eye after a melee : 'He went into the pack optimistically and came out misty optically.'

Dennis had a nice soft spot for the Demons, too. Will be missed.

'Busted syllogism'. Nice. Don't often see that phrase on a footy forum.

I remember.

I dearly want Jack to do this to Dustin Martin in the 2016 Preliminary Final.

It's pointless. It's all so bloody pointless.

Awareness is often an issue with these imports who haven't grown up with the game. Footy is so omni-directional;tacklers can come from anywhere.

If we kick the first eight of the quarter, we're in with a chance.

Let's get rid of the 'No Prior Opportunity' rule. It might be counter-intuitive, but think about it. If we get rid of NPO, it'll stop the dreary repetition of players grabbing the ball, clutching it to their chests, going to ground, making feeble pretend efforts to punch it, then having the umps ball it up again. With NPO gone, if you grab the ball, you're fair game. You have to keep it moving - otherwise you'll be tackled, pinged and someone else will keep the ball moving via a free kick.

Not one mention of the ABC for radio? Clean, clear, no advertisements ... Hard to beat. If you want to know where the ball is and what's happening on the ground, any of the ABC teams is the one.