Dappa Dan

Oddly enough, if you wander over to bigfooty, there's as many impartial who thought we were robbed as there are WC supporters who were whining. We did get two obvious ones overlooked on Avb. Given how bad the umps have been for us this year, I'll take it.

Totally true. In their defence, though... We are at a breaking point. All through this year we had guys knocking on the door to come in. Now with the injuries we have, the next man up will be a big downgrade on who played over at Optus on Sunday. Bugg did have some selection-worthy games earlier this year, and was pretty close a couple of times. He's sort of the best of a bad bunch in some peoples' eyes. And he's a mature body, coming into finals. But yes, your point is dead on.

Welcome to the thread Zeph.

DV... Mate... What the hell are you talking about. What's this now. 10th quote and you're still full of hot air? Still haven't said anything new? Keep digging.

Ha. much appreciated Macca. You're a gentleman and a scholar as always. I have seen it, just the once, so I'll enjoy again. Yeah would be good to get the comp going again. Comps run quite well with 12 names. I have 2 others who I know would enjoy. Possibly 3. Maybe even 4 (myself included). You gotta have a critical mass of 50% of those really into it though or it descends into a bit of a waste of time, as it was last time. My brother and I actually started the original demonland AFL keeper league, and it was a similar disaster of abuse and misunderstanding. I pulled out when he was being abused, he pulled out soon after. So it IS a hairy concept. So I think I'll keep prompting everyone, and if they go for it one day, I'd be happy to manage. But until then... I'll be taking you @Gorgoroth @layzie @cowboy_from_hell down, and returning to my rightful place on the NFL thread throne.

Terrific stuff Pickett. A bit of mayo thrown in there with the wording too, I like it. But I STILL have the urge to put the gun-to-your-head question... I'll hold off for now though. OH YES THERE IS! lol Like Pickett, I'll be putting that question to you if we all live long enough to see Clarrie retire in the Red and Blue one day and get to take stock. You've more or less answered it for now. Robbie the best you've ever seen play the game? Says enough. And yes, great point on Ollie. If we want to break down players into types... Neitz is still the #1 KP forward. Hogan isn't there yet, and I suspect won't get there. Schwartz would have beaten Neitz by a nose... enough's been said on that topic. What Ollie does, though... Here's yet another way to look at it... You know how we're a poor club, and other clubs get these logic-defying players... Voss, Hird, Sam Mitchell, Ablett jr, Dangerfield, Fyfe... These absolute magicians that play the game in a way you don't really understand... Watching those guys as an opposition fan, you never really knew what it was like to be a fan of their club. We had so many stalwarts. Proud players who did more than I'll ever do... But we never had anything like this. And it's not a one-off year for him, or a short burst of brilliance. The whole league has taken notice inside of 50 games. Elite really isn't a big enough word. Some of the stuff he does... No-one else in the league does. You're absolutely right... If you really feel every possession that MFC gets, then watching him is a kind of joy none of us have ever known, other than when watching other club's players with a healthy dose of envy.

Maybe the one BIG area AFL has it over NFL. The spread of game times. I like your idea of watching live. Thing is, in a fantasy comp, you get the news more or less as it happens. I can't hack the 4-5am games... Sometimes I wish I wasn't hooked on fantasy footy. I still feel like maybe one day we'll have enough demonlanders to start a league.

Always one, isn't there. Aussie fans have a long way to go.

I'll think about it...

Yeah that's a good point. I wonder if you can prepare a young list of midfielders for that. I don't even reckon the coaches knew what they had when he was recruited. I remember in Oliver's second pre-season the media were always asking who's the best of the big 3 young players who've come to the club... Oliver, Hogan and Tracca. You expect Hogan cos of everything he does and what he represents. But nearly everyone had Oliver out in front. I was confused as I hadn't seen enough. Almost 2 full seasons on... and I get it now. So if he's only had 43 games playing at this level, how well can you know what he's going to do if you're a midfielder playing next to him? How do you coach the players around a freak like that to take advantage of the absurd Jedi-like things he does?

Yeah exactly, if you try to cram other names into the conversation, there's always caveats. Scott Thompson should absolutely be in there, but he left. Certain players are outside and he's inside. Certain players played what amounts to a different sport... So I understand there's a problem with oversimplification there when you ask "who's the best midfielder in your lifetime." Thing is... As you say, on pace, he'll have them all beaten very soon. I think I posed this question 21 games ago for the first time when he rounded out his second season, and in that time I expected people to throw restrictions on the question, or categories... and it's actually gone the other way. Now I'm wondering if he's the best PLAYER we've seen in our lifetimes. Never mind this midfielder stuff. I was 7 in 1987 so never really got the Robbie Flower experience that our long-in-the-tooth friends on here did. THESE are the guys I wanna hear from. What would Clarry have to do to get into the Flower/Oliver conversation? I sometimes ask a similar question about Mitch Johnson's ashes series and push them on a comparison between that series and how Lillee played. How close were they, who was scarier, who was faster etc etc... And it's that sort of level of comparison. I can't make the comparison, so I look to my elders. The Jedi thing. Mate... it's not one a week. It's many of the contests he goes to. There's the thing a player like Braysh does where he barrels through and by force of will releases a loose ball. With Oliver, my best guess is that as a kid he had a coach who told him to set up at a clearance and look closely at where your opposition is... then if the ball falls to you (and it does, cos of Max), get it as soon as you can and release as soon as you can in the direction that those oppo players AREN'T. It's like watching Vader predict where the lasers are going to be before he light-sabers them away. And it's not just one massive play. He does something freaky at 5-10 contests a game.

The feeling is completely different isn't it. Beat Pies and youshout from the rooftops. Beat WC over there when they're second on the ladder... You almost don't know what to do. Your cup overflows. One of the biggest things is, it could be ten years before you do it again.

I mull this over every time he puts another paragraph on his legend. Is this what we'll have or will he adapt further. I don't wanna be glass half empty, but I think it's pretty much what we see now. He's taken the criticism and I think doubled his metres gained this year. They put him forward on the weekend for good results. But I think mostly he won't get quicker, or find a bigger tank. The only jump up we might see is 10% when other clubs start playing youth and he's 25+. He is already so professional. Genuine question... Who was it 20 years ago that he hasn't overtaken yet? I put this to a mate who was born in the early 70s... who's the best midfielder the clubs seen in your lifetime... and he said Todd Viney. Clarry hasn't quite got the accolades Todd did yet, but I think it's fair to say he'll go past him. That's amazing. I remember seeing it when he was drafted and thinking, ok yeah, sure, but is he quick enough? I didn't know that that wasn't just his highlights. That's every contest he goes into. His pattern recognition and ability to understand when his opposition is off balance... he's like a Jedi. Man, the recruiters really do earn their money.

We have a hoodoo!! Last week when West Coast beat Port, some clown went on the Port wiki page and changed the opening paragraph to "Port Adelaide football club is a club playing in the AFL, that is currently owned by the West Coast Eagles" or words to that effect. I kind of wish some clever dick would do that for us, given the last two tight results against them over there.

Actually yeah... It's possible you could just go in reverse order through Jones threads to see every naysayer and raise their misdemeanours.

I know. Just pointing it out. I'm picking that they're mates who had a falling out over a beer on this. I feel like he's won some sort of bet there.

One of the biggest. That one must have been burning for... let me take a look... FIVE YEARS. Whoa.

Thought he was really complimentary? I guess they gotta say SOMETHING. It's a whole hour of TV he needs to talk through. If you break down what he says though, he pretty much points out they deserve to celebrate like they did, but that they're a lot better side than maybe they think they are. That's a pretty powerful statement. Really liked the bit about "To have finals success you have to have a lot of non human behaviours." I've seen a lot of teams over the years play like unemotional robots, and then let it loose once the big one is won. I reckon he's wrong. He's forgot to factor in where the club has been the last decade (when he could have come to us)... but his overarching point I thought was quite complimentary, and not ridiculous.

What a debut post for Mr Smith.

NOW try and edit that to make it seem like you were making a sensible point. Bold away. What I am TRYING to do is get you to stop quoting me. I don't WANT to block you, as it's a terrible way to go about a footy forum with strangers, and I can see you're not a troll, you're just hopelessly misinformed, and you're really very very bad at understanding Australian Rules Football. My interest in Jesse Hogan, demonland and posts promoting the idea of trading him (which you're backtracking on now, but I've PROVEN you want to do above, not that I expect you to see the simple fact I've shone a light on) is to debunk the ridiculous, and frankly absurd idea that the club gets anywhere with the trade you propose. Get this through your head. I DON'T BELIEVE WE NEED ANOTHER BIG NAME MIDFIELDER. Why? Because I'm not stupid. You can think what you want, but you open yourself up to ridicule when you try to pass your crackpot theories off as "facts." If we do need another player, midfielder or otherwise, there's plenty of other avenues to take. Our list is the envy of almost the entire league. You seem to have it in your mind that we need to have draft capital to trade on to get the next Dangerfield or something. No. What you NEED is to secure a good core of players, and allow the draft/free agency/wantaway players to take care of themselves while the core matures. Oliver, Hogan, Trac, Salem, Viney, Lever, Brayshaw, OMac, Fritsch, Hunt... THESE are the guys you cling to, and when you have needs you look to what you have to let go of, then you draft and trade accordingly. What we HAVE is two guys that are among the best KP players in their positions IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE... who are not even 25 yet... And you want to say sayonara to one of them to get in "a couple" of top line midfielders. If that's true, then does Harmes get a game? You know Harmes? Our BEST midfielder on the weekend in the biggest game we've played in 12 years? Who outplayed Oliver, Tracca, Shuey, and a host of others? We have the IDEAL list build to contend for the next 5 years, spearheaded by a guy who's been a superstar from the first day he wore the red and blue, in the best attack IN THE GAME... and you want to break it up because you think we have too many KP forwards. And you think you're being CREATIVE?!!! Get a grip. Stop panicking about the state of our midfielders. They're growing at exactly the rate they should, maybe even AHEAD of where they should be. The big names that will represent the club in the Bartel/Ling/Scarlett/Ablett roles are already there... it's just they've only just ticked over 50 games. Like you, I'd like to see a touch more silk (though not at the expense of hard at it players)... Everyone in the league is looking for that. But we CAN get it through other means. Face facts. Hogan is NOT someone we push out the door. As I've said before, if he wants to go, then that's a WHOLE other level of damage control. But until he shows signs that he's out, we get every last minute out of him we can. And as I say, you go ahead and have your wacky ideas. That's what we're here for. But you can expect me to prove again and again how daft this one is.

That's news to me. Excellent. If Foles went to greener pastures and we had Sudfeld as the backup, I wouldn't be altogether annoyed. But it'd be a sad day.

I CAN tell you what it is you want.... Because you already TOLD us what you want. You see how to use the quote button? PLEASE stop using it on my posts. You've said nothing new for, what are we up to? 8 quotes now? When you come up with something new that ISN'T idiotic mindless babble about trading the best forward we've had since Neitz... THEN feel free to post away. But even then, please... Let me type this nice and slow now since you've ignored it yet again... DO NOT QUOTE ME.

Would you categorize both as career backups? Or is Kizer looked at as an heir to Rodgers? What would you suggest is Rodgers' retirement age? 40+?

Started well hasn't he. Very interesting. Like I said last year, I thought Hundley was gonna be ok. But as time went on he did make a bit of a fool out of me.

My favourite thing to happen since the win. He spoke so well about the WC win last year on SEN about how he and his little boy were in tears watching it. Terrific stuff... Ahem... How tall will the lad be, I wonder?